Tag Archives: Al Qaeda

The Challenge of Delivering Aid in Yemen

There is a distinct sense of the aid community in Yemen walking on eggshells, trying not to offend any group with the power to exclude them from areas of need. This has meant keeping a distance not just from Yemeni factions, but also from their own donors.

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Pakistan’s North Waziristan Close to Full-blown Conflict

Guns have fallen silent in Mirali — a bustling town 35km to the east of North Waziristan’s regional headquarters of Miramshah, but now with rows of burnt down and bombed shops and houses.   The sudden flare-up and military’s fierce response to a suicide bombing at one of its main camps in Khajori on Dec 18 have shown that the …

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Digital Jihad: How Militants Use Social Media for Messaging

As militant groups increasingly use social networking platforms to reach out to bigger audiences and shape media coverage of their actions, their drive to create sympathizers remains as relevant to them as their traditional objective to kill or destroy the enemy. Hardly media shy, the late Pakistan Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud had met journalists in the tribal areas to broadcast …

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US Drone War: The Need For A New Story

  There are competing narratives about the US’s drone war in the Waziristan area, a bastion of militants. These narratives have so far failed to gain traction in the public, inside Pakistan and elsewhere. The Pakistani narrative goes like this: the drone attacks are a violation of our national sovereignty. They kill innocent people, including women and children, as collateral …

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