Al Qaeda calls for holy war against China

October 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has told Bloomberg Television that Al Qaeda-type terrorists are present in the country and are being tracked.

October 10th, 2009 BEIJING - In the wake of an al Qaeda militant urging the Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang to launch jihad against the oppressive Chinese regime, Bejing has vowed to work with the international community to deal with terrorism. "We will continue to cooperate with the international community to jointly face the terrorism threat...Xinjiang has fully implemented the policies of equality of all ethnic minorities and religious freedom," China Daily quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma, as saying.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has vowed to continue targeting the Al Qaeda that is threatening the US from Pakistan and beyond, even as the terror network is said to have "lost operational capacity" after a series of recent missile strikes. "We know that Al Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe-from Pakistan but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia; from Europe and the Gulf," Obama said in a visit Tuesday to the National Counterterrorism Centre just outside Washington in McLean, Virginia.

September 25th, 2009 Lahore, Sep.25 (ANI): Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has said that if the US pulls out from Afghanistan then it would create more problems for both Pakistan and India. In an interview to ABC News, Musharraf said in case the US decides to call off its 'war on terror' in Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda would then create great problems for the region.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said that even though the allied forces have challenged Al-Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan for eight years, the Taliban- Al-Qaeda alliance has now become stronger than ever before. In an interview to The Boston Globe, Admiral Mullen said the Taliban's alliance with Osama bin Laden and other top leaders of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network has become stronger than ever, highlighting that public support to the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan was 'waning'.

August 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - : Expressing concern over Al-Qaeda's expanding activities in the region, US President Barack Obama has said the outlawed outfit and its allies have moved their bases to Pakistan's remote tribal areas. Obama said Washington's decision to revamp its AFPAK strategy was based on credible information that the Al-Qaeda has shifted its base to Pakistan's lawless tribal region.

July 14th, 2009 LONDON - International terror group Al Qaeda's North African wing has threatened to attack Chinese workers in Africa in revenge for deaths of Uighurs during the ethnic clashes in Xinjian province, according to a media report Tuesday. The Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it would target the 50,000 Chinese who are working in Algeria and launch attacks against other Chinese projects in Northern Africa, the Telegraph reported, quoting London-based risk analysis company Stirling Assynt.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has ruled out any negotiations with the Taliban until it lays down arms and severe all its ties with Al-Qaeda. When enquired about the statement of the Pakistan Army's spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, that the Pakistan military can bring the Taliban to the discussion table with the United States, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said such a possibility can only occur when the Taliban 'repudiates al-Qaeda publicly'.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden's son, Omar, has described his father as an evil man in his new memoir. According to the New York Daily News, Omar says that he first realized the depth of his father's evil when his beloved dogs were taken away and gassed in a chemical warfare experiment.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - What may be seen as a severe blow to Al-Qaeda, one of its ally, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) has decided to severe its ties with Osama bin Laden saying that the "indiscriminate bombings" and the "targeting of civilians" was not in accordance to its objectives. This is the first such instance when an ally of Al-Qaeda has parted ways with it due to its policy of 'indiscriminate violence.' The LIFG, which once aimed to topple Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, criticised Al-Qaeda for carrying out attacks on innocent civilians and said that such violent activities did not achieve the "aims of the group in removing oppression." Officials believe that the LIFG's back out is a great blow to Al-Qaeda which is facing a massive surge by the US led allied forces in Afghanistan at the moment.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Taliban and al Qaeda should be treated more like criminals than holy warriors, according to a new book. Today many of these terrorists are motivated more by greed than religion or ideology, according to the author Gretchen Peters, whose book, "Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda," was recently published by Thomas Dunne Books.

June 14th, 2009 SANAA - Yemeni police have detained a Saudi man suspected to be the main financier of Al Qaeda operations in Yemen and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the defence ministry said Sunday. It said in a statement posted on its website that the suspect, identified as Hassan Hussein bin Alwan, was "the financier of the operations carried out by members of Al Qaeda in Yemen and Saudi Arabia".

May 30th, 2009 LONDON - The extent to which Al-Qaeda has dangerously penetrated into Britain can be gauged from the fact that it no longer relies on sending British-born men to Pakistan for terror training, instead it is now recruiting 'ready made' terrorists from among the Taliban based in Pakistan. British investigators, who have been quizzing the 10 men arrested in the North West, believe that Al Qaeda has developed links with the Taliban which provide it trained militants who can carry out terror strikes at significant locations, The Telegraph reports.

May 21st, 2009 LAHORE - Seven highly trained Iraqi Al-Qaeda masterminds have entered Pakistan, the country's intelligence agencies have revealed here. According to sources, the government has directed law-enforcement agencies to take immediate action against the militants to nab them.

April 20th, 2009 LONDON - For the first time, the jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada has been linked to terrorist organisation al-Qaeda by one of the terror group's own leaders. Adil al-Abbab, revealed recently as Osama Bin Laden's head of religious affairs in Saudi Arabia, said: "Free our prisoners and the prisoners of the Muslims.