The 12 Al Qaeda terrorists, whose projected arrival has put European security authorities on high New Year alert, set out from Ain Hilweh, Lebanon, and belong to three al Qaeda-linked Palestinian groups, the Syrian Jund al-Sham, the Lebanese Army of Islam (which also operates in the Gaza Strip) and Fatah al-Islam, debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose.  Its members are all richly experienced in urban terror in Middle East arenas. Lebanon is Al Qaeda's latest departure point for terrorists.

The Swedish investigation into the country's first suicide bombing Saturday, Dec. 11, quickly found that the bomb car which exploded during a shopping rush in the heart of Stockholm was part of a well-planned, sophisticated terror operation, prepared several months in advance to inflict a large number of casualties.The Islamist terror group had drawn lessons from the failed Times Square car bombing. Unlike Faisal Shahzad who fled, Taimour al-Abdaly was a walking bomb arsenal.

The Namibian police evacuated 300 passengers from the incoming Munich-bound Air Berlin flight after finding bomb components in a suitcase at Windhoek airport Wednesday, Nov. 17, the day after Germany was warned by US intelligence that Al Qaeda cells, numbering two-to-four terrorists were planning to land in Germany and the UK from India and Pakistan and strike during the peak pre-Christmas shopping season. Germany has tightened security at airports, railway and bus stations. 

Anwar Al Awakli symbolizes the evolving younger generation of impatient, pragmatic, irreligious and brutal Al Qaeda activists - a new development of which Washington appears unaware. So far their misses have outnumbered their hits, but this may not last.

Saudi intelligence, while giving Washington, Berlin and London three early warnings of an impending Al Qaeda -Yemen airborne terror offensive, was itself deeply immersed in the kingdom's back yard organizing, mustering bombers and arming Al Qaeda-Iraq for its biggest operation in the Middle East - the storm of anti-Shiite, anti-Iran violence which swept Baghdad Tuesday, Nov. 2 and left some 130 dead and 300 injured. Shiite Sadr City took the brunt of the attacks.

Gen. David Petraeus reports substantial battlefield damage since Tehran consigned Al Qaeda's most talented tactician Saif Al-Adal to command terrorist forces in Afghanistan against the US army. His mission includes the reorganization of Al Qaeda, Taliban and the Haqqani network forces under a joint command.

Al Qaeda's Chief of Staff, Saif Al-Adel, just released by Tehran, no doubt gave the nod to the parcel plot. Iran, who kept him on a tight leash, would have known about it. The mystery of why the bombs failed to detonate remains.

The Iraqi capital was rocked late Tuesday, Nov. 2 by the most ferocious assault al Qaeda has ever carried out on Baghdad. By evening, it had spread to Baghdad's environs after the death toll had climbed past 120 with more than 300 injured from 19 bomb car explosions in a dozen Shiite suburbs.  Scores of roadside and sticky bombs were activated against cars at main intersections and smashing into army, police and emergency teams rushing to the scenes of disaster.

Tehran's proactive interference in Afghanistan - kept quiet by Washington in the hope of a new round of nuclear talks bearing fruit - is offset by a quiet US buildup for military action against Iran. The next issue of DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday reveals how the al Qaeda air package plot fit into the selective partnership between Tehran and al Qaeda and homes in on the areas where their schemes dovetail.
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A broadening multinational investigation seeks to probe the scale of the al Qaeda air freight plot causing mayhem in the international cargo freight system on the assumption that the threat is still viable. Yemen, to which two explosive parcels bound for Chicago synagogues were traced, itself seized more than 30 suspect parcels. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh claims to have arrested a woman in Sanaa suspected of sending the explosive packages. debkafile's sources question his ability to challenge al Qaeda's infrastructure.

Saturday, Oct. 16, apparently out of the blue, the powers-that-be in Washington leaked the five-year old suggestion by David Coleman Headley's wife that her Chicago-based husband, a key figure in the planning and preparation of the terrorist plot that killed 174 people in Mumbai, was also a paid US informant while training in Pakistani terrorist camps. debkafile's counter-terror sources offer two possible explanations for the timing of this leak now.

 More fuel was thrown on the bubbling brew surrounding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon this week by an Al Qaeda-linked group:  "The whole of Lebanon will tremble if he sets foot there." Washington warns Americans in Lebanon to be vigilant and avoid large gatherings, and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri took off for Cairo for urgent consultations on the crisis blowing up over the visit.

debkafile cites US intelligence Saturday night, Oct. 2, as using the term "imminent" for a possible Mumbai-style multiple terrorist strike originating in Pakistan a week after four European countries, the UK, Germany, France and Sweden went on high terror alert. The State Department plans will soon publish an advisory to American travelers to avoid public places anywhere in Europe. Two Osama bin Laden tapes in 24 hours may hold the coded trigger for the attack.

At a secret meeting in Jeddah, top US and Saudi officials discussed a plan to airlift al Qaeda out of Afghanistan in order to free Taliban leader Mullah Omar to negotiate an end to the war and partial restoration of Taliban rule.

For now, there is no sign ...

Scotland Yard arrested five Algerian street cleaners Friday, Sept. 17 following intelligence of a potential Islamist terrorist threat to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to London. The Counter-Terror Command ordered the arrests at business premises in central London and homes in East and North London where searches continue.  A papal spokesman said the pontiff was calm and his UK schedule would remain unchanged, although security arrangements for his visit are under review. Security stepped up around Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Downing Street. 

For four days, Egyptian special forces have been fighting Bedouin tribesmen in rugged central Sinai in an effort to shut down the arms-cum-fighter smuggling highway they run for al Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas, debkafile's counter-terror sources report. The al Qaeda-led tribesmen are battling Egyptian APCs, artillery and helicopters with heavy machine guns and RPGs, in exchanges so fierce that the Egyptians retired to El Arish Saturday, May 29, to recuperate, restock on ammo and collected reinforcements for the next round.

The notorious Al Qaeda mastermind Saif al-Adel has just been cut loose by Iran and is apparently on the way to his next terrorist outrage. He may even have a mini-nuclear device in his possession.

In an unprecedentedly wild rampage, even for al Qaeda, raider-units, speeding drive-by gun squads, car bombs and homicidal suicides mowed down checkpoints, liquidated Iraqi soldiers, police and security personnel and murdered civilians in eight Iraqi cities including the capital, Baghdad, Monday, May 10. By the end of the day, more than 100 people were dead and 300 injured.
The gunmen used automatic weapons fitted with silencers to creep up on their victims.

 

The British embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa shut down Monday, April 26, after an al Qaeda suicide attack on the ambassador's convoy and a clash with gunmen outside the embassy. According to first reports, one person was killed, but Ambassador Tim Torlot is safe. 
debkafile's counter-terror sources report that al Qaeda recently received an extra boost from secretly diverted US funds which Yemen president Abdullah Ali Salah used  to try and bribe the Islamists to relocate in Somalia - without success.

Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Salah Washington secretly diverted US funds for ending the Houthi war and fighting al Qaeda to jihadist leaders, hoping they would remove their bases from Yemen to Somalia. They've taken the money but not yet moved.