Al-Qaeda No. 2 Puts Out English Recording

(AP) - Al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader warns the Pakistani people in a new audio message that the US poses a grave danger for Pakistan's future, and asks if they could help financially. "It is the individual duty of every Muslim in Pakistan to join the mujahedeen, or at the very least, to support the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan with money," Ayman al-Zawahri said in English. Otherwise, "we shall deserve the painful punishment of Almighty Allah." More»

Strike could be linked to flap over Muhammad cartoons

(NEWSER) - At least eight people were killed and more than a dozen wounded when a car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad today, reports the BBC. At least one embassy worker was among the dead, but no Danish nationals. The attack may be linked to a series of threats on Danish embassies since a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, considered offensive to Islam, was reprinted in Danish newspapers in February. More»

Assailants in Pakistan grabbed Warren Weinstein in August

(NEWSER) - More than three months after gunmen kidnapped a 70-year-old American development worker in Pakistan, some news has finally emerged: al-Qaeda says it has Warren Weinstein, reports the Christian Science Monitor . Weinstein, who has a home in Rockville, Maryland, was captured at his residence in Lahore. In a new video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri says he won't be released until the US stops airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, and releases terror suspects, notes AP . More»

Docs unveil bin Laden hideouts, tension within group

(NEWSER) - On 9/11, the bulk of al-Qaeda’s leadership was gathered in a single place: Karachi, Pakistan. One key figure was in a hospital following a tonsillectomy; another was preparing for a biological weapons program; and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was with other leaders in a safe house, watching the attacks on TV, the Washington Post reports. Within 24 hours, they returned to Afghanistan to brace for war, WikiLeaks documents show. Once there, Osama bin Laden told Arab fighters “to defend Afghanistan against the infidel invaders." More»

Al-Qaeda bosses living comfortably in Pakistan, says NATO insider

(NEWSER) - “Nobody in al-Qaeda is living in a cave”—instead, Osama bin Laden and other top figures are likely to be living rather comfortably in houses in Pakistan, under the protection of locals and some Pakistani intelligence, a NATO official tells CNN . Bin Laden has likely been roaming from Pakistan’s far northwest to the Kurram Valley near Tora Bora in Afghanistan in recent years. More»