TIME’s Bobby Ghosh and Yuri Kozyrev embedded with a Yemeni unit in early July as it patrolled territory only recently reclaimed from al-Qaeda and its proxies.
Al-Qaeda
In Yemen, a Controversial Memorial Makes an Important Point
The site where over 100 Yemeni soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber is now home to a lurid, stirring memorial. But not all Yemenis think it’s appropriate
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French Audio-leak: Controversy Rages After Toulouse Jihadi’s Comments Get Broadcast
The airing of leaked police recordings of Toulouse al-Qaeda adept Mohammed Merah sparks condemnation in France—and new legal inquiries into his March killing spree that critics claim took place because of serious intelligence failures.
Hidden in Afghanistan: Soviet Veterans of a Previous War Compare and Tremble
There are only a few of them left — deserters and MIAs of the huge Soviet Red Army divisions sent in to control Afghanistan. But they still remember how it all ended — and worry that the American war will end the same way
Must-Reads from Around the World, July 9, 2012
In today’s brief: an interview with the Dalai Lama, Israeli settlements under the spotlight and the mysterious deaths of U.S. forces in Africa
Exclusive: French Officials Detail “Big Coup” Bust of Key Al-Qaeda Enabler
French counter-terror authorities tell TIME about a Tunisian arrested on suspicion of being a central figure in al-Qaeda’s activity on the internet and in the terrorist network’s recruitment, and fund-raising.
Countering al-Shabab: How the War on Terrorism Is Being Fought in East Africa
Two bombings of churches in Kenya pointed to the resurgence al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups in East Africa. But a TIME investigation into how the region’s countries (and the U.S.) are handling groups like Somalia’s al-Shabab …
Timbuktu’s Destruction: Why Islamists Are Wrecking Mali’s Cultural Heritage
Ansar Dine, a radical Islamist militia, has set about destroying mausoleums and shrines in the historic Malian city of Timbuktu, which was once a great center of Islamic learning in the 15th and 16th centuries
Wishful Spring Thinking or the Beginning of the End for al-Bashir?
Does a week of protests in and around Khartoum show that Sudan is facing its own Arab Spring?
Yemen: What an Al-Qaeda Assassination Has Exposed
The Yemeni army has had remarkable success evicting the terrorist group from towns it held. But military cohesiveness is weak–and a suicide bomber managed to kill the leader of the campaign.
What French Anti-Terrorism Forces Learned from the Toulouse Killing Spree
More young radicals are following in the footsteps of Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah by traveling from Europe to al-Qaeda training spots on their own, instead of through established terrorist networks
Dispatch from Somalia: War, but a Glimmer of Hope
TIME’s Africa correspondent writes from the front lines in war-ravaged Somalia, where an African Union offensive against al-Shabab is offering a tenuous glimpse of progress