October 1, 2013 (IRAQ): According to the United Nations, 887 civilians and 92 members of the Iraqi Security Forces died in Iraq during the month of September. The death toll was one of the highest in years, but still lower than July’s, which stood at 1,057 killed. – BBC, October 3
October 1, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber attacked the counter-explosives police headquarters in Tikrit, Salah al-Din Province, killing five police officers. – AFP, October 1
October 1, 2013 (FRANCE): French intelligence officers arrested a 21-year-old Paris woman suspected of having links to al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula. – AFP, October 1
October 2, 2013 (KENYA): Al-Qa`ida affiliate al-Shabab threatened to increase attacks against Kenya after the country refused to withdraw its troops from Somalia. “We will strike Kenyans where it hurts the most, turn their cities into graveyards…The Kenyan government’s decision to keep its invading force in Somalia is an indication that they haven’t yet learnt any valuable lessons from the Westgate attacks,” the group said. – al-Arabiya, October 2
October 2, 2013 (SYRIA): The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is an al-Qa`ida affiliate, fought rival Syrian rebels from the Northern Storm brigade on the outskirts of Azaz, near the border with Turkey. – Reuters, October 2
October 2, 2013 (IRAQ): Militants shot down an Iraqi military helicopter between Kirkuk and Salah al-Din Province, killing all four crew members. – New York Post, October 2
October 2, 2013 (PAKISTAN): A suicide bomber killed eight people at Pakistan’s southwestern Chaman border crossing in Baluchistan Province. The bomber arrived at the border from neighboring Afghanistan. – Dawn, October 2
October 3, 2013 (UNITED STATES): Nizar Trabelsi, a former Tunisian professional soccer player who was later convicted of being a member of al-Qa`ida, was extradited from Belgium to the United States to face suicide bombing charges. Trabelsi was arrested in Belgium only two days after the 9/11 attacks, and he was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2003 for planning a suicide truck bombing against a Belgian air base where U.S. soldiers were stationed. – AFP, October 3
October 3, 2013 (PAKISTAN): A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle targeted the headquarters of rival Taliban commander Mullah Nabi Hanafi in Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The explosion killed 15 people and destroyed the headquarters. Hanafi was not present at the time of attack. – Dawn, October 3; Guardian, October 3
October 4, 2013 (UKRAINE): A man being interviewed by guards at the Russian-Ukraine border blew himself up, wounding two guards. The incident occurred on the Ukrainian side of the border, close to the village of Bachevsk. – UPI, October 4
October 5, 2013 (LIBYA): U.S. forces launched a raid in the Libyan capital, apprehending Abu Anas al-Libi, a suspected al-Qa`ida operative wanted for his role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Libi’s legal name is Nazih al-Ruqai. He is to face trial in the United States. – Reuters, October 5; New York Times, October 5
October 5, 2013 (SOMALIA): U.S. military forces launched a raid in the Somali coastal town of Barawe against an al-Shabab terrorist known as Ikrima. The operation, however, failed to capture or kill the al-Shabab target, and U.S. forces disengaged after causing some al-Shabab casualties. Ikrima, considered a top al-Shabab leader, reportedly planned the recent terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. No U.S. personnel were wounded or killed in the military operation. – Reuters, October 5; CNN, October 7
October 5, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint in Baghdad, killing 48 Shi`a pilgrims on their way to visit a shrine. – Reuters, October 5
October 5, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a café in the mainly Shi`a town of Balad, killing 12 people. – AP, October 5
October 5, 2013 (IRAQ): Gunmen killed two Iraqi television journalists as they were filming in Mosul. – Reuters, October 5
October 6, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into the playground of a primary school in Tal Afar, Ninawa Province, killing 14 children and their headmaster. According to Reuters, “The majority of Tal Afar’s residents are from Iraq’s Shi’ite Turkman minority, which in recent years has been the target of killings and kidnappings.” Authorities suspect that al-Qa`ida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was responsible. – Reuters, October 6
October 6, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber targeted a group of Shi`a pilgrims heading to a shrine in Baghdad, killing at least 14 people. – Reuters, October 6
October 7, 2013 (IRAQ): Militants executed a wave of attacks across Iraq, including a series of coordinated evening bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 45 people. – AP, October 7
October 7, 2013 (EGYPT): A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform detonated an explosives-laden car inside a security base in el-Tor town in the Sinai Peninsula, killing four policemen. The town is close to the resort area of Sharm el-Sheikh. The Salafi-jihadi group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis later claimed responsibility. – AP, October 7; Bloomberg, October 8
October 8, 2013 (EGYPT): Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at customs police in Port Said near the Suez Canal, killing one person. – Bloomberg October 8
October 8, 2013 (IRAQ): A car bomb exploded in front of a restaurant in the mainly Shi`a neighborhood of Zafaraniyya, killing three people. – AP, October 8
October 9, 2013 (AFGHANISTAN): A suicide bomber in a vehicle killed two civilians and two policemen in Helmand Province. – AP, October 9
October 9, 2013 (SYRIA): A French Muslim man reportedly carried out a suicide attack on a Syrian army position near Aleppo on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Jabhat al-Nusra. The attack allegedly killed 10 Syrian soldiers. According to Radio France Internationale, this was “not the first French national to die fighting against Assad. A French convert to Islam was killed in 24 September and another, a 22-year-old identified as Jean-Daniel, was killed last August. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said last month that as many as 300 French citizens or residents were currently fighting in Syria, planning to go and fight or had recently returned.” – RFI, October 11; AFP, October 11
October 9, 2013 (EGYPT): Suspected militants bombed an empty military intelligence office in Rafah in the Sinai Peninsula. The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis Salafi-jihadi group claimed responsibility. – AFP, October 9
October 9, 2013 (THAILAND): Explosions tore through more than 20 locations in southern Thailand. Many of the bombs occurred at ATM machines. According to the Wall Street Journal, “For years, Thailand’s three southernmost provinces have been under attack by insurgency groups who seek to establish an independent Malay speaking, Muslim state in the predominately Buddhist country.” – Wall Street Journal, October 9
October 10, 2013 (UNITED STATES): The New York City Police Department arrested two men from Queens on charges that they attempted to help send supplies to Taliban-linked operatives in Afghanistan. According to NBC, “One suspect was recorded telling an NYPD informant he wanted to help kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan because he hated the United States and ‘wanted to take a stand.’” The two men were identified as Humayoun Ghoulam Nabi and Ismail Alsarabbi. Court papers said that Nabi is an immigrant from Pakistan while Alsarabbi is a Palestinian immigrant. – NBC, October 10
October 10, 2013 (EGYPT): A suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a checkpoint outside el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, killing three soldiers and one policeman. According to authorities, the bomber waited for soldiers and police to start searching his vehicle before he detonated the explosives. – Daily Star, October 10
October 10, 2013 (YEMEN): Gunmen killed a Yemeni intelligence officer in Mukalla, Hadramawt Province. – AFP, October 11
October 10, 2013 (TURKEY): Turkish authorities announced that they have imposed financial sanctions on approximately 350 people and dozens of organizations that are on the UN blacklist for entities having links to al-Qa`ida or the Taliban. – AP, October 11
October 11, 2013 (GLOBAL): Al-Qa`ida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri released a new audiotape, in which he blamed moderate Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia for their recent political setbacks, saying that they have been too conciliatory. He also said that jihadists in Syria must “rise above organizational loyalties and party partisanship” and unite around the goal of establishing an Islamic state. – AFP, October 11; AP, October 12
October 11, 2013 (UNITED STATES): U.S. authorities arrested Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen at a Santa Ana bus station in California and charged him with supporting al-Qa`ida. Nguyen, 24-years-old, is a Garden Grove resident who is also known as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum. He was about to board a bus bound for Mexico at the time of his arrest. He was raised Catholic but reportedly recently converted to Islam. – CBS, October 11
October 11, 2013 (FRANCE): French authorities charged Naamen Meziche, who was once connected to al-Qa`ida’s Hamburg cell that planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States, with terrorism offenses. Meziche was recently deported from Pakistan. According to Dawn, “Meziche had been in Pakistani custody since being arrested in May 2012 in the southwest of the country along with three other suspected French jihadis, who were sent back to France in April and charged on the same count.” – Dawn, October 11
October 11, 2013 (LIBYA): A car bomb exploded outside a building housing the Finnish and Swedish consulates in Benghazi. The building was damaged, but there were no casualties. – AP, October 11
October 11, 2013 (PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN): Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) confirmed that one of its top leaders, Latif Mehsud, was apprehended in Afghanistan’s Khost Province four days earlier. The U.S. Department of State said that U.S. forces captured Latif. – CNN, October 12
October 11, 2013 (PAKISTAN): A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a Pakistani military convoy, killing at least two soldiers in Wana, South Waziristan Agency. – AFP, October 11
October 11, 2013 (YEMEN): A suicide bomber wounded three members of the separatist Southern Movement in Lahij Province in southern Yemen. – AFP, October 11
October 12, 2013 (AFGHANISTAN): A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a police headquarters in Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, killing two policemen. – Dawn, October 12
October 13, 2013 (SYRIA): A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden truck killed at least 31 people on a busy road in Hama. The intended target was reportedly a Syrian army checkpoint, but most of the dead were civilians. – Reuters, October 20
October 13, 2013 (SYRIA): Two car bombs—possibly with suicide bombers at the wheel—exploded near the Syrian state television headquarters in Damascus. The building was damaged, although it is not clear if anyone was injured. – Time, October 14; Business Standard, October 14
October 13, 2013 (ETHIOPIA): A bomb exploded in Addis Ababa, killing at least two people. The incident occurred in the city’s Bole district, home to a large Somali population. – Voice of America, October 13
October 14, 2013 (IRAQ): A series of car bombs and roadside explosions across Baghdad killed at least 34 people. According to CNN, the explosions primarily targeted “amusement parks where families and children typically go to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.” – CNN, October 18
October 14, 2013 (SYRIA): A car bomb exploded at a market in the rebel-held town of Darkoush, Idlib Province, killing at least 15 people. – Time, October 14
October 15, 2013 (AFGHANISTAN): A bomb planted inside a mosque microphone killed Arsala Jamal, the governor of Logar Province. – al-Jazira, October 15
October 15, 2013 (IRAQ): A bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in Kirkuk, killing 12 worshippers. – al-Jazira, October 15
October 16, 2013 (PAKISTAN): A suicide bomber killed a provincial government minister and seven other people near Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. – al-Jazira, October 16
October 17, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck killed at least 15 Shabak in Ninawa Province. The Shabak are ethnic Turkmen and Shi`a Muslims. – Reuters, October 17
October 17, 2013 (IRAQ): Ten bombs exploded in primarily Shi`a areas of Baghdad, killing at least 44 people. – Reuters, October 17
October 18, 2013 (UNITED STATES): U.S. authorities arrested Marcos Alonso Zea (also known as Ali Zea), a Long Island man, for allegedly trying to join al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula to carry out jihadist attacks overseas. According to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, “Despite being born and raised in the United States, Zea allegedly betrayed his country and attempted to travel to Yemen in order to join a terrorist organization and commit murder.” The case involved a co-conspirator, who was identified as Justin Kaliebe—also a U.S. citizen. Kaliebe is scheduled to be sentenced in December 2013. – CBS, October 18; Voice of America, October 18
October 18, 2013 (YEMEN): Dozens of militants from al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula attacked a military base in Abyan Province, killing seven soldiers. According to CNN, “the militants attacked the compound from three sides, drove a bomb-laden vehicle inside and detonated it. The compound’s main building was heavily damaged.” – CNN, October 18
October 18, 2013 (AFGHANISTAN): A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a compound where many foreign workers are based in Kabul, killing at least two Afghan civilians. – The News International, October 18
October 19, 2013 (EGYPT): A car bomb exploded outside a military intelligence headquarters in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, injuring six military personnel. The Salafi-jihadi group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility. – Washington Post, October 19; AFP, October 21
October 19, 2013 (SYRIA): A suicide bomber in a vehicle killed approximately 16 soldiers at a checkpoint in a pro-government suburb of Damascus. Activists said that Jabhat al-Nusra was responsible. – CBC, October 19
October 19, 2013 (SOMALIA): A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in a crowded restaurant in Beledweyne. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility. The restaurant is popular with foreign troops, and at least four Ethiopian soldiers were among the dead. – Voice of America, October 19; New York Times, October 19
October 20, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber in a minibus detonated explosives outside a café in a mainly Shi`a Muslim district of Baghdad, killing at least 38 people. – Reuters, October 20
October 20, 2013 (SYRIA): A suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with propane tanks at a military checkpoint in Hama, killing more than 30 people. Activists said that Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qa`ida, was responsible. – New York Times, October 20
October 20, 2013 (NIGERIA): Boko Haram gunmen on motorcycles and wearing military uniforms shot and hacked to death 19 people on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon. – AFP, October 20
October 21, 2013 (RUSSIA): An explosion, possibly caused by a female suicide bomber from Dagestan, tore through a passenger bus in Volgograd, killing at least five people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Russian authorities suspect that the incident was related to the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region. – Telegraph, October 21; CNN, October 21
October 22, 2013 (IRAQ): A wave of suicide bombings and other attacks targeting security forces across Iraq left at least 17 people dead. – RT, October 22
October 23, 2013 (MALI): A suicide bomber in a vehicle killed two UN peacekeeping soldiers from Chad and a civilian at a checkpoint in Tessalit in northern Mali. Al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility. – New York Times, October 24; AFP, October 24
October 26, 2013 (LIBYA): A car bomb exploded outside a school used as a training center for local municipal elections in Benghazi, but there were no injuries. – CNN, October 26
October 27, 2013 (IRAQ): At least six car bombs exploded across primarily Shi`a districts of Baghdad, killing at least 21 people. – Reuters, October 27
October 28, 2013 (CHINA): A car slammed into a crowd of tourists in Beijing, and then burst into flames. Two civilians and all three people in the vehicle were killed. Chinese police described the incident as a “carefully planned terrorist attack,” and they blamed Muslim separatists from Xinjiang Province. According to Voice of America, “It remains unclear if Monday’s incident was an accident or an intentional act carried out at the politically symbolic heart of Beijing.” – Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 31; Radio Australia, October 31; Voice of America, October 28
October 28, 2013 (SOMALIA): A suspected U.S. drone strike killed a top bomb expert for al-Shabab in southern Somalia. Somali authorities identified the man as Ibrahim Ali Abdi, also known as Anta-Anta. – Sydney Morning Herald, October 29
October 28, 2013 (EGYPT): Masked men killed three Egyptian policemen at a checkpoint in the Nile Delta city of Mansura. – Reuters, October 28
October 29, 2013 (NORTH AFRICA): The French government announced that four French hostages kidnapped by al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb three years ago in Niger have been released. France denied that a ransom had been paid. – Guardian, October 29
October 29, 2013 (IRAQ): A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle attacked a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing at least eight people, including three policemen. – Voice of America, October 30
October 29, 2013 (IRAQ): Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside the Baghdad home of a leader of an anti-al-Qa`ida Sunni militia, killing at least 11 people. – Voice of America, October 30; AP, October 30
October 30, 2013 (EGYPT): A car bomb exploded in the Sinai Peninsula, but there were no injuries. The bomb was intended to kill Egyptian troops. – AFP, October 30
October 30, 2013 (TUNISIA): A suicide bomber detonated explosives on a beach near the resort of Sousse, an important tourist destination close to Tunis. There were no casualties. Thirty minutes later, in the neighboring town of Monastir, Tunisian security forces avoided another suicide attack by a different man. Officials described the two bombers as “Salafi-jihadis.” According to Agence France-Presse, the bombing was the “first in Tunisia since 2002, when an attack claimed by al-Qa`ida killed 21 people at the ancient Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba.” – Reuters, October 30; AFP, October 30
