Militant Group

Iran hanged the leader of an outlawed Islamic militant group Sunday after convicting him on charges of terrorism, murder and collaborating with Western intelligence services, including the CIA, state television reported. Abdol-Majid Rigi, also known as Abdulmalak Rigi, was executed in Tehran's Evin Prison in the presence of the families of the victims of his alleged crimes, state television said. Among other charges, he was found guilty of heresy and corruption on Earth, capital offenses under Iran's Islamic law. State television claimed the rebel leader acknowledged in court that his crimes contravened Islam and humanity and asked his collaborators not to repeat his mistakes.

KANO, Nigeria - In an attack that didn't happen - well, not officially - a police inspector and four of his officers were ambushed by Islamist militants last month in this northern Nigerian city. Two of them died, two crawled away and hid in a ditch, and the inspector, shot in the leg, called on his cellphone for help. It arrived eventually, but only after he had bled to death. Northern Nigeria is a region under siege. Boko Haram militants mount attacks almost daily and security forces retaliate in a scattershot way, often mowing down civilians.

Iran's security forces said they captured the head of an ethnic militant group they have fought for years Tuesday morning and claimed he was at an American base in Afghanistan a day before he was caught. Abdulmalak Rigi, the infamous leader of the ethnic Baluch militant group Jundallah, and his second-in-command are in Iranian custody after what the Ministry of Intelligence and Security is touting as a five-month operation. "We had spread a dragnet and we managed to capture him," said Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, according to state radio.

U.S. military aircraft launched strikes that killed at least five suspected militants in southern Yemen in one of the deadliest attacks since the Pentagon and CIA stepped up counter-terrorist operations in the impoverished Middle Eastern nation last year, U.S. officials said. The attacks Tuesday in Yemen's Abyan province targeted a meeting of members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a militant group whose leadership has been badly degraded in a series of U.S. air attacks, the officials said.

An Islamic militant group whose leader was recently executed by Iranian authorities claimed responsibility for a pair of late Thursday bomb blasts that killed at least 27 people, including members of the Revolutionary Guard, at a mosque in southeastern Iran. Jundollah, a militant group that draws support from Iran's ethnic Baluch minority, said it dispatched two suicide bombers to the mosque during an evening prayer ceremony in the city of Zahedan in order to kill members of the Revolutionary Guard and avenge the arrest and hanging last month of their leader, Abdolmalek Rigi.

An Islamic militant group whose leader was recently executed by Iranian authorities claimed responsibility Friday for a devastating pair of bomb blasts the previous night that killed at least 27 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard, and injured 270 others at a mosque in southeastern Iran. Jundallah, a Sunni organization that draws support from Iran's ethnic Baluch minority and inspiration from Osama bin Laden's extremist ideology, said it dispatched two suicide bombers to the mosque in the city of Zahedan during an evening prayer ceremony.

One of the men arrested in Pakistan this week in connection with the failed attempt to bomb Times Square is a member of Jaish-e-Muhammad, an Al Qaeda-allied Pakistani militant group, intelligence sources in the city of Karachi said Wednesday. The revelation marks the first indication that a specific Pakistani militant group has been associated with the case of Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old Pakistani American charged in the failed bomb plot. But it does not necessarily mean that the organization engineered the plot or directed the suspect.

An Internet statement Saturday said an Iraqi group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has changed its name. Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad has become Tanzim Qaedat al Jihad fi Bilad al Rafidain, which translates roughly as Qaeda Organization for Jihad in Iraq, said the statement posted Saturday on several sites used by Islamic militants. On Tuesday, a statement was posted on one website giving a similar change of name for the group.

The signs are ominous: A terrorist group in northern Nigeria claims to have trained with Al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia, and vows to launch international attacks after a deadly bombing last month of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital, Abuja. The head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter F. Ham, has warned of the threat of a pan-African Al Qaeda-linked terrorism network capable of endangering Western interests across the continent. And Nigerian intelligence experts have suggested that another Al Qaeda affiliate in the region, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, may be supplying personnel, weapons and training to the Nigerian group, Boko Haram.

The leader of a Palestinian militant group on the White House list of terrorist organizations was sentenced in absentia to 20 years of hard labor for attempted murder of a political rival, judicial officials in Lebanon said. Ahmed Abdel-Karim Saadi, the head of Asbat al-Ansar, was also sentenced in Beirut to an additional 10 years of hard labor for kidnapping a suspected prostitute, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The death squad shows up in uniform: black masks and tunics with the name of the group, Khorasan Mujahedin, scrawled across the back in Urdu. Pulling up in caravans of Toyota Corolla hatchbacks, dozens of them seal off mud-hut villages near the Afghan border, and then scour markets and homes in search of tribesmen they suspect of helping to identify targets for the armed U.S. drones that routinely buzz overhead. Once they've snatched their suspect, they don't speed off, villagers say. Instead, the caravan leaves slowly, a trademark gesture meant to convey that they expect no retaliation.

The signs are ominous: A terrorist group in northern Nigeria claims to have trained with Al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia, and vows to launch international attacks after a deadly bombing last month of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital, Abuja. The head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter F. Ham, has warned of the threat of a pan-African Al Qaeda-linked terrorism network capable of endangering Western interests across the continent. And Nigerian intelligence experts have suggested that another Al Qaeda affiliate in the region, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, may be supplying personnel, weapons and training to the Nigerian group, Boko Haram.

A senior Pakistani army officer suspected of having links to an Islamic extremist group has been arrested, authorities said Tuesday, a move possibly aimed at deflating Western concerns that the nation's military is doing little to end ties with dangerous organizations. Ali Khan, a brigadier assigned to Pakistan's army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, has been in custody for some time, said a Pakistani military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss such issues.

Hundreds of Yemeni and foreign fighters, including members of an Al Qaeda affiliate, are pouring into a provincial capital after government forces fled in chaos, according to a local official and a fighter who described himself as an Al Qaeda member. The situation in Zinjibar, capital of the southern coastal province of Abyan, reflects the paralysis in Yemen's security and political structure as President Ali Abdullah Saleh struggles to remain in power. Saleh, who has faced months of pro-democracy protests, was wounded last week in a rocket attack by clan rivals and is receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The men in police commando uniforms sat silent, recalled investigative journalist Umar Cheema, as he nervously repeated that he was a reporter and he wanted to see their supervisor. Blindfolded after being kidnapped last fall and thrown into a Toyota Land Cruiser, Cheema said, he was taken to a safe house outside Islamabad, stripped naked, forced to lie facedown on the floor, and beaten on his shoulders and hips, first with a leather strap, then with a long wooden rod. At one point, they threatened to sodomize him. "They said, 'When you cannot avoid rape, just enjoy it,'" Cheema recalled.

At least 17 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in a wave of explosions, mostly in Baghdad, including a suicide bombing attack against police, security sources and the U.S. military said. The bloodshed highlighted the tenuous situation around Baghdad, where assassinations and other attacks still occur almost daily. It also drew attention to Sunni Arab and Shiite militants' continuing efforts to kill American troops, who are scheduled to leave at the end of the year. There has been an increase in the shelling around U.S. military bases within Baghdad's airport grounds as well as the American Embassy compound in the fortified Green Zone enclave.

In his first public comments since being arrested, an Indonesian preacher denied being a leader of a militant group linked to Al Qaeda and accused authorities of mistreating him. The arrest of Mohammed Iqbal bin Abdul Rahman in the summer of 2001 was among the first by authorities in several Southeast Asian countries that exposed the group, Jemaah Islamiah, along with an alleged plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Singapore.

Egypt's new government has embarked on adventurous diplomacy to replace the legacy of former President Hosni Mubarak with a bolder Middle East presence less compliant with the U.S. and Israel. Cairo's maneuvers to reshape foreign policy include improved relations with the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and its decision to ignore Israeli objections and reopen the Rafah border crossing after years of blockade to stop weapons smuggling into the Palestinian enclave.

The Taliban on Saturday declared the start of a spring offensive in Afghanistan, warning that insurgents plan to attack foreign troops, Afghan security forces and government officials in coming days. In a statement, the Taliban warned civilians to avoid public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as government buildings. "All Afghan people should bear in mind to keep away from gatherings, convoys and centers of the enemy so that they will not become harmed during attacks of mujahedin against the enemy," the statement said.