A man kept a vast library of terrorist instruction manuals on how to make bombs and suicide vests, the Old Bailey has heard. Musse Yusuf (31) allegedly stored more than 200,000 files relating to topics ranging from waging guerilla war to fitness training for al-Qaeda recruits. The titles included The Mujahideen Terrorist Handbook, Instructions on How to Attack Jewish People, The al-Qaeda Manual and Promoting Jihad.

Yusuf, who is Somalian, was arrested by police at his home in Higgs Close, Crown Hills, Leicester, at 6am on May 28, 2008.

Prosecutor Max Hill said: "These two hard drives were found to contain very large quantities of material. They are terrorist videos and terrorist manuals or handbooks. The videos contain practical information on the making of suicide vests, improvised explosive devices or bombs and the manuals are entitled the Mujahideen Terrorist Handbook and the Mujahideen Explosives Handbook. Among this material was material that suggested support for the cause of al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Crown say this material contains wide-ranging instructions on how to carry out military activity through the use of bombs, guerilla warfare, firearms, improvised explosive devices among many others."

A tape released Thursday on a jihadist forum shows the first images of a group of hostages including five French citizens since they were seized two weeks ago in Niger by an al-Qaida offshoot and taken into the desert.

The four-minute tape shows still images of the hostages sitting cross-legged in the sand with a gently sloping dune behind them. French officials believe the seven hostages are now in the bordering West African nation of Mali.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the creation of a new relief body to help Muslims in an audiotape released Friday, seeking to exploit discontent following this summer's devastating floods in Pakistan by depicting the region's governments as uncaring.
It was the third message in recent weeks from al-Qaida figures concerning the massive floods that affected around 20 million people in Pakistan, signaling a concentrated campaign by the terror group to tap into anger over the flooding to rally support.
But while the earlier messages by subordinates were angry, urging followers to rise up, bin Laden took a softer, even humanitarian tone - apparently trying to broaden al-Qaida's appeal by presenting his group as a problem-solving protector of the poor.
"What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on armies," bin Laden says on the 11-minute tape titled "Reflections on the Method of Relief Work."
"If governments spent (on relief) only one percent of what is spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people," he said.

Al-Qaeda linked Islamic militants armed with automatic weapons ambushed a military convoy killing at least 40 Tajik government troops including five officers in the mountainous Rasht area, close to the Afghan border. The convoy was ambushed in the Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 250 kilometers east of capital Dushanbe yesterday at 12:30 pm local time, Tajik Defence Ministry said in a statement.

It, however, put the toll at 23 and said several others were wounded. Quoting official sources independent 'Azia Plyus' (Asia Plus) agency reported that at least 40 servicemen of the Ministry of Defence, including five officers, were killed and more than ten others wounded in the attack.

The attackers were suspected to be led by Mullo Abdullo and militants from the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas. The Tajik authorities say Abdullo may have entered the country from Afghanistan recently.

President Emomali Rahmon, who is currently in New York to attend the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, has ordered the Ministry of Interior, the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and the Ministry of Defence to track down and punish the masterminds and executors of the crime, Tajik Presidential Press Service said.

The soldiers of the ambushed convoy were going to replace troops deployed on road-blocks in the remote valley, who are manning a high vigil to nab al-Qaeda linked terrorists.

Spanish police has received several complaints after a post in a Jihadist Website threatened directly Spain to "repeat, if necessary March 11th bombings". The author also remembers the Spanish troops' presence in Afghanistan and "Spanish occupation of Ceuta and Melilla".

"I am writing this letter to the Crusader Kingdom of Spain (the Middle Ages aren't over yet for these morons) 

This is for you, pigs: We are sending our greetings through the air, dipped in blood. Your blood, which we have savored before and which has a flavor we can't easily forget, specially because you haven't understood or simply because you have ignored us, and you continue with your war against Islam and Muslims, enrolling yourselves in NATO (Note: it looks like that Spain is a NATO member since March 11th 2004...) and taking part in the bloodshed of our brothers in Afghanistan".

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Following an April 13 Islamist terrorist attack that destroyed 70% of his cathedral, a Philippine bishop says that he and the other Christians of the city fear for their lives.
“It is the first time we are attacked so directly and with such force,” said Bishop Martin Jumoad of the Territorial Prelature of Isabella. “In the past, I received several threatening letters and intimidation. There have been other smaller attacks, but now it is very different. This could be a tragedy. I seriously fear for my life and the lives of the faithful.”
“I have prepared a pastoral letter calling on Catholics to stay in Basilan, which is our home, and asking them to remain calm, not to react to violence, and to pray for peace,” he added. “Today, a procession of people carrying candles as a sign of peace lit the city. Our hope must not die.”
81% of the Philippines’ 88.7 million people are Catholic. However, the territory in which Bishop Jumoad ministers is predominantly Muslim, with only 27% of residents being Catholic.

Sta. Isabel Cathedral via.

The 53-year-old prelate said he does not know how to rebuild the cathedral (left), constructed in 1970 with a capacity for 1,400 worshipers.
...The blasts shattered the cathedral’s stained glass windows and damaged the priests’ rectory. Several priests’ service vehicles were also destroyed.
Regional military chief Lieutenant General Ben Dolorfino said military intelligence had received reports of an impending attack, but not its details, AFP says.
"They were planning something big. This was well planned and apparently they were well funded."
Authorities suspect that politicians who hired mercenaries may have been behind the attacks. 

Five civilians, five Philippine Marines, a policeman, and four Abu Sayyaf Group fighters were reported killed in the ensuing clashes, and five Abu Sayyaf fighters were captured. Police and Philippine troops are currently pursuing the remaining Abu Sayyaf fighters.
Today’s attacks in Isabela are reminiscent of recent terror assaults by the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other al Qaeda-associated groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Yemen.

He said the government must unleash more troops with a mission to finish off the militant group in the southern provinces of Basilan and Sulu. “They don’t have ideology. They are plain terrorist and I think there should be no dialogue with them,” Bishop Jumoad said over Church-run Radyo Veritas Friday.
“I am a bishop saying but I'm saying things like this because I know when it comes to terrorists, there are no negotiations,” he said.

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Government militiamen clashed on Wednesday with Abu Sayyaf militants tagged in deadly attacks in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, police said. Fighting broke out in the village of Begang in Isabela City, Basilan’s capital where at least 25 Abu Sayyaf militants wearing police and military camouflage uniforms on Tuesday set off two bombs that blew up a van and damaged the 40-year-old Santa Isabel Cathedral, in the worst attacks by the group in months. A third bomb placed near a judge’s house and a bus terminal was safely detonated by soldiers.

Senior Supt. Antonio Mendoza, the Basilan police chief, said that the militiamen clashed with at least seven militants who were part of the group that launched the attacks.

It was not known whether any of the attackers were wounded in the fighting, but they were able to escape toward a rubber plantation which soldiers and policemen have surrounded. One villager was taken hostage by the fleeing gunmen and were using the civilians as shield, Mendoza said.