Bill Roggio from The Long War Journal has put out his annual "State of Jihad" report for 2008 - it's a must read here at The Long War Journal. As is usually the case, Bill had no problem finding plenty to update from last year. Since the report is broken down by country, I decided to pick Pakistan for excerpting here as that country probably was in the news the most during 2008:
PakistanOne thing that I'd encourage you to do when you are over looking at this report is to go to the bottom of the article and look back at the State of Jihad reports for 2007 and 2006 - it's fascinating to see how thing have changed from year to year. As always seems to be the case with islamic jihad, the news never improves. Actually, there IS one country that has seen significant improvement from the 2007 and 2006 reports and that is Iraq - that's because the U.S. kicked jihadist ass ...course many on the Left in the U.S. don't think that's been a good thing, right?
Pakistan remains the central front in the war against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied movements such as and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Pakistani Taliban, led by South Waziristan chieftan Baitullah Mehsud, is in full control of the tribal areas and has gained more ground in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province. The districts of of Swat, Shangla, Bannu, Tank, Dir, and Malakand are under Taliban control, while the Taliban has a strong presence in every other district.
The US has attempted to counter al Qaeda's growth in Pakistan’s tribal areas by ramping up airstrikes against camps and safe houses that are believed to facilitate al Qaeda external operations against the West and in Afghanistan. There were 36 recorded airstrikes and cross-border raids in 2008, compared to 10 in 2006 and 2007 combined. Five senior al Qaeda leaders, including Abu Laith al Libi and Abu Khabab al Masri, were killed during the 2008 strikes.
The State of Jihad: 2008
By Bill Roggio
January 2, 2009 12:15 AM
The past year has seen significant developments in the Long War. Pakistan teeters on a civil war and a potential war with India after Taliban gains and an attack launched on Mumbai from within Pakistan. India has emerged as a central battlefield in the war. Iraq has dealt major defeats to al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army, and is moving towards reconciliation. Afghanistan experienced the worst year since the US invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001. A “surge” in Afghanistan will take place this year. Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon, and the West has no plan to avert the crisis. Al Qaeda is poised to retake control of Somalia. Yemen remains an al Qaeda sanctuary.
The battles continue in lesser known theaters. The US struck a senior al Qaeda leader in Syria while Imad Mugniyah was assassinated in Damascus. The Philippines made progress against its Islamic insurgency and dealt blows to Abu Sayyaf and the radical Rajah Solaiman Movement. Indonesia has driven Jemaah Islamiyah underground. Algeria fought a low-intensity terror insurgency with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
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