Tensions between al-Qaeda’s two branches fighting in Syria – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra – are reaching a breaking point, despite efforts to resolve the dispute from the organization’s international leadership.
The leader of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Nasser al-Wahishi, has vowed to free militants currently imprisoned around the region.
Ten people have been killed in a targeted shooting in Quetta in south-west Pakistan, in a week that has also seen a suicide bomb which killed at least 48 people and the targeting of a bus by militants in the region.
The US and UK have temporarily withdrawn embassy staff from Yemen, with intelligence pointing towards an “imminent” threat from al-Qaeda in the capital Sana’a.
The US will keep a number of embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa closed until Saturday due to a possible terror threat from al-Qaeda