Homeland Security News

The government of Iran released five senior members of Al Qaeda earlier this year, including the man who stepped in to serve as the terrorist group’s interim leader immediately after Osama bin Laden’s death, and who is the subject of a $5 million bounty, according to an American official who had been briefed on the matter.

Iran’s release of the five men was part of a prisoner swap in March with Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the group holding an Iranian diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht. Mr. Nikbakht was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital of Sana in July 2013.

The Iranian government, in a statement on Thursday after the release was reported by Sky News earlier this week, denied that the five men had been freed. The American official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter, confirmed the release of Saif al-Adl, a senior member of Al Qaeda’s ruling body, known as the Shura Council, who oversaw the organization immediately after bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011.

...Cynthia Storer, who was the Central Intelligence Agency’s first full-time analyst dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, called him a “founding father.” She added, “If the organization is having internal issues, he is someone that could bring it together.”

Read more:  New York Times

A homemade bomb exploding under a bus seat killed an 11-year-old girl and wounded 32 other people Friday in a southern Philippine city where Abu Sayyaf militants operate, police said.

The bomb exploded in the middle of the vehicle as it was loading passengers at a bus terminal near a market, said Zamboanga City police Chief Inspector Joel Tuttuh.

He said the suspects weren't known but could include the militants, who set off a car bomb in Zamboanga earlier this year near another bus terminal, killing two people and wounding more than 50 others.

Vice Mayor Cesar Itturalde said a closed circuit television camera caught the image of a possible suspect — a man carrying a bag approaching the bus and minutes later leaving the scene with nothing in his hands and running away before the explosion. He said the man wore a hoodie jacket and covered his mouth with a handkerchief.

Read more: ABC News

A friend of the man accused of killing nine black worshippers at a church in South Carolina has been arrested in connection with the killings.

Joey Meek, 21, who hosted shooting suspect Dylann Roof at his home in the weeks before the murders, was arrested on Thursday, various US media report.

It is not clear what charges he faces but he was reportedly told he was being investigated for lying to police.  Mr Roof faces federal hate crime charges and nine counts of murder.

He is accused of killing nine black church members during a bible study group in June.  Soon after the tragedy, Mr Meek told the Associated Press (AP) that Dylann Roof had complained that "blacks were taking over the world".

Before the shootings at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr Roof occasionally stayed with his school friend at his mobile home in Red Bank, about 20 miles from Columbia, the state capital.

Unnamed law enforcement officials told the Washington Post and AP that Mr Meek was told a month ago he was being investigated for failing to report a crime and lying to police.

The killings shocked the nation and President Barack Obama delivered a eulogy at the funeral of one of the victims, Pastor Clementa Pinckney.

News source: BBC

Taliban gunmen stormed a Pakistani air force base early on Friday, killing at least 17 people, most of whom were offering prayers in a mosque, a military spokesman said, the deadliest such attack in years.

The assault shows the Taliban retain the capability to mount devastating attacks despite a military campaign and tougher government measures against them following the massacre of more than 150 people at an army-run school last December.

Sixteen of Friday's victims were at morning prayers, and a captain died leading the counter-attack against the raiders, 13 of whom were killed, Major General Asim Bajwa said on Twitter.

Read more: Reuters