Counterterrorism Blog

We grieve for the thousands of victims of the devastating earthquakes in South Asia. We invite you to contribute to The International Committee of the Red Cross and other good charities to help throughout the region. The wellbeing of the survivors and the rebuilding of the region should be a priority for the U.S. and the world. On this site, we unfortunately have to raise the potential impacts of the earthquake on the war against terrorists in the region. The media is already into this angle - the AP is already reporting that there is no evidence that "the deadly earthquake that rocked Pakistan on Saturday injured or killed the world's top terror leader, Usama bin Laden." We also recall that the jihadists rejoiced over the destruction upon the southeast U.S. as a result of Hurricane Katrina. We will monitor events and websites for pertinent information and bring it to you here.

UPDATE 10/10: The London Telegraph reports today that "Training camps used by jihadists battling with the Indian army for control of Kashmir were buried by landslides or left in ruins by the earthquake...Military sources said that an estimated 1,000 Pakistani soldiers died in the earthquake after their concrete-roofed bunkers along the Kashmir frontier collapsed. Security sources said 15 militant training camps had been put out of action by the earthquake." And an AP story about the impacts on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistani-based terrorist group in which the "Virginia jihad network" and several Maryland men were allegedly involved: "Meanwhile, scores of activists from an Islamist charity linked to a banned Pakistani militant organization died in the devastating earthquake. A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, said the charity�s mosques, hospitals, schools and seminaries were obliterated in Saturday�s earthquake."