An airstrike has wounded the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Iraqi officials.

A double suicide bombing attack at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens more.

A US citizen and al-Qaida sympathiser accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York remained in custody today on terrorism-related charges.

Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, US and Pakistani officials said today.

US INTELLIGENCE officials believe al-Qaida will have a hard time recovering from the death of its leader Osama bin Laden.

Hundreds of people, including many children, chanted slogans praising Saddam Hussein as they tossed flowers on to his tomb one year after he was executed.

Al-Qaida’s No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, condemned UN peacekeepers in Lebanon as enemies of Islam and warned the terror group would strike the Persian Gulf and Israel, suggesting new fronts in its war against the West in a video today marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Six US-bound flights from England, Scotland and France were cancelled yesterday because of security concerns.

A day after the adoption of a tough new anti-terrorism decree, Indonesian police today arrested the alleged leader of a militant group suspected in last week’s Bali nightclub bombing.