Terrorism

A set of American armed drone strikes in northern Yemen killed three suspected al Qaeda members on Sunday, marking a significant expansion of U.S.-led operations in the country.

The three men, a Yemeni national and two Saudi Arabians, were killed in Wadi al-Abu Jabara, a known al Qaeda stronghold roughly 150 miles north of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, according to reports by Agence France-Presse.

While Sunday's strike was the fourth U.S. drone strike in Yemen this month, it was the first time American forces had gone after targets in the northern part of the country, AFP reports.

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta was one of several high-profile objectives targeted by an Islamist militant group, according to Indonesian authorities.

The Indonesia National Police arrested 11 people over the weekend on suspicion that they were planning to attack the U.S. and Australian embassies, the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya and the Indonesian headquarters of U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, The New York Times reported. 

The alleged would-be attackers are believed to be part of the Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society, or Hasmi, a splinter group from al Qaeda's Jemaah Islamiya affiliate, which claimed responsibility for the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people. 

U.S. embassies around the Muslim world are on high alert following attacks last month in 20 countries, one of which left four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, dead in Libya. In a statement Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia warned American citizens to be on their guard.

“We have been in close touch with the police, and welcome their quick action to counter this threat,” the embassy said. “We recommend that American citizens in Indonesia maintain security situational awareness.

“As always, we advise American citizens to avoid large crowds and other gatherings that might turn violent. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully and provide further updates, if needed.”

Everyone in Congress seems to want a bite at the Libya apple.

The South Carolina Republican said the administration "does play politics with national security," no matter what Obama says.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Friday that the Obama administration had four hours to deploy a Special Forces team to Libya when the U.S. Consulate was under attack last month.

“The Consulate’s annex in Benghazi was under siege for more than four hours, and this came after the first attack on the U.S. Consulate compound,” Paul said in a statement Friday. “Despite repeated requests for help, dozens of Americans were left to fend for themselves against heavily armed terrorists. With hours to respond, there was more than enough time to dispatch a Special Operations team from Sigonella Air Force Base in Sicily, but no attempt was made.

The Obama administration has been criticized for its shifting story about the nature of the attack at Benghazi.

The Intelligence Committee will be the first Democrat-controlled congressional panel to hold a hearing on the attack.

Taliban infiltration of U.S. and Afghan forces will only increase as the Pentagon and White House prepare to pull all American forces from the country in 2014, according to the group's leader.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

President Obama's ever-expanding terrorist kill list is receiving new scrutiny thanks to a three-part series from The Washington Post. Thursday's paper examines the role of counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan.

Key takeaway: “Brennan and others on the inside found that Obama … was willing to move far more aggressively than Bush against perceived extremists.”

With almost 3,000 people killed by drone strikes over the past decade and no sign of abatement, the secretive policy is starting to cause headaches for an administration that had prided itself in taking a less confrontational stance with the rest of the world. Asked about a strike in Yemen last year that killed Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old American citizen with no known ties to terrorism, senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs in an interview with the liberal WeAreChange.org laid the blame on al-Awlaki's father, an al Qaeda member who was also killed in a drone strike.

“I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well-being of their children,” Gibbs said. One U.S. official quoted by the Post called the killing “an outrageous mistake … They were going after the guy sitting next to him.”

Endorsed: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama for president on Thursday — again. He told CBS News that Mitt Romney had provided a “moving target” with regard to his policies on Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first in a slew of Army units designed to expand American military presence across the globe is heading Africa Command, tasked with forging and increasing military cooperation with U.S. allies on the continent, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter.