• Kenyan soldiers on patrol in former stronghold of al Qaeda-backed militants

    Stuart Price/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team via AP

    A Kenyan soldier stands guard in the center of the southern Somali port city of Kismayu on Oct. 5.

    Reuters reports: Kenyan troops in Somalia are working flush out rebel remnants after al Qaeda-backed militants fled last week from their last major stronghold. "We don't want to be seen as an occupying force," Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a Kenyan army spokesman, told a Reuters reporter travelling with Kenyan forces. Al Shabaab fighters fled the southern Somali port city of Kismayu a week ago, leaving behind a small number of militants to carry out suicide bombings, hit-and-run grenade attacks and targeted shootings, Oguna said. Full Story

    Stuart Price/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team via AP

    Unexploded ordnance, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells left behind by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group Al Shabaab, are destroyed in a controlled detonation in Kismayu on Oct. 5.

    Eds. note: These picture were made available Oct. 6

    Stuart Price/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team via AP

    Kenyan soldiers patrol in Kismayu.

    Stuart Price/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team via AP

    Kenyan soldiers patrol Kismayu on Oct. 5.

    Stuart Price/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team via AP

    A fighter of the pro-governmnet Ras Kimboni Brigade stands with a belt-fed machine gun inside the former compound housing the offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) during a combat engineering team's sweep for unexploded ordnance in Kismayu on Oct. 5.

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  • Funeral for soldiers killed in suspected al Qaeda attacks in Yemen

    Hani Mohammed / AP

    An honor guard carries the coffin of a soldier killed in an attack in the city of Aden during a funeral in Sanaa, Yemen, on Aug. 20, 2012.

    Reuters reports - Suspected al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least 14 Yemeni soldiers and security guards on Saturday in a car bomb and grenade attack on the intelligence service headquarters in the southern port city of Aden.

    The United States has been pouring aid into Yemen to stem the threat of attacks from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and to try to prevent any spillover of violence into neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter. Full Story

    Hani Mohammed / AP

    A Yemeni boy holds a poster of his father, who was killed in an attack in the city of Aden, during his funeral in Sanaa, Yemen, on Aug. 20, 2012.

    Yahya Arhab / EPA

    Yemeni honor guards carry the coffins of the victims of bombing attacks during a funeral procession in Sana'a, Yemen, on Aug. 20, 2012.

     

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  • Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

    Students gather at the fence on the north side of the White House and sing the Star Spangled Banner May 1, in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden during a late evening statement to the press in the East Room of the White House. Bin Laden was killed north of Islamabad, Pakistan, almost a decade after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and his body is in possession of the United States.

    Students celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden outside the White House

    Bill Dedman of msnbc.com spoke with the father of one 9/11 victim:

    "The first thought I had in my mind was that it didn't bring my son back," said Jack Lynch, who lost his son, New York City firefighter Michael Francis Lynch, on Sept. 11, 2001. "You cut the head off a snake, you'd think it would kill the snake. But someone will take his place. People like him still exist. The fact that he's gone is not going to stop terrorism."

    Lynch, 75, is a retired transit worker. His family's charity, the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation, has made grants to send dozens of students to college. He said he would not celebrate bin Laden's death. "I understand that bin Laden was an evil person. He may have believed in what he was doing. I'm not going to judge him. I'm sure some people will look at this and they'll be gratified that he's dead, but me personally, I'm going to leave his fate in God's hands."

    His son was 30 years old and was on Engine Company 40.