Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos announced plans to strengthen enforcement efforts to protect oil companies operating in the southern Amazonian department of Caquetá Aug. 29. The move comes following a wave of guerilla attacks on oil operations in the area—apparently in retaliation for their failure to pay protection money. Santos called on the civilian population to report extortion by illegal armed groups in order to combat the practice in a more "energetic" way. (Colombia Reports, Aug. 29) In the most recent attack, on Aug. 18, a tanker truck of the firm Transamazonía, subcontracted by the UK-based Emerald Energy, was hit with gunfire by presumed FARC guerillas near an Vicente del Caguán. Companies operating in the zone had been making payments to the FARC for years, but suspended the practice after Santos warned that any company engaging in it would be banned form the country. (RCN Radio, Aug. 18; Radio Caracol, Colombia Reports, Aug. 5)

From ABC News, Aug. 29:

The same man who triumphantly led Libyan rebels into Gadhafi's compound last week first came to the attention of the U.S. intelligence community years ago—as a the founder of a terror group. Abdelhakim Belhaj, who was recently appointed to Tripoli's rebel military council, was one of the original founders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an anti-Gadhafi group which was later designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization with links to al Qaeda, according to U.S. government reports.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called for a federal investigation and Senate hearings into an Aug. 24 Associated Press report asserting that the CIA helped the New York Police Department (NYPD) in spying on the city's Musilm communities. CAIR said it suspects the intelligence gathering described in the report violates the US Constitution, and the US Privacy Act of 1974, which bars the CIA from domestic spying. The report claims undercover NYPD officers known as "rakers" were sent into Musilm neighborhoods to monitor bookstores and cafes, while informants known as "mosque crawlers" were used to monitor sermons.

Authorities in China's Sichuan province have charged three Tibetan monks with murder over the death of a fellow monk who set himself on fire in an apparent protest action. Two of the monks, Tsering Tenzin and Tenchum, are accused of plotting, instigating and assisting in the self-immolation of 16-year-old Rigzin Phuntsog on March 16. A third, Drongdru, is accused of moving and hiding the injured monk and preventing him from receiving emergency treatment for 11 hours, the official news agency Xinhua said. The trial will be held this week at the Maerkang County people's court. The Ngaba Kirti monastery, where the self-immolation occurred, has been under tight control by security forces ever since. In June, Beijing rejected pressure from the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to provide information about more than 300 of Kirti's monks whose whereabouts remain unknown since a raid on the monastery in April. (AP, VOA, Aug. 26; Tibet Society, June 15)

Some 300 militants crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan's territory and stormed seven security checkpoints along the Durand Line Aug. 27. There were conflicting reports about the casualties suffered by Pakistani security personnel in the coordinated attacks by apparent Taliban militants. Pakistan's military put the figure at 25, while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Malakand division, which claimed responsibility for the attack, claimed killing 80 troops and capturing another six. Islamabad said 16 of the dead belonged to the Chitral Scouts, a wing of the paramilitary Frontier Corps. (The News, Pakistan, Aug. 28)

Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) suffered a setback Aug. 26 when the African Union, in an emergency summit at Addis Ababa, refused to recognize it as the country's legitimate government. The TNC has been recognised by more than 40 countries, but divisions remain within the AU. South African President Jacob Zuma, one of only three African heads of state to attend the summit, opposed recognition. He said that the AU would not recognize the TNC as long as fighting continues. The AU has called for an "all-inclusive transitional government" for Libya, that could involve some Qaddafi officials. That proposal was rejected by the TNC. (The Independent, Aug. 27)

Eighteen people—including two civilians—were killed, and some 35 injured, when two suicide bombers struck military barracks in the Algerian town of Cherchel, some 100 kilometers west of the capital, Aug. 26. The attack came soon after iftar—the moment when Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan. It was the third such attack in recent weeks. On July 16, militants used the same technique—a suicide blast at the front gate, followed by a second charging in on a motorcycle—claimed four lives, including one civilian, at a police station in Bordj Ménaïl, Boumerdes province, in the Kabylia region. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility. On Aug. 14, a suicide car bomb attack outside of a police station left 29 wounded, including 11 police, in Tizi-Ouzou, Kabylia's regional capital. Prior to this summer, Algeria's last suicide attack was on July 25, 2010, at a police barracks in a village near Tizi Ouzou. (Ennahar Aug. 27, Reuters, Long War Journal, Aug. 26)

The most intransigent leader of the Tuareg rebels in Mali was killed Aug. 26 in a supposed accident in in his remote Saharan homeland. "Ibrahim ag-Bahanga died Friday in an accident in north-eastern Mali. His funeral has already taken place," said Baye ag Alhassane, a relative in a statement. The nature and circumstances of the accident were not made clear. Local sources cited by Reuters say he was involved in a dispute with fellow traffickers who were moving weapons to the Libyan rebels, who just toppled Moammar Qaddafi.