War on terror

Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. A pan-Islamist, bin Laden organized and funded numerous jihadist or anti-Western militants and terrorist attacks worldwide. Al-Qaeda's attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001 (9/11) directly killed 2,977 victims, causing the global war on terror.

The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the US occupation of Iraq, the conflict persisted as an insurgency that arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government. US forces were officially withdrawn in 2011. In 2014, the US became re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, as the conflict evolved into the ongoing Islamic State insurgency.

military campaign started after September 11 attacks

On 3 January 2026, the United States launched a military strike in Venezuela and captured incumbent Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The US operation, codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve, began around 2 a.m. local time, when explosions were observed. The US Armed Forces bombed infrastructure across northern Venezuela to suppress air defenses as an apprehension force attacked Maduro's compound in Caracas. Maduro and Flores were transported to New York City by US forces to face their trial there. If the operation is considered a military conflict, at 2 hours and 28 minutes it would qualify as one of the shortest wars in history.

Mujahideen or mujahidin (), is the plural form of mujahid (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).

ongoing civil war in the state of Yemen

2003 military invasion led by the United States

unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft built by General Atomics

U.S. military operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan

PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google and Apple under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on

family of unmanned aerial vehicles

military base of the United States Navy

United States large-yield bomb

group of countries identified collectively as enemies by U.S. President George W. Bush during the 2000s

armed conflict involving Pakistan and armed militant groups

1980 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier

Islamist militant organization in Northwest Africa and the Sahel

USA-led campaign against illegal drug use and trade

ongoing warfare in mainly central Iraq, which began after the 2003 invasion of Iraq

2001 name given by United States to describe its global war on terrorism

2025–2026 US military anti-drug trafficking operation

XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a classified computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate, Canada's Communications Security Establishment, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, Japan's Defense Intelligence Headquarters, Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst, and the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, the latter of

US government’s list of countries alleged to repeatedly support international terrorism

intentional and unlawful killings of individuals by state actors without judicial process

unmanned combat aircraft demonstrator built by General Atomics

tactics of decentralized individual self-planned political violence, which consists in carrying out armed attacks by units without leaders, centralized commands and organizations behind them

British/French lawyer, legal academic and author

Sunni Islamic terrorism in the Maghreb

terrorist attack planned for January 1995

U.S. military operation in Barisha, Syria

2001 military operation

Narcoterrorism, in its original context, is understood to be the attempts of narcotics traffickers to influence the policies of a government or a society through violence and intimidation, and to hinder the enforcement of anti-drug laws by the systematic threat or use of such violence. The term has become a subject of controversy, largely due to its use in discussing violent opposition to the US government's war on drugs.

American CIA case officer and author

reconnaissance and strike aircraft system

Lawfare is the use of legal systems and institutions to affect foreign or domestic affairs, as a more peaceful and rational alternative, or as a less benign adjunct, to warfare.

armed conflict in Iraq

former Iraqi military group

2002 military operation

right|thumb|The GCHQ|Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) operates "Tempora"

state-sponsored abduction

2011 military operation

war that is initiated in an attempt to deal with an expected attack before that attack materializes

Report compiled by the bipartisan United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Attempted terrorist attack

Wikimedia list article

arrangement in which fear of retribution is pervasive

U.S. military operation in Kabul, Afghanistan

American attorney

US Armed Forces award

Counter-jihad (also known as the counter-jihad movement) is a self-titled anti-Muslim political movement loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, demonstrators, and other activists across the Western world. Proponents are linked by a far-right

military conflict in Georgia between Chechen insurgents and Georgian government forces

big data analysis and visualization tool used by the NSA

Intergovernmental naval operations

former U.S. military installation in Kyrgyzstan

award of the United States military

Dropmire is a surveillance program by the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) aimed at surveillance of foreign embassies and diplomatic staff, including those of NATO allies. The program's existence was revealed in June 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowden in The Guardian. The report alleged that at least 38 foreign embassies were under surveillance, some of them as far back as 2007.

US surveillance program

Algerian terrorist faction

2007 military operation

lasting state of war with no clear ending conditions