Foiled

Burkina Faso says it has thwarted an assassination plot against military leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, alleging the operation was orchestrated by Lt. Col. Paul Henri Damiba — the officer Traoré ousted in a 2022 coup — and financed in part from neighboring Ivory Coast. Security Minister Mahamadou Sana announced the discovery late Wednesday, saying intelligence services “intercepted this operation in the final hours.” He said the plan aimed to kill the head of state and strike “other key institutions, including civilian…

In July 2019, as Abdullah was nearing the end of his two-year pilot training in the Philippines, he found himself in hot water with local authorities, getting pinched on a range of charges. Fast forward to December 2020, and he was handed over to U.S. authorities who had terrorism accusations lined up against him. The prosecutor revealed that before heading to the Philippines in 2017 for extensive pilot training, Abdullah had undergone lessons in explosives and stealth operations to keep under the radar. "While…