More than two years after a multi-sided civil war erupted inside Yemen that allowed Al Qaeda's local franchise to amass power and seize territory, President Trump has directed the Pentagon to embark on a complicated counter-terrorism campaign. Trump's decision, just six weeks into his presidency, intends to reverse the largely unchecked expansion across southern Yemen of the group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The willingness to expand counter-terrorism operations inside war-torn Yemen was the latest signal that Trump is more willing to defer to military commanders on national security policy than President Obama, who was criticized publicly by three of his four Defense secretaries and privately by uniformed officers for micromanaging the military. Over two days this week, armed drones and warplanes conducted more than 30 airstrikes against suspected Al Qaeda positions in three Yemeni provinces, marking the first U.S. attacks in the country since an ill-fated Navy SEAL raid in January that killed two dozen civilians, including women and children, Al Qaeda militants and Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens. The aerial bombardment is expected to continue into the coming week.

Imagine you're an evil genius in the style of a James Bond villain. You've got a hundred million dollars or so burning a hole in your pocket, and you're looking to cause some destruction. You want to know your options. Greg Allen (@Gregory_C_Allen) is a George Leadership Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. He previously worked on space and robotics issues at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

More than two years after a multi-sided civil war erupted inside Yemen that allowed Al Qaeda's local franchise to amass power and seize territory, President Trump has directed the Pentagon to embark on a complicated counter-terrorism campaign. Trump's decision, just six weeks into his presidency, intends to reverse the largely unchecked expansion across southern Yemen of the group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The willingness to expand counter-terrorism operations inside war-torn Yemen was the latest signal that Trump is more willing to defer to military commanders on national security policy than President Obama, who was criticized publicly by three of his four Defense secretaries and privately by uniformed officers for micromanaging the military. Over two days this week, armed drones and warplanes conducted more than 30 airstrikes against suspected Al Qaeda positions in three Yemeni provinces, marking the first U.S. attacks in the country since an ill-fated Navy SEAL raid in January that killed two dozen civilians, including women and children, Al Qaeda militants and Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens. The aerial bombardment is expected to continue into the coming week.

Abu Khayr al-Masri was killed in Syria on Thursday. Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abd Al-Rahman, better known by his alias Abu Khayr al-Masri, a 59-year-old Egyptian and a longtime top member of al-Qaida, was killed in an American drone strike in Syria, the terrorist group confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The al-Qaida statement said he died in a "treacherous" drone strike it described as a "new crime by America and the crusader coalition," according to Reuters. A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone struck the car carrying Abu Khayr al-Masri in Idlib, Syria, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The attack was also reported by CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

ISLAMABAD – A Taliban official says a suspected U.S. drone strike the previous day killed a top commander of the militant Haqqani network -- the man who in 2014 accompanied U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl when he was handed over to U.S. authorities. The Taliban official identified the man as Qari Abdullah, saying he died in the "area of Khost." Pakistani intelligence officials had earlier said a suspected U.S. strike hit in Pakistan's lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan's Khost, a Haqqani stronghold, killing two militants. The Taliban official wouldn't confirm it was the same strike.

President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to step up in its fight against Islamic terror groups in Africa after various Al Qaeda offshoot groups have increased their militant actions in the massive continent, according to multiple reports. Somalia was named in Trump's executive order on immigration that banned travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. Adding a metaphorical insult to injury, three Islamic militant groups based in Mali have reportedly pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda this week, bolstering Al Qaeda's growing grip on Africa. While the U.S. government had not immediately addressed the reports of the Al Qaeda merger of sorts, experts in global conflict told the Associated Press that steps were already being taken to quell Al-Shabab's activities in the East African nation of Somalia. "The concern in Washington has been mounting for some time now," Rashid Abdi, an analyst with the International Crisis Grou "The Trump administration is simply reiterating what has been policy, with slight variations. U.S. special forces are already on the ground. Drone attacks have been scaled up."

KITAKYUSHU – A man was arrested Friday for allegedly flying a drone in a prohibited area without permission in the first such incident since Japan began regulating the unmanned aircraft in 2015. Koji Shiokawa, 58, was arrested on suspicion of violating the revised Civil Aeronautics Law by flying a drone around a park in Kitakyushu on Aug. 21. The park is near a residential area in the city that is designated as a no-fly zone by law due to its high population density. While several drone flight violations have been recorded since the legal revision took affect, only some of cases have been referred to prosecutors. Friday's arrest, however, is the first for flying a drone in a prohibited area without permission, the National Police Agency said.

With frequent suicide bombings and assaults on Somalia's hotels and military targets, the armed group al-Shabab continues to threaten stability in the war-ravaged country. The emergence of fighters pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group can only make things worse. After vowing to target "radical Islamic terrorism", US President Donald Trump's administration plans to pursue wider military involvement in Somalia as current strategies, including drone attacks, are not enough, security experts say. Recommendations by the Pentagon sent to the White House would allow US special forces to increase assistance to the Somali National Army and give the US military greater flexibility to launch more preemptive air strikes. "The concern in Washington has been mounting for some time now. The Trump administration is simply reiterating what has been policy, with slight variations," said Rashid Abdi, a Horn of Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group.

A routine Military drone test quickly turned into something more bizarre, after the missing aircraft mysteriously turned up ten days later over 600 miles away. After it failed to return to base, the Army presumed that it had quickly been destroyed until a hiker found it crashed into a tree in Evergreen, Colorado. While the story doesn't sound that odd on the surface, the $1.5 million unmanned drone's range is meant to be limited to within 77 miles of its C-band line-of-sight data link. With the rogue RQ-7 traveling over 8 times that distance, investigators are still struggling to explain its incredible journey. Data recovered from the free-spirited drone showed it reached an altitude of 12,000 feet, enabling it to soar over the Rocky Mountains.

Al-Zawahri is believed to be based in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, but many of the group's senior figures are believed to have moved to Syria, taking advantage of the country's civil war to establish a presence -- though many of them have subsequently been killed in U.S. drone strikes the past year. An al-Qaida-linked group, Fatah al-Sham, is one of the strongest forces among the rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.