The forces loyal to the al-Assad government continue to conduct major combat operations in and around the Syrian capital city of Damascus. In particular, they have imposed a siege on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, which is the last major opposition stronghold near the... MORE

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the historical key leaders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the broader Northern African jihadism, has been sentenced to death in absentia by the Criminal Court in Oran, Algeria. Officially, the court found him guilty of forming and leading... MORE

As the al-Assad government and its allies continue to make gains against the Islamic State (IS) organization in eastern Syria, the regime in Damascus is seeking to expand its influence throughout the northern and eastern regions of the country, areas currently under the control of... MORE

In August 2017, months after the group was pushed out of its former Libyan stronghold of Sirte, the Islamic State (IS) made a comeback in Libya. Reorganizing in a number of areas in southern Libya and around Sirte, IS has shown that its presence in... MORE

On August 25, in what has been described as a “Tet Offensive” styled attack, Ata Ullah, the Emir of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), led an estimated 1,000 militants in a simultaneous attack on 24 police posts and army bases in Myanmar’s Rakhine state (The... MORE

On August 21, the United States announced its new strategy for the next phase of the War in Afghanistan (Dawn, August 23; Dawn, August 22). Laid out in a speech delivered by U.S. President Donald Trump, the strategy ushers in a new era in operations... MORE

This August marked the third anniversary of the atrocities committed by Islamic State (IS) against the sectarian minority Yazidi community, who are ethnically Kurds, in the strategic and disputed region of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq’s Ninewah governorate near the Syrian-Iraqi border (al-Jazeera [Doha], August 3;... MORE

As Bangladesh’s security forces unleashed a fresh anti-terror operation, operation “Tepid Punch,” targeting militant safe havens in the country in early July, new signs of Islamic State’s (IS) shadowy presence in the country emerged. On July 5, an Islamic State (IS) supporter identifying himself as... MORE

Over the past month, Russia, Jordan and the United States began to implement a de-escalation zone in the southwestern Syrian governorates of Dara'a and al-Quneitra. The de-escalation zone agreement, which is between the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) loyal to the al-Assad government and the armed... MORE

On June 5, a number of the Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain — announced that they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar due to controversial accusations of Qatar’s support for terrorism. The emergence of this unprecedented rift... MORE