Latest Briefs
Al-Assad’s Man in Suwayda: A Look at Rashid Salloum
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
Libya: Gulf Crisis Sparks Posturing Among Militant Leadership
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
Shaykh Abd al-Wahab: Saudi Arabia’s Frontline Partner in Yemen
The Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition in Yemen continues to be stalemated in its effort to capture areas controlled by the Houthi movement and allied forces loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abd Allah Saleh around the country’s capital of Sana’a in central-northern Yemen. One closely... MORE
Jihadist Leader Killed in Hassi El-Ferid Reminds of Growing Tensions in Tunisia
In a statement issued on May 29, the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior announced that the Special Unit of the National Guard (USGN), in cooperation with the Laouina National Crime Research Unit, carried out an anti-terrorism operation in Hassi El-Ferid, in the area of Kasserine.... MORE
Aden’s Governor in Opposition: A look at Southern Yemeni Secessionist Leader Aidaroos al-Zubaydi
The Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition in Yemen is being challenged by a stalemate, the disunity of its local Yemeni partner forces and back-channel disagreements between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (al-Araby al-Jadid, May 16; see also Terrorism Monitor, May 19). The coalition-backed,... MORE
AQAP Denies Arrest of Its Hadramawt Leaders
On April 26, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a statement on its Telegram channel denying that Yemeni counter-terrorism forces had arrested any of its leaders or militants in Hadramawt province the week prior (Twitter, April 29). The statement was a response to local... MORE
Shia Popular Mobilization Units in a Post-Islamic State Iraq: A Look at Peace Brigade Commander Shaykh Kazim al-Issawi
The military campaign to conquer the northwestern Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) is advancing toward completion. At present, approximately 80 percent of the city — Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city and the Islamic State’s Iraqi capital — has been captured... MORE
Saharan Jihadist Leaders Establish New Alliance
As the Islamic State loses ground in Iraq and Syria and its regional offshoots also weaken, al-Qaeda’s affiliates are regaining momentum. In Syria, the al-Qaeda affiliate group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra and, from July 2016, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) has managed... MORE
A Look at the Commander of the Zintan Military Council: Who Is Osama al-Juwaili?
The international effort spearheaded by the United States and the European Union (particularly Italy) continues to secure widespread recognition of the Government of National Accord (GNA) as the legitimate state authority in Libya (U.S. Department of State, March 22; Al-Wasat [Tripoli], February 14; Al-Wasat [Tripoli],... MORE
Commanding the Jaysh al-Nasr Coalition: A Review of the Ascendancy of Major Muhammad Mansour
Since the fall of armed opposition controlled areas of the strategic northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo to the al-Assad government and its allies in December 2016, the non-militant Salafist component of the broader armed opposition movement has been severely weakened. In response to the initiation... MORE