Latest Briefs
In Brief: Fighting on Two Fronts: A Look at a Syrian Opposition Commander Muhammad Jumu’a Abd al-Qadr Bakur
Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS, Conquest of the Levant Front) engaged in fierce skirmishes with several armed opposition organizations throughout northwest Syria at the end of January (Arabi 21 [Aleppo], January 26; al-Hayat, January 24). JFS claims that these clashes were in response... MORE
In Brief: A Snapshot of Two Rebel Commanders Vying for Survival in Damascus Governorate (Free)
At the conclusion of 2016 and entering 2017, two of the most powerful militant Islamist armed organizations remaining in Syria, Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (Movement of the Free Ones of the Levant-HASI) and Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam-JAI), are under intense pressure. JAI, which is... MORE
Resisting Al-Assad’s Advance: A Look at Two Rebel Commanders Inside Aleppo (Free)
Omar Abd al-Razaq The military forces and adjutant militias under the command of the al-Assad government, supported by Russian airstrikes and predominately foreign sectarian Shia militias mobilized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are making significant progress in the campaign to seize the opposition... MORE
A Look At Iraq’s Battlefield Parliamentarians: The Hashd Shaabi Commanders Leading The Fight Against Mosul (Free)
In October, the multi-force operation to capture Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) was launched. The operation is supported by the Iraqi Security Forces, the predominately ethnic Kurdish Peshmerga forces mobilized by the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG), the predominately sectarian Shia militias of... MORE
The Coming Fight for Mosul: Snapshots of Two Key Sunni Arab Commanders (September 2016 Briefs – Free)
Nicholas A. Heras The campaign to recapture Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, located in the northwestern Iraqi province of Ninewah on the border of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Syria, from Islamic State (IS) will reportedly begin by the end of October (Rudaw... MORE
May 2016 Briefs (Free)
ON THE FRONT LINES IN EASTERN LIBYA Nicholas A. Heras The international coalition to combat the Islamic State (IS) has begun to expand its operations inside Libya in order to contain the growing power of the militant Salafist organization. Several coalition countries, led by the... MORE
April 2016 Briefs (Free)
CAPTAIN HASSAN IBRAHIM: DEFACTO AMBASSADOR FOR SYRIA'S SOUTHERN FRONT Nicholas A. Heras A coalition of moderate armed opposition groups in southern Syria, primarily organized within al-Jabhat al-Janoobiyya (Southern Front), are confronting the Islamic State affiliate Liwa Shuhada al-Yarmouk in the southwestern area of Dara’a governorate... MORE
BRIEFS
Germany: Do Terrorists Want to Target Europe’s Nuclear Facilities? Alexander Sehmer German newspapers reported this month that documents about a German nuclear facility were found at the Brussels apartment of alleged Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam. However, German authorities quickly denied the existence of such material.... MORE
BRIEFS
SOMALIA: PUNTLAND CLASHES SHOW GROWING AL-SHABAAB THREAT Government forces in Somalia claim to have killed more than 100 al-Shabaab fighters in a major clash in Puntland, located in the country’s northeast. A further 59 fighters were captured—among them, several foreign fighters including three Kenyans (Daily... MORE