SOMALI ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORTERS LAUNCH REPORTED ATTACK IN PUNTLAND James Brandon Supporters of the Islamic State group reportedly carried out one of their first attacks in Somalia this month, in a potentially significant development that may presage the group spreading into other parts of East... MORE

JORDAN ‘GREEN ON BLUE’ ATTACK LIKELY SHOWS ISLAMIC STATE REACH James Brandon A Jordanian police officer, Captain Anwar Abu Zaid, shot dead two U.S. nationals, two Jordanians and one South African in an apparent “green-on-blue” attack at a police training facility to the east of... MORE

THE IRGC’S IRAQI POINT MEN IN SYRIA: SHAYKH AUWS AL-KHAFAJI AND SHAYKH AMMAR AL-LAMI Nicholas A. Heras The Liwa Abu Fadhil al-Abbas network, including its affiliated organization Quwat Abu Fadhil al-Abbas, is an important component of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-coordinated militias supplementing the... MORE

BANGLADESH ATTACKS SHOW INCREASING ISLAMIC STATE INFLUENCE James Brandon In the last six weeks, Bangladesh has been hit by a near-unprecedented series of Islamist militant attacks targeting foreigners and local Shi’a Muslims. On September 28, an Italian NGO worker, who was residing in the country,... MORE

EGYPTIAN ARMY’S KILLING OF TOURISTS HIGHLIGHTS WESTERN DESERT THREAT James Brandon The Egyptian military, on September 15, killed 12 civilians, including at least two Mexican tourists, in an attack on a tourist convoy in the country’s Western Desert (al-Ahram, September 14). According to reports from... MORE

AL-SHABAAB ATTACK ON PEACEKEEPERS CANNOT HIDE GROUPS’ DISARRAY James Brandon The Somali Islamist militant organization al-Shabaab carried out one of its most lethal attacks in years on September 1, when it bombed a Ugandan military base in the Janale district of the lower Shabele region,... MORE

HAMMOUD SAEED AL-MIKHLAFI LEADS THE FIGHT AGAINST THE HOUTHIS IN TAIZ Nicholas A. Heras Yemen’s third-largest city of Taiz, which has a population of more than one million people and is located in the southwestern region of the country, 180 kilometers northwest of Aden, is... MORE

LIBYA FACES DEEPENING CHAOS James Brandon Overshadowed by events in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Libya has slipped deeper into chaos in recent weeks. This trend was accentuated in mid-August when the Islamic State in Libya, a group that has pledged allegiance... MORE