MILITARY OFFENSIVE LAUNCHED IN THE CONGO PRESSURES M23 LEADER SULTANI MAKENGA  Nicholas A. Heras  A new military operation launched by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) military is applying significant pressure on the Congolese, majority ethnic Tutsi militant organization Mouvement 23 du Mars (M23... MORE

UGANDAN REBEL MOVEMENT REEMERGES ALONG THE OIL-BEARING UGANDAN/CONGOLESE BORDER Andrew McGregor The once moribund Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel movement now operating out of remote bases in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has returned to life... MORE

HEZBOLLAH DEVISES STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH SYRIAN FALLOUT  Andrew McGregor  Despite condemnation for their military role in Syria from Sunni elements in Lebanon and abroad, the leader of the Shiite Hezbollah movement maintains that the movement is on the right path and its role in... MORE

LEADERSHIP DISPUTE ERUPTS IN SYRIAN-BACKED MILITIA DEFENDING SHIITE SHRINE  Nicholas A. Heras  Abu Ajeeb (a.k.a. Abu Ajeel) is the nom de guerre of the Syrian military commander and secretary general of the Shiite armed group known as the Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas Brigade to Defend the... MORE

POLITICAL AND SECTARIAN POLARIZATION MAY SPARK A NEW PHASE OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION Andrew McGregor One year into the presidency of Muslim Brother Muhammad al-Mursi, Egypt finds itself consumed by economic deterioration, severe energy shortages, labor unrest, domestic insecurity, sectarian divisions and rumors of imminent... MORE

MUSLIM BROTHERS’ SPIRITUAL LEADER YUSUF AL-QARADAWI CONDEMNS HEZBOLLAH Andrew McGregor There are few more prominent preachers in the Islamic world than Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian Islamic scholar now based in Qatar, where he hosts a religious issues program on al-Jazeera with a viewership of... MORE

SYRIAN JABHAT AL-NUSRAH LEADER WOUNDED IN DAMASCUS SKIRMISH  Nicholas A. Heras  Abu Muhammad al-Julani, (a.k.a. al-Fatih, “The Conqueror”), the leader of the Syrian Salafist armed opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), was reportedly wounded in the leg by Syrian artillery fire during a skirmish in Damascus’... MORE

ARMED CLASHES NARROWLY AVERTED IN THE SINAI AFTER ENIGMATIC ABDUCTION OF EGYPTIAN SECURITY PERSONNEL  Andrew McGregor  A potentially explosive situation in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula appears to have been averted with the May 22 release of seven members of Egypt’s military and security forces after... MORE

ARABS AND TUAREG CLASH IN STRUGGLE FOR DESTINY OF NORTHERN MALI Andrew McGregor New fighting between northern Mali’s Arab community and the Tuareg rebels working with French intervention forces in the region threatens to escalate into a wider ethnic conflict in the run-up to July’s... MORE

ISLAMIST VIOLENCE IN TRIPOLI DEFIES EFFORTS TO RESTORE SECURITY IN LIBYA   Andrew McGregor An estimated 80 percent of the two-story French Embassy in the suburban al-Andlus neighborhood of Tripoli was destroyed by a car bomb on the morning of April 23. The massive blast also... MORE