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

PHILIPPINE MILITARY OPERATIONS TARGET ABU SAYYAF GROUP LEADERS  Nicholas A. Heras  Philippine security forces recently engaged in a series of operations against the militant Salafist organization Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), in the Zamboanga Peninsula on the island of Mindanao and on Basilan Island in the... MORE

CHAD WITHDRAWS FROM NORTHERN MALI AS PLANNING FOR UN FORCE BEGINS Andrew McGregor Chad has begun the withdrawal of its expeditionary force of roughly 2,250 troops from northern Mali as the conflict enters a new stage. According to Chadian president Idriss Déby, the “man-to-man fighting”... MORE

SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY DISASTER IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: PART ONE – THE REBEL OFFENSIVE Andrew McGregor While international attention focused on efforts to deal with the fallout from Mali’s military collapse and subsequent coup, a rebellion and coup in the Central African Republic (CAR)... MORE

SHOCK WAVES CONTINUE FROM MYSTERIOUS SUICIDE BLAST AT U.S. EMBASSY IN ANKARA Andrew McGregor In terms of scale alone, the February 1 suicide bombing that killed a Turkish security guard and injured a Turkish journalist outside the U.S. Embassy in Ankara was a relatively minor... MORE

DEAD OR ALIVE? THE FATE OF MOKHTAR BELMOKHTAR Andrew McGregor Despite claims that “terrorist kingpins” have been eliminated in the secret war being fought in the Adrar des Ifoghas Mountains of northern Mali, evidence of such results remains in short supply. Most notable among those... MORE