DISSIDENT GENERAL CLAIMS YEMENI PRESIDENT MANIPULATED AL-QAEDA PRESENCE TO ENSURE HIS PERSONAL RULEIn a recent interview with a pan-Arab daily, Yemen’s Major General Ali Muhsin Saleh al-Ahmar claimed that President Ali Abdullah Saleh (now receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after being seriously wounded in... MORE

ALAWI CONTROL OF THE SYRIAN MILITARY KEY TO REGIME’S SURVIVALWith its central doctrines carefully guarded as religious secrets, the true essence of Alawism has proved elusive to many who have tried to define it. Alawism is primarily a syncretistic belief system that incorporates large doses... MORE

DARFUR REBEL LEADER DISCUSSES SECESSION, SECULARISM AND TIES WITH ISRAELAbdul Wahid Muhammad al-Nur, the Fur leader of the Darfur rebel movement known as the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement – Abdul Wahid (SLA/M-AW) has returned to Africa after five years in Paris. He recently discussed a variety... MORE

YEMENI TRIBAL CHIEF READY FOR “WAR” AGAINST PRESIDENT SALEH On May 23, forces loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh mounted an assault on the home of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the leader of the Banu Hashid tribe. Sheikh al-Ahmar has sided with Yemen’s growing protest... MORE

KHARTOUM’S SEIZURE OF DISPUTED ABYEI DISTRICT COULD LAUNCH NEW WAR BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH SUDANLast weekend’s military occupation of the disputed Abyei district by the Northern Sudanese Army is the latest step in a series of armed clashes in the area that threaten to reignite... MORE

LIBYAN CONFLICT SHOWS SIGNS OF SPILLING OVER TUNISIAN BORDERThough first indications suggested that Tunisia had avoided a wave of political violence with the overthrow of Tunisian president Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali on January 14, the continuing civil war in neighboring Libya is threatening to spill... MORE

LIBYAN BERBERS DEFY REGIME THAT DENIES THEIR EXISTENCE (PART TWO)Under increasing pressure from Qaddafi loyalists, the Berbers of the Western Mountains of Libya continue to defy military odds in their resistance to a regime that has denied their very existence. According to one Berber from... MORE

LIBYAN BERBERS DEFY REGIME THAT DENIES THEIR EXISTENCE (PART ONE)In the remote mountains that range along Libya’s western border with Tunisia, North Africa’s indigenous Berber tribes are locked in a life-and-death struggle with Mu’ammar Qaddafi’s Arab-supremacist regime. Though they were among the first to rebel... MORE

TAJIKISTAN CONFIRMS DEATH OF NOTORIOUS MILITANT LEADER MULLO ABDULLO On April 15, Tajikistan state television reported that its most wanted militant leader and warlord, Mullo Abdullo, was killed in an operation carried out by security forces in the troubled Rasht district east of Dushanbe (Channel... MORE

GROWING DISSATISFACTION IN REBEL CAMP WITH NATO’S CAMPAIGN IN LIBYASince NATO air operations over Libya began on March 19, there have been increasing expectations on the part of rebel forces that NATO warplanes will act as a proxy air force for the rebel campaign to... MORE