PAKISTANI SECURITY SWEEP SEIZES TALIBAN LEADERS IN KARACHI  Pakistani security forces have announced the arrest of Akhtar Zaman Mahsud, the alleged Amir of the Karachi branch of the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) as part of a major sweep of terrorist suspects in the strategically important port city. Security... MORE

PAKISTANI TALIBAN COMMANDER DESCRIBES COUNTER-MEASURES AGAINST UAV ATTACKSA commander of the Pakistan Taliban, Sahimullah Mahsud, recently provided a description of the measures taken by the Taliban forces and leadership to lower the impact of the American Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) missile attacks which have claimed... MORE

“NO MIRACLES IN THE WAR ON TERROR”: TURKISH CHIEF OF STAFF COMMENTS ON CONFLICT WITH THE PKKIn a live speech carried by Turkish media on September 21, Turkish Chief of Staff General Ilker Basbug maintained that the Turkish Armed Forces (Turk Silahli Kuvvetleri – TSK)... MORE

U.S. TRAINED “COLONEL IMAM” DISCUSSES BIN LADEN, STINGER MISSILES AND THE TALIBAN Karachi’s Geo News conducted an interview on September 13 with Colonel Imam, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer who is best known as “the Father of the Taliban” for his crucial role in helping... MORE

YEMEN’S PRESIDENT ACCUSES IRAQ’S SADRISTS OF BACKING THE HOUTHI INSURGENCY Offers from the Iranian government and Iraq’s militant Shi’ite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr to mediate the ongoing and seemingly intractable struggle between the Sana’a regime and the Zaydi Shi’ite Houthist rebels of northern Yemen have been... MORE

ISLAMISTS WARN FRANCE AGAINST MILITARY ROLE IN SOMALIA With al-Shabaab extremists threatening to try a captured French security advisor in Somalia under their version of Islamic law, the radical Islamist movement appears ready to provoke a French military intervention. The man is one of two Direction... MORE

FIRST SUICIDE BOMBING IN MAURITANIA MAY HERALD NEW AL-QAEDA OFFENSIVE Suicide bombing made its first appearance in Mauritania on August 8 when a man armed with an explosives belt blew himself up outside the walls of Nouakchott’s French embassy. The blast killed the bomber and wounded... MORE

ALGERIA TURNS TO SUFISM TO FIGHT SALAFI EXTREMISM After decades of discouraging the practice of Sufi Islam, Algerian authorities are now turning to Sufism as an ideological weapon in their struggle against Salafi-style Islamist militancy. Roughly 1.5 million of Algeria’s 34 million citizens are active adherents... MORE

IS PAKISTAN REVERSING STRATEGY OF ISOLATING BAITULLAH MAHSUD IN WAZIRISTAN? As Pakistani F-16 fighters attack Taliban targets in South Waziristan, the government and military leadership appear to be reconsidering their earlier attempts to persuade other Taliban commanders in the region to remain on the sidelines during... MORE

SOMALI EXTREMISTS FIGHT OVER FRENCH INTELLIGENCE AGENTS KIDNAPPED IN MOGADISHU France’s growing involvement in Somalia suddenly drew attention when two French intelligence agents were kidnapped from a supposedly secure hotel in Mogadishu on July 14. The men, posing as journalists, were eating breakfast at Mogadishu’s Sahafi... MORE