A “MODERATE” TALIBAN EMERGES IN AFGHANISTAN’S HELMAND PROVINCE Reports are emerging from the Taliban-held Musa Qala District of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province of changes in the style of Taliban rule there. While the provincial governor continues to refer to Musa Qala as a “nest of terrorists,”... MORE

The conflict in Somalia is spreading, drawing in fighters and displacing increasing numbers of civilians. Violence has erupted in the previously calmer north of Somalia, with border clashes between the forces of semi-autonomous Puntland and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Ten people were killed when... MORE

PKK THREATENS TO DESTROY IRAQI OIL PIPELINES AND TANKER TRUCKS In the face of Turkish threats of a cross-border operation into northern Iraq, a leader of the PKK, Abdul al-Rahman Chadarchi, threatened to attack Iraqi oil pipelines that pass through Kurdistan to the Turkish port... MORE

U.S. WARSHIPS PATROLLING SOUTHERN SOMALIA COAST Somali website AllPuntland.com published a report on October 15 claiming that U.S. warships have increased their presence along the Somali coast, searching for foreign fighters involved with the ongoing Islamist-led insurgency there. The website claims that U.S. warships have... MORE

After a relatively long video absence since October 2004, Osama bin Laden resurfaced on September 8. In the wake of his speech, jihadi forum users continue to discuss his statement and are eagerly analyzing whether the speech contained codes about a possible upcoming large-scale terrorist... MORE

Austrian authorities have found no evidence that two Bosnian men arrested earlier this month in connection with an attempted attack on the U.S. Embassy in Vienna had connections with radical Muslims from the former Yugoslavia. Certain circumstances, however, lead a trail that analysts say could... MORE

Violence in Somalia is escalating as insurgents increase the fight against the feeble Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and their Ethiopian military backers. Rifts, however, are growing between more moderate opposition and harder extremist elements of the former Islamic Courts Union (ICU), raising fears that it... MORE

UPCOMING E-BOOK TO BE RELEASED ON AL-QAEDA'S TOP LEADERS On September 5, the so-called al-Buraq Media Establishment announced the creation of a new book called "The Great Triple Chronicle," which is basically a collection of statements and speeches from Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and... MORE

On September 17, the Saudi-run, London-based Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat published an opinion piece from Tariq al-Humayd titled "Why after Six Years, Shaykh Salman?" referring to the well-known Saudi dissident cleric Salman al-'Awda. After his imprisonment in the 1990s and more recent run-ins with the... MORE

A battle is underway for control of the leadership of Algeria's last major armed Islamist group. A country exhausted by violence has used a combination of amnesties and military action to reduce the once powerful Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) to a few... MORE