On July 10, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced that Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the leader of a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) based in the Sulu Islands and acting emir of the Islamic State in East Asia (ISEA), was still alive... MORE

On June 1, a report from the UN monitoring team was publicly released, stating that, “at least one group of senior Taliban had already formed a new group in opposition to any possible peace agreement, purportedly known as Hezb-e Wilayat Islami…” The report stated that... MORE

On May 7, reports emerged confirming Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob’s appointment as head of the military commission of the Taliban in a political reshuffling that could help unify the insurgent group’s leadership in the lead up to negotiations with the Afghan government (The News, May 10).... MORE

On April 4, an operation conducted by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), successfully captured the head of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), Aslam Farooqi, along with 19 other militants (TOLO News, April 4; Al Jazeera, April 4). Farooqi was arrested during a multi-day... MORE

On February 22, an airstrike carried out by U.S. Africa Command killed a senior al-Shabaab leader, Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud (a.k.a. Bashir Qorgab) (Radio Muqdisho, March 7). As a senior operational commander in the Somali militant group, Qorgab is believed to have been involved in the... MORE

On January 8, a U.S. drone strike killed a commander of a Taliban splinter group in Afghanistan’s western Herat province. The commander, Mullah Nangialai, was an influential member of a Taliban splinter group, the High Council of the Afghanistan Islamic Emirate (HCAIE). The drone strike... MORE

When former members of Sudan’s much-feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) mutinied on January 14, there were fears loyalists to the once powerful ex-NISS director Salah Gosh were preparing to restore the old military/Islamist regime of Omar al-Bashir. Gosh, a Sha’iqiya Arab, was born... MORE

Recent comments in jihadist publications in Pakistan and Afghanistan suggest there is animosity among jihadist groups over the death of Qari Abdul Jabbar in July. His body was found in the Rakkan area of the Barakhan district of Pakistan’s Baluchistan. Qari Jabbar was prominent in... MORE

As security experts maintain their watch over East African football fields because of youth recruitment into terrorism, the figure of Fawaz Ahmed Hamdun has become the object of particular focus. On September 28, a multi-security agency team smoked the youthful terrorist suspect out of his... MORE

On March 4, 2019, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP)—the Islamic State (IS)-loyal faction of Boko Haram—announced a new leader in an audio recording. This new leader is Abu Abdullah Ibn Umar al-Barnawi (a.k.a. Ba Idrissa) (Punch, March 5). Since then, Ba Idrissa... MORE