There are contradictory reports as to the whereabouts of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani. At the end of November Xinhua news agency ran a report that Janjalani had managed to slip the military dragnet in the central Mindanao islands where the government is negotiating a... MORE

The Libyan Muslim Brotherhood suffered a severe blow to their organization with the upholding on December 2 of the February 2002 verdicts against members who have been in prison since 1998 on charges of clandestine activities and attempts to change the regime of Mu'ammar al-Qaddhafi... MORE

Two events underline the trans-national element in Islamist militancy, and cast light on hitherto unexpected distribution of Chechen militants. On December 2 a Chechen national was killed in Pakistan in a military operation in the south-west provincial capital of Quetta. Following a tip-off from a... MORE

The fact that pressure from Algerian security forces may be forcing some serious reorganization is hinted at by a cryptic note posted on the Al-Ma'sada jihadist website. The note purports to be from the Tanzim al-Qaeda fi Bilad al-Berber, or ‘The organization of al-Qaeda in... MORE

A plot to bomb the Christian festival of the Black Nazarene, due to take place in the Philippine capital Manila, was foiled on January 7. According to a report in the Manila Times, a group of 14 suspected Islamic militants were arrested assembling bombs. During... MORE

Exchanges on jihadiist forums indicate anxiety over reports circulating of Al-Zarqawi's capture at Ba'aquba. The report first emerged on January 4 carried by the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al-Bayan. There have been no official declarations on his arrest, but media outlets throughout the Middle East... MORE

A security sweep in Germany gave indications that the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, a group linked with al-Qaeda and the Jordanian terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, is spreading its influence outside Iraq. On January 12, according to a report in the German daily Spiegel (www.spiegel.de)... MORE

Life sentences handed out by courts in Cambodia on December 29 against three Islamists, on charges of plotting attacks against the British embassy in the capital Phnom Penh, have cast light on the growing reach of Islamic radicalism in Southeast Asia. Two of the convicts... MORE

The Islamist news site Mufakkirat al-Islam reported on January 14 how there has been a sharp increase in distribution of leaflets in Baghdad, al-Ramadi, al-Samawah specifically targeting the Japanese forces there and demanding their withdrawal from Iraq. The leaflets noted that instead of heeding an... MORE

Information from a recent court case in Jordan illustrates the vulnerability of U.S. personnel in the country, irrespective of any connections with military or diplomatic functions. On January 9 a total of 16 Jordanians were charged with plotting attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies... MORE