Militant Leadership Monitor – December 2013 Issue

The December Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor features two briefs by Nicholas A. Heras. The first focuses on the recent announcement by eastern Syrian militant leader Saddam al-Jamal of his change of allegiance from the Free Syrian Army to al-Qaeda. The second brief provides a snapshot of Osama Amin al-Shihabi whom the U.S. Department of State listed as a Specially Designated Foreign Terrorist on December 18. Sirwan Kajjo provides the first profile of Abu Sa’id al-Hadrami, the amir of Jabhat al-Nusra in the Raqqa who was reportedly abducted by armed men affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The profile highlights the contrasting tactics between Jabhat al-Nusra and the ISIS. Next, Nicholas A. Heras takes a look at Bashar al-Zoubi, the leader of the Free Syrian Army-Supreme Military Council’s Southern Front. Syed Adnan Ai Shah Bukhari concludes the issue with a post-mortem analysis of Mullah Sangeen Zadran, one of the Afghan Taliban’s top operational commanders whose death is a setback for the Taliban.