Militant Leadership Monitor – June 2015 Issue

The June 2015 issue of Militant Leadership Monitor starts off with a brief of Captain Abd al-Nasr Shmeir, a former Syrian soldier turned militia leader in the Damascus suburban area of Ghouta. Nicholas Heras follows this up with one on Shaykh Abu Rateb al-Homsi, a cleric who lead Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya in Homs. The first profile is of Khalid Saeed Batarfi, an AQAP leader who was recently broken out of prison and is now the governor of Mukalla. Animesh Roul then delivers a brief sketch of Ahmed Marwat, the spokesperson of Pakistani terrorist group Jundullah. A post-mortem analysis of Abu Ridha al-Turkistani, the first non-Uyghur leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, is detailed by Jacob Zenn. Finally, the issue closes with a look at Ahlam al-Nasr, the poetess of the Islamic State and one half of a propagandist power couple, by Halla Diyab.