Militant Leadership Monitor – October 2013 Issue

The October Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor features two briefs by Nicholas A. Heras. The first focuses on Ugandan militant Salafist leader Jamil Mukuli who has been accused of complicity in the attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The second brief concerns Shaykh Muhammad Zahran Alloush who was recently declared the General Commander of Liwa al-Islam (the Islamic Brigades). Dominic Kalms provides the first profile of General Ali Habib, the highest ranking official to defect from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. A sketch follows by Nicholas A. Heras of Lebanese Salafist leader Shaykh Bilal al-Masri. Next, Ludovico Carlino takes an in-depth look at Amir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham and his relationship with al-Zawahiri. The concluding profile by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is of al-Qaeda’s influential online strategist Abu Sa’d al-Amili.