Two years after his death, al-Qaeda has confirmed that Shaikh Asim Umar, the founding amir of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), al-Qaeda’s south Asian franchise, was killed. Umar died in a U.S. and Afghan forces joint raid on September 23, 2019 in the Musa... MORE

In the vast jihadist landscape of Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a relative newcomer. The TTP was formed in 2007 and can be best considered an agglomerate of more than 40 Islamist terrorist groups operating in the tribal belt of Pakistan. [1] The TTP... MORE

Introduction Succeeding from the Adolat (“Justice”) movement, which aimed at implementing Islamic law in Uzbekistan in the early 1990s, Tahir Yuldashev and Juma Namangani established the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in 1998 with the intention of overthrowing the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, and... MORE

On August 26, a prominent jihadist ideologue affiliated with al-Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Mufti Abu Zar-al-Burmi (hereafter Abu Zar), issued a congratulatory audio-visual statement praising the Taliban for reestablishing Islamic rule in Afghanistan. While he vehemently criticized Islamic State (IS) for its hasty and... MORE

On June 25, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) released a video through Islamic State (IS) media channels. It was the first formal video the group had released in more than a year, indicating that this rare release featured important content. The video showed... MORE

On July 3, Abdul Hameed Khan, the former chief of the outlawed Balawaristan National Front (BNF Hameed group or BNF-H) formally announced his return to politics in Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. In his statement, Hameed said that he would abandon divisive politics and apologized for... MORE

On August 6, the United States designated al-Shabaab leaders Ali Mohammed Raga, a.k.a Ali Dheere, and Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, a.k.a Ikrima, as global terrorists in response to terrorism activities in Kenya and Somalia. The designation came at a time when the Somali-based militant group had... MORE

With the exit of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban seizing ever greater amounts of territory, Indian officials have reportedly begun talking to Taliban leaders (Times of India, June 23). Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Shaikh Dilawar are among the... MORE

In June, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, or HTS) demanded that the Chechen warlord Muslim Shishani join their organization or leave Idlib, Syria. Reports of the demand emerged on June 27. A local news agency in its reporting referred to... MORE

Introduction On May 5, Bangladeshi police arrested Mohammad Shakib and Ali Hasan Osama, two members of the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Islam terrorist group. They were arrested for “planning and instigating” an attack on the National Parliament (also called the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban) in the capital Dhaka.... MORE