
Briefs

Filling the Void: A Profile of New Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani
The death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) Major General and head of the Quds Force Qasem Soleimani has caused significant international and domestic reverberations since he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on January 3. Internationally, the assassination escalated geopolitical tensions... MORE

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi: From Guantanamo Bay Detainee to AQAP Leader
The U.S. State Department offered a $4 million reward for Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi (a.k.a. Abu Khubaib al-Sudani) through its Rewards for Justice program in November, bringing the longtime al-Qaeda figure back into the international spotlight. The reward comes over seven years after al-Qosi was... MORE

Ashraf al-Mayar – The Face of Libyan Salafist Support for Haftar
Ashraf al-Mayar is one of the most prominent militia field commanders fighting on the side of General Khalifa Haftar in the Libyan conflict. Mayar, a Salafist from eastern Libya, was a member of the 17 February Brigade, which was a coalition of militias that coexisted... MORE

CAPTURED: Chechen Islamic State Commander al-Bara al-Shishani Arrested in Ukraine
On November 12, the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) apprehended al-Bara al-Shishani, a leader of the Russian-speaking faction of Islamic State (IS). Al-Bara was arrested in a private house located in the region surrounding Kyiv. According to SBU officials, al-Bara had been residing in Ukraine since... MORE

A Profile of Amadou Kouffa—One of the Most Prominent Jihadist Commanders in West Africa
Prior to 2012, Mali was considered a success story of democratic transition in West Africa. However, ever since the instability of Libya’s civil war began affecting the entire region and Tuareg mercenaries returned to Mali from Libya and launched a rebellion, Mali has been facing... MORE

Abu Zainab al-Lami—The Mastermind Behind the Bloody Crackdown in Iraq
The ongoing protests in Baghdad and in the predominantly Shia areas of southern Iraq are unprecedented in both their scale and the degree of violence they were confronted with by the authorities. The Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias and its umbrella organization, the Popular Mobilization Units... MORE

ARRESTED: Islamic State’s Maldivian Mole Mohamad Ameen
In a significant turn of events, on October 23 Maldivian security agencies arrested Mohamad Ameen, an Islamist militant recruiter associated with Islamic State (IS). His arrest came around a month after the Presidential Commission on Deaths and Disappearances named him as the leader of an... MORE

The Commander of Hezbollah’s Second Front Threatening Israel—Hajj Hashem
Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Iran’s expanding presence in southwestern Syria has been apparent, building upon its material capabilities and networks. Aiding Tehran to this end has been various proxy groups, with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed political and militant organization primarily based in... MORE

Bringing Down the West: Kémi Séba and the Pan-Africanist Revolution
Bringing Down the West: Kémi Séba and the Pan-Africanist Revolution Andrew McGregor An unforeseen consequence of Western intervention against African terrorist groups has been the revitalization of pan-Africanism, an ideology that maintains indigenous and diaspora Africans share a common history and destiny as a unified... MORE

The Most Wanted Al-Qaeda Leaders in Syria: Abu Hammam al-Shami, Sami al-Uraydi, and Abu Abd al-Karim al-Masri
Al-Qaeda has had a bumpy relationship with the jihadists in Syria since the beginning of the civil war. The al-Nusra Front, which was the extension of the Islamic State of Iraq into Syria, split from Islamic State (IS) and declared its allegiance to the global... MORE