Briefs
“Biafra or Death”: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the Struggle for Biafran Independence in Nigeria
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the founder and leader of a Biafran separatist movement known as the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has been missing since a raid by Nigerian security forces on his Abia State compound on September 14. Rumors abound regarding Kanu’s fate or location:... MORE
Abadi’s Ally in Ninewah: Militia Leader Abd al-Rahim al-Shammari Defends Iraq’s Territorial Integrity
The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) referendum on independence that was held on September 25 has faced extensive criticism from a range of Iraqi and international actors. Among the critics are prominent Arab Sunni Iraqi politicians concerned with the territorial integrity of the strategic... MORE
Resisting the Purge of Foreign Fighters: Maalim Salman’s Struggle for Survival in al-Shabaab
The al-Shabaab terrorist attack on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in 2013 sent a shockwave through the Kenyan security establishment and instilled fear in Kenyan citizens. Widely covered in both the domestic and international press, the attack left 67 people dead and nearly... MORE
Securing Italy’s Assets in Libya: A Profile of Militia Leader Ahmad al-Dabbashi
Italian Foreign Minister Marco Minniti reportedly recently reached an agreement with Katiba al-Shahid Abu Anas al-Dabbashi (The Martyr Abu Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade), one of the most powerful Libyan militias profiting off of the trans-Sahara network involved in smuggling migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. Based... MORE
Rebel or Mercenary? A Profile of Chad’s General Mahamat Mahdi Ali
In April 2017, the foreign minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidency Council estimated the number of Chadian mercenaries operating in Libya to be 18,000, with another 6,000 hailing from Sudan (Libya Herald, August 23). The numbers emphasized the growing problem of mercenary activity in Libya as... MORE
Raising the Militant Flag in Kashmir: Asiya Andrabi’s Separatist Fight
Often labeled as a firebrand female Islamist by the media outlets in India and Pakistan, Asiya Andrabi, the founding leader of the now proscribed Kashmiri separatist women’s organization Dukhtaran-e-Milat (DeM, Daughters of the Nation), has been waging a pro-Pakistan secessionist movement since the early 1980s... MORE
Breaking the Female Militant Mold: A Look at AQAP’s Wafa al-Shihri (a.k.a. Um Hajr al Azadi)
The involvement of Saudi women with jihadist militancy is rare, and there are few examples of female militants carving out a new role, one different from the kind of feminine behavior usually sanctioned in jihadist circles. Among those few women is Wafa al-Shihri (a.k.a. Um... MORE
The Defection of Shaykh Mukhtar Robow: Where Does This Leave al-Shabaab?
Shaykh Mukhtar Robow (a.k.a. Abu Mansur), a former spokesman and top commander of al-Qaeda’s East Africa affiliate al-Shabaab, is the latest militant leader to defect to the Somali government. In a move that comes months after the United States quietly dropped the $5 million bounty... MORE
Beyond al-Baghdadi? A Profile of Mohamed Ben Salem al-Ayouni
On July 11, just days after the Iraqi army recaptured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that it had confirmed information regarding the fate of the Islamic State leader (IS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was allegedly killed (al-Jazeera,... MORE
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Next Generation Commander: Yousaf Mansoor Khurasani
Few Islamist terrorist organizations in Pakistan are as resilient as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The violent sectarian outfit surfaced in 1990, after the assassination of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, an anti-Shia, ultra-orthodox Deobandi cleric and founder of sectarian political party Sipah-e-Sahaba (Army of the Companions). And since the... MORE