Like many of the former and current Egyptian leaders of jihadi organizations, Aboud al-Zomor is a well-educated professional and, in this case, the product of a wealthy family in Egypt’s Giza governorate. Al-Zomor’s career has followed a trajectory that has taken him from senior army... MORE

Thousands of Yemeni Shi’a Muslims attended the funeral of Husayn Badr al-Din Houthi on June 5 in the northern Yemeni city of Sada’a. Husayn was the founder and ideologue of the Houthi movement and was killed in 2004 in fighting with government forces (Yemen Post,... MORE

Tunisia is in the middle of a political transition but the internal debate is still monopolized by the quarrel between Islamists and secularists. The stalemate is presenting an opportunity for the Salafist movement Ansar al-Shari’a Tunisia (AST) to enter directly into the political fray. Confrontation... MORE

Osama Sayeh Juneidi (a.k.a. Abu Sayeh) is the general military commander of the Syrian Islamist armed opposition group, the Farouq brigade (Kata’ib al-Farouq). He also serves on the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (SMC-FSA), a major Syrian armed opposition command organization, for... MORE

The leader of Mujahideen Indonesia Timur (MIT – Mujahideen of East Indonesia), Shaykh Abu Wardah Santoso (a.k.a. Abu Yahya), revealed his face for the first time on July 10 in a six-minute, professionally-made jihadist video posted on YouTube. An armed Santoso stands flanked by two... MORE

General Dzhurakhon Zoirov, head of Tajikistan’s Anti-Organized Crime Division of the Ministry of the Interior, announced on July 19 that Amriddin Tabarov (a.k.a. Dumullo Amriddin) has been placed on Interpol’s international wanted list (Ozodi, July 20). Tabarov is purportedly the leader of Jamaat Ansarullah an... MORE

Over the last three years, Muslim Brotherhood deputy guide Muhammad Khayrat al-Shater has gone from being a political prisoner in Egypt’s prisons to a controversial role as the alleged “power behind the throne” in the Muhammad Mursi presidency and back again to prison, where he... MORE

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) confirmed the death in mid-June of one of its most senior leaders Abd al-Hamid Abu Zeid. Abu Zeid was a key commander on AQIM’s North Africa branch who was killed while fighting against French-led forces in northern Mali (Jeune... MORE

The Syrian Academy of Military Engineering in Aleppo, which trains the elite officers in the Syrian Armed Forces, is one of the most prestigious military schools in all of the Middle East. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad entrusted Sunni Brigadier General Salim Idris to lead this... MORE