Henry Emomotimi Okah was born in 1965 and raised in Ikorodu, Lagos State, although his family’s ancestral home was in Baylesa State.  The fourth child of a Navy officer, his upbringing was described by a sibling as very “British”; he attended private schools and led a relatively privileged... MORE

The Jamestown Foundation is proud to announce the latest edition of the Quarterly Special Report (QSR). Jamestown Militant Leadership Monitor subscribers receive four issues of the Quarterly Special Report in addition to receiving full access to the mlm.jamestown.org website, past archives of MLM, and new... MORE

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continues to grab attention due to its ever changing dynamics, whether it is its association with Al-Qaeda and attempts to conduct acts of international terrorism, or internal power struggle between its leadership. While the Waziristan region remains in the limelight in... MORE

Born in the Galgudud region of Somalia, Shaykh Hassan Dahir Aweys is a member of Habar Gedir clan of Hawiye sub-clan. Shaykh Aweys is a Somali Islamist and political figure who helped found al-Ittihad al-Islamiyya (AIAI). AIAI at one point in time was Somalia’s largest armed Islamist... MORE

Abu Hamza Al-Murqoshi, the enigmatic Amir of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) newly formed Ansar al-Shari’a, rose to power last spring as anti-government revolts overwhelmed former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government and military in Sana’a. Under the Amir’s leadership, Ansar al-Shari’a has seized control of and... MORE

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-Darra Adamkhel chapter claimed to have killed Haji Mangal Bagh, their rival and head of Taliban-styled Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militant outfit, in a suicide attack in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on March 9, 2012 (The News International, March 10, 2012). Around 23... MORE

This article was originally published in the November 2011 Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor (mlm.jamestown.org). Subscribe to MLM today to receive leading analysis of militant figures like this without delay! After decades of carrying out unspeakable atrocities and thousands of kidnappings in Central Africa, the... MORE

Operating alongside the long-time Tuareg rebels and heavily armed veterans of the Libyan military that fill the ranks of Mali’s Mouvement National de Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA) is a smaller Salafist group led by Iyad ag Ghali, once the most prominent of Mali’s Tuareg rebels.... MORE

Comrade Jose (a.k.a. Victor Quispe Palomino) is the leader of 350 to 500 guerillas in the faction of the Shining Path located in the River Apurimac and River Ene Valley (VRAE) of Peru (El Comercio, December 21, 2011). The leader of the Shining Path’s soon-to-be-defunct other... MORE

Colonel Riad al-Asaad served in the Syrian Air Force since the late 1970s. As of July 2011, he is the commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which currently represents the main dissident military organization opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime. During his meetings with the media,... MORE