An ethnic Karachay, Biaslan Gochiyaev was born in the city of Cherkessk, Karachay-Cherkessia in 1984. Some sources allege that he was a relative of Achemez Gochiyaev. [1] The latter was put on the international wanted list for bombing apartment blocks in Moscow in 1999. [2]... MORE

The Jamestown Foundation is proud to announce the newest feature for our Militant Leadership Monitor annual subscribers – a Quarterly Special Report (QSR).  In addition to receiving full access to the mlm.jamestown.org website, past archives of MLM, and new issues automatically delivered monthly to your... MORE

Militant Leadership Monitor, Jamestown’s premier monthly publication, celebrated its two year anniversary. To commemorate a successful two years we rolled out a brand new website - mlm.jamestown.org. Over the past two years, subscribers to MLM have been receiving unique biographies and insightful analyses about key... MORE

Now that Yemen’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) power transfer initiative has been signed and implementation is beginning, enormous political gains are being made by the fractured coalition of Islamists, Nasserites, and cold war-era socialists known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). As per the GCC... MORE

Personal Profile  Born in the medieval city of Ghardaïa in central Algeria, nearly 372 miles due south of Algiers, on June 1, 1972, Mokhtar Belmokhtar is known by different names and nicknames. He is known as Khaled Abou Abbass, and his many nicknames include: “the... MORE

Shaykh Ahmed Madobe is a very influential Islamist warlord in southern Somalia who has turned his guns on his former ally, the al-Qaeda linked Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab. His role was elevated in September 2009 when al-Shabaab fighters ousted his Ras Kamboni Brigade from Kismayo where... MORE

The Progeny  The third Uyghur to lead the jihad against the Chinese state over the “occupation” of Xinjiang, Abdul Shakoor Turkistani is the “Amir” of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). [1] [2] In this role, he succeeds two prominent Uyghur leaders—Abdul Haq al-Turkistani and Hahsan... MORE

After decades of carrying out unspeakable atrocities and thousands of kidnappings in Central Africa, the elusive commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, appears to have narrowly escaped capture by the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) twice in recent weeks. The UPDF emerged... MORE

Background  A ferociously combative polemicist, Abu Zar al-Burmi (a.k.a. Abu Zar Khanjari; Abu Zar Azzam)has been recently identified on jihadi forums as the mufti of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), one of the most radical groups based in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). [1]... MORE