Perhaps no one has greater stature or importance in the Pakistani Taliban leadership than Hafiz Gul Bahadur, supreme commander of the North Waziristani Taliban. A direct descendant of Mirza Ali Khan, a legendary Waziristani freedom fighter who fought against the British Indian government and later... MORE

By threatening to attack the White House and making a bizarre claim of responsibility for the shooting rampage at a U.S. immigration center in Binghamton, New York, the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) chief in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, Baitullah Mahsud, has been making big headlines in global... MORE

The mufti (religious leader) plays an essential role for al-Qaeda and affiliated Salafi-Jihadi groups, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where the government’s counterterrorism strategy involves denouncing al-Qaeda’s religious credentials. There have been several mufti-s since al-Qaeda began attacks on the Saudi establishment in 2003: Issa bin Sa’ad al-Oshan... MORE