Latest Terrorism Focus Articles
Al-Qaeda and Iraq: Too Soon to Declare Victory
"Al-Qaeda in Iraq Crippled" was the headline splashed across Western print and electronic media on October 15. The stories accompanying the headline described the number of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leaders who have been killed in recent months, the downward trend in AQI car bombings... MORE
Controversial Syrian Preacher Abu al-Qaqa Gunned Down in Aleppo
As Syrian preacher Dr. Mahmud al-Aghasi, known as Abu al-Qaqa, left an Aleppo mosque after Friday prayers on September 28, an assassin stepped out of a car and opened fire with an automatic weapon. The controversial preacher received mortal wounds to the head and body,... MORE
Turkey Weighs Military Options Against PKK Camps in Iraq
Following the decision by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to create the legal framework for an armed incursion into northern Iraq, the Turkish military has begun to weigh its options for a military strike against the camps of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).... MORE
Iraqi Insurgent Media Campaign Targets American Audiences
Since the September 11 attacks, the internet has emerged as a pillar of radical Islamist propaganda efforts against the United States by al-Qaeda and other groups. Extremist websites and chat forums provide radicals and sympathizers with moral and theological justification for acts of violence and... MORE
Al-Qaeda: Beginning of the End, or Grasping at Straws?
Since early September, there has been a flurry of media reports and commentaries suggesting that the Saudi religious establishment has turned against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda; that a split has occurred among the Taliban, Ayman al-Zawahiri and bin Laden; and that al-Zawahiri has pushed... MORE
PKK Expanding Urban Bombing Campaign in Western Turkey
A recent series of explosions suggest that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) may be stepping up its urban bombing campaign in western Turkey. On October 2, two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) exploded within approximately three-and-a-half hours of each other in the Mediterranean port of Izmir,... MORE
Tactical and Strategic Factors in Turkey’s Offensive Against the PKK
A Turkish military offensive in the ethnic-Kurdish provinces of southeastern Turkey began in mid-September. Turkey's autumn campaigns against the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) usually do not begin until October, but the current campaign is designed to reinforce Turkey's position in negotiations with... MORE
Khamenei’s Move to Appoint Ali Jafari as Head of Revolutionary Guard
Recent warnings about the possibility of striking Iran's military and nuclear facilities as a consequence of its failure to make concessions on the nuclear issue—most notably by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said that France needed to prepare for the prospect of war—seem to... MORE
Swedish Cartoonist Forced Underground by Salafi-Jihadi Campaign
Barely a year after Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a sponsor of terrorism led to a worldwide controversy and violent anti-Western riots across the Middle East, a new cartoon affair is quietly developing. The current crisis began when Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilk published... MORE
Assessing the Six Year Hunt for Osama bin Laden
More than six years after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden remains free, healthy and safe enough to produce audio- and videotapes that dominate the international media at the times of his choosing (Terrorism Focus, September 11). Popular and some official attitudes in the... MORE