Afghan Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam survived an assassination attempt on January 20 in a mosque while at Eid al-Adha prayers in Shibirghan, Northern Afghanistan. Posing as a beggar, the suicide bomber, who had strapped explosives to his body, blew himself up as he was... MORE

A group of suspected extremists were arrested in Oman over a period of several days on charges of planning bomb attacks at the Muscat festival which, this year, coincided with the Eid al-Adha holiday that began on January 21. The arrests were apparently triggered by... MORE

A spike in armed confrontations in January and indications of a developing alliance between the region's Islamist insurgent groups have underlined the fragility of the ongoing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest of the Muslim separatist organizations... MORE

A couple of events in January 2005, have once again highlighted the increasing political activity of radical Islamist parties in Bangladesh, and the precarious state of a country which threatens to become the next theatre for the War on Terrorism. The first was the assassination,... MORE

More police raids on militant hideouts in Kuwait and the strength of the militants' armed response demonstrate the extremists' continuing vigor. They also illustrate how the broader jihadist wave — irrespective of an al-Qaeda connection — is spreading in the Gulf. On January 30 Kuwaiti... MORE

Information from a recent court case in Jordan illustrates the vulnerability of U.S. personnel in the country, irrespective of any connections with military or diplomatic functions. On January 9 a total of 16 Jordanians were charged with plotting attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies... MORE

The Islamist news site Mufakkirat al-Islam reported on January 14 how there has been a sharp increase in distribution of leaflets in Baghdad, al-Ramadi, al-Samawah specifically targeting the Japanese forces there and demanding their withdrawal from Iraq. The leaflets noted that instead of heeding an... MORE

Life sentences handed out by courts in Cambodia on December 29 against three Islamists, on charges of plotting attacks against the British embassy in the capital Phnom Penh, have cast light on the growing reach of Islamic radicalism in Southeast Asia. Two of the convicts... MORE

The developments in Kuwait reported in the last issue of Terrorism Focus have accelerated. Following the arrest of high ranking officers in the Kuwaiti army on suspicion of planning terrorist acts against American targets, two policemen were shot dead in the Hawalli suburb of Kuwait... MORE

A security sweep in Germany gave indications that the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, a group linked with al-Qaeda and the Jordanian terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, is spreading its influence outside Iraq. On January 12, according to a report in the German daily Spiegel (www.spiegel.de)... MORE