Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles
The Third Intervention: Kenya’s Incursion into Somalia Goes Where Others Have Failed
As grenades explode in crowded Nairobi pubs, Kenyan jet fighters bomb targets inside Somalia and France agrees to supply Kenyan forces, Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia against the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab raises many questions regarding the future security of East Africa. The Kenyan Army... MORE
BRIEFS
FORMER DEPUTY COMMANDER DESCRIBES WORK OF RUSSIA’S ALFA COUNTERTERRORISM UNIT The former deputy commander and 15-year veteran of Russia’s elite Alfa counterterrorist unit, Sergey Goncharov, has shed some light on various controversial operations carried out by his former unit in a wide-ranging interview carried by... MORE
Saudi Arabia’s “Iran Initiative” and Arab Tribalism: Emerging Forces Converge in the Arab World
Seeking to roll back the influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Arab world, the recent “Iran Initiative” of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is a major development in Middle Eastern power politics that will have a significant impact on the security of the... MORE
Sectarian Violence Escalates in Balochistan as Shi’a Holy Month Approaches
Recent incidents in which dozens of Shi’a Hazaras have been killed by Sunni militants have put Balochistan’s religious minority on a knife’s edge. On October 4, a bus ferrying Shi’a men to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta was assaulted by... MORE
Perspectives on the Islamist and Salafist Parties in Egypt: Similarities and Dissimilarities
As part of the growing political process that opened up after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, there are now fourteen Islamist parties in Egypt, a dramatic change from less than a year ago, when all such parties were banned. These religious parties mushroomed... MORE
Bringing Shari’a Rule to Yemen and Saudi Arabia: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Post-Revolution Strategies
Since it began last February, the youth-led peaceful revolutionary movement in Yemen demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime has provided a political alternative to the Yemeni people which has marginalized the rhetoric of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At the same... MORE
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Expanding Western Connections
As the United States breathed a sigh of relief that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 had passed without any major incident, the U.S. Justice Department announced that three men had pled guilty to charges of trying to smuggle a member of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)... MORE
Iraqi Militants Encourage People of Khuzestan to Launch Jihad against Iran
Influenced by the upheaval that has stricken many Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the people of southwest Iran’s Khuzestan Province have tried to start their own protest movement. Khuzestan is inhabited by a majority of Arabs and is home to more... MORE
Can Nigeria Exploit the Split in the Boko Haram Movement?
The Northern Nigerian militant group Boko Haram is showing signs of splitting along the ideological lines that emerged at the time of the July 2009 death of the group’s founder, Mallam Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. Whereas the divisions then were an internal matter, their differences are... MORE
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Operational Revival in Northern Algeria
In the past few months, there has been a rather remarkable operational return of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria. On July 16, a double suicide attack rocked a security compound in the small town of Bordj Menail, 60 km east of... MORE