Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles
India’s Sikh Militants Forming Ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani Intelligence
The recent Mumbai attacks have once again embittered relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals of South Asia - Pakistan and India. India has given Pakistan a list of "handlers" who are believed to be based in Pakistan and were in touch with the terrorists during... MORE
Somaliland Charges al-Shabaab Extremists with Suicide Bombings
With the completion of a month-long police investigation, Somaliland’s Interior Minister, Abdullahi “Irro” Ismail, has announced al-Shabaab extremists are responsible for the suicide bombings that killed more than 20 people in Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa in late October. Al-Shabaab, originally the youth wing of Somalia’s... MORE
Turkey’s PKK Responds to AKP Flirtation with the Kurdistan Regional Government
Turkey had high hopes its cross-border operations in the winter of 2007-8 would eliminate the threat posed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK). The ability of the PKK to strike back in the spring and summer of 2008 through staggering attacks... MORE
Peru’s Sendero Luminoso: From Maoism to Narco-Terrorism
One of the most brutal and destructive terrorist groups worldwide since its emergence in 1980—Peru’s “Shining Path” (Sendero Luminoso - SL) —continues to carry out attacks on Peruvian military, police, and civilian targets in 2008. Almost ten years after the group splintered during a “no-holds... MORE
Turkey’s Gendarmerie: Reforming a Frontline Unit in the War on Terrorism
Turkey’s paramilitary Gendarmerie, a frontline unit in the War on Terrorism, is about to undergo some of the greatest changes yet in its long history. The reforms call for a radical restructuring of the organization, designed to generate greater efficiency in counterterrorism efforts as well... MORE
Kurdish Islamist Groups in Northern Iraq
A spokesman of the Kurdish arm of al-Qaeda in Iraq recently announced the group’s intention to eliminate Iraq’s Kurdish leadership: “To the two Kurdish puppets, Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani, I swear by God that we have no mercy or sympathy towards the traitors who... MORE
India’s Troubled Northeast Region: The Resurgence of Ethno-Islamist Terrorism
The security situation in India’s troubled northeast region plumbed new depths in October when two major terror incidents struck Manipur and Assam states. On October 21, nearly 17 people were killed in Imphal and over 30 injured in a powerful bomb blast triggered by suspected... MORE
Going to “Plan B”: Negotiations with Taliban May Shape a New Afghanistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s September announcement that he had sought the support of Saudi Arabia and other key actors to engage Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar with the intent of establishing a formal dialogue to end the violence in Afghanistan appears to mark a major... MORE
Coalition Attack Brings an End to the Career of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Second-in-Command
The U.S. military scored one of its biggest tactical successes against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) on October 5 by killing Abu Qaswarah, a man identified by both the U.S. military and the rebel Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) as the organization’s commander for Northern Iraq.... MORE
Iran’s Kurdish Militants Under Pressure from Joint Turkish-Iranian Assaults
Until recently, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (Parti Jiyani Azadi Kurdistan – PJAK), an armed Kurdish separatist group active in Iran, was beginning to emerge as a genuine military irritant to Iran’s government, killing in excess of 100 Iranian security forces per year... MORE