Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles
The Role of Foreign Trainers in Southern Thailand’s Insurgency
The first five months of 2007 have seen a dramatic increase in both the lethality and brutality of the Thai insurgency, prompting numerous Thai military officials to suspect the growing presence of foreign trainers. The arrest of an Indonesian on May 19 further raised suspicions.... MORE
Weapons of War in the Niger Delta
The Niger Delta region of Nigeria, home to large oil and gas operations, is awash with dangerous Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). The explosion in activities of non-state armed groups poses a serious threat to residents, the security of the Nigerian state and the... MORE
A Report from the Field: Gauging the Impact of Taliban Suicide Bombing
The following study is based on field research carried out in the summers of 2003, 2005 and the spring of 2007 in 15 Afghan provinces including: Paktia, Nangarhar (Jalalabad), Panjshir, Balkh (Mazar-i-Sharif), Takhar, Bamiyan, Kabul and Herat. Specific assistance was granted by the United Nations,... MORE
Shamshatoo Refugee Camp: A Base of Support for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Two years after the Pakistani government banned it from publication, Shahaadat Daily newspaper, funded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Party of Afghanistan), is again available on the streets of Peshawar (Ariana Television, May 6). The daily has published articles that denounce... MORE
A Shiite Storm Looms on the Horizon: Sadr and SIIC Relations
Post-Baathist Iraqi politics is undergoing a dramatic change, and the Sadrists and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), formerly known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), are leading the way by bringing a major shift in the balance of power.... MORE
South Waziristan’s Maulvi Nazir: The New Face of the Taliban
Pakistan is experimenting with the Taliban yet again. The primary focus of the effort is to de-link the Taliban from al-Qaeda and bring them back into the Pakistani sphere of influence. Uzbek militants have been the first “casualty” of this re-alignment. Potentially, remaining Arab militants... MORE
Afghanistan’s Drug Trade and How it Funds Taliban Operations
The opium economy in Afghanistan is a key component of the counter-insurgency campaign, yet remains one of the most difficult issues to tackle. It is a critical problem facing international efforts to create a functional government in Kabul that can prosecute counter-terrorism on its own... MORE
Intra-Kurdish Disputes in Northern Iraq
The long struggle for ultimate power in northern Iraq between Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—a contest that led to a bloody civil war between the two as recently as the mid-1990s and even saw Barzani call... MORE
Yemen and the U.S.: Different Approaches to the War on Terrorism
Following the introduction of a new two-year plan to eliminate religious-based political extremism in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh made an official visit to Washington from April 30 to May 3. While in the United States, President Saleh discussed security and counter-terrorism efforts with President... MORE
Guide to the Armed Groups Operating in the Niger Delta – Part 1
During the course of the last year in Nigeria's oil-rich but turbulent Niger Delta region, armed men kidnapped more than 150 foreigners, killed unknown numbers of Nigerian armed forces personnel, crippled the oil production of Africa's largest oil exporter by nearly a quarter and detonated... MORE