On January 5, two officials from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Naveed Sadiq and Nasir Butt, were killed in Punjab’s Khanewal district. The men were involved in counter-terrorism efforts in the region. Both the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and an obscure militant group, Lashkar-e-Khorasan (Army of Khorasan,... MORE

In late December, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced a significant expansion of the Russian Armed Forces that would increase its size from 1.15 million to 1.5 million soldiers. The proposal also includes the establishment of new divisions and the recruitment of an additional 300,000... MORE

Abu Sayyaf’s origins date to the period after the Soviet army left Afghanistan in 1989. However, its most lethal attacks began occurring in the years surrounding 9/11 and reached a peak in the 2010s. The U.S. designated Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group in 1997.... MORE

When Muhammadu Buhari was elected Nigerian president in 2015, he notoriously stated that Boko Haram was “technically defeated” (punchng.com, February 6, 2016). A former military general who has seen civil war, coups, and other internal and regional conflicts, Buhari expected that Boko Haram would be... MORE

On January 8, voters in Benin went to the polls to select the new Parliament. The overall turnout was not particularly high at 38.66 percent, but it was still higher than the last parliamentary election held in 2019, where only 23 percent of the country... MORE

Since late 2022, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the “Pakistani Taliban,”—an alliance of jihadist networks that have fought the Pakistani state since 2007—has been regrouping. This is especially so in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border of Afghanistan. For example, there was... MORE

The Turkish government insists that Sweden significantly change its permissive approach to the Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK, or Kurdish Workers’ Party) and other anti-Turkey groups as a condition for Ankara’s approval of Stockholm’s application for NATO membership. Western commentators have attributed the position of the... MORE

The rise of tactical groups dates to 2017 and 2018, when the first videos and photos of Malhama Tactical in Syria began to circulate. In those same years, other tactical groups began operating in Syria, but escaped the scrutiny of analysts because they were not... MORE

Introduction Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacks have accelerated in Pakistan. After attacks in remote territories, the TTP has also now broadened its operations to include mainstream areas. The December 18, 2022 TTP attack on a... MORE

Iranian military activity in Europe’s neighborhood is not limited to supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Transforming itself from a net arms importer into a burgeoning arms exporter, Tehran is engaged in opportunistic behavior across conflict zones, ranging from Ukraine to tense, fragile regions, like the... MORE