Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles
Why Egypt’s Nationalist Hasm Movement Could Gain Greater Traction
Egypt’s government, led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is battling multiple insurgent groups, and while the Islamic State (IS) affiliate Wilayat Sinai is by far the most formidable, it is the nationalist Hasm Movement that may pose the more durable threat to the country. The... MORE
Briefs
Somalia: Ramping up Action on al-Shabaab Somalia’s recently elected president has declared “war” on al-Shabaab and offered an amnesty to militants who lay down their weapons, backing his rhetoric with an overhaul of the country’s security establishment aimed at strengthening efforts to defeat the group.... MORE
Briefs
Burkina Faso: Fears Grow Over Domestic Militant Threat A series of attacks in rural Burkina Faso have raised concerns over an increasingly active homegrown jihadist militant group operating in the West African country’s remote north. A fire at a primary school in Baraboule, in northern... MORE
A Scorecard for Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield
Turkey’s National Security Council announced the end of Operation Euphrates Shield on March 27, an unexpected move considering the many official statements that it was to be extended to Turkey’s next target, the People’s Protection Units (YPG)-held Syrian city of Manbij (CNNTürk, March 27). The... MORE
Al-Shabaab Plays on Aid Distribution Role to Win Over Desperate Somalis
With a severe drought unfolding across Somalia, al-Shabaab militants have turned to distributing food aid in the country’s southern battlegrounds in a new strategy aimed at bringing locals on side. Two consecutive seasons of poor rainfall has led to livestock deaths and crop failure, forcing... MORE
‘Wilayat Haramayn’: Confronting Islamic State in Saudi Arabia
The threat of Islamist militancy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been nearly continuous, in various manifestations, since the mid-1990s, with Islamic State (IS) only the latest iteration of this threat. The group’s Saudi Arabian affiliates are formed by regional and domestic networks made... MORE
Institutionalized ‘Warlordism’: Syria’s National Defense Force
As Syria’s civil war enters its sixth year, the balance of the conflict has tilted toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime. Bolstered by its international and regional allies, the regime is touting numerous territorial gains — including the reassertion of its authority over eastern... MORE
Afghan Forces’ Unexpected Win: The Killing of Qari Saifullah Akhter
The death in a clash with Afghan forces of long-time Pakistani jihadist Qari Saifullah Akhter, the emir of Pakistan’s Harkat ul Jihad e Islami, is both a surprising victory for Afghanistan’s security forces and an indication of the Taliban leadership’s recent attempts to rebuild frayed... MORE
Why Islamic State Has Failed to Expand in Yemen
Conditions in Yemen appear to be ideal for the expansion of an insurgent organization like Islamic State (IS). All the normal vectors for the spread of the virus of militant Salafism are present: grinding poverty; rampant youth unemployment; a weak and most often non-existent government;... MORE