Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles
The Caliphate in South Asia: A Profile of Hizb-ut Tahrir in Pakistan
Unlike other radical Islamist organizations in Pakistan, the Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT – Party of Freedom) takes a covert approach to disseminating its Islamist ideology and agendas. The organization is so secretive that most Pakistanis are not even aware of its existence. HT defines its target... MORE
Algeria and Egypt Struggle with the Implications of Libya’s Political Chaos
The progressive deterioration of security within Libya represents a major concern for a number of regional actors, most notably Libya’s two powerful neighbors, Egypt and Algeria. Algeria has already directly experienced some of the destabilizing effects of the Libyan upheaval, with the terrorist attack on... MORE
Mozambique’s RENAMO Conducts Low-Level Insurgency While Running for Election
Mozambique has been slowly descending into a political-military crisis since April 2013, as the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO – Mozambique Liberation Front) party has unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO – Mozambican National Resistance) to end its low-level insurgency... MORE
The Tribal Component of Iraq’s Sunni Rebellion: The General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries
Following the Iraqi armed opposition’s seizure of Mosul on June 10 and the subsequent capture of large areas of Ninewah, Salah al-Din and Ta’mim governorates from the Nuri al-Maliki government, several Iraqi organizations have proclaimed their role in the fighting. Emerging as one of the... MORE
A Divided Military Fuels Mali’s Political Crisis
Both short- and long-term prospects for renewed stability in Mali’s restive northern region took a heavy blow with the May collapse of the Forces armées du Mali (FAMA) in the face of Tuareg and Arab resistance in the northeastern Kidal region. The collapse reflected long-standing... MORE
A Review of Abubakar Siddique’s The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key to the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan
For decades, works on the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan were limited to an aging generation of Western academicians tucked away in ivory towers. These scholars carried out their field research in the region prior to the 1979 Soviet invasion. Few of this generation of... MORE
Ansar-ut Tawhid and the Transnational Jihadist Threat to India
Transnational Islamist terrorist groups have recently made sporadic attempts to lure India’s Muslim population towards global jihad, frequently urging them to fight the democratically elected secular government. India-specific incitements have issued from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri and al-Qaeda ideologue Maulana Asim Umar through audio-visual... MORE
Operation Dignity: General Haftar’s Latest Battle May Decide Libya’s Future
General Khalifa Haftar, the self-declared leader of the Libyan National Army, announced the launch of Operation Karama (Dignity) on May 16 with the aim of cleansing Libya of “terrorism and extremism” (al-Arabiya, May 24). Haftar’s latest battle may have far-reaching consequences, with its success or... MORE
Al-Shabaab Exploits Kenyan Crackdown to Recruit Muslim Youth
Kenya, which in recent years has found itself surrounded by countries plagued by chaos and insurgency, is itself becoming another theater for terrorist attacks, with more than 90 such attacks recorded since Kenya’s 2011 military intervention in Somalia. The latest attack on May 22 injured... MORE
Tunisian Jihadists Establishing New Networks with Libyan Islamists
The Tunisian Salafist movement Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia (AST) was declared a terrorist organization by the government of Tunis in August 2013. Since then, it seems to have adopted concealment tactics, given the impossibility of operating openly. Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities have launched an unprecedented counter-terrorism... MORE