Converging interests are prompting Italy and Russia to forge an informal partnership to deal with the Syrian conflict and the Libyan civil war, which are among the most pressing security challenges facing the international community today. For distinct reasons, Rome and Moscow strive for geopolitical... MORE

Since announcing the establishment of the caliphate in June 2014, the Islamic State has broadcast its successes in expanding into new territories outside of Syria and Iraq, aiming to create the perception that it is growing rapidly throughout the Muslim world, and steadily chipping away... MORE

After the French-led military intervention in northern Mali in 2013, the leading jihadist groups there, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), its affiliate Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) and its local “front group” Ansar Dine, dispersed from the towns they... MORE

Fatiha Mohamed Taher Housni al-Mejjati (a.k.a. Umm Adam), is a member of the Islamic State’s media committee and therefore one of the most powerful women in the organization (The Africa Channel, January 15). Wearing black from head to toe with a strong, bulky physique and... MORE

Hisham Ali Ashmawy Mosaad Ibrahim (a.k.a. Abu Omar al-Muhajir al-Masri) is a former Egyptian military officer turned al-Qaeda jihadist who has become the most wanted militant in Egypt. He defected from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), a Sinai Peninsula-based group, after the group declared an oath... MORE

Born into a Muslim family in Spain’s Ceuta, Asia Ahmed Mohamed is just one of several Spanish women who have traveled to Iraq or Syria to join the Islamic State or another jihadist militia. She became connected to the militant group when she was searching... MORE

BERLIN KNIFE ATTACK, WAVE OF ARRESTS UNDERLINES GERMAN RADICALIZATION THREAT James Brandon A known radical Islamist stabbed and wounded a policewoman in Berlin on September 17, and was subsequently shot dead (DW, September 17). The attacker, a 41-year-old ethnic Kurdish Iraqi man called Rafik Mohamad... MORE

Given that many might think Qaddafism as a political ideology died along with Mu’ammar Qaddafi in his hometown of Sirte at the hands of Libyan revolutionaries in October 2011, the announcement of the creation of the Nidal (“Struggle”) Front by pro-Qaddafist exiles in Cairo on... MORE

Shaykh Ahmed Iman Ali is one of the al-Shabaab militant leaders most wanted by Kenyan security agencies, particularly for his role in attacks in that country. In 2012, he declared war on Kenya on behalf of the jihadist group (Daily Nation [Nairobi], September 29, 2013).... MORE