Omar al-Shishani, the commander of Jaish al-Muhajireen wa’l-Ansar, is regarded as the best known rebel leader in the country. Omar (a.k.a. Tarkhan Batirashvili) was born in 1986 to a Christian and a Muslim mother. He hails from Birkiani, a poor village located in the Pankisi... MORE

Dr. Sami al-Aridi (a.k.a. Abu Mahmoud al-Shami) is an influential ideologue in Jabhat al-Nusra who is effectively appealing to locals in an effort to appear distant from radical groups. Al-Aridi is one of al-Nusra’s religious judges. Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, said... MORE

Thousands of Iranians were reported to have sought medical attention in November 2013 due to complaints of shortness of breath and other maladies following a spell of acid rain that blanketed parts of the southwestern province of Khuzestan. Due to the impact of the local... MORE

The situation in Syria has not changed significantly in the past month, but the same cannot be said about the Chechens who are fighting there. Indeed, the Chechen groups in Syria have evidently radicalized and split into different factions because of the dispute between al-Nusra... MORE

The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem have flown to Moscow on the same plane this week to meet their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss the situation in Syria and the Geneva II peace conference due later... MORE

EASTERN SYRIAN MILITANT LEADER ANNOUNCES CHANGE OF ALLEGIANCE FROM FSA TO AL-QAEDA  Nicholas A. Heras  Saddam al-Jamal, the former leader of the Liwa Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest Brigade) announced his defection from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to join the Islamic State of Iraq... MORE

An unattended car was found near the Syrian town of Dayr Hafir in eastern Aleppo province in late September containing an explosive belt usually worn by Abu Sa’id al-Hadrami (a.k.a. Muhammad Sa’id al-Abdullah), the amir of Jabhat al-Nusra (JN). Al-Hadrami was on his way to... MORE

Bashar al-Zoubi (a.k.a. Abu Fadi) is the leader of the powerful Syrian armed opposition group Liwa al-Yarmuk (Yarmuk Brigade) and the military commander of the Free Syrian Army-Supreme Military Council’s (FSA-SMC) Southern Front. He is a member of the Arab al-Zoubi tribe, one of the... MORE

Kurdish fighters in Syria have taken greater control of areas inhabited by both Arabs and Kurds since July 16, and aim to capture three other mixed areas in the governorates of Raqqah, Aleppo and Hasakah in order to connect existing Kurdish areas (al-Monitor, October 25).... MORE

Fourteen border guards in the southeastern Iranian region of Saravan were assassinated and five seriously wounded on October 25 by a shadowy militant Sunni group known as Jaysh al-Adl (JA – Army of Justice) (IRNA, October 25; Mehr News, October 25). In retaliation, Iranian authorities... MORE