In early May, the Taliban announced the appointment of Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of its founder-leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and deputy to its current amir (leader) Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, as chief of its military commission. Ibrahim Sadr, who Yaqoob replaced, and Abdul Qayyum Zakir would... MORE

On June 14, a U.S. drone strike in Syria’s Idlib province killed Abu al-Qassam al-Urduni, a top al-Qaeda figure who was a commander of al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din. The death of al-Urduni, a.k.a. Khalid al-Aruri, follows those of prominent al-Qaeda leaders Abu al-Khayr al-Masri and... MORE

A major scandal has broken out between China, on the one hand, and Tajikistan and Russia, on the other, regarding alleged Chinese claims on the Pamir region. This past month, official outlets of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) repeatedly republished an article by Chinese... MORE

What Will Come of Uzbek and Central Asian Militant Groups Fighting Alongside the Taliban? Brian M. Perkins As the United States has worked to finalize the peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, persistent questions have lingered as to the degree to which the insurgency... MORE

Pakistan has recently faced a renewed ethno-separatist militant surge targeting its financial and energy infrastructure. Four recent attacks indicate a resurgence within the multiple secessionist groups fighting for Baluchistan independence. On June 29, the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a banned ethno-separatist militant group, claimed a... MORE

The Russian government continues to deny news accounts that its security forces paid the Taliban to kill members of the United States Armed Forces stationed in Afghanistan; but at the same time, Moscow has exploited these reports at home to generate support for the Kremlin.... MORE

One of the most interesting developments during the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan was the decision by the Sindh High Court to overturn the death sentence of Ahmad Omar Saeed Shaikh for beheading the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent and South Asia bureau chief,... MORE

Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) has dominated the jihadist landscape of Afghanistan for the past several years while sharing turf with the powerful Taliban. It has suffered several significant setbacks in recent months, including a leadership crisis and territorial losses in its former provincial strongholds of Nangarhar... MORE

While Islamic State’s (IS) so-called caliphate was crumbling in Syria, the group was gaining ground in Afghanistan. IS’ self-styled “Khorasan Province,” a.k.a. Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), seized swathes of land in the country, defying the setbacks for the group elsewhere. IS-K quickly became the most... MORE

The Russian Federation is strengthening its economic integration with several Central Asian states. At the beginning of April, the authorities of Uzbekistan and Russia agreed to set up an economic cooperation program in May that would take into account the influence of the novel coronavirus... MORE