Latest Articles about South Asia
GIMF Releases New Doctrinal Lessons for Mujahideen
The latest in a year-long series on proper beliefs and doctrine of the mujahid was released on March 14 by the Global Islamic Media Front. The series, entitled "Lessons in Doctrine (Prepared for the Mujahideen)" is a program prepared specifically for the mujahideen of Iraq... MORE
Troop Defections Threaten Pakistan’s Operations in Tribal Regions
At the end of February, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Pakistan to pressure Pervez Musharraf's government to crack down on insurgent activity on the border with Afghanistan. Cheney's visit has highlighted how Pakistan's will and power to fight Taliban militants in the country's northwestern highlands... MORE
Afghanistan: Forgetting the Lessons of History
Afghanistan is again being lost to the West. The insurgency may drag on for many months or several years, but the tide has turned. Like Alexander's Greeks, the British and the Soviets before the U.S.-led coalition, inferior Afghan insurgents have forced far superior Western military... MORE
Cheney Attack Reveals Taliban Suicide Bombing Patterns
The information for this article came from a five-month study of suicide bombings from 2001 to 2007 in Afghanistan. No suicide bombing was listed in the study unless it was corroborated by numerous sources. Sources varied from coalition countries' press releases, open media, al-Qaeda/Taliban websites,... MORE
Al-Suri’s Doctrines for Decentralized Jihadi Training – Part 1
The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and... MORE
Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Airbase: A Key Asset in the War on Terrorism
The collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991 and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States a decade later offered the Pentagon basing possibilities impossible even to conceive of during the Cold War. The chief beneficiaries were Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, which were... MORE
Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan
The Afghan media has published an increasing number of critical reports about Iran's secret contacts with insurgent groups in Afghanistan, specifically those groups fighting against the U.S. presence in the country. On September 5, for instance, the Pashto-language newspaper Weesa referred to unidentified local officials... MORE
Al-Suri’s Doctrines for Decentralized Jihadi Training – Part 2
Training jihadi recruits in the post-9/11 world is increasingly about finding a safe place where training is possible rather than discussing curricula, facilities, selection of recruits, instructors and related tasks [1]. In his voluminous treatise The Call to Global Islamic Resistance, published on the internet... MORE
Asfandyar Wali: Profile of Pakistan’s Progressive Pashtun Politician
On January 10, Pakistan's secular and Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP) won a critical electoral battle in Bajaur Agency. The ANP political party is led by the seasoned politician Asfandyar Wali Khan. The election struck a blow to pro-Taliban elements in the region, and... MORE
Three Explanations for al-Qaeda’s Lack of a CBRN Attack
The evidence of al-Qaeda's interest in conducting a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons appears compelling. As early as 1998, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared the acquisition of CBRN weapons a "religious duty" for Muslims [1]. He followed up in... MORE