The armed underground Islamist movement in Dagestan, the Sharia Jamaat, has claimed responsibility for the June 5 assassination of the republic's Interior Minister, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov. The Sharia Jamaat posted a relatively short initial claim on its website on June 9, in which it said that... MORE

As Pakistan’s military continues to consolidate its control over the Malakand region of the North-West Frontier Province and talks of continuing on into South Waziristan, there is some apprehension in neighboring states that foreign fighters based in northwest Pakistan may begin leaving their now-endangered bases... MORE

The timing of Egypt’s April 8 announcement of its arrest of 24 men—allegedly linked to Hezbollah—on  Egyptian soil in November and December 2008 upped the ante in the already tense relationship between Cairo and the Lebanese Islamist resistance movement and, by extension, Hezbollah’s supporter, Iran... MORE

China’s undersea deterrent is undergoing a generational change with the emergence of the Type-094, or Jin-class, which represents a substantial improvement over China’s first-generation Type-092, or Xia-class, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN). Launched in the early 1980s, the People's Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN) single Xia-class... MORE

The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government have received praise and accolades from several quarters after their triumph last month over the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).  The total annihilation of this separatist group brought an end to a civil war that... MORE

Considerable circumstantial evidence points to the fact that North Korea was preparing for the May 25 nuclear weapons test since late last year, a test which came after the U.S. presidential election and while North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il was recuperating from a... MORE

In a May 9 interview with Brazilian defense, strategy and intelligence news website Defasanet, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim stated that Brazil and China had reached an agreement to train personnel from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in Brazil. In the interview (available in... MORE

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov claimed on June 10 that the leader of the armed Islamic separatist movement in the North Caucasus, Dokka Umarov, was wounded earlier this month during a special operation conducted along the Chechen-Ingush administrative border. "It can be said with a large... MORE

On June 5 the Russian Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Army-General Nikolai Makarov gave an important press conference. Makarov began with a two hour statement on military reform, followed by a slide show involving almost 30 slides, dazzling journalists with... MORE

President Dmitry Medvedev traveled to Dagestan on June 9 and vowed to fight extremism in the North Caucasus just four days after the assassination of the republic's interior minister, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, at a wedding ceremony in the capital Makhachkala (EDM, June 9). However, attacks apparently... MORE