As Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria shows further signs of weakening, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has begun maneuvering to take advantage of the regime’s expected collapse. In light of this, it is important to look at the Syrian Brotherhood’s leading political strategist, UK-based Zuheir Salim... MORE

IMU ANNOUNCES USMAN GHAZI AS NEW AMIR AFTER MONTHS OF DELIBERATION The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) announced in a statement that Usman Ghazi is the IMU’s new amir (high-ranking Sheikh), taking over the position from the late Abu Usman Adil, who was killed in a drone... MORE

For the past twelve years of Russian armed containment of the ideology of the insurgents in the North Caucasus, the North Caucasian armed resistance has changed significantly. At first, only members of small radical Islamic jihadist groups participated in the local jamaats, which could not... MORE

On July 20, five men suspected of terrorism-related activities were arrested in Atyrau (western Kazakhstan). The arrested men had contacts with the Az-Zahir Baibars Brigades of Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate), which was founded by three Kazakhs from Atyrau and ordered attacks in Kazakhstan... MORE

Before the commotion over the possible death of the well-known Chechen rebel emir Zaurbek Avdorkhanov in the Ingush village of Galashki on July 29 had subsided (www.chechenews.com/world-news/breaking/8565-1.html), suicide bombers attacked in Grozny. As of August 8, it was still unclear whether Avdorkhanov was really killed,... MORE

Against the backdrop of ongoing simmering dissent in the Arab world, growing unrest in Saudi Arabia, in contrast, has gone virtually unnoticed.  In a climate of increasing political openness, popular Arab demands for the fall of longtime dictatorships have served as vehicles for airing deeply... MORE

After twenty years of anarchy, Somalia’s Constituent Assembly approved a new draft constitution on August 1, paving the way for the replacement of the transitional government by an elected president with a new cabinet and parliament on August 20, a year after the withdrawal of... MORE

Kurdish militias recently took control of several towns in northern Syria, raising fears in Turkey that in addition to their camps in the mountainous border areas in Iraq, the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK) could also now operate against Turkey from Syria.  It is however, unlikely,... MORE

Prior to August 2012, nothing portended the souring of relations between the respective heads of Chechnya and Ingushetia – Ramzan Kadyrov and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. It all began with a trivial news report about an explosion in a house in the village of Galashki in Ingushetia’s... MORE

On August 5, a group of protesters blocked an international rail line in Dagestan for two hours. The railway links Russia with Azerbaijan and Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, with Moscow. The protesters were from the village of Komsomolskoye in northern Dagestan’s Kizilyurt district and were protesting... MORE