It has become a tradition that August is an especially volatile month in the North Caucasus. This year has not been an exception, with the situation in the North Caucasus becoming more aggravated, especially in those regions that were relatively quiet in the preceding time... MORE

On August 15, the newspaper Kommersant, quoting sources in the Russian security services, reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had thwarted a major terrorist attack in Moscow region. A group of young North Caucasians allegedly planned to derail the high speed Sapsan train that... MORE

Executive Summary: In the absence of police and government security forces, al-Qaeda-sympathetic movements, including al-Shabaab al-Islam (The Youth of Islam), have formed in the Sinai Peninsula. The demands of these Salafi-Jihadist groups reflect both local and regional concerns. Among their demands are calls for a... MORE

On August 11 in Tallinn, an armed member of the local neo-Soviet milieu forced his way into Estonia’s defense ministry, fired pistol shots, detonated smoke bombs, and took two hostages. In a two-hour confrontation with the security police, the intruder did not answer appeals to... MORE

On August 11, the counterterrorism operation regime in effect in Kabardino-Balkaria was partially lifted. The suburbs of the republican capital Nalchik – Khasanya, Belaya Rechka and Volny Aul – along with several nearby settlements in the Chegem district   were officially taken off of the counterterrorism... MORE

One policeman was killed and two wounded yesterday (August 11) during a shootout with alleged rebels in Dagestan’s Tsuntinsky district. The incident took place in the village of Vitiyatl when a group of suspected rebels discovered in a private home opened fired on police. Three... MORE

As if Yemen did not already face enough political, social and economic challenges in the midst of a multi-sided civil war, there are significant and not unreasonable fears in the Yemeni opposition that President Ali Abdullah Saleh has manufactured a new conflict between the state... MORE

After the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesia recognized that the main threat to national security came from regional terrorist networks whose leaders returned to Indonesia after Suharto fell from power in 1998. An elite counterterrorism unit, Densus 88 (Detasemen Khusus 88, or Special Detachment 88), was... MORE

Somalia’s drought and famine have slowed the progress of al-Shabaab operations in Somalia as people continue to flee from areas of southern Somalia under the movement’s control. These areas also happen to be the regions hit hardest by the growing shortages of food and water.... MORE

Having failed to re-conquer the North Caucasus using force or realized the high price to be paid for such a conquest, Moscow is attempting to deprive regional nationalists and religious radicals of their social base of support by providing additional financial infusions. In the process... MORE