On June 26, the Lifenews.ru website quoted “experts” and North Caucasus law-enforcement sources as claiming that Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader and “emir” of the Caucasus Emirate, had received medical treatment in Turkey and returned to the North Caucasus. The website said that Umarov’s... MORE

As both government and opposition forces in Yemen vie for the allegiance of the nation’s powerful tribal groupings, the Salafi-Jihadi movement is now also trying to rally tribal fighters to the side of Islamist militants who have taken advantage of the political chaos to step... MORE

Maulvi Muhammad Qalamuddin, the former chief of Amr-e-Bil M’arouf wa Nahi Anil Munkar (the General Department for the Preservation of Virtue and the Elimination of Vice) in the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, has been chosen as... MORE

Sajid Mir (a.k.a. Sajid Majid), commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is perhaps one of South Asia’s least known jihadi commanders. Though details of his background are scarce, knowledge of his doings began to surface during the 2003-2004 interrogation of a jihadi called Willie Brigitte by French... MORE

Zulkifli bin Hir (a.k.a. Zulkifli Abdkhir), who goes most frequently by the alias Marwan, is the highest ranking of the 20-30 active Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists in the Philippines. The Philippine government intensified its manhunt for Marwan on May 1, 2011 because he has the... MORE

The then-Saudi Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz announced a four week long amnesty in 2004 and a pardon program for al-Qaeda operatives who were engaged in an open, bloody confrontation with Saudi authorities and Western expatriate workers. Those who voluntarily gave themselves... MORE

On June 27, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev declared an unprecedented boost to Dagestan’s police forces. On a brief visit to Makhachkala, Nurgaliev announced the creation of the 7,000-man joint police, military and security services group to fight the rebels in the republic. The largest... MORE

A source in Russia’s interior ministry was quoted on June 24 as saying that the number of security personnel killed in a battle with an estimated 30 militants in a wooded area near the village of Kuznetskovka in Dagestan’s Kizlyar district had reached 13. The... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev continues to surprise everyone with his management reshuffle in the Russian interior ministry. This time it involved the North Caucasus as well. Major-General Aleksandr Trofimov, 48, has been appointed Ingushetia’s Interior Minister. He had, since May 2009, held the position of... MORE

Almost completely overshadowed by the death of Osama bin Laden, jihadi publishing house Sawt al-Islam released a bilingual video from the Turkistan Islamic Party in mid-May. [1] The video recounted various historic grievances held by western China’s Muslim Uyghur people against Chinese communist rule while... MORE