The return of Muqtada al-Sadr to Iraq after more than three years of self-imposed exile and his unexpected January 21 departure for Iran only two weeks later have provoked speculation over the security implications of his activities in Iraq and his precise relations with Iran... MORE

Insurgency-related violence –and, apparently, simple criminal violence– continued in the North Caucasus this week, particularly in the republics Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.In Kabardino-Balkaria, four gunmen charged into a café in the town of Chegem on February 2 and shot a group of traffic policemen who were... MORE

Amid reports by the Russian government that militant activity in Kabardino-Balkaria has increased four to five times (www.rosbalt.ru/2010/11/29/794929.html) –more than anywhere else in the North Caucasus region– local authorities are trying to belittle the role of rebel fighters against the backdrop of economic plans for... MORE

On January 26, the Russian government gave a presentation of the North Caucasus ski resorts project at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was aimed at attracting much needed foreign investment to the enterprise, which the government hopes will solve this volatile region’s... MORE

Shaykh Ahmad Abdi Godane “Abu Zubayr” appears to be losing his grip on the leadership of Somalia’s al-Shabaab, the largest and most formidable of the militant Somali Islamist groups operating in the Horn of Africa. Reports indicate that Godane was relieved of his post as... MORE

Background Hussein Vakhaevich Gakaev (a.k.a. Amir Mansur) was born on July 8, 1970, in the village of Kalinovskaya of the Naur district of the Chechen Republic bordering Mozdok, North Ossetia. His identification card states that he is a resident of the village of Elistanzhi in... MORE

A Vienna-born Serbian Muslim named Nedžad Balkan (a.k.a. Ebu Muhammad) is believed to have been behind the most recent terror attack in the central Bosnian town of Bugojno. His connection to Bosnia and Herzegovina signals the rise of a new and avowedly violent sect of... MORE

On January 29, Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, announced that investigators had determined the identity of the perpetrator of the bombing of Domodedovo airport in Moscow, which took place on January 24. According to official information, a suicide bomber detonated explosives... MORE

Two French citizens, Antoine de Léocour and Vincent Delory, were kidnapped on January 7 from a restaurant in the residential area of Plateu in Niger's capital, Niamey (L’Express, January 9). De Léocour had worked for several years in the country and was there to marry... MORE