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

Iraq’s director-general for anti-terrorism and organized crime operations, Major General Diya Husayn Sahi, recently told al-Arabiya TV that Iraqi citizen Taimur Abd al-Wahhab al-Abdali was given explosives training in the Iraqi city of Mosul for three months before his failed suicide bombing in Sweden last... MORE

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport on January 24, which killed 35 people and wounded at least 125. However, the Russian media has been full of the theories and rumors about who may have been... MORE

According to independent sources, who summarized their findings based on reports that have been officially published in the media by Russian authorities, Ingushetia had the second largest number of victims of violence in the North Caucasus in 2010, an unfortunate outcome similar to what happened... MORE

The Domodedovo airport bombing on January 24, that left 35 dead, including the alleged suicide bomber and more than 100 injured – Russians and foreigners – has overshadowed other important political events: the final ratification of the START III arms control treaty by both houses... MORE

The most important development concerning the North Caucasus in 2010 did not occur there or even on the streets of Moscow. Rather, it took place in the minds of an increasing number of Russians who have concluded that the costs – economic, political and human... MORE