Following the discovery of explosive-laden packages addressed to synagogues in Chicago, renewed attention has focused on al-Qaeda’s highly innovative branch in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The two packages, each containing an odorless plastic explosive called pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), were... MORE

Since the capture of Abimael Guzmán, the principal leader of the Shining Path (El Sendero Luminoso-SL), 18 years ago, many in Peru believed the Maoist insurgency that had plagued Peru’s countryside since 1980 had ended permanently. The Shining Path was thought to be a spent... MORE

With the January 9, 2011, referendum on South Sudanese independence only weeks away, a long-time rebel commander turned politician stands to become the first president of a new African nation with both abundant oil reserves and a highly uncertain future. Salva Kiir Mayardit, a Roman... MORE

Of the various Salafi-Jihadi militant groups currently operating, few have been as aggressive in their pursuit of financing as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has added narcotics trafficking to its staples of kidnapping for ransom as well as the smuggling of cigarettes and... MORE

Gunmen from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) took hostages in a Syriac Catholic church in central Baghdad on October 31. About 52 people were killed and 67 injured after Iraqi security forces stormed the church. The ISI claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking and... MORE

Salafi-Jihadist ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki has penned an emotive response to a declaration by Islamic scholars who challenge the theological basis for the violent jihad of al-Qaeda and its associates. In a lengthy essay published in the second issue of the English-language Jihadist magazine Inspire, al-Awlaki... MORE

Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamist militant movement is in the midst of a financial crisis that hit after losing protection fees from three Somalia World Food Program (WFP) sub-contractors and diminished contributions from the Somali diaspora. The radical group has been in a financial squeeze since the... MORE

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev had to admit recently that 454 terrorist acts and 510 offenses of extremist nature were committed in Russia in the first nine months of 2010. It would have been odd if the minister had blamed the Russian authorities for the... MORE

Unidentified attackers shot up the home of a policeman in the village of Sergokala in Dagestan’s Sergokalinsky district late yesterday (November 11). The gunmen fired automatic weapons but no one was hurt in the incident, which capped a particularly violent day in Dagestan, with eleven... MORE

Since a terrorist training camp was discovered in the northwestern Indonesian province of Aceh last February, Indonesia’s Densus-88 counterterrorism police have arrested over 100 people and killed 13, significantly damaging the efforts of Indonesian militants to regroup and stage a new round of attacks. Significantly,... MORE