Latest Articles about Terrorism

The Situation Inside the North Caucasus Rebel Leadership Remains Unclear
This past week brought little clarity as to whether Doku Umarov in fact resigned or not from his position as the leader of the North Caucasus rebels. It still remains unclear who suggested to Umarov that he cancel the announcement he himself had made earlier... MORE

Afghanistan’s “Militia” Problem: Can Local Defense Forces Replace Private Security Firms?
Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, gave a speech on August 7 at the Civil Services Institute in Kabul in which he discussed his government’s reliance on foreign consultants and the role of private security firms. He proposed cuts to the former, and in the case of... MORE

Al-Qaeda Ideologue Attiya Allah al-Libi Releases New Booklet Discussing Recruitment of Jihadis and the Use of Takfir
A senior al-Qaeda ideologue has issued a booklet addressing two of the most important issues for the jihadi community – the practice of takfir (labeling a group or individual as apostate or infidel) and the question of whether jihad is an individual obligation. Entitled Ajwibaton... MORE

Tajik Police Detain Islamic School Leader and Students
On August 1, police in Tajikistan detained Mavlavi Abduqahor, the leader of an unregistered Islamic school in the Rudaki district south of Dushanbe, along with about 70 of his students. According to Tajikistan’s Islamic Revival Party (IRPT), the religious leader and some of his students... MORE

Half-Hearted Security Operations in Punjab Do Little to Restrain Taliban Attacks
Nobody in the Punjab security establishment was aware of how deep the Taliban had penetrated local society when the police and law enforcement agencies started a half-hearted operation against the Punjabi Taliban in the last days of June. The operation came in response to simultaneous... MORE

Bombings in Bangkok: A Return to Political Violence for the Red Shirts?
After barely two months of calm in the Thai capital following a bloody end to the April-May protests, a pair of explosions in Bangkok threaten to mark a new wave of political violence in the confrontation between the “Red Shirts” (supporters of the United Front... MORE

Al-Qaeda’s Ambitions in Pakistan: Changing Goals, Changing Strategies
President Obama’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, by defining a goal of “disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al-Qaeda,” on the one hand gives direction to this otherwise directionless war, and on the other emphasizes targeting al-Qaeda over all other anti-terrorism efforts (Associated Press of Pakistan, August 2). Al-Qaeda, as... MORE
North Caucasus Human Rights Activists Introduce Counter-Measures to Thwart Illegal Detentions
On July 29, six people from the village of Komsomolskoe in northern Dagestan’s Kizilyurt were abducted by unidentified assailants. On August 1, one of those abducted, Kaitmaz Magomedov, was released, apparently by law enforcement agencies without explanation (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, August 1). As of August 3, the... MORE

Muhammad Porca: The Man behind Bosnia’s Wahhabi Movement
Over the course of the past three years, Bosnia-Herzegovina has seen the organizational rise of the radical Wahhabi movement, which is now at its strongest point since the war. Strings are being pulled and recruitment is being initiated by prominent Wahhabi clerics in Western European... MORE

Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Growing International Focus and Its Links with al-Qaeda
Recent revelations that several so-called “home-grown militants” connected to terrorist plots in Europe, North America and Australia had passed through camps controlled by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have generated growing concern that the group may be emerging as a new global actor working in collaboration with al-Qaeda.... MORE