Militant Leadership Monitor – August 2023

The August 2023 issue of Militant Leadership Monitor starts off with a look at Ahmad Mahmood Hassan (alias Abuwakas), an Arab–Tanzanian militant who has become a leading figure in Islamic State’s efforts in the Congo. Following the brief, there is a discussion of Abdallah Ag Albakaye, a prominent Tuareg in Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) who was responsible for capturing the French journalist Olivier Dubois. In the next article, the publication considers the impact of the death of Abu al-Hussein, Islamic State’s fourth caliph, and the third to have been killed in the last 18 months. The publication ends with an examination of Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat’s role in Afghanistan, both as the new regime’s top military commander and as the Afghan Taliban’s first Tajik and non-Pashtun commander.