Militant Leadership Monitor – May 2015 Issue

The May 2015 issue of Militant Leadership Monitor begins with a brief on trans-Saharan jihadist Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who recently switched allegiance from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State, by Nicholas Heras. He follows with another on Abu Humam, who leads one of the local jihadist groups to defend the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp outside of Damascus. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi movement in Yemen and the most powerful man in the country at the moment, is profiled by Michael Horton. Abubakar Siddique offers a post-mortem look at Iranian Balochistan separatist leader Abu Hafs al-Balochi. This is followed with a portrait of Mohamed Mazouz, a former Guantanamo detainee who now leads Moroccans in Syria, by Camille Tawil. Finally, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Nathaniel Barr detail the life of Abu Humam al-Suri, an al-Qaeda veteran who now plays a key role in Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.