Al-Shabaab attacks are on the rise in Kenya. From concerns about threats to the recent Kenyan elections to stepped-up attacks in Kenya’s coastal Lamu county, this uptick in activity has authorities across the region concerned (see Terrorism Monitor, June 16, 2017; see Terrorism Monitor, February... MORE

One of Saudi Arabia’s leading Salafist religious scholars, Shaykh Salman bin Fahd al-Ouda, is currently hospitalized under guard after spending nearly five months in isolation without charges in a Saudi prison. [1] Once a strong opponent of the American military presence in the Arabian Peninsula... MORE

In mid-August 2015, the voice of Hamza Bin Laden, the so-called crown prince of jihad, reached al-Qaeda’s foot soldiers and sympathizers worldwide for the first time through an audio message. In that message, Hamza, a son of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was introduced and strongly endorsed... MORE

On January 23, the U.S. Department of State designated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) top commander Khalid Saeed Batarfi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. [1] Batarfi is just the latest AQAP figure to be added to the U.S. sanctions list, a mechanism that... MORE

On December 2, 2017, former Yemeni President Ali Abdulla Saleh announced he was breaking his alliance with the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement, which controls the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and a large part of the country. Ali Abdulla Saleh, who ruled Yemen between 1978 and... MORE

Islamic State’s (IS) foreign fighters are a key part of its propaganda campaign in the West. The group thrives on attracting militants whose personal history makes them seem “too normal” to be terrorists. This strategy is designed to scare citizens of Western countries by creating... MORE

Despite relentless anti-terror drives aimed at neutralizing the resurgence of Islamic militants, Bangladeshi authorities are still struggling to contain the surge of Islamist militancy that has sprung up in the country since the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in July 2016. Groups linked to and inspired... MORE

Neil Christopher Prakash was considered “the most important and the most dangerous” Australian member of Islamic State (IS) (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 5, 2016).Before being wounded and captured in 2016, he established a public profile under the nom de guerre Abu Khaled al-Cambodi and was... MORE

Few terrorist commanders in the Pakistani militant landscape are as ruthless, or notorious, as Omar Khalid Khorasani, the Emir of Jamaat ul Ahrar (JuA). JuA is part of the al-Qaeda-linked Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) network, which is made up of over 42 different Islamist militant groups.... MORE

How does a leader of an outlawed religious-political movement apply pressure on an inflexible regime at a moment of organizational weakness and internal division? This is the dilemma facing Dr. Mahmud Ezzat, the deputy supreme guide of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The Ikhwan (Brothers) are... MORE