A U.S. citizen born in 1984 in Alabama, Omar Hammami (a.k.a. Abu Mansoor al-Amriki) is a key recruiter and propaganda specialist for the al-Qaeda affiliated group, al-Shabaab, in Somalia. Al-Amriki, the son of a Syrian Muslim father and an American Southern Baptist mother, was raised... MORE

NORTH AFRICAN SALAFISTS TURN ON SUFI SHRINES IN MALI The Salafist war on the physical legacy of Sufi Islam has opened a new front in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu, home to a number of ancient mosques and the famous tombs of 333 Islamic... MORE

Despite recent celebrations of its merger with al-Qaeda, Somalia’s Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen movement has been suffering from a power struggle in its leadership for the past two years. Though attempts have been made to conceal it, the rift is believed to have contributed to al-Shabaab’s... MORE

Operating from deep in the ungoverned bush of the northern part of the Central African Republic (CAR), a poorly educated Fulani tribesman from southern Chad leads a rebel movement of several hundred men that claims to be both a Fulani self-defense militia and an armed... MORE

Henry Emomotimi Okah was born in 1965 and raised in Ikorodu, Lagos State, although his family’s ancestral home was in Baylesa State.  The fourth child of a Navy officer, his upbringing was described by a sibling as very “British”; he attended private schools and led a relatively privileged... MORE

After the last month’s shocking developments in Mali, including a military coup, the collapse of the national security forces, the conquest of northern Mali by Tuareg rebels and the emergence of an Islamist group with apparent ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the... MORE

With a deadly suicide attack on a security facility in southern Algeria, a newly formed group of West African militants has demonstrated it is a serious security threat and a potential competitor to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).        As the gates opened for the... MORE

Under military pressure from its neighbors on several fronts, Somalia’s al-Shabaab/al-Qaeda Islamist militants are beginning to show fractures in the solidarity of their leadership after losing several key towns and regions. As the movement faces the worst situation it has experienced in several years, it... MORE

Born in the Galgudud region of Somalia, Shaykh Hassan Dahir Aweys is a member of Habar Gedir clan of Hawiye sub-clan. Shaykh Aweys is a Somali Islamist and political figure who helped found al-Ittihad al-Islamiyya (AIAI). AIAI at one point in time was Somalia’s largest armed Islamist... MORE