Violence and Security

IS Militants Clash with Revolutionary Guard Inside Iran

January 29, 2018

The recent engagement in Western Iran between Sunni jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and units of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the vanguard of that country’s Shiite theocratic regime potential for regional volatility, demonstrates the escalation of clashes between Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists in the Mideast.
IS Carries Out Lethal Attack on Save the Children Afghanistan

January 29, 2018

Islamic State (IS) affiliates in Afghanistan perpetrated a lethal siege against the Save the Children offices in the city of Jalalabad, only days after the massive assault by Taliban forces against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and as the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist extremists aiming to oust all international nongovernmental organizations from the Southwest Asian region.
Philippines Arrest Shows Islamist Extremist Ties to East Asia

January 29, 2018

Philippines intelligence authorities have arrested an Iraqi national accused of links with the Palestinian organization Hamas and other Islamist militant groups as part of an ongoing investigation into connections between the Mideast explosives expert and Islamic State-linked Filipino jihadists who attempted last year to seize control of the southern city of Marawi.
Latest Phase in Syria War Reveals Islamist Militant Resilience

January 29, 2018

The latest phase in the brutal war in Syria began with Turkey's invasion into northern Syria this week, signalling the reconfiguration and revival of Arab Sunni jihadist groups "softly coordinated" with Turkey and signaling open tension with the US policy that has backed Syrian Kurdish militias that were critical to the ouster of the Islamic State in Syria.
US Designates Taliban Linked to Pakistan as Terrorists

January 29, 2018

The US Treasury Department confirmed that it has designated as terrorists six individuals linked to Pakistan who are accused of providing financial and weapons support to the Taliban and Haqqani networks active in radicalization activities and jihadist operations in the geopolitically volatile region of Southwest Asia.
OIC Foreign Ministers Warn of Yemen as a Terrorist Haven

January 24, 2018

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) Ministerial Contact Group on Yemen issued a communique warning that failure to bring a quick resolution to the ongoing conflict in Yemen, a civil war between Saudi and Iranian Sunni and Shiite proxies, runs the risk of turning the country into a regional haven for terrorists.
IS in Egyptian Sinai Aims to Inherit Mantle of Global Salafism

January 24, 2018

Wilayat Sinai, the Islamic State's (IS) affiliate in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, has become increasingly aggressive and lethal in military and terror actions targeting non-Muslims and competing Islamist groups, such as Hamas, in a bid to monopolize financial and fighter resources and to claim ideological legitimacy as the new hub of global Salafist jihadism.
US Seeks Extradition of al-Qaeda Operative from France

January 24, 2018

The US Department of Justice has filed an official request seeking extradition of a German national currently imprisoned in France, on charges of providing critical technological and operational support to al-Qaeda leadership planning to execute American and Israeli targets around the world.
Unresolved IS Promises Portend More Mideast Violence

January 22, 2018

Some experts on the Islamic State (IS) explain the group’s appeal in the Mideast as a function of popular hopes for dignity and development through Salafist utopian promises and warn that IS’s failure to deliver on those promises will create opportunities for new, radical, nihilist Islamist and secularist movements in the region.
Iraqi Court Sentences German IS Fighter to Death

January 22, 2018

Iraqi courts meted out a death sentence to a German female foreign fighter for the Islamic State (IS) as part of the Iraqi government’s wholesale roundup of suspected foreign jihadists who came to Iraq to support the fight for the caliphate.