Violence and Security

Philippine Military Pressures IS-linked Criminal-Terror Group

April 26, 2017

The Philippine military has intensified its security operation against the Islamist militants of Abu Sayyaf after last week's clashes, indicating that the Islamic State (IS)-affiliated group was aiming to expand its criminal-terror activities, including abductions, beheadings, and piracy, into the country's tourist-heavy islands.
Afghans Welcome US MOAB Strike to End IS Penetration

April 26, 2017

Local tribal officials in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province have welcomed the recent US strike with the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or the “Mother of All Bombs”) on IS (Islamic State) underground tunnels as a means to end the penetration of the Islamist jihadi group whose practices are viewed as too brutal even in comparison with the Taliban.
Boeing Aircraft Sale Shows Complications of 2015 Iran Deal

April 19, 2017

Boeing Airlines' planned $3 billion sale of aircraft to a major Iranian carrier has revealed the unanticipated complications of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal given that the sale is now legal despite the known ties of the Iranian buyer’s CEO to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Chinese State Heightens Security in the Face of Uighur Islamists

April 19, 2017

Chinese authorities have implemented a range of security measures to combat the growing threat of terrorist attacks by the country's radicalizing Uighur Islamists.
IS Propaganda Message Shifts Focus to Long War

April 19, 2017

The most recent issue of the Islamic State's online propaganda journal, Rumiyah, suggests a messaging shift in line with recent battlefield losses, by encouraging followers to adopt a long-war strategy that combines endurance for jihad, warns of punishments for jihadi defectors, and urges theft and plunder of enemy "wealth, weapons, women, and children."
IS Affiliate in Philippines Clashes with Military

April 19, 2017

Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State (IS) affiliate responsible for a series of beheadings and kidnappings of civilians in the Philippines, has recently engaged in lethal clashes with Philippine military forces following warnings by the US Embassy in Manila of credible threats by the jihadi group against civilians.
US Law Enforcement Expresses Concern over Domestic Jihadi Group

April 19, 2017

US law enforcement officials have reported that a Pakistani-linked jihadi group listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organization, Muslims of the Americas, continues to be a focus of concern for possible weapons purchases and tactical training for coordinating militant action within the United States.
Attack on Copts Shows Islamist Geopolitics of Religious Cleansing

April 12, 2017

The Islamic State's (IS) latest lethal attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt signals the shift from episodic communal violence targeting Christians to a pattern of sustained terror using a model of jihadist geopolitics aiming at the religious cleansing of Christians from the entire Mideast.
Saudi Arabia Pursues Nuclear Advances to Counter Iran

April 12, 2017

Nuclear weapons experts warn that Saudi Arabia is reaching out to China and Pakistan for help in expanding the Kingdom's nuclear development programs, in an effort to gain Sunni dominance over Shiite Iran, signaling a dangerous new phase in the global geopolitical competition between the Mideast's leading Islamic theocracies.
Terror Attack on Westminster Underscores Power of Islamist Ideas

April 12, 2017

The Islamic State's (IS) online recruiting magazine, Rumiyah, last year ran an article exhorting loyalists to carry out exactly the kind of vehicle suicide attack perpetrated recently against civilians on London's Westminster Bridge by a British convert to Islam, a signal the power and content of religious ideas must be taken seriously in policy design for countering violent Islamism.