Violence and Security

Latest Global Terrorism Index Report Highlights Durability and Complexity of Islamist Threat

March 18, 2023

The Global Terrorism Index 2023 underscores both the durability and complexity of political Islamism as a specific type of global terrorism, with data pointing to a shift in the regional epicenter of Islamist violence from the Mideast and North Africa (MENA) to Africa’s Sahel region and to the growth of Islamist extremist operations in South Asia, as well as an increase in the lethality of violent Islamist attacks and a change in the technologies used to perpetrate attacks, according to the newly-released 10th annual report from the Australia-based think tank, Institute for Economics and Peace.
Credible Threat of Islamist Attack on Vienna Churches Puts Police on High Alert

March 15, 2023

Police in Austria’s capital city have deployed on high alert in response to a credible threat in response to what the country’s intelligence services deemed a credible threat of an Islamist terrorist attack on Vienna’s churches.
Nigeria Suffers Another Attack by Islamist Extremists

March 13, 2023

Islamist extremists groups continue to destabilize Nigeria’s security environment, with a multi-casualty attack against civilians that has been linked to Boko Haram the latest incident in sustained jihadist violence associated with competing Islamist militants associated with that group and with the Islamic State West Africa Province.
Somalia Islamist Militants Show Durabilty in Latests Assault on Military Base

March 09, 2023

Somalia’s Islamist extremist group al Shabaab demonstrated its ongoing durability as a threat to state security in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa region, with the recent recapture of a government military base in the country’s Jubbaland region that has seen some of the most intense violence in a recent jihadist offensive underway since January of this year.
Jihadist Jail Break in Mauritania Reminds of Islamist Militancy in Africa’s Sahel

March 08, 2023

Mauritanian security authorities are searching for jihadists who broke out of a prison in the capital city of Nouakchott, with jailbreak raising concerns about the fragility of Mauritania’s capacity to avoid the broader problems of Islamist militancy that have rocked most neighboring countries in the African Sahel region, with the country’s leadership having relied on a combination of intrusive border control and domestic programming to alleviate poverty and to rehabilitate former Islamist radicals through religious reeducation and socioeconomic integration.
Austria Courts Sentence Accomplices to 2020 Vienna Islamic Terror Attacks

March 02, 2023

A reminder of recent Islamic violence in Europe was evidenced in a Vienna court’s sentencing of four men to extended jail time for their role as accomplices in the 2020 Islamic terror attack in Austria’s capital city, a multi-casualty shooting rampage by a dual national Austrian-North Macedonian male sympathizer of the Islamic State (IS).
Islamist Extremists Target Pakistan's Police to Corrode State Security & Societal Trust

March 01, 2023

The diverse Islamist militant organizations active in Pakistan, with the al-Qaeda-affiliated TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban) acting as the tip of the spear, have steadily increased violence against tthe country's police forces, frequently using materiel abandoned by Westeren coalition forces that exited Afghanistan in Summer 2021, targeting both direct police stations and barracks and mosques inside police facilities.
Mali Jihadists Expand Assault on State and Society with Latest Attacks

February 28, 2023

Jihadists affiliated with al Qaeda and IS continue to degrade the state and human security environment in Mali, with the most recent spate of attacks against civilians, infrastructure, and livestock deepening the security crisis that is affecting the West African state and its regional neighbors for the past decade.
Pakistan’s Islamic Terrorist Ecosystem Marked by Growing Complexity & Threats to State

February 28, 2023

The reemergence and resurgence of a two Taliban-affiliated and IS-associated Islamist terror groups in Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and the Lashkar-e-Khorasan (LeK), points to the growing complicity of the country’s Islamist militant ecosystem and the threats to the longterm durability of the Pakistani state.
Al Qaeda Leader Reactivated in Afghanistan Underscores Durability of Jihadist Group's Threat in Volatile South Asia

February 22, 2023

Veteran al Qaeda (AQ) leader Iklhas al-Masri has been reactivated in Afghanistan, according to intelligence from the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, pointing to the durability of the AQ threat as an insurgent-jihadist group and suggesting the willingness of the Islamist extremist Taliban now controlling the country to tolerate competitor AQ activities from Afghanistan as a jihadist platform for geopolitically volatile South Asia, given that al-Masri's release was consequent to the Taliban emptying of imprisoned jihadists during the US withdrawal from the country in 2021.