Violence and Security

Jihadist War in West Africa Intensifies as Boko Haram Perpetrates Mass Casualties at Chad Military Base

March 25, 2020

Militants part of the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram perpetrated a mass-casualty attack on a military base in the neighboring West African country of Chad, signaling the expanding footprint of violence by various Islamist groups fighting to impose sharia states across the the region.
IS Afghanistan Attacks Sikh Minority Worshippers in Kabul

March 25, 2020

IS suicide bombers and gunmen in Afghanistan perpetrated a multiple-casualty attack on worshippers in a Sikh temple Kabul, the most recent in a spate of attacks by the Islamist extremists against the religious minority group in Sunni Muslim-majority Afghanistan.
US Military Translator Charged with Passing Defense Intel Secrets to Hezbollah

March 25, 2020

A US military linguist with a top security clearance working with American Special Forces in Iraq has been charged with passing names of human intelligence assets and information to the Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah via a contact in Lebanon, sharing troves of data that compromise national defense and security interests.
Islamism and Geopolitics Fuel Rising Iran-Pakistan Tensions in Volatile South Asia

March 24, 2020

South Asian security trends under the new leader, Ismail Qaani, of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC"), indicate a degrading of the volatile regional security environment, due to measurable escalation in tensions at the Iran-Pakistan borders, the consequence of Islamist sectarian competition between Iranian Shiite and Pakistani Sunni militias for jihadist recruits.
FBI Arrests Pakistani Physician in MN on Charges of Support for IS Terror Attacks in US

March 24, 2020

The U.S. FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has arrested a Pakistani national working as a physician in Minnesota (MN) for attempted material support for Islamic State ("IS"), including his messages to an FBI informant about wanting to perpetrate lone wolf attacks on the American homeland and his recent moves to travel to fight with jihadists in Syria.
U.S. Justice Department Requires Turkish Television to Register as Foreign Agent

March 24, 2020

The US Department of Justice ("DOJ") has compelled Turkish Radio and Television Corporation ("TRT") to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act ("FARA"), signaling the DOJ’s recognition that the dissemination of information constitutes political activity on behalf of the Turkey’s Islamist regime.
US Blacklists New IS Leader in Ongoing Push to Prevent Caliphate Resurgence

March 24, 2020

The current leader of the Islamic State (IS), known to have led the violent cleansing of religious minorities in northwest Iraq, has been registered as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department, in a move aimed at underscoring Washington’s commitment to a “whole of government“ approach to crushing any IS resurgence.
Jihadists Target Energy-Rich East Africa, With Focus on Mozambique

March 18, 2020

Various jihadist groups are ratcheting up their three-year trendline of attacks on energy extraction and processing operations East Africa, particularly targeting Mozambique, the region’s emerging leader in natural gas resources and liquefaction.
British Court Find Islamist Guilty of Manchester Arena Terrorist Attack

March 18, 2020

A British court handed down a guilty verdict for one of the Libyan Islamist extremist perpetrators of the terrorist attack at the 2017 concert in the United Kingdom’s Manchester Arena.
Experts Say Nigeria’s Boko Haram Leads Jihadists in Forcible Conscription of Women for Islamist Violence

March 16, 2020

According to international and regional terrorism experts, Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown Islamist extremist group whose operations are now spread across West Africa, is leading jihadist groups in the recruitment and forcible conscription of women and girls for Islamist violence.