Violence and Security

Iranians Protest Authoritarianism of Islamic Republic in Aftermath of Downing of Civilian Aircraft

January 13, 2020

Nationwide protests continued across Iran, calling for resignation of the Islamist regime’s supreme religious leader in the aftermath of the regime’s admission that it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian International Airlines civilian flight.
Reducing Hezbollah's Capacity for Islamist Terrorism Depends on Disrupting Their Criminal Networks

January 13, 2020

Empirical evidence from the US Drug Enforcement Agency underscores that Hezbollah's capacity for funding and executing Islamist ideological diffusion and terrorism depends on disrupting the Shiite Islamist extremist group's globalized network of criminal activities.
Nader: Islamic Theocracy of Iran Remains Strategic Issue

January 06, 2020

Writing in The HIll, Alireza Nader opines that, despite the US drone strike that killed Iranian General Soleimani, the Iranian theocratic regime is larger than a single individual and the core strategic question of the regime's durability and direction remains unresolved.
Rights Groups Charge Iran with Killing Hundreds in November Protests Against Islamist Regime

January 03, 2020

A group of well-respected human rights groups concur that Iran's Islamist regime killed between 300 to 1500 civilians during a two-week period in November 2019 when the country was rocked by popular protests against the economic failures and cultural repression imposed by the country's Islamic theocratic government.
Central Africa's Security Environment Deteriorates Under Assaults by Islamist Extremists

January 03, 2020

The regional security environment in West Africa continues to deteriorate because of the operations of Islamist extremists, evidenced in the recent murder of 18 civilian villagers by jihadist militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant force active in neighboring Uganda.
US Conducts Preemptive Strike on IRCG Head Who Masterminded Shiite Islamist Expansion

January 03, 2020

The US Secretary of Defense confirmed that yesterday’s drone strike killing General Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force (IRGC), as well as of senior leadership in pro-Iran militia active in Iraq, was a preemptive strike against plans for the IRGC to attack American military and diplomatic personnel across the Mideast.
Taliban Ratcheted Up 2019 Lethal Attacks on US Troops in Afghanistan To Five-Year Peak

January 01, 2020

Deaths of US military personnel in Afghanistan by Taliban attacks reached a five-year peak in 2019, as the Islamist group intensified its jihadist operations in an effort to get the US to quit Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Qatar-Turkey Alliance Broadens Transnational Islamist Extremism, Threatens US Strategic Interests

December 31, 2019

Competition for leadership of global Islamism between a Saudi-Emirati alliance versus a Turkish-Qatari axis has intensified over the past two years, with the latter relationship making measurable gains in the global expansion of Islamic Brotherhood-style Islamist ideology, illegal economic activities, and Islamist insurgencies and terrorist activities, all of which, according to a new report by Washington think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, constitute strategic threats to US strategic interests, given America’s reliance on Ankara and Doha for military operations in Eurasia and Africa.
Shiite Protestors Breach US Embassy Compound in Iraq as US-Iran Tensions Escalate

December 31, 2019

Evidencing escalated US-Iran tensions, Shiite Islamist protestors loyal to the Iranian-backed Kataeb Hezbollah Brigades breached the security perimeter at the US Embassy compound in Baghdad following US retaliatory strikes against Shiite militia who attacked US military and civilian personnel in Iraq.
Turkish Police Detain IS Suspects to Preempt New Year’s Eve Attack

December 31, 2019

Turkish police have detained more than 100 people suspected of ties to the Islamic State (IS) network, a security move to prevent a repetition of the 2017 New Year’s Eve attack by an IS sympathizer who murdered 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub.