Group items tagged

Modern Islamic militancy is varied and complex. Al-Qaeda is as much an ideology or a set of values as a single organisation led by a single leader. The values and ideas, the 'wants', of militants are very varied. Recent Islamic militants have shown many different motivations.

Caucasus Emirate is another al Qaeda-linked group that is fighting in Syria, Aleppo more specifically. I was surprised by how much detail was divulged by the group about their role in the fighting.

According to the article, Al Qaeda has taken advantage of the chaos going on in Yemen. With Saudi Arabia preoccupied with the Houthis, the terrorist organization has captured a military base, stolen more than $1 million from a Yemeni bank, and freed prisoners from a prison in Mukalla.

The article is over the 4th US drone attack in 2015. 4 suspected terrorists were killed in the Hadramawt province in Yemen.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants have shelled the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 16 people and injuring 86, state news agency SANA reports, as the fragile ceasefire is being threatened by resurging violence. A source at Aleppo police command told SANA on Monday that shells fired by al-Nusra fighters landed in Aleppo's al-Sulaimaniyeh neighborhood, claiming lives of four, three of them children, and injuring 19 others, many in critical conditions.

Ayman al-Zawahiri must have awoke to the news of Bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011 with the excitement of soon being al Qaeda's global leader followed shortly by the anxiety of leading an organization and associated jihadi movement in sharp decline.

Tunisia will take delivery of eight Black Hawk attack helicopters from the United States to help it in the fight against al-Qaeda. There are going to be useful to carry troops and launch attacks. The rise in Islamist has reached an extreme since the revolution that ousted veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

US intelligence cites AQAP as the most globally dangerous of all al-Qaeda's regional branches because of its proven ability to smuggle bombs on to planes bound for the West.

This article provides a detailed outline of the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria through the use of maps, charts, and photographs to allow readers to visualize areas where fighting is taking place. Several maps provide locations of ISIS controlled territory, locations of airstrikes, and locations of ISIS controlled oil refineries. It was really helpful to see different maps outlining this information because I often hear about this conflict on the radio or television programs and it can be hard to understand the scope of the conflict without any visual aids. I really appreciated the effort to show in detail the specific locations.

This article outlined the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq providing detailed maps, charts, and photos to present a more clear picture of where violence and air strikes are occurring.

This article touches on an array of ideas but for the sake of my research I focused on the "Thirty Years War" section. Douglass Murray from The Spectator conveys the perspective that the Middle East is likely to be going through a similar 17th century European 30 years war, when Protestant and Catholics launched a full fledged war against one another. This means that religious war in the Middle East is so much bigger than just al-Qaeda and similar groups. The conflict will re-align the region, but also the entire religion of Islam. Douglass says the outcome would call for a Treaty of Westphalia-style solution, redrawing boundaries of a region where they've been bursting for decades.  For the time being the drivers of the conflict is a standoff between the two regional powers and their affiliated proxies, Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

The U.S. should no long really solely on air-strikes to bring down the ISIS group in Syria but it needs other strategic plans. They need to work with the people in Syria and gain their support and trust in order to defeat ISIS.

Territorial control in Syria has changed many times since the country's uprising began more than three years ago and the current conflict is characterised by fluctuating frontlines. In particular, over the last few months, fighters from Islamic State (IS) - the extremist group that grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq - have been battling regime forces in new areas, clashing with other armed groups close to Damascus as well as invading Kurdish regions.

Former CIA deputy director Mike Morell, who also served a stint as acting director of Langley, is testifying before House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence today. The hearing focuses on the Obama administration's response to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

As the United States has closed its embassy and withdrawn its last troops, Yemen has slid into total chaos, with rebels and jihadists on both sides capturing military bases and seizing tanks and heavy weapons.

Three terrorists group have been working together.

Three terrorists group have been working together.

Three terrorists group have been working together.

This is a short YT video about the AQAP. It provides some background info about the group.

Step inside the lawless border between Afghanistan and Pakistan where foreigners are shot on site.

This article considers the Muslim Brotherhood to be the parent of all terrorist groups including ISIS. Even with the brotherhood denying these claims, news shows that a number of the elements in the brotherhood joined ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorists camps.

John Kerry has said that all alleged violations of the ceasefire in Syria will be investigated. Going forward, the US and Russia are working on ensuring that airstrikes only hit ISIS or al-Qaeda occupied areas.