Violence and Security

ISIS Chemical Weapons Attacks Reported Against Kurds

August 14, 2015

Growing evidence is emerging that jihadi fighters of the Islamic State ("IS") have used chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters in ISIS's campaign to expand the territory of its caliphate.
Globalization of Islamist Terror Groups Presents Complex Threats to US Security Homeland Security

August 13, 2015

US counterterrorism officials concur that the globalization of the two major Islamist terror groups, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State ("IS"), presents complex challenges for effective homeland security policy, especially in terms of combating "mass casualty" attacks and "crowdsource" recruitment for jihadi events, as well as staunching income streams generated from IS oil revenues and al-Qaeda black-market activities.
Prominent British Islamist Charged with Supporting Caliphate

August 10, 2015

Anjem Choudary, the prominent British Muslim extremist preacher who has publicly lauded terrorist attacks against Western countries and has cooperated with radical Islamist groups inside the United Kingdom, has been formally charged with inciting support for the Islamic State's jihad to create a global caliphate.
Tunisia's Fragile Democracy Faces Growing Radical Islamist Threat

August 10, 2015

The fragile democratization process in Tunisia faces increasing threats from aggressive recruitment by radical Islamist terror groups, exacerbated by domestic economic malaise and blowback from the government's security crackdown against Islamist extremism.
Europe Faces a Radical Islamist Threat in Bosnia

August 10, 2015

International security experts point to Saudi Arabia's cultivation of extremist Islamist ideas and religious leaders in Bosnia dating to the 1990s, plus the country's economic malaise and fractured security institutions, as cause for concern in Europe about the steady growth of Islamist terrorism in Bosnia.
Islamist Extremists Abduct More Mideast Christians in Ongoing Jihad in Syria

August 10, 2015

Islamic State ("IS") forces have abducted dozens of Syrian Orthodox Christians from the recently captured strategic town of Qariyatain, continuing the jihadis' religious cleansing against Mideast Christianity.
US and Russia Seek Common Approach to Countering IS Threat

August 10, 2015

The United States and Russia are engaged in high-level discussions about the optimal approach to collaborating against the "common threat" of the Islamic State ("IS"), including cooperation with Mideast regional players in promoting a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Syria.
Islamic State Targets Saudi Mosque in Battle of Extremist Islamisms

August 10, 2015

Given that the Islamic State ("IS") has condemned the Wahhabi Islamist government of Saudi Arabia as an apostate tool of Western crusaders, IS's latest lethal suicide attack against a Saudi mosque signals the growing battle between the two extremist Islamist camps.
Islamic State Expands Caliphate Footprint

August 10, 2015

The forces of the Islamic State ("IS") captured a strategic town in southwest Syria, thereby enhancing the jihadis' operational capabilities and expanding the territorial footprint of their caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
Taliban Attacks Follow New Leader's Declaration of Islamic Holy War

August 10, 2015

Afghanistan's capital endured a wave of suicide bombing attacks by the Taliban, signaling the group's new leadership's commitment to renewed Islamic holy war to impose sharia law throughout the country.