al-Qaeda

In a chilling assault that underlines the enduring complexities and human toll of the Syrian conflict, jihadists from the Ansar al-Tawhid and Turkestan Islamic Party groups, both affiliated with the larger extremist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), executed a coordinated attack in Syria’s Idlib province, leaving at least 11 soldiers dead, 20 wounded, and revealing a disturbing nexus of extremist affiliations amidst an ongoing international crisis.

Understanding non-state actors helps decode global conflicts. Like unpredictable weather, they influence the dynamics of international relations.

US Special Forces soldier “Randy” gets a little heated with a suspected al-Qaeda supporter in Narizah, Afghanistan, 2002.

Against a backdrop of political upheaval, military coups, and the threat of jihadist extremism, Niger finds itself at a critical juncture, with regional and international actors needing to work in unison to address the complex challenges, including the underlying socio-economic issues contributing to instability.

An explanation of our unforgivable dumping of Afghanistan after 20 years…

Russia’s Wanger Group, a Russian-backed private military contractor has left its bloody boot prints all over Africa. Now an Al Qaeda group in Mali claims to have killed four members of the Wagner Group in battle.

Earlier this week, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the region, claimed they killed four Wagner mercenaries during an ambush in central Mali.

For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that Zawahiri is dead. The world is a better place without him. If that is the case, what was he doing living in downtown Kabul, a city of almost four and a half million people?

Ayman al-Zawahri, one of the key leaders who helped plot the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, was killed by a US drone strike.

A Former CIA targeting officer with experience on the ground in Libya offers her thoughts on the prospect of a third civil war in Libya.

In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in Operation Neptune Spear in Pakistan. Here are some of the weird things they found in his compound.

Award-winning author Toby Harnden has written a riveting account of the very first days of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that followed the September 11th Attacks in 2001. Harnden’s book, “First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA to Avenge 9/11,” relies extensively on personal interviews with the particpants of these early battles to overthrow Taliban control of Afghanistan.