In an interview with Russian news agency Tass, former Afghan vice president Karim Khalili warned the Afghan Taliban that Shi’ite Muslims may join hands with other ethnic groups in Afghanistan to form a national resistance against the Taliban. Karim Khalili’s name has figured into the list of Afghan leaders likely …

Summary The central media apparatus of the Islamic State group is mis-reporting on the activities of its cells in central Syria. Rather than exaggerating their capabilities, something that it is conventionally assumed to be doing all the time,1 its Central Media Diwan appears either to be deliberately under-playing them, or, …

After 40 years, Syria once again has dual military rule, where the president and his brother are the highest authorities. In the early 1980s, Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, was the commander of the Defense Companies and the strong man in Syria in the military, security, and even …