
The Houthis launched drone and missile attacks on Yemeni forces and civilian infrastructure across three of Yemen’s governorates on August 6. The attacks have escalated fighting in the country while the Iran-backed terror group is simultaneously targeting Saudi Arabia and ships in the Red Sea.

Gen. Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), traveled to Iraq as Baghdad moves forward with legislation to place all weapons under state control. The visit came amid continued Iranian drone and missile attacks on Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.

In 2002, Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan national living in the United Kingdom, was arrested in northwest Pakistan after allegedly attempting to join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and was sent to the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Released in 2006 and sent to Uganda, Kiyemba has since been in and out of prison, most…

The US is losing leverage in Somalia as frustration with Mogadishu threatens critical African Union support and risks strengthening Al Shabaab’s hold. In Mali, renewed US airstrikes against JNIM raise a parallel concern—whether air power alone, without a ground strategy or political reform, can contain the group’s advance. Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss examine these…

North Korea is reportedly dispatching as many as 120 additional ballistic missiles to Ukraine as the embattled country searches for ways to destroy Russian missile launchers.

The Sudanese military’s recapture of the Al Sadarat highway marks its most significant success against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the fourth year of the Sudanese civil war. However, the RSF’s shift toward tribal mobilization and the growing role of foreign-backed drone warfare suggest the conflict’s broader cycle of adaptation and attrition will continue.

The Afghan United Front has emerged as the first major Pashtun-led resistance organization to launch operations against the Taliban. The group’s likely focus on operations in southern Afghanistan would expand resistance organizations’ historical focus in the country’s north.

Yemen’s Houthis claimed attacks on eight Saudi-linked vessels as well as energy facilities and an airport to enforce its blockade of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is reportedly pursuing a diplomatic path to de-escalate the conflict or military options if necessary.

Iraq faces mounting pressure to rein in the militias while balancing tensions with neighboring countries, the US, and Iran. The Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq has come under nearly 1,000 drone and missile attacks by Iran and its proxies since late February, underscoring the growing threat posed by Tehran’s network of militias.
Iraqi nationalist cleric Muqtada al Sadr announced that his militia, Saraya al Salam, will integrate into state security institutions. This development comes as Iraq’s new political leadership is navigating the issue of disarming Iran-backed militias.

Syria moved forward with another round of local elections on May 24 as the government seeks to strengthen its legitimacy and extend authority following years of conflict. The vote came as Damascus said it was working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to turn over remnants of the previous Assad regime’s chemical weapons program.

On May 28, Israel conducted its first strike in weeks targeting Beirut. The Israelis have yet to confirm it, but reporting indicates that the intended target was Ali al Hussaini, a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Forces’ Imam Hossein Division. This division, whose origins were in the Syrian Civil War, has been reinforcing Hezbollah throughout the conflict with Israel that began in October 2023.

During his message for Eid al Adha, Ali Mohamad Rage, Shabaab’s top spokesman, congratulated the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al Qaeda’s branch in West Africa, for its recent victories in Mali. Rage also praised Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and denounced American and Turkish activities in Somalia.

Hezbollah’s missiles may be depleted, but cheap FPV drones are changing the battlefield — slipping past defenses, targeting Israeli troops, and exposing a dangerous new vulnerability. Bill Roggio and David Daoud unpack Hezbollah’s drone evolution, the psychological warfare behind the footage, and why Israel may be drifting back toward the failed security zone dynamics of the past.

A car bombing in central Damascus on May 19 killed one soldier and wounded civilians, as Syrian forces conducted raids against suspected militants in Deir Ez Zor. Damascus is also advancing reconciliation efforts with Kurdish groups and pursuing international diplomatic engagement.

Before Hamas. Before Al Qaeda. Before the Islamic State. There was… the Muslim Brotherhood. And for nearly a century, it has played the long game by building influence across the Middle East and even deep inside the West. Bill Roggio is joined Edmund Fitton-Brown to discuss.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to promote a plan to move his country away from American foreign military financing, but that comes at a time when Israel’s military requirements are increasing, and it is already spending an extraordinary percentage of gross domestic product on defense.

The US military, “in coordination with the Armed Forces of Nigeria,” killed Abu Bilal al Minuki and several other senior Islamic State leaders in an operation in northeastern Nigeria. President Trump and US Africa Command described Minuki as the Islamic State’s second in command and director of global operations.

The Israeli military attacked an apartment in Gaza City, targeting Izz al Din al Haddad, Hamas’s leader in Gaza. Al Haddad is one of the last remaining senior members of Hamas who were responsible for the October 7 attack.

Israel is expanding civilian security preparedness in communities near the Gaza border through a new training program led by Magen 48, a non-profit civilian-led initiative, in cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces. The program, created after the October 7 Hamas attack, trains local volunteer armed response teams in tactics, medical support, and community defense.

A report alleging that Israel operated a secret military base in Iraq’s Najaf desert has sparked controversy and conflicting statements among Iraqi politicians and security forces. The report emerged amid sensitive political negotiations in Baghdad and broader tensions involving Iran-backed militias, Israel, the United States, and Iran.

Open-source information and commercially available facial recognition tools have identified three suspects— Amjad Qadoum, Yasir Samir, and Mustafa Shaheen—who were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel. Facial recognition tools and social media exploitation can yield verifiable identity data from the extensive footage recorded by the terrorists’ own devices.

Iran’s nuclear program is in ruins, but the threat is far from dead. Deputy Director of FDD’s Non-Proliferation Program Andrea Stricker and Bill Roggio dive into the desperate gamble Tehran is making at the negotiating table with the US — and the terrifying chemical contingency they might be holding in reserve.
