U.S. special operations troops are a crucial element of the fight against terrorism.
AP Photo/Wally Santana
Sending specially trained operatives into hostile territories dates back to Colonial days. In the past decade, special operations forces have become central to America’s counterterrorism efforts.
Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is the most dangerous and sophisticated offshoot of the terror group Osama bin Laden founded in Afghanistan in 1988.
AP Photo/Hani Mohammed
Bin Laden’s extremist group had less than a hundred members in September 2001. Today it’s a transnational terror organization with 40,000 fighters across the Middle East, Africa and beyond.
The Trump administration has declared Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a government security agency, to be ‘terrorists.’
REUTERS/Stringer
A terrorism expert exposes the quirks, inconsistencies and foreign policy strategy behind the State Department’s terrorist watchlist.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka bombings – a clear signal the group is reforming in other parts of the world after its defeat in Syria and Iraq.
M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA
The deadly Sri Lanka attacks show a return to the coordinated, sophisticated strikes employed by al-Qaeda in the 2000s, focusing on soft targets with vulnerable institutions.
A U.S.-backed Syrian soldier reacts as an airstrike hits territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, in February 2019. The Islamic State group has been reduced from its self-proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq at its height in 2014 to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Only by prosecuting extremists will the world be able to marginalize those who carry out violent acts and those who give credence to their ideas.
In 2017 US President Donald Trump intensified the use of drones in Somalia.
EPA/Lt-col Leslie Pratt
Drones are a tool to manage the threat of al-Shabaab, but there’s no way they’ll defeat the group entirely.
A person lights a candle to remember the victims of the Madrid train bombings in 2004. About 200 people were killed and over 1,800 were injured in a series of commuter train bombings in the Spanish capital March 11, 2004.
(AP Photo/Denis Doyle)
There is a common misconception in the West that leaders of al-Qaida and ISIS are recruiting and brainwashing people into giving up their lives for the Jihad. This is an incorrect model.
Muslim protesters in India marching against the Islamic State after the 2015 terror attacks in Paris.
Divyakant Solanki/EPA
Sensationalist media coverage serves the Islamic State’s objective by pitting Muslims and non-Muslims against one another.
Canadian troops arrive to a UN base in Gao, Mali, on in June 2018, amid an insurgency by jihadist and ethnic rebel groups. Canada has yet to impose sanctions on the African country because it lacks names to target for asset freezes and other measures.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The federal government has set aside $22.2 million to develop and co-ordinate sanctions while educating Canadians about their obligations. Where to start is the first question.
The World Trade Center burns after being hit by planes in New York Sept. 11, 2001.
Reuters/Sara K. Schwittek
An unprecedented onslaught from the US hasn’t destroyed the terrorist organization. What is the secret of its resilience?
Iraqis carry the picture of three men who were kidnapped and executed by Islamic State during a funeral procession in Karbala, southern Iraq, in June 2018.
EPA-EFE/FURQAN AL-AARAJI
The wars against Islamic State and al-Qaida show that military responses may seem to work in the short term but don’t change much in the long run.
Mubin Shaikh, a Toronto-born de-radicalization expert, speaks during a counter-terrorism event in Germany in May 2015.
U.S. Army
No country is immune to terrorism, but de-radicalizing people who have been attracted to terrorist organizations like ISIS can work.
A nine-year-old boy plays on his damaged street in Mosul, Iraq in this July 2017 photo. U.S.-backed forces have wrested Mosul from the Islamic State, and the terrorist group lost Raqqa, in northern Syria, last month. Nonetheless the Islamic State is using virtual information sessions to keep its members committed to the cause.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Despite the fact that the Islamic State is on the run, the terrorist group still manages to inspire, motivate and maintain the social identity and cohesion of its members. Here’s how.
Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer
An unprecedented onslaught from the US hasn’t destroyed the terrorist organization. What is the secret of its resilience?
Police after the London Bridge attack on June 4, 2017.
REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Anti-terrorism policy is too often adopted based on very small sets of data – and fear.