Characteristics of Jihadist Terrorist Leaders: A Quantitative Approach

In June 2018 Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was killed in a drone strike. This attack can be seen as part of a decapitation strategy, which is frequently used by states. Often being perceived as a symbol of their organisation, jihadist terrorist leaders take important positions in their groups and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that counter-terrorism strategies often target the leadership of terrorist organisations. However, open source data provide only limited information on these leaders and what sets them apart from other members of their organisation. This Research Note brings together the fragmented information on 66 jihadist terrorist leaders in a new dataset, suggesting the existence of a set of common characteristics of jihadist terrorist leaders. Furthermore, when comparing leaders and followers, this study argues that, on the one hand they differ from them when it comes to religious background and criminal records. On the other hand, they are quite similar when it comes to characteristics such as education and socio-economic backgrounds. The most important finding, however, is that leaders tend to have substantial battlefield experience. Many of them have fought in Afghanistan. This suggests that Syria may become (or perhaps already has become) the breeding ground for a new generation of jihadist terrorist leaders.