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Yahya Jammeh was born in 1969 in Kanilai in Gambia. In 1984, he entered gendarmerie and gradually made his way to the top, reaching the position of commander of the military police, a position which he held between 1991 and 1992. On 22 July 1994, he came to power following a coup d’état. A transitional government was subsequently established and lasted until 1996 when...

Now 47-year-old Abu Khuder (nom de guerre) has lived in the Netherlands since 2014. He was granted a temporary asylum permit there after fleeing Syria. In 2012, Abu Khuder stated in an interview for The Guardian that in the beginning of the conflict (2011), he worked as an officer in a Syrian border force, the Camel Corps. When the conflict erupted, he joined the Free...

Ahmed Hamdane Mahmoud Ayach El Aswadi was born on 15 April 1984 in Samarra, Iraq. In 2014, El Aswadi was imprisoned in Tikrit for terrorist acts. It was before the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked the city. He reportedly fled the prison where he was detained and left the city towards Erbil. A year later, in August 2015, he left Erbil for Turkey. After staying for two mon...

Rafiq Shahadah is a general of the Syrian armed forces, who served as adviser to President Bashar al-Assad on strategic issues and military intelligence. He was appointed head of military intelligence in July 2012. Since 2011 he has been targeted by European sanctions because of his supposed leadership of the military intelligence in charge of internal affairs in Dama...