Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was a high-ranking member of ISIS and he was reportedly killed this week in Aleppo, Syria. The US had a bounty of $5 million on his head.
He confounded American commanders in Iraq and all but saved the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But until recently, few people outside of military circles knew the name of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. He's a public and popular figure in his home country now — and just as powerful as ever.
Two gunmen killed more than 20 people in Tunisia on Wednesday, shocking the country that many people have called the Arab Spring's only meaningful success story. And while most of the dead were tourists, a Tunisian journalist says locals are feeling the deaths strongly.
"Today, ISIS is running probably the most effective propaganda machine out there," says one analyst. But while ISIS may have the tools of activism down pat, it's far different from real activist movement in important ways.
The people of Amman have voted, and the city's sanitation workers will now don turquoise-colored jumpsuits rather than their old bright orange uniforms, which closely resemble the outfits ISIS hostages are forced to wear.
A major offensive against ISIS forces is under way in Iraq, and the Iraqi army is getting plenty of support from Iran and its Iraqi Shiite allies. One country that isn't getting involved, however, is the United States.
Last week, a group of ISIS fighters destroyed ancient statues and artifacts in the museum of Mosul. Iraqi government responded on Sunday by re-opening the Baghdad Museum, giving people in Baghdad their first glimpse of national treasures in more than a decade.
As many as 90 Assyrian Christians have been kidnapped from villages in northeastern Syria by ISIS fighters, and may become fodder for a prisoner exchange between the militants and the Kurdish rebels who are holding some jihadis captive.
Western recruits to ISIS are evolving new ways to reach the Syrian front lines, using "broken travel" to take circuitous roots to joining jihadi groups. Such tactics are making potential fighters even harder to spot for Europe's many intelligence agencies.
Here's a stark lesson in why many people want ISIS execution videos and images to be ignored: A group of children in Egypt was recently filmed re-enacting an ISIS-style beheading, showing just how much propaganda value such images can have.
An all-female group called al-Khanssaa Brigade has published a guide for women living under the rule of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, mandating veils, isolation and early marriages.