By Gene E. Blanton, who is currently embedded with the Multi-National Forces West Training Center in Habbaniyah. Support for Gene’s reporting was provided by Public Multimedia Inc. CAMP HABBANIYAH, AL ANBAR PROVINCE, IRAQ: In September 2005, when I told my wife, Shelia that I was going to be embedded with the 2nd Marine Division in […]
Naim Qassem delivered his second speech as Hezbollah’s secretary-general on the 40th day since Hassan Nasrallah’s passing. Qassem repeated many of the themes and claims from his previous speeches and stressed that Hezbollah will continue fighting.
Hezbollah launched a rocket attack on the Golan Heights on August 21, firing more than 50 projectiles at the Israeli community of Katzrin and nearby areas. The rockets caused significant damage and one injury in the town of 8,000 residents. In addition, Hezbollah carried out numerous other attacks on northern Israel, part of a recent escalation by the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day pause in fighting in which 50 hostages would be released by Hamas and 150 prisoners freed by Israel. The first three days of the deal went mostly as planned, and Israel and Hamas may agree to extend the deal for several more days. Israeli commanders and the Defense Minister vowed to continue the fight against Hamas when
Israel’s IDF began its first operation inside the Shifa hospital compound in Gaza. The hospital is a suspected command and control post for Hamas. Weapons were found and there was a brief battle with terrorists outside the hospital grounds. In addition other Israeli ground forces continued operations in neighborhoods near Gaza city.
Hamas held a press conference in English explaining why they train children and teenagers at their military summer camps.
Al-Qassam Brigades will hold its yearly summer camp for Gaza youth looking to learn basic military training.
After a momentous year in Baghdad, the top U.S. spokesman for the anti-ISIS Coalition discusses the importance of local media and languages, and how the battle today requires better tools to fight the information war as the US faces off against Russian, Iranian and ISIS propaganda.
The U.S.-Taliban withdrawal deal legitimized the Taliban’s refusal to recognize the Afghan government – and more ammo to continue walking the hard line it has drawn in refusing to engage directly in talks with the government.
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Afghanistan and Syria has long operated as part of the Taliban-al Qaeda axis. Earlier this year, however, the TIP’s Syrian branch sided with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) during its battles with other rebel groups. This infighting and related events have complicated the picture with respect to the TIP in Syria. One TIP-affiliated outlet claimed earlier this year that the group’s senior management had sent new leadership from Afghanistan to Syria.
While Katibat al Ghuraba al Turkistan (KGT) appears to be small, it is yet another group in northwestern Syria containing ethnic Uighurs.
Abdul Hakim al Tatari, a Russian Tatar member of the former Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, joined the Islamic State’s Wilayat Khurasan before migrating to Syria. He was later killed in the battles around Baiji, Iraq, just days after arriving to Islamic State-held territory.
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered the Old City of Raqqa after the coalition blew two holes in a historic wall the Islamic State was using as a defensive fortification. The SDF’s fighters first approached the Old City in mid-June, but the wall and heavy fighting in a nearby neighborhood impeded their advance. Meanwhile, an Australian jihadi is featured in a new propaganda video recorded in Raqqa.
CENTCOM announced today that “three senior foreign fighters” in the Islamic State were killed in recent weeks. Two of them were reportedly involved in the group’s “external operations” and one of them was a trainer in the “Cubs of the Caliphate” program, which indoctrinates youth. The third jihadist helped oversee the Islamic State’s use of small drones.
The US military has invested significant resources in battling the Islamic State in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the group controls areas in just four districts in Nangarhar.
The Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uighur jihadist group connected to al Qaeda, continues its long tradition of showing children trained for jihad.
Teen-aged boys are shown training at the “Cubs of the Caliphate Camp,” which is likely located in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
A video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat shows children training with various weapons, reading the Koran, practicing mathematics, and learning Sharia and Arabic.
Two children fire a howitzer towards Iraqi Security Force positions in the Baiji oil refinery. Prior to this video, the Islamic State has shown kids conducting and assisting in executions. They are part of the “Cubs of the Caliphate,” which is what the jihadist group calls those children it trains in various training camps in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State’s recruiting campaign uses sites like Kik, Twitter, and Tumblr to entice women into joining the jihad and to glorify life under the “caliphate.”
A media organization linked to Boko Haram, the jihadist group that controls large portions of northeastern Nigeria, has released images purporting to show children receiving weapons training.
Malaysia’s sharia law costs non-Muslims their kids
Residents and businesses are suffering from insecurity due to Shabaab attacks in the coastal province of Lamu; leaflets are circulating warning non-Muslims to leave. Foreign Secretary Mohammed said Kenya’s travel advisory warning Kenyans about the UK’s Heathrow airport due to the danger of al Qaeda terror attacks was not retaliatory; the UK had recently warned […]
Suspected Boko Haram militants blew up a bridge connecting Adamawa and Borno states, killed a number of people, and abducted a woman and her two children; on May 5, militants blew up a bridge that linked Nigeria to Chad. About 50 of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls were reportedly sighted in the Central African Republic last […]
Saudi authorities arrested two Saudi women who were attempting to cross into Yemen to join al Qaeda. Earlier this month, another Saudi woman, Arwa Baghdadi, also fled to Yemen to join her husband, imprisoned al Qaeda member Yassin Al Barakati. Last week the Special Court acquitted seven suspects accused of terrorism-related crimes including raising funds […]
Norway – Hundreds of immigrant kids sent abroad to study
İMKANDER held large rallies in several Turkish cities to praise Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate whose death was announced just last week.
Afghanistan – Boy Trained by Haqqanis Claims He Was Raped
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video yesterday claiming last week’s attacks in Benisheikh and a similar recent attack in Monguno Town in Borno state. In August, Nigerian authorities had said Shekau was killed in a shootout with soldiers. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot and killed a pastor and his two children, then set […]
Palestinian kids taught to hate Israel in UN-funded camps, clip shows