The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), al Qaeda’s branch for West Africa, has publicized its da’wah (proselytizing) activities in local communities in Mali and Burkina Faso. Photos released by the group document its men delivering religious lectures to locals in the southern Mali region of Kayes and Burkina Faso along the border with Niger. Read more →
Three years after the fall of Afghanistan, American politicians, policymakers, generals, and foreign policy "experts" can’t admit we lost the war. If they did, they would have to own their role in that failure. Read more →
The United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reports that "the bonds are close" between the Afghan Taliban and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban trains at Al Qaeda camps and has received high-tech weapons systems from the Afghan Taliban Read more →
Over the last few days, jihadis have mounted two attacks inside prisons in Somalia and Niger. While the mutiny inside the Nigerien prison was successful, the Somali prison assault appears to have been thwarted. Nonetheless, both incidents highlight the lingering threat of jihadi prison breaks on the continent and the importance jihadist groups put on such operations. Read more →
The United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reports that Al Qaeda is operating training camps in two new Afghan provinces: Kandahar and Takhar. The terrorist group now operates training camps in 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Additionally, the Monitoring Team notes that Al Qaeda “still uses Afghanistan as a permissive haven under the Taliban.” Read more →
Shabaab's video, which demonstrates its new so-called 'special forces' training center, is eerily similar to productions put out by the Afghan Taliban before it took over Afghanistan. Read more →
Hamza al Ghamdi is a legacy Al Qaeda leader who fought alongside Osama bin Laden against the Soviets, led bin Laden's bodyguard, organized terror attacks in Tajikistan in the 1990s, and fought at the battle of Tora Bora. He is currently a member of Al Qaeda's shura, or executive leadership council. Ghamdi is likely based in Afghanistan or Iran. Read more →
Sayf al-Adl, who is thought to be al Qaeda’s current leader, calls on supporters around the world to migrate to Afghanistan to gain training, experience, and knowledge before undertaking attacks against so-called “Zionist” and Western targets around the world. Read more →
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former Special Repressive for Afghanistan Reconciliation and the key architect of the Doha Agreement, continues to maintain that the Taliban "dismantled" Al Qaeda, despite evidence to the contrary from the UN and CENTCOM. Read more →
Shabaab continues to undo progress made against it in central Somalia; the United States continues to go after its financials and conducting periodic drone strikes against its forces. Read more →
Al Qaeda continues to build its network and infrastructure in Afghanistan after the fall of the Afghan government. Al Qaeda opened eight new training camps, five madrasas, a weapons depot and safe houses in Afghanistan that are used to facilitate the movement of its members to and from Iran. Read more →
Three Shabaab members were killed in what U.S. Africa Command described as a "collective self-defense airstrike" in the Lower Juba region. Shabaab, Al Qaeda's branch in East Africa, remains a dangerous threat. Read more →
Bill is joined by Stu Velasco and Zach Popp of The Boardwalk Podcast (also hosted by Kyle Reynolds who couldn't make it, shoutout Kyle Reynolds) to discuss the trials and tribulations of their time in service to the U.S. during the long war. Read more →
In a slight detour from our Israel coverage, Bill and Caleb are joined by counterterrorism expert Sara Harmouch to discuss her recent article that sounds like it was written for Long War Journal but was actually written for War on the Rocks, called "Al-Qaeda: A Defeated Threat? Think Again." They debunk the latest example of President Biden's insistence that al Qaeda no longer has a presence in Afghanistan and discuss how U.S. rejection of intelligence is neither new nor at odds with its dangerous habit of disconnecting dots pertaining not least of all to al Qaeda. Read more →
Al-Qaeda's General Command, or its central leadership, called on Muslims to attack American, European, and Israeli institutions, interests, and embassies around the world. Additionally, it called on Muslims in the West to strike from within. Read more →
Mahad Karate, a senior official and a deputy emir of Shabaab, al-Qaeda's branch for East Africa, again named several al-Qaeda leaders present in Mogadishu during the infamous 'Black Hawk Down' incident in 1993. Read more →
Abukar Ali Adan, the deputy leader of Shabaab, Al Qaeda's branch in East Africa, is a dangeorus commander who has led the group's military wing and has ties to other Al Qaeda branches in African and on the Arabian Peninsula. Read more →
After nearly two decades of abysmal assessments from U.S. intelligence officials and policy makers on Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the latest claims that the terror group is "at its historical nadir" should be taken with more than a grain of salt. Read more →
The Afghan people continue to suffer as the Taliban consolidates its power. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s support for Al Qaeda, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and a number of regional terror groups grows. Read more →
Bill is again joined by Generation Jihad regular Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown to discuss the latest report from the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (which Edmund previously led). Released on July 25, 2023, the Team's thirty-second report provides an update on al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Bill and Edmund unpack findings, discuss a few highlights, and also explain some points of disagreement. Read more →