The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), an al Qaeda-affiliated group that operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and Syria, has released photos showing its fighters with an American-made Humvee.
The two photos were released online via the TIP’s official Twitter account with the logo of its official media wing, Islam Awazi. In the tweet, the group noted the vehicle was one its “spoils” from recent fighting with the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). In the same line of tweets, the group also identified several fighters who were killed in battles with the ANSF.
TIP fighters have been killed by Coalition forces in Afghanistan and by US drone strikes in Pakistan in the past. A senior al Qaeda leader also eulogized Turkistan Islamic Party operatives killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2013. In Syria, the TIP operates alongside the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch there. At least two TIP fighters have launched suicide operations in support of Al Nusrah. The group also operates at least one training camp for children inside Syria.
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9 Comments
so are these Turkistani’s in Syria from Central Asia, Syria or Afghanistan? From which part of Afghanistan was this Humvee allegedly taken from? This Humvee could have just as easily come from Pakistani forces or have been purchased on the ‘Open Market.’
@Mike Merlo
The Turkistani’s in Syria are more likely to be residents of Turkey, where there are many ethnic Uighurs, who fled to Turkey from China. The humvee is probably taken in Afghanistan, somewhere in the isolated regions that border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
thanks for the feedback but I was ‘looking’ for something precise. The info you provided is already ‘there.’ The ‘diaspora’ of all the protagonists/antagonists is well documented
It’s high time for US and the rest of the civilized world to drop the gauntlet and tell Twitter, Inc.: “QUIT PROMOTING TERROR ! ! ! ”
If it were up to me, I’d pass a law making it a crime to promote terror. At the very least, laws should be passed making Twitter, Inc. (and many of these other social media sites) civilly liable to the victims and families of these terrorist attacks.
These thugs are nothing but a bunch of criminals, pedophiles and serial rapists. It’s a crime to put out child pornography. It ought to be the same when they use Twitter to encourage teenagers from Colorado to join them.
Twitter, the ‘servers’ of terrorism.
Likely, the vehicle was captured from the Afghan ANA. We have had a large FMS (Foreign Military Sales) program there for years.
James, you are mistaken.
Twitter shuts the various Islamist accounts down like crazy.
The reality is that setting up a FRESH Twitter account is a snap. They spread like small pox.
So what you have is Twitter on an endless campaign of whack-a-mole.
Federal statutes ALREADY prohibit the propagation of enemy propaganda — deemed aiding and abetting the enemy.
Not withstanding that line of thought, the NSA, et. al. just can’t resist the urge to ‘let it ride’ so that they can track down yet other ‘voices’ / nodes in the jihadi network.
It’s a task suitable for Sisyphus!
The problem is not Jihadist content on the Internet. The problem is the people who commit the actions seen in the content, and then the people who upload the content. The content itself is just a byproduct of our current state of affairs, and singularly focusing on it is a grave, amateur blunder.
I remember someone on another war blog way back put it best: It’s best to fix the overflowing toilet rather than constantly mopping up the floor.
“I remember someone on another war blog way back put it best: It’s best to fix the overflowing toilet rather than constantly mopping up the floor.”
True, until you notice there isn’t a plunger or snake around and you are faced with the prospect of stick your arm down the toilet.
There is no simple strategy, policy or effort that can end all this easily. And we have a bad habit of not bringing all our tools to the fight, whether it’s due to lack of foresight, political considerations or the lack of will.
I never claimed it was easy or simple, but something needs to be done. Tolerating a Jihadist enclave is unacceptable, especially when it is essentially a large swath of land which is used to commit atrocities and launch attacks against other people either locally, regionally or internationally. I have no illusions about how difficult and messy the situation is, but we’ve already seen what doing nothing gives us.