Al Qaeda’s newly formed entity, the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims, have perpetrated a multitude of attacks in Mali and elsewhere in West Africa this year. This represents a major security threat for the region.
The bombing was the first claimed attack in months for the Islamic State forces inside Somalia.
As the siege continues into its second day, thousands of civilians have been forced to flee and martial law has been declared inside Marawi city.
The clashes are currently ongoing, but pictures circulating online appear to show jihadist forces openly moving about the city. At least one policemen is reported killed and five soldiers wounded so far.
At least a dozen females and another five males have been used in suicide attacks so far this month. The rate of which females are used in this tactic remain on pace to quadruple in 2017 compared to last year.
Yesterday’s mortar barrage comes just a week after a similar incident left one UN peacekeeper dead. Al Qaeda’s forces in Mali continue to retain the ability to strike foreign forces across the country’s north.
The suicide assault left at least seven dead, another 17 wounded, and a further 16 missing. This comes just a week after another eight Malian troops were killed in an ambush in southern Mali.
The suicide bombings show the Turkistan Islamic Party’s close battlefield integration with al Qaeda’s forces in Syria, as well as further highlighting its position within the overall al Qaeda network.
Salahadin al Uzbeki, a veteran of the jihad in Afghanistan and leader of the Taliban-loyal Katibat Imam al Bukhari, has reportedly been assassinated by an “Islamic State infiltrator” in Idlib.
The photos confirm the report released last week that while it withdrew from a Malian base after French intervention, it captured large amounts of weapons and equipment.
The al Qaeda branch claimed a massive IED attack on a military convoy in Puntland, as well as shelling a military base in southern Somalia that also reportedly hosts US troops.
The attacks targeted Malian troops, UN peacekeepers, and Bambara militiamen. In one coordinated assault in the Timbuktu region, it also clashed with French forces.
Despite a relative lull in the use of females in suicide bombings in 2016 compared to 2015, West Africa is currently seeing a significant uptick in the use of females so far in 2017.
The suicide bombing targeted Somalia’s newly appointed chief of defense forces near the defense ministry headquarters in Mogadishu. At least 15 people were killed, but the Somali general escaped the assassination attempt.
The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), al Qaeda’s new group in West Africa, claimed an ambush on French troops in central Mali near the borders with Burkina Faso. Additionally, it also claimed launching Grad rockets into a French base in northern Mali.
AQIM’s Uqba bin Nafi battalion claimed an IED blast on Tunisian troops close to the Algerian border. This is the second claim in two months for the jihadist group.
An ethnic Nogai group from the North Caucasus recently showed some of its fighters training in northern Syria. A group of the same name exists in the Caucasus Emirate, but it remains to be seen if this the same unit.
The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, al Qaeda’s newly formed entity in West Africa, claimed a series of attacks today. One claim discussed its role in the recent communal violence between Fulani herders and Bambara farmers in central Mali.
The suicide bombing, which killed at least 10 people, occurred just 150 meters from Villa Somalia, Somalia’s presidential palace in Mogadishu.
Earlier this month, four al Qaeda groups in West Africa merged to form the “Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims.” Its constituent organizations launched more than 250 attacks across the region in 2016, a significant increase in the jihadists’ operational tempo from the previous year.
Ansar Jihad, a small al Qaeda-linked group comprised of Central Asians and Turkish fighters, has released another video of its training camps in northwestern Syria.
This marks at least the second time a French fighter has been killed alongside the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria.
A Uighur commander known as Abu Omar al Turkistani was killed in a US drone strike in Syria on Jan. 1. According to a jihadi biography posted online, he had a lengthy career fighting alongside al Qaeda-linked forces. He purportedly participated in the Battle of Tora Bora in late 2001.
Katibat Imam al Bukhari, which also operates in Syria alongside al Qaeda’s forces there, claims that four Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack.
It is the Islamic State’s first major operation in Puntland since it captured the town of Qandala last October.
The Caucasus Emirate in Syria has previously shown its forces partaking in battles in Aleppo, but it is now detailing fighting in Idlib Province.
Shabaab’s deadly raid on a Kenyan Defense Forces base in southern Somalia last week comes just over a year after a similar assault left at least 100 Kenyan soldiers dead.
Shabaab’s suicide assault teams continue to prove its ability to strike popular hotels in heavily fortified areas of Mogadishu.
The suicide bombing, which left at least 50 people dead, is one of the largest terrorist attacks in Mali’s history.
With at least 257 al Qaeda-linked attacks in Mali and its neighboring countries, this represents a significant uptick in the al Qaeda-led insurgency in northern Mali in recent years.