U.S. designates ISIS-supporting brothers based in Turkey
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced a new round of counterterrorism designations targeting the Islamic State’s support networks in Turkey, Afghanistan and the Gulf.
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced a new round of counterterrorism designations targeting the Islamic State’s support networks in Turkey, Afghanistan and the Gulf.
Shabaab claims this is the first time the organization has grabbed territory in Somaliland.
In exchange for two kidnapped U.S. and Australian professors, the Afghan government freed dangerous Taliban and Haqqani Network leaders Haji Malik Khan, Anas Haqqani, and Qari Abdul Rasheed Omari.
Security in the southeastern Afghan province of Zabul continues to deteriorate as the Taliban presses it offensive there.
Amadou Kouffa, the leader of JNIM’s Katibat Macina, has been designated as a global terrorist by the US State Department.
Abu Abdul Rahman al Sanhaji’s death, if confirmed, follows the death of several other high-profile JNIM leaders over the past two years.
Friday’s assault marks the Islamic State’s deadliest attack in Mali to date.
Yesterday’s tweets were the first sign of life for the group in over four years.
The Islamic State’s latest spokesman, a jihadist known as Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, released a statement yesterday confirming Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death in an American raid and naming a new emir for the group. Baghdadi’s successor is a figure known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.
The photo marks the first sign of life for the group since 2017 and the first official publication since 2015.
The White House announced earlier today that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, has been killed during a raid in Syria’s Idlib province. Under his leadership, the Islamic State grew into an international terrorist menace.
Two statements, which were released by al Qaeda’s general command and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were addressed to Shabaab yesterday in a coordinated messaging campaign.
The bombing came as Turkey also shelled the city. It is likely that as the Turkish advance continues, the Islamic State will further exploit the chaos inside northern Syria to regroup and conduct more attacks.
The rising of Islamic State sleeper cells could become more common as the Kurdish-dominated SDF is diverted to the newly announced Turkish invasion of northern Syria.
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security claims it has confirmed that Asim Umar, the emir of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, was killed during a Sept. 23 raid in Helmand province. Other key AQIS leaders were also killed in the fighting.
Eleven Taliban leaders have been reportedly exchanged for three kidnapped Indian engineers. One of the newly-freed Taliban commanders is Abdul Rashid Baluch. The US designated Baluch as a terrorist in 2015, reporting that he “served as a Taliban liaison officer to al Qaeda (AQ) and was responsible for planning meetings between Taliban senior leadership” and al Qaeda “members in Karachi, Pakistan.”
In 2001, Omar was unwavering in his position that the Taliban was religiously obligated to protect Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda cadre. The Taliban has remained true to Omar’s words, and fought an 18 year long war to defend the terror group.
No group has yet to claim the attacks, but al Qaeda-linked militants have been widely blamed.
Shabaab, just days after launching assaults on US and Italian troops, has now also claimed two IEDs on a US-trained Somali special forces unit.
The Taliban continues to use rural areas it controls to threaten major population centers, including provincial capitals.
No casualties were reported in either attack, however.
Yemen’s Houthis claim that the operation is the largest in nearly four years of conflict with Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Not only does the Taliban reject democracy in Afghanistan, it is opposed to it worldwide. Given the Taliban’s clear and consistent views on the “evils” of democracy and all Muslim’s religious obligation to resit it, it is absolute folly for the State Department to attempt to appeal to the Taliban to permit elections to take place.
Afghan officials have identified several AQIS members who were killed during a controversial raid in Musa Qala, Helmand earlier this week. They have also posted images purportedly documenting the weaponry, explosives and cash seized at the jihadists’ compound.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has repeatedly made it absolutely clear that the aim of this Jihad is the end of occupation and establishment of an Islamic government,” the Taliban says in a recent statement.
On Sept. 19, Thomas Joscelyn testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at a hearing titled, “The Trump Administration’s Afghanistan Policy.” His testimony focused on the close working relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
U.S. and Afghan officials say they targeted al Qaeda members in Musa Qala, a Taliban-controlled district in the southern Helmand province. Reports indicate that dozens of civilians perished during the clash that ensued.
The U.S. military killed eight Islamic State fighters yesterday in the first recorded airstrike against the group in more than one year.
One of the attacks, in Parwan province, targeted an election rally while President Ghani was speaking. The Taliban has warned civilians to stay away from election sites.
In a newly-released audio message, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi boasts that his Islamic State has conducted “unified raids” across the globe this year. Many of these operations were conducted by the Islamic State’s wilayat, or provinces,