Al Nusrah Front releases video, photos from battle against Hezbollah
The Al Nusrah Front reportedly launched attacks on a number of Hezbollah outposts yesterday. The group has released a video and pictures from one of its raids.
The Al Nusrah Front reportedly launched attacks on a number of Hezbollah outposts yesterday. The group has released a video and pictures from one of its raids.
Omar Khalid al Khorasani, a top leader in Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, offered to help mediate the dispute between the Islamic State and the Al Nusrah Front and other jihadist rivals.
Yesterday’s ambush in Gao is the worst attack on UN forces since they took over security responsibilities in the summer of 2013.
The Islamic State carried through on its threat to execute British aid worker Alan Henning, and said former US Army Ranger Peter Edward Kassig is next.
Both the Taliban and Junood al Fida, a jihadist group loyal to the Taliban and al Qaeda, have claimed that the Registan district in the southern Kandahar province has fallen to the jihadists. Afghan officials quickly denied the claim as “exaggerated.”
The Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, an umbrella group that includes the al Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al Sharia, has launched a coordinated attack on forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar.
The Al Nusrah Front continues to use its Lebanese hostages in its propaganda campaign against Iran and Hezbollah.
The Islamic State raised the black flag of jihad in Hit and attacked military headquarters in Ramadi and at Al Asad Airbase in the latest phase of its offensive to consolidate control of Anbar province.
Jihadist ideologues, including several who have backed al Qaeda against the Islamic State, have proposed a truce between the rival factions in Syria. The initiative is similar to the calls made by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, both of which have urged the jihadists to unite against the “Crusader” West.
Nasser bin Ali al Ansi, an AQAP leader, is featured in a new video calling on rival jihadists in Iraq and Syria to unite against their common enemies. Al Ansi says the jihadists should form a “coalition” to strike America.
A senior al Qaeda leader known as Sanafi al Nasr has tweeted that Muhsin al Fadhli was killed in the bombing raids in Syria last week. Both Nasr and al Fadhli are part of the so-called “Khorasan group.” Al Fadhli may have been killed, but his death has not been confirmed. And there are sound reasons to treat Nasr’s tweets with skepticism.
The Islamic State seized or destroyed at least one M1 Abrams tank, four M113 armored personnel carriers, 15 Iraqi Army Humvees, a BMP infantry fighting vehicle, and other trucks.
Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen’s founder and leader, signed Osama bin Laden’s infamous 1998 fatwa that declared war on the US and Israel. HUM was added to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations 18 years ago.
The Islamic State was able to destroy an Iraqi armored column near Ramadi in Anbar province, as well as take over an Iraqi police checkpoint.
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the newest branch of al Qaeda’s international network, has released a nine-page statement giving its version of the attacks on two Pakistani frigates on Sept. 6. AQIS claims that all of the operatives, except one, were “serving officers in the Pakistani Navy.”
Abu Muhammad al Julani seeks to undermine public support for airstrikes in Syria by arguing that citizens in the West, and not just their rulers, will pay the price for the war. Julani also discusses Al Nusrah’s fight against Hezbollah and urges jihadists not to join the West in the fight against the Islamic State.
The US has not launched a drone strike in South Waziristan since mid-April 2013.
The strike, the second in two days, took place in a northern province where top al Qaeda leaders have been targeted and killed in the past.
A senior al Qaeda official known as Abu Dujana al Basha urges jihadists not to join the Islamic State, a former branch of al Qaeda that was disowned by al Qaeda’s senior leaders in February.
Arabic media reports claim that two al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leaders were killed in a US drone strike in Shabwa province yesterday. One was reported to have been “rehabilitated.”
One of the first reported casualties of the US-led bombing campaign earlier this week was an Al Nusrah Front commander known as Abu Yusuf al Turki. He had been training al Qaeda snipers in Syria. He was previously suspected of plotting to attack the 2004 NATO summit in Turkey.
The threat posed by al Qaeda remains today. The “Khorasan group” is merely al Qaeda in Syria.
The Treasury Department targeted six al Qaeda financiers and facilitators yesterday. Their work spans the globe, covering more than 10 nations from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
US drones targeted AQAP fighters in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province for the second time in since Sept. 11.
“There is no need for such strikes,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, condemning the attack “as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The Islamic State organized and successfully executed the large-scale assault despite six weeks of continuous US air operations in Iraq.
Islamic State military leader Omar al Shishani and ’emir of suicide bombers’ Tariq Bin Al Tahar Bin Al Falih Al ‘Awni Al Harzi were among five members of the group added to the terrorism list today.
An al Qaeda leader known as Sanafi al Nasr is a part of the so-called “Khorasan group,” which was dispatched to Syria by Ayman al Zawahiri. Like another member of the group, Nasr was once the head of al Qaeda’s Iran-based network.
Four of the al Qaeda operatives designated by the State Department have supported the jihad in Syria. One of them may be tied to a key leader in the so-called “Khorasan Group,” which was planning attacks in the West. A fifth al Qaeda veteran designated today was sent to Libya by Ayman al Zawahiri in 2011.
The US added the Chechen-led Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar and the Moroccan-led Harakat Sham al Islam, as well as Murad Margoshvilli, the leader of the Junud al Sham, to the list of Specially Designated Global terrorists. The Margoshvilli and the two terror groups are closely tied to al Qaeda in Syria.