Kurdish forces have entered the Iraqi town of Sinjar, which was seized by the Islamic State in August 2014. The offensive in Sinjar is part of a broader operation intended to disrupt the Islamic State’s supply lines running from Iraq into Syria.
With the help of Russian airstrikes, Bashar al Assad’s military and paramilitary allies have broken the Islamic State’s siege of the Kweiris air base in Aleppo province. Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militant organizations supported the Syrian military’s offensive.
In the midst of fighting between a Saudi-led coalition and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been able to capitalize on the chaos and gain territory in Yemen.
Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, the deputy leader of the so-called “High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate,” was accused by Human Rights Watch of inciting and supporting the murder of thousands of Afghans, mostly from the minority Shiite Hazara sect, after the Taliban seized Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998. He also sheltered Khairullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, one of five dangerous al Qaeda-linked Taliban leaders who were exchanged for US soldier Bowe Bergdahl.
The Islamic State’s Aleppo “province” has released a video congratulating its brothers in the Sinai “province” for downing a Russian airliner on October 31. The video is at least the fourth time that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash. The group has not provided evidence proving its culpability thus far, but Western officials say it is increasingly likely.
A brigadier general and a colonel from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed while fighting jihadists and rebels. Nine other IRGC members, including two lower-level officers, were also killed in Syria over the past three weeks.
In a newly released audio message, Ayman al Zawahiri calls for unity to “liberate” Jerusalem. Zawahiri argues that the jihadists must strike the West and build Islamic states in the Levant and Egypt in order to achieve this goal.
The Islamic State continues to harass Iraqi troops and Shiite militias around the central city of Samarra. Jihadists recently overran several areas near Samarra and deployed foreign suicide bombers during its assault.
UN representative Jan Kubis reportedly met with Muthanna Harith al Dari yesterday. The UN National Security Council’s Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee has accused Dari of funding al Qaeda in Iraq.
While most Shabaab attacks are located in the capital of Mogadishu or in the south, the jihadist group maintains the ability to launch operations in the country’s central regions.
Sayyid al Shuhada said it would “strike and destroy” Saudi interests, not just in Iraq, but inside the kingdom. The militia, which operates as part of the Iraqi government, Iran, and the US-backed Popular Mobilization Committee, is led by Abu Mustafa al Sheibani, a dangerous commander who is listed by the US as a global terrorist.
Three jihadist groups have formed Jund al Malahim (“Soldiers of the Epics”), a joint operations room opposed to the Assad regime and Russian forces in the Ghouta region of Damascus.
Torek Agha is “a long-standing Taliban member [who] has been central to spearheading brutal military attacks and raising millions of dollars to support the Taliban’s ruthless acts of terrorism,” Treasury stated.
After launching an operation to recapture the central Iraqi city of Baiji last week, Iraqi troops and Shiite militias retook the oil refinery, the city center, and several districts. The city has exchanged hands multiple times in the past. The US military continues to provide airstrikes that support the Iranian-backed militias.
The photo comes just days after Soleimani was spotted in Latakia addressing Iranian and Syrian troops. The Syrian regime also relies on Shiite militias from Iraq and elsewhere, which are often trained and advised by the Iranian Qods Force.
The Department of Defense confirmed that the senior al Qaeda strategist, who was dispatched years ago by al Qaeda from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region to Syria, was killed in an airstrike on Oct. 15. Nasr’s death is a blow to al Qaeda.
The district of Bala Buluk fell to the jihadist group after more than a week of fighting. The fate of dozens of policemen who were surrounded for days is unknown.
Abu Muhammad al Julani, the head of al Qaeda’s Al Nusrah Front in Syria, addresses Russia’s intervention in an audio message. Julani calls for reprisal attacks against Russians and says the jihadists must strike Shiite villages in order to extract concessions from Bashar al Assad’s regime.
Despite being pushed out of its major urban strongholds, the al Qaeda branch continues to be a potent threat inside Somalia.
On the same day that Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad, a mainly Uzbek jihadist group, swore allegiance to Al Nusrah Front, it claimed an attack on Russian forces in the Latakia province of Syria.
Testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade on the US counterterrorism strategy in Syria. “The West’s involvement is ad hoc, tactical and reactionary.”
Saraya al Khorasani, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia that operates alongside the Iraqi military, released a video showing the “Sheikh Hajj Hamid Taqavi training center.” Taqavi was an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force general who was killed by an Islamic State sniper.
Pro-al Qaeda jihadists on Twitter are claiming that an al Qaeda veteran known as Abu Hassan al Tunisi was killed while fighting in Syria. The jihadists say he was a companion of Osama bin Laden and survived the Battle of Tora Bora in 2001. These details are unconfirmed.
The Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al Sham, Jund al Aqsa, and the Turkistan Islamic Party have launched significant operations targeting two Shiite villages in the Idlib province of Syria. Their attacks are a response to the siege of Zabadani, a southern Syrian city, by Bashar al Assad’s regime and its allies.
While the Saudi-led coalition has made gains towards the proclaimed Houthi capital in Sanaa, the Iranian-backed Shiites continue to hit the coalition hard in both Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia.
Al Qaeda’s branches and allies have held or continue to control ground in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya, contrary to the narrative that only the Islamic State seeks to take territory.
The latest editions of AQAP’s Inspire and the Islamic State’s Dabiq were published online today. Both English-language magazines praise the 9/11 attacks.
Among those who eulogized Mullah Omar in the September 2015 edition of Al Sumud include al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, former Islamic Caucasus Emirate leader Abu Usman Gimrinsky, al Qaeda-linked cleric Abdullah al Muhaysini, and Specially Designated nationals Hani al Siba’i and Sheikh Hamid bin Abdallah al ‘Ali.
The photos show Shabaab’s Sheikh Abu Zubayr Battalion again overrunning an African Union base in Somalia.
One Iraqi soldier was killed today as the military raided a Hezbollah Brigades headquarters while searching for 18 Turkish construction workers who were kidnapped in Baghdad.