According to a recently released report by a UN Security Council monitoring team, the Taliban is the “primary partner for all foreign terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan,” including al Qaeda. The only exception is the Islamic State, which opposes the Taliban.
Houthis continue to target Saudi facilities with cruise missiles and suicide drones. These strikes come during increased tensions between the United States and Iran.
The Islamic State’s men in the Sahel have claimed a recent IED on US troops in Niger, as well as downing a French helicopter and assassinating a Tuareg militia member in Mali.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps shot down a MQ-4 Global Hawk as it was gathering intelligence over the Strait of Hormuz. It is the third US drone targeted by Iran and the second shot down since the beginning of the month.
The Islamic State’s Sinai Wilayah has released a short video showing a cadre of fighters renewing their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Their ringleader is a masked man identified as Abu Jafar al-Ansari.
US troops in Iraq have been targeted three times in mortars and katyusha rocket strikes since last weekend. Shia militias that are supported by Iran are suspected of carrying out the attacks, which take place as tensions between the US and Iran increase.
On June 15, the Islamic State’s West Africa province released a video featuring a masked jihadist known as Abu Salmah al-Mangawi. Along with foot soldiers in Burkina Faso and Mali, al-Mangawi renewed his pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Houthi insurgents claimed hitting a southern Saudi airport with a cruise missile, as well as drone strikes.
Asim Umar, a senior al Qaeda official, has released a statement praising the Taliban’s “victory” in Afghanistan over the US. He also criticizes ISIS for dividing the jihadists’ ranks, praying that Allah ends the “fitnah.”
In an effort to get the Taliban to open negotiations, the Afghan government has freed hundreds of Taliban prisoners without conditions, and will free hundreds more.
Several foreign jihadist groups have joined rebel opposition units to help combat regime advances in the northern Hama countryside.
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent’s spokesman has released a glowing eulogy for Zakir Musa, who led Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) until his death in May. AQIS has also released a video calling on jihadis to join its cause in Kashmir. And AGH has named Musa’s successor.
The Taliban has claimed it overran five districts in four Afghan provinces since mid-May. Meanwhile, the Afghan military said it liberated a district that was under Taliban control for over two years.
It is not immediately clear if today’s statement represents a legitimate claim from Mozambique.
Much like other theaters in Syria, the pro-regime Palestinian militia appears to be playing an integral role in northern Hama.
Both photos and videos clearly show Yemeni people donating money to support Hezbollah, despite the current hardships plaguing Yemen.
The Islamic State’s Afghan arm detonated three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Kabul earlier today. The first bomb struck a bus carrying civilians, while the second two were detonated after security forces and journalists made their way to the scene.
The Taliban has released a statement attributed to its leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was neither final nor decisive, and policymakers should heed the War on Terror’s lessons to ensure the West doesn’t squander this advantage and enable ISIS, or its copycats and successor groups, to rally.
A Taliban suicide bomber struck a convoy in Kabul earlier today. The Taliban claimed that 10 “invaders” were killed, but independent reports say that Afghans perished, while four Americans were wounded.
The Islamic State has claimed at least nine attacks in the DRC since April.
An Islamic State suicide bomber struck outside the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul earlier today. It is the second time the so-called Khorasan province has attacked the academy. According to UNAMA, the jihadists launch more “suicide and complex attacks” in the Afghan capital than in any other area of the country.
The fundraising campaign comes on the heels of increased US sanctions against Lebanese Hezbollah.
The second-in-command of the IRGC-controlled, Iraqi Harakat al Nujaba has threatened to attack US targets in the Middle East if the US strikes “Iraqi groups.”
Indian forces have killed Zakir Musa, who led the al Qaeda-linked Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). Musa and his men have attempted to poach from Pakistani-backed jihadist groups, while also competing with an upstart Islamic State presence. Musa’s motto was “Sharia or Martyrdom.”
AFRICOM has stepped up its targeting of the Islamic State, and continues to pursue its efforts to “degrade” al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia. Unfortunately, the defeat of the two terror groups is not in the cards.
Although John Walker Lindh is commonly known as the “American Taliban,” he was actually trained by al Qaeda and belonged to Osama bin Laden’s pro-Taliban fighting force.
Al Qaeda is operating “across the country” and not confined to one region, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan said.
A jury in a Manhattan federal court convicted Ali Kourani of various terrorism and other charges last week. Kourani surveilled prospective targets in New York City on behalf of Hizballah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, which has plotted terrorist attacks since the 1980s.
The Turkistan Islamic Party, “Incite the Believers” operations room and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham are all battling Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists in Latakia, Syria.