The head of the Al Nusrah Front, Abu Muhammad al Julani, proposed a merger with several other jihadist groups in Syria earlier this month. According to an al Qaeda member who has a popular Twitter feed, the plan fell through when some Ahrar al Sham leaders pushed for Al Nusrah to publicly disassociate itself from al Qaeda.
The attack last month comes as tensions between Ansar Dine, a Tuareg al Qaeda group, and several Tuareg separatist groups in northern Mali have escalated.
The Taliban’s actions do not match its words, as it continues to shelter, support, and encourage al Qaeda.
The jihadist group has long targeted hotels in Mogadishu, as they are popular with governmental and African Union officials and foreigners.
In a video released earlier this month, an Islamic State defector known as Antar al Kindi claims to expose the group’s “lies.” Al Kindi apologizes to Ayman al Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders. The video is part of an ongoing propaganda battle between the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Despite contradictory claims made by Kenya, the photo report appears to confirm a large number of Kenyan troops were killed in the attack.
The 13th edition of the Islamic State’s Dabiq magazine is filled with anti-al Qaeda and anti-Taliban arguments. Previous editions of Dabiq included similar attempts to undermine al Qaeda’s and the Taliban’s jihadist credentials.
An American citizen, Amin al Baroudi, pleaded guilty to violating US sanctions by providing “tactical equipment” to Ahrar al Sham, which is allied with al Qaeda’s arm in Syria.
The US has treated the Islamic State Khorasan Province as a terrorist organization long before officially listing it. Four senior Khorasan Province leaders have been killed in US airstrikes over the past year.
Indonesian police have linked the attack to a jihadist based in Syria. Two jihadists factions in Indonesia, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid and Mujahidin Indonesian Timur, have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.
Al Qaeda has released two audio messages and a written statement from Ayman al Zawahiri in the past day. Two of the messages contain condemnations of Saudi Arabia. The third focuses on Southeast Asia.
The Department of Justice announced today that an American named Maalik Alim Jones has been charged with supporting Shabaab, al Qaeda’s regional branch in East Africa. Jones was allegedly a member of Shabaab’s Jaysh Ayman unit, which is responsible for launching attacks against Kenyan forces.
A Guantanamo detainee who was transferred to Kuwait in 2006 had quickly returned to the battlefield. He killed 13 Iraqi soldiers in a suicide truck bomb at a combat outpost in Mosul, Iraq in 2008.
On at least three separate occasions in the past, US officials, including President Obama’s own Guantanamo Review Task Force, recommended that Fayez al Kandari remain in US custody. Kandari also lost his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Joint Task Force – Guantanamo deemed him a “high risk” to the US, its interests and allies.
Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, a member of al Qaeda’s paramilitary force in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was involved in a double suicide attack in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009.
Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration said in a statement that it has accepted two Guantanamo detainees who “have been cleared of any involvement in terrorist activities, and are being released.” But that is not true. Neither one of the detainees was “cleared” by President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force. One of the two was previously deemed a “high risk” by Joint Task Force – Guantanamo.
In a lecture posted online, AQAP leader Qasim al Raymi explains why America is the jihadists’ “real” and “primary” enemy.
“Six Resolute Support service members died as a result of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in Bagram, Afghanistan,” the international coalition confirmed. Bagram is a high priority target for the Taliban.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan again rejected the Islamic State and said its emir, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, is illegitimate and his followers kill “innocent mujahideen.”
The failure to mention al Qaeda’s renewed oath to the Taliban in the military’s latest report on Afghanistan is no accidental omission.
The Pentagon’s latest report on Afghanistan pushes for reconciliation with the Taliban, but makes no mention of Mullah Mansour accepting an oath of allegiance from al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri.
Ibrahim Abu Salih (also known as Abu al Hassan al Hashimi) was featured in a video posted online by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) earlier this month. He has been a jihadist for more than 35 years and, in the early 1990s, al Qaeda’s leaders ordered him to build an arm for their organization in Yemen. Abu Salih later cofounded AQAP. He is currently the group’s security official, as well as a member of its shura council.
The US military continues to claim that al Qaeda is “primarily concentrated in the east and northeast” of Afghanistan, despite a major operation two months ago that targeted the jihadist group at two established training facilities in Kandahar province in the southeast.
A US military spokesman touted the strikes that killed the three Islamic State leaders as “an example of how we’re able to decimate networks.”
A new AQAP video features Ibrahim al Qosi, who was detained at Guantanamo from 2002 until 2012. Qosi is now an AQAP leader and spokesman.
The State Department has designated Emrah Erdogan as a terrorist, describing him as a member of both al Qaeda and Shabaab, al Qaeda’s official branch in East Africa.
Abu Muhammad al Julani will appear at a press conference “soon,” according to Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria. The timing of his appearance was likely influenced by the Syrian opposition’s meeting in Saudi Arabia this week. Al Nusrah is not represented at the gathering.
An American who fought for Shabaab in Somalia has reportedly surrendered to African Union forces. He turned himself in after swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State. Shabaab’s leaders, who remain loyal to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, have been purging defectors.
The two leaders were identified as Abdirahman Sandhere from Shabaab, al Qaeda official branch in Somalia, and Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, from the Islamic State’s province in Libya.
Al Qaeda’s official branch in Yemen took control of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, and Jaar. The two towns were previously under al Qaeda control between May 2011 and the summer of 2012.