On Nov. 17, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and FDD’s Long War Journal held an event to discuss the findings from the recently released documents from Osama bin Laden’s compound.
Coalition forces killed 15 senior and mid-level Islamic State leaders and commanders, including two external operations planners, in a series of airstrikes that have taken place in eastern Syria and Western Iraq over the past two months.
Although the month of November is only halfway complete, it is already the most active month of the Somalia air campaign against Shabaab and the Islamic State since its inception.
The US has stepped up its air campaign on the Islamic State’s network in Yemen as the group has intensified its attacks on Yemeni security forces in the alternate capital of Aden.
Abdul Hakim al Tatari, a Russian Tatar member of the former Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, joined the Islamic State’s Wilayat Khurasan before migrating to Syria. He was later killed in the battles around Baiji, Iraq, just days after arriving to Islamic State-held territory.
The US military launched its first airstrike against the Islamic State’s network in the eastern African country of Somalia earlier today, complementing a decade long air campaign against Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in the country.
The Syrian military has taken full control of Deir Ezzour, while Iraqi troops and Iranian supported militias ejected the Islamic State from Al Qaim.
An estimated 60 Islamic State fighters are thought to have been killed in three US strikes that have targeted the group over the past two weeks.
The US Treasury Department and several Gulf States announced today that eight jihadists in Yemen have been designated as terrorists. The newly-sanctioned terrorists serve either the Islamic State’s Yemeni branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or both.
Resolute Support, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, claimed that today’s bombing in Kabul “shows the insurgents are desperate and cannot win.” However the Taliban has sustained offensive operations in all areas of the country and has had battlefield successes against a struggling Afghan military.
The Pentagon announced today that “dozens” of Islamic State jihadists were killed during a strike on two training camps in Yemen. The Islamic State regularly advertises its presence in Yemen, including a camp named after the group’s deceased spokesman.
Somali officials estimate that more than 200 people were killed in a pair of bombings and a suicide assault on a hotel in the Somali capital. Neither Shabaab nor the Islamic State has claimed credit for the deadly attacks, but Shabaab has targeted many hotels in Mogadishu using the same tactics.
The battles between the jihadist forces come as both are also engaged in wider battles with the regime in Hama province.
The Islamic State claims to have captured several villages from its jihadist rivals in Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) in Hama province. The Islamic State’s assault on HTS came just days after HTS launched its own offensive against Assad regime positions in Hama.
Islamic State forces still control a small pocket of villages to the north and east of the town, but are now surrounded.
In a new message, Ayman al Zawahiri holds up the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship as a model for jihadists around the globe. He also critiques the jihadists and Islamists in Egypt and Syria who think they can “deceive” America and achieve power by placating the US.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claimed that two stabbings at the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, France were the work of its “soldier.” Separately, an attack in Edmonton, Canada is being investigated as a terrorist act.
US Africa Command launched airstrikes against the Islamic State in Libya for the first time in eight months. AFRICOM also revealed to FDD’s Long War Journal that an estimated 800 to 900 Islamic State fighters were killed during Operation Odyssey Lightning’s air campaign in Sirte last year.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State’s Khorasan “province” claimed responsibility for an assault on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. The attack coincided with a visit by Secretary of Defense James Mattis to the country, although it appears he was not at the airport at the time.
The Islamic State’s Al Bayan radio station has released several religious lectures dealing with an internal controversy over takfir, the practice of excommunicating other Muslims and denouncing “polytheists.” The so-called caliphate tried to quell the controversy by repealing a problematic memo earlier this month.
The US carried out six airstrikes against an Islamic State camp “approximately 150 miles southeast of Sirte” on Sept. 22, according to US Africa Command. The bombings reportedly killed 17 jihadists and destroyed three vehicles.
The Iraqi government launched a new offensive against the Islamic State in the Hawijah pocket earlier today. Hawijah is considered one of the group’s two remaining strongholds inside Iraq. The other is in the western Anbar province, where the Iraqi government began new operations on Sept. 19.
The Islamic State has rescinded a May 17 memo that even some of the group’s ideologues considered too extreme in its religious rulings. The memo reportedly exacerbated leadership disputes within the self-declared caliphate.
After pro-Syrian regime forces broke the siege of Deir Ezzor city this month, Lebanese Hezbollah media outlet Al Mayadeen released a rare interview with Hezbollah field commander “al Haj Abu Mustafa,” crediting the gray-bearded, southern Lebanese native with playing a key role in leading the defense against the Islamic State.
The Islamic State claims its “soldiers” carried out the London tube bombing earlier today. Twenty-nine people were injured in the attack. Earlier this month, the British government reported a surge in terror-related arrests. As of June 30, 204 people were in custody in the UK for suspected terrorism-related offenses and the “majority” of them, 91 percent, hold “Islamist extremist views.”
The US-led coalition has announced a new offensive against the Islamic State in eastern Syria. The offensive, named “Operation Jazeera Storm,” aims to clear the so-called caliphate out of territory north of the city of Deir Ezzor.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has promoted its drone strikes against the Islamic State near the Iraqi border in Syria. The IRGC says the strikes were carried out as “revenge” for an Iranian soldier who was beheaded by the so-called caliphate.
Hezbollah forces and its militia allies can be seen parading in the streets of Deir Ezzor after lifting the siege of the city. Syrian regime soldiers, who had been under the siege since 2014, praise Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah for their role in the operation.
The US-led coalition carried out an air strike to block Islamic State fighters from reaching eastern Syria after they were evacuated from Lebanon. As part of the deal, the Islamic State was to hand over the body of an IRGC fighter who has become a household name in Iran.
Jihadists loyal to the Islamic State overran a checkpoint manned by the Libyan National Army (LNA) yesterday. A spokesman for the LNA confirmed that 11 victims were beheaded.