“In 2001, Afghanistan was the only Islamic Emirate in the world but now Jihad has spread to a vast swathe of land including Pakistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Algeria, Mali and Nigeria,” the group states.
Al Qaeda’s shadowy new ’emir’ in South Asia handed tough job
Iran says Afghan, Pakistani Islamic State volunteers arrested
After Syria and Iraq, Islamic State makes inroads in South Asia
A closer look at recent developments in a number of countries should dispel any illusions that the Islamic State’s aspirations and activities are only regional.
Usama Mahmoud, AQIS’s spokesman, openly stated that the group “was formed by the gathering of several jihadi groups that have a long history in jihad and fighting.”
Indian states on alert after al Qaeda announces local wing
Ayman al Zawahiri announced the establishment of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. The group is led by a former Taliban leader known as Asim Umar.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s spokesman described the military press release and subsequent reporting in the Pakistani media as “nothing but complete lies,” and claimed that jihadists had moved out of the area long before the operation began.
In 2011, ISAF captured Qari Bilal, who was serving as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan’s top leader in Afghanistan. He was subsequently released by the Afghan government, and is now commanding more than 300 jihadist fighters in Kunduz.
Pakistani journalists shot dead in attack on news agency office
“Jaamat-ul-Ahrar deals with itself and does not take orders from TTP leadership,” the group’s spokesman told The Long War Journal.
The new group includes Taliban factions from the tribal agencies of Mohmand, Bajaur, Khyber, and Arakzai, and the districts of Charsadda, Peshawar, and Swat.
US strikes in Syria against Islamic State would be hindered by intelligence gaps
The Treasury designation added the Pakistan-based Basir Zarjmil Hawala and its owner Haji Abdul Basir, along with a Taliban commander known as Qari Rahmat to the US government’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Pakistan fires 5,000 missiles on Afghan borders over past year
The spokesman for Omar Khalid Khorasani, the leader of the Taliban in Mohmand, said the Quetta airbase attacks were executed with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Peace agreements with the Taliban on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border have always ended badly.
Fourteen members of the Fedayeen-i-Islam were killed during the latest assault on a Pakistani airbase.
The jihadist group, which is tolerated by the Pakistani state and whose leader lives openly in Islamabad, is currently running training camps in eastern Afghanistan, the US State Department said.
The attack is the fourth by the US in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan since July 10; at least three al Qaeda leaders are thought to have been killed in one of the strikes.
Abdul Rahman al Amjad al Pakistani is thought to be Abdullah al Punjabi, one of nine mid-level al Qaeda commanders to openly defect from the global jihadist group and join the Islamic State.
Junood al Fida, a jihadist group from Baluchistan, Pakistan that fights in Afghanistan, swore allegiance to the Taliban and called Ayman al Zawahiri its emir in July.
The Pakistani government has blocked The Long War Journal website from being accessed inside Pakistan. The censorship began sometime in July 2012, and continues to this day.
The government will put the Army in charge of security for the capital for three months. The Taliban killed two soldiers in North Waziristan and Security forces killed five Taliban fighters in Aurakazi.
Wary Pakistan puts military in charge of capital’s security
Pakistani officials have said there was a “mix-up” and an al Qaeda explosives expert, and not Rasheed, was captured during a raid two weeks ago in South Waziristan.
The military claimed it killed 20 “militants,” including foreign fighters, during airstrikes in Shawal in North Waziristan. A senior Pakistani military claimed that the government is targeting all Taliban groups, “irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity or group affiliation”.
Amir Mir of Pakistan’s The News has a history of copying and cribbing reports from The Long War Journal.
Pakistani elders forbid fleeing women from collecting food aid