Jamaat-ul-Ahrar TTP, the new splinter group of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP), released a graphic as well as a statement celebrating al Qaeda’s attack on the US on Sept. 11, 2001. The image and statement were emailed by Ihsanullah Ihsan, the group’s spokesman, to The Long War Journal. The image is reproduced above, and the statement, titled #Happy911, is here.
Unsurprisingly, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is supporting the global jihad. One of its top leaders, Omar Khalid Khorasani, is closely linked to al Qaeda’s emir, Ayman al Zawahiri. In the statement, the group correctly notes that the global jihad has expanded since 9/11:
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.
Additionally, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar clearly states it is part of the jihadist project to impose a global caliphate:
We in Tehrik e Taliban Jamaat ul Ahrar pledge that we shall continue the mission of our great martyrs until the Khilafah [caliphate] is established in every nook and corner of the world.
