The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a military checkpoint in the Philippines earlier today. The bomber was identified as a foreign fighter known as Abu Kathir al-Maghrebi.
The US Treasury and State Departments designated three members of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba as terrorists today. One of them was captured in Iraq in 2004 and held for a decade before he was transferred to Pakistan and released. Another has raised funds to send to Syria.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a short video allegedly showing five young jihadists swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before they attacked cyclists in Tajikistan. The video is similar to a number of others released after small-scale attacks since mid-2016.
Resolute Support continues to invent new terminology to obfuscate the extent of Taliban control in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a school for midwives in Jalalabad, Afghanistan yesterday, saying the target was a headquarters for USAID. Despite a focused, US-led counterterrorism campaign against Wilayah Khorasan in Nangarhar, the group retains an operational footprint in eastern Afghanistan.
In 2017, LWJ reported unprecedented levels of airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen. Thus far in 2018, the United States has sustained its high strike tempo in Somalia and improved transparency on its air campaign in Yemen. Strikes in Pakistan have leveled off, however press restrictions make tracking operations there difficult. In Libya, the U.S. has targeted jihadists sparingly.
The NDS unit that was hit is reportedly responsible for targeting Taliban units that operate in the contested provinces of Logar and Wardak, just south of Kabul.
Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) announced yesterday (July 24) that six Islamic State operatives were killed in targeted strikes since April. The jihadists had allegedly plotted attacks inside Saudi Arabia and Sweden, as well as against the US and American interests.
Authorities are investigating whether there are any ties, digital or otherwise, between Faisal Hussain and the Islamic State. The so-called caliphate’s Amaq News Agency issued a short statement today claiming that Hussain was the Islamic State’s “soldier.” The statement mirrors the language used in a series of other claims of responsibility for attacks in the West and elsewhere.
The Taliban takeover of the Paktika districts of Omna and Gayan occur as US generals attempt to put a positive spin on the Afghan military’s capabilities.
An estimated 150 Afghan security personnel (soldiers, policemen, and militia fighters) have been killed in major Taliban attacks over the past two weeks.
If the photos are confirmed, Shabaab was able to wrestle brief control over the base yesterday. This contradicts official statements released by Somali officials about the assault.
The same base where a US Special Forces soldier was killed last month was again targeted by Shabaab, this time with two suicide truck bombs.
The press release also described the Taliban who are being targeted and killed as “Taliban irreconcilables.” However, Resolute Support has yet to identify any reconcilable Taliban.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that struck near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul only minutes after Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum passed through the area.
The photo-set is at least the second this month showing clashes with the Taliban in the Afghan north.
On July 15, Israel struck a military position near the Nayrab airport outside of Aleppo city. The latest attack is a component of an expanded Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic’s assets in Syria.
America’s Gulf allies — Qatar, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait — still sponsor hate preachers during Ramadan.
The State Department has amended the terrorist designation of Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, to include Al-Hijra, which has served as Shabaab’s “wing” in Kenya. In the past, according to the UN, Al-Hijra has played a key role in Shabaab’s planning of terrorist attacks.
The rise of the Islamic State in Jawzjan province over the past year has threatened the Taliban’s operations in the Afghan north.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has cut a deal with Bashar al-Assad’s regime to exchange thousands of residents in Kefraya and al-Fouah, two predominately Shiite towns in the northern province of Idlib, for 1,500 prisoners held in Assad’s prisons.
The Taliban has been operating prisons in Helmand for at least three years. Raids on Taliban prisons has done nothing to keep the group from expanding its control in Helmand.
Rising communal violence in both northern and central Mali further weakens the already fragile state, which in turn, further helps jihadists exploit these problems for their own gain.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that the Taliban was responsible for more civilian casualties than any other party in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2018.
Saturday’s suicide attack on the presidential compound in Mogadishu came just a week after a similar strike was conducted on Somalia’s Ministry of Interior.
The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the Afghan government’s Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry in Kabul earlier today. The so-called caliphate dispatched a suicide bomber to strike the same ministry in June.
The Islamic State has targeted key jihadist and Islamist leaders in Idlib province in recent weeks. The so-called caliphate’s assassination campaign has focused on prominent figures in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as well as other groups.
A small Turkish-speaking jihadist faction known as Fursan al-Iman took part in a joint raid against the Assad regime in Latakia province on July 10. Yesterday, it posted a picture of an Assad loyalist who was captured during the operation. It appears from the group’s social media pages that Fursan al-Iman has been operating in and around the Jabal al-Turkman region since January 2018.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing at an election rally in Mastung, Baluchistan earlier today. More than 100 people were killed and dozens more wounded. The so-called caliphate has identified the bomber as Abu Bakr al-Pakistani and claims that a Pakistani intelligence official was among the victims.
The Red Unit, the Taliban’s version of special forces that operates throughout Afghanistan and is often at the tip of the spear of assaults on district centers, military bases and outposts, is said to have initiated the fighting in Dasht-i-Archi district. At least 30 Afghan soldiers were killed during the assault.