Over the last two weeks, the Saudi-led coalition and its allies have reported killing several members of Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Yemen.
Two recently released booklets by the al Qaeda group are likely meant to assuage tensions both within and outside its organization.
Since the beginning of the year, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham has utilized at least 12 suicide bombers in defense of Idlib from advancing regime forces.
It is unclear if the unit represents a splinter of al Qaeda’s JNIM, though the group now represents an Islamic State-loyal faction close to the borders with Mauritania.
The al Qaeda group has claimed a series of attacks across the Sahel in recent weeks.
The strike is one of the deadliest attacks in the conflict since 2014.
The attack, the group’s first since 2013, announces its operational return to Nigeria.
Over the last month, the jihadist group has killed at least 174 Nigerien soldiers in three separate attacks.
