The Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province) released a set of photos documenting its battles against the Taliban near the Tora Bora Mountains. The group’s offensive in the area forced the Afghan government to provide more support to locals who had sided with the Taliban in order to counter Wilayah Khorasan’s offensive in June.
The Islamic State claimed that a “SPG-9 round destroyed an American Cougar vehicle” in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, killing two “Crusaders” and three Afghan soldiers on board. However, NATO’s Resolute Support says that this isn’t true, and the two Americans were wounded.
Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a coalition that includes the group formerly known as Al Nusrah Front, launched a campaign against alleged Islamic State operatives in the Idlib province earlier today. HTS has repeatedly accused Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s men of forming cells to attack their jihadist rivals in HTS and allied groups.
The Islamic State’s so-called Sinai province launched a lethal assault on an Egyptian military outpost in the northern Sinai earlier today. It may be the deadliest attack on Egyptian forces in the peninsula since July 1, 2015. More than 20 soldiers, including several officers, were reportedly killed.
The Department of Justice announced today that Aaron Travis Daniels pleaded guilty terror-related charges after trying to join the Islamic State in Libya last November. Daniels had been in contact with an Islamic State “external attack planner” who encouraged him emigrate to North Africa for jihad, according to the DOJ.
On July 3, Major General Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, spoke at an Iran-Iraq war veterans gathering in his home province of Kerman.
Soleimani praised the Islamic Republic’s decades-long effort to take the mantle of the Palestinian cause and boasted that Tehran’s influence in the Middle East has expanded as a result of the Syrian war. He excoriated Saudi Arabia, as well as domestic Iranian critics of the Guard Corps. And the general also lamented the drop in religious observance in Iran.
The Department of Justice announced on June 29 that Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud pleaded guilty nearly two years ago to training with and fighting for Al Nusrah Front in Syria. Al Nusrah “instructed” Mohamud “to return to the US and commit an act of terrorism.” He admittedly planned to kill American “military officers or other government employees or people in uniform.”
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered the Old City of Raqqa after the coalition blew two holes in a historic wall the Islamic State was using as a defensive fortification. The SDF’s fighters first approached the Old City in mid-June, but the wall and heavy fighting in a nearby neighborhood impeded their advance. Meanwhile, an Australian jihadi is featured in a new propaganda video recorded in Raqqa.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies abroad on Friday commemorated Qods (Jerusalem) Day, an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan and established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to express support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel. The regime has not shied away from reiterating its call for Israel’s destruction during the annual event.
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has released a 20-page code of conduct outlining its approach to waging jihad throughout the region. The group says its men are currently fighting “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the Taliban and calls on Muslims in the surrounding countries to pledge allegiance to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (another name for the Taliban).
CENTCOM announced today that Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, a “finance emir” for the Islamic State, was killed in an airstrike in eastern Syria earlier this month. Last year, the US and Iraqi governments jointly targeted Rawi and his financial network, which handled millions of dollars for the so-called caliphate.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced that two men, Ali Kourani and Samer El Debek, had been arrested and charged with carrying out various missions on behalf of Hizballah’s Islamic Jihad Organization. The IJO serves as Hizballah’s external operations wing, carrying out clandestine missions on behalf of Iran around the world. The complaints allege that Kourani and El Debek were both members of the IJO, which is ultimately controlled by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who in turn reports “directly” to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
CENTCOM announced today that Abu Khattab al Awlaqi, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s emir for the Shabwah province in Yemen, was killed along with two associates in a June 16 airstrike that targeted “terrorist compounds and attack networks in Yemen.”
The Islamic State demolished the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri earlier today. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi delivered his first speech as “Caliph Ibrahim” at the mosque in July 2014. Just days earlier, the Islamic State declared itself a so-called caliphate, ruling over large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al Abadi arrived in Tehran today to met with senior Iranian government officials, including Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an “important and blessed phenomenon,” Khamenei said. “The reason the Americans oppose the popular forces is because they want Iraq to lose its important factor of strength,” he added.
CENTCOM confirmed today that Turki al-Bin’ali, one of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s most important ideological supporters, was killed in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria on May 31. Mayadin has become a hub for the Islamic State’s senior personnel and external operations arm.
The US Treasury Department and United Nations designated Islamic State operative Fared Saal as a terrorist yesterday. Saal, a German-Algerian, first joined the jihad in Syria several years ago. Along with his comrade Denis Cuspert, he appeared in a July 2014 video showing dozens of corpses at the Shaer Gas field in Homs, Syria.
On June 15, the State Department designated three Islamic State operatives as terrorists. The designations underscore the global nature of the self-declared caliphate’s threat, as two of the men have been responsible for a number of plots in Europe and India. The third has repeatedly attempted to convince his fellow Bahrainis to join the group’s cause.
According to US Forces-Afghanistan, Jawed Khan, a “senior director of media production” for the Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan (ISIS-K), “was killed in an airstrike in Achin, Nangarhar Province on June 3.”
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for its first operation inside Israel earlier today. However, Hamas quickly disputed the self-declared caliphate’s claim, saying that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s loyalists were merely attempting to confuse the media. According to Hamas, two of the attackers were sent by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the third by Hamas.
Yesterday, photos emerged on social media of Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq, during a holy period in Ramadan. Soleimani was photographed next to his deputy Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the operations commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), which was enshrined into a legal and separate military corps last year, thus technically making Muhandis a government official.
Sheikh Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini, a leading cleric in Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, claims that a suicide bomber tried to kill him outside of a mosque in Idlib, Syria earlier today.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has claimed responsibility for an attack on Al Zahra Mosque in Kabul earlier today. Shiite worshippers had gathered at the mosque as part of Ramadan. The Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan has repeatedly targeted Shiites in Kabul, causing mass casualties on several occasions over the past year.
General Bajwa made the statement despite the fact that drone strikes have killed scores of top tier terrorist leaders, including mortal enemies of the Pakistan state, and Pakistani officials have passed along actionable intelligence to terrorists to avoid raids.
The US government designated two senior Islamic State figures today, saying they are involved in the group’s chemical weapons program. US officials have previously said that so-called caliphate uses a “mustard agent” in its attacks.
Ayman al Zawahiri has released another message explaining al Qaeda’s global jihad. He decries those who seek to divide the jihadists’ war according to national boundaries and argues that Muslims face a grand, international conspiracy.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for its first major attacks inside Iran earlier today. Although the group has long fought Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria, it had never struck Tehran. Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani previously admitted that his organization had abided by an order from al Qaeda’s senior leadership to refrain from attacking in Iran.
British officials identified two of the three men suspected of carrying out the June 3 terror attacks in London. At least one of them was well-known to counterterrorism officials and even appeared in a documentary about extremism in the UK.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claims that the so-called caliphate’s “fighters” were responsible for yesterday’s attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market. At least seven people were killed and 48 others injured.
A van carrying three terrorists was rammed into a crowd of people on London Bridge last night. The terrorists then drove to Borough Market, where they jumped out and began stabbing people. All three were shot and killed by armed officers. At least 7 people died as a result of the attack.