The video shows a rudimentary training camp in a forested area somewhere in the Philippines. It is unclear which group is shown training, but the video makes clear of its support to the Islamic State.
The “Sheikh Jalaluddin training camp” is named after the Khorasan Province’s former mufti, or senior religious and legal scholar, who was killed by the US in an airstrike in Nangarhar in October. The Islamic State has advertised three training facilities in Afghanistan in the past two months.
In an interview with the Washington Post, General John Campbell described an al Qaeda camp in southern Afghanistan as “probably the largest training camp-type facility that we have seen in 14 years of war.” The camp is one of two raided by joint US-Afghan forces in Kandahar earlier this month.
While the locations of the Shaykh Abu Omar al Baghdadi and Shaykh Abu Musab al Zarqawi camps are unknown, they are likely situated in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where the jihadist group has established a presence.
The US military’s raid on two large al Qaeda camps in the Shorabak district of the Kandahar province highlights al Qaeda’s significant footprint in Afghanistan more than 14 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Saraya al Khorasani, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia that operates alongside the Iraqi military, released a video showing the “Sheikh Hajj Hamid Taqavi training center.” Taqavi was an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force general who was killed by an Islamic State sniper.
Jihadist groups in Afghanistan continue to operate training camps despite the presence of coalition troops.
While the Islamic State gets most of the attention for the training camps it runs for children, it is not the only jihadist group in Syria that does so.
The Taliban and allied groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, al Qaeda, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, and Lashkar-e-Taiba are known to have run dozens of camps inside Afghanistan even as the Coalition was present.
The Long War Journal has identified 117 training camps run by jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Almost half are operated by the Islamic State, while the other half are administered by the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, and its allies. Some facilities are no longer operational, while other camps likely exist, but are not publicized by the jihadists.
The camp is named after Ustad Yasir, a senior Taliban commander who was killed in an internal purge in 2012. The camp’s name is further evidence that the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province is comprised of marginalized Taliban commanders.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has advertised the Mujahideen Special Group as its version of special forces, shows the fighters going through various stages of instruction.
Kenyan fighter jets bomb Shabaab training camps in Somalia
The photographs show the fighters “graduating from the mujahideen training camps to join their brothers in the battlefronts in order to complete the journey of jihad.”
The Taliban have released videos of two training camps in northern Afghanistan over the past two weeks.
New camps belonging to the Islamic State, the Al Nusrah Front, the Chechen Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar, the Syrian Harakat Fajr al Sham al Islamiya, the Uzbek group Imam Bukhari Jamaat, and Jaish al Islam have been identified.
The Taliban are training fighters in Faryab province and have overrun Khamyab district in Jawzjan province.
Harakat Sham al Islam, a Moroccan-founded group allied to al Qaeda and the Chechen-led Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar, is now known to operate a training camp in Latakia province in Syria.
The Islamic State, the Al Nusrah Front, the Islamic Front, and Junud al Sham have been showcasing camps in Iraq and Syria that are used to indoctrinate and train children to wage jihad.
Four new training camps in Iraq and Syria, three of them operated by the Islamic State, have been identified, including one used by a so-called jihadist “special forces” unit. The Long War Journal has identified 46 jihadist training camps in Iraq and Syria.
Training camps run by the Al Nusrah Front, the Khorasan Group, and a Chechen-led group, Khalifat Jamaat, were identified in Syria. The Long War Journal has identified 42 jihadist training camps in Iraq and Syria.
More than 30 training camps have been established by the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and allied jihadist groups in both Iraq and Syria since 2012.
The Al Nusrah Front has been running training camps in Syria since at least December 2012.
The Islamic State has released a video showcasing over 100 new recruits at a training camp in northern Iraq.
The al Qaeda branch is operating camps in Syria despite US airstrikes, which have not targeted the group since Sept. 22.
The Islamic State operates training camps in Kirkuk and Ninewa province in Iraq, and Raqqah, Abu Kamal, Dier al Zour, Hasakah, and Manjib in Syria.
Jamaat Ahadun Ahad, or the Group of the One and Only, is led by a Chechen commander and its fighters include “many Chechens, Turks, Arabs, Europeans, and even several former members of the Taliban.”
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 images are the latest in a propaganda effort by various terror groups in both Iraq and Syria to promote their training camp infrastructure.
The Imam Bukhari Jamaat, which fights alongside the Al Nusrah Front and Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar, touted its training camp, which is thought to be located near Aleppo.