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.
Jihadist groups in Afghanistan continue to operate training camps despite the presence of coalition troops.
The Uighur jihadist group, with its longstanding ties to al Qaeda, continues to play a pivotal role assisting Al Nusrah Front in northwestern Syria.
The jihadist group continues to have a significant role in the Jaysh al Fatah coalition and the wider Idlib offensive.
The Uighur jihadist group based in South Asia sent a message to the “honorable Mujahideen in Somalia” thanking them for the recent attack on the Jazeera hotel in Mogadishu.
The Jaysh al Fateh coalition, which includes the Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al Sham, and other allied-organizations, has launched a new offensive targeting the Al Ghab plain. The alliance claims to have already made significant gains.
The suicide bombers mean at least four have been used by the al Qaeda-affiliated Uighur jihadist group in Syria.
In the video, Hezbollah Brigades, which is a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, is seen operating an array of US military hardware, including M113 armored personnel carriers, HUMVEEs, and artillery.
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 Islamic State has used the suicide assault to demoralize and strike fear into the hearts of Iraqi troops, and often uses five or more suicide bombers during a single attack.
US intelligence agencies thought that Abdul Haq al Turkistani, a member of al Qaeda’s executive council, was killed in a drone strike in February 2010. But according to a jihadist media outlet, he was badly wounded but recovered and assumed command of the Turkistan Islamic Party in 2014.
The new propaganda film focuses on several Balkan fighters, as well as the events in the Balkans in the 1990’s. The video is just the latest attempt to showcase foreign fighters within its ranks.
The video features footage from recent fighting near the town of Karmah, just northeast of Fallujah.
The new video shows the group’s role in the recent fighting at Jisr al Shughur. The Turkistan Islamic Party has long fought in Syria alongside the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria.
Authorities in Shanghai arrested 10 Turkish nationals accused of providing fake passports to suspected Uighur terrorists who were trying to leave China. Nine Uighurs suspected of terrorist activity were also arrested; some allegedly confessed to plans to travel to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria.
China Uighurs: Xinjiang city of Urumqi to ban Islamic veil
A Western news report emerged that Uighur attackers armed with knives and explosives stormed a farmers’ market in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang province on Oct. 12, where they killed at least 22 ethnic Han merchants and policemen. Chinese news outlets have not reported the attack.
Detachment 88 counterterrorism forces have arrested four ethnic Uighurs in the Poso district of Sulewesi who had entered the country with fake passports and are suspected of links to the Islamic State. The suspects were reportedly trying to meet with Santoso, the head of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen. Militants in Santoso’s group are thought to […]
Authorities arrested Aini Aishan, 18, an ethnic Uighur, on suspicion of planning the killing Jume of Tahir, 74, the government-allied imam of China’s largest mosque, in at attack in Xinjiang last month. Security forces from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan participated in a joint antiterrorism drill. Eight men were recently executed in Xinjiang for […]
Authorities claimed that three knife-wielding Uighur militants killed Jume Tahir, the imam of the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, which is China’s largest mosque. Security forces killed two of the suspects and captured the third. Tahir was said to be a pro-government Uighur leader who cooperated with authorities in monitoring religious activities.
China and Uighurs Offer Differing Accounts of Violence in Xinjiang
Police in Shache county shot “dozens” of terrorists armed with axes and knives who had killed “dozens” of Uighur and Han civilians and attacked government buildings and a police station in Xinjiang’s Elixku township and then moved on to Huangdi township. The attack took place yesterday morning but was not reported until today.
Authorities charged four people, all apparently of Uighur origin, for the March 1 terrorist attack at Kunming train station in Yunnan. Courts in Xinjiang jailed 113 people following a mass trial on mainly terrorism-related charges.
China publicly sentenced nine people to prison for terrorism crimes, and arrested 14 people in Qapqal near the Kazakhstan border on suspicion of calling for holy war and attending terror training camps abroad. Last month authorities arrested 380 people for violence in Xinjiang. An open letter purporting to come from 200 Uighur writers, poets, and […]
Authorities named five people, all apparently Uighurs, as suspects in the May 22 bombings in Urumqi that killed 39 people. Four of them died in the attack and were identified by their DNA; the fifth suspect was arrested in Bayingolin. The five had engaged in “illegal religious activities” and formed a terrorist cell in late […]
The military launched a limited raid that targeted TIP fighters in a village just outside of Miramshah.
Authorities blamed religious extremists for yesterday’s suicide bomb and knife attack at a busy train station in Xinjiang. One of the two bombers was identified as Sedierding Shawuti, a Uighur. A spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress said 100 Uighurs had been arrested following the attack. President Xi, who had been visiting the region at […]
Authorities arrested three members of a Hezbollah cell in Thailand, including Thai citizen Y. Ayyad, a facilitator for the group in East Asia, and Lebanese nationals D. Farhat and B. Bahsoun. Two large groups of illegal Muslim immigrants arrested over the past several months in Thailand are thought to be Chinese Uighurs on their way […]
A knife incident between two Uighur vendors in Changsha left six people dead. The government suspects that Uighurs were involved in the Kunming knife attacks on March 1 in which 29 people were killed. Authorities have detained a human rights activist and three citizen journalists for reporting on a self-immolation in Tienanmen Square.
In Xinjiang’s Aksu prefecture, 11 terrorists who attacked a police patrol were killed and five police vehicles were damaged. Some of the attackers tried to use LNG cylinders in a car as suicide bombs. On Jan. 24, six terrorists were shot dead after attacking a police station in Aksu. Authorities said the number of terrorist […]