Four Americans, including two service members, were killed when an Islamic State suicide bomber struck in Manbij, Syria earlier today. Read more >
President Trump claimed earlier today that the Islamic State has been "defeated" in Syria. But an unknown number of the group's top leaders, including presumably Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remain alive. And there are likely thousands of fighters in both Syria and Iraq, where they operate as insurgents. Read more >
In the past 24 hours, the Islamic State has conducted more than one suicide bombing against US-backed forces in Hajin, Syria. One Islamic State "martyr" blew himself up near the Hajin hospital, which became the scene of intense fighting earlier this week. Read more >
The US-led coalition announced today that Abu al Umarayn and "several" other Islamic State leaders were killed in recent airstrikes in Syria. Umarayn was purportedly involved in the 2014 murder of Peter Kassig, a former US Army Ranger who was working as a humanitarian worker in Syria. Read more >
While the Treasury designation focuses on the four Iraqis' links to Hezbollah, which is described as "a terrorist proxy for the Iranian regime that seeks to undermine Iraqi sovereignty and destabilize the Middle East," it practically ignores the fact that one of them is the Secretary General of the Imam Ali Battalions, or Kata’ib Imam Ali, a key component of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an official military arm of the Iraqi state that reports directly to the prime minister. Read more >
Katibat Ghuraba al Turkistan, a smaller predominately Uighur jihadist group in northwestern Syria, recently trained with the elite Malhama Tactical thereby not only raising its credentials, but also its battlefield prowess. Read more >
Hay'at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the most powerful jihadist organization in Idlib province, has finally issued a statement addressing the agreement reached between Turkey and Russia last month. HTS vows to continue waging jihad, and warns that it doesn't trust Russia's "intentions," but does not directly repudiate the Sochi accord. Read more >
Iranian and Syrian officials on 27 August signed a military agreement that highlights their symbiotic relationship. Read more >
Despite official Lebanese claims to the contrary, the photos recently released by Hezbollah offer more evidence of how its forces coordinated with the Lebanese military in last year's battle near Arsal. Read more >
The public seldom hears from the reclusive Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who last released a speech nearly a year ago. But in his latest message, Baghdadi downplays the loss of his territorial caliphate while claiming the US has entered a new stage of "weakness." Read more >
The majority of coalition strikes over the past three months have been concentrated in Abu Kamal, a critical border crossing on the southern border between Iraq and Syria. Read more >
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. Read more >
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. Read more >
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. Read more >
Ansar al-Islam raided an Assad regime military position in the Latakia province yesterday, killing more than two dozen Assad loyalists. The attack was widely celebrated on Sunni jihadist social media channels. Ansar al-Islam is a small jihadist group that originated in Iraq, but has fought in Syria for years. Read more >
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Afghanistan and Syria has long operated as part of the Taliban-al Qaeda axis. Earlier this year, however, the TIP's Syrian branch sided with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) during its battles with other rebel groups. This infighting and related events have complicated the picture with respect to the TIP in Syria. One TIP-affiliated outlet claimed earlier this year that the group's senior management had sent new leadership from Afghanistan to Syria. Read more >
Liwa Zulfiqar's secretary general was seen in a Syrian military operations room for ongoing operations in Syria's southern Deraa province. Read more >
The Islamic State announced today that Hudhayfah al-Badri, the son of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, has been killed during a raid on Syrian and Russian forces in Homs province. Al-Badri's death was announced via a graphic that is part of the Islamic State's "Caravan of the Martyrs" series, which has featured deceased jihadists from around the globe. The so-called caliphate has offered few details concerning al-Badri's purported death. Read more >
An Iranian-controlled Iraqi Shia militia advertised its presence in the current Syrian regime offensive in the southern province of Deraa. The photos provide evidence for Iranian involvement in the offensive. Read more >
Hay'at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and its jihadist rivals in the "Guardians of Religion" organization have called on all Muslims to resist the Assad regime's new offensive in southern Syria. However, severe infighting has limited the jihadists' ability to launch sustained operations against the Assad regime and its allies. Read more >
Although Iranian-aligned forces have reportedly agreed to withdraw from a buffer zone near the Jordanian and Israeli borders, the threat of Iranian expansion remains high. Read more >
Various Shia militias from around the Middle East have expressed their support or condolences for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Brigades, which was targeted in unclaimed airstrikes in eastern Syria on Sunday. Read more >
Saraya al Mokhtar sends its condolences and congratulations to the Hezbollah Brigades for being the target of recent airstrikes in eastern Syria. At the same time, the Bahraini group also unveiled a new logo. Read more >
US-backed Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) reportedly killed the Islamic State executioner Talip Akkurt, known by his nom de guerre Abu Talha al Turki, who burned two Turkish soldiers alive in Syria in 2016. Al Turki was reported dead following a June 7 SDF attack in Deir Ezzor’s Hajin town. Since... Read more >
The foreign fighters include one Canadian and three French-speaking militants. The latter bunch likely belong to Omar Diaby's Firqatul Ghuraba, a French jihadist outfit in Syria. Read more >
In a lengthy audio message released on Apr. 22, Islamic State spokesman Abu-al-Hasan al-Muhajir claims that the US is retreating from Iraq and Syria. He argues that his group is in a better condition than when the US withdrew its forces from Iraq in 2011. He advises the Islamic State's members that they should prepare for the war against the Russians and Iranians, who are filling the void left by the Americans. Read more >
Earlier today, Israel struck the T-4 military air base in Syria’s Homs Governorate. At least four Iranians including a Colonel died in the attack. Read more >
The US-led coalition said in a statement that "much work remains to defeat" Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's organization in Iraq and Syria. The statement is at odds with the White House's view that ISIS has been "almost completely destroyed.” Read more >
The White House declared on Apr. 4 that the "military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed." But ISIS continues to operate in several areas of Syria, as well as in Iraq, which wasn't even mentioned in the White House's statement. Read more >
Jihadists and Islamists in Syria have denounced the US government's decision to designate Katibat Imam al Bukhari (KIB) as a terrorist organization. The KIB's own statement on the designation includes misleading claims and some of those defending the group have their own al Qaeda links. Read more >
The latest edition of al Qaeda's Al-Nafir news bulletin addresses the jihadists' infighting in Syria. Al Qaeda has been forced to comment on the disputes multiple times over the past year. Read more >
The State Department announced today that Joe Asperman, a French national, has been designated as a terrorist. Asperman works as "a senior chemical weapons expert for ISIS" and "oversaw chemical operations production within Syria for ISIS and the deployment of these chemical weapons at the battlefront." Read more >
Katibat Imam al Bukhari (also known as the Imam Bukhari Jamaat), an Uzbek jihadist group that operates in Syria and Afghanistan, has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department today. Read more >
The helicopter that crashed is used to conduct search and rescue as well as Air Force special operations missions. Read more >
Turkistan Islamic Party fighters, alongside the Afghan Taliban, released a video showing the combined forces overrunning remote Afghan military outposts in mountainous terrain. Read more >
Abu Muhammad al Filistini, the recently killed leader of a Palestinian jihadist faction in Syria, was recently eulogized by a reported senior commander in the al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Lebanon. Filistini, whose real name was Ibrahim Khaza'il, was also reportedly a member of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Read more >
The US Treasury Department has further exposed the Islamic State's international network by designating three facilitators as terrorists. The men have operated in the Philippines, Somalia, Turkey and elsewhere. One of them operates a business in Turkey that has acquired drone components for the so-called caliphate. Read more >
The leader of Saraya Ghuraba Filistin invites Lebanese jihadists, and specifically other Palestinians in the Ain el Helwe refugee camp, to join his group and fight inside Syria. Read more >
In a newly-released audio message, Ayman al Zawahiri blames Islamist parties in Tunisia and Egypt for the failure of the Arab uprisings to deliver sharia-based governance. Read more >
Uighur jihadist group in Syria, Katibat al Ghuraba al Turkistan, has created a Palestinian sub-unit to accommodate its Palestinian and Arab members. Read more >
The video does not make clear where the ambush took place, but Katibat Imam al Bukhari has advertised its role fighting in the northern Afghan province of Faryab in the past. Read more >
While Katibat al Ghuraba al Turkistan (KGT) appears to be small, it is yet another group in northwestern Syria containing ethnic Uighurs. Read more >
The jihad in Syria has unleashed another leadership crisis for al Qaeda. Read more >
On Nov. 17, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and FDD's Long War Journal held an event to discuss the findings from the recently released documents from Osama bin Laden’s compound. Read more >
The Iraqi Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba has posted photos of its Iranian commander, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani, inspecting positions near Al Bukamal in Syria near the Iraqi border. Read more >
Coalition forces killed 15 senior and mid-level Islamic State leaders and commanders, including two external operations planners, in a series of airstrikes that have taken place in eastern Syria and Western Iraq over the past two months. Read more >
The footage of the convoy is undated, but it offers a good look into the Turkistan Islamic Party's strength, size, and importance on the battlefield. Read more >
The Syrian military has taken full control of Deir Ezzour, while Iraqi troops and Iranian supported militias ejected the Islamic State from Al Qaim. Read more >
Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Russia have spearheaded the operation to capture the Islamic State-held city of al Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province, eastern Syria. Read more >
The battles between the jihadist forces come as both are also engaged in wider battles with the regime in Hama province. Read more >
