The Biden administration is reportedly debating removing Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) from the list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. However, while the group’s leader, Abu Muhammad al Jolani, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, attempts to portray HTS as moderate, a host of jihadist groups—many designated as Foreign Terror Organizations—fight under the banner of or are allied with HTS.
On March 19, Turkey’s defense ministry announced the death of two Turkish soldiers at the hands of “radical elements” in northwest Syria’s Idlib. The attack highlights Ankara’s challenges in the Syrian province.
A coalition of Qaeda-linked jihadist groups in northwestern Syria detail their recent operations.
For the first time in five years, the jihadist group has claimed an attack in its native Iraq.
The Turkistan Islamic Party, “Incite the Believers” operations room and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham are all battling Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists in Latakia, Syria.
The “Incite the Believers” operations room has called for an independent sharia court to settle the disputes between rival insurgents in Syria. “Incite the Believers” was established by the “Guardians of Religion” organization, Ansar al-Din Front, and Ansar al-Islam late last year.
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.
Al Qaeda’s rebranded guerrilla army in Syria is fighting alongside other jihadists, Islamists and Free Syrian Army-branded rebels in an offensive intended to break the Assad regime’s siege of Aleppo. Most of the participating groups belong to two coalitions: Jaysh al Fath (“Army of Conquest”) and Fatah Halab (“Aleppo Conquest”). These same two alliances tried and failed to break the siege earlier this year.
More than 20 jihadist, Islamist and other rebel organizations took part in the offensive to break the siege of Aleppo. It was likely one of the largest combined efforts in the history of the Syrian war.
The Uzbek Imam Bukhari Jamaat joins several other jihadist groups and rebel factions in the battle for the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud.
Despite being forced largely underground in Iraq, Ansar al Islam continues to operate in Syria against regime and now Kurdish forces.
The cover story of the Islamic State’s recently released issue of Dabiq, an English-language magazine, is written by an alleged al Qaeda defector known as Abu Jarir ash-Shamali. The group has been trying to win over al Qaeda’s and the Taliban’s supporters, but Shamali’s piece criticizes Osama bin Laden’s jihadist legacy and the Taliban. Shamali also provides new details about how al Qaeda is currently structured.
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Ansar al Islam, an al Qaeda-affiliated group that operates in Iraq and Syria, has been cooperating with the Al Nusrah Front and the Chechen-led Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar in the fighting for two Shiite villages in northern Aleppo.
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.
In one tweet earlier this month, Ansar al Islam implied that it had a hand in the killing of a top Iraqi general. But this claim cannot be independently verified and the few details offered by the group conflict with published reports based on Iraqi government sources.
While Sunni Iraqi support of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham is not monolithic, the central government’s security forces are unlikely to decisively uproot the terrorist organization from the more distant provinces of Iraq anytime soon.
Ansar al Islam, a jihadist group founded in September 2001, has released a set of propaganda photos showing its claimed operations in Iraq. The photos purport to show the organization’s control over a highway between Tikrit and Kirkuk, captured spoils, and its willingness to grant amnesty to members of Iraq’s security forces.
Ansar al Islam, a jihadist group founded in northern Iraq in September 2001, has claimed a number of attacks against the Iraqi government since the rebel offensive began earlier this month.
Today’s attack is similar to a series of suicide and car bombings in Baghdad that took place on Dec. 22, 2011.
The terror group was formed in 2007 and operates under the aegis of al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq.
Ansar al Islam, an al Qaeda-linked terror group based in northern Iraq, named Abu Hashim Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman al Ibrahim as its new emir.
Prime Minister Maliki’s crackdown on the Sunni leadership threatens to plunge Iraq into civil war.
Ansar al Islam claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in Baghdad on Oct. 6, 10, and 13. The terror group said it killed more than 60 Iraqis in attacks on policemen and Shia militias in the Sadr City, Al Washash, and Al Atefiyah neighborhoods.
Hisham Muhammad Isma’il Abu Ghazala is also linked to Ansar al Islam and has served as an IED and attack facilitator in northern Iraq.