Tag Archives: ISIL





Estimated number of Guantanamo recidivists continues to rise

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its most recent statistics on Guantanamo recidivism this week. 208 former detainees are either confirmed or suspected of rejoining the jihad. 188 of them were transferred or released during the Bush administration and the remaining 20 by the Obama administration. The estimated number of recidivists has steadily climbed since 2008, when the government first provided statistics on this topic.


Terrorists in Normandy swore allegiance to Baghdadi before attacking church

The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency released a video purportedly showing the two terrorists responsible for yesterday’s assault on a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France. One of the two, identified as Abu Jalil al Hanafi, swears allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi on behalf of himself and his comrade. The Islamic State has also released a profile of Mohammad Daleel, the jihadist who blew himself up in Ansbach, Germany on July 24. The biography indicates that Daleel was a veteran of the jihad in Syria.


British Prime Minister highlights Islamic State’s threat to UK, West

In a memo submitted to the UK parliament, British Prime Minister David Cameron claimed that seven terrorist plots have been broken up in the UK in the past 12 months, the number of terrorism-related arrests is up 31%, and the Islamic State has an “external operations structure in Syria” that is devoted to planning attacks in the West.


US says Baghdadi’s top deputy killed in airstrike

The White House announced today that Fadhil Ahmad al Hayali (a.k.a. Hajji Mutazz), the deputy leader of the Islamic State, was killed in an airstrike on June 18. US military officials previously reported that he had been killed in December 2014. Al Hayali was one of the most senior leaders in the “caliphate,” and had wide-ranging responsibilities.


Ansar al Sharia Libya relaunches social media sites

Ansar al Sharia Libya now operates a radio station in Benghazi and several Twitter feeds. The group is at war with General Khalifa Haftar’s forces, but is promoting its governance efforts even while in the thick of battle. While a senior sharia official has defected to the Islamic State, there is no indication the group as a whole has followed suit.





Zawahiri again addresses jihadist infighting in Syria

In a newly released three-page statement, Ayman al Zawahiri again says that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) owed its allegiance to al Qaeda’s senior leadership before disobeying orders. Any pledges of allegiance collected by the ISIS since then “are null pledges, because they arose from a direct violation of my command as his direct emir,” he states.


















Al Qaeda official in Syria was extremist preacher in Australia

An Al Nusrah Front video released on March 17 features Abu Sulayman al Muhajir, who was an extremist preacher in Australia. Abu Sulayman says he relocated to Syria, where he was part of al Qaeda’s mediation effort in the dispute between Al Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). He criticizes ISIS in the video.