Since early September, the US has issued terrorist designations for Islamic State moneymen operating around the globe, from the Caribbean to East Africa. The designations highlight the diverse sources the so-called caliphate uses to fund its insurgency and terrorist operations.
In a newly released message, Islamic State spokesman Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir boasts that his organization’s men were able to carry out the Sept. 22 terrorist attack in Ahvaz, Iran. Al-Muhajir’s message is intended to underscore the Islamic State’s responsibility for the operation, as there were conflicting claims regarding the identity of the perpetrators.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a short video allegedly showing three of the men responsible for yesterday’s attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, Iran.
Gunmen attacked an Iranian military parade in Ahvaz earlier today. Initial reports say two dozen or more people were killed and dozens more wounded. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility. But media outlets say another group, the Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahwaz, has as well.
Iran has its tentacles all over Iraq, and the United States has no one to blame but itself. It is a bipartisan failure dating back to the March 2003 invasion. The seeds of this failure can be seen in the interrogation transcripts of Qayis Khazali, the leader of the Mahdi Army’s Special Groups and Asaib Ahl al Haq.
The press release that announced Orakzai’s death said that he “is the third Islamic State – Khorasan chief killed in 25 months.” However, that is incorrect. The US military has announced the death of four Khorasan province emirs since July 2016.
A newly released interrogation report shows that Qayis al-Khazali identified Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani as the two individuals Iran trusted “the most with attempting to implement the Iranian agenda in Iraq.” The pair went from being marginal players shortly after the US-led invasion in 2003 to leading the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, one of most powerful and influential military organizations in Iraq.
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.
On Aug. 24, the US Treasury Department designated three Islamic State recruiters as terrorists. The trio appeared in a June 2016 beheading video that was used to recruit fighters from Southeast Asia. The new designation is the latest in a series of moves taken by the US government to target the Islamic State’s global network with financial sanctions and other measures.
Bajauri’s death is likely to be touted as a strategic blow to Khorasan province. However, the US military has killed the three previous leaders in the span of 25 months, and yet the group has expanded its operations.
At a Pentagon press conference, General Nicholson again gave a Pollyannish assessment of the state of Afghanistan. He claimed the peace process is working and the Taliban’s offensive is failing, and took credit for a Taliban victory over the Islamic State.
An assailant stabbed a small number of people in Trappes, west of Paris, earlier today. The Islamic State quickly claimed via its Amaq News Agency that the attacker was one of its “fighters.” Authorities are investigating the incident, and the possibility it was a family dispute turned violent. Some reports say the two people killed were the “attacker’s mother and sister.”
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.”
A team of nine Islamic State jihadists launched a mortar attack in Kabul yesterday as President Ashraf Ghani was delivering a speech. NATO’s Resolute Support touts the efficacy of the Afghans’ response, but the Islamic State’s network continues to regularly launch operations in the Afghan capital.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a short video purportedly showing the four young males responsible for attacks on police in Chechnya yesterday. Chechen authorities have said the attackers were all younger than 17 years-old, with the youngest being just 11. Amaq’s video shows youth in that age range swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a school in the Afghan capital yesterday. The so-called caliphate’s jihadists regularly target Shiite civilians in its “suicide and complex attacks.”
The video, which purports to show several foreign Islamic State militants surrendering to the Taliban, allows for a more detailed look at the composition of the group in northern Afghanistan.
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.
The complex Taliban operation that was designed to eject the Islamic State from Jawzjan highlights the Taliban’s ability to coordinate and mass for attacks in the Afghan north. However it is unlikely that the Islamic State has been “completely defeated” in the north.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a short video allegedly showing five young jihadists swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before they attacked cyclists in Tajikistan. The video is similar to a number of others released after small-scale attacks since mid-2016.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a school for midwives in Jalalabad, Afghanistan yesterday, saying the target was a headquarters for USAID. Despite a focused, US-led counterterrorism campaign against Wilayah Khorasan in Nangarhar, the group retains an operational footprint in eastern Afghanistan.
In 2017, LWJ reported unprecedented levels of airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen. Thus far in 2018, the United States has sustained its high strike tempo in Somalia and improved transparency on its air campaign in Yemen. Strikes in Pakistan have leveled off, however press restrictions make tracking operations there difficult. In Libya, the U.S. has targeted jihadists sparingly.
Authorities are investigating whether there are any ties, digital or otherwise, between Faisal Hussain and the Islamic State. The so-called caliphate’s Amaq News Agency issued a short statement today claiming that Hussain was the Islamic State’s “soldier.” The statement mirrors the language used in a series of other claims of responsibility for attacks in the West and elsewhere.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that struck near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul only minutes after Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum passed through the area.
The photo-set is at least the second this month showing clashes with the Taliban in the Afghan north.
The rise of the Islamic State in Jawzjan province over the past year has threatened the Taliban’s operations in the Afghan north.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that the Taliban was responsible for more civilian casualties than any other party in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2018.
The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the Afghan government’s Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry in Kabul earlier today. The so-called caliphate dispatched a suicide bomber to strike the same ministry in June.
The Islamic State has targeted key jihadist and Islamist leaders in Idlib province in recent weeks. The so-called caliphate’s assassination campaign has focused on prominent figures in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as well as other groups.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing at an election rally in Mastung, Baluchistan earlier today. More than 100 people were killed and dozens more wounded. The so-called caliphate has identified the bomber as Abu Bakr al-Pakistani and claims that a Pakistani intelligence official was among the victims.