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Al Nusrah Front raids villages controlled by rebel group in Homs province
Al Nusrah Front has accused the Shuhadaa Al Baydhaa brigade in the northern part of Homs province of secretly serving Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s Islamic State. The brigade denies this allegation. Al Nusrah raided villages under Shuhadaa Al Baydhaa’s control and claims to have captured “spoils.” The move may be intended to secure a supply route for Al Nusrah into Homs.
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Turkistan Islamic Party shows US-made machine gun, captured drone
The Uighur group continues to fight alongside Al Nusrah Front, an official branch of al Qaeda, in northwestern Syria.
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Islamic State video congratulates Sinai ‘province’ for downing Russian airliner
The Islamic State’s Aleppo “province” has released a video congratulating its brothers in the Sinai “province” for downing a Russian airliner on October 31. The video is at least the fourth time that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash. The group has not provided evidence proving its culpability thus far, but Western officials say it is increasingly likely.
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Chechen group says it took ‘spoils’ from Russian forces in Syria
The predominately Chechen group also says it fighters recaptured a hill from Russian forces in the Latakia province in recent days.
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Al Qaeda front group claims success in key Syrian town
Jund al Aqsa, an al Qaeda front group, claims to have seized all or parts of Morek, a key town that sits on a major highway connecting Aleppo and Hama. In October, Jund al Aqsa broke with the Jaysh al Fateh coalition, which was co-founded by Al Nusrah Front, but the organization remains loyal to al Qaeda.
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Senior IRGC officers killed during fighting in Syria
A brigadier general and a colonel from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed while fighting jihadists and rebels. Nine other IRGC members, including two lower-level officers, were also killed in Syria over the past three weeks.
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Al Qaeda chief calls for jihadist unity to ‘liberate Jerusalem’
In a newly released audio message, Ayman al Zawahiri calls for unity to “liberate” Jerusalem. Zawahiri argues that the jihadists must strike the West and build Islamic states in the Levant and Egypt in order to achieve this goal.
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Syrian rebels use caged civilians, fighters to deter airstrikes
Jaysh al Islam is reportedly using captured civilians and fighters as human shields to deter airstrikes in the Al Ghouta region of Damascus.
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Jihadists in Syria train for urban warfare
The Islamic State is training its forces inside Palmyra, a city under its control, while Al Nusrah is instructing fighters near the contested city of Aleppo.
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Shabaab’s leadership fights Islamic State’s attempted expansion in East Africa
Shabaab’s leadership has actively opposed the Islamic State’s expansion in East Africa. The Islamic State has made a major push via propaganda videos to encourage defections, but only a small cadre of Shabaab fighters has switched allegiance to the “caliphate” thus far.
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Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al Sham, Ajnad al Sham form anti-Russian alliance in Damascus countryside
Three jihadist groups have formed Jund al Malahim (“Soldiers of the Epics”), a joint operations room opposed to the Assad regime and Russian forces in the Ghouta region of Damascus.
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Al Qaeda appears ‘moderate’ compared to Islamic State, veteran jihadist says
The second edition of Al Risalah magazine features an interview with Usama Hamza Australi, who joined al Qaeda in mid-2001 after leaving the Australian military. Al Qaeda senior leadership sent him to Syria to train Al Nusrah Front’s fighters in guerrilla warfare.
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US Special Forces, Kurdish troops raid Islamic State prison in Iraq
The military’s claim that the US troops who participated in the operation were military advisers and not engaged in a combat mission is implausible, given the involvement of Delta Force operators. One US soldier was killed.
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Qods Force commander photographed with Iraqi militia in Aleppo
The photo comes just days after Soleimani was spotted in Latakia addressing Iranian and Syrian troops. The Syrian regime also relies on Shiite militias from Iraq and elsewhere, which are often trained and advised by the Iranian Qods Force.
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US military confirms it killed senior al Qaeda strategist Sanafi al Nasr in airstrike in Syria
The Department of Defense confirmed that the senior al Qaeda strategist, who was dispatched years ago by al Qaeda from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region to Syria, was killed in an airstrike on Oct. 15. Nasr’s death is a blow to al Qaeda.
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Jihadists claim senior al Qaeda strategist killed in Syria
Online jihadists are claiming that an al Qaeda leader known as Sanafi al Nasr has been killed in an airstrike in Syria. Nasr’s death is not confirmed and he has been reported dead before. The latest claims come from al Qaeda members who apparently knew Nasr and interacted with him online.
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Turkistan Islamic Party shows fighters on frontlines in northwestern Syria
The Uighur jihadist group plays a role in assisting Al Qaeda in northwestern Syria.
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Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani rallies Iranian officers, Hezbollah in Syria
Photographs show the notorious Qods Force commander addressing Iranian officers and Hezbollah forces in Latakia. Iran is reported to have deployed significant forces, estimated at thousands of troops, to support the Assad regime’s offensive in northwestern Syria.
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Head of al Qaeda’s Syrian branch threatens Russia in audio message
Abu Muhammad al Julani, the head of al Qaeda’s Al Nusrah Front in Syria, addresses Russia’s intervention in an audio message. Julani calls for reprisal attacks against Russians and says the jihadists must strike Shiite villages in order to extract concessions from Bashar al Assad’s regime.
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Iraqi military targets Islamic State emir’s convoy in Anbar
The Iraqi military claimed it targeted Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the emir of the Islamic State, as he was traveling to meet with other commanders of his organization at a location on the border with Syria. The fate of Baghdadi, who has been reported killed or wounded several times in the past, is unknown.
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Islamic State kills Iranian general in Syria
Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani is the third senior Iraqi military adviser who has been killed in the Syrian-Iraqi theater since the beginning of the year.
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US adds Islamic State, Caucasus Emirates operatives to terrorism list
The designations include three jihadists from the Russian Caucasus, including Omar al Shishani’s deputy and a Turkey-based “overseas emissary.” A recruiter from the United Kingdom was also designated.
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Crimean Jamaat reportedly pledges allegiance to Al Nusrah Front
The ranks of the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, continue to swell with foreign fighters.
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Al Nusrah Front tweets photos of Russian airstrikes
Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has posted several photos purportedly showing Russia’s airstrikes. Al Nusrah also posted two images of leaflets dropped by the Assad regime.
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Ahrar al Sham claims rocket attacks on airbase where Russians are stationed
Ahrar al Sham claims to have launched Grad rockets at the Hmeimim airbase in the Latakia province of Syria earlier today. Russian forces are stationed at the airbase.
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Al Qaeda brigade claims attack on Russian forces in Syria
On the same day that Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad, a mainly Uzbek jihadist group, swore allegiance to Al Nusrah Front, it claimed an attack on Russian forces in the Latakia province of Syria.
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Uzbek group pledges allegiance to Al Nusrah Front
The mainly Uzbek group, Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad, has formally pledged allegiance to Al Nusrah Front. However, it was always under al Qaeda’s influence.
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US counterterrorism efforts in Syria: A winning strategy?
Testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade on the US counterterrorism strategy in Syria. “The West’s involvement is ad hoc, tactical and reactionary.”
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US-backed rebels handed over equipment to al Qaeda in Syria
CENTCOM has conceded that rebels belonging to the so-called “New Syrian Forces” turned over equipment and ammunition to Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria. This is the latest setback for the US effort to train and equip Syrian rebels.
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Uighur jihadist group in Syria advertises ‘little jihadists’
The Turkistan Islamic Party continues to highlight children in jihadist training. It is known to operate training camps for minors in both Syria and in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
