After being offline for more than two weeks, several major jihadi forums have returned to normal activity.
On December 3, 2012, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated forums Shumoukh Al-Islam and Al-Fida' Al-Islamiyya went offline without warning. They were followed several days later by the Arabic Ansar Al-Mujahideen forum. All three forums came back online today (December 18, 2012).
It should be noted that the operators of Al-Fida' - a forum run by Al-Qaeda's media company Al-Fajr - use the services of Whoisguard, a company based in Los Angeles, CA, to hide the identity of the website's owners.[1]
A statement issued by the Al-Fida' administrators implies that the shutdown was caused by a deliberate attack. It should be noted that the statement, as well as the fact of the forums' near-simultaneous shutdown and return, confirm the close connection between them, as well as their ties with Al-Qaeda's media company, Al-Fajr, which uses them as its distribution arm.
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