Article In Issue 12 Of ISIS-K Magazine 'Voice Of Khurasan' Titled 'What Our Enemies Are Thinking,' Evaluates Western Perspective Of Threat From Islamic State

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An article, titled "What Our Enemies Are Thinking," in Issue 12 of "Voice of Khurasan," which is published Al-Azaim Foundation, which is the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISIS-K), quotes Western military leaders, experts, and think tanks on their assessment of the threat from the Islamic State.

A screenshot of the article under review

Issue 12 of the magazine is dated Muharram 1444 Hijri, the month beginning July 31, 2022, and is the second issue released this month.

Following is the text of the article:[1]

"General Kenneth McKenzie, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, put it to a USIP [United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC] audience in 2020: 'The enduring defeat of ISIS has got to incorporate a way forward for the displaced persons and all the people that are at risk across the theater; if not, we are actually never really going to defeat ISIS and the problem is going to come back.'

"Analysts, government officials, NGO leaders and members of the community have a wide range of descriptions for al-Hawl [refugee camp in Syria], calling it a 'ticking time bomb,' the 'Guantanamo of the Middle East,' an 'ISIS Depot,' 'ISIS University,' or 'the Caliphate,' among other names.

"Some use these references in an attempt to raise the urgency of the need to address the crisis, while others use it to state that the camp's residents are dangerous. A UN report revealed: 'Since June 2020 under an ambitious new leader, Shahab al-Muhajir, the affiliate (IS[IS]-K) 'remains active and dangerous,' and is seeking to swell its ranks with disaffected Taliban fighters and other militants.'

"'They have not been a first-tier ISIS affiliate, but with the Afghan [army] commandos gone and the American military gone, does that give them breathing room? It could,' said Seth G. Jones, an Afghanistan specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."

A screenshot from the article

"Nathan Sales, a former Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism as well as former Special Presidential Envoy to the Coalition to Defeat ISIS, told Fox News Digital, a Turkish invasion [of Syria] would be a disaster for the fight against ISIS. The SDF has 10,000 battle-hardened ISIS fighters in custody. If these terrorists escape in the ensuing chaos, they will either try to rebuild the so-called 'caliphate' in Syria or return to their home countries to continue their jihad there.

"The International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a new study, The SDF's willingness and ability to counter ISIS is contingent on continued U.S. military support, and perhaps also lowered Turkish and regime threats to its rule. Fighting between Turkey and the SDF along the Syrian-Turkish border almost certainly would relieve pressure on ISIS.

"'Al-Hawl is a job unfinished. I can almost guarantee that if we allow conditions there to go on, unresolved, in the coming years we will find ourselves being drawn back to the region, to deal with a next-generation Islamic State that got its start at Al-Hawl,' said Joseph L. Votel, a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army."

The above text is followed by a quote from former ISIS spokesman Mujahid Shaykh Abu Umar Al-Muhajir: "We advise you, Oh lions of the Khilafah [caliphate] in all the Wilayats [provinces of ISIS], to be pious in secret and public, and have patience over hardships, do not fear that your numbers are small, and do not become arrogant if your numbers are large. Know that we are fighting the people until they worship Allah and do not worship anything else besides him. It is an invitation for them with weapons and tongues. Do not become tired by the long route or by the hurdles you encounter, for they will only last in this lifetime, and then 'On the Day when every soul will come disputing for itself, and every soul will be fully compensated for what it did, and they will not be wronged' – (Koran Chapter An-Nahl: 111)."