The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to jttmsubs@memri.org with "Membership" in the subject line.)
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EXCLUSIVE: In Letter To ISIS Leaders, Female ISIS Member Expresses Harsh Criticism
On January 27, 2016 a letter titled "A Reminder To The Leaders of The Islamic State" was published on JustPaste.it. It was circulated among pro-ISIS accounts on Telegram. The letter includes criticism focusing mainly on the treatment of widows in the Islamic State, and the insufficient funds provided to needy families living there. In her letter, Al-Muhajirah makes some bold statements. For example, she writes, in a direct challenge to the ISIS leadership: "If someone comes to you who is fit to be a leader, then allow him to lead if you truly hate leadership and want the best for the Caliphate." ISIS members have complained among themsleves in the past, but such criticism is almost never found in such a widely circulated document.
On January 23, 2016, the Islamic State (ISIS) in Sinai province released a 16-minute video titled "Messages from the Soil of Sinai 2", a sequel to a video released in March 2015. In the new video, posted on the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam and elsewhere, features a speaker whose face is blurred but who is most likely Abu Osama Al-Masri, a senior commander of ISIS in Sinai. Addressing the Muslims in Egypt, urging them to take up arms against the "tyrants" of the regime and enact Islamic law in the country. He states further that the mujahideen of the current generation should not count on the next generation but set out themselves to retake Palestine, as well as Constantinople and Rome.
In addition to his address, the video includes GoPro camera footage of an ISIS operation in which two policemen were assassinated in El-Arish (presumably the attack carried out in August 25, 2015). It ends with the final statement of a young fighter, Abu Baraa Al-Masri, who carried out a suicide mission at the Galala camp in Suez city (presumably on July 15, 2015).
On January 28, 2016, the media office of the Islamic State in Aden/Abyan released a statement claiming that one of the "Caliphate's soldiers," Abu Haneefa Al-Holandi ("the Dutchman"), detonated a car bomb inside the presidential palace in Aden, known as Al-Ma'sheeq.
In a new video, Khalifa Umar Mansoor, the emir of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the region of Darra Adamkhel and Peshawar, warned of terror attacks on schools, colleges, and universities in Pakistan and calling them foundations of kufr (unbelief).
It should be noted that the parent TTP organization officially denied responsibility for the January 20 attack on Bacha Khan University in Peshawar, but that Mansoor claimed responsibility for it. This means that Khalifa Umar Mansoor has practically split from the TTP. However, this video released by him carries the official logo of the TTP and is produced by Umar Media, the propaganda arm of the TTP.
The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 24, 2016, ISIS's Al-Hayat Media Center released a video titled "Kill Them Wherever You Find Them" (a reference to Koran 2:191), featuring the nine ISIS members who carried out the November 13, 2015 Paris attack and who were all killed during this attack or shortly after it. In the 18-minute video, prerecorded before the attack, the terrorists deliver threatening messages to France and to ISIS's other enemies, and seven of them follow their message with the execution of a prisoner (five of the terrorists behead their victims and two shoot them with a gun).
Yesterday's Islamic State (ISIS) video, which featured statements by the perpetrators of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, included two secret messages. One of these messages, which was both encrypted and decrypted, appeared at the beginning of the video, and detailed the targets for the Paris attacks. The second message, which was encrypted, came at the end of the video, and may include information about ISIS's next target, which the video implied would be the UK.
UK Woman Expresses Desire To Move To Syria
On January 26, 2016, a woman on Twitter expressed her desire to move to Syria, after complaining of harassment in the UK. Her Twitter account follows mainly follows Islamic State (ISIS) members and supporters. In addition to retweeting from ISIS accounts, however, she has also retweeted messages posted by some Jabhat Al-Nusra members and supporters. Fatima shares a lot of videos and images related to Syrian civilian victims of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and occasionally criticizes cultural and political practices in the West. Earlier, on January 16, she, she wrote: "I am sick and tired of being hassled for how I look. This hypocritical kaffir [infidel] land is insulting. May Allah grant us hijrah [immigration to Islamic land] soon."
In the wake of the January 2, 2016 execution in Saudi Arabia of dozens of Sunni clerics and mujahideen, on January 24, 2016, the general command of the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen, issued a communiqu├® that included condolences for the executions to the Muslim nation, to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Qassem Al-Rimi, and to mujahideen everywhere.
AQIM Announces On Telegram The Kidnapping Of Swiss Citizen In Mali, Issues Demands
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) announced in a January 26, 2016 video that it had kidnapped a Swiss national, Beatrice Stockly, and issued demands for her release.
The main speaker in the 8-minute video, which was circulated via AQIM Telegram channels and Twitter accounts, is an AQIM fighter who speaks in English. He claims that Stockly, "a Swiss nun who declared war on Islam," was captured by fighters from "AQIM's Sahara region" in Timbuktu in 2012, but was released on the order of its leader, Abu Mus'ab Abd Al-Wadoud. She was captured again in Timbuktu several weeks ago, having violated AQIM's condition for her release, that she refrain from engaging in missionary activity in any Muslim country.
In November 2014, the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM ) first reported on Invite to Islam, the Birmingham, UK-based organization which appears to have ties to the Islamic State (ISIS). ISIS members and supporters frequently circulate memes and graphics produced by the organization, across various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. In January 2016, the group launched a new website. While its previous website looked comparatively innocuous, the new one does not, and brazenly advertises its support for radicals such as American cleric Musa Jibril and the highly influential late Yemeni-American sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki. It should be noted that although prior to March 2015, Jibril's Internet access and social media use was restricted by his probation requirements, and that since 2014 he has posted no new material online, he remains very popular online on jihadi supporters' social media.
On January 26, 2015, a Telegram account posted a document with instructions and tips on stabbing tactics, as well as bomb and poison manufacturing, for those planning to kill Jews. The document was originally published October 2015 by the Ibn Taymiyya Media Center (ITMC) which features news on jihadi groups in Gaza.
Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) Releases More Videos In Its 'Call From The Frontlines Of Jihad' Series
The Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), an Al-Qaeda affiliate comprising mostly Uyghur fighters, has released two more videos in a series featuring messages from its fighters in Syria. Four videos have been released so far in the series, which is titled "A Call From The Frontlines Of Jihad."
The Jamia Hafsa YouTube channel, belonging to the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad and its girls' madrassa Jamia Hafsa, has released a video featuring the controversial radical Pakistani cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz criticizing the "Shia-Qadiani-Secular lobby" in the Pakistani media and politics for harassing him by implicating him in false court cases.
Indian Journalist's Report Warns Of 'Possibility Of Lone-Wolf Attack' In India
Following are excerpts from a report by Indian journalist Bharti Jain warning of the likelihood of lone-wolf terror attacks in India. The report, titled "Possibility of lone-wolf attack has to be reviewed," was published by The Times of India daily on January 21, 2016:
The state of Uttarakhand is not far from New Delhi
"The arrest of four ISIS-inspired operatives from [the northern Indian state of] Uttarakhand marks the transformation of the ISIS from an irritant or a source of worry for the Indian security establishment to a 'real' threat to internal security.
Indian Media Report: ISIS Paying Indian Hackers Upwards Of $10,000 For Each Job
According to an Indian magazine, the Islamic State (ISIS) is luring Indian hackers with top dollar payments to hack into government websites and steal sensitive data.
