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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The following is a message to France from the Mujahideen of Syria that was posted on the Internet on January 23, 2013.
Jihadist: "This message is addressed to the French Republic and its people from the mujahideen of Syria, following the French government's decision to attack our noble brothers, who instated the shari'a, who fought polytheism, who spread monotheism in northern Mali – the law of Allah, the shari'a, the only legislation to which a Muslim may submit.
"The most fundamental right of a Muslim is to live according to his religion, and his duty is to strive to instate it on the lands of Islam. A mujahid fights so that the word of Allah may reign supreme.
"The simple reason that drives France and its allies to attack and kill those who establish the shari'a in Muslim countries is that they want to maintain the subservient regimes that agreed to be their vassals, to serve their interests in Muslim countries, and to oppress them with their tyranny. As a result of the decision of the French government, which is not satisfied with preventing our virtuous sisters from donning the veil in accordance with Allah's decree, and with constantly fighting Islam and the Muslims..."
AQAP Calls On France To Exit Mali, Says Intervention Will Bring 'Scourge And Woe' Upon French People
On January 24, 2013, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) issued an audio statement calling on France to stop its "aggression" in Mali and focus instead on its troubled economy and domestic affairs. A link to the statement was originally posted to the Twitter account of one "'Abdallah bin Muhammad," who also used the account to publish a missing segment from an AQAP video in which the group offered a bounty in gold to anyone who killed the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, or any American soldier stationed there.
Weapons Used In Algeria Gas Plant Raid Were Bought From Libyan Rebels
Echoroukonline.com, the official website of the Algerian daily Echorouk, reported that Tahir Abu Shanab, the commander of the attack on the gas installation and the kidnapping of dozens of local and foreign workers, had purchased the weapon used in the raid from the Zintan rebels, a militant group from the city of Zintan, which took part in toppling Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi's regime.
Leaflets Distributed By Purported Al-Qaeda Group In Egypt: We Will Defend Mursi
In anticipation of the Friday, January 25 demonstrations set to take place in Egypt, unknown elements using Al-Qaeda's name distributed leaflets throughout the country vowing to defend President Mursi. The leaflets bore the Al-Qaeda banner, and were signed by "Qa'idat Al-Jihad fi Misr," or Al-Qaeda in Egypt. The authors declared that President Mursi was "Allah's caliph" and that they were bound by a pledge of allegiance to him. They swore to honor that pledge with their lives in the face of threats from secularists to topple him.
Former Gitmo Prisoner, AQAP Deputy Commander Sa'id Al-Shihri Reported Killed in Yemen
According to the Saudi TV channel Al-Arabiya, a source close to the family of Sa'id Al-Shihri, aka Abu Sufyan Al-Azdi, said he had died after being targeted in a joint Yemeni-U.S. military operation in the second week of December 2012. Al-Arabiya TV did not provide further details as to the circumstances that led to the death of Al-Shihri, a former Gitmo prisoner who was among the founders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in 2009 and the group's deputy commander, and who fled his native Saudi Arabia to Yemen after completing a rehabilitation program for jihadis. AQAP has neither confirmed nor denied the latest report of Al-Shihri's death, which has been reported several times in the last two years.
On January 22, 2013, the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) released a German translation of the previously published fatwa by late U.S.-Yemeni jihadi cleric Anwar Al-'Awlaki, which dealt with the permissibility of targeting the populations in countries that are at war with Muslims. The original fatwa was published in in Issue VIII of Inspire, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) English-language magazine.
On January 21, 2013, the Shabakat Al-Marsad Al-Ikhbariyya – an Islamic human rights organization based in London and headed by Yasser Al-Siri – published an interview it conducted with Iyad Ag Ghali, leader of the Ansar Al-Din group, which operates in northern Mali (Azawad). In the interview, Iyad Ag Ghali said that his group holds Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traoré the "full responsibility" for the unfolding events in Mali after the recent French and West African ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) military intervention against Islamists in the region. Iyad Ag Ghali warned that the flames of the war being sought by those African nations will reach "all nations of the region."
Iyad Ag Ghali
Iyad Ag Ghali called the decision to intervene militarily in northern Mali "short-sighted" and biased, and said it was aimed at serving the interests of one segment (i.e. African) of the Malian population, while ignoring those of the other (i.e. Berber) which have longed faced a policy of oppression and marginalization. Iyad Ag Ghali said that the intervention will further deteriorate the fragile situation between the two groups, and will lead to missing out on a "historical chance" to maintaining Mali's unity.
