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.)
Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi To Salafi-Jihadis: Focus On Battle For Hearts And Minds
Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi
On April 10, 2013, the Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad (MTJ) website posted a letter by leading cleric Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi to his followers titled "Precious Advice for the Supporters of the Lofty Shari'a" (al-wasaya al-ghaliyya li-ansar al-shari'a al-'aliyya).
The letter, containing advice for the Salafi-jihadi groups and their supporters in the post-Arab Spring era, is a follow-up to a previous letter posted by Al-Maqdisi on the same website several days earlier. The two letters are very similar in their topics, themes and content, and some passages are even identical. However, the second letter is more explicit in detailing certain developments and trends and in naming specific groups. For instance, it contains Al-Maqdisi's first explicit mention of the Ansar Al-Shari'a groups and of Jabhat Al-Nusra in Syria (which now publicly acknowledged its allegiance to Al-Qaeda).
AQAP's Sa'id Al-Shihri Urges Saudis To Act Against U.S. Drone Bases
On April 10, 2013, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)'s media company, Al-Malahim, released a new audio recording by Sa'id Al-Shihri, the group's second in command. The new message is the first since the reports of Al-Shihri's death in an American airstrike. The message, 14 minutes in duration, is directed at the people of Saudi Arabia, where Al-Shihri hails from.
Al-Shihri repeatedly stresses the need for Saudis to act against U.S. drone bases in the country. In the beginning of his message, Al-Shihri condemns the Saudi royal family for their "war on the mujahideen" and their efforts to sway Muslims away from their religion, and reaffirms the mujahideen's commitment to their path of jihad against the Saudi government. He then addresses four messages to four groups in Saudi society: the people, the tribal leaders, the scholars, and the official scholars.
On April 6, 2013, Al-Qaeda's media company, Al-Sahab, released an audio message by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri titled "Uniting Under the Word of Tawhid." The message, one hour and 43 minutes in duration, was posted on leading jihadi forums. A reference to the French military intervention in Northern Mali suggests that it was recorded in mid-January 2013.
In the first part of his message, Al-Zawahiri calls on all Muslims and Islamic movements to unite around the basic principle of tawhid, stressing that, in the post-Arab spring era, the need for unity and common grounds is especially acute. He also salutes the mujahideen in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere, and thanks them for their sacrifices and steadfastness in facing the Crusaders, the secularists, and the corrupt Arab regimes. Addressing the Muslims in these countries, he urges them to support the mujahideen, who, he says, are on the front line of defending the ummah against its enemies. Speaking about the situation in Mali, Al-Zawahiri threatens France, saying that "it will face in Mali, with Allah's permission, what America had faced in Iraq and Afghanistan."
On April 5, 2013, the Tunisian Cyber Army (TCA), a group that previously took responsibility for a series of cyberattacks against various U.S. government agencies and financial institutions, posted on Twitter that it was planning to launch a series of attacks against U.S.-based airlines.
The TCA demanded that the U.S. government declare its willingness to withdraw its military from the Arabian Peninsula, giving it until Friday, April 14 to initiate contact with the group on the matter. Warning that that if no such contact is made it will begin targeting U.S. airport computer system and intensify its attacks against the U.S. financial sector, it cautioned American Muslims against flying on the day the ultimatum expires, April 14, and asked them to stay away from government agencies and to withdraw their money from banks.
The attack that the TCA plans for April 14 is part of the #opBlackSummer campaign that it announced in early March 2013, that aims to target U.S. websites. Other groups, such as the Al-Qaeda Electronic Army, has allegedly also participated in the campaign.
Jabhat Al-Nusra Leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani Pledges Allegiance To Al-Zawahiri
On April 10, 2013, Jabhat Al-Nusra released an audio message from its leader, Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, in which he pledged allegiance on behalf of his group to Al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Referring to the announcement by the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, of the establishment of a joint Al-Qaeda organization in Iraq and Syria under the name The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Al-Joulani said that he "heeds Al-Baghdadi's call."
However, he said that no one consulted him or Jabhat Al-Nusra's leadership before issuing the declaration. He added that "Jabhat Al-Nusra's banner will remain, nothing will be changed in it". The latter sentence possibly indicates a certain friction between the two leaders. It should be noted that Al-Joulani's statement was issued by Jabhat Al-Nusra' media company, Al-Manara Al-Baida', accompanied by the group's own logo, despite Al-Baghdadi's declaration that from now on Jabhat Al-Nusra is fully merged into the ISI.
In an April 9, 2013 message on his Facebook page, influential Salafi-jihadi sheikh Abu Basir Al-Tartusi responded to the announcement that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) has merged with Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) to form a new organization called Islamic State Of Iraq And Al-Sham (ISIS). Al-Tartusi stated that the move would harm the Syrian people and strengthen the Syrian regime, and urged JN to reconsider it and place the interests of Syria and Islam above its narrow partisan interests.
Elaborating, Al-Tartusi said that the main beneficiaries from this announcement would be Assad, his regime and his Iranian allies, while the main sufferers would be the Syrian people and their revolution. This, since the establishment of ISIS would lend credibility to Assad's claim that he is fighting terrorists, thus justifying his massacre of the Syrian people. Al-Tartusi also complained that, though the Syrians will be the ones most affected by this move, nobody bothered to consult the Syria ulama or the jihad groups fighting in this country before taking it – which contravenes the Islamic principle of shura.
The second issue of the jihadi online magazine Fursan Al-Balagh features an essay by prominent jihadi cleric Abu Sa'd Al-'Amili titled "The Conflict in Syria – A Harbinger of War between the Ummah and Its Enemies." In it, Al-'Amili expounds on the unique nature of the civil war in Syria, and on the role of Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) in this war and in what will follow it.
Although JN itself, in its official releases, does not emphasize its affiliation with Al-Qaeda, Al-'Amili acknowledges this affiliation, describing JN as an integral part of the global jihad movement that has been fighting the "forces of falsehood" since the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He also stresses that this movement is fighting a war between Islam and its enemies that has been ongoing for many generations and will only end with the ultimate victory of Islam. He explains that this movement, which is a single organic body, benefits greatly from the mobility of its members: since fighters move freely from front to front, they bring their accumulated experience and personal connections to each new fighting arena.
Cover image for Al-'Amili's essay
Muslim From Spain Killed In Syria
A Facebook page devoted to foreigners fighting in Syria confirmed today (April 8, 2013) that "Abu Adam Al-Mughrabi," a North African Muslim from Spain, has been killed in Aleppo, and posted a photo of his body.
Al-Mughrabi's death was first reported on the page on April 4, as part of a series of articles by Ghulam Yousuf titled "Stories of Arab Mujahideen Fighting In Al-Sham." The article related that Al-Mughrabi, who had a weak heart, did not want to die in Spain and be buried among Christians, and therefore decided to come to Syria and help the Muslims there: "Our hero is a North African merchant from Spain, a man in his late 40s who had a heart condition.
Report: 500 Jordanian Salafi-Jihadi Fighters In Syria
The London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that the number of Jordanians who belong to the Salafi-Jihadi stream and are currently fighting in Syrian against president Bashar Al-Assad's regime has reached 500.
On April 1, 2013, Al-Qaeda's media and broadcasting arm As-Sahab released a statement by Ustad Ahmad Farooq, the top Pakistani official of Al-Qaeda, in which he addresses Bangladeshi Muslims, reminding them that the country's secular government is "in rebellion against Allah" for launching a crackdown on jihadi organizations.
It should be borne in mind that the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a series of policy initiatives in recent years, strengthening the secular and liberal forces as well as prosecuting religious and fundamentalist organizations for their role in the country's liberation war against Pakistan Army in 1971, which led to secession of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
Ustad Farooq, who is the head of Al-Qaeda's media and preaching department for Pakistan, has emerged as the chief architect of Al-Qaeda's strategy regarding Pakistan, India and Bangladesh in recent years. In the statement, he urges people of Bangladesh to rise up against the secular policies of the Bangladeshi government.
"The Steps That This Secular Anti-Islam Government [Of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina]... Is Taking... [Are] A Clear Rebellion Against Allah"
"My beloved Muslim brothers in Bangladesh!
"[...] I am honored to address you at a time when the Muslims of Bengal are passing through a very critical stage of their history. Today, in the land of Haji Shariatullah and Titu Mir (may Allah have mercy on them), a decisive battle is being fought between disbelief and faith; secularism and Islam. The steps that this secular anti-Islam government [of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina] – a proxy of foreigners – is taking are not for targeting specific personalities or outlawing specific organizations; rather this is a clear rebellion against Allah. A long series of efforts to remove even the last traces of Islam from this land with a golden Islamic history has entered its final phase."
Taliban Commander Assesses Jihadi Situation In Afghanistan's Farah Province
In a March 24, 2013 interview published by an official Taliban website, Taliban commander Mullah Aminullah Akhunzada assesses the mujahideen's control of Farah province. A resident of Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, Mullah Aminullah Akhunzada is the jihadi leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan for Farah, a western Afghan province situated along the Iranian border. The Islamic Emirate is the Taliban's shadow government led by Mullah Omar.
Mullah Aminullah Akhunzada studied at various madrassas in Afghanistan as well as other madrassas in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Afghanistan. According to a note accompanying the interview, he has previously fought against the Afghan and NATO troops in Afghanistan's Takhar, Badghis, Bamiyan, and Ghorband regions. He has also served the Islamic Emirate as general in-charge of Boldak and Shorawak districts and as the general in-charge of Kandahar province
Following are excerpts from the interview:
"Khad-i-Sapaid, Bala-Buluk, Pusht-i-Road, Farah-Road, Gulistan, Bakwa, And Other Districts Are Completely Freed [From Afghan Government Control] With The Exception Of Their Centers"
Question: "If you could provide us the information about the recent changes in Farah province?"
Mullah Aminullah Akhunzada: "During last year and in the recent months, very positive changes have taken place in Farah province. These changes have boosted the spirit of mujahideen; and on the contrary, the morale of the enemy has fallen to the lowest level. The most important change is the practical ... [absconding] of foreign forces from this province. You might be aware that in the past, the American, Italian and Danish forces had a widespread presence in the center as well as all other districts of this province. They had built up very strong and concrete bases in different areas and were always engaged in fighting with mujahideen."
Pakistani, Afghan Taliban Carry Out Joint Operation In Afghan Province
On March 28, 2013, Umar Media, which is described as the official foundation for the production and distribution of the videos and statements of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), released a statement through a jihadi Internet forum that revealed a joint operation carried out by the TTP and Afghan Taliban fighters.
In the past, the TTP fighters and those from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government) have worked together, but this seems to be a major operation jointly carried out by the two units of the Taliban. The statement also described Afghanistan as the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" – meaning that it is ruled by the Taliban led by Mullah Omar.
The statement, originally dated March 26, 2013, was titled "A Special Joint Operation by the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban against NATO Forces and the Afghan Army and Police." Following is the text of the statement:
"On March 5, 2013, the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban engaged in a special joint operation in the Giyan district in Paktia province in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by attacking the joint military base for the NATO forces and the Afghan army and police. The raid began when one of the sacrificing, martyrdom-seeking Afghan mujahideen engaged in a martyrdom operation with a truck bomb on the military base."
Iraq Tightens Security Precautions In Baghdad Due To Information About Plans For Terrorist Attacks
On April 5, 2013, the London-based Al-Hayat daily reported that the Iraqi government has tightened security measures in Baghdad after receiving information that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are planning to target important facilities inside and outside the Green Zone.
According to the paper, which cited a source who did not want to be identified, these terrorist groups are planning to detonate booby-trapped cars to create chaos in the area and then to storm government buildings.
