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.
Jabhat Al-Nusra Publishes Details Of Suicide Bombing Carried Out By American
On May 27, 2014, Jabhat Al-Nusra published a communiqué claiming responsibility for a series of suicide bombings carried out on May 25 against a key Syrian army stronghold near Idlib. According to the communiqué, the attack included three truck bombs and one booby trapped BMP armored vehicle.
In perhaps the first incident of its kind, a Maldivian national was among several jihadi fighters killed in a suicide bombing they carried out against the Syrian troops on Sunday, according to a Maldivian newspaper.
Online Jihadis Discuss How To Strike America
On May 23, 2014 a discussion group was opened in the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam titled "A Wake-Up Call-How to Strike America?" A senior forum follower nicknamed Seif La-Yughmad headed the discussion group and sought recommendations from other followers on current options for hurting the U.S.
On May 25, 2014, the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam posted the first part of an interview with "Abu Sumaya Al-Nigeri", a member of the Salafi-jihadi Nigerian organization Jama’at Ahl Al-Sunna lil-Da’wa Wal Jihad, known as Boko Haram. The introduction to the interview, which was conducted by the Al-Sawarim media company, states that the interview is a response to distortions about the organization that are lately being disseminated in the media, and while a battle is being waged against the mujahideen "by the [Nigerian] infidel government that is backed by the Crusaders".
On May 27, 2014, the Somali Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen took responsibility for last Saturday's (May 24) deadly bombing in Djibouti. The attack, according to various media reports, targeted a busy restaurant visited by international soldiers, and resulted in the deaths of at least three people.
In Letter To Jihadi Scholars, Al-Zawahiri Urges ISIS To Return To Iraq
On May 25, 2014, Al-Qaeda’s Al-Sahab media company published an open letter from the organization’s leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, addressed to several radical Sunni scholars. In his letter Al-Zawahiri reasserted that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was a constituent part of Al-Qaeda, and that by extending its authority to Syria and declaring the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) it was thereby guilty of disobedience. The Al-Qaeda leader reiterated his call to ISIS to focus on Iraq.
Al-Zawahiri’s letter, dated May 2, 2014, is addressed to jihadi scholars Tareq 'Abd Al-Halim, Hani Al-Siba’i, Iyad Qunaybi, 'Abdallah Al-Mheissni, Muhammad Al-Hasam and the Jordanian Sami Al-‘Oraidi, a top Jabhat Al-Nusra cleric. He starts by claiming that his letter represents a response to an appeal he received from the above clerics, published on April 12, 2014 seeking clarification on Al-Qaeda's status vis-à-vis ISIS.
Jihad Supporters Launch Pro-ISIS Campaign On Social Media
"Support for ISIS from the four corners of the world. Look at them all! France, Japan, India, Kosovo, Bosnia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, UK…"
Recently, supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched an online campaign whereby supporters of the group from all over the world create and post pro-ISIS images. Each image features a message in support of this group alongside a photo of the author's passport, to emphasize that the group has sympathizers the world over.
The images were posted, starting in May 25, 2014, on a popular jihadi Facebook page called "Democracy Is The Cancer, Islam Is The Answer," which circulated jihadi material in Arabic and English, and recently had some 10,000 followers.
Leader Of Caucasus Emirate: Caucasus Mujahideen Should Fight At Home, Not Go To Syria
The Caucasus Emirate's Emir Ali Abu Muhammad (screenshot from the video)
On May 22, 2014, the Caucasus Emirate released a video featuring an interview with its emir, 'Ali Abu Muhammad, in which the emir answered questions on jihad in general and in the Caucasus and Syria in particular, and also addressed the topic of Muslims in Africa.
On May 25, Egyptian jihadi group Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis published a communiqué titled "Denial of the Rumor about the Killing of the group's Leaders and Commanders". The communiqué, published on the jihadi forum Al-Fida', appeared following the recent days' notices that the group's commander, Shadi Al-Munay’i, had been killed. The communiqué was accompanied by ostensibly up-to-date photos in which Shadi Al-Munay’i together with his comrades to the group read about his presumed death on a laptop.
Jihadi Suggests Using Spamming As New Method For Disseminating Jihadi Propaganda
On May 26, 2014, a jihadi on the Shumoukh Al-Islam forum posted a tutorial for using Email Spider Gold, an email harvesting program that is used by spammers, as a novel way for disseminating jihadi propaganda worldwide.
Abu 'Omar, the author behind the post, who also uses the handle "oplmoplm," said that jihadis should first build a webpage where links to jihadi productions and jihadi websites are published. The webpage should also include links to the mujahideen's accounts on the various social media outlets.
In a May 25, 2014 communique posted on the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam, Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) announced the opening of the "Al-Bas Institute for Military Development and Manufacture". This institute, it says, will advance the Muslims' military industry, which is currently backward. It will also help meet the needs of the jihadis operating in Syria, who are suffering from a shortage of arms and ammunition. The communiqué invites Muslim military industry experts and others to submit ideas related to arms manufacture via the institute's recently opened Twitter account.
A new video released by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which reviews the Taliban's jihadi actions across Pakistan, warns that a force for jihad is getting ready to fight against India and presents the global jihadi forces as the Army of the Mahdi, who will arise to establish Islamic rule by fighting against the forces of the anti-Christ.
In a statement, Pakistani Taliban commander Umar Khalid Khorasani argues that peace talks with the Pakistani government are meant to achieve something like Prophet Muhammad's Hudaibiya Pact, which was agreed to despite having no seeming benefit to Islam. He also vows global jihad: "This jihad of ours is not only for the establishment of caliphate in Pakistan, but for the whole world."
Report: 'Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan' Splits, Hakimullah Mehsud Faction Breaks Away
Mehsud faction spokesman Azam Tariq
On May 28, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP or the Movement of Pakistani Taliban) suffered a split as the TTP's Hakimullah Mehsud faction announced that it is now working as an independent jihadi organization, according to Pakistani media sources.
For the first time, the TTP had appointed a non-Mehsud commander, Maulana Fazlullah, as its emir after the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a U.S. drone strike on November 1, 2013. The TTP, which was formed in December 2007, was always led by a militant from the influential Mehsud tribe. Its first emir was Baitullah Mehsud, who was succeeded by Hakimullah Mehsud.
Part of the Facebook post
A Facebook user reports from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir that "foreign" militants began arriving in Kashmir to wage jihad, roughly around the time Narendra Modi won the Indian elections and invited Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi slated for May 26.
