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.
After the August 5, 2024 ousting of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following a student protest movement, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) issued a statement saying the events were an opportunity for the rise of Islamic forces in the country and urging young Muslims to wage jihad.
On December 13, 2023, the government of Somalia secured a $4.5 billion debt relief deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA).
On August 24, 2024, French media reported that Pavel Valeryevich Durov, Russian billionaire and co-founder and chief executive officer of Telegram Messenger Inc., was arrested in Paris, as part of an investigation involving complicity in serious crimes on the platform, ranging from drug trafficking to the distribution of child sex abuse material.
On August 22, 2024, a Syrian Telegram channel reported that a Syrian national was killed in Ukraine fighting alongside Russian forces.
A Facebook user relayed a message from the family of a recently incarcerated British jihadi.
On August 21, 2024, unconfirmed Palestinian reports identified the suicide bomber who was killed while attempting to carry out an attack in Tel Aviv on August 18.
On August 25, 2024, Lebanese Hizbullah published statements asserting that the group had begun its response to Israel's July 30 "brutal aggression" in southern Beirut which killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander in the group, in addition to "several of our honorable people, including women and children."
On August 25, 2024, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Iran-backed Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades published a poster identifying the factions that are part of the so-called "Islamic Resistance in Iraq."
Between August 26 and 28, 2024, in posts on their Telegram channels, two Iran-backed Iraqi groups affiliated with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (an Iran-backed group of Iraqi militias) threatened to attack American and Israeli targets in Iraq and the surrounding region, such as U.S. military targets and embassies, and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel.
'Islamic Resistance In Iraq' Claims Four Drone Attacks Against Israel In A Week
Over the past days, "The Islamic Resistance in Iraq," an umbrella organization consisting of several Iran-backed militias in Iraq, claimed responsibility for four drone attacks against Israeli targets, as part of its support for the Palestinian factions in Gaza.
On August 25, 2024, an Iran-backed militia announced the renewal of its military operations against "the Zionist terrorist enemy."
On August 22, 2024, Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) claimed responsibility for attacks on two commercial ships, one in the Red Sea and one in the Gulf of Aden.
On August 25, 2024, following Lebanese Hizbullah's large-scale drone and rocket attack on Israel, senior officials in the Houthi Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) congratulated Hizbullah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for the "courageous" operation and vowed that a response from Yemen in retaliation for the Israeli attack on Yemen's Al-Hudaydah Port is "inevitable."
Yemen's Ansar Allah Movement (Houthi) Holds Military Drill For 111 Local Recruits
On August 21, 2024, the official website of Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) reported that on the same day, in the Jamimah district of Hajjah Governorate, in northwestern Yemen, a military exercise was held for the "Martyr Ismail Haniyeh Center" graduates.
On August 24, 2024, a prominent Al-Qaeda supporter published posts on Telegram celebrating a same-day attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the southern French town of La Grande-Motte.
On August 23, 2024, U.S. Central Command released a statement stating that a senior leader of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Hurras Al-Din, Abu Abd Al-Rahman Al-Makki, was killed by U.S. CENTCOM forces in Syria.
On August 23, a pro-Al-Qaeda media outlet, which supports the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released an 11-minute message by an AQAP operative.
On August 24, 2024, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the African Sahel, Jama'at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen (the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims – GSIM), reportedly carried out an attack in Barsalogho, in central Burkina Faso.
On August 28, 2024, the Al-Zallaqa Media Foundation, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the African Sahel, Jama'at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen (the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims – GSIM), released a statement claiming responsibility for a large-scale attack in Barsalogho, in central Burkina Faso.
Al-Qaeda's Affiliate In The Sahel (GSIM) Claims Three Attacks In Burkina Faso
On August 22, 2024, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the Sahel, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), published a statement in which it claimed that the group's fighters were able to assassinate a member of the Burkinabe militia in the city of Djibo in Soum Governorate, in northern Burkina Faso.
Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the Sahel, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), accused the Malian Army of massacring 21 civilians during indiscriminate airstrikes in Tinzaouaten, near the Malian-Algerian border.
On August 17, 2024, the Al-Andalus Foundation, the official media arm of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), published the ninth episode of the video series "Enlightening the Minds About the Apostasy of Algeria's Rulers."
On August 23, 2024, U.S. Central Command stated that a senior leader of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Hurras Al-Din, Abu Abd Al-Rahman Al-Makki, was killed in a "targeted kinetic strike."
On August 27, 2024, a pro-Al-Qaeda publisher released Issue 32 of its women's magazine.
On August 26, 2024, the pro-Al-Qaeda Al-Nusra Media Foundation published two posters in its "Inspire Tweets" series inciting attacks in the West, with a particular focus on the U.S. Launched in early June, the poster series mirrors the advocacy of terrorism found in the English-language Inspire magazine by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and is attributed to the group's official Al-Malahem media outlet.
On August 23, 2024, a man wielding a knife stabbed to death three people at a festival in Solingen, Germany, and wounded several others.
On August 23, 2024, Russian media outlets reported that knife-wielding prisoners identifying themselves as members of the Islamic State (ISIS) staged a bloody attack on guards in the IK-19 prison colony in Surovkino in the Volgograd region, southeast of Moscow, where they also seized hostages.
On August 22, 2024, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 457 of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba'.
Issue 457 of the Islamic State (ISIS) weekly newsletter Al-Naba', released on August 22, 2024, featured details of recent operations by ISIS affiliates in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Niger, Syria, and Pakistan.
On August 23, 2024, a man wielding a knife stabbed to death three people and wounded eight others at the Festival of Diversity in Solingen, Germany.
An anti-Islamic State (ISIS) channel on the Al-Qaeda-operated Rocket.Chat server speculated that ISIS caliph Abu Hafs Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi is actually Abu Muslim Al-'Alawani, the deputy governor of ISIS's Iraq Province.
In the last two weeks, the Islamic State (ISIS) Syria Province released statements claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This report reviews the statements.
After the August 5, 2024, ousting of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State Khurasan Province (ISKP) has released an Urdu-language statement in which ISKP urges the Muslims of Bangladesh not to let the country fall into the hands of the Indian polytheists and apostate groups and to instead struggle for an Islamic state or travel to join Islamic State fighters in Africa, Syria, Iraq, or Khurasan (Afghanistan).
A lead article in the latest issue of the "Voice of Khurasan," an English-language monthly magazine published by Al-Azaim Media Foundation, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which defines itself as a supporting entity for the Islamic State (ISIS), cites the arguments of early Islamic jurists and cases from early Islamic history in explanation of the intensity of its attacks on Rawafidh (rejectionist, a pejorative term for Shi'ite).
A cover article in the latest issue of the "Voice of Khurasan," an English-language monthly magazine published by Al-Azaim Media Foundation, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which defines itself as a supporting entity for the Islamic State (ISIS), says that Sunni Islamic states have responded to the Palestinian issue with discussions and condemnations while only Shi'ite Iran has responded against the Jewish state of Israel at the practical level.
On August 25, 2024, the Public Security Administration (PSA) of the Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS)-backed Syrian Salvation Government published a series of statements signed by Major Izz Al-Din Muhammad Al-Ghazali, who oversees Idlib's northern sector, claiming that the PSA had exposed an Islamic State (ISIS) cell in Idlib.
On August 14, 2024, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban), released a Pashtu-language speech delivered by Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Hibbatullah Akhundzada on the third anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in which he prayed for liberation of Jerusalem.
In statement published on August 14, 2024, Hizb-ut-Tahrir Afghanistan accused the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) of failing to implement shari'a and, unlike Prophet Muhammad who ordered jihad even after defeating the Quraysh at the Battle of the Trench in 627, preventing jihad outside Afghanistan.
On August 7, 2024, Hizb-ut-Tahrir Afghanistan released a statement on the mass protests in Bangladesh that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country on August 5 and led to the installation of an interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
