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 report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 9, 2023, a Telegram channel affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), published an animated video threatening to kill former President Donald Trump and top U.S. defense officials in reprisal for the assassination of former IRGC-Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. Drone Strike on January 3, 2020.
EXCLUSIVE: ISIS In 2022: Growing Threat Continuing Into 2023
By Y. Kerman
The ISIS jihadi group, which grew out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq during the first two decades of the 21st century and expanded into Syria following the outbreak of the ongoing civil war there, has remained an international jihadi militant organization despite the loss of its territory in Iraq and Syria.
EXCLUSIVE: Video Shows ISIS Supporter Toppling Statue Of Virgin Mary, Raising ISIS Flag
On January 4, 2022, a user on the Rocket.Chat server operated by the ISIS posted a link to a video showing an ISIS supporter toppling a statue of the Virgin Mary at an undisclosed location, believed to be in Europe.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Senior Afghan Taliban commander Anas Haqqani – who was brought to Qatar from an Afghan prison in November 2019 to help facilitate the U.S.-Taliban talks that resulted in the signing of the 2020 Doha agreement – recently lashed out at Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for claiming in his memoir Spare that he had killed 25 Taliban members during his deployments in Afghanistan.
ISIS Claims Killing And Wounding 6,881 People Across 22 Countries During 2022
On January 4, 2023, the Islamic State's (ISIS) official media outlet published an infographic detailing the attacks perpetrated by ISIS during 2022.
ISIS-K Claims Responsibility For Suicide Attack On Kabul Foreign Ministry
On January 11, 2023, the Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that targeted the Afghan Taliban's Ministry Of Foreign Affairs in Kabul.
On January 6, 2023, the ISIS Iraq Province released a 47-minute video which documents dozens of the organization's day- and night-time operations against the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Iraqi Federal Police, as well as large quantities of weapons and ammunition seized by ISIS.
Video By ISIS Mozambique Province Shows Fighters Pledging Allegiance To New Caliph
On January 5, 2023, the ISIS Mozambique Province released an almost six-minute video documenting its operatives gathering to perform the oath of allegiance to the new ISIS leader, known by the alias Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi.
In December 2022, the Islamic State's Pakistan Wilayah released a video showing its groups of fighters in Pakistan offering bay'a ("oath of allegiance") to new ISIS caliph Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi.
ISIS Operatives And Supporters Document Pledges Of Allegiance To New Caliph In Photos And Videos
On November 30, 2022, the official media outlet of ISIS, released an audio message by the organization's spokesman, Abu 'Umar Al-Muhajir, announcing the death in battle of ISIS leader Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi and the appointment of a new leader, Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi.
Issue 372 of Al-Naba', the official weekly newsletter of the ISIS, dated January 5, 2023, contained an editorial titled "All Their Years Are The Same!" which argues that ISIS remains a challenge and a crisis for Western parties and their allies in the region year after year, and that the International Coalition To Defeat ISIS "ran out" of solutions to get rid of the organization.
A lead article in the latest issue of "Voice of Khurasan," an English-language monthly magazine published by the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISIS-K), accuses Turkey of working as part of an American plan to get the Afghan Taliban government recognized by Islamic nations and also for hosting a conference of Islamic scholars from different countries to advance the same goal.
The latest issue of "Voice of Khurasan," an English-language monthly magazine published by the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISIS-K) has several articles advancing the cause of ISIS, but two of its key articles criticize Turkey for advancing an American plan toward recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) and lash out at the Taliban for protecting idolatrous forces and working with the unbelievers.
Pro-ISIS Media Group Reports Details Of Two Salafi-Jihadi Groups In Gaza Aligned With ISIS
On January 6, 2023, the admin of a channel on the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server shared a series of posts describing two Salafi-jihadi organizations in Gaza aligned with ISIS.
Over the past week, a controversy broke out among supporters of a Michigan-based pro-ISIS preacher following a series of posts by a Telegram channel associated with him.
On January 2023 a pro-ISIS Telegram channel that covers news from Saudi Arabia published a post criticizing the Saudi Government following the transfer of Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo's to the Saudi Al-Nassr Club.
On January 4, 2023, a channel on the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server published a series of posters in Indonesian, produced by a pro-ISIS outlet
Pro-ISIS Group In Philippines Releases Photos Of Armed Fighters' Activities
A channel on the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server affiliated with an unofficial media outlet of the Islamic State East Asia Province (ISEAP), which operates in the Philippines and other parts of southeast Asia, posted several photos documenting ISEAP fighters' activities in the Philippines.
On January 6, 2023, an ISIS supporter in the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server praised a 47-minute video released by ISIS's Iraq Province on the same day, urging supporters to widely disseminate the video.
On January 10, 2023, a user of the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server posted a link to a search query on the San Francisco-based Internet Archive for the words "the Islamic State" in Arabic.
Islamic State Supporter Promotes Lone Wolf Attacks On 'Economic Targets In West'
On January 11, 2023, a supporter of the ISIS shared posts on ISIS-operated server on Rocket.Chat, encouraging Muslims in the West to carry out low-costs attacks against "economic" targets.
On January 4, 2023, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K) released the first issue of its Arabic-language magazine "Sawt Khorasan" (Voice of Khorasan).
On January 5, 2023, the media arm of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released two infographics summarizing AQAP's "Arrows of Truth" campaign against UAE-backed forces in Yemen's Abyan and Shabwah governorates.
The latest issue of Nawa-i-Ghazwa-e-Hind ("The Voice of The Battle of India"), a monthly Urdu-language magazine published by Al-Qaeda In The Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), promotes jihad, accuses Jews of not accepting Muhammad as a prophet, questions Qatar's service to Islam during the FIFA World Cup 2022, and highlights jihadi viewpoints from around the world.
On January 9, 2023, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab) published an article and photos documenting a January 6 Al-Shabab attack on a Somali forces' military base in Middle Shabelle province, southern Somalia.
Al-Qaeda Affiliate Al-Shabab Denies Somali Government Claims Of Negotiations
On January 7, 2023, Somalia's Deputy Defense Minister Abdifatah Kasim gave a press statement in the capital, Mogadishu, in which he claimed that "Al-Shabab requested to open negotiations with the Somali government."
On January 10, 2023, the media arm of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), claimed responsibility for two simultaneous January 8 assaults on Mali army forces.
On January 5, the media arm of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), released an infographic detailing GSIM attacks during December 2022.
On January 11, 2023, a Telegram channel linked to Idlib-based Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) reported that on January 10, the group's fighters launched an inghmasi (commando-style) operation targeting Syrian military forces of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in the western countryside of Aleppo.
On January 11, 2023, the "General Security Service" (GSS), affiliated with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Syria's Idlib region, announced on its Telegram channel that the Service had seized a secret site for the production of narcotics, as well as "primitive machinery" for their production and a large quantity of pills.
On January 8, 2023, the official media arm of the jihadi group Firqat Al-Ghuraba (FG) released a 70-minute French-language video titled "Refutation: Like a Fox," in which it criticizes Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) internal security service for retaliating against the female cousin of the group's leader.
On January 7, 2023, a pro-jihadi Twitter user posted footage of a veteran jihadi fighter who had participated in the Chechen wars and was formerly a leader of the Syria-based Ajnad Al-Kavkaz, fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
According to two recent reports on a website identified with the Syrian opposition, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has renewed its efforts to recruit locals to the ranks of the Iran-backed militias in the Deir Al-Zour governorate in northeastern Syria.
On January 4, 2023, the United States Central Command (US CENTCOM) reported that Mission Support Site Conoco, located near the Al-Omar oilfield southeast of Deir Al-Zour, Syria, was targeted with two rockets at about 9 A.M. local time, causing no injuries or damage to the base or coalition property.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 8, 2023, the Lebanese anti-Hizbullah Al-Modon online daily reported that at a gathering with new recruits, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that 9,378 new soldiers had joined Hizbullah, which he declared currently numbers more than 100,000 fighters. Nasrallah stressed the need to maintain preparedness and a high level of military and security readiness, "because the region and the entire world are moving toward [a painful phase of] birth pangs."
On January 9, 2023, the Iraqi National Football Team faced off with its Saudi counterparts at the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup hosted in Basra, Iraq. During the game, Iran-backed media outlets in Iraq took the opportunity to disparage the Saudi team, as well as UN Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
On January 9, 2023, the official media office of Qais Al-Khazali, Secretary-General of the Iran-backed Iraqi 'Asaib Ahl Al-Haq militia, reported that on the same day, in his office in Baghdad, Al-Khazali met with an emissary from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
On January 12, 2023, an Iran-backed Shi'ite group in Iraq claimed responsibility for an attack carried out on the same day at 3 am local time, against an American logistical convoy in Iraq's Baghdad Governorate.
Following the January 11, 2023 stabbing attack in the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, several Telegram outlets supportive of pro-Iran Shi'ite militias in Iraq reported the incident, triggering hundreds of supporters' reactions celebrating the attack.
A 10-minute and 44 second Pashtu-language video titled "The West's Trap Against The Renaissance Of Ummah," says that the Islamic State (ISIS) asserts that the CIA established ISIS to obstruct the rise of genuine jihadi movements.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) seized power on August 15, 2021, forming an interim government on September 7. In mid-September 2022, the acting Afghan Taliban Minister for Education Sheikh Noorullah Munir drew attention for defending the Taliban government's ban on girls' schooling by arguing that Afghan culture and Islam do not permit education for girls and women.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani jihadi group that describes itself as a branch of the Afghan Taliban, has released its annual report of the terror operations it carried out against Pakistani security forces in 2022.
On December 30, 2022, the Pakistani jihadi organization Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced a series of top appointments to its organizational posts for 2023.
