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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It is a sad reality that in our very wide, diverse, and heavily populated world, not all news is treated the same. The passions and controversies of the West, especially those of the United States of America, consume much of the world's media bandwidth. In 2020, Europeans were perhaps shocked to see angry demonstrations on their streets because an American policeman in the distant state of Minnesota killed a suspect. The foreign enthusiasms of the West also get banner coverage worldwide. If Ukraine becomes the great Western cause of the moment, then all the world is expected to follow along.
On June 14, 2023, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the establishment of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – a paramilitary umbrella organization of state-sponsored armed factions – Abu Ali Al-Askari, the military spokesman for the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, published an official statement on his Telegram channel.
On June 19, 2023, Telegram channels which support Iran-backed militias in Iraq released a three-and-a-half minute video clip which presents intelligence information that was obtained by "the Islamic resistance" in Iraq and which "exposes" among other things, the transfer of weapons and Israeli Mossad personnel from Israel to Iraq via the UAE.
On June 14, 2023, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Sayyed Al-Shuhada' Brigades, an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, released a series of posters recounting the so-called 2007 "Nisour Square massacre," during which employees of the American private military contractor Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis and injured 20 more while escorting a U.S. Embassy convoy through Baghdad's Nisour Square.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 29, Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) launched a summer camp program for children and teens in Sanaa and other Northern governorates. According to Yemeni opposition websites, the program, titled "Science And Jihad," aims at radicalizing children by training them in the use of weapons. Reports further noted that nearly half a million children are expected to join the program.
On June 15, 2023, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 395 of its weekly newsletter Al-Naba'. This issue includes an article about an attack by ISIS' Mozambique Province and a roadblock the group set up on a major road, in Mozambique's northeastern Cabo Delgado province, both on June 5. Neither was previously claimed by the Mozambique Province.
On June 17, 2023, The Islamic State East Asia Province (ISEAP) issued a statement claiming that its operatives ambushed a Filipino police patrol in the Maguindanao region, southern Philippines on June 14. The statement explained that the group's operatives killed and wounded six policemen, using machine guns.
The Issue 22 of "Khurasan Ghag [Voice of Khurasan]," the Pashtu-language magazine published by Al-Azaim Foundation, which is the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISKP), has a cover article evaluating the speeches of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Hibbatullah Akhundzada for their compliance with shari'a and goes on to say that Afghan Taliban are "proxy fighters" of Western "unbeliever intelligence agencies." The issue is dated Shawwal 25, 1444, in the Hijri calendar, which corresponds with May 15, 2023.
On June 17, 2023, the Syrian opposition website Euphrates Post reported that about thirty men detained on charges of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) had fled a prison run by the Military Police of the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in Ra's Al-'Ayn, on the Turkish border in a rebel-controlled part of Syria's Al-Hasakah Governorate.
On June 19, 2023, a user of the Islamic State (ISIS)-operated Rocket.Chat server stated his intention to carry out an attack against "infidels," and asked in the main discussion channel if such an act is allowed and if so, how to proceed. The user claimed that the "kuffar" [infidels] have been causing him "distress" and "pestering" him.
Posters On Pro-ISIS Rocket.Chat Server In Indonesian Call For Victory, Justify Jihad
Over the month of June 2023, the administrator of an Islamic State (ISIS) Rocket.Chat server published several propaganda posters in a chat room dedicated to the group's supporters in Indonesia. Though all text is written in Indonesian, the topics vary and include the themes relating to the global Muslim community, jihadi and particularly ISIS ideology.
On June 19, 2023, a London-based pro-Islamic State (ISIS) preacher published a "press release" on a Telegram affiliated with him, denouncing the "arbitrary incarceration" of women and children in the Al-Hol and Roj detention camps run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF's) "on behalf of the U.S., UK, and allied regimes."
The prolific moderator of a channel on the Islamic State (ISIS)-operated Rocket.Chat server from the Philippines was recently killed in battle, according to a user of the platform.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Issue 395 of Al-Naba', the official weekly newsletter of the Islamic State (ISIS), dated June 15, 2023, contained an editorial titled "Crusade in the Land of Revelation!" which criticizes the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS as it recently held its 10th ministerial meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The editorial argued that the Coalition has failed in concluding its initial mission, is unable to cover the military and financial cost of its years-long campaign against ISIS, and is currently forming new counterterrorism "focus groups" in Africa, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
The cover article of Issue 395 of Al-Naba', the official weekly newsletter of the Islamic State (ISIS), dated June 15, 2023, focused on a major ISIS attack on a funeral reception for Nizar Ahmad Ahmadi, Taliban Deputy Governor in Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, northern Afghanistan, who was killed by ISIS on June 6.
A report in the Pakistani daily Dawn quoted Mohammad Ali Babakhel, Pakistani security expert and author of "Pakistan: In Between Extremism And Peace," listing specific encrypted applications that the Islamic State (ISIS) had reportedly developed.
On June 20, 2023, Al-Sahab Foundation, the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda's General Command, released a statement celebrating the approaching holiday of Eid Al-Adha, which marks the end of the season of Haj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, taking place on June 28, 2023.
On June 19, 2023, the Al-Sahab Foundation, the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda's General Command, released a statement titled "Demolishing Mosques and Killing Worshippers in Ethiopia." The statement refers to the recent demolition by local authorities in Addis Ababa of several Muslim places of worship in the outskirts of the capital, as part of a contentions urban planning project.
From June 20, 2023, to June 21, 2023, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), claimed a series of deadly attacks across the country, largely concentrated in areas outside of Mogadishu and to the south and southwest.
On June 19, 2023, the Military Command of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), released an English-language statement titled "Kenya's Cowardly Attacks on Civilians Will Not Go Unpunished." The two-page statement praised Al-Shabab's recent attacks in the "occupied Muslim lands" of northeastern Kenya, and vowed to retaliate for Kenya's "cowardly indiscriminate attacks" on defenseless women and children in the "Islamic Wilaayaat" [provinces controlled by Al-Shabab].
On June 15, 2023, the Shahada News Agency, the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), published two articles in Arabic. The first, titled "Tough Week for Kenya Under Impact of Al-Shabab Attacks," focuses on attacks launched in neighboring Kenya over the past week. The article lists nine operations the group carried out in Kenya's eastern Lamu, Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties, between June 7 and 15.
On June 15, 2023, Al-Zallaqa, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the Sahel, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), released a statement claiming three attacks against the Malian military and Russian Wagner Group forces in Mali between June 10 and June 13.
On June 15 and 16, 2023, a pro-Al-Qaeda anonymous journalist posted a series of tweets ruling out the possibility that Sayf Al-'Adl has replaced Ayman Al-Zawahiri as Al-Qaeda's leader. Al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan on July 31, 2022. Al-Qaeda has neither acknowledged nor denied that Al-Zawahiri has died.
On June 19, 2023, a pro-Al-Qaeda media outlet published Issue No. 29 of its Ibnat Al-Islam ("Daughters of Islam") women's magazine. The issue contains 109 pages and, while mostly in Arabic, also contains articles in English and French.
On June 15, 2023, an approximately two-minute video statement was released on Telegram in the name of the Free Syrian Army – Saraya Dir' Al-Thawrah [Shield of the Revolution Companies]. The video shows six masked men, some of whom are armed, delivering a message threatening action against the Syrian jihadi group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) if it does not free the people incarcerated in its prisons.
Jordanian Military Downs Drone Carrying Drugs From Syria
On June 13, 2023, local and international media reported that the Jordanian military successfully downed an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) carrying drugs from Syria into Jordanian airspace.
On June 15, 2023, an independent Syrian jihadi cleric published a Telegram post criticizing a women's leadership initiative reportedly sponsored by a Swedish public agency, the Swedish Institute (SI) and the Syrian Women's Network, a Turkey-based Syrian civil society organization.
On June 13, 2023, Telegram channels supporting the Syrian revolution widely reported that 'Abd Al-Mu'in Muhammad Kahhal aka Abu Al-'Abd Ashidda', commander of the Tansiqiyat Al-Jihad [Jihad Coordination] Syrian jihadi faction, had been arrested in Turkey en route to perform the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
In the context of the recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, on June 15, 2023, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani made an official visit to Iraq during which he signed a series of agreements. Moreover, on June 16 the Saudi Ambassador to Iraq, Abdulaziz Al-Shammari, announced that his country had issued an official request to Iraq to create economic enterprises in the Samawah Desert in southern Iraq. The visit and the announcement sparked furious responses among the Iran-backed militias in Iraq who consider all the projects referred to in the agreements to be a cover for hostile operations against Iraq on the part of the two countries, in collaboration with the U.S. and Israel.
On June 15, 2023, the Syrian opposition Eye of Euphrates media outlet reported that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hizbullah operatives delivered military reinforcements to the Fatemiyoon Brigades in Syria's Deir Al-Zour Governorate.
On June 19, 2023, a Telegram channel which supports Iran-backed militias in Iraq, released a one-minute video with threats to continue fighting U.S. personnel in Iraq.
A Pashtu-language article published by a state-owned newspaper published by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the ruling Afghan Taliban organization) questions the Islamic State's (ISIS) interpretations of the concepts of jihad and the caliphate and argues that, at an appropriate time, a global Caliphate will be established uniting the Islamic Emirate with jihadi groups in other parts of the world, specifically listing the Al-Qaeda-aligned Al-Shabab, among others.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) released Issue 126 of its Urdu-language magazine "Shariat," according to a note on the Taliban's official Urdu-language website.
