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.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On March 20, 2022, a Syrian opposition website reported that in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Russian forces in Syria had started to recruit Syrian members of the Iran-backed militias in the rural area east of Homs, to fight for the Russians against the Ukrainians.
On March 12, 2022, the Saudi Arabian government executed 81 individuals convicted on terror-related charges – 73 Saudi nationals, seven Yemenis, and one Syrian. The Saudi Interior Ministry released a statement announcing the "execution of sentences of capital punishment against individuals convicted of terrorism and capital crimes."
On March 21, 2022, the media arm of Al-Qaeda Central Command, released the fourth episode of its da'wah (preaching) series which condemns atheism, titled "Together toward Allah," which features Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri."
EXCLUSIVE: Arab Media Speculate About Identity Of New ISIS Leader Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi
On February 3, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi aka Hajji 'Abdallah Qardash, whose real name was Amir Muhammad Sa'id 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Mawla Al-Slibi, died after detonating his suicide belt during a raid by U.S. Special Forces on his hideout in Atmah, north of Idlib on the border between Syria and Turkey.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On March 9, 2022, the Telegram channel of a monthly magazine published by independent, anti-Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) jihadi clerics in Syria's Idlib region released Issue 34 of the magazine, which includes an article by the Syrian jihadi writer Khalid Shaker, who refutes, in principle, the participation of Muslims in the war in Ukraine.
Issue 330 of the Islamic State (ISIS) weekly magazine Al-Naba', released on March 17, 2022, contained coverage of different operations carried out by ISIS operatives in Central Africa, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, and Iraq.
On March 17, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) releasedissue number 330 of its weekly newspaper Al-Naba', which included an editorial mocking U.S. intelligence for failing to announce the death of ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi alongside ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurashi in a U.S. operation that took place on February 3, 2022.
ISIS Publishes Pictures Of Attack On Resort Island Off Mozambique Coast
On March 19, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) published a pictorial report containing eight photographs which depict its March 16 attack on a tourist resort which is part of the Quirimbas National Park in Cabo Delgado Province in northeastern Mozambique.
A report in the second issue of Voice of Khurasan, an English-language monthly magazine published by the Islamic State (ISIS) in its Khurasan Province, profiles the life of a young Muslim from the southern Indian state of Kerala who joined ISIS and was killed on the day of his wedding in Afghanistan.
On March 22, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) A'maq News Agency reported that on the afternoon of March 21, ISIS fighters attacked a military base of the Malian Armed Forces killing or wounding "a large number" of soldiers.
A vocal Islamic State (ISIS) supporter claimed in a March 15, 2022, Facebook post that the FBI was harassing him and his wife. During a larger conversation about law enforcement and incarceration, he also stated that he served 16 years in a federal prison.
ISIS Supporters Launch New Media Outlet, Pledge Allegiance To New ISIS Leader
On March 16, 2022, a group of Islamic State (ISIS) supporters launched a new media outlet, sharing the new outlet's accounts on the messaging app TamTam, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
On March 16, 2022, a group of Islamic State (ISIS) supporters launched a new media outlet. The group also pledged its allegiance to newly appointed ISIS leader Abu Al-Hassan Al-Qurashi Al-Hashimi.
Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee And ISIS-K Founder Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost Joins Afghan Taliban
According to Afghan media reports, the founding member of the Islamic State's Khorasan branch (ISIS-K), Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, surrendered to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban organization that seized power on August 15, 2021.
On March 20, 2022, " a user in the Al-Qaeda-operated Rocket.Chat server posted the fourth issue of "Mujahideen in the West," an English-language online magazine targeted at Western jihadis.
On March 22, 2022, a car-ramming and stabbing attack was carried out in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba in which four Israeli citizens were killed.
On March 20, 2022, the media arm of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released part 45 of its video series "From the Archive of the Mujahideen of the Arabian Peninsula."
On March 20, 2022 a media arm of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a statement claiming its fighters wounded the commander of the UAE-backed Security Belt forces in an attack on his convoy in the Delta of Abyan, which left 14 people dead and wounded on March 15, 2022.
On March 22, 2022, the official news outlet of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), published details about a March 16, 2022 attack in the Abyan Delta, on the convoy of the commander of the UAE-backed Security Belt Forces.
On March 3, 2022 at 10:30, Al-Shabab's Shahada News Agency reported that "at these moments, an inghimasi attack [a commando-style raid behind enemy lines, in which the attackers are likely to be killed] is taking place at the largest military base of the African forces in Somalia."
Al-Qaeda Somali Affiliate Al-Shabab Trumpets Addition Of Prominent Somali Cleric To Its Ranks
On March 21, 2022, the Shahadah News Agency, the media outlet of the Somalia-based Al-Shabab jihadi organization, reported that a Somali sheikh, "one of the greatest religious scholars in north Somalia," recently joined the ranks of the organization after emigrating from his place of residence in the city of Hargeysa.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On March 16, 2022, a jihadi user of the Al-Qaeda-operated Rocket Chat server published the third issue of the English-language "Mujahedeen in the West" magazine, which includes a message to the "slaves of Allah" to attack embassies, courts, and checkpoints.
On March 22, 2022, a pro-Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) website, published an interview with a Syrian army defector and radar technician who claims that the Syrian regime uses Russian and Chinese radar systems that cannot accurately detect targets.
On March 15, 2022, Al-Nujaba Movement, an Iran-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militia closely tied to Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, released a five-and-a-half-minute video in the Kurdish-language, addressing residents of the Kurdistan region in Iraq and urging them to topple the political leadership of the Barzani family.
On March 20, 2022, an Iran-backed Iraqi media outlet reported on Telegram that five Westerners were arrested at Baghdad International Airport after being accused of stealing Iraqi antiquities.
On March 20, 2022, the Houthi Ansar Allah movement published two official statements from the Armed Forces of Yemen in which they claim responsibility for two missile and drone attacks perpetrated on March 19 and March 20, 2022, against energy and water infrastructure facilities in Saudi Arabia.
On March 14, 2022, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily, which is affiliated with Hizbullah, published an investigative report according to which the Lebanese security services thwarted an August 2020 plot to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Beirut in September of that year.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
According to Dari- and Pashtu-language media reports, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on FBI's list of Most Wanted and is now the interior minister for the Taliban's government in Afghanistan, called on his supporters to not forget the sacrifices of martyrdom-seeking bombers and said that 1,050 jihadis carried out suicide bombings on his order alone.
A former Taliban fighter who also supports national socialist ideology talks with extremists on Gab. He claims to be a disabled former Taliban fighter who fought in Afghanistan.
This report will review details of attacks claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (the Movement of Pakistani Taliban, TTP) during the week ending March 20, 2022.
