The Taliban launched suicide attacks today outside the Defense Ministry in Kabul and in Khost province as US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel visited the capital on his first trip to Afghanistan.

The suicide attack in Kabul was executed by a Taliban bomber who detonated his vest at the main gate at the Defense Ministry. Two security personnel and seven civilians were killed in the attack, which also injured two Afghan soldiers and 11 more civilians.

The Taliban claimed credit for the attack in a statement released on their Website, Voice of Jihad. The Taliban claimed that "15 puppet officers," a reference to Afghan security personnel, were killed, and nine vehicles were "destroyed as martyr attack hits defense ministry." The Taliban routinely exaggerate casualties and the results of their operations.

Despite Coalition and Afghan efforts to seal off the Afghan capital, the Taliban have been able to infiltrate Kabul and conduct suicide attacks and assaults. The Taliban have launched two suicide attacks on the National Directorate of Security's headquarters in Kabul since December, and badly wounded NDS chief Asadullah Khalid in a suicide attack as he was welcoming visitors in a guesthouse.

In Khost, a suicide bomber killed eight children and a security official in an attack in the Mangas area of the eastern province. The suicide bomber detonated his vest as an Afghan and Coalition convoy passed by the area. The Taliban have not claimed credit for the attack. The Haqqani Network, a powerful Taliban subgroup, operates in in Khost province.

Today's high-profile attacks in Kabul and Khost follow another that took place yesterday in Kapisa province. Three Afghan soldiers turned their weapons on Coalition personnel at a base in the province, killing a civilian contractor and wounding three US soldiers. The three Afghan soldiers were killed during the attack.

The attacks have been conducted as Hagel is in Afghanistan to meet Coalition and Afghan officials to discuss the withdrawal of NATO and US forces and the transfer of security to the Afghan National Security Forces. The US was to hand over control of the Parwan Detention Facility to the Afghans in a ceremony today, but the transfer was canceled due to disputes over the prison.

Sources:

Suicide attacker rocks Capital city of Kabul, Ariana News
Mostly Civilians Casualties in Ministry of Defence Suicide Attack, TOLONews
15 puppet officers killed, 9 vehicle destroyed as martyr attack hits defense ministry, Voice of Jihad
Suicide attack leaves 8 children dead in Khost province, Khaama Press
United States cancel transfer of Bagram prison to Afghanistan, Khaama Press

A screen shot from the Ansar al-Muslimeen video that purports to show the bodies of several executed foreign hostages. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group.

A radical jihadist group in Nigeria that kidnapped seven foreigners last month claimed it has executed the hostages in response to a joint Nigerian and British military operation to free them.

Ansar al-Muslimeen in the Land of Black Africans (Bilad al-Sudan), an offshoot of the al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram, announced that it executed the hostages in a statement that was released today. The statement, which was released in both English and Arabic, was obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group.

In the statement, Ansar al-Muslimeen said that it had previously "warned that should there be any attempt by force to rescue" the "seven Christians foreigners," their lives would be in danger.

Ansar al-Muslimeen then claimed that "the British government sent five jet bombers, soldiers and intelligent [sic], parading in Bauchi in order to rescue them."

"By this progress the Nigeria and British government operation lead to the death of all the seven Christians foreigners," the group concluded.

Ansar al-Muslimeen said it would release a videotape of the execution and included screen shots from the tape that purports to show the bodies of the foreign hostages.

The seven foreigners are said to be from Britain, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, and the Philippines, and worked for a Lebanese construction firm in the northern state of Bauchi. They were kidnapped on Feb. 17. Ansar al-Muslimeen bombed vehicles at a police station at a town near the construction site and then killed a security guard before capturing the foreign workers.

The group said the kidnappings were a response to alleged transgressions against Islam by European countries in "many places such as Afghanistan and Mali etc."

Ansar al-Muslimeen, which is also called simply "Ansaru," has attempted to influence the situation in Mali in the recent past. The group also claimed an attack on a convoy of Nigerian troops in Kogi state on Jan. 20, saying it was to stop African countries from joining the intervention against al Qaeda-affiliated Islamists groups operating in Mali. The Nigerian troops were preparing to deploy to Mali to fight the al Qaeda-linked groups.

Ansar al-Muslimeen announced its formation in June 2012. Abu Usama al Ansari, the terror group's emir, said that one of its main goals is "restoring the dignity of the Muslims as it was in the time of the Caliphate," according to the statement, which was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"The method of achieving these aims and goals is "jihad," al Ansari said.

US drones are reported to have killed two "militants," including a "foreign national," as they rode on horseback in the terrorist hub of Datta Khel in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike today is the first reported by the US in Pakistan in 29 days.

The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two missiles at a pair of "militants" as they were riding horses in the village of Degan in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. The two militants and their horses are reported to have been killed, Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn.

The identities and affiliation of those killed have not been disclosed. AFP reported that a "foreign national" was killed in the strike.

Today's strike in North Waziristan is the first reported in Pakistan's tribal areas since Feb. 8, when US drones killed two Arab al Qaeda operatives and four Uzbeks in North Waziristan. The Arabs were identified as Sheikh Abu Waqas, a Yemeni explosives expert, and Abu Majid al Iraqi. The four Uzbeks, who were likely from the al Qaeda-allied Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, were not identified. The strike took place as the foreign fighters were having dinner with members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. A previous strike, on Feb. 6 in North Waziristan, is said to have killed five militants.

The two strikes in February have recently stirred up some controversy. The New York Times reported earlier this month that those two strikes were not carried out by the US. The report was based on interviews with "three American officials with knowledge of the program." The officials claimed one of the strikes was likely a Pakistani operation and that the other explosion may have been caused by infighting within the Taliban.

However, US intelligence officials involved with the drone program in Pakistan have told The Long War Journal that the two February strikes were indeed US operations.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations, the military's public relations branch, denied The New York Times report and claimed it was a "distortion of the facts and seems to be aimed at diluting Pakistan's stance on drone strikes."

Datta Khel area is a terrorist hub

The Datta Khel area, where today's strike took place, is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

Datta Khel is a known hub of Taliban, Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda activity. While Bahadar administers the region, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and allied Central Asian jihadist groups are also based in the area. The Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army, is known to operate a command center in Datta Khel. Some of al Qaeda's top leaders, including Mustafa Abu Yazid, a longtime al Qaeda leader and close confidant of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of the Shadow Army, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a general in the Shadow Army, have been killed in drone strikes in Datta Khel.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Hafiz Gul Bahadar or the Haqqani Network. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. In June 2012, Bahadar banned polio vaccinations in North Waziristan in protest of US drone strikes.

Bahadar and the Taliban maintain a "peace agreement" with the Pakistani military that allows him to run a state within a state in the remote tribal agency. Bahadar and his commanders have set up a parallel administration, complete with courts, recruiting centers, prisons, training camps, and the ability to levy taxes.

The peace agreement allows North Waziristan to serve as a base for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and nonaligned Taliban groups, as well as the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, and a host of Pakistani terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Punjabi Taliban.

Bahadar wields considerable power in North Waziristan. In July 2011, a spokesman for Bahadar claimed that there were no "militants" in North Waziristan, and that Bahadar's Taliban faction has lived up to its terms of a peace agreement with the Pakistani military. But, as documented here at The Long War Journal numerous times, Bahadar provides support and shelter for top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from a number of Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups, including the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Bahadar's Taliban subgroup is a member of the Shura-e-Murakeba, an al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban-brokered alliance that includes the Haqqani Network, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and the Mullah Nazir Group in South Waziristan.

In June 2012, Bahadar suspended polio vaccination programs in North Waziristan in protest against the US drone strikes in North Waziristan. Bahadar has objected to the US drone strikes in the past. On Nov. 12, 2011, Bahadar suspended meetings with the government and threatened to attack the Pakistani state if it continued to allow the US to conduct attacks in areas under his control.

The US has conducted numerous airstrikes against terrorist targets in areas under Bahadar's control. Of the 335 drone strikes that have taken place in Pakistan's tribal areas, 93 of the strikes, or nearly 28 percent, have occurred in areas directly under the control of Bahadar. [See LWJ report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013, for information on US airstrikes.]

The US has targeted al Qaeda's top leaders and its external operations network, as well as the assortment of Taliban and Pakistani jihadist groups operating in the region. The strikes have mostly been confined to a small kill box consisting of North and South Waziristan. Of the 335 strikes recorded since 2004, 318, or 95%, have taken place in the two tribal agencies.

An Afghan policeman killed two US soldiers in an attack at a US Special Forces base in Wardak province today. The attack is the second green-on-blue, or insider attack, that has been reported in the past four days.

The International Security Assistance Force confirmed that two US soldiers from the US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), the command under which many US special operations forces operate, were killed by Afghan personnel.

"Two US Forces-Afghanistan service members died in eastern Afghanistan today when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform turned a weapon on U.S. and Afghan forces," the ISAF statement said.

ISAF told The Long War Journal that the attack took place in the Jalrayz district in Wardak, and that two US soldiers were killed and several more were wounded.

The policeman opened fire on US soldiers with a machinegun that was mounted to the back of a pickup, killing two US soldiers and wounding eight more, according to Pajhwok Afghan News. US soldiers returned fire, killing three Afghan Local Policemen, including the policeman who initiated the attack.

Today's attack on US Special Forces troops took place one day after President Karzai ordered US Special Forces to leave Wardak province after publicly accusing them of murdering Afghan civilians (a charge the US military says is without basis). Special Forces train the Afghan Local Police, the locally raised police force that is often accused of numerous crimes against civilians.

Today's attack is the second green-on-blue, or insider attack in which Afghan forces turn their guns on ISAF personnel, in four days. On March 8, three Afghan soldiers assaulted a US base in Kapisa province, and killed an ISAF civilian adviser and wounded three US soldiers.

So far this year, there have been three green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan. Three ISAF soldiers and one civilian adviser have been killed in the three attacks since Jan. 1. The first attack took place on Jan. 6 in Helmand province.

Last year, green-on-blue attacks accounted for 15% of Coalition deaths. The attacks have tapered off in recent months as partnering of Afghan and Coalition troops has been reduced. [See LWJ special report, Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.]

Insider attacks a key part of Taliban strategy

The Taliban have claimed to have stepped up their efforts to infiltrate Afghan security forces as well as "lure" and encourage Afghan security personnel to attack ISAF troops and advisers.

In October 2012, Taliban emir Mullah Omar released an Eid al-Adha message that urged followers to "[i]increase Increase your efforts to expand the area of infiltration in the ranks of the enemy and to bring about better order and array in the work." The statement continued: "We call on the Afghans who still stand with the stooge regime to turn to full-fledged cooperation with their Mujahid people like courageous persons in order to protect national interests and to complete independence of the country. Jihadic activities inside the circle of the State militias are the most effective stratagem. Its dimension will see further expansion, organization and efficiency if God willing."

Omar had previously addressed the issue of green-on-blue attacks at length in a statement released on Aug. 16, 2012. Omar claimed that the Taliban "cleverly infiltrated in the ranks of the enemy according to the plan given to them last year," and urged government officials and security personnel to defect and join the Taliban as a matter of religious duty. He also noted that the Taliban have created the "Call and Guidance, Luring and Integration" department, "with branches ... now operational all over the country," to encourage defections. [See Threat Matrix report, Mullah Omar addresses green-on-blue attacks.]

Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed credit for the March 4 attack in Anbar province that killed 48 Syrian soldiers who were fleeing their civil war and nine Iraqi troops who were escorting them to Baghdad. The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, claimed to have 'liberated' the border crossing the day before the Syrian troops fled and were ambushed.

The Islamic State of Iraq, which is al Qaeda in Iraq's political front, released a statement yesterday on jihadist forums that claimed credit for the attack. The statement was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"The preparation for this invasion began after the blessed operations carried out by our brothers in Syria to purify the land from the filthiness of the Nusayris [Alawhites], and after the liberation of the "al-Yarabiyah" crossing, which pushed tens of the Syrian regime's soldiers and [thugs] to escape towards the Safavid [Iranian] army of the Baghdad government," the al Qaeda in Iraq statement said, according to the SITE translation.

The "brothers in Syria" are fighters from the Al Nusrah Front, which is in fact al Qaeda in Iraq's Syrian affiliate. In a statement released by the group on March 9, the Al Nusrah Front claimed it seized control of the al Yarabiyah crossing.

"Allah enabled your brothers in the Al Nusrah Front, in participation with some of the mujahideen brigades, to liberate the city of al-Yarabiyah in Hasaka province and its border crossing with Iraq," the Syrian terror group said in a statement that was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"They killed a large number of apostates after targeting their headquarters with mortars, while the rest withdrew to the inside of the Iraqi borders and fortified themselves there and started firing at the mujahideen, in participation with the Iraqi forces, which led to the martyrdom of 3 brothers," the Al Nusrah Front statement continued.

Al Qaeda in Iraq said it carried out the March 4 ambush after monitoring the movement of the Syrian and Iraqi convoy. The Iraqi terror group claimed the Iraqi military was seeking to move the Syrian troops back into Syria via the "al-Walid crossing, or one of the unofficial crossings that are close to it."

Describing the attack, al Qaeda in Iraq said it "spread ambushes on the road leading to those exits," which included IED, machine-gun, and rocket and mortar attacks. The area "became a graveyard in which the blood of the filthy ones from the Rafidah [Shi'ites] and Nusaryis mixed." The Iraqi terror group claimed it then fought off numerous attempts by the Iraqi military and even repelled a helicopter assault.

The attack in Anbar and the seizure of the border crossing in Syria serve to highlight both the al Qaeda resurgence in Iraq, and the growing power of its affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front, inside Syria. With the takeover of the Yarabiyah crossing and major towns and cities such as Raqqah, the Al Nusrah Front and its allies have effectively seized control of the Euphrates River Valley and have secured lines of communication with its parent group inside Iraq [see LWJ reports, Al Nusrah front spearheads capture of Syrian dam, claims suicide assault, and Al Nusrah Front seizes control of Syrian city of Raqqah].

The Obama administration has claimed that al Qaeda has been largely defeated after drone strikes killed some of the terror group's top leaders in Pakistan. But al Qaeda in Iraq has been able to regenerate its strength since the US withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011. Al Qaeda in Iraq has stood up al Qaeda's most effective affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front, which boasts 10,000 fighters and is capable of overrunning Syrian military units and seizing control of towns, cities, dams, and military bases.

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The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq's affiliate in Syria, may be close to taking control of Deir al Zour, the last major city on the Euphrates River in the west. The al Qaeda group's gains in the city take place just days after jihadists announced the formation of the "Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region" to govern areas under its control.

The Al Nusrah Front has seized control of several government installations in Deir al Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that closely track the civil war, reported on its Facebook page.

"The Nusrah Front has taken over the National Hospital ... which is in the al-Rushdi neighborhood," in Deir al Zour "after violent clashes with regime forces; several of whom were killed," the Syrian Observatory reported yesterday. "Rebels also took over the industrial institute earlier today after violent clashes with regime forces, several were killed there."

The Syrian military is firing rockets and mortars into several neighborhoods, the human rights organization stated. The "bombardments" indicate that the neighborhoods are no longer under Syrian government control.

"The regime bombarded the Matar al-Qadim, al-Ummal, al-Huweiqa and al-Hamidiya neighborhoods, the Sitta ila Rubu' area of the city was also bombarded. Clashes took place in the Sina'a neighborhood," the Syrian Observatory continued.

The Al Nusrah Front and allied jihadist groups have been active in Deir al Zour. Late last year, the Al Nusrah Front banded together with nine other Islamist groups to create the "Mujahideen Shura Council" in the city.

The Mujahideen Shura Council in Deir al Zour was formed to "unite the ranks of the jihadi brigades in the Cause of Allah, organize the efforts and the attacks against the soldiers of disbelief and apostasy, and distinguish the ranks of truth from falsehood," according to a statement released by the group in December 2012. The statement was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"We call upon our sincere mujahideen brothers all over the strong Levant to unite their ranks in groups, pure of the filth of suspicious groups and the infiltration of people who have no qualities or faith, in order to clarify their banner and purify their path," the statement continued.

The Al Nusrah Front in Deir al Zour is following al Qaeda in Iraq's strategy to unite disparate jihadist groups. In the summer of 2006, al Qaeda in Iraq also formed a Mujahideen Shura Council to coordinate operations with various other jihadist groups in Iraq. Later that year, al Qaeda in Iraq formed the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) to serve as the political front, and the Mujahideen Shura Council was folded in under the ISI's military wing.

Establishment of the "Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region"

The Al Nusrah Front and allied groups are consolidating their control over the Euphrates River Valley, while Al Nusrah is securing its lines of communications with its parent, al Qaeda in Iraq. The cities of Raqqah and Thawra are now under Al Nusrah's control, and the group has established sharia, or Islamic law, in smaller towns, such as Mayadin along the river. Abu Kamal is under the control of the Free Syrian Army, but the Al Nusrah Front maintains influence in the border town. Abu Kamal has long been a rear base for al Qaeda in Iraq.

On March 9, the jihadist alliance in eastern Syria, which is led by the Al Nusrah Front, established the "Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region" to impose Islamic law.

"The Committee has taken the rights over the executive, legislative and judicial powers over large parts of the east of Syria: establishing a police force, courts, fatwa offices, overseeing humanitarian aid, and the role of guiding people on the right path of god," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.

Residents of Mayadin are protesting "the presence and control of the Nusrah Front over their community," the Syrian Observatory reported.

The Al Nusrah Front is following the path of other al Qaeda groups in the region. For instance, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula created Ansar al Sharia, its political front, to govern areas of southern Yemen after taking control between May 2011 and May 2012.

Despite the Al Nusrah Front's dramatic rise in Syria, the US government will begin to provide millions of dollars in aid to help Syrian rebel groups govern areas under their control. The money is being funneled to the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council "to provide concrete, nonlethal support to the Free Syrian Army," the US State Department announced on Feb. 28

Both groups support the Al Nusrah Front. The president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition opposes the US's designation of the Al Nusrah Front as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The supposedly secular Free Syrian Army often fights alongside or under the command of the Al Nusrah Front. The Free Syrian Army and Al Nusrah have overrun Syrian military bases together, and they have even conducted a suicide attack in concert.

In early February, a video of an interview with Ansar al Sharia Tunisia's leader Seifallah ben Hassine (a.k.a. Abu Iyad al Tunisi) was released online after it had been banned by government officials. Hassine, who is wanted for instigating the Sept. 14, 2012 assault on the US Embassy in Tunis, was asked about the migration of young Tunisians to the jihadist battlefields in Syria and Mali. He responded by discouraging the practice, saying Tunisia's Salafi jihadists were needed at home and that the wars abroad have "emptied Tunisia of its young."

A review of Ansar al Sharia Tunisia's official Facebook page and other online sources tells a different story. Hassine's organization frequently celebrates the "martyrdom" of Tunisians, especially those who fought in Syria.

In Facebook entries posted this week, the group showcased Tunisians killed in Syria. And Ansar al Sharia's logos accompanied the young Tunisians' images, thereby indicating the organization's official seal of approval.

One post announces the death of a Tunisian who fought in Deir al Zour, a city located on the Euphrates River that the Al Nusrah Front is currently seeking to capture. The Facebook posting says that he fought for the Hamza Bin Abdul Muttalib Brigade.

Ansar al Sharia Tunisia's Facebook post honoring a Tunisian who died while fighting for the Hamza Bin Abdul Muttalib Brigade in Deir al Zour, Syria.

In a separate but related posting, Ansar al Sharia Tunisia embedded a video of what appears to be the same Tunisian and asked Allah to accept his "martyrdom." The video itself was not produced by Ansar al Sharia, but it shows the recruit lying dead in the rubble of a building, with his weapon by his side.

Another Facebook post shows a Tunisian who was apparently killed while fighting Bashar al Assad's organized thugs, or Shabiha. The recruit is shown holding a grenade in the photo and, in the accompanying text, Ansar al Sharia Tunisia asks Allah to accept his death in Syria, where he waged jihad.

An Ansar al Sharia Tunisia web banner honoring a Tunisian jihadist who died in Syria.

In February, one of Ansar al Sharia Tunisia's sister Facebook pages posted a banner that reads, "Tunisian blood continues to irrigate the land of al Sham (Syria)." The banner features eight Tunisians, and Ansar al Sharia Tunisia said they are "among the men of Tunisia who answered the call of the oppressed in Syria."

As with the other Tunisian "martyrs" who have died in Syria, Hassine's group prayed that Allah would "accept them among the martyrs." Some of the men were also featured in separate Facebook postings by Ansar al Sharia Tunisia.

A poster honoring eight Tunisians who died fighting in Syria.

Estimates of the number of Tunisians fighting in Syria vary greatly, from dozens to hundreds. Some of these estimates are undoubtedly exaggerations.

But Tunisians waging jihad abroad remains a problem, with recruits taking part in the fighting in Mali and Syria, as well as terrorist attacks such as the Sept. 11, 2012 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the January 2013 siege of the In Amenas natural gas field in Algeria. Authorities have indicated that 11 Tunisians took part in the latter attack.

And while Seifallah ben Hassine says he does not want Tunisians going off to fight in foreign lands, his organization openly celebrates the "martyrdom" of men who do.

The International Security Assistance Force has captured a commander in the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan during an operation in northern Afghanistan. Afghan and Coalition forces captured the unnamed insurgent commander yesterday in Kunduz district in Kunduz province.

ISAF revealed to The Long War Journal that the IMU leader is an Uzbek national. This is the eighth operation targeting a member of the al Qaeda-linked group in Afghanistan this year.

According to the report, the IMU commander is "suspected to be responsible for directing subordinate fighters in attacks" on security forces. He also is believed to be an IED expert who has trained "other members of an extremist cell." When asked to identify the cell, ISAF said "due to security reason[s] we cannot release any information about the cell mentioned."

The IMU is known to fight alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda and, as with al Qaeda and other foreign groups, its members often serve as advisers and trainers to indigenous fighters such as the Taliban.

Based on a study by The Long War Journal, the IMU has remained active in Afghanistan's northern provinces, and particularly in Kunduz, where yesterday's IMU commander was captured. Last year, 38 raids were conducted by Afghan and Coalition forces targeting the group; of those, 16 were in Kunduz. Yesterday's raid was the third this year that has resulted in the death or capture of an IMU operative in the province. The last two reported operations targeting the IMU in Afghanistan also took place in Kunduz province [see LWJ report, Multiple insurgents captured in raid targeting IMU leader, and Threat Matrix report, Another IMU leader captured in Afghanistan as Obama announces US force cut].

In mid-March 2012, there had been only three operations targeting the IMU since the beginning of the year, significantly less than the eight so far this year. Considering the substantial drawdown of Coalition troops following the surge and the announced withdrawal of 34,000 US troops, the greater number of raids so far this year could signify that IMU activity in the country has increased.

Also yesterday in Kunduz, a suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack at a buzkashi game in the Imam Sahib district. The attack appears to have been targeting the district police chief, whose brother is the speaker of the lower house of Afghanistan's parliament, and his family. The police chief, his father, and four bodyguards were killed in the blast, according to Pajhwok Afghan News.

While no group has claimed credit for yesterday's suicide attack, the IMU is the likely culprit. The group has attacked political and military leaders in the north with suicide bombers in the past.

Background on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a key ally of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and supports operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as plots attacks in Europe. The IMU is known to fight alongside the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has integrated into the Taliban's shadow government in northern Afghanistan. [For more information on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, see LWJ report, IMU cleric urges Pakistanis to continue sheltering jihadis in Waziristan.]

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fighters often serve as bodyguards for top Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda leaders. Apart from its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the IMU has stepped up attacks in Central Asian countries as well. In September 2010, the IMU took credit for an ambush that killed 25 Tajik troops, and also threatened to carry out further attacks in the Central Asian country.

The IMU has claimed credit for numerous suicide assaults in Afghanistan, including the May 19, 2010 attack on the US military airbase in Bagram, the Oct. 15, 2011 assault on the Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Panjshir, and the Oct. 29, 2011 suicide attack that targeted an armored bus in Kabul.

The IMU has been a prime target of special operations forces in Afghanistan. Last year, special operations forces conducted at least 38 raids against the IMU; in Badakhshan, Baghlan, Faryab, Logar, Helmand, Kunduz, Takhar, and Wardak, or eight of Afghanistan's 34 provinces; according to ISAF press releases compiled by The Long War Journal.

In October 2012, the US Treasury Department added Qari Ayyub Bashir, the "head of finance" for the IMU, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Bashir also serves as a member of the group's shura, or executive council. Identified as an Uzbek national, Bashir is based out of Mir Ali, in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. As the IMU's lead financier, he provides financial and "logistical" support for IMU operations in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and fundraises from outside the region.

Last spring, ISAF killed the two previous IMU leaders for Afghanistan, in raids just a few weeks apart in Faryab province. [See LWJ report, Special operations forces kill newly appointed IMU leader for Afghanistan, for more information.]

Additionally, the US has targeted the IMU's leaders and network in Pakistan's tribal areas. US drones have killed the last two emirs of the IMU. On Aug. 4, 2012, the IMU announced that its emir, Abu Usman Adil, was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan, and named Usman Ghazi as the new leader of the al Qaeda-linked terror group. Adil had succeeded Tahir Yuldashev, the co-founder of the IMU, who was killed in a drone strike in September 2009.

Adil is credited with increasing the IMU's profile in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the death of Yuldashev, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Whereas Yuldashev had been content with confining the group's operations largely to Pakistan's tribal areas, Adil pushed to expand operations in northern and eastern Afghanistan, as well as in the Central Asian republics.

A suspect in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi has been detained in Libya, according to multiple press outlets. CNN reports that, according to one source, Faraj al Chalabi (or al Shibli) "was detained within the past two days and had recently returned from a trip to Pakistan." Reuters reports that al Chalabi "fled to Pakistan after the attacks and only recently returned to Libya."

Both CNN and Reuters note that the precise role al Chalabi is suspected of playing in the Benghazi attack is "unclear."

Al Chalabi was first fingered as a suspected terrorist in 1998. At the time, Muammar Qaddafi's regime said that he was involved in the murder of two Germans, an intelligence official named Silvan Becker and his wife. The German couple had been killed under mysterious circumstances in 1994.

The Libyan regime's intelligence led to an Interpol arrest warrant in March 1998. In addition to al Chalabi, two other Libyans and Osama bin Laden were named as the alleged perpetrators of the attack. The Libyans were accused of being members of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).

In June 2004, the Libyan government reiterated its allegations against al Chalabi, his fellow Libyans, and bin Laden in a filing with the United Nations Security Council. "It is worth noting that the elements that carried out that act and Osama bin Laden's arrangements are still wanted and that their organizational connection to the Al Qaeda organization has been confirmed," Qaddafi's regime claimed. Al Chalabi was specifically listed as one of the suspected terrorists tied to al Qaeda.

According to some accounts, the Libyan regime's claims were not taken all that seriously at first. Perhaps this was because of Qaddafi's own prolific role in sponsoring terrorism and his ruthless suppression of the opposition.

CNN notes that "some analysts have cast doubt on the [Qaddafi] regime's assertion that Libyan Islamist Fighting Group members carried out the attack on the German couple."

In late 2001, however, the German press linked al Qaeda to the murder of Becker and his wife. According to those accounts, the FBI itself discovered the link after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Citing a report by Focus, a German weekly news magazine, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported in October 2001 that the FBI "had come across the bin Laden links to the murder of the two Germans...in the course of its probe into the September 11 assault on the United States." AFP continued: "The magazine said that one of the chief suspects in the case belonged to a bin Laden terrorist cell and was involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which US authorities have linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda movement."

The FBI reportedly gave the details of al Qaeda's involvement to German authorities.

In November 2001, the German newspaper Die Welt followed up with its own brief account of al Qaeda's ties to the attack. The account was headlined, "Bin Laden allegedly implicated in murder of German agent." Germany's criminal investigators had no further information at the time, Die Welt reported, but this "may be related to the fact that this mystery has an intelligence services context."

Die Welt also cited the FBI as the source of information on one of the suspects, who was purportedly tied to the 1998 embassy bombings.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the Benghazi attack. If the German accounts from 2001 are accurate, then the Bureau may already have a dossier on al Chalabi.

In his 2002 book, Inside Al Qaeda, Rohan Gunaratna reported that Becker's death hampered Germany's efforts to track bin Laden's operatives.

"According to the German secret service," Gunaratna wrote, "Becker was their Arabist and his untimely death gravely affected Germany's ability to effectively monitor the growing Al Qaeda infrastructure in Germany."

Muhammad Ahmed Qanitah. Image from the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center's Facebook page.

A Palestinian jihadist military trainer and commander who was a member of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem and who previously served with Hamas was killed in Syria while fighting for the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda's affiliate in the country.

The Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center, "the official source for releases from the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in the Environs of Jerusalem," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, released a video to jihadist forums on March 12 about Muhammad Ahmed Qanitah.

Qanitah, who is also known as Abu Abdul Rahman, was killed in a rocket attack in December while fighting for the Al Nusrah Front during the siege of the airport in Aleppo, according to the videotape.

The biography in the video stated that Qanitah "grew up with a religious family and was raised to hate the 'Jewish enemy,'" according to a summary of the video by the SITE Intelligence Group. "He learned martial arts and threw stones at the enemies and was injured when he was 12 years old."

The narrator of the video said Qanitah joined Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas in 2003. "He came to know its leaders and worked with them and trained its fighters, and he participated in many jihadi actions and attacks against the settlements." He fought against the Israeli military during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009, "and he continued participating in al-Qassam Brigades and the 'cleansing' of Gaza to live under Shariah-based governance," the SITE summary said.

At some point following Cast Lead, Qanitah became disenchanted with Hamas and turned to the Salafist jihadist groups in Gaza. Eventually Qanitah was introduced to Sheikh Abu al Walid al Maqdisi, the leader of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem. Qanitah subsequently began training "the group's fighters and supervised some military operations."

According to the narrator, Qanitah realized that he was likely going to be targeted by Israel, so he attempted to go to Chechnya. After failing to reach Chechnya, Qanitah traveled to Mecca and then traveled to Syria. Once in Syria, he supervised military training for the al-Fajr Islamic Movement and the al-Nusra Front and "participated in bombing operations."

In a segment of the video showing Qanitah giving his will, he says "heart was torn apart when I saw women being raped in Levantine Syria, and children being killed, houses destroyed and elderly murdered by those criminals, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite Shi'ite henchmen." He concludes that "it was our duty to emigrate in the Cause of Allah to the Levant to help our mujahideen brothers."

Qanitah was buried in Syria. Interestingly, despite his affiliation with Salafi jihadist groups, Hamas reportedly "handled his funeral service, out of respect for his history."

Palestinian jihadists travel to Syria to wage jihad

Qanitah is not the first Palestinian jihadist to have been killed during fighting in Aleppo. Last July, a Palestinian fighter from the al Qaeda-linked Army of Islam was killed during fighting in Aleppo.

In recent weeks, numerous press reports have indicated a rise in the number of Palestinians joining the fight against Assad in Syria. Many of those traveling to Syria have been Salafi jihadists who joined the Al Nusrah Front.

Salafi jihadists in the Gaza Strip have expressed support for the fight in Syria and provided military tips in statements issued over the past couple months.

On Jan. 20, 2013, an audio speech from Abu Abdullah al-Ghazi, an Army of the Ummah official, was released to jihadist forums. In the speech, which was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, al Ghazi said that the Levant should be seen as an open "market of jihad." In addition, he called on fighters to "[t]ake the initiative and rise to establish the Islamic State in the Levant and reestablish the rule of Allah over His land after you pluck out that criminal tyrant [Assad] and retaliate for the blood that was spelt and the honors that were violated."

Nine days before this audio speech was released, a video from the Army of the Ummah was released to jihadist forums. In the video, which was dedicated to fighters in Syria, the group showed "how to manufacture a 107mm rocket," according to SITE. The video also "provided recommendations about substitute materials and quantities depending on the size of the rocket."

Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem

The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) is a consolidation of a number of Salafi jihadist groups operating in the Gaza Strip including, but not limited to: Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ansar al Sunnah. Sheikh Anas Abdul Rahman, one of MSC's leaders, has said that the group aims to "fight the Jews for the return of Islam's rule, not only in Palestine, but throughout the world."

The MSC has taken responsibility for a number of rocket attacks against Israel as well as the June 18, 2012 attack that killed one Israeli civilian. In November 2012, the group carried out joint rocket attacks with the Army of Islam. Following the institution of a ceasefire that ended Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense, the MSC said that it was not truly a party to the ceasefire.

In July 2012, the MSC released a 38-minute-long video in which it said that the June attack was "a gift to our brothers in Qaedat al Jihad and Sheikh Zawahiri" and retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden. On Oct. 22, the MSC released a 32-minute-long video detailing some of its rocket attacks against Israel and threatening to "fight you [Israel] as long as we hold...weapons in our hands."

In November 2012, the Israeli Air Force targeted a number of MSC members. On Oct. 7, the IDF killed Tala'at Halil Muhammad Jarbi, a "global jihad operative," and Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai, a member of the MSC. Maqawai was likely a former member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On Oct. 13, Israel killed Abu al Walid al Maqdisi, the former emir of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ashraf al Sabah, the former emir of Ansar al Sunnah, in an airstrike. The two men were said to be leaders of the MSC.

Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem

The Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem announced its formation in a statement released on jihadist forums in August 2009. In the same announcement, the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem denounced a raid by Hamas against a Jund Ansar Allah mosque that killed Latif Moussa. Hamas killed Moussa and several followers after he declared an Islamic emirate in Gaza and challenged Hamas's authority. Al Maqdisi had studied under Moussa.

The Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem has claimed credit for numerous attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians. In multiple statements released on jihadist forums, the terror group has claimed to have launched rocket and mortar attacks into Israel, as well as IED attacks against Israeli soldiers.

Tawhid and Jihad has also expressed its affinity with al Qaeda's top leaders. In June 2010, the group released a statement eulogizing Mustafa Abu Yazid, one al Qaeda's top leaders who was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan. Tawhid and Jihad said Yazid's death was the latest among "a generation" of martyred al Qaeda leaders such as "Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, Abu Hamza al Muhajir, Abu al Laith al Libi, and Yusuf al Ayiri, who will turn the life of their enemy into unbearable hell and send them after that to eternal perdition where the Lord of the Worlds is the judge," according to a translation of the statement by the SITE Intelligence Group.

In addition, the terror group has expressed solidarity with the Islamic Caucasus Emirates, al Qaeda's affiliate in southern Russia, and eulogized Emir Sayfullah, who was the terror group's top judge was well as its leader in Dagestan before he was killed in August 2011.

Afghan NDS officials showed the media weapons and nearly eight tons of explosives seized from an operation conducted on March 12 in eastern Kabul. The explosives were hidden in cement bags and wired for detonation in the truck seen in the background. Afghan forces killed five suspects during the operation, and captured two others, seen in the background with black hoods over their heads. Source: EPA.

Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces scored a major coup on March 12, breaking up a suspected Haqqani Network terror cell that was hours away from detonating a 7,800-kilogram truck bomb against an unspecified military installation in Kabul.

Elite NDS commandos conducted a night raid on March 12 against a suspected Haqqani safe house in the Al Walkhil village in Kabul's 16th District, and killed five suspected militants and captured two others, according to TOLOnews. Among the weapons and ammunition seized by Afghan forces was a large flatbed truck filled with 7,800 kilograms of explosives consisting of potassium chloride, ammonium nitrate, and an unknown substance -- a bomb powerful enough to have wrought destruction within a 1,500-meter radius (nearly one mile), according to NDS spokesman Shafiqullah Taheri.

Several previous high-profile terror attacks in Kabul that used potassium chloride as an explosive precursor have been attributed to the powerful Haqqani Network, an al Qaeda and Taliban affiliate based in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency. Taheri was quick to blame the Haqqani Network and the Taliban's Quetta Shura for facilitating this week's failed terror plot, although he did not provide additional details to explain the connection.

The two suspects captured alive were in possession of forged Afghan national identity cards, according to Pajhwok Afghan News. What appears to be Afghan National Army (ANA) Commando uniforms [see photo above] were among the several RPK-machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, and ammunition seized during the raid. Maps and photographs of military installations in Kabul were also among the items seized during the raid.

Tuesday's successful operation came two days after US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel departed Afghanistan following a round of precarious discussions with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The Taliban attacked the Afghan Defense Ministry with a suicide bomber on March 9 while Hagel was in Kabul, although he was not near the Afghan Ministry of Defense during the time of the blast. [See LWJ report, Taliban suicide bombers strike in Kabul, Khost.] The failed attack also comes nearly a week before the Nowruz (New Year) celebrations, a national holiday that marks the beginning of the new solar calendar. The Taliban have long been adamantly opposed to Nowruz celebrations, and even prohibited celebrating the holiday in areas under their control between 1996 and 2001.

Last year, the Taliban issued a statement warning Afghans against celebrating the holiday, which caused serious concerns for security in places like Mazar-e-Sharif, where the famous Nowruz Red Flower Celebration draws hundreds of thousands of revelers every year.

This week's thwarted truck bomb attack bears hallmarks similar to those of another failed terror plot last April, when Afghan security forces interdicted a transport truck near eastern Kabul loaded with 10,000 kilograms (approximately 11 tons) of explosives, elaborately disguised under sacks stuffed with potatoes. [See LWJ report, Afghan intelligence seizes 11 tons of explosives, thwarts additional terror plots]

For previous coverage of NDS operations, see the following Long War Journal and Threat Matrix reports:

• Afghan intelligence thwarts terror plots in Kabul, Logar, and Parwan, Aug. 31, 2012

• Afghan intelligence thwarts complex assault plot in Kabul; Pakistani suspect, 4 others arrested, Aug. 12, 2012

• Afghan intel kills 5 members of Haqqani Network suicide cell in Kabul, Aug. 2, 2012

• Afghan intelligence thwarts 3rd major terror plot in Kabul, May 3, 2012

• Afghan intelligence seizes 11 tons of explosives, thwarts additional terror plots, April 21, 2012

• Afghan intelligence captures 3 members of northern assassination cell, Feb. 7, 2012

• Afghan intelligence operations take on significant role, Sept. 21, 2011

• Afghan NDS continues crackdown on counterfeit uniforms, Sept. 5, 2011

• Haqqani Network directed Kabul hotel assault by phone from Pakistan, Sept. 3, 2011

• NDS dismantles Kabul Attack Network cell, Aug. 28, 2011

• Elite Afghan force destroys insurgent explosives cache, Aug. 22, 2011

• NDS smashes Haqqani Network plots in Kabul, July 31, 2011

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) claimed credit for last week's deadly suicide assault on the Justice Ministry in Baghdad that killed 22 Iraqis. Seven Iraqi policemen and 15 civilians were killed in the March 14 attack.

AQI claimed the "storming" operation, as it refers to such offensives, in a statement that was released yesterday on jihadist Internet forums. The statement was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The operation began with "storming the main entrance of the ministry with an explosives-laden vehicle driven by" a suicide bomber. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed that the attack disoriented and disabled the Iraqi security forces guarding the compound, allowing the main assault team of four heavily armed fighters to attack a secondary gate, breach the defenses, and enter the ministry.

"Three martyrdom-seekers wearing their explosive belts stormed the ministry building from the second gate after they parked their explosives-laden vehicle, carrying automatic rifles, hand grenades and silenced weapons," the statement said. "Then, they liquidated everyone they met from the security forces, and one of them detonated his belt in their main gathering to open the way for his two brothers who stormed the ministry building simultaneously with the explosion of the second vehicle ...."

Al Qaeda in Iraq's version of the events that followed matches eyewitness accounts from Iraqi security personnel who fought the suicide team that day. The three fighters entered the ministry and fought security personnel on several floors before being killed by Iraqi guards. Al Qaeda claimed more than 60 people were killed, while press reports indicate that 22 Iraqis who worked in or guarded the building were killed.

Al Qaeda in Iraq said that the attack was part of the "blessed invasion in the series of special operations in retaliation for the free Sunni women in the prisons of the apostates." This is a reference to the contentious issue of female Sunni prisoners held by (Shia-dominated) government forces ("prisons of the apostates"), as well as al Qaeda's "Destroying the Walls" campaign, which was announced at the end of July 2012 by Abu Du'a, the Islamic State of Iraq's emir. In that statement, Abu Du'a said that emphasis would be placed on efforts "to release the Muslim prisoners everywhere."

The ministry building was described by al Qaeda in Iraq as "the new headquarters of the Safavid," or Iranian, "Ministry of Justice." AQI often claims that the Shia-led government is an arm of the Iranians, in an effort to stir up sectarian tensions between Shia and Sunni Iraqis. In early 2012, AQI's spokesman indicated that the terror group is seeking to revive sectarian tensions, and it is now attempting to capitalize on the recent political crisis as Sunni clerics, citizens, and political leaders have staged massive protests against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government since December of last year [see Threat Matrix reports, Al Qaeda in Iraq rails at Shias, claims deadly attacks and Al Qaeda in Iraq launches suicide assault in Baghdad].

Al Qaeda in Iraq has regenerated significant capability since US forces withdrew from the country at the end of 2011. While the terror group does not openly control territory as it did in 2007, before US and Iraqi forces drove it from strongholds throughout the country, AQI can still organize and execute complex, large-scale attacks, such as a raid on Iraqi policemen in Haditha in March 2012, or an attack on Syrian troops escorted by Iraqi soldiers in Anbar earlier this month. The group has also launched coordinated attacks in multiple cities throughout the country.

In addition to regenerating its forces in Iraq, al Qaeda has launched the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant in Syria, the most effective and dangerous fighting force in the neighboring civil war. The Al Nusrah Front is estimated to have more than 10,000 fighters and has taken control of cities, towns, and military bases throughout Syria.

Following a deadly suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan that killed 10 people on March 13, Afghan and Coalition forces launched separate raids on March 14 and March 15 targeting three senior members of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These raids were the 9th and 10th operations targeting the terror group in Afghanistan so far this year.

Today ISAF announced that an 11th operation had been conducted, in which an IMU leader was captured in the Kunduz district of Kunduz province. According to the International Security Assistance Force, the detained leader is "believed to have coordinated multiple attacks" against security forces and "served a vital role in the facilitation of weapons to extremist fighters." ISAF confirmed to The Long War Journal that the captured leader was of Pashtun ethnicity. On March 13, Afghan and Coalition forces captured an IMU commander in the same district who was an IED expert and trained insurgents how to assemble and use them in attacks.

On March 15 in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz province, the same district where the suicide bombing had taken place two days earlier, special operation forces arrested an IMU "suicide attack coordinator" who is accused of ordering multiple suicide attacks on members of the Afghan government and security forces. ISAF later confirmed to The Long War Journal that the captured IMU operative was behind the March 13 blast that killed the local police chief, his father, and four bodyguards. ISAF also reported that at the time of his capture, the IMU coordinator was planning an attack on Afghan National Security Forces.

Meanwhile, ISAF also conducted an operation in northern Afghanistan targeting a pair of "high-profile" IMU attack coordinators in the Faizabad district of Jawzjan province. The March 14 raid targeted IMU members who work together to direct attacks on security forces and have organized a "significant number" of suicide bombings. They are also believed to facilitate IED operations. One insurgent was detained; ISAF told The Long War Journal that he is not one of the targeted IMU coordinators, however. This is the first raid targeting the IMU in Jawzjan province since April 2011, according to ISAF press releases compiled by The Long War Journal.

ISAF revealed to The Long War Journal that the captured IMU coordinator in the Imam Sahib operation is of Uzbek ethnicity. However, ISAF could not confirm the nationality of any of the detained or targeted insurgents. In response to a question of the targets' affiliations to foreign fighters, ISAF said that with all three targets "there are indications of Uzbek involvement." This is unsurprising given that the raids were conducted near the Uzbekistan border.

New campaign targeting the IMU?

ISAF has significantly increased its operational tempo targeting the IMU in Afghanistan this year, in comparison to previous years. Typically, the rate of operations increases as the spring and summer fighting season approaches, but the number of operations targeting the IMU this year has already exceeded the number conducted during the height of the surge of US forces in Afghanistan. From Jan. 1 to March 18, 2011 there were six operations targeting the group; in 2012, during the same time span there were five. Counting today's raid, there have been already 11 operations against the IMU this year.

This could be an indication that security forces are increasing their efforts against the terror group prior to the Coalition forces' transition from a combat role to an advisory role. The transfer of security responsibility will have a dramatic effect not only on the ability of US and ISAF forces to target terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the IMU, but also on Afghan capabilities to conduct these kinds of raids.

However, it could also signal that the IMU's activity in the country is increasing due to the emerging security vacuum left by the withdrawal of international troops. Germany, which commands security operations in the north, currently has 4,400 troops in Afghanistan. But they have come under criticism for not being prepared for their responsibilities in suppressing the insurgency. The IMU's resilience in the region may be an indication that German efforts to stabilize northern Afghanistan have not been effective.

At least 26 people have been killed and more than 80 wounded in what may have been the first chemical attack in Syria's two-year-old civil war. The Syrian government has accused rebel fighters of launching the attack against a village in Aleppo. The use of chemical weapons has yet to be confirmed, however, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zoubi claimed that the purported chemical attack was launched "from [the Da'el area in al-Neirab" in Aleppo against the village of Khan al Asal, which is currently under Syrian military control. The unidentified rebel forces fired "a rocket with chemical substances" at the village, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

A rebel commander from the "Ansar Brigade" told Reuters that his forces were not behind the attack, and accused the Syrian military of launching a Scud missile filled with a chemical agent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war, said a rocket attack in the town killed 26 people, including "16 regular soldiers." News reports indicate that chlorine gas was the likely agent as many victims smelled the chemical and reported problems breathing.

If confirmed, the chemical attack would be the first recorded in the Syrian civil war. While the Syrian government is known to possess massive stockpiles of chemical weapons, it has yet to use its deadly arsenal despite losing ground to rebel groups, including al Qaeda's affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front. The Assad regime has claimed it would not use chemical weapons against its own people, and that the poisonous agents would only be used against external enemies.

It is feared that Syrian rebel groups may have obtained access to the Assad regime's chemical weapons. In December 2012, the Al Nusrah Front and allied jihadist groups seized control of the Sheikh Suleiman base, or Base 111, in Aleppo, as well as a chlorine factory near the city. The Sheikh Suleiman base is thought to have been a key node in the Syrian military's chemical weapons program.

Additionally, jihadist groups such as the Al Nusrah Front have taken control of several Syrian military bases, including an air base in Aleppo that housed Scuds and anti-aircraft missiles. It is unclear if the jihadist groups have the expertise or capability to launch the weapons.

Al Qaeda has employed crude chlorine bombs in the past. From February to May 2007, al Qaeda in Iraq attempted 10 suicide attacks in Ramadi, Fallujah, Amiriya, Taji, and Baghdad, in which the bombs included chlorine gas containers. US and Iraqi forces also found several chlorine bomb factories in Anbar and Baghdad and intercepted several of the bombs before they were detonated. The attempts to disperse chlorine gas in the explosion were crude; although nearly all of the Iraqis close to the blasts were killed, many others in the surrounding areas were severely sickened but did not die. In Anbar, al Qaeda directed many of the chlorine gas attacks at civilian locations; their target was the Awakening, the group of tribes and former insurgents who opposed al Qaeda.

Residents pick through rubble following a military air strike against suspected militant positions in the Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency, in late December 2012. Militants associated with Ansar-ul-Islam and Tehrik-e-Taliban-e Pakistan (TTP) have been battling each other over the strategic highlands of eastern Khyber for several months. Source: Pakistan Dunya News.

Two nights ago, hundreds of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (Tehrik-e-Taliban-e Pakistan or TTP) militants overran the headquarters of a rival faction, Ansar-ul-Islam, deep inside the Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency, following months of fierce clashes between the two outlawed Islamist factions. Fighting between the two factions had intensified this weekend, and on Sunday, TTP fighters stormed Malikdinkhel and seized the Bagh headquarters and its surrounding bazaar, according to the News International.

Emir of Ansar-ul-Islam Maulana Qazi Mehboob-ul Haq and General Secretary of Ansar-al Islam Qari Izzatullah Ham Khial reportedly fled the Bagh area for Zakhakhel shortly before the TTP overran Bagh. However, the homes of Mehboob and Izzatullah located in Malikdinkhel have since been blown up by TTP fighters, and their headquarters in Bagh is now under TTP control. The nearby areas of Shalobar and portions of Zakhakhel have also fallen to the TTP Lashkar-e-Islam fighters, however, Ansar-ul-Islam General Secretary Qari Izzatullah Ham Khial vowed his group would defeat the rival factions from positions in Zakhakhel and Arakzai.

Shortly after the TTP takeover of Bagh on Monday, two Ansar-ul-Islam suicide bombers attacked TTP militants as they ransacked the Ansar-ul-Islam headquarters and killed 46 militants, including an Uzbek Uzbek commander named Abu Islam, according to a regional press report.

Infighting in Khyber has forced 644 families belonging to the Qambarkhel tribe to flee for their lives this week, many of them taking up shelter in the Sanghara area of Arakzai Agency, adding to the already 24,000 displaced people fleeing the recent fighting in Khyber, according to the News International.

Clashes continue

Ansar-ul-Islam spokesman Sadat Afridi told the Express Tribune that Ansar-ul-Islam fighters have retaken the Haidar Kandao check post after fierce clashes with the TTP in Bar Qamber Khel, but he conceded that the TTP have regained control in Bhutan Sharif, Ziarat Sar, and Machapura areas. Additional fighting between the TTP and Ansar-ul-Islam has been reported in the Parail Sanghar, Dakhay, Difa, Angoray, Nandokhay, and Fateh Ziarat areas, with casualties mounting on both sides.

Pakistani military jets have been pounding TTP positions around the Tirah Valley since February, including the latest round of strikes in the Tarkikhel and Durbikhel areas which reportedly destroyed three "hideouts." Ansar-ul-Islam is allied with local Lashkar Aman (Peace Army) elements, and is suspected of receiving covert aid from the Pakistani government to act as a bulwark against TTP expansion, despite Pakistan's outlawing of the group in 2008.

TTP fighters and Ansar-ul-Islam have fought pitched battles in the Tirah Valley highlands since January, resulting in the deaths of over 80 fighters and civilians between Jan. 25 and Jan. 29 alone, according to RFE/RFL. Beginning in February, the militant faction Lashkar-e-Islam, a rival of Ansar-ul-Islam, reportedly launched coordinated attacks with the TTP against Ansar-ul-Islam in Khyber Agency. Particularly intense battles raged in late January and early February between the rival Islamist factions near the contested area of Kismat Sangar.

The Islamist network in Khyber

In 2012, there were an estimated 130 militant groups operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), with five major groups in Khyber Agency at the time pitted against each other, according to Ashraf Ali, director of the FATA Research Centre, an Islamabad-based think tank. The five major militant groups in Khyber Agency are, according to Ali: the TTP led by Tariq Afridi; Ansar-ul-Islam; Lashkar-e-Islam; Tauheed-e-Islam, jointly led by Tayyab and Ghunzha Gul; and Amer bil Maroof Wa-Nahee Anil Munkir, led by Maulvi Naamdar.

Latif Afridi, a secular politician from Khyber Agency, warned RFE/RL in January that TTP and al Qaeda control of the Tirah Valley would have serious consequences for the security of the surrounding regions, namely the ability of the TTP to launch further attacks against Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Tirah Valley has been a known haven for the TTP, the Lashkar-e-Islam, al Qaeda, and other Pakistani terror groups. Safe havens in the valley enable these terror groups to launch attacks inside Pakistan as well as across the border in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. The US drones targeted al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Tirah Valley four times in 2010. In one such strike in December 2010, US drones killed Ibn Amin, a dual-hatted Taliban and al Qaeda military commander who operated in the Swat Valley.

Taliban attacks in the region continue unabated. On Monday, two suicide bombers attacked the Judicial Complex in Peshawar, killing four people and wounding another 47, including two women.

Earlier this week, TTP spokesman Ihsanullah ihsan announced that the group has 'temporarily suspended' its peace dialogue offer to the Pakistani government, pending the formation of a new government. However, Ihsan warned Pakistani citizens to stay away from the political rallies held by the ANP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pakistan's People Party (PPP) -- a veiled threat that the TTP would not refrain from continuing the terrorist campaign against Pakistani political organizations, leaders, and rallies.

The TTP has assassinated Pakistani politicians in the recent past. On Dec. 22, 2012, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister and leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) Bashir Ahmad Bilour was assassinated in a Taliban suicide attack in Dhaki Naalbandi, Peshawar. [See Long War Journal report, Taliban suicide bomber kills Pakistani provincial minister.]

A Swedish Muslim who entered Syria to wage jihad against President Bashir al Assad's regime was killed while fighting alongside the Muhajireen Brigade (Emigrants Brigade), a group of foreign fighters who are linked to al Qaeda's affiliate in the country.

The Swede, who was identified by his nom de guerre, Abu Kamal As Swedee, was reported killed in a English-language video martyrdom statement that was posted on jihadist-run Facebook and Twitter pages on March 13. The video was discovered by France 24.

Like many foreign jihadists, Abu Kamal traveled to Turkey before entering Syria. Abu Kamal "joined Jaysh Al Hur [Free Army] known as the Free Syrian Army," the supposedly secular group that is known to fight alongside al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the Al Nusrah Front. But he became disenchanted with the group as "most of them didn't pray, listened to music, and smoked cigarettes," and returned to Turkey to "meet his old friend Abu Sulayman whom he grew up with [sic]."

Abu Kamal and his friend "met some brothers from the Muhajireen Brigade," includng a "Chechnyan [sic]," or a fighter from the Russian republic of Chechnya, and was convinced that he "felt right at home with the group that consisted of brothers who came to fight for the sake of Allah from around the world."

The Muhajireen Brigade is commanded by a jihadist from the Russian Caucasus who is known as Abu Omar al Chechen. The Chechen commander was praised by the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, a jhadist group that is allied with al Qaeda. Chechen fighters are thought to play a significant role in the Muhajireen Brigade, which has conducted joint operations with the Al Nusrah Front.

Abu Kamal was 22 years old when he was killed by shrapnel from a tank round that was fired by Syrian Army forces. The date or location of his death was not disclosed; the statement merely indicated that he "is buried in the city where he courageously fought."

A network of Swedish jihadists is known to fight against Assad's regime inside Syria. In November 2012, a group calling itself the Swedish Holy Warriors in Syria (or Svenska Mujahideen Fi Ash Sham), released a video on Internet video sharing sites such as YouTube and LiveLeak that urged Swedish fighters to join the jihad in Syria and worldwide.

"We are Mujahedeen Fi Ash Sham, and we bear witness that Jihad is mandatory for everyone who believes in Allah, his prophet and judgement day," the statement said, according to a translation of the video, which was posted on LiveLeak [full video is embedded below].

"Jihad is mandatory in Syria, and in the whole world," the group continued.

The video and news of Swedish fighters prompted the Syria News, a state-run media outlet, to warn that "Swedish 'mercenaries will meet a 'fate darker than the night' and will be 'crushed on Syria's noble ground," The Local reported late last year.

Sapo, Sweden's security service, said that Swedish fighters are known to "have travelled to Syria to fight in the civil war but did not say how many have gone," The Local continued.

Scores of European Muslims are thought to have left their homes to wage jihad in Syria. One of them, Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a former detainee at the US-run Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, is believed to have been killed while fighting in Syria. European governments have taken little action to prevent Muslims from traveling to Syria to fight as many countries support the opposition to Assad's regime [see Threat Matrix report, Syrian conflict tests European policy on violent jihad].

The US State Department and the United Nations added Ansar Dine, a Mali terrorist group with close ties to al Qaeda, to their lists of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Today's designations follow the addition of the group's emir, Iyad ag Ghali, to the US and UN's lists of global terrorists late last month.

Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith, allied with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) to take control of northern Mali in March 2012, and helped to administer sharia, or Islamic law, in areas under their control. AQIM's emir noted that Ansar Dine would be the local face for al Qaeda while the terror groups trained terrorists and plotted to attack outside of the region.

The State Department said that Ansar Dine "cooperates closely with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" and "has received support from AQIM since its inception in late 2011, and continues to maintain close ties to the group."

Ansar Dine "has received backing from AQIM in its fight against Malian and French forces, most notably in the capture of the Malian towns of Agulhok, Tessalit, Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu, between January and April 2012," State continued. Ansar Dine "executed 82 Malian soldiers and kidnapped 30 more" during its takeover of the town of Aguelhok in March 2012.

The United Nations stated that Ansar Dine received significant "military support" from AQIM "in its fight against the Malian Armed Forces, notably in the capture of the towns of Aguelhok on 24 January 2012; Tessalit on 10 March 2012; Kidal on 30 March 2012; Gao on 30 March 2012; and Timbuktu on 1 April 2012."

The UN also noted that Ansar Dine emir Iyad ag Ghali "received a payment of 400,000 euros from one of the leaders of an AQIM brigade in the Sahel, the Tariq ibn Ziyad Brigade" and "welcomed numerous AQIM fighters" into his rank and file.

"The ties between Ansar Dine and AQIM have grown stronger since November 2012," the UN said, citing the establishment of joint offices with AQIM and MUJAO in Gao in November 2012.

Also, in November 2012, Ansar Dine established "an alliance" with AQIM and MUJAO, "and a common strategy was defined." The UN designation went on to state that Ansar Dine's emir "expressed his support for AQIM's ideology" in late November.

Close relationship between AQIM, Ansar Dine, has been clear

The close relationship between Ansar Dine and AQIM and MUJAO was apparent during the takeover of northern Mali in early 2012. Press reports from Mali indicated that the three groups coordinated military operations, cross-trained fighters, and set up areas of responsibilities in regions under their control. In January 2013, the three groups launched a coordinated offensive to take control of central Mali, and were preparing to advance on the capital of Bamako before French troops intervened.

But the nature of the relationship between the Ansar Dine and AQIM became crystal clear when a lengthy letter written by Abdelmalek Droukdel, the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to his fighters in northern Mali showed that the group sought to use the country to wage a global jihad. Droukdel instructed his followers to mask their operations and "pretend to be a 'domestic' movement" so as not to draw international attention and intervention. Ansar Dine was to be the local face of the jihadist movement, while AQIM established training camps for external jihadist operations [see LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Mali sought to hide foreign designs].

In a post on its official Facebook page, the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Sderot, Israel.

The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC), an al Qaeda-linked group, has claimed credit for a rocket attack on Israel early this morning. Two rockets landed in Sderot, Israel, while two or perhaps three fell short of Israeli territory. The attack, which was reportedly launched from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, occurred during the second day of President Barack Obama's visit to Israel.

No casualties have been reported, but the rocket attacks did cause property damage.

The MSC claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement released to jihadist forums as well as in a posting on its official Facebook page. The group's Facebook posting features pictures of Obama, Palestinian and Israeli leaders, the damage done by its rockets, and a graphic of al Qaeda in Iraq's (AQI) flag. The AQI black banner has been adopted by al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

President Obama mentioned the attack during a joint press conference held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier today. "We saw the continuing threat from Gaza again overnight, with the rockets that targeted Sderot," Obama said. "We condemn this violation of the important cease-fire that protects both Israelis and Palestinians -- a violation that Hamas has a responsibility to prevent."

While the president said that Hamas should prohibit such violence, he did not outright accuse the group of launching the rockets.

The SITE Intelligence Group has translated a statement released on jihadist forums by the Ibn Taymiyya Media Center, the MSC's propaganda arm. The MSC claims in the statement that the attack was a message to Obama, calling the president a "Roman dog."

"You will never enjoy security until we live it here in reality in all the Muslim countries, and until all the armies of disbelief are expelled from Peninsula of Muhammad, Allah's peace and prayer be upon him," the MSC threatened, according to SITE's translation. "The rockets carried a message saying that jihad will not stop by someone's justice or injustice, until Allah rules between us and you, and until you shamefully leave our land."

The MSC made specific reference to Israel's so-called Iron Dome missile defense system. "Regarding the boasting of the Roman dog and the war criminals about their alleged iron dome, we stress to them that all their military technologies and weak domes will not be able, by the power of Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, to stop the destiny of Allah the Almighty in torturing them."

In a posting on its official Facebook page last week, the MSC criticized Obama's then upcoming trip to Israel, labeling him the new leader of the "Crusaders."

In a separate Facebook posting last week, the MSC criticized President Obama's planned trip to Israel. The Ibn Taymiyya Media Center posted a picture of Obama and said that he was the new leader of the "Crusaders."

President Obama is not scheduled to visit Sderot during this trip. But during his previous visit to Israel, according to Ynet News, Obama "visited the rocket-battered city of Sderot, where he met a child who was injured in a rocket attack and lost his leg."

Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem

The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) is a consolidation of a number of Salafi jihadist groups operating in the Gaza Strip including, but not limited to: Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ansar al Sunnah. Sheikh Anas Abdul Rahman, one of the group's leaders, has said that the group aims to "fight the Jews for the return of Islam's rule, not only in Palestine, but throughout the world."

The MSC has taken responsibility for a number of rocket attacks against Israel, as well as the June 18, 2012 attack that killed one Israeli civilian. The group said that the attack was a "a gift to our brothers in Qaedat al Jihad and Sheikh Zawahiri" and retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden. In early February 2013, the MSC released a martyrdom video branding one of the terrorists killed in the June 2012 attack as an al Qaeda "martyr."

On Oct. 22, 2012, the MSC released a 32-minute-long video detailing some of its rocket attacks against Israel and threatening to "fight you [Israel] as long as we hold...weapons in our hands."

In November 2012, the group carried out joint rocket attacks with the Army of Islam. Following the institution of a ceasefire that ended Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense, the MSC said that they were not truly a party to the ceasefire.

In 2012, the Israeli Air Force targeted a number of MSC members. On Oct. 7, the IDF killed Tala'at Halil Muhammad Jarbi, a "global jihad operative," and Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai, a member of the MSC. Maqawai was likely a former member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On Oct. 13, Israel killed Abu al Walid al Maqdisi, the former emir of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ashraf al Sabah, the former emir of Ansar al Sunnah, in an airstrike. The two men were said to be leaders of the MSC.

The US killed four "militants" in a drone strike in the terrorist hub of Datta Khel in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike today is the first reported by the US in Pakistan in 11 days.

The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in Datta Khel earlier today. Four "militants" were killed in the strike, according to Dawn.

The exact target of the strike was not disclosed, but "intelligence reports said that those killed are suspected militants and their harborers," Dawn reported. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders or operatives are reported to have been killed.

Today's strike is just the second this month. The last strike, which also occurred in Datta Khel, took place on March 10. In that airstrike, two "militants" were said to have been killed while riding horseback. The US has launched just 11 drone strikes in Pakistan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The number of strikes in Pakistan has decreased since the peak in 2010, when 117 such attacks were recorded. In 2011, 64 strikes were launched in Pakistan, and in 2012 there were 46 strikes.

Datta Khel area is a terrorist hub

The Datta Khel area, where today's strike took place, is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

Datta Khel is a known hub of Taliban, Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda activity. While Bahadar administers the region, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and allied Central Asian jihadist groups are also based in the area. The Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army, is known to operate a command center in Datta Khel. Some of al Qaeda's top leaders, including Mustafa Abu Yazid, a longtime al Qaeda leader and close confidant of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of the Shadow Army, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a general in the Shadow Army, have been killed in drone strikes in Datta Khel.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Hafiz Gul Bahadar or the Haqqani Network. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. In June 2012, Bahadar banned polio vaccinations in North Waziristan in protest of US drone strikes.

Bahadar and the Taliban maintain a "peace agreement" with the Pakistani military that allows him to run a state within a state in the remote tribal agency. Bahadar and his commanders have set up a parallel administration, complete with courts, recruiting centers, prisons, training camps, and the ability to levy taxes.

The peace agreement allows North Waziristan to serve as a base for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and nonaligned Taliban groups, as well as the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, and a host of Pakistani terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Punjabi Taliban.

Bahadar wields considerable power in North Waziristan. In July 2011, a spokesman for Bahadar claimed that there were no "militants" in North Waziristan and that Bahadar's Taliban faction has lived up to the terms of its peace agreement with the Pakistani military. But, as documented here at The Long War Journal numerous times, Bahadar provides support and shelter for top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from a number of Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups, including the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Bahadar's Taliban subgroup is a member of the Shura-e-Murakeba, an al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban-brokered alliance that includes the Haqqani Network, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and the Mullah Nazir Group in South Waziristan.

In June 2012, Bahadar suspended polio vaccination programs in North Waziristan in protest against the US drone strikes in North Waziristan. Bahadar has objected to the US drone strikes in the past. On Nov. 12, 2011, Bahadar suspended meetings with the government and threatened to attack the Pakistani state if it continued to allow the US to conduct attacks in areas under his control.

The US has conducted numerous airstrikes against terrorist targets in areas under Bahadar's control. Of the 336 drone strikes that have taken place in Pakistan's tribal areas, 94 of the strikes, or 28 percent, have occurred in areas directly under the control of Bahadar. [See LWJ report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013, for information on US airstrikes.]

The US has targeted al Qaeda's top leaders and its external operations network, as well as the assortment of Taliban and Pakistani jihadist groups operating in the region. The strikes have mostly been confined to a small kill box consisting of North and South Waziristan. Of the 336 strikes recorded since 2004, 319, or 95%, have taken place in the two tribal agencies.

The US State Department's Rewards for Justice program posted $5 million rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of two Americans who have served in leadership positions in Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia. One of the Americans, Jehad Serwan Mostafa, is believed to have served as an emissary for Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's emir, the FBI told The Long War Journal. The other, Omar Hammami, is currently engaged in a personal dispute with Shabaab.

The $5 million rewards offered for Mostafa and Hammami match that of 37 other terrorists in the Rewards for Justice program. The program offers a higher reward for only seven other terrorist leaders and operatives. Ayman al Zawahiri tops the list at $25 million.

Mostafa "has performed various functions for al Shabaab, including acting as a training camp instructor and a leader of foreign fighters," the Rewards for Justice fact sheet stated. "He is also skilled in the group's media activities." In 2005, he left California and traveled to Somalia to wage jihad. "He may have or is likely to visit the following areas: Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, and other African countries," the statement continued.

In October 2009, Mostafa was charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to support terrorists and foreign terrorist groups.

Mostafa is also known as Emir Anwar, Ahmed Gurey, and Anwar al-Amriki. But one other nom de guerre that he goes by is Abu Abdullah al Muhajir, which is the same name used by the representative of Ayman al Zawahiri who distributed aid to Shabaab [see LWJ report, American al Qaeda operative distributes aid at Somali relief camp].

In November 2011, Abu Abdullah al Muhajir was seen on a Shabaab propaganda videotape that showed him distributing aid to Somalis at a relief camp just south of the capital of Mogadishu.

Muhajir was photographed with most of his face, except for his eyes, covered, along with Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, Shabaab's top spokesman. He handed out food, clothing, and Korans to Somalis at the camps. Muhajir said he was distributing the aid on behalf of Zawahiri. Just two months after the release of the tape, Shabaab officially merged with al Qaeda.

The Long War Journal asked the FBI unit that investigates Shabaab if it believes that Mostafa and Abu Abdullah al Muhajir are the same person. A spokesperson for the FBI's Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit responded: "Yes we do."

$5 million reward for Omar Hammami

The Rewards for Justice program has also offered a $5 million reward for Omar Hammami, the notorious American from Alabama who has fallen from grace with Shabaab after launching a public and personal feud with the terror group [see LWJ report, Omar Hammami's personal dispute with Shabaab].

Hammami, who is better known as Abu Mansour al Amriki, is the most well-known foreign fighter in Somalia. Hammami occupied a prominent place in Shabaab's propaganda arm. He also served as a recruiter, financier, and military commander. He was even seen with Shabaab's top leaders at a public eulogy for slain al Qaeda emir and founder Osama bin Laden in May 2011. The US added him to the list of specially designated global terrorists in July 2011.

But after Abu Abdullah al Muhajir (whom the FBI believes to be Mostafa) appeared in the video in November 2011, Hammami's star was in decline. In early 2012, Hammami released a video claiming his life was in danger and said that foreigner fighters are at odds with Shabaab's leaders. Shabaab has disputed the claims, and has countered that Hammami is a narcissistic self-promoter who has taken advantage of his high-profile media presence to sow dissent between the Somali group and foreign fighters. Other than Hammami's claims, there is little evidence to support the assertion that there is a split between Shabaab and the "muhajireen," or immigrants or foreign fighters.