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Analysis: What the Gaza war means for Iran

August 1, 2014, 3:53 pm
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"Peace [be] upon my dear brothers, the political leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all resistance groups," said Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force (IRGC-QF,) in a recent letter about the Gaza conflict. As expected, the war between Hamas and Israel has provided great ideological fodder for Iran. And it is no surprise that Iran's revolutionary leadership, best characterized by Ayatollah Khamenei, has been vocal on the issue.

When viewed from Tehran, the war has the added benefit of temporarily occupying the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), while allowing the Islamic Republic's strategists to watch, wait, and learn from the operations. Moreover, Iran's political, religious, and military classes are afforded the opportunity to strut their stuff, tying in their respective areas of impact with the conflict.

In his July 31 letter, Suleimani proudly proclaimed: "We tell all that we love martyrdom. Martyrdom in the path of Palestine and martyrdom because of Jerusalem [Quds] is not only a wish that any noble Muslim wishes for ...." The IRGC-QF Commander additionally asked of God to "damn" numerous entities, "especially America, which is at the head of oppression and cruelty in the world."

Suleimani's letter has already elicited a positive response from Palestinian groups, specifically from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Ziad al-Nakhla, the Deputy Secretary of PIJ reportedly stated on July 31 that "[t]he message of Qassem Suleimani has much meaning for us," and that "[i]f the resistance did not have help from Iran, it would not have been able to confront the Zionist enemy at this level."

Only two weeks earlier, on July 15, another PIJ member, Khalid al Batash, was mentioned in the Persian media as discussing Iranian support for the PIJ. In his comments, al Batash made sure to single out Iran's backing and contribution to the group, amid a host of other "brothers."

Iran is also seeking to solidify its bonds with Hamas, which were severely strained during the Arab Spring due to differences over the future of Syria and the Assad regime. PIJ on the other hand has long been backed by Iran, and at one point in its history even "received training from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards." It is thus conceivable that the seized shipment of arms from the Klos-C in March 2014 may have been destined for PIJ.

Political, strategic, and ideological perspectives

In a broader sense, Operation Protective Edge and the wider Hamas-Israel War can be viewed from several perspectives when defining its value to Iran -- first, domestic Iranian politics and factional divides; second, strategic considerations that take into account Iran's regional rivalries; and finally, the notion of ideological purity, which arguably has the greatest effect on Iranian behavior and motivations thus far.

With respect to Iranian internal politics, as was reported by Al Monitor in late June, several established reformist newspapers became the target of conservative news agencies over, as was described in the article title, "lackluster Gaza coverage."

And in the aftermath of Suleimani's dispatch, Mohsen Rezaie, the former Commander of the IRGC, penned a letter to President Rouhani, warning him of regional developments and blowback which could be linked to the outcomes of the Gaza conflict. He noted: "It appears that the Zionist regime committed and commits these crimes with two covers." Rezaie explained that "[t]he first cover, is the political and economic support of European countries and America" and "[t]he second cover, is the presence of illegal and illegitimate nuclear and chemical weapons in the stocks of this occupying regime ...."

While there is no doubt regarding Rezaie's convictions, his presenting them in this medium helps argue for an amplification of the Islamic Republic's regional policies. It may be too soon to tell, but there could be a ripple effect by some in Iran (like Rezaie, who campaigned against Rouhani in 2013) who wish to use an intensification of Iran's regional behavior as a way to limit nuclear concessions at the negotiating table. This would undercut the very-reversible concessions Rouhani has agreed to under the Joint-Plan of Action (JPOA). Hence, it is worth remembering that due to Rouhani's focus on nuclear diplomacy, Iran's regional policies have remained in the hands of the hardest of hardliners. Syria is the best example of this.

When considering the Islamic Republic's regional competition, Iranian news outlets and political personalities have not shied away from poking at the traditional Sunni-Arab bloc's response to the Gaza crisis. These states are best typified by Saudi Arabia, which has its own strategic, ideological, and economic grievances with Iran. For example, on Aug. 1, Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi of Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution advertised regarding the war, "The Zionists have easily confessed that this has been accompanied with the support of all Arab regimes except Syria and Iraq ...." He also proudly proclaimed : "Everyone knows that if it wasn't for the help of the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad wouldn't have been able to resist this much in previous wars and this war ...."

In an article from Aug. 1, Fars News Agency ran a headline reading, "The King of Saudi Criticized 'Silence' Towards Developments in Gaza!" The article served to highlight the irony of the Saudi leadership, who until recently, had been quiet on the matter. To that effect, The New York Times ran a piece a few days ago noting that "Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states -- including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip."

At this juncture, Iran may not simply be imagining things. Indeed, Khamenei's continued ecumenical appeals, such as the one on July 29, may be aimed at blunting the possibility of a tactical and/or covert Israeli-Saudi alliance if it does not exist already. He stated : "Our clear message to Islamic governments is this, come help the oppressed [and let's] stand-up and show that the world of Islam will not sit calmly against oppression and cruelty."

After all, despite Iran's hostility toward its Sunni-Arab neighbors that are Western-aligned, Israel still reigns supreme in the mind of Iran's Supreme Leader.

Lastly, on an ideological note, Iranian officials have managed to maintain the level of rhetoric bequeathed to them by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, when it comes to anti-Israeli sloganeering. At Friday prayers held in Tehran on Aug. 1, Ayatollah Movahedi-Kermani in referencing Israel proclaimed that "these criminals [should] await the day of revenge." He also threatened that "Israel must know that the conscience of humanity is tolerant unto a limit, and if this tolerance spills over, [these] consciences will move against it, and [at] that time, this occupying regime must wish for death."

Sentiments such as those unfortunately continue to guide Iran's policies toward Israel. As the conflict between Hamas and Israel grinds on, it is worth keeping in mind that during the last Gaza War (Operation Pillar of Defense) in 2012, Iran's Parliamentary Speaker, Ali Larijani, bragged that "[t]he Zionist regime needs to realize that Palestinian military power comes from Iranian military power." Two years later, it can be seen that Iranian clout is magnified when prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians are at their bleakest.

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Pakistan's ban of LWJ enters 3rd year

August 2, 2014, 10:09 pm
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The Pakistani government's censorship of The Long War Journal has entered its third year. Sources in Pakistan have said that the website has been banned from viewing due to LWJ's reporting on the preferential treatment given by the Pakistani military and government to "good Taliban" factions such as the Haqqani Network.

LWJ first learned its website was blocked inside Pakistan in July 2012, when journalists from newspapers such as The New York Times, employees at the United Nations and NGOs, and readers living in Pakistan emailed LWJ to note that the website was unavailable. Some some reporters, such as Rob Crilly from The Telegraph and Mehreen Zahra-Malik from Reuters, mentioned the ban on Twitter.

Some of those attempting to visit the website received a generic message that did not indicate why the reader could not access the page. "This webpage is not available. The connection to www.longwarjournal.org was interrupted," one such message read, according to an LWJ reader inside Pakistan.

The denial message has changed over the years. In October 2013, Jonathan Boone, a journalist for the Guardian, noted on Twitter that LWJ was blocked on "PTCL [Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd], Warid and Mobilink," and published an image of the message received when attempting to access the site via Mobilink.

"Surf Safely. This website is not accessible. The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited from viewership within Pakistan," the message read. That same message was encountered by Hassan Abdullah, a journalist based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has not commented on why it has censored LWJ.

Several requests for comment from the Pakistani Embassy in Washington have thus far proven unsuccessful. Official inquiries to the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority, which is responsible for implementing the ban, have also gone unanswered.

Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor, writer, and columnist at Dawn, one of Pakistan's oldest and largest English-language newspapers, confirmed in June 2013 that the Pakistan Telecommunication Company has blocked LWJ's website.

LWJ has also confirmed, via sources inside the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd and the Ministry of Information, that the government has blocked the website.

The sources, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of being punished by the government or their employers, have said that the government has censored LWJ due to its reporting on the 'good Taliban' versus the 'bad Taliban.' This reporting undermines the government and military's narrative that Pakistan is serious about fighting terrorist groups, the officials said.

The Pakistani state considers Taliban groups such as the Haqqani Network and the Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group in North Waziristan, and the Mullah Nazir Group in South Waziristan, to be good Taliban as they do not advocate attacking the Pakistani state and instead direct their forces to fight in Afghanistan. These independent Taliban factions are considered to be strategic depth against the Indians in Afghanistan.

The bad Taliban are the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the Punjabi Taliban, and other jihadist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Turkistan Islamic Party in the tribal areas that threaten or actively attack the Pakistani state.

But the good Taliban shelter and support the bad Taliban, as well as al Qaeda. Top al Qaeda, Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leaders and operatives have been killed in US drone strikes in areas under the control of the so-called good Taliban in the past.

Additionally, LWJ's reporting on Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups has incensed members of the Pakistani establishment. These groups are supported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, its military, and members of the government, while maintaining close relationships with al Qaeda and other global and regional jihadist groups.

Tweets noting that LWJ is blocked in Pakistan, ordered from the present to July 2012:

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Islamic State takes control of Sinjar, Mosul Dam in northern Iraq

August 3, 2014, 2:10 pm
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Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities seized by the Islamic State and its allies. Map created by The Long War Journal. Click to view larger map.

The Islamic State is reported to have taken control of the city of Sinjar as well as the Mosul Dam, at least one oil field, and a handful of towns in northern Ninewa province after Kurdish forces withdrew from the area this weekend.

Islamic State fighters first took control of Zumar, a town east of the Tigris River and about 50 miles south of Mosul, after attacking today "from three directions in pick-up trucks mounted with weapons," Reuters reported. Kurdish forces withdrew after fighting for 24 hours. On Aug. 1, Kurdish military officials claimed to have killed 20 Islamic State fighters and captured 20 more in Zumar, and also said the Peshmerga are reinforcing the area after receiving "advanced weapons" from the US. On Aug. 2, a Kurdish official said that 14 Peshmerga troops and more than 100 Islamic State fighters were killed during the fighting.

After seizing Zumar, Islamic State fighters today reportedly took control of the city of Sinjar, which sits near the Syrian border and is west of Tal Afar and Mosul, two cities currently under Islamic State control. In Sinjar, Kurdish forces retreated after putting up "little resistance." Islamic State fighters also took over the Mosul Dam, after "Kurdish troops had loaded their vehicles with belongings including air conditioners and fled,"Reuters reported.

In addition, the Ain Zalah and Butmah oil fields, as well as four oil wells, lie just north of the dam and are thought to be under the control of the Islamic State. The jihadist group controls dams and oil infrastructure in both Iraq and Syria, and uses the resources to fund its operations.

The Islamic State is also said to be fighting Kurdish forces in Rabaih, a town on the border with Syria.

The Islamic State claimed to have killed "dozens" of Kurdish Peshmerga and to have seized "a large quantity of weapons and equipment" during the takeover of Sinjar. The jihadist group made the claims, which could not be confirmed, in a statement released on the Ninewa Division's Twitter page.

The United Nations' envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, warned that "[a] humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar," as more than 200,000 people are thought to have fled Sinjar to the nearby Jalab Sinjar mountains to escape the Islamic State's advance. "The humanitarian situation of these civilians is reported as dire, and they are in urgent need of basic items including food, water and medicine," a UN statement said, according to AFP.

It is unclear if the Peshmerga are abandoning the areas, which have been held by Kurdish forces for years, or withdrew temporarily to organize their forces. A Peshmerga spokesman said today that Kurdish forces are preparing to go on the offensive after receiving heavy weapons. One official said the Peshmerga are preparing to retake Sinjar by attacking "from four different directions."

The Islamic State's takeover of Sinjar, Zumar, and the Mosul Dam constitutes the group's first major gains after a blitzkrieg offensive launched on June 10 in conjunction with allied groups that put it in control of Mosul, Tikrit, and a number of cities and towns in Salahaddin, Ninewa, and Diyala provinces. That offensive stalled on the outskirts of Samarra, just north of Bagdad. Meanwhile, the Islamic State controls most of Anbar province and much of northern Babil province. The fighting has largely stalemated as Iraqi forces backed by Shia militias, including many supported by Iran, have failed to regain lost ground but have held most areas under their control.

Across the border in Syria, the Islamic State has taken control of most of Deir al Zour province and has made gains in Homs province as well. Large areas of Raqqah, Hasakah, and Aleppo provinces are also under Islamic State control.

The Islamic State, which was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, declared the establishment of its caliphate on June 29, and appointed Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as Caliph Ibrahim. Baghdadi appeared for the first time in public at a mosque in Mosul on July 4.

The declaration of the caliphate is controversial in jihadist circles and among Islamic State allies such as the Baathists and other insurgent groups in Iraq. Several al Qaeda affiliates as well as well-respected jihadist ideologues have denounced the Islamic State's announcement as premature and said the group did not properly consult leading clerics and jihadist groups.

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Herat police chief accuses Iran of ramping up attacks in western Afghanistan

August 4, 2014, 9:37 am
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The chief of police for Herat has accused Iran of supporting a network that is stepping up attacks in the western Afghan province.

General Samiullah Qatrah said on Aug. 3 that Taliban fighters recently captured by security forces admitted that Iran is backing the network, which has killed 11 policemen, soldiers, civilians, and two Finnish aid workers in Herat over the past 11 days. The two female Finnish aid workers were employed by a Christian charity and were gunned down while traveling in a taxi.

"In their confessions, they [six captured Taliban fighters] have said that the network is funded by Iran," Qatrah said, TOLONews reported. He said documents seized by security personnel provide evidence of Iran's involvement in the attacks.

The attacks were planned inside Iran, Qatrah said, and he also noted that Taliban commanders are transiting between Iran and Afghanistan "unimpeded."

Accusations by Afghan officials that Iran is backing the Taliban are not uncommon. Similarly, Afghan officials routinely accuse Pakistan of providing covert support for the Taliban's operations in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate are known to back the Taliban's jihad in Afghanistan and to provide safe havens for Taliban leaders and fighters inside Pakistan.

Iranian Qods Force commanders, Ansar Corps support the Taliban in Afghanistan

Iran's support of the Taliban is well documented. In August 2010, the Ansar Corps, a sub-branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, was identified by the US Treasury Department as supporting Iranian operations inside Afghanistan.

In the same designation that added Ansar Corps to the United States' list of global terrorist entities, General Hossein Musavi, the commander of Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," was added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban," the designation stated. [See LWJ report, Iranian Qods Force commanders linked to Taliban: US Treasury.]

Colonel Mortezavi, who was designated the same day as General Musavi, was described by Treasury as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban."

More recently, General Gholamreza Baghbani, the head of Qods Force's branch in the Iranian city of Zahedan, was added to the US' list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers on March 7, 2012, for supporting heroin and opium smuggling in Iran and Afghanistan "as part of a broader scheme to support terrorism." The Iranian general supported the drug smugglers in order to arm the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And seven months later, on Nov. 16, 2012, the US added Mullah Naim Barich, the Taliban's leader for the southern Afghan province of Helmand, to the list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers. While the designation did not directly link Barich to Baghbani, the Taliban commander was involved in smuggling heroin to Iran.

ISAF has targeted Iran's network in the past

In the past, Taliban commanders based in western Afghanistan have stated that they have received weapons, cash, and training from Iranian forces. [See LWJ report, Taliban leader, police link Iran to attacks in Afghanistan.] Taliban commanders and units train inside Iran to conduct attacks against NATO and Afghan forces. In addition, al Qaeda operatives are also known to receive support from the Ansar Corps; the Iranian city of Mashhad is a transit point for al Qaeda operatives en route to Afghanistan.

US military commanders, including Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, have accused Iran of directly supporting the Taliban.

The International Security Assistance Force has targeted Iranian-supported Taliban commanders in at least 14 raids, in the provinces of Farah, Nimroz, Herat, Ghor, Kandahar, and Kunduz between June 2009 and February 2011, according to Coalition press releases compiled by The Long War Journal. In one such raid, on Dec. 18, 2010 in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, ISAF said it captured a Qods Force officer, but later retracted the claim.

In early February 2011, ISAF inexplicably stopped reporting on raids against Iranian-supported Taliban and al Qaeda commanders. When The Long War Journal inquired about the sudden halt in reports on Qods Force-linked commanders in the Afghan west, ISAF claimed it does not discuss issues related to Iran.

"As policy, IJC [ISAF Joint Command] does not discuss Iran," Lieutenant Commander Katie Kendrick, an ISAF Public Affairs Officer, told The Long War Journal in February 2011, despite the fact that ISAF had indeed mentioned the Qods Force in its press releases as well as in followup inquiries. Further inquiries to ISAF about the sudden change in policy on discussing Iran's links to terror activities in Afghanistan have gone unanswered.

While ISAF refuses to discuss Iranian operations in Afghanistan, Qods Force continues its activities in the country.

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Baloch jihadist group in southern Afghanistan announces death of commander

August 4, 2014, 10:46 pm
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A Baloch jihadist group that has pledged allegiance to the Taliban and calls Ayman al Zawahiri its emir recently released a statement praising one of its commanders killed during fighting in southern Afghanistan.

Junood al Fida, the Baloch jihadist group, eulogized Abdul Hafeez, who is also known as Maulvi Abu Baseer, in an English-language statement that was released on its Twitter account on Aug. 3. The statement was obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group.

According to the statement, Hafeez had waged jihad for four decades. He fought against the Soviets, the Northern Alliance, and against US, Western, and Afghan forces after 9/11. Junood al Fida described him as "a well-known commander in Zabul, Helmand & Kandahar Province of The Islamic Emirates Of Afghanistan," the official name of the Taliban.

He was killed while leading "a group of 6 Mujahideen brothers who were Istish'hadi (Martyrdom Bombers)" against three Afghan military "camps" in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. His death occurred sometime during the month of Ramadan.

Junood al Fida said that Hafeez was from the district of Jhal Magsi in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan.

The jihadist group has also released at least three videos since mid-May that show the group fighting in the Shorawak district in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

On July 8, the Junood al Fida released a statement on the jihadist Jamia Hafsa Urdu Forum in which it threatened the United States and pledged bayat, or allegiance, to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

"We gave our bayat to Amir al Mumineen (the commander of the faithful) Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid, may God protect him, and we are his soldiers ..." the statement said, according to a translation obtained by the Long War Journal.

"As for the United States' future in Afghanistan, it will be fire and hell and total defeat, Allah willing, as it was for their predecessors: the Soviets and the British before them."

The July statement described Junood al Fida members as "Muhajireen," or emigrants who were welcomed by the Taliban, and said the "Khorasan," a region in central Asia that encompasses Afghanistan, is "one of the greatest battlegrounds for warriors of Tawheed (Monotheism) and has served as a lion's den for Allah's soldiers."

In the same statement, Junood al Fida indicated its loyalty to al Qaeda. The jihadist group described Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's leader, as "Our Shaykh al Habib [beloved leader]" and "Amiruna [our chief]."

Baluchistan province in Pakistan is known to host several jihadist groups. The Afghan Taliban have an extensive presence in Baluchistan, particularly in the districts bordering Afghanistan. In these districts the Taliban are known to run madrassas, training camps, supply depots, and other critical infrastructure to support their fighters in Afghanistan. Additionally, the Taliban raise funds and recruit fighters in Baluchistan. The Taliban's executive council is known to be based in Quetta, the provincial capital.

A group known as the Movement of the Taliban in Baluchistan also operates in the Pakistani province. The group is known to have attacked numerous NATO supply convoys moving through the province, and also fights in Afghansitan.

Al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan maintain a presence in Baluchistan as well. Younis al Mauritani, a member of al Qaeda's military committee, and two other al Qaeda operatives known as Abdul Ghaffar al Shami and Messara al Shami were captured in Quetta in September 2011.

Junood al Fida is the second foreign jihadist group to swear allegiance to the Taliban in the past month. On July 21, Zawahiri renewed his pledge to Mullah Omar. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda renews its oath of allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.]

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Insider attack at Kabul base kills US major general, wounds 16 troops including senior Coalition officers

August 5, 2014, 8:38 am
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An Afghan soldier opened fire today on a gathering of Coalition officers and soldiers at a military training academy near Kabul, killing a US major general and wounding 16 more personnel, including a US brigadier general, a German general, five British troops, and at least one Afghan officer.

An American major general was reported to have been killed in the shooting today. The general's name was not released, but Coalition officials said an Afghan commander was also shot along with other Coalition and Afghan troops. About "a dozen" of the wounded are said to be Americans. A report also indicated that five British troops were among the injured.

The casualty count may rise, as a number of injuries were said to be serious because the attacker fired at close range. A Reuters report cited an American official as saying the attacker had used a light machinegun. A number of victims were evacuated by Coalition helicopters following the attack.

The attack took place at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul City, the International Security Assistance Force noted in a press release. "This facility was incorrectly named Camp Qargha in a previous release," ISAF stated, while confirming one of its personnel was killed in the attack.

The Bundeswehr stated that the incident occurred just before 10 a.m. during a "key leader engagement" meeting at the training facility for Afghan troops, and that a German general had been injured but was "out of danger," Die Welt reported.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said the attack took place around 12 noon, and a local official told Pajhwok Afghan News that the clash, which was triggered by an argument, resulted in the killing of three Afghan troops as well as at least four Coalition troops. According to Ministry of Defence spokesman General Zahir Azimi, a terrorist in ANA uniform opened fire on Afghan and foreign forces and was killed by Afghan soldiers in return fire. Afghan sources told the BBC that the attacker had been recruited to the Afghan army three years ago.

Camp Qargha was the site of a previous green-on-blue, or insider attack, in late October 2013, in which two NATO troops were wounded and an Afghan soldier was killed. The incident occurred when a New Zealand trainer and his Australian guards were fired upon at a checkpoint as they left an Afghan base on their way back to a new British-Afghan military training facility in Qargha. The Coalition troops had tried to take a confiscated laptop from the attacker. The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack.

The Taliban have not claimed credit for today's attack, but did mention the incident in a statement on their website, Voice of Jihad.

"An Afghan soldiers [sic] turn his gun on the foreign trainers in police academy in Qargha area of Kabul city, killing four invaders and wounding some others," the Taliban statement says. "A high-ranking officer was among four foreign military trainers killing in the shooting."

Today's attack is the third reported green-on-blue attack in Afghanistan so far this year, and the sixth to have taken place in Kabul since January 2007, according to The Long War Journal's statistics.

The number of reported attacks on Coalition personnel in Afghanistan has dropped steeply since a high of 44 in 2012. Last year there were 13 such attacks. [For in-depth information, see LWJ special report, Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.] The decline in attacks is due to several factors, including the continuing drawdown of Coalition personnel, reduced partnering with Afghan forces, and the adoption of heightened security measures in interactions between Coalition and Afghan forces.

The Taliban have devoted significant efforts to stepping up attempts to kill NATO troops and foreigners by infiltrating the ranks of Afghan security forces. Mullah Omar said as much in a statement released on Aug. 16, 2012, when he claimed that the Taliban "cleverly infiltrated in the ranks of the enemy according to the plan given to them last year [2011]," and he 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.]

Sources:

The New York Times, BBC, TOLONews, Agence France Presse, Reuters, Stars & Stripes, Die Welt, Pajhwok Afghan News

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Islamic State leader who defected from al Qaeda reported killed in Mosul

August 5, 2014, 10:45 pm
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The Iraqi military claimed that an Islamic State leader who is from Pakistan was killed in an airstrike in Mosul. The commander is thought to be one of nine mid-level al Qaeda commanders who publicly defected from the global jihadist group to join the Islamic State.

Abdul Rahman al Amjad al Pakistani and five Islamic State fighters were killed after Iraqi warplanes "directly hit one of [the Islamic State's] strongholds in Mosul" on Aug. 5, Ministry of Defense spokesman General Mohammed al Askari told Al Shorfa.

"Al Pakistani was a prominent [Islamic State] leader who recently split from al Qaeda," Al Shorfa reported.

The death of al Pakistani has not been confirmed. The Islamic State has yet to announce his death. And the Iraqi military has often released inaccurate information since the Islamic State and allied insurgent groups launched their offensive on June 10 and took over much of Ninewa, Salahaddin, Diyala, and northern Babil provinces. The Islamic State has been in control of large areas in Anbar since the beginning of January.

Al Pakistani is also known as Abdullah al Punjabi, a former al Qaeda commander who vocally rejected al Qaeda and joined the Islamic State. He and eight other commanders, led by Abu al Huda al Sudani, released a statement on March 31 that announced the reasons for their split from al Qaeda and for joining the Islamic State.

In that statement, the al Qaeda defectors accused al Qaeda of embracing the Arab Spring and Muslim Brotherhood leader and former Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, sidestepping sharia or Islamic Law, and rejecting the establishment and expansion of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, among other criticisms.

The other seven al Qaeda leaders who signed the statement, in addition to al Pakistani and al Sudani, are listed as "Abu Obeida al Lubnani, Abu al Muhannad al Urduni, Abu Jarir al Shamali (Abu Tha'ir), Abdul Aziz (Brother of Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi), Abu Yunus al Kurdi, Abu A'isha al Qurtubi, and Abu Musab al Tadhamuni," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which obtained and translated the statement.

The nine al Qaeda defectors addressed their letter to al Qaeda's branches in Yemen (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), Somalia (Shabaab), and North Africa (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), as well as the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, and "all who are concerned, from the jihadi factions in the lands of the Muslims." An al Qaeda ideologue responded to the letter in May, dismissing the criticisms cited by the nine commanders. Abdul Aziz's brother, Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, an influential jihadist ideologue, has openly denounced the Islamic State.

Al Sudani and the eight other al Qaeda commanders likely hoped that their defection would lead other members of al Qaeda to join the Islamic State. But few al Qaeda leaders have followed them. Since the statement was released, al Qaeda's branches as well as the Islamic Caucasus Emirate have come out in support of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's emir.

If al Pakistani is confirmed to have been killed in Mosul, it indicates that jihadists are easily traveling from the Afghan-Pakistan region to Iraq and Syria. Al Pakistani and his cohorts were thought to be based in northwestern Pakistan at the time they signed their statement.

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Islamic State overruns Syrian artillery regiment in Hasakah

August 5, 2014, 11:33 pm
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Islamic State fighters led by Chechen commander Omar al Shishani took control of a Syrian Army artillery base in the eastern province of Hasakah. The jihadist group seized a large amount of military hardware and munitions, according to a video tour of the base.

The Islamic State's Hasakah Division released an eight-minute video on its YouTube account on Aug. 5 showing Islamic State fighters touring Regiment 121's headquarters. The video [above] was tweeted by the Islamic State's Al Bakara News Twitter account and other accounts related to the group.

In the video, the cameraman walks through Regiment 121's base and documents the Islamic State's spoils of war. The video shows numerous artillery pieces and crates of shells, trucks for hauling artillery and rounds, a tank, a truck-mounted anti-aircraft gun, and what appear to be BM-21 Grad rocket launchers with several rockets yet to be launched. The vehicles seem to be undamaged and operational, but the Islamic State fighters do not drive the vehicles or fire the weapons.

When the cameraman goes indoors, he shows crates filled with AK-47 assault rifles and accompanying magazines, RPGs and rounds, and what appear to be shoulder-fired anti-tank launchers.

Additionally, a video of Omar al Shishani [below], the Chechen commander who is a senior military leader in the Islamic State, was distributed on YouTube six days ago. Shishani is shown bantering with other jihadists as fires burn behind him.

Shishani leads what are essentially the Islamic State's mobile shock troops. Shishani has appeared at key hotspots in both Iraq and Syria as his forces are considered to be some the best in theater.

Regiment 121 "is considered one of the most important [units] for the Syrian army in the region, and performs an important role of targeting the headquarters and emplacements of militants in Hasakah's southern countryside, being deployed on high ground, which give it control by fire of large swaths of land," according to Al Monitor.

The Islamic State considered Regiment 121 to be a threat to its recent gains in Hasakah and Deir al Zour provinces, and launched its offensive to take the base on July 24. The Islamic State claimed it killed more than 100 Syrian soldiers during the fighting, but the group did not display the bodies of any dead soldiers.

The Islamic State has maintained offensive operations in both Iraq and Syria for the past two months. While the jihadist group and its allies have taken control of much of northern and Western Iraq since the beginning of the year, it has also fought the Syrian Army and jihadist and other rebel groups to seize control of most of Deir al Zour and Hasakah provinces, and has advanced into Aleppo and Homs as well.

Omar al Shishani at Regiment 121:

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US drone strike kills 5 'militants,' including foreigners in North Waziristan

August 6, 2014, 2:00 pm
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The US killed five 'militants,' including several "foreigners," a term used to describe al Qaeda operatives and other non-Pakistani jihadists, in the first drone strike in Pakistan in three weeks.

The remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn. Two other jihadists were wounded in the strike. Most of those reported killed were foreigners.

The exact target of today's strike was not disclosed. No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other other jihadist leaders or commanders are reported to have been killed in the strike.

Today's strike is the fourth in Datta Khel since July 6. The last four strikes in Pakistan have all taken place in the Datta Khel area. The last strike, which took place on July 19, killed eight militants, including two commanders from the Punjabi Taliban, a conglomeration of jihadist groups from Pakistan's Punjab province. The Punjabi Taliban commanders' names were not disclosed by Pakistani officials. The Punjabi Taliban, whose leader, Asmatullah Muawiya, also serves as an al Qaeda commander, has been agreeable to conducting peace talks with the Pakistani government. [See LWJ report, US drones target 'Punjabi Taliban' in North Waziristan strike.]

The US is thought to have killed six al Qaeda leaders and operatives in the July 10 drone strike in Datta Khel. Sanafi al Nasr, a senior al Qaeda leader based in Syria, identified three of those killed as Taj al Makki, Abu Abdurahman al Kuwaiti, and Fayez Awda al Khalidi. [See LWJ report, 6 al Qaeda operatives thought killed in recent drone strike in Pakistan.]

The Datta Khel area, where today's strike took place, is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the top Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to senior 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 have been killed in drone strikes in Datta Khel, 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.

The US has now carried out six drone strikes in Pakistan since June 11. Five of the strikes took place after the Pakistani military launched an operation that is targeting some Taliban elements in North Waziristan.

Prior to the June 11 drone strike, the last US attack took place in late December 2013. The US put the program on hold after the Pakistani government entered into peace talks with the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal that there was no shortage of al Qaeda and other terrorists to target during the six-month lull. [See LWJ report, US launches 2 drone strikes in Pakistan, breaks 6-month lull.]

Today's strike coincides with Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the Pakistani military offensive in North Waziristan. The military claims it has killed more than 600 "terrorists" and "foreigners," and zero civilians, during a series of airstrikes in North Waziristan. The Pakistani military also asserts that most of those killed are from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Turkistan Islamic Party, two regional jihadist groups with close ties to al Qaeda. The Pakistani military claims to have cleared 80 percent of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. But most of the jihadists in North Waziristan are thought to have fled the offensive long before it began.

The Pakistani military appears to be focusing on foreign terrorist groups as well as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and is not confronting the Haqqani Network or the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group. These two independent Taliban factions are considered "good Taliban" as they do not openly advocate attacking the Pakistan state. But the Haqqanis and the Bahadar group, the two most powerful Taliban factions in North Waziristan, shelter and support al Qaeda, IMU, TIP, and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (the "bad Taliban"). [See LWJ report, Pakistan launches 'comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists' in North Waziristan, and Threat Matrix report, Pakistani forces focus on 'foreigners' in North Waziristan operation.]

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Iraq's largest Christian town falls to Islamic State

August 7, 2014, 8:05 am
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Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities seized by the Islamic State and its allies. Map created by The Long War Journal. Click to view larger map.

The Islamic State has taken control of Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town, and other surrounding towns in an advance eastward into an area formerly held by the Peshmerga, the military force of the Kurdish Regional Government.

"Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, the archbishop of the Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP. Qaraqosh (or Bakhdida on the map) has a Chaldean Christian population estimated at 50,000.

The Islamic State advanced into the towns unopposed, according to reports. The Peshmerga, which is considered to be a well-organized and hardened force, withdrew from the towns rather than fighting the Islamic State. The Peshmerga have controlled towns and villages east of Mosul since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Islamic State's eastward advance puts the terror group about 20 miles from Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP that the Islamic State's advance has created a "a humanitarian disaster" and that more than 100,000 Christians have been forced to leave their homes. "The churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down," and more than 1,500 documents have been destroyed, he said.

The Islamic State previously issued an ultimatum to Christians in Mosul that they convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed. Thousands of Christian families fled Iraq's second largest city after the Islamic State issued their directive. The Islamic State has also been destroying Christian, Jewish, and Muslim shrines, churches, and mosques in Mosul. Among the religious sites destroyed by the jihadist group are the tomb of Jonah and an accompanying mosque, and the tomb of George.

The Islamic State's Ninewa Division released a statement on Twitter, claiming it had taken control of 17 towns, villages, and military bases in Ninewa [the list, translated by The Long War Journal, is below]. The Islamic State said it is in full control of the Mosul Dam.

The jihadist group also released a statement on its Twitter account noting that it "launched a 'big invasion' yesterday, Aug. 6, on locations of the 'apostate Kurds and those loyal to them.'" The group said that a German suicide bomber known as Abu Osama al Almani launched a "truck bomb filled with 5 tons of explosive material on a Peshmerga brigade in the Ali Rash/al-Hamdaniya district: 20 people were killed and many were injured." Another Libyan known as Mu'awiya Al-Libi killed "tens" of Peshmerga fighters in an attack on another Peshmerga unit in the same area. The jihadist group listed other attacks in Ninewa, and claimed to have captured "four Peshmerga soldiers, including a deputy officer." The Islamic State's claims could not be verified.

The Islamic State's gains east of Mosul are part of a larger push by the group to consolidate its control over Ninewa province. Last weekend, the Islamic State took control of Sinjar, a town with a large Yazidi minority; Zumar; and two oil fields. The jihadist group also was reported to have seized control of the Mosul Dam, which generates power and controls floodwaters on the Tigris River. Kurdish officials denied that the Islamic State took the Mosul Dam, but today, reports have emerged that the dam is now under the jihadist group's control.

The Islamic State's advances in the north over the past week constitute the group's first major gains after a blitzkrieg offensive launched on June 10 in conjunction with allied groups that put it in control of Mosul, Tikrit, and a number of cities and towns in Salahaddin, Ninewa, and Diyala provinces. That offensive stalled on the outskirts of Samarra, just north of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Islamic State controls most of Anbar province and much of northern Babil province. The fighting has largely stalemated as Iraqi forces backed by Shia militias, including many supported by Iran, have failed to regain lost ground but have held most areas under their control.

Across the border in Syria, the Islamic State has taken control of most of Deir al Zour province and has made gains in Homs province as well. Large areas of Raqqah, Hasakah, and Aleppo provinces are also under Islamic State control. Two weeks ago, the Islamic State overran a Syrian army artillery base in Hasakah and seized a large quantity of heavy weapons, including artillery pieces, a tank, and Grad rocket launchers, as well as stockpiles of RPGs, AK-47s, anti-tank rockets, and ammunition.

The Islamic State, which was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, declared the establishment of its caliphate on June 29, and appointed Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as Caliph Ibrahim. Baghdadi appeared for the first time in public at a mosque in Mosul on July 4.

The declaration of the caliphate is controversial in jihadist circles and among Islamic State allies such as the Baathists and other insurgent groups in Iraq. Several al Qaeda affiliates as well as well-respected jihadist ideologues have denounced the Islamic State's announcement as premature and said the group did not properly consult leading clerics and jihadist groups. Al Qaeda disowned the Islamic State in February after the group refused to follow Ayman al Zawahiri's orders to reconcile with the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

List of areas the Islamic State claims it controls after this week's offensive in Ninewa, from its Aug. 7 statement on Twitter:

1. All of Sinjar municipality and the areas belonging to it.

2. All of Talkif municipality and the areas belonging to it.

3. All of al-Hamdaniya municipality and the areas belonging to it.

4. All of Makhmour municipality and the areas belonging to it.

5. Zammar township and all the villages belonging to it.

6. Rabee'ah township and all the villages belonging to it.

7. Bartala township and all the villages belonging to it.

8. Karam Lays township and all the villages belonging to it.

9. Al-Kweir township and all the villages belonging to it.

10. Wana township and all the villages belonging to it.

11. Large areas in Filfeel township.

12. Large areas of Ba'ashiqa township.

13. Some of the al-Shalalat areas in Mosul.

14. The Sada and Ba'wiza area of Mosul.

15. The oil-rich 'Ayn Zalah area.

16. The strategic Mosul dam.

17. The large Tumarat base.

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Boko Haram raises its flag over another Nigerian town

August 7, 2014, 10:59 am
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Over the past few days, the al Qaeda-linked terror group Boko Haram has taken over another town in Borno state, slaughtering at least 50 residents, and stormed a town in neighboring Cameroon, killing 10 and kidnapping a child. The Nigerian military claims to be conducting operations against the group in Borno but appears to have little to show for its efforts, and was recently accused of committing atrocities in its battle against Boko Haram.

Suspected Boko Haram fighters seized a village in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria yesterday. According to a local vigilante leader, the attackers came from "all corners" of the town, killing at least 50 people. In the attack, the gunmen reportedly opened fire on residents, and burned a police station, churches, and other buildings.

Locals said that there were no soldiers to defend the town when the attack began at dawn. By late morning, the gunmen held the town, hoisting several flags across the area.

In the aftermath of the attack, reports indicate that the local emir, Mohammed Timta, is missing. His father, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, the previous emir, was killed by members of Boko Haram in May when traveling in a convoy with other religious leaders.

A few weeks ago, Boko Haram raised its flag over Damboa, another town in Borno State. In the weeks since, the Nigerian military has been struggling to regain control.

Nigeria's special forces have forcibly retaken five villages, including Damboa, according to a statement from the Defense Headquarters today. The ongoing operation was designed to apprehend the terrorists and restore normalcy to the affected communities. A security source told Nigeria's Daily Post that while Boko Haram was holding the attention of the Nigerian army in Damboa, the terror group suddenly attacked Gwoza.

The Gwoza area has been targeted by Boko Haram previously. In February, 121 people were killed in the village of Izghe, and on May 25, over 20 churchgoers were killed in Gwoza town during a service. The following day, six churches were among many properties set alight in Gwoza by the insurgents. Currently, Nigerian special forces are battling insurgents to push them out of Gwoza.

Recent attacks across northern Nigeria have sent refugees scattering throughout the region. Thousands fleeing Borno state arrived earlier this week on a previously uninhabited island in Lake Chad. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently estimated that nearly 650,000 people have been forced from their homes as a result of Boko Haram's activities.

The group is also suspected of attacking the town of Zigague in northern Cameroon yesterday, where insurgents reportedly killed 10 people. A local police officer told the BBC: "A group of people we think are linked with Boko Haram made an incursion this afternoon in Zigague. They blocked the road and opened fire." One of the dead was a Cameroonian soldier. Continuing the pattern of abductions, the attackers were seen raiding the local chief's house and exiting with his child in their custody.

Earlier this week, American surveillance flights over Nigeria spotted large groups of girls held together in remote locations in northeastern Nigeria. It is thought that these are the schoolgirls kidnapped in April by Boko Haram from their dormitories in Chibok. Of the 276 girls originally abducted, 57 have since escaped from their captors, and efforts are ongoing to find and retrieve the remaining 219 young women.

Today, reports also appeared in the Nigerian press of suspected Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria's northern Yobe state. Gujba Local Government area residents are claiming that insurgents from the group are occupying military camps in Buni Yadi, Buni Gari, and Goniri. Details on the events are still emerging.

Regional leaders in Nigeria's south are becoming increasingly alarmed by the terror group's continuing rampage. Seeking to prevent Boko Haram's activities from extending into Nigeria's southeast, Igbo leaders are urging the federal government to take action. In a published letter, the authors wrote, "In this season, which could easily be described as the season of uneasy calm before the impending storm we remind the authorities that if Boko Haram does succeed in bombing the South-East with casualties, it would be impossible to stop the catastrophe that would follow; reprisals and counter-reprisals." Similarly, authorities in Akwa Ibo state on Nigeria's south coast reported that Boko Haram has sent text messages threatening to to bomb public places, including markets and churches, in the state.

Nigeria's government and security forces have been heavily criticized for their inability to curtail Boko Haram's ability to operate. In addition, they have been accused of atrocities themselves. Amnesty International released a gruesome video this week documenting extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations committed by the Nigerian military in its war against Boko Haram.

In an effort to squelch rumors that Boko Haram's alleged 'chief butcher," Zakari Mohammed Ardo, was at large, police yesterday paraded Ardo in front of the press and allowed him to speak. Ardo reportedly stated, "I joined the Boko Haaram group two years ago. Before I was arrested, I have slaughtered five people." Reports had surfaced earlier this week that the military did not have him in custody or know his whereabouts.

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Harakat-ul-Mujahideen 'operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan'

August 7, 2014, 10:03 pm
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The US State Department said that Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani jihadist group which is linked to al Qaeda and is active in South Asia, is currently running training camps in Afghanistan.

The State Department made the statement in an update released yesterday to the existing Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the jihadist group. State's update added Ansar ul-Ummah as "a front organization" for Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, or HUM. The group has been listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997.

"HUM has repeatedly changed its name in an effort to avoid sanctions," State notes in its designation. "Most recently, HUM created Ansar ul-Ummah as a front organization, claiming that the group was an organization for the preaching of Islam, politics, and social work."

State described HUM as "a Pakistan-based terrorist organization that seeks the annexation of Kashmir into Pakistan and poses a direct risk to U.S., Afghan, and allied interests in Afghanistan." According to State, "[t]he group operates in Pakistan, and engages in terrorist activity in Kashmir, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; its membership composes an estimated several hundred armed supporters."

"HUM also operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan and has conducted a number of operations against Indian troops and civilian targets in the Kashmir region," State said. "In 2013, a court in Britain convicted on terrorism charges three individuals alleged to have trained in HUM camps in 2009."

A follow-up inquiry to State by The Long War Journal confirmed that the HUM camps in eastern Afghanistan are still in operation. The exact locations of the camps were not disclosed.

Other terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba, are known to operate training camps in the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. The US is planning on withdrawing all of its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 despite the existence of training camps run by global jihadists.

Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen operates freely inside Pakistan, with the permission of the Pakistani establishment, including the military and the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil, HUM's leader, lives openly in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad.

Khalil is the man Osama bin Laden consulted before issuing his infamous fatwa declaring war against the US in 1998. Khalil also signed the fatwa. According to the Associated Press, Khalil "dispatched fighters to India, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya and Bosnia, was a confidante of bin Laden and hung out with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."

HUM has been involved in numerous acts of terror in the region, including the hijacking of an Indian airplane, an attack on the US Consulate in Karachi, and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. [See LWJ report, New investigation into murder of Daniel Pearl released.]

HUM is one of several jihadist groups that are part of what former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates described in 2010 as a "syndicate" in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the region.

"A victory for one [member of the syndicate] is a victory for all," Gates cautioned. Gates mentioned groups such as the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, as well as Lashkar-e-Taiba, as belonging to this "syndicate." Other groups that figure in this syndicate are the Haqqani Network, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and its offshoot the Islamic Jihad Union, Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, among others.

Several al Qaeda leaders have risen from the ranks of HUM. One of the most prominent is Badr Mansoor, an al Qaeda commander who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in February 2012. In one of the 17 documents that were released by the US from Osama bin Laden's collection of thousands seized during the Abbottabad raid, Mansoor was identified as a commander of a "company" of al Qaeda's forces operating in Pakistan.

At the time of his death, Mansoor was described as al Qaeda's leader in Pakistan who was closely linked to other Pakistani terror groups. Mansoor was able to funnel in recruits from Pakistani terror groups such as the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, with which he was closely linked. [See LWJ reports, Bin Laden docs hint at large al Qaeda presence in Pakistan, and Commander killed in drone strike 'funneled Pakistani jihadists' to al Qaeda.]

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US drone strike kills 3 AQAP fighters in central Yemen

August 9, 2014, 6:29 am
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The US launched its first recorded drone strike in Yemen in nearly two months, killing three suspected al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in the central province of Marib. The strike takes place as AQAP has been battling Yemeni forces for control of the eastern province of Hadramout.

The remotely piloted Reapers struck a compound in the Wadi Abida area today, a local official told Reuters. The names of the three suspected fighters were not disclosed. A "security official" confirmed that an airstrike took place in Marib and killed three people, but the official "did not specify if it was a US or Yemeni aircraft involved in the strike," The Associated Press reported.

The Wadi Abida of Marib province is a known haven for AQAP in central Yemen. The US has conducted six other drone strikes in Wadi Abida since October 2012. Three of those strikes took place this year, two occurred in 2013, and one was conducted in 2012. According to data compiled by The Long War Journal, a total of 31 AQAP fighters and two civilians are reported to have been killed in the seven strikes in Wadi Abida.

The last strike in Wadi Abida took place on June 4. A local commander known as Jafar al Shabwani and two fighters are said to have been killed.

Fighting rages in Hadramout

Today's drone strike in Marib takes place as Yemeni security forces and AQAP are battling for control over the eastern province of Hadramout.

Earlier this week, an unnamed Yemeni military official claimed that AQAP is in effective control of Hadramout province. "Local authorities in Hadramout are non-existent and Al Qaeda is running it," he said. A senior general later denied the report.

The Yemeni military said it killed 25 AQAP fighters on Aug. 6-7 while battling to protect the city of Seyoun in Hadramout province. The military also sent reinforcements to the town of Qatn in Hadramout after heavy fighting in the area.

AQAP responded by kidnapping and executing 14 soldiers who were traveling on a bus from Hadramout to Sana'a. AQAP also threatened to "punish" prosecutors and other legal officials in Hadramout who rule against the group.

The ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, Hadramout province has become an AQAP bastion over the past several years. AQAP has regrouped in Hadramout and other provinces after losing control of major cities in Abyan and Shabwa to government forces starting in late spring 2012. In May 2013, the Yemeni government claimed it foiled a plot by AQAP to establish an Islamic emirate in the Ghayl Bawazir area. In July, AQAP distributed leaflets in Seyoun that said the jihadist group is establishing an emirate in Hadramout and will impose sharia, or Islamic law.

Background on US strikes in Yemen

The US has launched 15 strikes in Yemen so far this year. Today's strike is the first since June 14, when the US killed an AQAP commander known as Musaad al Habashi and four fighters in a strike on a vehicle in Shabwa.

The US launched 14 drone strikes in Yemen between March 5 and June 14. The timing of the strikes coincided with a Yemeni military offensive to dislodge AQAP from strongholds in Abyan and Shabwa provinces.

The pace of the drone strikes in Yemen decreased last year from the previous year (26 in 2013, versus 41 in 2012). The reduction in the number of strikes coincided with a speech by President Barack Obama at the National Defense University in May 2013. The strikes are being reduced as the US government is facing increasing international criticism for conducting the attacks in both Yemen and Pakistan.

The number of strikes might have been much lower in 2013 were it not for an al Qaeda plot emanating from Yemen that was uncovered by US officials in late July. The scheme, which led the US to close down more than 20 embassies and diplomatic facilities across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, involved AQAP emir Nasir al Wuhayshi, who now also serves as al Qaeda's general manager.

Between July 27, 2013, after the plot was disclosed, and Aug. 10, the US launched nine strikes in Yemen; no drone strikes were reported for seven weeks prior to July 27. The burst in attacks was intended to disrupt AQAP's plan and take out its top leadership cadre and senior operatives. The US killed Kaid al Dhahab, AQAP's emir for Baydah province, during that time period.

AQAP and al Qaeda still seek to conduct attacks against the US. In a video released earlier this year that featured Nasir al Wuhayshi, who is both the emir of AQAP and al Qaeda's overall general manager, the terrorist leader said America remains a target.

"O brothers, the Crusader enemy is still shuffling his papers, so we must remember that we are always fighting the biggest enemy, the leaders of disbelief, and we have to overthrow those leaders, we have to remove the Cross, and the carrier of the Cross is America," Wuhayshi said.

Wuhayshi made the statement in the open to a gathering of more than 100 people.

For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2014.

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US airstrikes against Islamic State continue in northern Iraq

August 10, 2014, 1:33 pm
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The US launched four more airstrikes against the Islamic State in northern Iraq yesterday and today. The strikes targeted Islamic State fighters who were "indiscriminately" attacking minority Yazidis who fled to the Sinjar Mountains after the Islamic State's fighters took control of the city of Sinjar and surrounding towns and villages last week, as well as jihadists near the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

The US Department of Defense said that armored personnel carriers and other vehicles belonging to the Islamic State were targeted by "[a] mix of US fighters and remotely piloted aircraft" in four separate airstrikes near Sinjar yesterday.

The first strike "destroyed one of two ISIL [Islamic State] armored personnel carriers firing on Yazidi civilians near Sinjar."

In the second strike, the armored personnel (APC) that survived the first strike was tracked, and it was destroyed, along with another APC, and an "armed truck nearby."

In the third strike, yet another APC was identified and destroyed by US aircraft. The Department of Defense did not detail the nature of the fourth airstrike.

Today, "a mix of fighters and remotely piloted vehicles" targeted islamic State vehicles and a mortar pit in five airstrikes as part of an effort to "defend Kurdish forces near Irbil." Three "armed vehicles" and a mortar pit were destroyed and another vehicle was damaged, CENTCOM stated in a press release.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority based primarily in northwestern Iraq, fled to the Sinjar Mountains after Kurdish forces abandoned Sinjar and other areas as Islamic State forces advanced in Ninewa province last week.

The US has also been airlifting humanitarian aid to Yazidis on Mount Sinjar; so far three airdrops of food, water, and other supplies have been made. The US military said that it has "delivered more than 52,000 meals and more than 10,600 gallons of fresh drinking water to the displaced Yazidis seeking refuge from ISIL on the mountain."

The US launched airstrikes against the Islamic State on Aug. 8, almost immediately after President Barack Obama declared that the US would intervene to prevent an Islamic State advance on the Kurdish capital of Irbil, where US diplomatic personnel and military trainers are based, as well as prevent the slaughter of the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar. Obama also indicated that US aircraft could strike in other areas of Iraq if US personnel are in danger. Obama was clear that the US would not deploy ground troops in Iraq. [See Threat Matrix report, Obama authorizes limited airstrikes to protect US personnel in Irbil.]

The US military launched three airstrikes against the Islamic State on Aug. 8. All three strikes targeted units the US military claimed were threatening Irbil. One strike destroyed a towed artillery piece, another hit a convoy of pickup trucks, and the last a mortar pit. Video of the strikes against the towed artillery piece and the pickup trucks was published on US Central Command's YouTube page. [See Threat Matrix reports, US begins airstrikes against Islamic State near Irbil and CENTCOM videos show airstrikes on Islamic State artillery, convoy.]

US now engaging a "jayvee" jihadist group

The military re-engagement in Iraq by the US takes place nearly two months after the Islamic State launched its northern offensive in Iraq and seized control of much of Ninewa, Salahaddin, and Diyala provinces. The Islamic State has been in control of most of Anbar province since January, and has also held areas in the north of Babil province since March. The US refused to intervene in Iraq, despite numerous mass executions carried out by Islamic State fighters, many which were documented on the jihadist group's social media pages, until the Islamic State threatened the Kurdish regions and the Yazidis.

The renewed military engagement in Iraq is ironic given Obama's position on the country as well his dismissal of the Islamic State as a local insurgent group. He had campaigned on withdrawing military forces from Iraq before his first term in office and vowed to keep his promise.

President Obama withdrew US troops from Iraq at the end of December 2011 after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government to extend the US military mission in Iraq. Obama refused to allow Prime Minister Nouri al Malki to issue an executive decree to give US forces immunity from Iraqi prosecution; instead Obama wanted Iraq's parliament to ratify a deal. Given the fractious nature of the Iraqi parliament and the sensitivity of the issue of basing US forces in Iraq, it was clear the parliament would never pass such a bill.

Earlier this year, Obama casually referred to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (the Islamic State's predecessor) and other jihadist groups waging local insurgencies as "the jayvee team" of global jihadist groups.

"The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant," Obama said in an interview with The New Yorker while answering a question on the resurgence of jihadist groups in Iraq. "I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian."

Obama's statement demonstrates a lack of understanding of the goals of global jihadist groups that is prevalent among US policymakers and even many counterterrorism analysts.

Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State seek to impose a global caliphate and enforce sharia, or Islamic law. To achieve their goals, the global jihadist groups commit significant resources to wage local insurgencies and overthrow Muslim governments. These groups train fighters to wage guerrilla wars, and select some of the fighters to conduct terrorist attacks against the West or other countries. These attacks are designed to break the Western countries' will to fight or force them to withdraw military forces or support from Muslim countries. Attacks on Western countries also have the added bonus of generating propaganda victories and increasing recruitment and fundraising. But terrorist attacks against the West are merely a tactic that is used to help jihadist groups achieve their goals of establishing a global caliphate.

For the past year, the Obama administration has rejected direct requests from the Iraqi government to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State.

Now, US officials are describing the Islamic State as a major threat to US national security as well as the region. Brett McGurk, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 23 that the Islamic State is "no longer a terrorist organization. It is a full-blown army."

"It is al Qaeda in its doctrine, ambition and, increasingly, in its threat to U.S. interests," McGurk said.

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AQAP claims killing of 50 Yemeni soldiers in Seyoun attack

August 11, 2014, 1:02 pm
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A Twitter account affiliated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced yesterday that AQAP fighters had killed more than 50 Yemeni soldiers during the group's Aug. 7 attack on the Yemeni Army's 1st Military District headquarters in the city of Seyoun in Hadramout province. The district, whose jurisdiction covers the Wadi Hadramout area, has seen violent clashes between the Yemeni military and AQAP in recent weeks.

The AQAP Twitter account reported that the attack on the district's headquarters began when a suicide bomber named Abu Ahmad al-Lahji entered the base and detonated his suicide vest as soldiers began to crowd around him. Following the explosion, the seven remaining AQAP attackers stormed the base and engaged in clashes with Yemeni troops.

According to the tweet, the AQAP attackers managed to detain a group of Yemeni soldiers at the base and then summarily executed them. The AQAP tweet noted that communication between the attackers and AQAP's leadership was ongoing throughout the operation and that the AQAP fighters killed "more than fifty soldiers."

Arabic news sources claimed that other AQAP-affiliated Twitter accounts announced that the seven AQAP attackers were killed during the course of the assault. Those reports identified them as: Abu Dhar al-Lahji, Abu Khitab al-Sana'ani, Abu Anas al-Sharuri, Abu Dajjana al-Sharuri, Abu Awwad al-Azzani, Abu Ahmad al-Lahji, Abu al-Raheem al-Adani, and Khitab al-Hadhrami. Based on their names, it would appear that four of the attackers were Yemenis, and two were Saudis (from the southern Saudi province of Sharura).

The Aug. 7 attack came on the second day of heavy fighting between the Yemeni military and AQAP militants in the area. On Aug. 6, nine AQAP fighters were killed in Hadramout as they tried to ambush soldiers heading to eastern Yemen. On Aug. 7, in coordination with the attack in Seyoun, a small group of AQAP fighters briefly took over government buildings in the nearby town of Qatn.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry had responded to initial reports of the Aug. 7 attack on the Seyoun military headquarters by commenting that army personnel successfully defended the base and killed the terrorists who had attempted to take control over the regional headquarters. The ministry also confirmed that Yemeni soldiers had killed 25 AQAP fighters in the two days of fighting in Wadi Hadramout, including the seven attackers from the Aug. 7 incident. According to Xinhua, the Yemeni military later arrested four AQAP members suspected of involvement in the attack.

In an apparent response to Yemeni military advances, AQAP kidnapped and executed 14 Yemeni soldiers on Aug. 8 as they were returning home from duty in eastern Yemen. The soldiers were kidnapped from a public bus and their bodies were found riddled with bullets three hours later on a road near Seyoun.

The ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, Hadramout province has become an AQAP bastion over the past several years. AQAP has regrouped in Hadramout and other provinces after losing control of major cities in Abyan and Shabwa to government forces starting in late spring 2012. In May 2013, the Yemeni government claimed it foiled a plot by AQAP to establish an Islamic emirate in the Ghayl Bawazir area. Last month, AQAP distributed leaflets in Seyoun that said the jihadist group is establishing an emirate in Hadramout and will impose sharia, or Islamic law.

Developing events in Yemen are notoriously difficult to report, as both local authorities and AQAP are thought to exaggerate their achievements at times. In a 2012 letter of advice to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of AQAP, emphasizes that the media is the terror group's "most important weapon" and counsels to use it wisely. The Yemeni government, for its part, is believed to overstate its achievements in fighting AQAP, and some claim that Yemeni authorities intentionally inflate assessments of the terrorist threat in the country in order to secure US support.

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Ansar Dine leader resurfaces, urges expulsion of France from Mali

August 11, 2014, 10:09 pm
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After lying low since early 2013, Iyad Ag Ghaly, the founder and emir of the Malian-based terrorist group Ansar Dine, has appeared in a video expressing solidarity with the group's mujahideen brothers across the world and calling for the expulsion of France from Mali.

The video featuring Al Ghaly, which was published by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Aug. 5, urges Muslims to rise up against France. In the video, Ag Ghaly declares that his group is "ready to unite with our brothers on the ground to face up to the crusaders and infidels who have united to fight Islam in our land."

Ag Ghaly is shown seated with Ansar Dine's flag to his right and a Kalashnikov leaning up against the wall to his left. Bearded and wearing a white turban, the terrorist group leader states emphatically: "What happened to the Muslims in Azawad, northern Mali, is an affliction through which Allah distinguished the good from the malicious ... and to see from His worshippers the truth of their intention ...and to humiliate the Haman of the era, the ally of disbelief, the country of the cross France, as America was humiliated before it," according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Addressing "our Muslim Ummah in general and our people in Azawad in particular," Ag Ghaly discusses events in Mali over the past two years, charging that Ansar Dine suffered from media distortion of its campaign, and assuring his audience that "we are still present in the field" and "the war between us and them is still ongoing, as you
see with the martyrdom-seeking operations carried out against the enemy successively, and the rockets launched from time to time, and the mines that were placed for them everywhere."

He also refers to a fatwa issued in Chinguetti, Mauritania obliging Muslims to fight against France and its allies.

In the middle portion of the video, clips of Arabic news coverage of France's intervention in Mali and French President Francois Hollande speaking of the mission are shown.

Connecting with the global jihad, Ag Ghaly calls on "our proud Muslim people whose sanctities were violated by the French and their allies, to stand in one rank in the face of the historical, hate-filled enemy of the Muslims, and revive the spirit of cooperation among Muslims." He ends the message with greetings and support for Ansar Dine's "mujahideen brothers in all fields of jihad, in Nigeria, Somalia, Central Africa, the Islamic Maghreb, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines, the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Sham." In conclusion, he states: "We are ready to unite with our mujahideen brothers in the field of Mali to confront the Crusader alliance and global disbelief."

Background on Iyad Ag Ghaly

Ag Ghaly formed Ansar Dine ("Defenders of the Faith") in October 2011 after Malian Tuareg leaders rejected him in favor of Bilal Al Acherif to lead the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

An experienced commander, Ag Ghaly had been active in several Tuareg uprisings since returning to Mali after Gaddafi disbanded his Islamic Legion in 1987. Quickly becoming a leader amongst disenfranchised Tuaregs, he led a rebellion against the Malian government in 1990. Throughout the early 2000s, he held several diplomatic roles including negotiating the release of hostages held by AQIM in 2003. Prior to his radicalization, suspected to have begun in the early 2000s during a visit to Pakistan, Ag Ghaly was known for "his fondness for whisky and music."

Throughout 2012, Ansar Dine worked with al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), and local Tuareg separatists to push the Malian government from control of northern Mali in an attempt to form a Muslim state ruled by sharia law. AQIM viewed Ansar Dine as its local arm in Mali; in a "confidential letter" from Abdelmalek Droukdel, the emir of AQIM, that was found in Timbuktu in early 2013, he instructed his followers to mask their operations and "pretend to be a 'domestic' movement" under Ansar Dine so as not to draw international attention and intervention.

With Ag Ghaly at the helm, Ansar Dine demonstrated a penchant for violence through its strict interpretation and adherence to sharia law. While controlling several towns across northern Mali in 2012, the group destroyed tombs in Timbuktu; banned alcohol, smoking, Friday visits to cemeteries, and watching soccer; and required all women to wear veils in public. Those who did not adhere to the new rules were whipped and beaten.

In response to the Islamists' takeover of much of northern Mali, French forces commenced Operation Serval, a joint French and Malian operation, in January 2013 to regain control. The successful French-led operation pushed the Islamists and their leaders from the northern cities they had ruled.

On Feb. 26, 2013, both the United States and the United Nations added Ghaly to their lists of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The State Departmented noted that Ghaly "cooperates closely with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)." [See LWJ report, Emir of Ansar Dine added to US, UN's terrorist lists.] Ansar Dine itself was identified as a terrorist organization by the US and the UN in March 2013.

Operation Serval was successful in preventing the Islamists from controlling the north. But since its start in 2013, there have been several guerrilla-style attacks and incidents launched by the retreating Islamists.

France's mission in Mali has evolved from the limited Operation Serval to the recently launched Operation Barkhane, which aims to combat terrorists across the Sahara, in a partnership with five African nations -- Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso. French forces continue to conduct military operations in Mali, however. On Aug. 10, they dropped dropped up to five bombs in the Essakane region west of Timbuktu, targeting al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb positions.

In April 2012, shortly before the merger of Tuareg rebel factions with Ansar Dine into the short-lived breakaway state in northern Mali called the Islamic Republic of Azawad, Ag Ghaly was reportedly seen meeting in Timbuktu with senior AQIM leaders Abu Zeid, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and Yahya Abu al Hammam. But soon after France began Operation Serval in January 2013, Ag Ghaly went off the radar.

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Chechen-led jihadist group in Syria releases video of training camp

August 12, 2014, 7:59 am
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A new jihadist group known as the Jamaat Ahadun Ahad, or the Group of the One and Only, has released a video of its training camp in Syria. The group is led by a Chechen commander and includes fighters from Chechnya, Europe, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and several Arab countries.

The video was published today on Jamaat Ahadun Ahad's YouTube page. The video shows a rudimentary camp situated in a large clearing surrounded by woods. Several tents are visible. The exact location of the camp was not disclosed, but it may be located in the Syrian province of Latakia, where the group is said to concentrate its efforts.

Dozens of Jamaat Ahadun Ahad fighters appear in the video. The fighters are shown conducting small unit drills, including conducting assaults and ambushes, patrolling, and breaking contact while under fire. In one drill, featured at the end of the video, a mock patrol is ambushed by a group of camouflaged fighters, who are instructed to quickly take weapons and ammunition from dead troops before leaving.

Although the Jamaat Ahadun Ahad fighters appear to be well armed and equipped, they are not wearing uniforms, unlike fighters in a number of other jihadist training camps. Many of the fighters in the video are also apparently not concerned about covering their faces.

Jamaat Ahadun Ahad is led by a Chechen commander known as Al Bara Shishani, according to From Chechnya to Syria, a website that tracks fighters from the Russian Caucasus and Central Asia who are fighting in Syria.

According to a statement released on the jihadist group's Twitter feed, Jamaat Ahadun Ahad's "[shura] council consists of mujahideen with a great past on the lands of jihad in Chechnya and Afghanistan." The statement was released in Arabic, English, and Turkish.

Jamaat Ahadun Ahad is made up of both foreign fighters and Syrians.

"Jamaat Ahadun Ahad is a smaller jihadist group consisting of several anonymous and independent muhajireen (foreign fighter) brigades. A number of Ansar (local Syrian) brigades have also joined the formation," according to an analysis of the group that was published by From Chechnya to Syria.

"As a mostly foreign fighter brigade, Jamaat Ahadun Ahad boasts many Chechens, Turks, Arabs, Europeans, and even several former members of the Taliban," presumably from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the analysis stated. Trainers from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, an al Qaeda linked group, are known to be based in Syria.

Jamaat Ahadun Ahad is said to be neutral in the dispute between the Islamic State and the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda's branch in Syria.

Jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria are promoting training camps

Already this year, jihadist groups in both Iraq and Syria have promoted the existence of at least eight training camps.

In mid-March, the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda's branch in Syria and a rival of the Islamic State, announced that it is running two training camps in Syria. Its Ayman al Zawahiri Camp was located in the city of Deir al Zour and is named after al Qaeda's current emir (the Islamic State currently controls the city). The other camp, whose location was not disclosed, is called the Abu Ghadiya Camp and is named after the leader of the al Qaeda in Iraq facilitation network that was based in eastern Syria. Abu Ghadiya was killed in a US special operations raid in eastern Syria in the fall of 2008.

In the beginning of April, the Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Supporters, or Muhajireen Army), a group of foreign fighters led by commanders from the Caucasus who are part of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, released video of its training camp in Aleppo province. The video included footage of a bomb-making class.

In early May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham announced the existence of the Zarqawi Camp, which is named after the slain founder of al Qaeda in Iraq, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

In June, an Uzbek jihadist group known as the Imam Bukhari Jamaat released a video of its training camp in Syria. The camp is thought to be located in Aleppo province.

In July, the Islamic State released several photographs of what it said are its training camps in Iraq's Ninewa province, and several more images from a camp in Aleppo, Syria.

The videos and photographs from ISIS, Al Nusrah Front, Muhajireen Army, Imam Bukhari Jamaat, and Jamaat Ahadun Ahad training camps are reminiscent of others released by al Qaeda from the network of camps in Afghanistan during the 1990s. Al Qaeda used camps such as Khalden and Al Farouq to churn out thousands of foreign fighters who fought alongside the Taliban in the 55th Arab Brigade. But al Qaeda also selected graduates of the camps to conduct attacks in the West, including the Sept. 11, 2001 operation against the US.

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Al Nusrah Front spokesman explains differences with Islamic State in video appearance

August 12, 2014, 10:17 pm
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In a video released online on Aug. 8, Abu Firas al Suri, who serves as the Al Nusrah Front's spokesman, answered questions about the ongoing war in Syria. Al Suri denies that Al Nusrah plans to unilaterally declare an Islamic emirate (or state) in Syria. And he explains how Al Nusrah, which is an official branch of al Qaeda, differs from its rival, the Islamic State, in waging jihad.

The video was first obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"The Al Nusra Front did not announce an emirate in the meaning of an independent emirate, or the meaning of a state, or any meaning close to that," al Suri insists.

"We mean the emirate should be established by consulting those who have an Islamist affiliation, whether from the jihadi factions, or the local leaders of the country, or the people of influence, and of course, with all the scholars inside and outside the country," al Suri says, according to SITE's translation.

Last month, a controversy erupted in jihadist circles after an audio recording of Al Nusrah's emir, Abu Muhammad al Julani, was leaked online. Julani's speech was widely interpreted as meaning that his group was going to declare itself the head of an Islamic emirate and fully enforce sharia law in the areas under its control without consulting other Islamist and jihadist groups. The potential move was viewed as a response to the Islamic State's announcement on June 29 that it now rules as a caliphate.

"The time has come ... for us to establish an Islamic emirate in the Levant, to implement the limits and punishments of God Almighty, and his laws in every sense of the word, without compromise, complacency, equivocation, or circumvention," Julani says in the leaked message.

The Al Nusrah Front quickly issued a statement denying that it intended to announce an emirate, adding that it would only do so after "the pious scholars agree with our stance."

However, Al Nusrah's denial did not put an end to speculation that the group was going to move away from its strategy of closely cooperating with other like-minded rebel organizations. For instance, the Islamic Front, a coalition of several insurgency organizations, issued a statement rejecting the Islamic State's caliphate, as well as any proposed emirate. The latter rejection was aimed at the Al Nusrah Front and Julani.

The Islamic Front has closely cooperated with Al Nusrah on the battlefield. One of the key groups within the Islamic Front is Ahrar al Sham, which is linked to al Qaeda. Ahrar al Sham was co-founded by Abu Khalid al Suri, a senior al Qaeda operative who served as Ayman al Zawahiri's chief representative in Syria until his death in February. It is widely believed that he was killed by the Islamic State.

Thus, Abu Firas al Suri's video is a deliberate attempt by the Al Nusrah Front to quell any problems that have arisen with its allies since the leak of Julani's speech.

Although Julani specifically said that his group would implement sharia law "without compromise," al Suri argues this is not the case. Al Suri points to Al Nusrah's "Sharia Arbitration Charter," which is an initiative to get the various jihadist and Islamist groups to govern rebel-controlled areas according to agreed-upon sharia laws.

"In Hama alone, 14 factions signed this agreement," al Suri claims, according to SITE's translation. "We did not force anyone and we will not force anyone. Any faction that joins us in empowering the sharia of Allah is very warmly welcomed."

Al Suri draws a sharp distinction between his organization's plans for implementing sharia law and the Islamic State's governance. "We will not be like the [Islamic] State, because the difference between us and them is not a difference in practice or a difference in behavior, but it is a doctrinal difference."

Like other al Qaeda branches, Al Nusrah seeks to inculcate its radical ideological beliefs in the population, as well as in other allied jihadist organizations, thereby gaining more widespread acceptance for its version of sharia law. This is opposite of the Islamic State's approach, as the former branch of al Qaeda seeks to impose its laws on all who live within its territory.

Senior al Qaeda leader who was little-known until earlier this year

Abu Firas al Suri's senior role within the Al Nusrah Front only became known earlier this year. In the leaked audio recording of Julani's speech, al Suri speaks before Julani and introduces him to the audience. This is an indication of al Suri's stature within the jihadist organization.

Al Suri first appeared in an Al Nusrah video in March. Al Suri sharply criticized the Islamic State and its practices in the production.

Al Nusrah also revealed extensive details about al Suri's background in the video. Al Suri was a member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and participated in the uprisings against Hafez al Assad's regime in 1979 and 1980.

Al Suri later traveled to Afghanistan, where he met Abdullah Azzam, a founding father of modern jihadism who was killed in the late 1980s, and Osama bin Laden. He then helped bin Laden and Pakistani jihadists establish Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization that remains closely linked to al Qaeda to this day.

After the 9/11 attacks, al Suri helped al Qaeda families escape Afghanistan. And from 2003 to 2013 he was stationed in Yemen, where he stayed until the dispute between the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State erupted. Al Qaeda's senior leaders then had al Suri relocate to Syria, where he participated in the failed mediation efforts between the two groups.


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Islamic State advances against jihadist foes in Aleppo

August 13, 2014, 8:17 am
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Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities seized by the Islamic State and its allies. Map created by Patrick Megahan and Bill Roggio for The Long War Journal. Click to view larger map.

The Islamic State took control of five towns and villages in northern Aleppo province in Syria after heavy fighting against the Al Nusrah Front for the people of the Levant and other "Islamist battalions."

Islamic State fighters seized Turkman Bareh, Akhtarin, Dabiq, al Masoudia, and al Ghouz, five towns and villages just west of the town of Marea, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today on its Facebook page.

The towns and villages fell to the Islamic State "after violent clashes with Islamic battalions in the area," the Observatory noted. "Jabhat al Nusrah [Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria] and many Islamic battalions have pulled back from the area." The Observatory often uses the term "Islamic battalions" to describe the Islamic Front, an alliance of jihadist groups that fights alongside the Al Nusrah Front.

"The clashes led to death of many fighters from both sides in addition to capturing many Islamic fighters" by the Islamic State. Fighting is said to be continuing in the village of Arshaf. An Islamist unit known as the Dawoud brigade, "which pledged allegiance to [the Islamic State] was involved directly in the clashes," and fought alongside the Islamic State, the Observatory reported.

The Islamic State's gains directly threaten the hold of Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front on northern Aleppo, a major stronghold for the two groups. According to the Observatory, "Akhtarin is a strategic town because it opens the way for ISIS[ the Islamic State] into Marea town, which is the most important town of the Islamic battalions and Azaz city."

Azaz was controlled by the Islamic State until the group withdrew from the city in February. The Islamic State withdrew from Azaz, the border crossing to the north, Minnigh airbase, and several villages in Aleppo to reinforce Raqqah, the group's de facto capital in Syria, after fighting against the Al Nusrah Front and its allies heated up.

Islamic State gains on all fronts in Syria and Iraq

Today's victory in Aleppo is the latest in a string of successes by the jihadist group on both sides of the border between Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State quickly regrouped from initial losses in Syria after its dispute with Al Nusrah and other Syrian jihadist and rebel groups devolved into open warfare at the beginning of the year.

In January, the Islamic State went on the offensive in Anbar province in western Iraq, and took control of Fallujah with the help of local allies. The Islamic State is now in control of most of Anbar's cities and towns.

The Islamic State also took control of areas in northern Babil province, which is just south of Baghdad, in March. In June, the Islamic State and its allies in Iraq launched a massive offensive that led to the fall of much of Ninewa province, including Mosul, the provincial capital and Iraq's second-largest city, as well as Salahaddin and Diyala provinces. Iraqi forces were either defeated in open battle or fled the field, leaving behind large quantities of weapons, including armored vehicles and artillery, and ammunition. Iraqi forces halted the Islamic State's southward advance at Samarra, but have been unable to regain lost ground.

At the same time the Islamic State advanced in northern Iraq, the group took control of most of Deir al Zour province in Syria. The Islamic State defeated the Al Nusrah Front and its allies in the city of Deir al Zour, in the border town of Albu Kamal, and in a series of cities and towns in between along the Euphrates River. While tribal resistance to the Islamic State has appeared in Deir al Zour, the Islamic State has responded by beheading and crucifying its enemies as part of an intimidation campaign to break the will of resistance forces and warn others not to oppose it. The Islamic State also consolidated gains in Hasakah and advanced into Homs province.

Just last week, the Islamic State advanced further into Ninewa and ejected Kurdish forces from the city of Sinjar, the Mosul Dam, and a series of towns and villages north and east of Mosul. The jihadist group's threat to ethnic Yazidis who fled Sinjar as well as its advance on Irbil, the capital of Kurdistan, forced the US to intervene with airstrikes.

In a recent press briefing, Lieutenant General Bill Mayville, the Director of Operations for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the Islamic State as a capable and dangerous force that has the ability to advance on several fronts in both Iraq and Syria.

"They're very well-organized. They are very well-equipped. They coordinate their operations. And they have thus far shown the ability to attack on multiple axes. This is not insignificant," Mayville said.

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Islamic scholars and the Lebanese tinderbox

August 13, 2014, 10:33 pm
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Last month, Syrian government forces near Qalamoun and Lebanese forces near Arsal had essentially cornered a large number of Islamist fighters in the area. Tensions erupted in Lebanon in early August, when fighting broke out around the Arsal between the Islamists and the Lebanese Army. Before long, a delegation of Salafist clerics from Lebanon's Muslim Scholars Committee appeared on the scene to mediate a ceasefire.

The fighting was allegedly triggered by the Aug. 2 arrest of Imad Ahmad Jomaa, an Al Nusrah Front commander who had recently sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. On Aug. 4, following three days of clashes with Islamist militants around Arsal, the Lebanese army said 14 soldiers had been killed, 86 wounded, and 22 were missing; at least 50 civilians and some 50 militants were also said to have been killed, including Abu Hasan al Homsi, an Islamic State commander. The government vowed to protect Arsal, demanding the militants' withdrawal and refusing to cut a deal.

But soon a delegation from the Muslim Scholars Committee (MSC) traveled to Arsal to negotiate a truce; the government sought the release of 22 soldiers and 21 policemen kidnapped by the militants, and the Islamists wanted the release of Jomaa, who commands brigades affiliated with the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State.

Sheikh Salem al Rafehi, the imam of Tripoli's the Al-Taqwa Mosque and a member of the MSC tasked with negotiating the ceasefire, was wounded when the committee's convoy was reportedly attacked by gunmen on the night of Aug. 4 . Naharnet News reported that the "[t]he three-member Muslim Scholars Committee delegation" had arrived in Arsal after coming under fire; al Rafehi was said to have received a foot injury and the other two, Sheikhs Nabil al Halabi and Jalal Kalash, had received only minor wounds. Muslim Scholars Committee member Sheikh Ihab al Banna said the delegation was "seeking to reach a permanent ceasefire in the area."

On Aug. 6, a ceasefire had been reached; Abou Talal, the deputy of Imad Jomaa, was involved in negotiations. Al Nusrah Front and Islamic State fighters began withdrawing from Arsal, after releasing six kidnapped Lebanese security forces; but the militants still held 17 ISF personnel and 10 soldiers, according to the MSC. Although thousands of refugees had fled the fighting, some 32,000 Lebanese and 50,000 Syrians remained in Arsal.

The truce reportedly allowed most of the roughly 2,000 Islamist fighters to leave the town; a large convoy of Syrian refugees also left. Al Nusrah said that the security forces it was still holding have a "special status."

On Aug. 7, Sheikh Muhieddine Nisbeh, a member of the MSC negotiating party, claimed that the militants with the hostages had "exited Arsal into some mountainous area" and that the committee had lost contact with them.

Sheikh Adnan Amama, another MSC member, said on Aug. 8 that the militants were seeking assurance that the large Syrian refugee camps in Arsal remain "safe," among other demands. The ceasefire allowed the Army to deploy in Arsal on Aug. 8 after the bulk of some 2,000 militants, mainly from the Al Nusrah Front but also including Islamic State fighters, had begun withdrawing on Aug. 6. Residents began returning to Arsal on Aug. 8, and security was stepped up in the town.

Reports said that the Al Nusrah Front militants had left town and the Islamic State militants had crossed over into Syria. The militants were said to be holding at least 35 Lebanese security forces captive, divided between Al Nusrah and IS. MSC member Sheikh Samih Ezzedine confirmed that the hostages had been divided among several militant groups. The militants were said to be demanding the release of 20 Islamist prisoners, including Imad Ahmad Jomaa.

On Aug. 10, MSC member Sheikh Younis Abdel Razzak reportedly claimed that negotiations for the release of some 35 kidnapped Lebanese security forces were progressing, but that his committee is not dealing directly with the kidnappers.

[This video clip of Lebanon's Muslim Scholars Committee appears to show at least 10 men.]

Reactions to the Muslim Scholars Committee's negotiating role

On Aug. 8, a video clip on Monitor Mideast showed former Lebanese minister Wiam Wihab walking out of a telephone interview on Al-Jadeed TV with a cleric from the MSC, which is described as "Saudi-backed." According to the report:

The cleric, identified as Amin Raad, sought to dismiss claims that the MSC is pro-terrorist and pro-ISIS. The Scholars Committee of Lebanon has been under fire lately due to their Saudi backing. During a deal last week brokered by Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mufti of the Committee was ultimately selected after a long-standing feud among various clergymen.

Last week, a number of Saudi-backed Sunni clerics were dispatched to Arsal, Lebanon during clashes between the Lebanese Army (LAF) and ISIS. They sought to mediate between the two sides over a possible ceasefire. However, Saudi Arabia is often accused as a key sponsor of ISIS by various Lebanese political factions. Among them, Wiam Wahhab remains an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia's government and its role in Lebanon.

The Daily Star also covered the incident, noting that after walking out, Wahhab later accused the MSC of having links to Hassan Qatorji, whose deputy is Abu Omar al Homsi, a detained Al Nusrah commander, and charged that the MSC had allowed the kidnapped security personnel to be smuggled out.

Interestingly, the Muslim Scholars Committee's negotiations were commended by the Syrian National Coalition, in an official statement on Aug. 8, which said, in part:

Hadi Al Bahra, president of the Syrian Coalition, hails efforts made to defuse the crisis in Arsal, home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. A 24-hour truce was put into effect early on the morning of today, allowing the withdrawal of the militant groups into Syria and the entry of the Red Cross team to evacuate the wounded and deliver relief aid to the town. The truce was brokered through a committee of the residents of Arsal, the Muslim Scholars Association and the Red Cross, who will guarantee that no armed forces will enter the town, and that the Lebanese armed forces are the only side whose task will be restoring security and stability. ... Moreover, we have reached out to the Association of Muslim Scholars, which formed a committee entrusted with reaching a solution that guarantees the safety of Syrian refugees and Lebanese civilians. The committee included several organizations, including life humanitarian organizations, Syrian activists and representatives the revolutionary movement. The committee worked relentlessly on defusing the crisis, and they even risked their lives while trying to enter the besieged the town. Some of its members were injured when their vehicles came under fire on its way to the town."

Islamic scholar organizations in Lebanon, Iraq

The Muslim Scholars Committee in Lebanon is headed by Salafist cleric Sheikh Adnan Amama, a member of the Arsal negotiating delegation who has run a school and mosque in the village of Majdal Anjar in the Bekaa Valley. In late January, Amama expressed displeasure that a delegation from his organization was not allowed to visit detained Sunni cleric Sheikh Omar al Atrash, who had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in car bombings in Beirut as well as funneling Arab suicide bombers to the Al Nusrah Front in Syria.

In late June, Sheikh Nabil Rahim, another member of the MSC negotiating committee in Arsal, protested what his organization saw as the Lebanese government's harshness towards Lebanese Islamist fighters in Syria compared to its treatment of Hezbollah members who crossed over the border to fight.

In late July, the Muslim Scholars Committee called for protests in support of Sunni militants imprisoned in Tripoli, including Sheikh Hussam al Sabbagh, who was arrested on July 20 and has previously been accused of heading al Qaeda in Tripoli. One of the speakers at the demonstrations was Sheikh Mustafa Alloush, Tripoli head of of Jamaa al-Islamiya.

Lebanon's Muslim Scholars Committee is most likely linked to other similar organizations in various countries, including Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars (AMSI) and the International Association of Muslim Scholars.

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq is headed by Harith al Dari, who was added to the US and UN's list of global terrorists in 2010 for his support of al Qaeda in Iraq. In the designation, Treasury stated that al Dari "provides financial, material, or technological support and financial or other services to or in support of AQI including operational guidance for attacks against Iraqi Forces and Coalition Forces in Iraq." Two years earlier, in September 2008, he was designated by Treasury for fueling violence in Iraq. He had previously called al Qaeda in Iraq's front group, the Mujahideen Shura Council, "part of the legitimate resistance."

Two months ago, Al Dari's pro-Sunni, anti-government, "pro-resistance" Rafidayn TV channel was shut down by the Iraqi government, on June 18, according to the BBC. The day before, the BBC ran an article noting that Rafidayn's reporting was describing the Sunni militants in Iraq as "tribal revolutionaries" without mentioning ISIS, and that it highlighted losses inflicted on government troops, and called the conflict "Maliki's war against the people."

In July, another BBC report noted, however, that Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars, "which gives political guidance to the non-ISIS rebels," criticized the Islamic State for announcing its caliphate, and that AMSI had said: "''Those who announced [the calipate] did not consult the sons of Iraq, or their leaders .... It is not in the interest of Iraq and its unity now, and will be taken as an excuse to partition the country and harm the people. The prerequisites for success need to be prepared - failure will rebound on everybody. None of this has been done, so the oath of allegiance and this situation are not binding on anyone.'"

On Aug. 9, AMSI "severely denounced" the US recent airstrikes in Iraq as a "dangerous development" and omitted any mention that the strikes were targeting the Islamic State. According to a translation of AMSI's statement by the SITE Intelligence Group, the organization concluded its message by blaming Iraq's current chaos on the "American occupation."

Back in late 2007, Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars disparaged the "declaration of principles" reached by US and Iraqi leaders for enduring military, political, and economic ties after the UN mandate on foreign troops in Iraq expired. AMSI said the Iraqi signatories would be considered "collaborators with the occupier."

There is also an International Association of Muslim Scholars. In October 2008, Hamas official and International Association of Muslim Scholars spokesman Marwan Abu Ras defended the decision of a Palestinian woman to become a suicide bomber for Islamic Jihad, saying that although "'Islam prohibits you from harming yourself ... now we are fighting a war of resistance. If one nation violates another nation's land, it is the obligation of everyone - men, women, and children - to fight back.'"

Another member of the international association, influential Saudi cleric Sheikh Salman al-Awda, said in September 2009 that although praying for the destruction of the unbelievers runs against sharia law generally, it is permissible if they are harming Muslim interests.

The outlook

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Lebanon appears to contain members who are sympathetic to the Islamic State, as well as others who are not. A June 24 article in Al Monitor profiled several members of Lebanon's Salafist community, including Sheikh Malek Jadida, president of the Lebanese organization, who said the practices of ISIS "'have nothing to do with Islam.'"

But the Lebanese group's former president, Salem al Rafehi, who is currently a member of the MSC's negotiating committee in Arsal, claimed: "So Iraq is witnessing a revolution of the Sunnis, and of course there is a role for the ISIS organization. But it is not the major force in what is happening compared with the role of the tribes, the rebels and the other participants. The media, however, is focusing on this organization to eliminate everybody's role and to portray Iraq's Sunnis as extremists and terrorists. And this is part of the great conspiracy against the Sunnis in the Arab region as a whole."

A recent article by Jean Aziz in Al Monitor observes that the ceasefire in Arsal mediated by the Salafist sheikhs' committee, which has left the fate of 39 Lebanese security forces to their Islamist captors and allowed hundreds of Islamist fighters to escape to the hillsides around Arsal, merely marks the end of "the first round of a longer war."

Lebanese army chief General Jean Kahwagi disclosed on Aug. 11 that the Islamic State had planned to use Arsal as a base for attacks Shiite villages, igniting sectarian war and bringing the strife of Iraq to Lebanon, and warned that the terror group presents a "great threat" to his country.

The MSC negotiating committee has now handed the Lebanese government a video showing seven of the captive Lebanese soldiers. Radio reports say that the Islamic State is holding seven captive soldiers and that Al Nusrah is holding nine. Sheikh Amama of the MSC is describing the negotiations as "tough."

Who knows what further concessions the negotiators will seek to extract for their Islamist clients. Indeed, it is unlikely that any deals with the Islamic State will serve to protect Lebanon from its relentless drive.


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