As Boko Haram has continued to unleash its violence across northern Nigeria, the group seems to be gaining ground. Under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram has evolved from a terrorist group into an insurgency that seeks to establish an Islamic state. And Boko Haram's tactics have changed accordingly, from smash and dash attacks, killing thousands, into attempts to grab and hold territory.

In a video obtained last weekend by Agence France Presse (AFP), Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau celebrated the group's recent successes and gave a warning to those opposed to him and his ideology. Shekau is shown standing in front of three SUVs, wearing military fatigues with a Kalashnikov slung across his body, as he rants, in a mixture of Arabic and Hausa, to the camera. He holds a notebook in his left hand from which he reads.

After Shekau's video was released, it was widely reported that he had declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate covering significant parts of Nigeria. Shekau's video came less than two months after Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, declared that he now rules as "Caliph Ibrahim" over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. With that in mind, Shekau's appearance was widely interpreted as either an attempt to hitch his group to Baghdadi's bandwagon, or to grab the spotlight for himself by capitalizing on caliphate fever.

But a careful analysis of Shekau's recording shows that his words were likely misinterpreted. According to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal, Shekau highlights recent attacks perpetrated by his group throughout Nigeria. "Thanks be to God who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it a state among the Islamic states," Shekau says. "Thanks be to God who brought grief to the unbelievers like Israel and Britain, or England, and their father America."

While translations may vary, it does not appear that Shekau uses the specific word "caliphate," as was reported. A "state among the Islamic states" in Gwoza, which is in northeastern Nigeria, is far short of being a caliphate. And later in the same video Shekau says that he and his followers belong to the "State of Islam" and do not recognize Nigeria as a nation-state. This again falls short of being a "caliphate," as Shekau is simply repeating the jihadists' argument that the Muslim community cannot be divided according to national boundaries because it is one "country" that "is governed by Allah's Book and by the traditions of our Prophet."

Perhaps Shekau intended to claim that Gwoza, which was seized by Boko Haram earlier this month, is now part of the jihadists' imagined caliphate. But this interpretation falls short as well. Shekau does not use any of the terminology associated with the jihadists' caliphate. He does not use the phrase "emir of the believers," which is usually how the caliph is addressed. In fact, no other jihadist leader is named in the video. The only leader named is Shekau himself. But Shekau says he is the leader of Boko Haram, or the "People of the Sunna Group for Advocacy and Jihad in the country called Nigeria." Shekau does not describe himself as a caliph, or even as the head of an Islamic state.

There is also no evidence in the video that Shekau intended to associate Boko Haram with Baghdadi and his Islamic State, as has been speculated. Baghdadi is not named, let alone addressed as the "emir of the believers." He does not mention the Islamic State. And he mentions Iraq only in passing, noting that America is opposed to the jihadists' imposition of sharia law in that country. Shekau has previously praised the jihadists' advances in Iraq, but in this video he does not even do that.

Much of Shekau's speech is a diatribe against democracy. Shekau draws a sharp distinction between his group and those who live under any form of democracy, which he defines very broadly. Shekau says the people of Nigeria cannot be Muslims unless they disassociate themselves "from democracy and other similar sacrileges." He declares that democracy "is worse than sodomy ... adultery ... [and] paganism." Shekau repeats the common jihadist argument that democracy is based on "man's laws," "made by man for fellow men." Democracy is wrong, in Skekau's view, because it is opposed to the sharia-based governance that Boko Haram seeks to impose based on supposedly divinely-ordained laws.

Shekau threatens to continue Boko Haram's attacks because the rulers in Nigeria and neighboring countries refuse to forswear what he calls "democracy" and govern according to sharia.

Boko Haram's territorial ambitions

Boko Haram's offensive reveals that it is intent on holding territory and gaining new turf. The majority of the group's attacks have taken place in Nigeria's northeast, where the jihadists have repeatedly targeted security forces and anyone else opposed to its violent agenda. But Boko Haram's violence is not without purpose and the group has an extensive reach beyond its strongholds in northern Nigeria. Shekau's terrorists have, for instance, launched attacks in the capital of Abuja, including hitting a UN office in 2011 and a shopping center ahead of a World Cup match in June.

While Boko Haram has the capacity to strike throughout Nigeria, Shekau has placed greater emphasis in recent months on capturing territory. Boko Haram has attacked towns in northeastern Nigeria and sought to hold the land. The jihadists have hoisted their flags in Damboa, Gwoza, Buni Yadi, Gamboru, and Madagali, among other locations. The Nigerian armed forces have been struggling to regain control in the areas, reportedly recapturing Damboa and surrounding areas in early August. (In his recent video, Shekau claims that it is a "lie" to say that Boko Haram has been defeated in Damboa.)

The group is continuing its offensive in and around Nigeria's northeastern Borno State. Yesterday the Biu local government council reported that insurgents targeted communication masts in the area, burning them down, and stole a vehicle. Cutting the area's communications abilities may be a sign that the group intends to take control in Biu.

Additionally, state radio in Cameroon announced that the country's army killed 27 Boko Haram fighters in continued clashes near Fotokol in Cameroon's Extreme North region. Boko Haram attacked the neighboring Nigerian border town of Gamboru and an army barracks nearby on Aug. 25, sending over 400 Nigerian soldiers fleeing into Cameroon. The Nigerian press reported yesterday that fighting is ongoing between the Nigerian military and Boko Haram fighters around the strategically important border crossing area.

A masked Ansar Jerusalem terrorist is shown standing behind four blindfolded Egyptian civilians, who were accused of being Israeli "spies." All four were beheaded later in the same video.

Ansar Jerusalem, (also known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), has released a video displaying the graphic beheadings of four Egyptian civilians the group accused of being "spies" for Israel. According to Ansar Jerusalem, Israel has supposedly killed the group's members in cross-border drone strikes launched in the Sinai, including an alleged bombing on July 23. Egyptian government officials have denied Israeli involvement.

The video was first released on Ansar Jerusalem's official Twitter feed, which has since been taken down.

At the beginning of the video, a masked terrorist is shown reading a statement while standing behind the four civilians, who are kneeling and blindfolded. The video then cuts to images of slain Ansar Jerusalem members and a photo of a burned vehicle, which the group says was struck by an Israeli missile.

A vehicle Ansar Jersualem claims was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.

Much of the video is then devoted to showing the four men's "confessions." They say that they gave information to Israeli intelligence in return for payments. Their confessions are made under clear duress, and should not be accepted at face value.

After the footage of the four purported confessions is aired, the video returns to the scene of the masked terrorist and others standing behind them. The men are then beheaded and their decapitated heads are placed on their corpses.

In the past, Ansar Jerusalem has published videos showing members of Egyptian security forces and other alleged spies being executed. But the new video marks an escalation in the violent tactics the group is willing to broadcast in its propaganda.

The video comes just over one week after the Islamic State, which claims to rule over a "caliphate" stretching over large portions of Iraq and Syria, released a video featuring the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley.

Ansar Jerusalem's own execution video is comparable to the Islamic State's, and the group may have decided to release it after Foley's death received so much international attention.

Earlier this year, an Ansar Jerusalem leader voiced his support for the Islamic State. And the Egyptian press has published rumors that Ansar Jerusalem has sworn bayat (an oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the Islamic State's emir. But these rumors are, thus far, false. Ansar Jerusalem did not publicly endorse, let alone swear allegiance to, Baghdadi after his subordinates claimed in late June that he now rules as "Caliph Ibrahim." It is likely that some members of Ansar Jerusalem do support the Islamic State, but the extent of that support is unclear. And there are other indications that the group is allied with al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda avoids beheading videos

Al Qaeda has shied away from videos such as the ones produced by the Islamic State and now Ansar Jerusalem. In 2005, for example, Ayman al Zawahiri wrote a letter to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was then the head of al Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi was notorious for his barbaric executions, which were recorded for the world to see. But Zawahiri argued that such tactics, while they may be justified, were counterproductive when it comes to building popular support for the jihadist ideology.

"Among the things which the feelings of the Muslim populace who love and support you will never find palatable ... are the scenes of slaughtering the hostages," Zawahiri wrote to Zarqawi. Zawahiri continued: "You shouldn't be deceived by the praise of some of the zealous young men and their description of you as the shiekh of the slaughterers, etc. They do not express the general view of the admirer and the supporter of the resistance in Iraq, and of you in particular by the favor and blessing of God."

Zawahiri did not argue that Zarqawi should spare his hostages; he simply didn't want Zarqawi to carry on with his over-the-top executions, which sicken the stomachs of even potential supporters.

"[W]e can kill the captives by bullet," Zawahiri wrote, because "[t]hat would achieve that which is sought after without exposing ourselves to the questions and answering to doubts." Simply put, Zawahiri argued, "We don't need this." Zawahiri comprehended that "more than half of" the jihadists' "battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media," and unspeakable acts of barbarism can be a liability, no matter how justifiable they are from the jihadists' perspective.

Al Qaeda and its various branches have executed hostages and they will continue to do so. In 2002, for instance, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed beheaded Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. And al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has executed hostages as well. However, al Qaeda's senior leaders do not think that graphic snuff videos are an effective means for promulgating their message.

The difference in tactics can be seen in how al Qaeda has handled the captivity of Warren Weinstein, an American who has been held by the group since 2011, and the recent release of Peter Theo Curtis by the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.

Earlier this month, al Qaeda released a message directed at Weinstein's family. "We are not interested in retaining the prisoner in our protection; we are only seeking to exchange him in return for the fulfillment of our demands that we have conveyed," the message reads. Al Qaeda did not threaten to behead Weinstein if its demands were not met. The organization encouraged Weinstein's family to "pressurize" the American government into bartering for his release.

Al Qaeda has not threatened to kill Warren Weinstein, an American who has been in the group's custody since 2011.

Al Qaeda's message was likely inspired by the success the Taliban had in exchanging Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for the top five Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo.

Interestingly, As Sahab, al Qaeda's official propaganda arm, included the hashtag #JamesFoley in one tweet that featured the message to Weinstein's family. Al Qaeda seemed to be inviting a comparison between Weinstein's captivity and Foley's.

And just days after the Islamic State released its video of Foley's execution, the Al Nusrah Front released Curtis from its custody. The deal to release Curtis was brokered by Qatar, which provides a permissive fundraising environment for Al Nusrah and other jihadist groups. Although the deal to free Curtis had been in the works prior to the release of the Foley execution video, the difference between Curtis' fate and Foley's says much about how the rival jihadist groups are approaching hostage operations.

Some supporters of the Islamic State, which is at odds with Al Nusrah, have even denounced Curtis's release on their social media accounts.

In a series of posts on their official Twitter feeds, the Islamic Front and the Al Nusrah Front are promoting the "liberation" of the Quneitra border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights. The Islamic Front is a coalition of several rebel groups, including Ahrar al Sham, which is linked to al Qaeda. The Al Nusrah Front is al Qaeda's official branch inside Syria.

Both organizations have produced video tours of Quneitra, showcasing the defeat of Bashar al Assad's forces and their control over the area. The alliance of Islamist and jihadist groups launched a military offensive in Quneitra earlier this week.

The video shown above was released on one of Al Nusrah's official Twitter feeds. Toward the beginning of the video, a narrator says that "your brothers" in Al Nusrah will attack Quneitra because it is controlled by Assad's army and is a "strategic point" connecting Syria to the Golan Heights, which has been "occupied by the Jews" for nearly 50 years.

A montage of footage showing Al Nusrah's fighters assaulting Quneitra is then played. In one scene, a jihadist destroys a poster of Bashar al Assad. Al Nusrah's black banner is then raised over a Syrian government building.

About two minutes into the video an Al Nusrah Front leader, accompanied by several fighters, claims credit for the successful raid, referring to his organization as both Al Nusrah and as Al Qaeda in the Land of the Levant.

"We give the Islamic ummah news of the liberation of the Quneitra crossing, the Syrian-Zionist crossing, by the lions of monotheism from the Al Nusrah Front -- Al Qaeda in the Land of the Levant -- and their mujahideen brothers in other Islamic factions," the leader says, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal.

Al Nusrah's "mujahideen brothers in other Islamic factions" include members of the Islamic Front. A separate video, released by the Islamic Front, offers viewers a two-minute, 14-second tour of Quneitra after its "liberation."

Just over two minutes into the video, a brief scene of what appears to be a UN peacekeepers' outpost is shown.

Syrian rebels captured 43 UN peacekeepers during the raid on Quneitra, but thus far the UN has not named the groups responsible for their detention. It is not immediately clear what the purpose of the Islamic Front's footage is. A screen shot of the scene can be seen immediately below.

The Islamic Front and Al Nusrah have promoted the capture of the Quneitra border crossing in a string of other posts to their social media accounts. Below are pictures and screen shots from their official Twitter accounts.

The Islamic Front has been promoting the battle for Quneitra on both its English and Arabic Twitter feeds since Aug. 27, when the organization first announced the launch of the operation. The four screen shots below were taken from the Islamic Front's English-language Twitter feed:

The Al Nusrah Front announced the "liberation" of Quneitra in "collaboration" with other factions on one of its Twitter feeds on Aug. 27:

In this tweet on Aug. 28, the Al Nusrah Front announced that it had "liberated" the Quneitra border crossing in "conjunction" with other "brigades" from the region:

Al Nusrah raises its banner over the Quneitra border crossing:

This scene is from "within the ruined ancient city of Quneitra":

The logo on this captured jacket reads, "Counter Terrorism Unit":

In this photo, the Al Nusrah Front shows its "emir," or leader for the region, fighting during the battle for Quneitra:

Still other scenes shown on the Twitter feeds of both the Islamic Front and Al Nusrah highlight the two organizations' involvement in the Quneitra operation.

A senior leader of the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) who was captured by Coalition forces in the spring of 2011 is now leading more than 300 jihadists in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. The IMU leader once served as the top commander of the jihadist group's network in Afghanistan.

Qari Bilal, the IMU leader, was freed by the Afghan government at the direction of President Hamid Karzai, Afghan officials in Kunduz have told TOLONews, which identified Bilal as "a senior al-Qaeda leader who was released from prison on two separate occasions." He leads more than 300 fighters in Kunduz province and "has masterminded numerous suicide attacks and overseen the planting of roadside bombs throughout the province. "

The Afghan news service reports that Bilal "fled to Pakistan after the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001 but was then invited to return to Kunduz by the Peace Council chaired by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the former Afghan President." Since his return to Afghanistan, Bilal has been detained two times, and both times was freed after President Hamid Karzai issued orders for his release.

Bilal has also been captured at least once by the International Security Assistance Force. Three years ago, ISAF announced the capture of a senior IMU leader and "two of his associates" during a special operations raid in the Khanabad district in Kunduz on April 20, 2011 after "multiple weeks of intelligence gathering and coordination with Afghan security forces." [See LWJ report, ISAF captures Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan's top commander for Afghanistan.]

Although Bilal was not directly named by ISAF, Afghan officials later identified him to the press. [See Pajhwok Afghan News report, Senior IMU leader captured in Kunduz.]

In its April 2011 statement announcing his capture, ISAF said Bilal had escaped from a jail in Pakistan sometime in 2010, "and also assisted others in escaping from incarceration, including paying bribes for their release." He entered Afghanistan shortly after escaping from the Pakistani prison and, along with another IMU leader, took overall command of the IMU's network.

According to ISAF, Bilal served as "a key conduit between the senior IMU leadership in Pakistan and senior Taliban leadership in Afghanistan." ISAF also said that Bilal "assisted both groups by directing insurgent movement for training and operations between the two countries, coordinating suicide, explosive device, and mortar attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout northern Afghanistan."

Bilal is from Uzbekistan and was seized at the home of another IMU leader known as Qari Sibghatullah, Kunduz's police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News in 2011. Bilal was previously based in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province.

Bilal "was given special treatment at Taliban's meetings in the Chahar Darah district, where the militants had a training centre in the Ainul Majar," the Afghan news agency reported at the time.

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

The IMU has been heavily targeted by ISAF in its raids against al Qaeda and allied groups. In the 338 raids publicized by ISAF from 2007 until the summer of 2013, when ISAF ended it reporting, the IMU was targeted 139 times. Some of the IMU's top leaders in Afghanistan were killed or captured during those operations. [See LWJ report, ISAF raids against al Qaeda and allies in Afghanistan 2007-2013.]

It is unclear when Bilal was released from Afghan custody. Given that he was captured by ISAF, he was very likely held at the Parwan Detention Facility. The US transferred control of the Parwan Detention Facility to Afghanistan in March 2013. Shortly afterward, the Afghan government began releasing Taliban commanders and fighters from prison. Thousands of detainees are said to have been freed from Parwan.

The release of Taliban and other jihadist commanders and fighters has not been without controversy. In February of this year, the US government and the military strongly protested the release of "65 dangerous individuals from a group of 88 detainees." Seven of those freed may have been involved in the green-on-blue, or insider attacks that have resulted in the deaths of Coalition personnel. It is not known if Bilal was one of the "65 dangerous individuals" freed by the Afghan government.

Other jihadist leaders who have been freed by the US and the Afghan government have returned to command forces for the Taliban and other groups. Some have been involved in the Taliban's recent offensive to retake control of remote districts in Afghanistan. [See Threat Matrix report, Taliban commander behind Ghor executions was freed from prison 3 months ago.]

The Al Nusrah Front published the two pictures above along with a statement claiming responsibility for the capture of 45 UN peacekeepers. The photo on the left shows the hostages. The photo on the right shows their identification cards. Photos courtesy of the SITE Intelligence Group.

In a statement released on its official Twitter feed on Aug. 30, the Al Nusrah Front announced its responsibility for the detention of 45 members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

The peacekeepers were captured during recent fighting at the Quneitra border crossing, which connects Syria to the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights. The key crossing was captured by a coalition of rebel forces, including the Al Nusrah Front, earlier this week.

The announcement by Al Nusrah, which is al Qaeda's official branch in Syria, was first obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Al Nusrah attempts to justify the capture of the men by arguing that the UN has failed to support the Syrian people during the rebellion against Bashar al Assad's regime. The al Qaeda branch also accuses the UN of looking the other way when it comes to Assad's crimes.

During the course of the Syrian war, Al Nusrah's statement alleges, the UN "has pretended to stand alongside the people of Sham in their revolution and their fight against the Nusayri [a derogatory term for Alawites] criminal regime." According to SITE's translation, Al Nusrah argues that the UN "has not given to the people of Sham but bare statements and hollow words, completely ignoring all that the Nusayri enemy committed of brutal crimes and massacres against the vulnerable Muslims from among elderly, women, and children."

Al Nusrah goes on to list crimes by the Syrian regime that the UN has supposedly failed to adequately address, including the use of chemical weapons and torture.

Imagined conspiracy "against Muslims"

Al Nusrah portrays itself as standing up for Muslims in Syria and elsewhere against the UN. The group claims that the UNDOF was established "to ensure the safety and protection of the borders of the Zionist entity," or Israel. In reality, the UNDOF has helped maintain a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Syrian regime since 1974.

Al Qaeda's Syrian arm attempts to further justify the peacekeepers' detention by claiming that the UN only uses its power under Chapter VII of its charter "against Muslims." Chapter VII outlines the UN's responsibilities with respect to determining "the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression." The chapter also states that the UN will "decide what measures shall be taken ... to maintain or restore international peace and security."

The "crimes of Muslim extermination in Central Africa and Burma are happening before the eyes and ears of the world, and the United Nations did not move a muscle," Al Nusrah claims, adding that the UN has not condemned the "Zionist Jews" for their "bombing of Gaza and the massacring of the people there."

"The crimes of the unjust Nusayri regime and its allies from Hezbollah of Iran and others are happening every day with the acknowledgment of the international organizations and others, and we did not hear of Chapter VII," Al Nusrah's statement continues.

Al Nusrah argues that the UN acts in this manner as part of a grand conspiracy against Muslims. The statement reads: "This is so the Muslims know that such international resolutions are only used against them and against their jihad so that they remain submissive to the powers of global infidelity to pillage their resources and the fortunes of their land, and to control their necks and lives as they wish."

The announcement echoes the words of Abu Firas al Suri, Al Nusrah's spokesman, who released a speech on Aug. 27. Al Suri, a longtime al Qaeda veteran, accused the UN of serving a "Zio-Protestant alliance" that seeks to thwart the development of an al Qaeda-style Islamic state in Syria and elsewhere.

The group's arguments are, of course, based on a highly selective and biased version of history. While attempting to build moral legitimacy for its actions, Al Nusrah ignores the role that al Qaeda and its branches have played in spilling Muslim blood. Most of al Qaeda's victims since the group's founding in 1988 have been Muslims.

Al Nusrah's argument that the UN is not acting against Iran and Hezbollah despite acknowledging their crimes is also rich given that top Nusrah leaders have themselves worked with the Iranian regime. [See, for example, LWJ reports: Treasury designates 2 'key' al Qaeda leaders and Senior al Qaeda facilitator 'back on the street' in Iran.]

Hostages seized during raid by Al Nusrah and allies

The UN was initially reticent to identify the group responsible for the detention of its peacekeepers.

"We are dealing with nonstate armed actors," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "The command and control of these groups is unclear. We're not in a position to confirm who is holding whom," Dujarric added. "Some groups self-identified as being affiliated with Nusrah, however, we are unable to confirm it."

However, Al Nusrah's announcement of responsibility makes it clear that the hostage-taking was sanctioned by the top leadership of the group. The statement was released via Al Nusrah's official channels, including on its Twitter feed.

The al Qaeda branch cooperated with other Islamist and jihadist groups in seizing the Quneitra border crossing. The Islamic Front, a coalition of several groups, also participated in the raid. One of the most powerful factions within the Islamic Front is Ahrar al Sham, which is linked to al Qaeda.

In a video celebrating the raid on Quneitra, the Islamic Front included footage of the UN's outpost.

Despite claiming that it has the right to hold the UN's men as hostages, Al Nusrah says they are being treated well.

"We assure that the detainees are in a safe place, and they are in good health, and that we have given them what they need of food and treatment, for our good Islamic religion urges use to be charitable with the prisoners," Al Nusrah claims, according to SITE's translation.

While helping Iraqi forces to break the Islamic State's siege of Amerli, the US Air Force supported a deadly Shia militia that is responsible for killing hundreds of US soldiers. The Shia militia, known as Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, has also captured and executed US soldiers and British citizens in the past.

Iraqi forces, supported by "paramilitary forces" such as the League of the Righteous, advanced on Amerli late last week and reached the town by Aug. 31, The Washington Post reported. By Sept. 1, the siege, which lasted for more than two months, was lifted.

Na'im al Aboudi, the spokesman for the League of the Righteous, confirmed that his group is operating in Amerli and in surrounding villages.

As of Aug. 31, the US military launched four airstrikes against Islamic State forces in Amerli, according to US Central Command, or CENTCOM.

"At the request of the Government of Iraq, the US military conducted airstrikes in support of an operation to deliver humanitarian assistance to address the humanitarian crisis and protect the civilians trapped in Amerli, Iraq at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT today [Aug. 30]," CENTCOM reported. Three airstrikes and a humanitarian aid drop were conducted on Aug. 30, and another on Aug. 31.

A seasoned Shia terror group

The League of the Righteous is not a newly-formed Shia militia that rose up in the wake of the Islamic State's takeover of much of Western, central, and northern Iraq this year. The League of the Righteous was formed in 2006 as an offshoot of Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army. The militia was the largest and most powerful of what the US military called the Special Groups, or Shia militias backed by Iran. The group was at the forefront in using EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, the deadly landmines that can penetrate US armored vehicles. Hundreds of US soldiers were killed in EFP attacks.

Asaib al Haq was directly implicated by General David Petraeus in the January 2007 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala. Five US soldiers were killed during the Karbala attack and subsequent kidnapping attempt. The US soldiers were executed by League of the Righteous fighters after US and Iraqi security forces closed in on the assault team.

The attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center was a complex, sophisticated operation. The assault team, led by tactical commander Azhar al Dulaimi, was trained in a mock-up of the center that was built in Iran. The unit had excellent intelligence and received equipment that made them appear to be US soldiers. Some of the members of the assault team are said to have spoken English.

Two months after the attack in Karbala, Qais Qazali, who leads the League of the Righteous, his brother Laith, and a senior Hezbollah military commander known as Musa Ali Daqduq were all captured during a raid in Basra. Qais and Laith were freed by the US in 2009 along with hundreds of members of the Asaib al Haq, in exchange for Peter Moore, a captured British hostage, and the remains of four Brits who were kidnapped and subsequently executed by the group. The US justified their release by claiming that the League of the Righteous was reconciling with the Iraqi government. After his release, Qais threatened to attack US interests in Iraq.

Trained by Iran, Hezbollah

Daqduq, who previously served as the head of Hezbollah's special forces as well as the commander of Hassan Nasrallah's guard, was listed by the US as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in November 2012, less than a year after he was released from US custody. Daqduq was released to Iraqi custody in December 2011 as the US withdrew from Iraq with the promise that he would be tried for his war crimes. But in 2012, he was freed by the Iraqi government. US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said that Daqduq is involved with supporting Iraqi militias who are fighting in Syria.

In its designation of Daqduq as a global terrorist in November 2012, the US Treasury Department said that sometime in 2005, "Iran asked Hezbollah to form a group to train Iraqis to fight Coalition Forces in Iraq." The designation stated: "In response, Hassan Nasrallah [Hezbollah's leader] established a covert Hezbollah unit to train and advise Iraqi militants in Jaish al Mahdi (JAM) [or Mahdi Army] and JAM Special Groups, now known as Asaib Ahl al Haq [the League of the Righteous]," a Mahdi Army faction.

"As of 2006, Daqduq had been ordered by Hezbollah to work with IRGC-QF [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force] to provide training and equipment to JAM Special Groups to augment their ability to inflict damage against US troops," Treasury continued.

Three top leaders of the League of the Righteous are also on the US' list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

Abu Dura, whose real name is Ismail Hafiz al Lami, is known as the "Shia Zarqawi" for his propensity to torture his captives. He was listed as a global terrorist in January 2008along with Ahmad Foruzandeh, the former commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, for supporting the Iraqi insurgency.

Also designated with Abu Dura and Foruzandeh was Mustafa al Sheibani, who led the so-called Sheibani Network, which is part of the League of the Righteous.

Both Abu Dura and Sheibani are believed to have returned to Iraq in the summer of 2010. [See LWJ reports, Iran sends another dangerous Shia terror commander back to Iraq and 'Shiite Zarqawi' returns to Baghdad from Iran: report.]

Akram Abbas al Kabi, the current military commander of the League of the Righteous who served as the group's leader while Qazali was in US custody, was added to the list of global terrorists in September 2008. Also designated with Kabi was Abdul Reza Shahlai, a deputy commander in Iran's Qods Force who was involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center. [ See LWJ report, US sanctions Iranian general for aiding Iraqi terror groups.]

Kabi directed attacks against US and Iraqi forces during the so-called Mahdi cease-fire imposed by Sadr in the spring of 2008. He provided weapons "for large-scale military operations against Coalition Forces" in early 2008. Kabi likely aided the Mahdi Army and other Shia terror groups in attacking US and Iraqi troops as they built the security barrier around a large segment of Sadr City. More than 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed during the fighting in Baghdad from April until the Mahdi Army quit the fight in June of that year.

The Iraqi government, which targeted the Special Groups, including the League of the Righteous, in military operations from 2007 to 2009, began to soften its stance on the Iranian-backed groups as the US government and military began disengaging from Iraq. Then as the Syrian civil war heated up and the Islamic State of Iraq began regaining its strength, the government began to rely on the Shia militias to provide security in Shia areas. And as the Iraqi military melted away in the Islamic State's June offensive in Ninewa, Salahaddin, and Diyala provinces, the Shia militias, including League of the Righteous, were critical in propping up Iraq's security forces.

The US military is rumored to have targeted Shabaab emir Ahmed Abdi Godane and other senior leaders of al Qaeda's branch in Somalia as they met at a training camp south of the capital. The US military confirmed it conducted an operation in Somalia yesterday.

In a press briefing at the Pentagon today, Kirby confirmed that "US special operations forces using manned and unmanned aircraft destroyed an encampment and a vehicle using several Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions." He said the strike targeted Godane and other top Shabaab leaders, but did not state whether Godane was killed or survived the strike. [See Threat Matrix report, US military confirms Shabaab's emir was target of airstrike.]

Somali officials have said that an airstrike, possibly carried out by the remotely piloted Predators or Reapers, hit a training camp between the villages of Dhay Tubako and Haway along the Shabelle River south of Mogadishu.

The governor of Lower Shabeelle told a Somali-language news site that Godane, who is also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, and Shabaab leaders Muhammad Abu Abdallah, the group's shadow governor of Lower Shabelle; Muhammad Abu Sham, Godane's aide; Ali Muhammad Gulled, a logistics officer; Muhammad Husayn Nur (a.k.a. Abu Hamza Al Ayman); Sheikh Muhammad Dulyaden; Iqri Ubayd, a Sudanese operative; and Mubarak Abdallah, a Yemeni, were all present at the camp during the strike.

Shabaab has not released a statement noting the recent death of any senior or mid-level leaders. But the group's intelligence service, known as the Amniyat, is reported to have rounded up 15 people in the area who are suspected of spying on the group for the US. Shabaab has brutally executed US "spies' in the past.

US has targeted top Shabaab and al Qaeda leaders in Somalia before

In the past, the US has targeted top Shabaab leaders in drone and conventional airstrikes, as well as special operations raids.

Most recently, on Jan. 26, the US killed Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat, in an airstrike in Barawe, a known stronghold of Shabaab.

The last confirmed US drone strike in Somalia took place on Oct. 29, 2013. The remotely operated US drones killed Anta Anta, also known as Ibrahim Ali Abdi, and two lower-level commanders. Anta Anta was a master bombmaker and suicide operations coordinator for the terror group.

The US also launched a special operations raid that same month. On Oct. 7, 2013 in Barawe, US Navy SEALs targeted Shabaab's external operations chief Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, who is also known as Ikrima. The Shabaab leader, who was not killed or captured during the raid, was in close contact with al Qaeda's general command in Pakistan and is said to have directed attacks in Kenya. [See Threat Matrix report, Target of SEAL raid in Somalia tied to top al Qaeda leaders.]

The US has launched several operations over the years that targeted or killed top Shabaab and al Qaeda leaders in Somalia. Bilal al Berjawi, a British national of Lebanese descent, was killed in an airstrike in January 2012. Al Berjawi was the senior deputy of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the leader of al Qaeda East Africa who also served as a top commander in Shabaab. Fazul was killed by Somali troops at a checkpoint outside Mogadishu in June 2011.

The US also killed Aden Hashi Ayro and Sheikh Muhyadin Omar in an airstrike in the spring of 2008. Before his death, Ayro was the leader of Shabaab.

Fazul and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who also commanded al Qaeda East Africa, were also targeted, along with Abu Tala al Sudani, in US airstrikes in 2007 and 2008 during the Ethiopian invasion and occupation of southern Somalia. And Hassan Turki, another senior Shabaab leader who is closely tied to al Qaeda, was targeted in a US strike in 2008.

Nabhan was also the target of a US special forces raid in the Somali town of Barawe in 2009. US commandos killed Nabhan and another terrorist during the raid.

Despite a military offensive led by the African Union and backed by the US that began in 2011, Shabaab still controls vast areas of southern and central Somalia. During the offensive, Shabaab was driven from major cities and towns such as Mogadishu, Kismayo, and Baidoa, but towns such as Bulobarde and Barawe remain under the terror group's control. The group has weathered the Ethiopian invasion, which began in December 2006 and ousted its predecessor, the Islamic Courts Union. Nearly eight years later, Shabaab remains a capable force in southern Somalia and an integral part of al Qaeda's global network.

Shabaab has also shown itself to be more than capable of attacking major cities outside of its control. Just this weekend, the group launched a suicide assault on an intelligence headquarters in Mogadishu. Additionally, the group has continued to conduct attacks outside of Somalia. This year Shabaab has carried out several attacks in Kenya as well as a suicide attack against Western soldiers in Djibouti.

The Islamic State released a video of the execution of Steven Joel Sotloff, an American journalist captured in Syria in August 2013, and threatened to kill a British captive if the US does not halt airstrikes in northern Iraq. Sotloff, who contributed to The Long War Journal in 2011, is the second American beheaded by the Islamic State in two weeks.

The short video, which begins with a clip of President Barack Obama explaining the reasoning for the US military's re-engagement in Iraq, was obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group. After the Obama clip is played, Sotloff, whose hands are cuffed behind his back and is wearing an orange jumpsuit, is shown kneeling in the desert. A masked Islamic State fighter dressed in black and wielding a knife stands to Sotloff's side.

After Sotloff issues a brief statement that chastises Obama for military involvement in Iraq, the Islamic State fighter taunts the US president.

"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and [unclear] on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You, Obama, have but to gain from your actions but another American citizen. So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people," the jihadist says.

The Islamic State fighter then moves behind Sotloff, grabs his chin, and beheads him. The camera then cuts away, and Sotloff's body with his head placed on his back is shown.

The black-clad Islamic State fighter is next shown with David Cawthorne Haines, a British hostage. Haines is also dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and is kneeling on the ground as the Islamic State fighter speaks.

"We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone," the jihadist says.

Haines appears at the end of the video, just as Sotloff was shown at the end of the beheading video of James Wright Foley, which was released on Aug. 19. In that video, the Islamic State threatened to behead Sotloff if the US did not cease airstrikes against the group in northern Iraq.

Despite the threat, the US government refused to halt the strikes, and expanded operations to support Kurdish and Iraqi forces to retake the Mosul Dam, as well as an offensive by Iraqi forces and an Iranian-backed Shia militia to break the Islamic State's siege of Amerli.

In the airstrikes, which began on Aug. 7, the US military has destroyed numerous Islamic State armored personnel carriers, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, and technicals and pickup trucks, in addition to fixed fighting positions. The number of Islamic State fighters and commanders killed in the airstrikes has not been disclosed. On Aug. 31, CENTCOM said it had launched a total of 120 airstrikes so far against the Islamic State.

The Pakistani military claimed that 910 "terrorists" and 82 soldiers have been killed since it launched an operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and allied jihadist groups in North Waziristan in mid-June. Dismissing the military's claims as "complete lies," a Taliban splinter group denied that hundreds of jihadists had been killed and said training camps and bomb factories were moved before the operation was launched.

The Pakistani military's Inter-Services Public Relations branch issued a press release today claiming that "[s]ince start of the operation 910 x [times] Terrorists have been killed," and another "114 hardcore terrorists" were detained.

The military also said that "82 x soldiers have embraced Shahadat [martydom] in entire country while fighting against terrorism while 269 x are injured." Forty-two of the soldiers were killed in North Waziristan, 23 in other tribal areas, and 17 more "in remaining parts of the country including Balochistan and Karachi."

Additionally, the military said that it "cleared [the] major towns of Miramshah, Mir Ali, Datta Khel, Boya, and Degan, which were considered strong holds of terrorists." The military claimed further that "[a]s many as 27 x IEDs Factories, 1x Rocket and 1 x Ammunition factory have been recovered and destroyed."

The towns of Miramshah, Mir Ali, Datta Khel, Boya, and Degan have all been heavily targeted in the US' drone campaign over the years. These towns have served as bases for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, the Hafiz Bahadar Group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Turkistan Islamic Party. Top al Qaeda and allied jihadist leaders and operatives have been killed in drone strikes in these areas.

The US has carried out five drone strikes since the Pakistani military operation known as Zarb-e-Azb, or the Sword of Allah, was launched on June 15. The US is thought to have killed six al Qaeda leaders and operatives in a drone strike in Datta Khel on July 10. 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.]

Jihadists deny Pakistani military claims of success

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan that includes Taliban factions from the tribal agencies of Mohmand, Bajaur, Khyber, and Arakzai, and from the districts of Charsadda, Peshawar, and Swat, disputed the Pakistani military's claims of success. In a statement sent today to The Long War Journal by Ihsanullah Ihsan, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar's spokesman, the group described the military press release and subsequent reporting in the Pakistani media as "nothing but complete lies."

"Fact is that in this war only 25 to 30 of our companions have embraced martyrdom; on the other hand during bombardment more than 5 dozen civilians have embraced martyrdom," Jamaat-ul-Ahrar's spokesman said. Additionally, he claimed that jihadists left the area long before the operation.

"It is worth mentioning that before the operation started Mujahideen had already shifted their bomb factories and training centers into safe places," the statement continued.

Neither the Pakistani military's claims nor Jamaat-ul-Ahrar's refutation can be confirmed. The Pakistani military does not allow independent reporting from North Waziristan. And jihadists often intimidate reporters in the region.

But the Pakistani military has not admitted to causing a single civilian casualty in the operation. And despite claiming that it is targeting the Haqqani Network and other so-called "good Taliban," or those jihadists who do not openly fight the Pakistani state, the military has not named a single Haqqani Network or Hafiz Gul Bahadar leader, commander, or fighter killed or captured during the operation.

The military has identified only one "terrorist" killed during the operation -- a local Taliban leader in Miramshah known as Commander Umer. The military also claimed it captured an al Qaeda explosives expert but has not named him.

For more information on Pakistan's recent military operation in North Waziristan and "good Taliban" vs. "bad Taliban", see LWJ and Threat Matrix reports:

• Pakistan launches 'comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists' in North Waziristan
• Pakistani forces focus on 'foreigners' in North Waziristan operation
• Pakistani military claims 257 'terrorists,' no civilians killed in North Waziristan offensive
• Pakistani Army continues to boast of zero civilian casualties in North Waziristan operation
• Pakistani military kills local Taliban leader, captures al Qaeda bomb expert
• Pakistani military says 'ground operation' in North Waziristan has begun

Al Qaeda has announced the establishment of a new branch, called "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent." The group reports to Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban, and is led by a former commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan who also served as a sharia official in al Qaeda's branch in Pakistan. The ultimate goal of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is the same as al Qaeda's: to establish a global caliphate and impose sharia, or Islamic law.

As Sahab, al Qaeda's official media outlet, released a lengthy video promoting the creation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent today. The video, which was published on various Internet video sites, including YouTube, features Ayman al Zawahiri as well as Asim Umar, the new emir of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, and Usama Mahmoud, the group's spokesman. The video was translated by the SITE Intelligence group.

"A new branch of al-Qaeda was established and is Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad, return the Islamic rule, and empowering the Shariah of Allah across the Indian subcontinent," Zawahiri says in the opening of the video, according to the translation by SITE.

Zawahiri says the group was years in the making, contains "soldiers of the Islamic Emirate" (a reference to the Afghan Taliban), and ultimately reports to Mullah Omar.

"This entity was not established today, but it is the fruit of a blessed effort for more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity to be with the main group, Qaedat al-Jihad, from the soldiers of the Islamic Emirate and its triumphant emir, Allah permitting, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid," Zawahiri says. Zawahiri renewed his oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar in a statement that was released in July of this year. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda renews its oath of allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.]

"It is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam Sheikh Usama bin Laden, may Allah have mercy on him, to call the Ummah to unite round the word of Tawhid [monotheism], to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its Caliphate," Zawahiri continues in the video.

Zawahiri says the group will defend the "vulnerable in the Indian subcontinent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujurat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir ..." and "your brothers in Qaedat al-Jihad did not forget you and that they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice, oppression, persecution, and suffering."

Emir of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent served previously as Taliban commander

The creation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the promotion of Asim mar highlights the close ties between al Qaeda and the Taliban groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda routinely fights alongside both Taliban groups against the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

Al Qaeda has promoted the Asim Umar, the new emir of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, in several propaganda releases by As Sahab in the past two years. Umar was previously identified by al Qaeda as a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, a jihadist group closely linked to al Qaeda, in a video released by As Sahab in July 2013.

In the video, Umar called on Indian Muslims to participate in the "global jihad to give a final push to the collapsing edifice of America."

Umar also identified the US as a prime enemy and said "lives are being sacrificed in this jihad to defeat America and its allies everywhere."

He focused on the growing jihad in Syria, and said that "[a]fter Iraq, the black flags of Khorasan are heading for Syria." The Khorasan is a region in Asia that includes Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is considered a key battleground by al Qaeda.

Umar also indicated in that speech that al Qaeda was integrating with other jihadist groups and traveling to Syria to fight.

"Al Qaeda and other Mujahideen have taken the leadership of this movement in their own hands," he said. "Several groups have gone to Syria from Afghanistan and are leading the Jihad there." [See LWJ reports, and Pakistani Taliban leader discusses 'global jihad,' Syria in al Qaeda video and Pakistani Taliban establish 'base' inside Syria.]

In an "open interview" with Umar published in April 2014, he was identified as al Qaeda's top sharia official in Pakistan. [See Threat Matrix report, Social Media Jihad: Open interview with al Qaeda's sharia official in Pakistan.]

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is the newest branch of the global jihadist group. The last group to officially join al Qaeda was the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant in April 2013. In January 2013, Shabaab, al Qaeda's branch in Somalia and East Africa, merged with the global terror group. Both Shabaab and the Al Nusrah Front were secretly part of al Qaeda before formally announcing their allegiance. [See LWJ reports, Shabaab formally joins al Qaeda, and Al Nusrah Front leader renews allegiance to al Qaeda, rejects new name.]

The Taliban launched a complex suicide assault against the headquarters for the Afghan National Directorate of Security in the southeastern province of Ghazni today. The suicide assault is the second against the NDS by the Taliban in the past six days.

The attack began outside the NDS headquarters in Ghazni City this morning as the Taliban detonated two massive truck bombs. Taliban fighters then entered the compound through the breach created by the blast and fought with Afghan security personnel.

According to Pajhwok Afghan News, 14 security personnel and 19 heavily armed Taliban fighters were killed and another 154 people were wounded during the coordinated attack. TOLONews reported that two of the Taliban fighters were killed while detonating the truck bombs, 16 were killed during the fighting, which lasted for nearly three hours, and one Taliban fighter was captured.

The Taliban claimed credit for the attack at Voice of Jihad, the official website of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."

"Early Thursday morning the martyr unit of the Islamic Emirate stormed the headquarters of so-called National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the compound of the rapid reaction forces in Ghazni city, the capital of the province with same name, launching attacks in which above [sic] 50 agents of NDS and rapid reaction forces as well as security forces were reported dead or wounded," the statement says.

The suicide assault, or coordinated attack using one or more suicide bombers and an assault team, is a tactic frequently used by the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda and its branches as well as allied groups such as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Shabaab, and by the rival Islamic State. Suicide assaults are commonly executed by jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Nigeria.

Today's suicide assault in Ghazni is the second by the Taliban that targeted an NDS headquarters in six days. On Aug. 30, a suicide assault team struck the NDS headquarters in Jalalabad.

In their announcement of this year's spring offensive, known as the Battle of Khaibar (Khyber), the Taliban had promised to target the NDS .

"Similarly the blessed 'Khaibar' Jihadi spring operations shall target all high ranking government officials, cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, security officials, occupation backing officers in the Interior and Foreign Ministries, attorneys and judges that prosecute Mujahideen as well as agents in the National Directorate [Afghan intelligence] that pursue and torture Mujahideen," the Taliban said in a statement announcing the 2014 offensive.

The Taliban have launched several high-profile attacks in Ghazni over the past year. On Aug. 28, a suicide assault team attacked the Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Ghazni. Four Afghan civilians, three police officers, a Polish soldier, and 10 Taliban fighters were killed, and 10 Polish soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Ghazni is a known jihadist hub

Ghazni is a known Taliban and al Qaeda hub in the southeast. Senior Taliban, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commanders are known to operate in the province.

In September 2012, the governor of Ghazni said the Taliban were bringing "foreign militants" into the province, and the deputy chief of the Ghazni provincial council said that a large number of Pakistanis are fighting in Ghazni. Additionally, a US military commander who operated in the southeastern province in 2011 said that foreign trainers, including Arabs, Chechens, and Pakistanis, operate in Ghazni while Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate is sabotaging Coalition efforts in the province.

Al Qaeda often embeds military trainers within Taliban groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. These trainers, who are part of the Lashkar-al-Zil, or Shadow Army, provide instructions for battling security forces in local insurgencies and furnish knowledge, expertise, funding, and resources for conducting local and international attacks. The US Treasury Department officially acknowledged the existence of this unit when it added one such Pakistan-based trainer and commander of al Qaeda's "paramilitary brigades" to the list of global terrorists in June. [For more information on this unit, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda's paramilitary 'Shadow Army,' from February 2009.]

Over the past several years, a number of al Qaeda leaders and operatives have been killed or captured in Ghazni. Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani scientist who has been dubbed "Lady al Qaeda" by the press, was captured in Ghazni in 2008. At least six other al Qaeda operatives have been captured, and another has been killed, in the province. [See LWJ report, ISAF targets al Qaeda-linked Taliban operative in Afghan southeast.]

Six months prior to his death, Osama bin Laden, the founder and former emir of al Qaeda, issued instructions to his chief of staff, Atiyah Abd al Rahman, to relocate "hundreds" of commanders and fighters from North Waziristan to Kunar, Nuristan, Ghazni, and Zabul provinces in Afghanistan to avoid targeting by US drone strikes. Bin Laden's letter to Atiyah was dated Oct. 21, 2010. [See LWJ report, Bin Laden advised relocation of some leaders to Afghanistan due to drone strikes in Waziristan.]

It is unclear if bin Laden's instructions were followed, but several al Qaeda leaders and operatives were killed, captured, and targeted in those four provinces after the letter was written.

For more information on foreign fighters operating in Ghazni, see LWJ report, 'Foreign militants' still present in Ghazni.

An overview of statements by senior al Qaeda leaders as well as the group's joint operations shows that al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, the newest regional branch of the global jihadist group, was formed by incorporating elements of established jihadist groups that have operated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India for years.

The formation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was announced by al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri in a video released yesterday. In that statement, Zawahiri noted that AQIS "is the fruit of a blessed effort for more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity to be with the main group, Qaedat al-Jihad, from the soldiers of the Islamic Emirate and its triumphant emir, Allah permitting, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid," according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The new regional al Qaeda affiliate likely includes elements from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Harakat-ul-Muhajideen, Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Brigade 313, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Indian Mujahideen (a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Junood al Fida, and other groups based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

All of these groups have had a close operational relationship in the past. For instance, top leaders in the the Turkistan Islamic Party have commanded al Qaeda's network. And Junood al Fida, a Baloch jihadist group that operates in southern Afghanistan, recently swore allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and referred to Ayman al Zawahiri as its "emir."

The appointment of Asim Umar, a former commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, as the emir of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent demonstrates the regional flavor and the influence that Pakistani jihadist exert in the new al Qaeda branch.

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent's spokesman, Usama Mahmoud, openly stated that the group "was formed by the gathering of several jihadi groups that have a long history in jihad and fighting ... so they united and came together and applied the directives of their beloved emir, Sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri, may Allah preserve him, on the ground. Thus, they came together and joined their ranks and formed one entity under the leadership of Sheikh 'Asim Umar," according to a translation of Mahmoud's statement by the SITE Intelligence Group.

In his speech, in which he also said that "waging jihad against America" is the primary goal, Mahmoud praised the "the martyred leaders under whose blessed care the tree of jihad was raised in this region." Among those named are "Ustadh Amjad Farouqi, Sheikh Ilyas Kashmiri, Ustadh 'Adnan, commander Abdul Hadi Faysal, Sheikh Ahsan Aziz, and Dr. Arshad Wahid" as well as "Ustadh Hassan Ghul, commander Badr Mansour, and Ustadh Faydh Umar Aqdas." Six of the nineleaders named by Mahmoud have served as senior leaders of various Pakistani jihadist groups (brief bios of each commander, except for Ustadh 'Adnan, Abdul Hadi Faysal, and Ustadh Faydh Umar Aqdas, whose backgrounds are not yet known, are listed below; all three are thought to be Pakistanis who were al Qaeda leaders).

Kashmiri, Mansoor, Ghul, Wahid, and Aziz were targeted and killed in US drone strikes over the past decade. The US killed the commanders because of their close operational ties to al Qaeda. All five jihadist leaders listed above maintained close links with Pakistani jihadist groups while also serving as senior al Qaeda commanders. Farouqi was killed by Pakistani security forces in 2004.

The creation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent essentially formalized the extremely close operational relationship that has existed between al Qaeda and the various jihadist groups in the region.

Jihadist leaders lauded as martyrs by al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent's spokesman

Ilyas Kashmiri:

Kashmiri served as the operational leader of Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a Pakistani jihadist group, and Brigade 313, a HUJI unit. Brigade 313's members are recruited from the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jundallah (the Karachi-based, al Qaeda-linked group), and several other Pakistani terror groups. He was considered one of the most dangerous and effective al Qaeda formations in Pakistan before he was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in June 2011. Before his death, Kashmiri served as al Qaeda's overall military commander; Badr Mansoor (see below) was one of his deputies.

Badr Mansoor:

Mansoor served as one of al Qaeda's "company" commanders, according to one of the documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound. [See LWJ report, Bin Laden docs hint at large al Qaeda presence in Pakistan.] Mansoor was able to funnel in recruits from Pakistani terror groups such as the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, with which he was closely linked. 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. He was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in February 2012.

Mansoor was known to have a large cadre of fighters at his disposal. According to Central Asia Online, Mansoor's company had "more than 2,200 members with 350 hardcore fighters and more than 150 suicide bombers." Mansoor's group is believed to have participated in terror attacks in Pakistan's major cities, including Lahore, Karachi, and Quetta, indicating that its network is not confined to Pakistan's tribal areas.

Hassan Ghul:

Ghul was a top al Qaeda leader who was in US custody for two years before being transferred to Pakistani custody and then promptly released. He was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan in October 2012. Ghul served as Osama bin Laden's emissary to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and while in US custody, disclosed key information that led to the killing of bin Laden. He is thought to have served as al Qaeda's leader in Pakistan at the time of his death.

Ustadh Amjad Farooqi:

Amjad Hussain Farooqi was a jihadist allied with al Qaeda who was behind two assassination attempts against Musharraf in 2003 and suspected of being involved in other terror attacks as well. Farooqi was killed by Pakistani security forces on Sept. 26, 2004.

Farooqi had a long pedigree in jihadi circles. He served in the anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan in Kabul and led an assault to take over Herat in 1992. Farooqi then joined the Harkat-ul-Ansar (which later became the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen) and joined the jihad against India in Kashmir.

Farooqi served as a close aide to Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. He also served as the group's representative to al Qaeda's International Islamic Front. He is thought to have been involved in the Indian airliner hijacking that led to the release of both Maulana Masood Azhar, the future leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Sheikh Omar Saeed, a senior al Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed operative involved in the death of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

After the US invasion of Afghanistan, Farooqi led thousands of Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami fighters to battle US forces. After returning from Afghanistan, Farooqi is said to have become closely allied with Abu Faraj al Libi, the former operations chief for al Qaeda. Al Libi is said to have convinced Farooqi to conduct the assassination attempts against Musharraf.

Dr. Arshad Wahid:

Dr. Arshad Waheed, also known as Sheikh Moaz, was a mid-level al Qaeda leader responsible for training members of al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army in military tactics as well as training fighters in first aid and medical techniques. He was killed in a missile strike in South Waziristan on March 16, 2008. His death was announced on a 40-minute video produced by As Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm. In the video, Waheed was eulogized by Abu Mustafa Yazid, al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, and an al Qaeda operative known as Abu Omar Mahmood. He was closely tied to Jundallah, a Pakistani jihadist group.

Sheikh Ahsan Aziz:

Sheikh Ahsan Aziz, also known as Engineer Ahsan Aziz, was a Kashmiri jihadist linked to Hizbul Mujahideen. He was killed in a US drone strike in August 2012. At the time of his death, he served as an al Qaeda commander. Engineer Ahsan "was part of the deep bench of Pakistani jihadists who have stepped in to fill mid and senior level leadership positions in al Qaeda" as the terror group's legacy leaders have been killed in drone strikes, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal after the death of Aziz was confirmed.

The US military is certain that Shabaab emir Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a targeted airstrike in southern Somalia that took place earlier this week.

"We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of al-Shabaab, has been killed," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement that was released today.

Godane, also known as Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, was the target of an airstrike that took place at a training camp between the villages of Dhay Tubako and Haway along the Shabelle River south of Mogadishu on the night of Sept. 1. The US military confirmed on Sept. 2 that "US special operations forces using manned and unmanned aircraft" targeted Godane and "destroyed an encampment and a vehicle using several Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions." [See LWJ report, US targets Shabaab's leadership in southern Somalia.]

Other Shabaab leaders said to have been with Godane at the time are Muhammad Abu Abdallah, the group's shadow governor of Lower Shabelle; Muhammad Abu Sham, Godane's aide; Ali Muhammad Gulled, a logistics officer; Muhammad Husayn Nur (a.k.a. Abu Hamza Al Ayman); Sheikh Muhammad Dulyaden; Iqri Ubayd, a Sudanese operative; and Mubarak Abdallah, a Yemeni. It is unclear if they were killed or survived the strike.

Shabaab has yet to officially comment on reports of Godane's death.

Godane presided over the official merger with al Qaeda in early 2012. Shabaab and al Qaeda intentionally obscured the close working relationship between the two groups long before announcing the merger with al Qaeda. [See LWJ report, Bin Laden told Shabaab to hide al Qaeda ties.]

Godane also ruled Shabaab during a leadership dispute that resulted in the group's intelligence branch, the Amniyat, killing American jihadist Omar Hammami, Ibrahim al Afghani, and a handful of other leaders. Hammami accused Godane of bypassing sharia, or Islamic law, and ruling with an iron fist. Godane had Hammami killed after the latter's appeal to al Qaeda for intervention went unanswered. The internal leadership dispute petered out after Hammami and the rebel terrorist leaders were killed.

Godane was one of the world's most wanted terrorist leaders. The US State Department's Rewards for Justice offered a $7 million bounty for information leading to his capture and prosecution.

Jihadist groups have withstood loss of emirs

Kirby claimed that the death of Godane will strike a major blow against al Qaeda's branch in Somalia.

"Removing Godane from the battlefield is a major symbolic and operational loss to al-Shabaab," he said.

Al Qaeda and its branches and other jihadist groups have weathered the deaths of top leaders in the past, however. The killing of Osama bin Laden did not cause the group to collapse; in fact al Qaeda has expanded its footprint and controls more territory today than prior to bin Laden's death in May 2011.

Al Qaeda in Iraq survived and thrived after the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 2006 and withstood the loss of his successors, Abu Ayyub al Masri and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, in 2011. Today, its successor organization, the Islamic State, control vast areas of Iraq and Syria.

Groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Turkistan Islamic Party have grown even after their leaders were killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan became a more dangerous organization under the command of Hakeemullah Mehsud after its founder and emir, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a US drone strike in August 2009. After Hakeemullah was killed in a drone strike in November 2013, the group split over the selection of Mullah Fazlullah to lead the group. But a splinter group, known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, appears to be well organized and just as dangerous as its predecessor.

Shabaab has also lost some of its top leaders to previous US counterterrorism operations. Among those killed have been Aden Hashi Ayro, the group's military commander, and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, al Qaeda's former leader in East Africa and a top official in the group.

Abu Firas al Suri's Twitter account, which was launched on Aug. 31, is "official and only account of the al Qaeda spokesperson" in Syria.

On Aug. 31, a veteran al Qaeda jihadist known as Abu Firas al Suri announced his presence online with new Twitter and Facebook pages. For Abu Firas, a man who long operated behind the scenes, the social media sites are indicative of how much things have changed since he first chose the jihadists' path in the 1970s. He has gone from being a clandestine operative in al Qaeda's international network to serving as the spokesperson for the Al Nusrah Front.

In his new role, Abu Firas handles Al Nusrah's most delicate public affairs. He is, for instance, the Al Nusrah official tasked with explaining why the group has taken more than 40 UN peacekeepers hostage.

Abu Firas' role as a senior figure in the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria, was not known until March of this year when he first appeared in a video. Al Nusrah introduced Abu Firas as one of its witnesses against the Islamic State, the former al Qaeda branch that has become Al Nusrah's powerful rival.

In the months since his first video appearance, Abu Firas has taken on an increasingly prominent role within Al Nusrah. In July, Abu Firas introduced Abu Muhammad al Julani, Al Nusrah's emir, during a major rally of fighters. His voice could be heard on a leaked audio recording of the gathering, during which Julani spoke of establishing an Islamic emirate, or state, in Syria.

The leaked audio threatened to upset Al Nusrah's close relations with other leading jihadist groups, because it sounded as if the group was going to steal a page from the Islamic State's playbook and unilaterally declare itself the ultimate authority in parts of Syria. And when Al Nusrah sought to assure its allies that this was not its intent, it turned to Abu Firas. In a video released by Al Nusrah on Aug. 8, Abu Firas said the al Qaeda branch would declare an Islamic emirate in Syria only after consulting with other leading parties. By then, Al Nusrah was openly naming Abu Firas as its official spokesperson.

A post on Abu Firas' Twitter page on Aug. 31 says that his account is the "official and only account of the al Qaeda spokesperson" in Syria.

UN peacekeepers taken hostage

Late last month, Al Nusrah took more than 40 UN peacekeepers hostage during fighting at the Quneitra border crossing, which connects Syria to the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights.

Even before Al Nusrah announced that the hostages had been taken, Abu Firas had begun to build the group's case against the UN. In a video released by Al Nusrah on Aug. 27, he decried the UN's decision to condemn Al Nusrah under Chapter VII of the UN's charter.

The US and the UN had taken steps to target the Al Nusrah Front as a terrorist organization in the weeks leading up to Abu Firas' video. The seasoned al Qaeda commander attempted to turn the tables, accusing the UN of being the real terrorist organization, and of serving an imagined "Zio-Protestant alliance." He alleged that the UN only uses its powers to target Muslims, and not to condemn the US and others who are supposedly the aggressors.

"The United Nations is an institution founded upon disbelief" and "terror," Abu Firas argued, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. "We know that the United Nations and the West do not want stability in Sham, and do not want Sham to be ruled by Islam," Abu Firas continued. "We know that the United Nations is among the largest supporters and endorsers of the Jewish State, and the establishment of an Islamic state that governs by the Sharia of Allah in sham directly threatens the creature of the United Nations, the Jewish State."

Abu Firas' video, therefore, set forth the justifications for Al Nusrah's anti-UN actions in the days to come. And Abu Firas justified the action in posts on his Twitter account after Al Nusrah captured the UN peacekeepers.

"There has been much ado and chatter about the issue of the captives of the so-called United Nations," Abu Firas wrote in a tweet, according to SITE's translation. "We say that al Qaeda and its branch in al Sham, the al Nusrah Front, were not founded but to establish the Shariah of Allah and raise high the word of Allah." Abu Firas went on to explain that the hostage situation will be decided according to sharia laws.

The UN peacekeepers in Al Nusrah's custody are from Fiji, and the government of Fiji says the group has issued a set of demands that must be met to secure the hostages' release. According to Voice of America, Al Nusrah wants to be removed from the UN's list of terrorist organizations, humanitarian relief for the areas surrounding Damascus, and compensation for three Al Nusrah fighters who were killed in fighting.

The first demand is entirely consistent with Abu Firas' stated opposition to the UN's designation of Al Nusrah as a terrorist organization.

Extensive al Qaeda biography

Little was publicly known about Abu Firas al Suri until his sudden appearance in an Al Nusrah Front video in March. The video included a summary of his biography.

According to Al Nusrah, Abu Firas went to military school and joined the Syrian military, but was relieved of his duties because of his "Islamic tendencies." Abu Firas was a member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and fought against the regime of Hafez al Assad, Bashar al Assad's father, in 1979 and 1980.

Abu Firas traveled to Jordan and then Afghanistan, where he met with Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden. He trained both Afghans and Arabs, as well as jihadists from other countries around the world, and worked to end the conflict between unidentified jihadist groups inside Afghanistan.

The Al Nusrah Front claims that Abu Firas served as Osama bin Laden's "envoy" for "mobilizing Pakistanis for jihad." The Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was set up for this purpose, the Al Nusrah Front says. The LeT and another group "were established, trained, and funded by Osama Bin Ladin."

Further demonstrating Abu Firas' seniority within al Qaeda, the Al Nusrah Front video says that he worked with the group's first two military commanders, Abu Ubaidah al Banshiri and Abu Hafs al Masri. Abu Firas also worked with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the deceased commander of al Qaeda in Iraq.

After the 9/11 attacks, Abu Firas "secured the mujahideen families in Pakistan," meaning that he helped al Qaeda families and others find safe haven in the country.

In 2003, Abu Firas relocated to Yemen and he stayed there until 2013, when the conflict between Islamic State and the Al Nusrah Front erupted. Al Qaeda's senior leadership then dispatched Abu Firas to Syria in an attempt to help put an end to the dispute.

In the Al Nusrah video released in March, Abu Firas said that he followed the guidance of Al Nusrah's emir, Abu Muhammad al Julani, who wanted to resolve the conflict with Islamic State. All attempts at bringing about a resolution failed, however. Abu Firas also said that he had warned Abu Khalid al Suri, Ayman al Zawahiri's top representative in Syria, that the Islamic State wanted to kill him. In February, Abu Khalid was killed in a suicide attack that was presumably launched by the Islamic State.

Less than one week after Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in an American airstrike in Somalia, the group has named a new emir and reaffirmed its allegiance to al Qaeda.

Shabaab has selected Sheikh Ahmad Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, to serve as Godane's successor, according to a statement issued by the group.

"The leadership also renews its pledge of allegiance to al Qaeda and its leader, Sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri, may Allah protect him," the statement reads, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

As expected, Shabaab heaps praise on Godane. The group, which is a formal branch of al Qaeda, sends its condolences to the Muslim community, as well as Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Zawahiri "regarding the martyrdom of their son, the noble knight, the scholar, the military general, the leader and founder of" Shabaab.

According to SITE's translation, Shabaab refers to Mullah Omar as the "commander of the faithful," a title usually used to reference the leader of an Islamic caliphate, or caliph. Other al Qaeda leaders, including Zawahiri, address Omar in the same manner. The title is also rendered as the "emir of the believers."

Al Qaeda announced the creation of a new branch, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), this week. Al Qaeda referred to Mullah Omar as the "emir of the believers" in that announcement and also said that AQIS serves the Taliban leader and his Islamic emirate, or nation. And, in July, al Qaeda's senior leadership renewed their allegiance to Mullah Omar, "confirming that al Qaeda and its branches everywhere are soldiers among his soldiers."

The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, declared in late June that it now rules over a caliphate stretching across parts of Iraq and Syria. The group's emir, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, is now called "Caliph Ibrahim" and his supporters use the same title for him that al Qaeda uses to describe Mullah Omar. Indeed, al Qaeda's decision to renew its oath to Mullah Omar as the "emir of the believers" was likely part of its response to the Islamic State's claims.

Shabaab portrays Godane as being one in a long list of jihadist "martyrs" and vows that the group's fight will continue. Among the other deceased jihadists listed in Shabaab's statement are Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al Zarqawi (the first leader of al Qaeda in Iraq), Abu Umar al Baghdadi (the first named emir of the Islamic State of Iraq), Mullah Dadullah (a Taliban commander who worked closely with al Qaeda), Baitullah Mehsud (the Pakistani Taliban commander), Doku Umarov (who led the Islamic Caucasus Emirate), and Said al Shihri (the deputy commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula).

Shabaab says that just as the deaths of these leaders did not end their organizations, neither will Godane's death end Shabaab's jihad. By listing these fallen jihadists, Shabaab is clearly portraying itself as part of the global jihad. Indeed, according to SITE's translation, the group says that the supposedly "ruthless and oppressive onslaughts" waged by the "Crusaders, Zionists," and Shiites "in our lands and the lands of Palestine, Iraq, Sham [the Levant], Afghanistan, the Arabian Peninsula, the Islamic Maghreb, Chechnya and elsewhere has only further inflamed the passion for jihad in the hearts of the Muslim youth across the globe."

Al Qaeda's senior leadership and Shabaab long tried to hide their relationship. One of the documents captured in the raid on bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan showed that the al Qaeda master told Godane to hide the ties between their two groups. The document confirmed earlier reporting by The Long War Journal, which revealed the order in August 2010.

After hiding the extent of their relationship for years, Shabaab formally merged with al Qaeda in February 2012. And now the group has reaffirmed its loyalty to Zawahiri and al Qaeda's senior leadership in the wake of Godane's death.

The US military expanded its campaign against the Islamic State today, targeting jihadists who are threatening the Haditha Dam in the western province of Anbar, most of which has been under control of the group since January.

The military announced the airstrikes in a press release on the Department of Defense's website.

"At the request of the Government of Iraq, the US military on Saturday conducted coordinated airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists in the vicinity of the Haditha Dam in Anbar province," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "We conducted these strikes to prevent terrorists from further threatening the security of the dam, which remains under control of Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Sunni tribes."

Four US airstrikes targeted and "destroyed five ISIL Humvees, one ISIL armed vehicle, an ISIL checkpoint, and also damaged an ISIL bunker."

Kirby said that the US would continue to target Islamic State forces near the Haditha Dam.

"We will continue to conduct operations as needed in support of the Iraqi Security Forces and the Sunni tribes, working with those forces securing Haditha Dam," he said.

Iraqi forces and tribes in Haditha have been battling the Islamic State for control of the area for months. More than 2,000 Iraqi troops, backed by tribal forces loyal to the anti-Islamic State Awakening, have been defending the dam, the largest on the Euphrates River. The Awakening was key to US efforts to secure Anbar and other provinces while US forces were in country.

The Islamic State has controlled the city of Fallujah and the smaller Fallujah Dam, which is downstream, since January. Islamic State fighters had opened the floodgates of the dam earlier this year to impede the movement of Iraqi troops.

The Islamic State previously controlled the Mosul Dam until the US military launched airstrikes in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces in mid-August.

US air campaign expanding across Iraq

Today's airstrikes in Anbar signal that the Obama administration is widening its campaign against the Islamic State far beyond the initial goals stated at the beginning of the campaign. President Obama had previously balked at military re-engagement after declaring the war in Iraq over and withdrawing US forces in December 2011.

When the Obama administration ordered limited military intervention against the Islamic State beginning on Aug. 7, the objectives were twofold: to halt the Islamic State's advance on Irbil to protect US personnel based there, and to provide humanitarian relief to the Yazidi minority who fled Sinjar and other towns in Ninewa province and were trapped on Mount Sinjar.

Within a week, the objectives were modified, and the US military was now tasked with serving as the air force to Kurdish and Iraqi forces "to protect critical infrastructure" and "support Iraqi security forces and Kurdish defense forces, who are working together to combat ISIL [the Islamic State]."

At the end of August, the US began launching airstrikes against Islamic State fighters who were besieging the ethnic Turkmen town of Amerli in Salahaddin province. Iraqi forces backed by the Asaib al Haq, of the League of the Righteous, an Iranian-supported terror group that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US soldiers, liberated the town on Sept. 1. [See LWJ report, US airstrikes in Amerli supported deadly Shia terror group.]

The US military has launched 138 airstrikes against the Islamic State since the campaign began one month ago, making Iraq one of the hottest theaters in which US forces are engaged against jihadist groups.

The Islamic State has beheaded two US reporters in its stated effort to get the US to end the air campaign in Iraq, and has threatened to kill other foreign reporters if the strikes are not halted. It is unclear if the US is planning on striking Islamic State fighters in Syria, where the group controls vast areas of the country.

The Obama administration has yet to articulate a comprehensive strategy to deal with the Islamic State, which President Barack Obama has called a "cancer" and Secretary of State John Kerry has described as "evil." Administration and military officials have alternately called for defeating and containing the group.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has released a statement praising the establishment of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The statement was released on Twitter on Sept. 7. It was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

AQAP offers congratulations "on the occasion of what Allah bestowed of grace upon your sons the mujahideen of the Indian Subcontinent ... in coming together under one banner as one group called" AQIS.

The group gives "special congratulations" to its "mujahideen brothers in various trenches" and especially "our Sheikh and good Emir, Dr. Abu Muhammad Ayman al Zawahiri," as well as "the good Sheikh Asim Umar," who was named the emir of AQIS.

AQAP portrays AQIS as the righteous defenders of Muslims, who are supposedly oppressed throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The group says, according to SITE's translation, that all one need do is "look at the condition of the Muslims in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujurat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir from the countries of the Indian Subcontinent," because "the heart wrenches in pain for what has befallen them of cunning and damage, slaughter and burning, destitution, and destruction of homes, for nothing other than being Muslims who bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

AQIS was organized in opposition to this supposed alliance against Muslims, AQAP says. Furthermore, AQIS is "the vanguard of those who defend our Muslim people in that bleeding battlefield in the east of the lands of Islam."

Al Qaeda announced the creation of AQIS earlier this month, saying "it was formed by the gathering of several jihadi groups that have a long history in jihad and fighting." AQIS did not say which jihadist groups had joined the new umbrella organization, but it likely includes jihadists long allied with al Qaeda in the region.

AQIS joins AQAP, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Al Nusrah Front, and Shabaab as formal branches of al Qaeda. The leaders of these five organizations have each publicly sworn bayat (an oath of allegiance) to Zawahiri and al Qaeda's most senior leaders.

In addition to these five formal branches, al Qaeda also maintains unannounced ties to other jihadist organizations. In 2006, for instance, Zawahiri claimed, "Many groups have joined al Qaeda some of which have been announced and others have not." Both Shabaab and Al Nusrah initially sought to hide their relationships with al Qaeda's senior leadership.

AQAP's emir, Nasir al Wuhayshi, also serves as the general manager of al Qaeda's global operations. Documents captured in Osama bin Laden's hideout reveal that the responsibilities of al Qaeda's general manager include overseeing certain aspects of the regional branches' operations.

The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria, has released a 26-page document summarizing its operations in the month of August. The propaganda document, which is written in English and titled "Monthly Harvest," provides an overview of the group's military operations and proselytization efforts throughout Syria.

The file was released on Al Nusrah's Twitter accounts earlier today. It is not as slickly produced as other English-language jihadist publications, such as those released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). But it is intended to showcase the scope of Al Nusrah's activities.

The monthly summary was produced by Al Nusrah's "correspondent network," which includes seven Twitter accounts devoted to specific regions and an eighth Twitter page that retweets the reporting from the other seven. The regional Twitter correspondent pages cover Aleppo, Idlib, Deraa, Homs, Hama, Al Qalamoun, and Deir az Zour.

The document highlights Al Nusrah's fight against the Assad regime and its allies, including Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. One entry for Al Qalamoun, where there was heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Al Nusrah, reads: "The promise of victory is in sight. Here are your brothers in Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups debilitating Hezbollah and the regime's army be deterring their advance in the barren mountains of Hawsh 'Arab."

Al Nusrah provides links to videos and other online files throughout the publication. But in some cases those links were either not included or were accidentally deleted. For instance, there is no link or picture associated with Al Nusrah's entry describing the fight against Hezbollah in Al Qalamoun, despite the fact the publication reads, "Here are your brothers ...."

Another entry contains a picture with a caption that reads, "In collaboration with Jund al-Aqsa, Jabhat al-Nusra targeted with 6 tank shells, a resort hotel containing Hezbollah members in the city of Idlib." Jund al-Aqsa is another rebel group that appears to be closely allied with Al Nusrah. And a third entry says that Al Nusrah killed two Syrian "officers and a number of Hezbollah members."

Still other military-themed entries show Al Nusrah capturing small arms and other weapons, using heavier weapons in its fight against Assad, allegedly shooting down a MiG fighter with anti-aircraft artillery, firing mortars, and planning raids.

Al Nusrah's pamphlet includes several photos taken at the "Al Farooq Institute for Islamic Studies" in Idlib.

Al Nusrah's "Monthly Harvest" also devotes a significant amount of space to the organization's dawa, or proselytizing, and "charitable" works. For example, one photo shows Al Nusrah holding "a polio children vaccination campaign in the Western areas of Deraa."

Such efforts are intended to win over the support of the local population and demonstrate that the group's plan for governance according to sharia law would benefit Syria. Al Qaeda is attempting to inculcate its radical ideology in several Muslim-majority countries. In many instances, the local population has resisted rule according to al Qaeda's sharia laws. And the charity efforts by Al Nusrah and other al Qaeda branches are part of the international organization's attempt to overcome this hurdle.

A number of photos, with accompanying captions, are devoted to trumpeting Al Nusrah's "Al Farooq Institute for Islamic Studies" in Idlib. The school indoctrinates young recruits in al Qaeda's ideology, including the jihadists' radical Islamic jurisprudence. The al Qaeda branch has set up other schools for similar purposes.

Hassan Abboud, who was killed in today's car bombing, posted this picture on his Twitter page earlier this year. It shows Abboud (right) walking alongside a top al Qaeda operative known as Abu Khalid al Suri (left). Al Suri was killed in a suicide attack in February.

The Islamic Front, a coalition of several rebel groups fighting in Syria, announced today that more than one dozen of its senior leaders have been killed in a car bombing in Idlib. Among them is Hassan Abboud, who was the head of the Islamic Front's political office. Abboud was also the head of Ahrar al Sham, an al Qaeda-linked group that holds key positions within the Islamic Front alliance.

There has been no claim of responsibility as of this writing. Their deaths are a major blow to the Islamic Front and Ahrar al Sham.

"The Islamic Front gives the Muslim world the good news of the martyrdom of the head of Ahrar Al-Sham Islamic Movement (Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Front) Hassan Abboud ... and some of his companions," a statement from the Islamic Front posted on its official Twitter account in English reads.

The statement names 11 other slain leaders who are described as "some of [Abboud's] companions." They include Abu Abdulmalek, the Islamic Front's top sharia official. In addition, "several other leaders" of Ahrar al Sham were killed.

Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front have long been considered one of the most effective fighting forces on the ground in Syria. Western officials had even considered the possibility of working with the group as a supposed counterweight to "extremists."

But Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front are closely allied with the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria. A prominent al Qaeda figure known as Sanafi al Nasr has revealed on his Twitter account that al Qaeda's senior leadership in Pakistan dispatched seasoned veterans to serve in the ranks of both Ahrar al Sham and Al Nusrah.

The Islamic Front, Ahrar al Sham, and Al Nusrah are opposed to the Islamic State, the al Qaeda offshoot that has captured large swaths of territory stretching across Iraq and Syria since earlier this year.

Abboud was close to Zawahiri's 'representative' in Syria

Abboud was especially close to a senior al Qaeda operative known as Abu Khalid al Suri, whose real name was Mohamed Bahaiah. Alongside Abboud, Bahaiah cofounded Ahrar al Sham.

The Long War Journal first reported Bahaiah's dual-hatted role as both an Ahrar al Sham leader and al Qaeda operative in December 2013. That same month the US Treasury Department reported that Bahaiah was al Qaeda's "representative in Syria" and was receiving donations from Gulf donors that were then passed on to other parts of the al Qaeda network.

Both Abboud and Bahaiah were staunch opponents of the Islamic State and repeatedly criticized the group and its emir, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. After the infighting between the Islamic State and the Al Nusrah Front became public in April 2013, Ayman al Zawahiri named Bahaiah as his chief representative in the region and tasked him with mediating the dispute.

Bahaiah's reconciliation efforts failed and he subsequently released an audio recording denouncing Baghdadi's organization. He also urged al Qaeda's general command to disown the Islamic State, which they did in early February 2014.

Later that same month, Bahaiah was killed in a suicide attack. It is widely believed that the Islamic State was responsible.

Several weeks later, in early April 2014, Zawahiri issued a eulogy for his fallen comrade in an audio recording. A video produced by al Qaeda to accompany Zawahiri's eulogy highlighted Bahaiah's al Qaeda role, showing footage of him attending the Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan in 2000. The images included a scene of Bahaiah walking between Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri.

Senior al Qaeda leaders in Syria, such as Sanafi al Nasr and Abu Firas al Suri, openly mourned Bahaiah's death as well. Both Nasr and Abu Firas said that they had warned Bahaiah that the Islamic State was seeking to kill him.

Only after Bahaiah was killed did Abboud make their relationship public. Abboud posted a series of pictures of the pair of jihadists working side-by-side. The photos were clearly intended to illustrate Abboud's close working relationship with Bahaiah. One of the pictures can be seen above.

Abboud also changed the avatar on his official Twitter page to a photo of Bahaiah. He kept the photo on top of his Twitter feed for weeks after Bahaiah's death.

And now Abboud has met the same fate as his longtime companion.

Not long after the news broke that more than one dozen senior leaders in Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front had been killed in Syria earlier today, several influential al Qaeda figures took to their Twitter accounts to mourn their fallen allies. And one of them claimed that the Islamic Front's political head had been in contact with Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda.

"May Allah have mercy on them and be pleased with them, and may He gather us with them in the highest of gardens [in paradise]," a senior al Qaeda leader known as Sanafi al Nasr wrote in Arabic on his Twitter feed. "A tragedy has occurred," Nasr added. "We ask Allah to compensate the Muslims with goodness."

The hashtag in Nasr's tweet reads, "#Martyrdom_of_Ahrar_alSham_Leadership."

Nasr has long been close with Ahrar al Sham's leaders. After Mohamed Bahaiah (a.k.a. Abu Khalid al Suri) was killed in February, Nasr wrote in a tweet that he had tried to warn Bahaiah that the Islamic State was going to try to kill him.

Ahrar al Sham, the Islamic Front, and Al Nusrah are all opposed to the Islamic State, the former al Qaeda branch that has stormed its way through Syria and Iraq since the beginning of this year. The Islamic State is suspected of killing Bahaiah and of launching today's attack on Ahrar al Sham's leaders.

Bahaiah, who was both a senior al Qaeda operative and a cofounder of Ahrar al Sham, was a close companion of Hassan Abboud, the Islamic Front political chief and head of Ahrar al Sham. Abboud was killed in today's explosion.

Nasr previously revealed on his Twitter account that al Qaeda's senior leaders had dispatched veteran jihadists to work with both Ahrar al Sham and the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.

In another tweet today, Nasr referred to drone strikes hitting leadership meetings in northern Pakistan. Nasr then asked: "Is the targeting of the Ahrar leadership a preface to the meeting on Thursday?" It is not clear what upcoming meeting, on Thursday, Sept. 11, Nasr is referencing.

The US Treasury Department designated Nasr as an al Qaeda terrorist in August, noting that he is one of Al Nusrah's "top strategists" and a "senior" leader in the group.

In a tweet on his own social media page, Dr. Sami al Uraydi asked Allah to accept the Ahrar al Sham leaders as "martyrs" and said he hopes to meet them in paradise. Al Uraydi is a Jordanian ideologue and senior religious official in Al Nusrah. Al Uraydi renewed his "vow of fealty" to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and Abu Muhammad al Julani, the emir of Al Nusrah, in a video that was released in late July.

Abu Sulayman al Muhajir, a jihadist who relocated from Australia to Syria and is now a religious leader in Al Nusrah, wrote several tweets dedicated to the Ahrar al Sham leaders. The tweets are in both Arabic and English.

"May Allah accept our brothers & unite us with them in the highest paradise," Abu Sulayman wrote in English, adding "O Allah! Deal with the killers ...." The hashtag included in the tweet, written in Arabic, is the same one Nasr used.

"Ya Allah! Amongst those killed were men I was honored to befriend," Abu Sulayman wrote in another tweet. "O Allah! Unite us all under your shade and in the highest of paradise."

Claim that Hassan Abboud, the Islamic Front's political chief, was in contact with Ayman al Zawahiri

Still another well-connected jihadist, who is known as "Shaybat al Hukama" (or "the eldest of the wise"), honored Hassan Abboud in a tweet. Al Hukama's real name is not publicly known, but his nom de guerre is likely a tribute to Ayman al Zawahiri, who is often referred to as "the wise man of the ummah."

In a tweet including a picture purportedly showing Abboud's corpse, al Hukama wrote: "Allah was pleased to have him communicate with Sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri."

Thus, al Hukama claimed that Abboud had been in communication with the head of al Qaeda. The picture al Hukama posted of Abboud can be seen on the right.

Al Hukama's claim likely has at least some basis in fact. Abboud's longtime comrade, Mohammed Bahaiah, was Ayman al Zawahiri's chief representative in Syria until he was killed. And, according to the US Treasury Department, Bahaiah helped funnel cash from gulf donors through Syria to other parts of the al Qaeda network. So, it is certainly conceivable that Abboud was in direct contact with Zawahiri, given that Abboud's righthand man served Zawahiri.

There are additional reasons to believe that Al Hukama's claim may be accurate. Al Hukama is believed to play a role in al Qaeda's media and propaganda operations. And, by his own admission on Twitter, al Hukama admittedly helped deliver a petition from several leading jihadist ideologues to Zawahiri in April. The jihadists asked Zawahiri to comment on key issues in the dispute between the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Al Hukama would later use his Twitter feed to tell the authors that the petition had reached al Qaeda's leaders "in full" and that they would be responding. Indeed, Zawahiri issued a response to the petition in May 2014, saying he owed his "honorable brothers" a response. Al Hukama was not named by Zawahiri, but he clearly helped broker the back and forth.

Al Hukama is highly respected by known al Qaeda operatives on Twitter, including officials in the Al Nusrah Front.

Oren Adaki, an Arabic language specialist and research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, contributed to this article.