ICT Bi-weekly Report – Jihadi Forums

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By ICT’s Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group

This report summarizes notable events discussed on jihadist Web forums during the second half of July 2013. Following are the main points covered in the report:

• Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri calls to the Muslims to show initiative and act against the US anti-Muslim policy, manifested – according to him – in the mass killing of Muslims. In his view, one should also strive to liberate Palestine from the Jews so that it can be included in the Islamic caliphate that is to be established in the region.
• Sheikh Ibrahim Rubaish, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Mufti, gives an official declaration on the death of Sheikh Al-Shari and eulogizes him. Al-Shari served as the deputy leader in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and was killed by an American drone, apparently at the beginning of the year.
• The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the break-in into 2 large prisons near Baghdad – the Abu Gharib Prison and the Al-Taji Prison – on July 21st 2013. This break-in resulted in the release of several hundred prisoners, most of them Al-Qaeda members.
• Sheikh Abu Bakr Al-Julani, leader of the Al-Nusra Front in Al-Sham, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, called to all of the Jihadi groups fighting in Syria to act together to eradicate the Syrian regime and to establish the Sharia. Furthermore, he threatened the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Shiite population in the area to stop their support of the Syrian regime and their actions against the Sunni population and promised that they will pay for it.
• A new Salafi Jihadi organization called “In the Name of the Preachers for Sharia in the Land of Two Niles” has announced its establishment. Apparently, the focus of its activity is in Sudan.
• The discourse in the Jihadi forums points to the existence of an internal rift in the Shabab Al-Mujahideen movement, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia. Sheikh Abu-Zubayr, the movement’s leader, was accused of promoting a self-serving policy designed to serve only his personal goals and expressed in the elimination of opposition from amongst its ranks while ignoring the main goal which is the implementation of the Sharia.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Click here to view the full report in PDF format.