[Jihadica is pleased to welcome a guest post from Charles Lister (Charles_Lister), a London-based terrorism and insurgency analyst. The views expressed below are entirely his own and do not represent those of his employer.] An article recently released by EA Worldview claims to refute the widespread belief that Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) is an al-Qaeda affiliate; [...]
Archive for the ‘AQ in Iraq’ Category
Jabhat al-Nusra: A Self-Professed AQ Affiliate
Posted: 8th May 2013 by Will McCants in AQ in Iraq, Syria5
Al-Qaeda Advises the Syrian Revolution: Shumukh al-Islam’s “Comprehensive Strategy” for Syria
Posted: 25th February 2013 by Cole Bunzel in AQ in Iraq, Jihadi media, Strategy, SyriaThree weeks ago members of Shumukh al-Islam, al-Qaeda’s premier online forum, began collaboration on a “comprehensive strategy” for the ongoing Syrian jihad. In a thread started by a certain “Handasat al-Qaeda,” several dozen members of the access-restricted site set down a plethora of observations and recommendations. A week later, on February 9, the same member [...]
Jihadism’s Widening Internal Divide: Intellectual Infighting Heats Up
Posted: 29th January 2013 by Cole Bunzel in al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, AQ in Iraq, SyriaLast year witnessed the outbreak of a major feud between two of the most prominent and active ideologues in the jihadi movement: the Syrian Abu Basir al-Tartusi and the Mauritanian Abu al-Mundhir al-Shinqiti. As Joas Wagemakers wrote in June and July of last year, the quarrel emerged in May 2012 following two perceived provocations by [...]
A Portrait of the Terrorist as a Young Man
Posted: 18th July 2010 by Joas Wagemakers in AQ in Iraq, AQ Leadership, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, terrorismOf all the jihadis we’ve seen in recent years, Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi must rank as one of the most violent. Nicknamed “the slaughtering sheikh” (al-shaykh al-dhabbah) by fellow militants, he is widely held responsible for killing hundreds of Shiites in Iraq and personally beheading the American hostage Nicolas Berg. It would therefore be interesting to [...]
Al-Baghdadi Speaks
Posted: 12th May 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in AQ in Iraq, Iraq, Islamic State of IraqA quick addendum to Truls’s post about Abu Umar al-Baghdadi: The Islamic State in Iraq has now broken the silence over al-Baghadi’s alleged capture. It released a brief statement this morning dismissing the reported arrest and denying any knowledge of the man depicted on the photograph circulating in the media. Shortly afterwards, Furqan media released [...]
Emirate of Confusion
Posted: 8th May 2009 by Truls Tønnessen in AQ in Iraq, Iraq, Islamic State of IraqEditor’s note: I am delighted to introduce a new contributor, Truls Tønnessen, who is a FFI research fellow as well as a PhD candidate in History at the University of Oslo. He works on jihadism in Iraq and will be covering Iraq for Jihadica. The alleged arrest of the emir of al-Qaida led Islamic [...]
Back
Posted: 26th March 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in AQ in Iraq, Bin Laden, China, Islamic State of Iraq, Jihadi media, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, propaganda, Somalia, Yemen, ZawahiriI have been busy the past two weeks, but the jihadis have been busier. Bin Ladin has issued two audio statements, one proposing practical steps to liberate Palestine and the other about the treacherous government in Somalia. Al-Zawahiri warned against the forthcoming Crusader attack on Sudan, while Mustafa Abu al-Yazid has addressed the people of [...]
More Fitna in Cyberspace: Mihdar vs al-Maqdisi
Posted: 7th February 2009 by Brynjar Lia in AQ in Iraq, Jihadi mediaIs another chapter in the history of cyber-jihadi infighting about to be written these days? The latest controversy is a series of attacks by the webforum Madad al-Suyuf on Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, perhaps the most influential salafi-jihadi clerics alive. That the cyber-Jihadis quarrel with one another should come as no surprise. Despite calls for unity [...]
Pathetic Psy-ops
Posted: 5th February 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Algeria, AQ in Iraq, Conspiracy Theories, propaganda, Saudi Arabia, Western mediaThe British tabloid The Sun reported yesterday that al-Qaeda leaders rape male recruits to shame them into becoming suicide bombers. Let me start by congratulating the journalist on being able to fit the four words “al-Qaida”, “gay”, “rape” and “horror” in one and the same headline in the world’s largest English-language newspaper. I would not [...]
“The Painful Truth: Al-Qaeda is Losing the War in Iraq”
Posted: 1st October 2008 by Will McCants in AQ in Iraq, Islamic State of IraqTags: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq
That’s the title of a post by hamzacom on the Faloja forum. In it, he draws an analogy with Afghanistan just after the U.S. invasion. It was a time of defeat for the mujahids but now they are resurging. The same will happen in Iraq. Other forum members are predictably annoyed by hamzacom’s pessimistic title. [...]