The following is the 45th edition of the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Weekly Digest. It includes exclusive reports and items from the past week on Jihadist websites.
THE WEEK IN JIHAD
As expected, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the successor organization to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the large number of attacks that took place throughout the country on August 25. Generally speaking, many of the ISI's major attacks, such as suicide bombings in the Green Zone, are designed to prove that no target is out of reach for the jihadists, and to undermine public faith in the ability of the government to guard even its vital interests. The most recent wave of attacks carried an additional message (stated expressly in the communiqué): that the ISI is able to launch a coordinated strike against manifold targets throughout the country. This is something of an echo of pre-surge Iraq, and was probably meant to be – as were the recent incidents of ISI fighters openly displaying the organization's distinctive black flag after attacks. While the ISI has still not recovered from the effects of the surge and the advent of the tribal Awakenings, it has proven its staying power despite the recent loss of its two senior commanders, and continues to operate at levels well surpassing those of Al-Qaeda's other two regional franchises, Al-Qaeda Maghreb and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (if we leave aside the latter's external operations). Incidentally, the ISI also took the opportunity in its communiqué to congratulate Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen on its new offensive in Mogadishu, which aims to expel the African Union troops that are propping up the transitional government.
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