The following are this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock – among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to jttmsubs@memri.org with "Membership" in the subject line.)
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From The Urdu-Pashtu Project: Ex-Taliban Commander's Video Highlights Financial Scam In Taliban Shura Led By Mullah Omar, Accuses The Taliban Of Killing A Woman With A Fetus; Pakistani Daily: TTP Planning Attack On Karachi's Central Jail; Group Hacks The Taliban Website, Posts Message Accusing The Taliban Of Disregarding Civilian Life In Afghanistan; Islamic Group Calls For Establishing Islamic Government In Bangladesh
Special Dispatch No. 4756
AQIM Congratulates Ansar Al-Din For Conquests In Azawad, Cautions It To Avoid Clashes With MNLA
A new audio message of support from Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wadoud, leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to Ansar Al-Din, has surfaced. Ansar Al-Din is a fairly new Islamist group operating in the Azawad region that has recently declared its independence. The group claims to be in control of several towns in Azawad, including Gao, Kaidal and Timbuktu, and has declared its wish to implement shari'a law in them. Ansar Al-Din's claims should be treated with caution, in light of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad's (MNLA) continued presence in these towns and its efforts to reassure their residents. Therefore the audio message confirms the existence of ties between AQIM and Ansar Al-Din and should be analyzed in the context of the ongoing tension between the latter and the MNLA.[i] It should be noted that although the message was not released yet by AQIM's media wing, the voice of the speaker in the recording is undoubtedly that of 'Abd Al-Wadoud. A copy of the message was obtained by Sahara Media, a Mauritanian news agency.
To read the full report, visit AQIM Congratulates Ansar Al-Din For Conquests In Azawad, Cautions It To Avoid Clashes With MNLA.
New Images Of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad And Mustafa Al-Hawsawi Posted Online
On May 23, 2012, the Al-Ibda’ media company posted what it claimed were new images of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the accused mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and of Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, another suspect in the attacks. The images were posted on the Al-Fida' jihadi forum under the heading "New Images Of Islam's Hero In Guantanamo."
Khalid Sheikh Muhammad
Mustafa Al-Hawsawi
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To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6045¶m=GJN.
Newly Formed Syrian Jihadi Group Demonstrates Considerable Leaps In Operational and Propaganda Capabilities
An IED is used to detonate a military vehicle
On May 22, 2012, the Syrian jihadi group Jabhat Al-Nusra released a video, just under an hour in length, documenting its operations in Syria. The video carried the typical hallmarks of jihadi propaganda, such as martyrs' wills, references to the perceived crimes of the enemy, and various messages from group's Emir and/or commanders. Beyond the features common to jihadi materials, the video reveals a high level of production and sophistication, raising Jabhat Al-Nusra's video to the level of other, more experienced and well established jihadi media companies, such as the Al-Sahab (Al-Qaeda Central), Al-Malahim (AQAP), and Al-Furqan (ISI) media companies. The high production values, in addition to other more technical aspects of Jabhat Al-Nusra's operational capabilities (see below), stand at odds with the group's short history and the brevity of its official presence on the Syrian jihadi scene. The group, it should be recalled, announced its establishment on January 24, 2012.[1] Thus, the sophistication and leaps in its operational capabilities suggest that Jabhat Al-Nusra is well funded, well organized, and, by the same token, it is safe to assume that it has been importing its expertise from neighboring regions.
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6047¶m=GJN.
Ex-Taliban Commander's Video Highlights Financial Scam In Taliban Shura Led By Mullah Omar, Accuses The Taliban Of Killing A Woman With A Fetus
In a new video, a renegade Taliban commander accuses the Taliban Shura led by Mullah Omar of killing his friend Mullah Ismail over alleged financial embezzlement and notes that the killing of a woman with a fetus in her womb was the final incident which forced him to quit the Taliban to re-start his old business. The 27:11-minute-long video in Pashtu was published on a leading Pashtu-language, Afghan website on May 10, 2012. Its focus is on the financial dispute between the militants involving the Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership council based in Pakistan. The two-part video was sent to the Afghan website by Mullah Ghulam Hassan, a close associate of Mullah Ismail, the former member of the Taliban Shura, to clarify his position about the alleged financial embezzlement. Mullah Ghulam Hassan says that Mullah Ismail was killed by the Taliban Shura on alleged charges.
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6046¶m=UPP.
Pakistani Daily: TTP Planning Attack On Karachi's Central Jail
After the April 15, 2012 Bannu jailbreak in which hundreds of prisoners and Taliban militants escaped, the Punjab wing of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning to attack the Central Jail in Karachi, according to a Pakistani daily. The Crisis Management Cell of the Pakistani interior ministry recently issued a letter to the provincial government of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, warning that the TTP's Punjab wing has "prepared a secret plan to launch a brazen attack on the Karachi Prison in order to release their comrades." Warning that the TTP militants have arrived in Karachi, the letter also revealed that besides attacking the prison, TTP's Punjab wing has also plans to target various government installations in Sindh province.
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6043¶m=UPP.
Group Hacks The Taliban Website, Posts Message Accusing The Taliban Of Disregarding Civilian Life In Afghanistan
The website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government) was hacked on Monday evening by an unknown group which accused the Taliban of disregarding civilian life in Afghanistan. The group, calling itself the Voice of Truth, posted images of the Taliban's atrocities against Afghan civilians and women as well as pictures of pigeons as a sign of peace. The group posted a message in Pashtu, English and Arabic against the Taliban's actions. A statement read, "We are the Voice of Truth, a group scattered Muslims and children of Afghanistan. We were brought together in 2010 by a shared disgust at the terror and occupation that Afghanistan is subjected to [by the Taliban].
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6039¶m=UPP.
Islamic Group Calls For Establishing Islamic Government In Bangladesh
According to a Bangla-language television report, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), an Islamist party in Bangladesh, has called for the implementation of an Islamic system of governance in the country. Addressing a grand public rally on April 20, 2012, which was organized at the Paltan Ground of the capital Dhaka, the group's leaders criticized the main political parties for their failure to implement Islam in Bangladesh and vowed to establish the Islami Andolan Bangladesh as an alternative political party. According to the report, the party will participate in the upcoming national elections in order to establish Islamic Sharia law in the country. Its leaders urged the people of Bangladesh to follow Islam in their daily life, saying that there is "no salvation without Islam."
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6038¶m=UPP.
Syrian Oppositionist Urges Arab Mujahideen To Join Jihad, Defend Syria's Sunnis Against Shi'ites, Communists
On May 16, 2012, the Syrian oppositionist website sooryoon.net published an article by Dr. Muwaffaq Mustafa Al-Suba'i titled "Where Are You, O Arab Mujahideen? Why Do You Not Come To Syria?" In it, Al-Suba'i emphasizes that the soil of Syria is soaked with blood and crying out to the Arab mujahideen to come to its aid. He states that the situation there does not involve one enemy, front or force; rather, "forces from all over the world have joined ranks in a war against the Syrian people, some of them showing their hostility and enmity openly, and others – chiefly Israel, Europe, and the U.S. – pretending solidarity with the Syrian people while inwardly supporting the Shi'ites and Communists." He says that the war in Syria is a decisive one between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis, "between truth and falsehood, between the soldiers of Allah and the soldiers of Satan." It is therefore "a fateful war for the Arab and Muslim ummah, [a war of] life or death," and the Arab mujahideen must flock to Syria in order "to rattle the earth under the feet of Syria's tyrants."
To read the full report, visit http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=6048¶m=GJN.
