The following are some of 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.)
Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
Afghan lawmaker Abdul Sattar Khawasi
Following are excerpts from an Afghan media report about Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a member of parliament from Afghanistan's Parwan province, urging jihad against America:
"A news agency received video clips from an anonymous source showing Parwan MP Abdul Sattar Khawasi calling on residents of Ghorband District to launch jihad against the U.S. Although the exact date of the video footage has yet to be confirmed, the clips clearly show Khawasi at a public gathering in Ghorband promoting jihad against the U.S. 'Jihad is legitimate against the U.S., and silence against the U.S. is an act in violation of religion, I am obligated to tell you,' Khawasi says in part of the video."
Al-Zawahiri To Egyptian Jihad Groups: Do not Attack Christians; Focus On Military
On January 25, 2014, Al-Qaeda’s Al-Sahab media company published a new audio message by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, titled “Liberation from the Circle of Absurdity and Failure”. The message is Al-Zawahiri’s first detailed reaction to the ouster of Muhammad Mursi from the presidency. The Egyptian born Al-Zawahiri used the message to convey his thinking on the historical changes that Egypt is undergoing, and to reiterate his position on political developments and the key players in the political scene. The message was apparently recorded in late 2013, as Al-Zawahiri refers to the October 2013 death of the North Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap.
Syrian Jihadi Commander Zahran Alloush: We Will Not Let Democracy Be Imposed Upon Syria
Zahran Alloush, military commander of the Islamic Front in Syria, said, in a recent Internet interview, that today's democracies were "the dictatorship of the strong" and that they would not allow democracy to be imposed upon them.
Following are excerpts from the interview, which was posted on the Internet on January 20, 2014.
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Interviewer: "Can you accept a civil, democratic, and pluralistic state, as agreed upon by the Syrian opposition factions, and stated in the National Consensus Charter?"
Zahran Alloush: "As I've said in the past, the democracy we see in the world today is the dictatorship of the strong. We do not believe that democracy equals justice. This is an illusion."
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
On January 24, 2014, the twitter account for "Jabhat Al-Nusra In Lebanon" posted a communique by Jabhat Al-Nusra in Lebanon claiming that all of Hizbullah's headquarters and military bases were legitimate targets for mujahideen attacks.
Several Syrian Tribes, Top Military Commander Pledge Allegiance To ISIS
On January 23, 2014, jihadi sources on Al-Fida' forum reported that several tribes in Syria have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). Another report said that a prominent military commander of the Islamist Alwiyat Al-Habib Al-Mustafa group has joined ISIS as well.
Tripoli Organization Swears Fealty To Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Announces They Have Joined ISIS
On January 25, 2014, the Twitter account "The State of Iraq and Al-Sham," which supports The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), posted an audio message by someone calling himself Abu Sayyaf Al-Ansari, who announced that he and his comrades in Tripoli, Lebanon, have sworn fealty to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and have joined his organization – ISIS.
Communiqué Announces Death of ISIS Number 2 Man Hajji Bakr
A January 26, 2014 communiqué signed by "mujahideen in the northern Aleppo suburbs" announces that Hajji Bakr (aka Abu Bakr Al-Iraqi Al-Shayib), the number 2 man in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has been killed. The communiqué, posted on social media, states that Bakr's real name is Samir 'Abd Muhammad, and presents a photo of him and another of his dead body. It adds that he served in the Iraqi army for 20 years and made it to the rank of colonel, but later renounced his Ba'th ideology and decided to give ISIS the benefit of his military experience.
According to an Urdu website, Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the banned Pakistani terrorist organization Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), appeared at an event in Pakistani Kashmir recently.
The event, which was held in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, on January 26, 2014, was attended by about 10,000 people, and marked the Republic Day of India as a black day. Journalists were barred from attending the event. However, the security for the event was organized by the police, which indicates that JeM continues to enjoy the support of the Pakistani military.
Dr. Nasiruddin Haqqani was killed near Islamabad
Following are excerpts from a Pakistani media report examining the factors behind a recent spate of targeted killings of senior commanders of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan:
Local Leader: "[In Addition To Top Taliban Commanders] A Number Of Other Low-Ranking Afghan Taliban Militants Have Also Been Killed In The Pashtun Districts Of Baluchistan In Recent Months"
"After the killing of a number of their key leaders especially in Baluchistan, the Afghan Taliban do not feel safe in Pakistan any more… Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Salim was reportedly injured in an attack by his own security guards in Quetta city, and died later on January 6. He was the shadow governor of the Mizan district of Afghanistan's Zabul province. Mullah Noorullah Hotak, reportedly the Taliban's shadow governor for Zabul province and a member of the Taliban Shura, was shot dead in the Naway Adda area of Quetta on December 26."
