Jihadi Forums Online Again Following Shutdown

December 18, 2012

After being offline for more than two weeks, several major jihadi forums have returned to normal activity.

On December 3, 2012, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated forums Shumoukh Al-Islam and Al-Fida' Al-Islamiyya went offline without warning. They were followed several days later by the Arabic Ansar Al-Mujahideen forum. All three forums came back online today (December 18, 2012).

It should be noted that the operators of Al-Fida' - a forum run by Al-Qaeda's media company Al-Fajr - use the services of Whoisguard, a company based in Los Angeles, CA, to hide the identity of the website's owners.[1]

A statement issued by the Al-Fida' administrators implies that the shutdown was caused by a deliberate attack. It should be noted that the statement, as well as the fact of the forums' near-simultaneous shutdown and return, confirm the close connection between them, as well as their ties with Al-Qaeda's media company, Al-Fajr, which uses them as its distribution arm.

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