The following are highlights of research and translations from the MEMRI Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project this past year. Producing such content is very costly, and your help allows us to continue our vital work of supporting counterterrorism efforts in the U.S. and throughout the West. We are very grateful to those of our valued readers who have already donated this year, and ask those who have not yet done so to please consider making a tax-deductible donation now.
The following are selected MEMRI TV clips from the Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project in 2022.
#9623 – ISIS-K Video Accuses The Taliban Of Fighting ISIS At The Behest Of The U.S.
On June 8, the pro-ISIS Ummah Wahidah outlet published an English-dubbed version of a 14-minute video titled "The Guarantors Are Reckless." The video accuses the Taliban of having committed to fighting ISIS at the behest of the United States, and that it has failed in this task. The video was originally published by Al-Azaim Foundation, the official media outlet of ISIS Khorasan Province, in Pashto.
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On May 13, 2022, an ISIS video titled "A Message to the Infidel West" was uploaded to the Al-Tamkin News Telegram channel. In the video, masked ISIS members speaking in French and English pledged to respond "with actions, not words" to the killing of the group's leaders and urged Muslims to swear allegiance to ISIS' new leader, Sheikh Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hasemi Al-Qurashi. One of the members said that the "Crusaders, the Jews, the atheists and their allies" should not think that ISIS is weak because its leaders have been killed, and he emphasized that the blood of ISIS' leaders will incite the group to continue to fight until everybody accepts Islam or pays the jizya poll tax. In addition, he said that shari'a law will be implemented in "every inch of this earth".
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On February 4, 2022, Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) aired an interview with captured senior ISIS commander Abdul Nasser Qaradash. In the interview, Qaradash discussed ISIS leader Abdullah Qaradash, a.k.a Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi, who was killed in a U.S. special forces raid on February 3, 2022. Qardash criticized the leader's ruling that Yazidis who converted to Islam and people who were promised safety by ISIS should be killed nonetheless, and he said that this was a violation of shari'a law. Abdul Nasser Qaradash also described previous attempts on the leader's life and how he, Abdullah Qaradsah, and other senior ISIS leaders would keep suicide belts near them and would wear them when traveling around Syria in case American forces attacked them. Qaradash said that he does not know of anyone who is fit to become the leader of ISIS now that the previous leader is dead, with the possible exception of Abu Saad Al-Nu'eimi, who may also be dead. Qaradash elaborated that none of the senior ISIS members he knows are left, that the "first generation" of ISIS is over, and that Abdullah Qaradash's death will have a serious impact on ISIS. In addition, Abdul Nasser Qardash explained that ISIS's Shura Council is typically responsible for nominating a new leader.
In an interview that was posted on October 4, 2021 on the Gathering4youth YouTube channel, released Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi praised "martyrdom" and the "martyrdom-seekers" of Hamas. Tamimi, who played a key role in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in downtown Jerusalem, thanked Allah for destining her to be a member of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades and to take part in a Jihadi operation that killed 15 "Zionists" and wounded 122. Tamimi described her terrorist operations as a "crown on my head." She described her drive from Ramallah to Jerusalem with 'Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, the Sbarro suicide bomber, and she spoke highly of the "lessons" that can be learned from being in close proximity with a "martyrdom-seeker." Tamimi explained that only those who have attained such a high spiritual level that they have severed any connection with this material world can become Hamas "martyrdom-seekers." Discussing the land of Palestine, Tamimi also said that the land emanates a "relaxing, pleasant scent, as if it was coming from Paradise" that comes from the martyrs buried in the land. Tamimi is currently wanted by the U.S. government for her role in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing, in which two of the 15 victims were U.S. nationals. For more about Ahlam Tamimi, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 7132, No. 3539, No. 3157, and No. 5951.
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Afghan Interior Minister Sarajuddin Haqqani, for whom the FBI is currently offering a reward of $10 million for any information on his whereabouts, said in a January 22, 2022 interview on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) that the Taliban will continue to pose a threat so long as the Americans refuse to recognize the Taliban government. He said that by refusing to recognize the Taliban, the U.S. is only "keeping the gates of hostility against the Afghan people wide open." Haqqani, who is the leader of the Islamist guerrilla insurgent group the Haqqani Network, appeared in the interview with his face digitally blurred.
In a video titled "Inspire Believers" that was posted on the Rocket.Chat server of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab) on January 19, 2022, an English-speaking jihadi called upon Western youth to join Al-Shabab, wage jihad, and seek martyrdom. A uniformed, armed, and masked Al-Shabab member also recited a poem urging Muslim youth in the West to join the jihad in Somalia or carry out "martyrdom-seeking" operations like the 2013 attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.
On September 18, 2022, Al-Kataib, which is the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda-affiliate Somalia-based Al-Shabab group, published a 30-minute video titled "No Doubt, Surely, Allah's Promise Is True [Quran 10:55]." The video featured a speech by Al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raage at the graduation ceremony for a military training course attended by new fighters, including fighters in an Al-Shabab "suicide battalion." Raage spoke before hundreds of armed fighters about the current situation in Somalia, about the obligation of Jihad, and about the goals of the "enemy", and he delivered "messages" to the Somali tribes, to Islamic scholars, and to the "mujahideen". For more about the speech, see the accompanying MEMRI JTTM Report.
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On August 4, 2022, the Syria-based pro-jihadi On the Ground News (OGN) outlet posted to its YouTube channel an interview with Canadian Islamic scholar Sheikh Tariq Abdelhaleem. Sheikh Abdelhaleem praised the Somalia-based Al-Shabab militia and its "good intentions," dismissing criticisms about its human rights abuses and saying that it must continue to fight those who oppose "freedom and shari'a rule" in Somalia. For more about Sheikh Tariq Abdelhaleem, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 9071.
On December 30, 2021, the Iraqi National Security Service uploaded to its YouTube channel an interview with a captured ISIS operative, whose face is blurred in the video. The ISIS operative said that in 2021, he got in contact with a man named Abu Mu'adh Al-Maslawi through Telegram and pledged allegiance to his group. He said that he was entrusted with posting the group's publications, which included footage of killings and bombings. He said that after three months, he was contacted by a man named Saif Al-Dawla Al-Jabouri, who invited him to join ISIS. The operative said that after he agreed he was introduced to a man named Abu Anas Al-Jabouri, who added him to one of three squads that operated in Al-Siniya. The operative then explained that the squads he belonged to performed reconnaissance and surveillance missions, and that they were brought to Al-Siniya to be trained, to launch attacks, and to rebuild the Islamic State.
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Against the backdrop of negotiations between the Pakistani Taliban Movement (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP) and the Pakistani government, Umarmedia.io published on June 30, 2022 an interview with TTP emir Noor Wali Mehsud. Mehsud said that the Pakistani government was forced to the negotiations table due to an increase in the TTP's operations, and he warned that if negotiations fail, the TTP will continue its jihad in "full swing". He said that democracy is un-Islamic, and he explained that the TTP is negotiating with the Pakistani government in order to establish an Islamic system in Pakistan, which he said is the goal of the country's founding.
On September 3, 2022, a video originally published by Al-Malahem, the official media outlet of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was shared online. The video is an "appeal" from the director of the UN Office of Security and Safety in Yemen (UNDSS), Akam Sofyol Anam, who was kidnapped by AQAP along with four other UN staff members in February 2022. In the video, Anam pleads with the UN and the international community to accede to his captors' demands so that he and his colleagues can be released, and he warns that any attempts to rescue them using military force will result in their deaths. It is noteworthy that Anam states that the video was recorded on August 9, 2022, 180 days since the UN workers were kidnapped. Anam also says that his health is deteriorating.
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On October 4, 2022, the Free Caucasus YouTube channel uploaded a video address by "Abu Hamza," a senior member of the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus calling for the "liberation" of the Caucasus from Russia, in light of Russian weakness due to the war in Ukraine. He called on the Muslims to unite and to choose a unified leadership in order to take effective steps to "liberate" the region and to establish the rule of shari'a law.
On September 6, 2022, a video was posted to the YouTube account of HTS's Military College of the graduation ceremony of the first-ever officers' course held at the College in Idlib, Syria. The ceremony was attended by HTS commander Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani and by the Prime Minister of the Syrian Salvation Government, Ali Keda. In the video, the officer cadets took an oath to "continue marching on the path of jihad" and to liberate Syria from the "filth of the occupiers and the collaborators." The cadets also demonstrated their martial arts capabilities.
On May 26, 2022, Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) aired an interview with Moroccan former Al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubeir Al-Maghribi, who spoke about the time he spent in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan during the American invasion. The interview was conducted from inside a prison in Libya where Al-Maghribi is currently being detained. Al-Maghribi explained that he and several Libyan Al-Qaeda operatives and their families moved into houses in Iran that they rented with the help of Baloch Iranians near the Iranian border with Afghanistan.
He said that he had learned Farsi while in Afghanistan and was able to leave the house to buy food and supplies, and that after several months, the Iranian authorities arrested him and the other Al-Qaeda operatives. He explained that the Iranian authorities did not torture him, ask him any questions, or attempt to verify his identity, and that after approximately a year and a half in Iranian prisons he was released to house arrest in Arak, Iran with his wife and family. He said that he remained there under house arrest until his release in 2009, whereupon the Iranian government let him and the other Al-Qaeda members decide where they want to be deported to. He said that he chose to go to Afghanistan and described how the IRGC's intelligence units smuggled him and his family out of Iran into Iraq.
Al-Maghribi also said that the Iranians had told him and his fellow Al-Qaeda members that they are being held in the event that it serves Iranian interests to hand them over to the Americans. In addition, Al-Maghribi described how Al-Qaeda provided him and his family with forged passports and how easy it was to bribe airport and border checkpoint personnel throughout the Arab world to let them cross borders. In addition, Al-Maghribi described how he moved to Libya during the Arab Spring to help the mujahideen fight against Muammar Qaddafi.
