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.
On December 26, 2023, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, released a trailer previewing a soon-to-be-released video titled, "What America & The West Do Not Expect."
A December 26, 2023 Israeli strike on a building in a well-known Hizbullah stronghold in South Lebanon reportedly killed three people.
On December 20, 2023, the Supreme Political Council of the Houthi Ansar Allah movement in Yemen referred to the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG) by the U.S. as "an aggressive step intended to protect Israel," and asserted that the U.S. bears full responsibility for its consequences.
On December 22, 2023, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the Sahel, Jama'at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen (the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims – GSIM) published a statement claiming that on December 20, GSIM operatives attacked a barracks of the Malian army in Dinagorou, in Mali's Mopti region.
On December 27, 2023, the Shahada News Agency, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), published a statement claiming that early that morning Al-Shabab operatives shelled the presidential palace, in the "most fortified area of Mogadishu."
On December 25, 2023, the Shahada News Agency, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), published an article detailing more than ten attacks perpetrated by the group against Turkey-based Somali special forces, government militias and "African forces" in five regions of central and southern Somalia on December 23-24, claiming the killings of more than 71 forces and the injuries of over 31.
On December 27, 2023, the press office of Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, issued a statement condemning the Somali government for allegedly policing the Islamic clothing of residents in Mogadishu—specifically targeting women who wear the hijab.
On December 21, 2023, the chief religious official of Syrian jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) published a "clarification" on his Telegram channel discussing measures lately taken by the group against Jihad 'Isa Al-Sheikh aka Abu Ahmad Zakour, a senior HTS leader until recently.
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On December 26, 2023, Amjad media, the official outlet of the Syria-based jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), released a video of a jihadi nasheed, or chant, titled: "From Idlib To Gaza: Inform Us, O Grieving Hearts," providing "support and solace" to the people of Gaza.
On December 21, 2023, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 422 of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba', featuring an editorial titled: "The Perils Of Fanaticism."
Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Telegram Channel Shares Threatening Poster Ahead of Christmas
On December 17, 2023, a prominent pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Telegram channel shared a violent cartoon originally published on December 20, 2021, by a user of the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server.
On December 20, 2023, a user of an Islamic State (ISIS)-operated server posted a link to a private Telegram channel and to a post on the justpaste.it file-sharing website, titled "A Message to the So-Called Abu Qutaybah or Hamad Al-Jazrawi: What Are You Going to Do?"
On December 21, 2023, the Al-Aza'im Media Foundation, a media outlet supportive of the Islamic State Khurasan Province (ISKP), published Issue 31 of its English-language magazine, "Voice of Khurasan."
On December 21, 2023, the Lebanese Hizbullah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen television channel carried an interview with Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, member of the Supreme Political Council of Yemeni Ansar Allah movement.
On December 24, 2023, a Telegram channel affiliated with Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) shared a map of networks of submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
On December 26, 2023, Yemen's Houthi Ansar Allah Movement claimed responsibility for firing naval missiles at a commercial vessel in the Red Sea, as well as for launching drones at "military targets and other locations" in Eilat, Israel.
In recent days, senior members of Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) have issued threats to the U.S.-led coalition to protect Red Sea shipping and to Israel, declaring that the more countries join the alliance, the more targets the Houthis will have to attack, and warning Israel that striking Yemen will cause its defeat.
On December 22, 2023, Al-Akhbar Daily published an article shadowing the daily activities of a Lebanese Hizbullah field officer, who has patrolled the Lebanese-Israeli border since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War.
Between December 23-24, 2023, two senior Hizbullah officials spoke at different events in South Lebanon.
On December 22, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq released a statement claiming that on December 12, it attacked the city of Eilat, in southern Israel, using "a suitable type of weapon," as part of its efforts to "resist the occupation, support our people in Gaza, and respond to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against Palestinian civilians, including children, women and the elderly."
In late December, two websites affiliated with the Syrian opposition published a series of reports about the operations of Russian and Iranian forces in Syria.
On December 25, 2023, Iranian news agency Tasnim, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that a senior IRGC commander, Reza Mousavi, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Damascus suburb of Al-Sayyidah Zaynab, an important center of Iranian activity in Syria and the site of a shrine for Zaynab, the daughter of the caliph 'Ali.
On December 24, 2023, a Telegram channel that supports Iran-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militias published a poster depicting the late General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), along with the caption "The Two Fathers of This Resistance."
On December 26, 2023, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that, "In response to multiple attacks against coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. military forces conducted airstrikes against multiple facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq at 8:45 p.m. (EST) on Dec. 25… Early assessments indicate that these airstrikes destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants."
On December 25, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed joint operations group of Iraqi militias, released a statement on Telegram claiming a drone attack against a U.S. base in the Green Village, in Syria's eastern Deir Al-Zour governorate.
