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 January 21, 2023, Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish politician and leader of the Danish Stram Kurs party, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Paludan's controversial act prompted Turkey to cancel a planned visit by Sweden's Defense Minister to Ankara, inspired counterdemonstrations in Sweden, Turkey, and Yemen, and drew condemnation from a multitude of governments and international bodies, as well as from Salafi-jihadis and the Iran-backed militias.
On January 21, 2023, Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish politician and leader of the Danish Stram Kurs party, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. MEMRI JTTM compiled a sampling of reactions to Paludan's controversial actions from jihadis from Syria and Gaza, online jihadi groups, and Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
On January 21, 2023, Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish politician and leader of the Danish Stram Kurs party, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. MEMRI JTTM compiled a sampling of reactions to Paludan's controversial actions from jihadi preachers and channels.
On January 21, 2023, Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish politician and leader of the Danish Stram Kurs party, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. Reacting to the incident, on January 25 pro-ISIS media outlets released posters inciting Muslims to carry out lone-wolf attacks in Sweden.
On January 24-25, a pro-ISIS Telegram channel published a series of posts discussing the retaliatory attacks that took place in the aftermath of the January 21 Quran burning protest in Stockholm by Danish-Swedish right-wing politician Rasmus Paludan.
A supporter on the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat server has repeatedly encouraged other supporters to carry out attacks against non-Muslims, specifically Westerners. Since January 4, 2023, the user has published at least three violent posts calling for attacks in Western countries.
On January 23, 2023, the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) claimed an attack in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), saying that it led to the killing of 26 Christians.
On January 20, 2023, the ISIS in Somalia released a 14-minute video documenting attacks on Somali government forces. The video began with a clip captioned "Surveying the advancement of apostate U.S. and Puntland forces towards the mujahedeen's sites."
On January 19, 2023, the ISIS released Issue 374 of its weekly Al-Naba' newsletter, which included an editorial titled "Blind Subordination" disparaging "modern academics" and "pseudo-Muslims" for promoting man-made concepts and subordination to the West.
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On January 20, 2023, the ISIS released Issue 374 of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba' which included an exclusive report highlighting attacks carried out by its operatives in the Hawran region in southern Syria.
Video From ISIS Sinai Province Shows Operatives Pledging Allegiance To New Caliph
On January 18, 2023, the ISIS Sinai Province released a three-minute video, the tenth in the ISIS video series, "Allah Will Certainly Help Those Who Stand Up For Him," (Quran 22:40), which includes footage showing ISIS operatives in the organization's various so-called "provinces" swearing allegiance to its fourth leader.
On January 19, 2023, a pro-ISIS media outlet released a poster inciting attacks on non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia similar to the November 2020 blast targeting an Armistice Day ceremony in the city of Jeddah.
On January 16, 2023, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) which defines itself as a supporting entity for the ISIS, released the second issue of its Arabic-language magazine Sawt Khorasan.
On January 18, 2023, Al-Qaeda in The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for two IED attacks against the UAE-backed Security Belt Forces in Abyan Governorate.
Al-Qaeda in The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for attacks against the UAE-backed Security Belt Forces in Yemen's Shabwah and Abyan governorates.
On January 23, 2023, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab) published an article and photos documenting a January 17 Al-Shabab attack on a Somali forces' military base north of Mogadishu in Somalia's Middle Shabelle Province.
On January 22, 2023, the official media outlet of the Somalia-based Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab reported that Al-Shabab special forces had carried out an commando-style operation against government headquarters of the administration of the capital, Mogadishu. After killing the guards and entering the compound, the fighters attacked officials and officers inside, according to the statement.
The media arm of the Mali-based Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal Muslimin (JNIM), also known as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), posted five photos and a video clip of Tuareg faction tribesmen in Mali's Menaka region pledging allegiance to GSIM leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
On January 19, 2023, a pro-Al-Qaeda outlet released issue no. 2 of its monthly magazine. The ten-page issue highlights Al-Qaeda's operations in Yemen, East Africa and West Africa over the month of December 2022, and includes an editorial, "Economic Collapse is a Way to Restore Jihad," discussing how the declining global economy can be exploited to wage jihad.
A January 22, 2023 report by the Lebanese online newspaper Al-Modon, based on a source allegedly close to Syrian jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), claimed that HTS is pressuring an Al-Qaeda-aligned French jihadi group to join the Al-Fath Al-Mubin operations room, comprising HTS and other factions.
In a January 23, 2023 "exclusive" report, a Syrian opposition website states that on that same day the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) smuggled a large arms shipment into Syria via the illegal Iranian border crossing – known as the Al-Sikak border crossing – which is overseen by the Iraqi Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi (Popular Mobilization Units, PMU), on the Syria-Iraq border.
On January 23, 2023, a media outlet affiliated with the Iran-backed militias in Iraq published a statement by an Iraqi "activist" in which he threatened a raid on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Claims Responsibility For Drone Attack Against U.S. Al-Tanf Base In Syria
On January 20, 2023, there were multiple drone attacks against the American Al-Tanf base in Syria, according to an official U.S. Central Command statement on its Twitter page.
Iran-Backed Group In Iraq Claims Destroying C-RAM Systems In Attack On U.S. Convoy Near Baghdad
On the evening of January 18, 2023 an Iran-backed Shi'ite group in Iraq claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. logistical convoy in Iraq's Baghdad Governorate.
Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Releases Footage Of Launching Three Drone Attack On U.S. Base In Syria
On January 24, 2023, an-Iran-backed Iraqi militia posted footage on its Telegram channel documenting a drone attack carried by the group's operatives on Al-Tanf military base in southeastern Syria, which houses U.S. forces.
Iran-backed Outlet Releases Video Analyzing Ukrainian, NATO Drone Use Against Russia
On January 18, 2023, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Iran-backed militias in Iraq released an animated video analyzing Ukraine's use of drones in special military operations against Russian forces.
An Islamabad-based think tank, Centre for Research & Security Studies (CRSS) recently published a report on the security situation in Pakistan that said: "The year 2022 ended with the deadliest month... for Pakistan's security personnel over a decade, with the emergence of a new terror triad comprising TTP [Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan], BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] and Daesh-Afghanistan [Islamic State's Khurasan Province, or ISIS-K] as the biggest threat to the country."
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the secessionist group that is fighting for the independence of Baluchistan province from Pakistan and now working with jihadi groups, has released its annual report, saying that in 2022 it carried out 188 attacks in which more than 500 Pakistani security forces and their "collaborators" – a reference to the Chinese in Pakistan – were killed and wounded.
In a video message, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) emir Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud reminded the Pakistani Islamic religious scholars that the TTP launched its jihad in Pakistan on the basis of their earlier fatwas and said that therefore they should not call the mujahideen terrorists and misguided people.
