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 1, 2025, supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) continued to comment on the terrorist attack earlier that day, when a man rammed his truck into celebrating crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the perpetrator of the 2025 New Orleans terrorist attack, uploaded several audio recordings to SoundCloud in early 2024, in which he interpreted Quranic verses and denounced music and singing as being "the voice of Satan."
On January 4, 2025, a Telegram channel, which supports Iran-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq, shared a brief video clip dating from 2015 showing a woman about to be executed for adultery by the defunct Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) in Ma'arrat Misreen, in Syria's Idlib province.
On January 9, 2025, a new Syrian organization called The South Liberation Front, issued an official statement on its Telegram account, dated the same day, in which it declares its establishment and demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Syrian territory. The new group calls on the Syrian people to join its ranks ''to repel the Israeli aggression'' against Syria.
On January 1, 2025, Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) published an article on its official website titled "As a New Year Begins: Will Yemen Turn the MQ-9 Into the Joke of American Industries?"
On January 7, 2025, users on an Islamic State (ISIS)-operated server responded to a contest run by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
On January 3, 2024, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, aka Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, the leader of Syrian jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and the de facto head of the new Syrian administration, along with Syrian Foreign Minister As'ad Al-Shaybani, met with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
Addressing an event whose participants were mostly the wives of the "martyrs" of the fighters of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Iranian militia comprising Afghan Shi'ites, the Iranian official in charge of the Brigade said that the force will not be disbanded and is preparing for broader operations in the Middle East to eliminate Israel.
On January 5, 2025, a Tunisian-born religious official of Syrian jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) published posts on Telegram criticizing foreign fighters in Syria for using the country as a platform for opposition against their homelands' governments and issuing threats against them.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense will require prospective soldiers to complete a course on Shari'a (Islamic law) as part of a new recruitment drive.
After the opposition takeover in Syria in early December 2024, Hizb-ut-Tahrir Afghanistan published a Pashtu-language article arguing that if shari'a is not established after the fall of a tyrannical regime, it will not constitute a complete victory in Islam.
On January 6, 2025, the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), a Uyghur jihadi group active in Afghanistan and northwestern Syria, announced that it had appointed TIP's chief military commander and deputy leader in Syria, 'Abd Al-'Aziz Daoud, aka Abu Muhammed Al-Zahid, as the group's new emir in Syria.
Between January 1 and 5, 2025, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) claimed responsibility for two missile attacks on two power stations in Israel, and for a drone attack on another ''military'' target in Israel.
On January 6, 2025, Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) Movement issued an official statement announcing that its Intelligence and Security Apparatus had foiled "hostile activities" directed by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency.
Houthi Poster Glorifies Attacks On U.S. Aircraft Carriers: 'Yemen Is Faster'
Yemen's Ansar Allah Houthi Movement released a poster celebrating recent claimed attacks on U.S. aircraft carriers in the Red Sea.
On January 7, 2025, the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily published an expansive article that summarizes efforts by Hizbullah to repair the damages in Lebanon’s civilian sector caused by the war between Hizbullah and Israel.
On January 4-5, 2025, the London-based daily Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and an Iraqi website reported that several Iran-backed Iraqi militias have evacuated four of their large bases along the Syria-Iraq border.
On January 2, 2025, several Iran-backed militias groups and militia leaders in Iraq issued statements commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death of General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). Both were killed in a U.S. strike on January 3, 2020.
On January 2, 2024, Iraqi Shiite populist cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr issued a statement prohibiting attacks against the American people.
London-Based Arab Daily: Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq Evacuate Military Sites Along Syrian Border
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have withdrawn from military bases along the border with Syria, a London-based Arab daily reported.
On January 5, 2025, the Islamic State's (ISIS) official A'maq News Agency published a statement reporting that according to "military sources," ISIS operatives clashed with Ugandan army and intelligence forces in the village of Misanga, in central Uganda's Kayunga district, on January 3, using machine guns.
The Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) published statements claiming it had killed 20 Christians in Ituri and Beni territories in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
On January 5, 2025, A'maq News Agency, an official media outlet of the Islamic State (ISIS), claimed a previous day attack on a Nigerian army camp in Sabon Gari, in Nigeria's Borno state, which killed at least seven soldiers, wounded others, and destroyed several vehicles.
On January 2, 2025, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 476 of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba'.
On January 2, 2025, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 476 of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba'.
On January 7, 2025, an anti-Islamic State (ISIS) channel on an Al-Qaeda-operated server published a post.
The Pashtu-language magazine published by the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISKP) has two major articles that declare that war is to be waged against "Rawafidhs [rejectionist, a pejorative term for Shi'ite]" and criticize Pakistani government and political parties for failing to support Sunni Muslims against Shi'ites in Pakistan's Kurram Agency.
A Telegram channel linked to Michigan-based pro-Islamic State (ISIS) preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril shared a 26-minute video of the cleric's latest lecture on the importance of advocating for Muslim prisoners, especially "our sisters in captivity."
A Sydney-based pro-Islamic State (ISIS) preacher advocates passionately for the eradication of nationalism, tribalism, racism, and "artificial" borders to unify Muslims under divine guidance: a singular Islamic State or Caliphate.
A user publicized a new pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media foundation on the ISIS-operated server.
Poster By Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Media Outlet Threatens Car Bomb Attack On Uttar Pradesh, India
A poster by a pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media outlet threatened an attack on a population center in Uttar Pradesh, India.
On January 5, 2025, the official media arm of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released an approximately eight-minute video by its affiliated Shahed media outlet.
On January 6, 2025, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the African Sahel published a statement claiming that on December 31, 2024, GSIM operatives assaulted two military checkpoints of the Malian army and Russia's Wagner private military company (PMC) in Douentza, Mali's Mopti region.
On January 7, 2025, the media arm of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the African Sahel published a statement claiming that GSIM operatives killed and captured "Khawarij" in Diagarentou, in northern Burkina Faso’s Oudalan province.
On January 6, 2025, a pro-Al-Qaeda media group published a five-page essay.
Afghanistan's major independent daily recently published an article warning that the Taliban regime in the country is on the verge of collapse.
According to a series of tweets by Hafiz Zia Ahmad, the deputy spokesperson of the foreign ministry of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi telephoned Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaybani of the Syrian transitional government, "extending his heartfelt congratulations to his Syrian counterpart on their recent achievements" that led the fall of Bashar Al-Assad regime.
On December 11, 2024, in Kabul, an ISKP suicide bomber assassinated veteran jihadi commander and Afghan Taliban Minister for Refugees Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, who was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the late founder of Haqqani Network, and uncle of Anas Haqqani and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the latter being the Taliban's interior minister and now head of the Haqqani Network.
