Spotlight on Global Jihad (December 8-14, 2022)

Main events of the past week

• This week, there was a moderate increase in ISIS activity around the world. The most prominent incident was an attack on a hotel in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where Chinese citizens were staying. The three attackers were killed and about 20 people were wounded, including at least five Chinese citizens. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
• Syria: This week, ISIS increased its scope of activity against the Kurdish SDF forces while taking advantage of Turkey’s attacks on the Kurdish forces in northern Syria. There was also an increase in the scope of ISIS’s activity against the forces of the Syrian regime and those supporting them in the desert region. A joint force of the US-led Global Coalition and the Kurdish SDF forces killed two ISIS commanders in the village of Al-Zir, about 10 km north of Al-Mayadeen.
• Sinai: The Egyptian army increased security measures along the Suez Canal for fear of ISIS attacks following recent attacks by ISIS in the city of Al-Qantara al-Sharq, which is close to the canal.
• Africa: Somalia – A Somali army force killed 14 operatives of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al- Shabaab in central Somalia. Mali – Dozens of civilians were killed during exchanges of fire between Al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Mali-Niger-Burkina Faso tri-border area. A German citizen abducted four and a half years ago was freed.

Afghanistan

Attack on a Kabul hotel where Chinese businessmen were staying

• On December 12, 2022, at least three gunmen attacked the Longan Hotel in central Kabul by shooting and detonating explosive devices. According to medical sources, there were 21 casualties in the incident, three of them were killed and the others wounded. According to a Chinese businessman who is staying in the city, about 10 Chinese citizens were wounded, five of them in critical condition. The following day, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that five Chinese citizens had been wounded. According to the Taliban government, no foreign nationals were killed in the incident. It was reported that the three attackers were killed (Khaama Press, December 12, 2022).

• ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, announcing that two of its operatives attacked a large hotel in Kabul where Chinese diplomats and businessmen usually stay. First, the attackers set off two explosive suitcases, one placed near a group of Chinese (probably at the entrance to the hotel) and the other in the reception hall on the first floor. Then one of the ISIS operatives, who went up to the second floor, threw hand grenades at the Taliban when they tried to go up. At that time, the second ISIS operative blew up the doors of the hotel rooms using sticky bombs and fired at the Chinese who were staying there. According to ISIS, at least 30 people were killed and wounded. In addition, parts of the hotel caught fire (Telegram, December 12, 2022).
• ISIS’s Amaq News Agency released a video showing the two terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS’s new leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, before leaving to carry out the attack (Telegram, December 13, 2022).

   
The two terrorists who carried out the attack pledging allegiance to ISIS’s new leader
(Telegram, December 13, 2022)

• The two attackers seen in the video apparently stayed at the hotel and were thus able to gather accurate intelligence and time the attack at the right moment. This is evident from a comparison of photos from a website for booking rooms in the hotel where the attack was carried out, with photos published by ISIS of the organization’s operatives who carried out the attack. The photos show that the room where the attackers were photographed and the hotel rooms are identical (Paul Brown Twitter account, December 13, 2022).

Additional ISIS activity in Afghanistan

• On December 6, 2022, ISIS operatives detonated an explosive device inside a store belonging to a Taliban “spy” in Jalalabad. He was killed (Telegram, December 7, 2022).

Counterterrorism activity

• The Taliban intelligence apparatus arrested five ISIS operatives involved in the assassination of Sheikh Rahim Allah Haqqani on August 10, 2022. It was noted that the detainees were also involved in carrying out other attacks (Bakhtar News Agency, December 8, 2022).

The Sinai Peninsula

Enhanced security along the Suez Canal for fear of ISIS attacks

• The Egyptian army has recently taken measures to prevent ISIS from attacking vessels in the Suez Canal, which is of enormous importance to the security and economy of Egypt and an essential artery of international trade. The measures were taken following recent ISIS attacks near the Suez Canal, which resulted in the death of several soldiers in the Egyptian army as well as material damage. According to local sources, the Egyptian security forces have increased their presence and reinforced the checkpoints along the Suez Canal using armored vehicles and have begun conducting patrols throughout the night for fear of ISIS attacks. In addition, reconnaissance flights over the agricultural areas are carried out throughout the day. Apart from that, the tunnels under the Suez Canal (between the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt itself) are now closed from midnight to 06:00 in the morning due to the fear that ISIS will detonate a car bomb in one of them. In addition, all those entering and leaving through the tunnels during daytime hours undergo meticulous security checks (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, December 7, 2022).

The Syrian arena^[1]

Deir ez-Zor-Al-Mayadeen region

• On December 12, 2022, a vehicle carrying an SDF commander was targeted by gunfire about 30 km north of Al-Mayadeen. The commander was wounded (Telegram, December 12, 2022).
• On December 12, 2022, gunmen, apparently ISIS operatives, shot and wounded an SDF commander about 40 km northeast of Al-Mayadeen (Deir ez-Zor24 Twitter account, December 13, 2022).
• On December 8, 2022, an SDF checkpoint was targeted by gunfire about 10 km north of Al-Mayadeen. One SDF fighter was killed (Telegram, December 10, 2022).
• On December 8, 2022, an SDF “spy” was targeted by gunfire in the Al-Suwar region, about 50 km northeast of Deir ez-Zor. He was killed (Telegram, December 8, 2022).
• Civilians found the body of an SDF fighter who was shot dead by gunmen, apparently ISIS operatives, in the Al-Basira region, about 15 km north of Al-Mayadeen (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 7, 2022).

Al-Hasakah region

• On December 7, 2022, an SDF fighter was targeted by gunfire about 75 km south of Al-Hasakah and was killed (Telegram, December 8, 2022).

The desert region

• On December 13, 2022, ISIS operatives exchanged fire with the Syrian army and the forces supporting it and took control of the Deir ez-Zor-Damascus highway for several hours, taking advantage of the fog that prevailed in the area making visibility difficult. In addition, ISIS operatives took control of the town of Al-Kawm, about 30 km north of Al-Sukhnah, for a whole day and then retreated deep into the Syrian Desert (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 13, 2022).
• On December 12, 2022, ISIS operatives attacked a position of the Homeland Defense Forces operating alongside the Syrian regime, in the Al-Shula area, about 30 km southwest of Deir ez-Zor. Six of the fighters of these forces and others supporting the Syrian army were killed and others were wounded (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 12, 2022).
• On December 7, 2022, there was an exchange of fire between ISIS operatives and Syrian soldiers as well as fighters of Iranian-backed militias supporting the Syrian army, in the Al-Sukhnah region, about 60 kilometers northeast of Palmyra, and the region of the T3 oil pumping station, located about 40 km east of Palmyra. A Syrian soldier and eight Syrian or Afghan militia fighters were killed. Two ISIS operatives were killed (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 7, 2022).

Counterterrorism activity

Two senior ISIS commanders were killed north of Al-Mayadeen

• Fighters of the US-led Global Coalition operated after midnight on December 10-11, 2022, along with SDF counterterrorism unit fighters against two ISIS commanders who barricaded themselves in a house in the village of Al-Zir, about 10 km north of Al-Mayadeen. After the two men refused to surrender, a Global Coalition attack helicopter fired a heavy machine gun and killed them (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 11, 2022).
• Following the operation, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that US Army forces, arriving in eastern Syria by helicopter on December 11, 2022, at 02:57 (local time), killed two senior ISIS commanders, one of them named Anas, a senior commander in ISIS’s Syria Province who was involved in planning attacks in eastern Syria. No details were provided about the other dead operative. It was noted that no civilians were killed or wounded during the operation (CENTCOM’s Twitter account, December 11, 2022).

Al-Raqqah region

• On December 10, 2022, a patrol of the Kurdish internal security forces, Asayish, broke into a house in Al-Raqqah to arrest an ISIS operative who was originally from the countryside east of Al-Raqqah. The operative refused to turn himself in and activated an explosive charge that he carried on his body. The ISIS operative was killed and three of the Asayish fighters were seriously wounded (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, November 11, 2022).

Al-Hasakah region

• SDF Special Forces fighters operating on December 9, 2022, in the Al-Hawl camp, about 35 km east of al-Hasakah, arrested three men suspected of belonging to ISIS (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, December 9, 2022).

Handing over the body of the former ISIS leader to the Americans in Jordan

• According to local sources in Daraa, on December 9, 2022, fighters of local factions in southern Syria removed the body of ISIS former leader Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Iraqi, also known as Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, who was killed on October 14, 2022, in the town of Jassim, about 40 km north of Daraa, and was buried in a cemetery in this town, and handed over the body through the Syria-Jordan border to the American forces in Jordan (Daraa24, December 13, 2022)

Counterterrorism activity

• Members of the SDF counterterrorism unit operated on December 7-10, 2022 against ISIS in various areas including Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hawl camp (about 35 km east of Al-Hasakah), and Tel Khamis (about 65 km northeast Al-Hasakah). A senior ISIS commander (emir) and two of his aides were arrested. They were responsible for the supply of weapons and ammunition for ISIS squads that tried to operate in the Al-Hawl camp, where the families of ISIS operatives are held, and in the prisons in Syria where the organization’s operatives are imprisoned. The forces found weapons and equipment, including a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a handgun, small arms magazines, two hand grenades, explosives, military binoculars, four combat vests, and several smartphones (SDF Press, December 13, 2022).

The Iraqi arena

ISIS attacks by province^[2]

Salah al-Din Province

• On December 7, 2022, an IED was activated against a Tribal Mobilization foot patrol east of Tikrit. One commander was killed and three others, including a commander, were wounded (Telegram, December 7, 2022).

Al-Anbar Province

• On December 12, 2022, an Iraqi army “spy” was abducted in the vicinity of Al-Rutba, in western Al-Anbar Province. He was interrogated and then executed (Telegram, December 12, 2022).

Counterterrorism activity

Kirkuk Province

•  On December 11, 2022, a joint force of the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization, acting on intelligence, searched for ISIS weapons in the periphery of the city of Kirkuk. It found 24 tanks full of explosives, which were neutralized on the ground (Iraqi News Agency, December 11, 2022).

• On December 10, 2022, an Iraqi Air Force aircraft carried out an airstrike against ISIS operatives in the Kirkuk Province (the exact location was not mentioned). Three ISIS operatives were killed (Iraqi News Agency, December 11, 2022).
• On December 7, 2022, an Iraqi Air Force aircraft attacked and destroyed an ISIS hideout used as a command and control center in the Kirkuk Province (Al-Sumaria, December 7, 2022).

Salah al-Din Province

• An Iraqi citizen noticed on December 10, 2022, ISIS operatives hiding in his farm in Taloul al-Baj, about 250 km north of Baghdad, opened fire and killed two of them. The remaining operatives fired an RPG rocket and killed him. Forces of the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization surrounded the four remaining operatives and killed them (SecMedCell Facebook page, December 10, 2022).
• On December 10, 2022, Popular Mobilization fighters operated in the Salah al-Din Province against a squad of five ISIS operatives in the Taloul al-Baj region. All five squad members were killed. In addition, weapons and explosives were found (Popular Mobilization Headquarters’ Twitter account, December 10, 2022).

Diyala Province

• On December 12, 2022, Iraqi Air Force F-16 fighter jets acting on intelligence attacked and destroyed an ISIS hideout where four operatives of the organization were present, in Qara Tapa, about 110 km northeast of Baqubah (SecMedCell Facebook page, December 12, 2022).

Duhok Province

• On December 12, 2022, gunmen, apparently ISIS operatives, fired at a building of the Kurdish internal security forces, Asayish, in the Duhok Province, in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. One person, apparently, a Kurdish internal security forces fighter, was killed, and another was wounded (Al-Sumaria, December 12, 2022). It should be noted that this is an unusual attack since ISIS does not usually operate there.

Summary of ISIS’s activity in the various provinces

• An infographic published by ISIS, summing up its activity around the world on December 1-7, 2022, indicates that the organization carried out 17 attacks in its various provinces around the globe (compared to 22 in the previous week). The largest number of attacks was carried out by ISIS’s Mozambique Province (5). Attacks carried out in the other provinces: West Africa (3); Khorasan, i.e., Afghanistan (3); Iraq (3); Syria (2); and Somalia (1). A total of 39 people were killed and wounded in the attacks, compared to 28 in the previous week. The largest number of casualties was in the Mozambique Province (13). The other casualties were in the following provinces: Iraq (8); Syria (5); West Africa (5); Khorasan, i.e., Afghanistan (4); and Somalia (4) (Al-Naba weekly, Telegram, December 8, 2022). This indicates a continuation of ISIS’s relatively moderate activity around the globe.

ISIS attacks by week (according to ISIS data)

Africa

Nigeria

ISIS activity

• On December 11, 2022, five mortar shells were fired at a Nigerian army camp in the town of Wajiroko, about 115 km southwest of Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria (Telegram, December 11, 2022). No casualties or hits were reported.

Clashes between ISIS and Boko Haram continue

• On December 11, 2022, dozens of ISIS operatives, traveling in four off-road vehicles carrying anti-aircraft guns, and other operatives riding motorcycles, attacked the Abu Iklima camp, a Boko Haram stronghold in the town of Gaizuwa, in the Sambisa Forest region, south of Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram operatives fled and left their wives and children behind. The Boko Haram leadership reportedly intends to send in operatives from Chad, Cameroon and Niger to fight against ISIS and regain control over the territories lost to ISIS in northeastern Nigeria (Zagazola, December 12, 2022).

Mozambique

• On December 12, 2022, ISIS attacked a Mozambican army compound in the village of Nova Zambézia, in the Macomia region, in the eastern part of the Cabo Delgado province, in the northeast of the country. One soldier was killed and the others fled. Assorted ammunition was seized (Telegram, December 12, 2022).
• On December 11, 2022, ISIS ambushed and fired at a joint patrol of the Mozambican army and the forces of the African coalition^[3] near the village of Naguida, in the Macomia region. Several soldiers were wounded and five vehicles were damaged (Telegram, December 12, 2022).
• On December 5, 2022, a Mozambican army compound in the village of Naguida was targeted by gunfire. One soldier was killed. Weapons and ammunition were seized (Telegram, December 7, 2022).

Kenya

• On December 12, 2022, Al-Shabaab operatives fired at a driver of an all-terrain vehicle, who refused to stop and even accelerated while he was traveling with four other people in the Mandera North district, in northeastern Kenya, close to the border with Somalia. A father and son were killed. Three wounded people were evacuated for medical treatment (Garowe Online, December 12, 2022).

Counterterrorism activity

• On December 12, 2022, the Kenyan security forces arrested six Al-Shabaab operatives after they entered the southeastern part of Kenya from Somalia (News Ghana, December 12, 2022). It should be noted that Al-Shabaab is active in the territories of the countries bordering Somalia and it is possible that following the intense activity of the Somali government against the organization, some of its operatives find refuge in the neighboring countries.

Somalia

Al-Shabaab activity

• On December 9, 2022, Al-Shabaab operatives attacked a vehicle carrying an officer of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency along with five of his men about 370 km northwest of Mogadishu. The officer was killed and his men were wounded (Prensa Latina, December 9, 2022).

Counterterrorism activity

• On December 10, 2022, a force of the Somali army operated against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab in central Somalia. An Al-Shabaab commander and 13 operatives of the organization were killed (AL24News, December 10, 2022).

New study about Al-Shabaab’s financing mechanism

• A comprehensive study published by the Swiss research institute Global Initiative against Transnational Crime indicates that Al-Shabaab established an elaborate financing system that made it the richest, largest and deadliest branch of Al-Qaeda. According to the study, Al-Shabaab succeeded in achieving this through the creation of a very effective tax collection mechanism, which is based on a deep penetration of the Somali society in the south of the country. The penetration takes place on several levels: at the level of civil society, at the level of the civil services that the organization provides to the population, through the security mechanisms established by the organization, and by penetrating the tribal structure of society. In addition, the use of internal intelligence and threats made by the organization against the population discourage residents from opposing Al-Shabaab. This model is based, according to the study, on the organizational structure of a mafia (globalinitiative.net, December 8, 2022).

Mali

• On December 8, 2022, it was reported that dozens of civilians were killed and hundreds were displaced from their homes during massive exchanges of fire that took place in the previous days between Al-Qaeda and ISIS in the regions of Gao and Ménaka, in the Mali-Niger-Burkina Faso tri-border area (TRT, December 9, 2022).
• Morocco’s intelligence services helped Germany free the German citizen Jörg Lang, who was abducted by gunmen in the Mali-Niger border area in April 2018. On December 8, 2022, the abductee was handed over to Moroccan intelligence in northern Mali by ISIS operatives and was then transferred to the German embassy in the capital, Bamako. On December 9, 2022, he landed in Germany. Lang, a 63-year-old civil engineer, had worked for decades as part of the humanitarian aid organization “HELP.” The German authorities believe that he was abducted by criminals who later sold him to ISIS (Afrigatenews, December 9, 2022).
• On December 10, 2022, Mali’s security forces handed over to the US representatives in Mali an Al-Qaeda operative by the name of Fawaz Wuld Ahmed Wuld Ahemeid, also known as Ibrahim Dis, a 44-year-old citizen of Mauritania who was involved in three major Al-Qaeda attacks which were carried out in Mali in 2015 and claimed the lives of 38 people. One of the fatalities in the attack on November 20, 2015, against the Radisson Blu Hotel, in the capital Bamako, was a US citizen and public health expert named Anita Ashok Datar (Daily News, December 11, 2022).

Indonesia

• On December 7, 2022, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle entered a police station in the city of Bandung, in the Indonesian province of West Java, and detonated one of two charges he carried on his body (the second was later neutralized). One policeman was killed and 11 others were wounded. The suicide bomber was identified as Agus Sujatno, 34, an Islamist terrorist operative who was convicted of making explosives and was released from prison in 2021 (Daily Mail, December 7, 2022).

• On December 8, 2022, Indonesian citizen Umar Patek, 52, who was a member of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Salafi-Jihadi organization Jemaah Islamiyah – JI, was released on parole from an Indonesian prison after serving 10 out of 20 years in prison, which he was sentenced to in 2012. Patek was one of those who made the two charges that were set off on October 12, 2002, in the organization’s attack outside a bar and nightclub on the island of Bali, Indonesia. A total of 202 people from 21 different countries, including 88 Australian citizens, were killed in the attack. The release provoked harsh criticism around the world, especially in Australia (France24; BBC, December 8, 2022).

Turkey

• On December 9, 2022, counterterrorism teams in the Security Directorate in the Samsun district, in northern Turkey, arrested four Iraqi citizens suspected of being ISIS operatives, in four different apartments. In addition, devices and technological equipment were confiscated (Anatolia News Agency, December 9, 2022).
• On December 8, 2022, members of the Counterterrorism Division of the Ankara Police along with members of the Turkish intelligence arrested 18 foreign citizens suspected of being ISIS operatives (Anatolia News Agency, December 8, 2022).

United States

• On December 11, 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi is in custody. Al-Marimi made the bomb that caused the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York on December 21, 1988, while it was over the town of Lockerbie in Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew of the plane were killed in the attack, and 11 people were also killed when the plane crashed on the ground. Abu Agila was charged in 2020 with involvement in the bombing and will be tried at a District of Columbia court (US Department of Justice website, December 12, 2022).
• On December 7, 2022, the US delegation to the United Nations asked the Security Council to urgently deal with the deportation of the foreign ISIS operatives imprisoned in Iraq and Syria back to their countries of origin (Almada Paper, December 7, 2022).

The battle for hearts and minds

Pledge of allegiance to ISIS’s new leader

• Following the announcement of the appointment of Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as ISIS’s new leader, further ISIS operatives around the world published their pledges of allegiance to the new leader. ISIS’s Lebanon Province was among those publishing their pledge of allegiance. It should be noted that this is ISIS’s first official reference to the Lebanon Province since 2019. No pledge of allegiance was published on behalf of the Lebanon Province to the previous ISIS leader who was replaced in March 2022.

Lebanon

   
ISIS operatives in Lebanon pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader (Telegram, December 10, 2022)

Tunisia

   
ISIS operatives in Tunisia pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader (Telegram, December 7, 2022)

India

   
ISIS operatives in India pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader (Telegram, December 7, 2022)

     
ISIS operatives in India pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader (Telegram, December 7, 2022)

   
ISIS operatives in India pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader (Telegram, December 7, 2022)

Mozambique

    
ISIS operatives in Mozambique pledge allegiance to ISIS’s new leader
(Telegram, December 7, 2022)

^[1] According to ISIS’s claims of responsibility and the world media. ↑
^[2] According to ISIS statements and the local media. ↑
^[3] The Southern African Development Community – SADC. ↑

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