Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 29 – July 5, 2023)

Main events of the past week

• This week, there was a further decline in ISIS’s activity around the world. The organization’s activity focused on Africa.
• Israel: ISA Director Ronen Bar revealed that since the beginning of 2022, the ISA has dealt with over 600 ISIS-related cases in Israel and that some of the operatives were just about to launch an attack.
• Syria: A Palestinian Quds Brigade fighter was killed by an IED planted by ISIS.
• Africa:
  • Mozambique: ISIS operative attacked joint patrols of the Mozambican army and Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces in northeastern Mozambique, killing ten soldiers, most of them from the Rwandan army, and taking a Mozambican soldier prisoner.
  • Nigeria: ISIS continued its activity against Nigerian army forces and Christian civilians in the northeast of the country.
  • Somalia: Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab held a parade attended by hundreds of its fighters. The forces of the African Coalition reduced their presence in the country.
  • Mali: Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM) announced that its operatives had shot down a Wagner Group helicopter in the city of Macina, in central Mali.
• France: Following the killing of an Algerian youth by a policeman, Al-Qaeda called for using IEDs against the French security forces.
• Saudi Arabia: A gunman fired at the US consulate in Jeddah. The gunman and a Nepali security guard were killed. It is unclear at this moment who was behind the incident, but it may have been an element affiliated with Al-Qaeda or ISIS.
• The battle for hearts and minds: The editorial of Al-Naba, ISIS’s weekly, deals with a jihad fighter’s reward. It stresses that the jihad fighter is rewarded both in this world and in the next. A senior leader in Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) calls on Muslims in “Palestine” to continue the jihad against the Jews. He also calls on Al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa and the Sahel to continue fighting against ISIS and on Al-Shabaab operatives to continue fighting against their enemies, i.e., in Somalia and its neighboring countries.

Israel

• ISA Director Ronen Bar revealed at the annual Cyber Week conference held on June 27, 2023, at Tel Aviv University that since the beginning of 2022, the ISA has dealt with over 600 ISIS-related cases in Israel. He pointed out that many of the operatives had been exposed to violent and dangerous content on social media and the dark web and that some of them had been just about to launch a terror attack (pc.co.il, June 27, 2023).

The Syrian Arena^[1]

ISIS’s activity

Deir ez-Zor-al-Mayadeen region

• On July 1, 2023, an RPG rocket and shots were fired at an SDF headquarters in the city of Al-Basira, about 15 km north of Al-Mayadeen. Several fighters were wounded (Telegram, July 4, 2023).

The desert region

• On July 2, 2023, ISIS activated an IED against a patrol of the Palestinian Quds Brigade, which supports the Syrian army, in the Al-Shula area, about 30 km southwest of Deir ez-Zor. A Quds Brigade fighter was killed (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, July 2, 2023).

Al-Hasakah region

• On July 4, 2023, an SDF checkpoint was targeted by gunfire in the Markadah region, about 80 km south of Al-Hasakah. Two fighters were killed (Telegram, July 4, 2023).

Iraq

ISIS’s activity by province^[2]

Al-Anbar Province

• On July 1, 2023, shots were fired at an Iraqi army compound near the Arar area, near the Iraqi-Saudi border. One soldier was wounded. A thermal camera was destroyed (Telegram, July 1, 2023).

Kirkuk Province

• On June 29, 2023, shots were fired at an Iraqi army compound near the Zaghitoun Bridge, about 55 km southwest of Kirkuk. One soldier was wounded (Telegram, July 1, 2023).

Summary of ISIS’s activity in the various provinces

• Data from an infographic published by Al-Naba, ISIS’s weekly, summarizing ISIS’s activity on June 22-28, 2023, indicate that during this period, ISIS operatives carried out 16 attacks in the various provinces (compared with 17 in the previous week). The West Africa Province carried out the highest number of attacks (6). Attacks carried out in the other provinces: Iraq (3); Khorasan, i.e., Afghanistan (3); Syria (2); Central Africa (1); and Pakistan (1). A total of 24 people were killed and wounded in the attacks, compared with 52 in the previous week. The largest number of casualties was in the West Africa Province (8). In the other provinces: Syria (4); Central Africa (4); Khorasan, i.e., Afghanistan (4); Iraq (3); and Pakistan (1) (Al-Naba weekly, Telegram, June 29, 2023).

Attacks by week (according to ISIS’s figures)

Africa

Nigeria

ISIS’s activity

• ISIS’s activity against the Nigerian army and civilians in the northeast of the country:
  • On June 30, 2023, ISIS operatives attacked a civilian task force post on the Waluri Bridge in the town of Damboa, about 80 km southwest of Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria. Two fighters were severely wounded. ISIS operatives could not enter the town, but they fired mortar shells at it, killing six civilians, including women, and wounding 23 (Daily Trust, July 1, 2023).
  • On June 28, 2023, a fighter of forces supporting the Nigerian army was kidnapped and executed near the town of Carinoa in Borno State (Telegram, June 28, 2023).

Boko Haram activity

• On June 30, 2023, a Boko Haram IED was activated against a vehicle about 50 km southeast of Maiduguri. Five of the passengers were killed (Zagazola, June 30, 2023).

Summary of fatalities in Boko Haram attacks

• Data from an infographic published by SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian geopolitical intelligence research body, summarizing Boko Haram’s activity between December 1, 2020, and May 31, 2023, indicate that during this period, the organization’s operatives carried out 430 attacks throughout Nigeria, killing 5,873 people. The largest number of fatalities was in Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria. Hundreds more were killed in Yobe State, west of Borno, and Adamawa State, south of Borno State. It was also noted that ISIS’s West Africa Province recently exceeded Boko Haram in the number of attacks carried out by its operatives (SBM, June 30, 2023).

Mozambique

ISIS’s activity

• On the morning of June 30, 2023, an attack was carried out against joint patrols of the Mozambican army and Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces while they were trying to advance towards ISIS operatives near the village of Cobar in the Macomia region, in the northeast of the country. There were exchanges of fire between the sides. For two days, ISIS operatives chased the soldiers, who retreated to the forested area around the village. Ten soldiers, most of them from the Rwandan army, were killed, and a Mozambican soldier was taken prisoner. Eight medium machine guns, five RPG launchers, three mortars, assault rifles, crates of ammunition, and equipment were seized by ISIS operatives (Amaq, Telegram, July 2, 2023).

     
Mozambican army soldier captured by ISIS, and the weapons and equipment of the Mozambican army and SADC forces, seized by ISIS (Telegram, July 2, 2023)

Democratic Republic of the Congo

ISIS’s activity

• On June 29, 2023, an attack was carried out against Christian civilians in the village of Makungu, in the Beni region, about 50 km west of the border with Uganda. A Christian civilian was killed, and a motorcycle was set on fire (Telegram, July 1, 2023).

Somalia

Al-Shabaab activity

• On July 4, 2023, operatives of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab fired a mortar shell into central Mogadishu. At least three civilians were killed and others were wounded, some seriously. It is unclear what the target of the attack was, but in general, Al-Shabaab’s targets in the city are government and military buildings (garoweonline.com, July 4, 2023).
• On July 3, 2023, Al-Shabaab operatives attacked a Somali government special unit force in Galgaduud in central Somalia. The force chased away the Al-Shabaab operatives and located IEDs planted by Al-Shabaab in the area (Xinhua News Agency, July 4, 2023).
• On June 30, 2023, there were exchanges of fire between Al-Shabaab operatives and militia fighters supporting the Somali army in the village of Dar al-Na’ima, northeast of Mogadishu. The militia fighters fled, and Al-Shabaab operatives took over Dar al-Na’ima and destroyed the militia base and the equipment they used. During the fighting, Al-Shabaab operatives blew up a mosque. They also attempted to blow up a water well but failed. Residents reportedly fled the area in advance after receiving information about an imminent Al-Shabaab attack. The next day, militia fighters, with the help of the Somali army, regained control of the village (TRACTerrorism; alsomal aljadid, July 1, 2023).

African Coalition forces reduce their troops in Somalia

• On June 30, 2023, the African Union forces in Somalia (ATMIS – The African Union Transition Mission) announced that they had completed the first phase of reducing their troops, which are assisting Somalia’s security forces in their war against Al-Shabaab. African Union forces handed over control of seven bases to Somalia’s security forces, withdrawing 2,000 troops from the country, as they were obliged to do in accordance with the UN resolution (Al-Araby al-Jadeed, July 1, 2023)

Al-Shabaab show of force

• On June 28, 2023, Al-Shabaab held a military parade in the areas under its control, apparently in the south of the country. The parade consisted of hundreds of fighters, including fighters from the organization’s suicide battalion. The fighters drove in off-road vehicles, waved the organization’s flags, and displayed their arms. During the parade, the organization’s spokesman, Ali Mahmoud Raji, spoke and noted that the attacks by the organization’s enemies against it had actually strengthened it and even led to a dramatic increase, which is estimated at about 70% in the number of attacks carried out by the organization in the past year. In addition, the completion of a new Al-Shabaab training course was announced (Shahada News Agency, June 28, 2023).

Counterterrorism measures against ISIS

• On July 2, 2023, the Somali authorities announced the arrest of nine foreign ISIS commanders, citizens of Sudan, Syria, and Ethiopia, during a military operation in the state of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia (Asharq Al-Awsat, July 2, 2023). This once again indicates the ties of ISIS’s main organization in Syria and Iraq to its arms in Africa.

Mali

Al-Qaeda activity

• The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM) announced that its operatives had shot down a helicopter of the Wagner Group, a mercenary militia affiliated with the Russian regime, in the city of Macina, in central Mali (Telegram, July 3, 2023).

ISIS’s activity

• On the late evening of June 27, 2023, ISIS operatives fired at civilians in the village of Boya, in the Gao region, northeastern Mali, about 150 km north of the Mali-Niger-Burkina Faso tri-border area. Fourteen civilians were murdered. Another ISIS attack was carried out in the village of Gaena. Three civilians were murdered, others were wounded, and six were abducted. It was noted that civilians began to flee the villages towards larger and safer towns (Anatolia News Agency, June 29, 2023).

Saudi Arabia

Terrorist activity

• On June 29, 2023, the US consulate in Jeddah was targeted by gunfire. The gunman and a Nepali security guard who was securing the consulate were killed (Al-Jazeera, June 29, 2023). It is unclear at this moment who was behind the incident, but it can be assumed that it was an element affiliated with Al-Qaeda or ISIS.

Asia

Afghanistan

Summary of terrorist activity in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover

• According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), from the time the Taliban came to power on August 15, 2021, until May 2023, a total of 3,774 civilians were harmed by terrorist activity in the country, 1,095 of whom were killed. The fatalities included 92 women and 287 children. Most of the deaths, 701, were caused by IEDs, roadside charges, and attacks in populated areas, including places of worship, schools, and markets. According to the data, ISIS’s Khorasan Province is responsible for most of the IED attacks, including IEDs used in suicide bombing attacks. ISIS’s Khorasan Province is attributed the responsibility for the killing and wounding of more than 1,700 Afghan civilians during the period in question, according to claims of responsibility issued by the organization (VOA, June 27, 2023).

ISIS’s activity

• On July 3, 2023, an ambush was set up, and shots were fired at a Taliban foot patrol in the village of Diukal in Kunar province, northeast of Jalalabad. Two Taliban fighters were killed (Telegram, July 4, 2023).

Pakistan

ISIS’s activity

• On June 28, 2023, a Pakistani government “spy” was shot and killed in the city of Mastung, about 45 km east of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, in Balochistan Province (Telegram, June 28, 2023).

Attack of Tehreek-e-Taliban

• On July 2, 2023, militants attacked a security post in the Quetta area of western Pakistan, not far from the border with Afghanistan. Four security personnel were killed, as well as one of the attackers. Tehreek-e-Taliban^[3] claimed responsibility for the attack (VOA, July 2, 2023; TRACTerrorism, July 2, 2023).

Counterterrorism

• On June 28, 2023, a Pakistani army force operated against an ISIS hiding place in the Bajaur area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. An ISIS commander, Shafi’ Ullah, and two other operatives were killed. Shafi’ Ullah was wanted by the Pakistani government, and according to it, he was involved in attacks against Pakistan’s security forces and the murder of innocent civilians. Weapons and ammunition were found in the hiding place (ABC News, June 28, 2023).

India

Counterterrorism

• On July 3, 2023, forces from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Mumbai Police raided several targets in the cities of Mumbai and Pune, about 100 km southeast of Mumbai, and detained four people affiliated with ISIS. The detainees have been known to India’s security services since 2021. It was noted that incriminating materials, including digital devices, were seized from the detainees and their homes (News18, July 3, 2023).
• On June 30, 2023, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed an indictment against nine people, Indian Muslims aged 22-27 from Karnataka, southwest India, who are allegedly involved in a case related to an ISIS conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks throughout the country. Five of them have technical backgrounds and were allegedly assigned by an ISIS operator outside India to take courses in robotics to gain skills for carrying out terrorist acts in India (The Economic Times, July 1, 2023). As will be recalled, according to a report from May 8, 2023, intelligence agencies warned that ISIS had begun a campaign to recruit young people with technological backgrounds from India, mainly from Karnataka and Rajastan, in northwestern India. According to the report, ISIS is recruiting young people through the Internet (The Tribune, May 8, 2023).

Europe

France

• On July 4, 2023, the French Foreign Ministry announced that ten women and 25 children who had been held in detention camps for families of ISIS operatives in northeastern Syria had been returned to France. It was noted that this is the fourth such repatriation operation in 2023. The minors among the children will be transferred to welfare services, while the adults will be transferred to the legal authorities (Al-Arabiya, July 4, 2023).

Al-Qaeda calls for using IEDs against the French security forces

• On June 29, 2023, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated website called on protesters in France to use IEDs to kill French police and military personnel (TRACTerrorism, June 30, 2023). The background of the protests is the killing of a young man of Algerian origin by a policeman, on June 27, 2023, in a suburb of Paris, which sparked riots all over France.
• On June 30, 2023, a man armed with a rifle shot three policemen in the Rhône department in eastern France. The man reportedly ambushed the three men behind a wall and shot them (France24, June 29, 2023, and July 1, 2023; Ynet, July 1, 2023). It is unclear whether there is a connection between the incident and Al-Qaeda’s call to attack policemen.

United States

Sentence for an American citizen on charges of providing material assistance to ISIS

• On June 29, 2023, a court in Houston, Texas, sentenced Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya, a 23-year-old US citizen from Houston, to 13 years and nine months in prison after he was convicted of attempting to join ISIS and provide material assistance to the organization from August 2017 until his arrest in December 2017. After his release from prison, Damlarkaya will be monitored for life. It was noted that he provided information to other ISIS supporters about the use of machetes, the homemade construction of automatic weapons, and ways to manufacture and use IEDs (US Department of Justice, June 29, 2023).

Imposing sanctions on two ISIS commanders

• The US Department of State designated two ISIS commanders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) for abducting and enslaving Yazidi women and girls. The two are Arkan Ahmad ‘Abbas al-Matuti, aka Abu Sarhan, a senior commander in ISIS’s Al-Jazeera Province in Iraq, and Nawaf Ahmad Alwan al-Rashidi, aka Abu Faris, who managed ISIS financial payments to members and widows and worked in the organization’s smuggling operations (Sanctions, June 29, 2023).

The battle for hearts and minds

Jihad fighters are rewarded in this world and the next

• The editorial of ISIS’s weekly Al-Naba was published this week under the title “Fruits of Jihad.” It deals with the significance of jihad war against the “infidels” and the reward of the jihad fighter. According to the article, the jihad fighter is rewarded both in this world and in the next.
• The author of the article notes that jihad is a means of achieving the victory of Islam, even if victory is delayed. The jihad fighter has a great reward, even if he does not achieve victory in his lifetime, since he will receive eternal life in paradise and salvation from the fire of hell; Jihad has value in distinguishing between those who truly believe in Allah and those who do not believe in Allah wholeheartedly, but only externally, since jihad fighters are willing to sacrifice themselves for Islam; Jihad is a way to save the Islamic nation and bring it out of a state of inferiority and humiliation compared to the “infidels.”
• According to the writer, historically, Muslim believers fought the “infidels” when they were few against many, and the same is the situation now, with ISIS operatives fighting against many armies and in various international coalitions. The author ends the article by claiming that jihad fighters do not necessarily win when they are alive, but their reward in the afterlife is high and guaranteed (Al-Naba weekly, Telegram, June 29, 2023).

Senior Al-Qaeda leader calls on Palestinians to continue jihad

• In an audiotape posted on July 1, 2023, on social media by the Al-Malahim Media Foundation of Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates from Yemen, Khabib al-Sudani, a senior leader of Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula, calls on Muslims in “Palestine” to continue their “jihad against the Jews.” In addition, he calls on the organization’s operatives in North Africa and the Sahel to continue their fighting against ISIS operatives and praises Al-Shabaab operatives in Somalia for their victories, calling on them to continue fighting their enemies (Akhbar al-Aan, July 1, 2023; Shahada News Agency, July 3, 2023).
• Regarding the Palestinian issue, Al-Sudani notes that the killings, burnings, destruction of homes and property, and construction of settlements by the Jews will not undermine the courage of the Muslims in “Palestine” after years of stubborn struggle. He points out that Allah is putting the Palestinians to the test, and they must not be broken. He calls on the Palestinians to continue jihad, not to surrender, and act more vigorously in the framework of sacrificial activity (i.e., suicide bombing attacks) as they have nothing to lose since anyone killed among them will be considered a shaheed (martyr) who will merit paradise. He adds that millions of Muslims want to join them, but the rulers, “collaborators” and “traitors,” prevent them from doing so.
• Al-Sudani stresses that Al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa and the Sahel region must continue to fight ISIS operatives to expel them from their countries. He praises their activity, especially in Mali (where the clashes between the two organizations are particularly severe and deadly). In addition, Al-Sudani praises Al-Shabaab operatives in Somalia and all those who assisted them for their “heroic victories” against the armies of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia. He calls on them to continue their jihad war, noting that they should know that they are a shining example of devotion to Islam for future generations.
• In conclusion, Al-Sudani notes that there are signs indicating the collapse of the secular world order and the collapse of the United States (which, he claims, is particularly evident in the sympathetic attitude of the US administration towards the LGBT community). According to him, this is encouraging news for Muslims in general and Muslims in “Palestine” in particular. He concludes that the road to the victory of Islam is assured.

^[1] According to ISIS’s claims of responsibility and the global media. ↑
^[2] According to ISIS’s claims of responsibility and the global media. ↑
^[3] Tehreek-e-Taliban is an Islamic organization operating in the region, often referred to as the Pakistani Taliban although it is separate from the Taliban in Afghanistan. ↑

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