ISIS operatives fighting in Kobani in a heavy snowfall (Facebook page affiliated with the Peshmerga in the Kobani area, January 16, 2015)
Kurdish fighters photographed next to bodies of ISIS operatives killed in the fighting.
The suicide bomber (Twitter account affiliated with ISIS, January 16, 2015).
The car bomb explosion at the entrance to the city of Samarra.
The sign at the entrance to Rutba showing the ISIS insignia (on the left) and the words “the Islamic State”
Banners of the Islamic State in the city of Rutba.
Quran memorization class north of the province of Al-Raqqah (Twitter account affiliated with ISIS, January 13, 2015)
Photo from the video issued by ISIS, threatening to execute two abducted Japanese nationals
Karim Abu Saleh, one of the network operatives, against the background of an ISIS poster (Israel Security Agency, January 18, 2015)
Salafist-jihadi operatives demonstrating in front of the French Cultural Center in Gaza and waving black flags (Quds Net, January 19, 2015)
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis operatives in the Sinai Peninsula, on a website affiliated with ISIS (January 18, 2015)
Main events of the week[1]
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The shooting attacks in Paris – additional information
AQAP’s claim of responsibility for the attack at the editorial offices of the weekly Charlie Hebdo
- On January 14, 2015, AQAP posted a video on its Twitter page, in which Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a senior ISIS official, claimed official responsibility for the attack on behalf of ISIS (January 7, 2015). The main points that he made are as follows:
- The organization behind the attack – AQAP operatives planned and financed the attack and chose the target, under the guidance of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Anwar al-Awlaki was also one of the planners, before he died (in a targeted killing, 2011).[2] The announcement mentioned that the organization had previously threatened the weekly’s editorial board and its editor.
- Justification of the target – France committed “crimes,” including airstrikes in Mali and North Africa. France is the “Party of Satan,” an enemy of Allah and His Prophet.
- The terrorists who carried out the attack – the Kouachi brothers were acting on behalf of AQAP. However it was only “by the good luck of Allah,” that their attack was immediately followed by the attack carried out by Amedy Coulibaly, who carried out the attack at the kosher supermarket (i.e., the message denies responsibility of AQAP for the attack in the supermarket, whose perpetrator was affiliated with ISIS).
- Warnings directed at the West – if Western countries do not withdraw their forces from Muslim lands, other terrorist attacks will be carried out against them. He calls on Muslims, wherever they are, to take revenge on the West, particularly France, for its crimes against Muslims. He calls on them to boycott Western goods and encourage young people to die for their religion.
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ISIS’s praise for the attacks in Paris and its call to residents of the West to carry out attacks in their home countries
- On January 14, 2015, a video was uploaded to the Twitter account of one of ISIS’s communications operators, produced by the organization’s media arm in Al-Raqqah, showing three French-speaking ISIS operatives addressing the residents of France.
- The three praised the terrorist acts carried out in Paris.They said that the Islamic State is expanding every day, and will reach “France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and all the rest of Europe, as well as the United States.” They also called on supporters of ISIS in the West, who cannot travel to the territory of the Islamic Caliphate, to carry out terrorist attacks in countries where they reside: “Do all in your power, kill them, slaughter them, burn their cars and their homes. The Islamic Caliphate will be established in Europe” (Shabakat al-Jihad al-Alami, January 14, 2015).
[1]The weekly publication Spotlight on Global Jihad monitors developments among ISIS and global jihad organizations in Syria and Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole. The publication also monitors terrorist activities around the world, directed, supported or inspired by the global jihad organizations in the Middle East.
[2]Anwar al-Awlaki was a US-born jihadi operative and a senior official in AQAP. He was killed in September 2011 in an American targeted killing, carried out by means of a UAV.
[3]Israel Security Agency website, January 18, 2015.
[4]Israel Security Agency website, January 18, 2015.
