From the night of November 18, 2022, until the early morning hours of November 19, 2022, there were heavy exchanges of fire between Egyptian army forces and operatives of ISIS’s Sinai Province in the eastern part of the city of Al-Qantara, which is close to the Suez Canal. At least five soldierswere killed, and several others were wounded. It should be noted that the Suez Canal is a strategic region representing an international traffic artery of importance for world trade in general and for the Egyptian economy in particular. Read more...
The most noteworthy event was an incident between the Egyptian army and ISIS operatives in Al-Qantara, near the Suez Canal. This week, there was a moderate increase in ISIS’s activity throughout the world., Terror activity in Mozambique has recently increased. The main article in ISIS’s Al-Naba weekly was dedicated to ISIS’s activity in Mozambique Province/ Read more...
ISIS supporters threaten to carry out attacks during FIFA World Cup in Qatar. ISIS’s activity throughout the world continued to decrease. Sinai Peninsula: A Sinai Tribal Union fighter was killed in the explosion of an IED activated against a Union force east of Rafah. Syria: Fighting continues between local militias and ISIS cells in the city of Daraa and its environs. Iraq: The Iraqi forces’ counterterrorism activity against ISIS continued, alongside minor ISIS activity. Afghanistan: A Taliban force raided an apartment used by ISIS as a hiding place in Kabul. Five ISIS operatives were killed. Turkey: On November 13, 2022, an IED exploded in central Istanbul. Six people were killed and 82 were wounded. Terrorism financing: ISIS operatives began to use the Tinder dating app (in its South African version only) to fraudulently obtain funds for the organization. The battle for hearts and minds: ISIS merged three media foundations affiliated with it to improve its media network. Read more...
The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 undermined the internal order in the country and brought about, among other things, the establishment of several pro-Iranian militias affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force. The militias were set up with the purpose of driving the US forces out of Iraq and establishing Iranian involvement in the country. Prominent among the militias are Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq (“League of the Righteous”), Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Hezbollah Battalions”), Harakat al-Nujaba (“the Movement of the Noble Ones”), and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (“The Master of Martyrs Brigade”).
The militias indeed operated in Iraq over the years against the US-led Global Coalition forces and contributed to the pullout of the forces from Iraq in late 2011. In 2014, they were integrated into the Popular Mobilization Forces (hereinafter: the PMF), which was intended to fight against ISIS, and since then they have become an integral part of the military establishment in Iraq and also integrated into Iraqi politics. The militias continue working to strengthen the Iranian involvement in Iraq and sever Iraq’s ties with the United States. They are also part of the Axis of Resistance, where they also operate outside Iraq, especially in Syria, including the border area with Israel.
Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of the PMF and commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions), on January 3, 2020, in a targeted killing by the US, there have been changes in the activity of the Iraqi pro-Iranian militias. These changes included personal changes in the leadership, the establishment of new militias as façades of the existing ones in order to maintain a low profile while carrying out attacks, and the expansion of the militias’ involvement in internal Iraqi as well as regional and global issues, such as the struggle a Read more...
On October 26, 2022, an armed ISIS operative carried out a shooting attack in the Shiite Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. The attack took place during the protests sweeping Iran,. The Iranian president claimed that the riots had paved the road to the attack, and the IRGC commander declared that the Iranian regime would act strongly against ISIS and even escalate its activity against the protesters. Read more...
The most prominent of this week’s incidents were two terrorist attacks: one carried out by ISIS in the Shiite Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz, Iran,; another attack carried out by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab Organization in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. In Nigeria A large force of ISIS operatives attempted to break into a Nigerian army base to liberate ISIS prisoners held there. In Afghanistan ISIS carried out a shooting attack against a Taliban minibus in the city of Herat, east of the Afghanistan-Iran border. At least five Taliban members were killed and 15 others were wounded. Read more...
