ISIS

Spotlight on Global Jihad (January 14-20, 2021)

Routine attacks continued in ISIS’s various provinces in Syria, Iraq and throughout Africa and Europe. Syria: The desert region continues to be a hotbed of ISIS attacks concurrently with counterterrorism activity by the Syrian army and the forces supporting it. Iraq: This week, ISIS’s attacks continued in the Salah al-Din Province (north of Baghdad) and in several other provinces. The Sinai Peninsula: ISIS’s intensive activity in northern Sinai continues, mainly in the form of detonating IEDs against vehicles.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (January 7-13, 2021)

Last week, ISIS published several infographics, summing up the activity of its provinces in Iraq and Syria in 2020. The Iraqi Province remains the epicenter of ISIS’s activity and reorganization. The Syria Province is in second place among the various provinces in the volume of attacks (593). The West Africa Province (Nigeria and its neighbors): This province ranks third among ISIS’s provinces in the number of attacks (385) and first in terms of the number of fatalities in these attacks. The Sinai Peninsula: In the northern Sinai Peninsula, ISIS operatives continued to carry out successful guerrilla attacks against the Egyptian security forces, which repeatedly failed to provide an effective response to ISIS’s activity. Afghanistan (Khorasan Province): In Afghanistan, ISIS recovered from the blow that it had suffered at the hands of the Afghan army with US support in the Nangarhar Province (southwest of Kabul).
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (December 31, 2020 – January 6, 2021)

This year’s Christmas festivities throughout the Christian world, which were held on a limited scale due to the spread of COVID-19, passed without attacks by ISIS supporters, despite their public threats. Routine attacks continued in ISIS’s various provinces in Syria, Iraq and throughout Africa and Europe. Syria: ISIS operatives continued their intensive activity in the desert region west of the Euphrates Valley. Iraq: ISIS’s activity in northern and western Iraq focused on activating IEDs and sniper fire, and attacks on the Iraqi security forces, with no unusual incidents.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (December 17-23, 2020)

Routine attacks continued in ISIS’s various provinces in Syria, Iraq and throughout Africa and Asia. Noteworthy examples . Syria: routine activity continued in the area of Deir al-Zor and Al-Mayadeen and in the desert region west of the Euphrates Valley. Prominent modus operandi of ISIS’s attacks included targeted killings and the activation of IEDs against vehicles and soldiers of the SDF and the Syrian army. Iraq: the activity in northern and western Iraq consisted primarily of activating IEDs and targeted killings. The Iraqi Counterterrorism Unit has issued a report summarizing its activity against ISIS in 2020. According to the report, in the past year, 206 ISIS operatives were killed and 292 were apprehended.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (December 16-10, 2020)

Routine attacks continued in ISIS’s various provinces in Syria, Iraq and throughout Africa and Asia. Noteworthy examples: Syria: Clashes continue between ISIS and the Syrian army and forces supporting it in the desert region in eastern Syria. Iraq: ISIS’s intensive activity in northern and western Iraq continued, in the form of sniper fire, mortar shell fire, and attacking positions and compounds of the Iraqi security forces. The Sinai Peninsula: ISIS’s activity in northern Sinai continued, in the form of activating IEDs, targeted killings, and sniper fire. Somalia: ISIS released a video vehemently attacking Al-Qaeda and its affiliated Al-Shabaab movement. Afghanistan: ISIS fired 10 rockets, claiming that they were aimed at the military part of Kabul International Airport.
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Spotlight on Iran (November 29, 2020 – December 13, 2020)

The recently appointed Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faysal al-Miqdad, arrived for an official visit in Tehran. In light of growing criticism in Iran arguing that the volume of trade between Iran and Syria and Iraq is insufficient, the Iranian Organization for Trade Development published updated data concerning the volume of Iranian exports to Syria. The Iranian Ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, confirmed in a television interview that the commander of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Esmail Qa’ani, recently visited Iraq and met with senior Iraqi officials. The Reuters news agency reported about Iran’s efforts to expands its influence in the religious sphere in Iraq, though the development of the Shia holy sites in Iraq.
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