As in recent weeks, this week as well, ISIS’s activity throughout the world remained moderate. Prominent attacks took place in the Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. The Somali government recorded achievements in fighting against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab Organization. ISIS issued hostile messages against the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, calling on its operatives to drive away the polytheists, Jews, and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula An element affiliated with ISIS disseminated a video on social media calling for attacks on Christmas against the “enemies of Muslims” throughout the world. 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...
The political stalemate in Lebanon continues no candidate for the position of president has been agreed on. A meeting was held by a Lebanese army, UNIFIL and IDF representatives. Hezbollah marked Shaheed Day with a memorial for Ahmed Qasir, the Hezbollah terrorist operative who carried out the first suicide bombing. Three attacks in Syrian were attributed to Israel. 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...
The most prominent of this week’s incidents was an attack carried out by the Somali army and local militias supporting it against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab Organization. The downtrend in ISIS’s activity around the globe continues. In Syria fighting between the Syrian army and HTS intensified in the Idlib region. In the Daraa region, fighting continued between local militias and ISIS’s local cells. In Afghanistan ISIS claimed responsibility for activating an IED against a minibus carrying Taliban government officials in Kabul. Read more...
