Syria

Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 22-28, 2023)

This week, there was a decline in ISIS’s activity around the world. The organization’s activity focused on Africa. In Syria Four policemen were killed in a shooting attack targeting a vehicle they were traveling in northwest of Daraa. A Syrian army brigadier general was ambushed and killed. Russian Air Force planes carried out extensive airstrikes against rebel targets in the rebel enclave of Idlib. Dozens of fatalities were reported. The Iraqi Army Spokesman noted that ISIS had lost 99 percent of its power in. In Somalia Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab detonated two car bombs against bases of the Somali army and the African Union troops. Seven soldiers were killed. The editorial of ISIS’s weekly Al-Naba deals with the importance of pilgrimage in Islam (Hajj) while criticizing the rulers of Saudi Arabia.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 15-21, 2023)

ISIS’s activity around the world continued to focus on Africa. The main incident this week was an ISIS attack on a high school in the city of Mpondwe in southwestern Uganda, in which 41 people were murdered, mostly children, and several others were abducted. There was an increase in ISIS’s activity in Syria. A total of 37 ISIS operatives escaped from a prison in Ras al-’Ayn in northern Syria, 25 of whom have not been apprehended yet. Three Syrian soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in the explosion of an IED apparently planted by ISIS in the Homs region. Five soldiers or fighters of the forces supporting the Syrian army were killed and seven others were wounded in the explosion of an IED in a bus northwest of Deir ez-Zor. The findings of a UN report indicate the strengthening of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in the country.The editorial of ISIS’s weekly deals with the meeting of the Global Coalition against ISIS, held in Saudi Arabia
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Spotlight on Iran (June 8-22, 2022)

In mid-June 2023, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) delegation visited Iran and met with senior Iranian officials, including supreme leader Khamenei. A delegation of senior Hamas figures also arrived in Tehran for a visit. The Iranian and Syrian foreign ministers held a phone conversation to discuss the outcomes of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Damascus in May, as well as regional developments, including the improvement in Syria's foreign relations with the Arab states. An Iraqi news website reported that the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' Qods Force visited Baghdad and met with leaders of the Shi'ite "coordination framework" to discuss recent political and security developments in Iraq.The head of Iran's Strategic Foreign Relations Council visited Baghdad and met with senior members of the Iraqi government to discuss the expansion of bilateral relations.
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Spotlight on Terrorism: Hezbollah, Lebanon and Syria (June 2-15, 2023)

Increasing tension along the Israel-Lebanon border Near Kafr Shuba, in the eastern sector of south Lebanon, civilians have made attempts to disrupt IDF engineering activities and cause provocations. At least some of the activities have been encouraged and directed by Hezbollah. Hezbollah practiced using UAVs as part of its preparations for a possible confrontation with Israel. Hashem Safi al-Din, chairman of Hezbollah's Operational Council, reiterates threats to fire missiles at the center of Israel and send operatives of its elite al-Radwan unit to invade the Galilee. Israel lodged a complaint with the UN against Hezbollah because of Hezbollah's stated intention to abduct Israeli civilians, a scenario of the most recent al-Radwan unit exercise.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 8-14, 2023)

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the struggle against ISIS has had many successes but it is not yet over In Afghanistan An ISIS operative carried out a suicide bombing attack at a mosque. Fifteen people were killed and 50 were wounded .In Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ISIS continued its activity against security forces and Christian civilians. A UN special investigation team on ISIS (UNITAD) reported to the UN
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 1-7, 2023)

The decline in ISIS’s activity around the world continues. The organization’s activity focused on Africa. In Syria: The United States and Turkey imposed sanctions on a senior operative of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated HTS. In Nigeria ISIS continued its high-intensity activity against the Nigerian army in the northeast of the country. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo ISIS continued its activity against Christian residents. In Afghanistan a car bomb was detonated against a vehicle carrying a Taliban deputy governor of a province.
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