Syria

In a public statement by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the first in a year, he calls on his supporters to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide, mainly in Western countries. He mentions shooting, stabbing and ramming attacks as well as detonation of IEDs.

On August 22, 2018, ISIS’s Al-Furqan Media Foundation released a 55-minute audiotape of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This is Al-Baghdadi’s first statement since the previous audiotape, which was released in September 2017, in which Al-Baghdadi called on ISIS’s supporters to carry out terrorist attacks against the West and continue fighting in Iraq, Syria and other provinces.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (August 16-22, 2018)

The Syrian army’s offensive against the ISIS enclave in the As-Suwayda area continues. In the Idlib area, the Syrian army and the rebel organizations, the most prominent of which is the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham, are preparing for the impending campaign. In Afghanistan, fighting continues between ISIS and the Taliban. At the same time, ISIS carried out three deadly suicide bombing attacks in Kabul.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Aug 15 – 21, 2018)

This past week talks were held in Cairo attended by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and several small terrorist organizations in order to reach an arrangement that would lead to the end of the hostilities in the Gaza Strip. While the arrangement is being discussed Hamas continues to implement its policy of controlled violence on the ground. The most prominent event in Judea and Samaria was a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem, carried out by an Israeli Arab from the central city of Umm al-Fahm.
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Spotlight on Iran (August 5 – August 19, 2018)

The future of cooperation between Syria and Iran following the settlement of the Syrian war: the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces spoke on the phone with the Syrian Minister of Defense who invited the Iranian for a visit in Damascus. The statement made by Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, confirming that his country intends to abide by the renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran, aroused an outcry in Tehran and among some in the Iraqi political arena.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (August 9-15, 2018)

The Syrian army campaign to take over the ISIS enclave northeast of As-Suwayda is about to end. ISIS operatives have been repelled to the area of Al-Safa, their main stronghold, and are now surrounded and cut off from supplies. This week, the Syrian army continued to reinforce its troops in key areas around Idlib.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (August 2-8, 2018)

On August 2, 2018, the Syrian army and its allies completed the campaign to take over southern Syria. In order to ease the pressure on the Yarmouk Basin, the ISIS enclave northeast of As-Suwayda initiated a deadly showcase attack against the Druze population in the city of As-Suwayda and its rural area (July 25, 2018). This is apparently the background for Syria’s decision to take over the ISIS enclave northeast of As-Suwayda, even at the expense of a certain delay in the campaign to take over the Idlib area (for which preparations continue).
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