Κυριακή 6 Οκτωβρίου 2013
INTERNASIONAL NEWS
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Posted: 05 Oct 2013 10:19 AM PDT
Al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa claimed it repelled a nighttime raid by Western special operations forces in the southern Somali coastal town of Barawe. The location of the purported raid is the same town where a top al Qaeda and Shabaab commander was killed by US special operations forces four years ago.
"Local witnesses reported on VOA Somali Service that unidentified foreign troops 'came from the coast with boats and helicopters' and raided a house in Barawe around 2am local time Saturday morning," according to Garowe Online.
Shabaab's military spokesman, Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab, confirmed the report and said that his fighters "repelled" the attack.
"We fought back against the white infidel soldiers with bombs and bullets, and they ran back to their boats," he said according to Garowe Online. "One member of Al Shabaab was killed and the white infidel soldiers failed their mission. We found blood and equipment near the coast in the morning."
Fighting between Shabaab forces and the unidentified Western troops lasted for more than an hour, Abu Musab claimed.
American intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the reports of the raid in Barawe. Given the nature of the raid -- which was carried out at night using both air and sea assets -- the US, France, and Britain are the only countries with the capabilities to carry out such a mission.
Barawe, which is halfway between Kismayo and Marka, is a known command and control hub for Shabaab. The coastal town is fully under the control of Shabaab, despite an offensive that was launched by Somali and African Union forces more than two years ago. Kenyan forces attacked Shabaab forces from the south and took control of Kismayo, but halted their advance after taking the southern city. Shabaab still controls much of the rural areas of Somalia as well as several smaller towns.
US and French special operations forces are known to have operated in Somalia in the past. In one of the two most high-profile raids, US special operations forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Barawe in September 2009. Nabhan was one of the most sought out al Qaeda operatives in Africa. He was wanted for involvement in al Qaeda's 1998 suicide attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He served as a top leader in both Shabaab and Al Qaeda East Africa, and also was instrumental in facilitating the official merger between al Qaeda and Shabaab.
Most recently, in January 2013, French commandos launched a failed raid in the town of Bula Marer to free a French intelligence official who was captured by Shabaab in 2009. Shabaab fighters repelled the attack and captured a French commando, who later died in custody. Shabaab released photographs of the captured soldier and weapons and gear seized during the raid, and then executed the French intelligence official.
The US has also conducted several air strikes and naval bombardments against Shabaab in the past. In one such attack, Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayro, the military commander of Shabaab, was killed during a US airstrike in May 2008.
Today's reported raid took place just two weeks after Shabaab forces launched a deadly, Mumbai-like raid on an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that resulted in the deaths of more than 65 civilians, including Europeans and Americans. Shabaab assault teams executed civilians and controlled the mall for 80 hours before explosions led to the collapse of a section of the four-story mall, which ended the siege.
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Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:37 AM PDT
President Bashir al Assad made perhaps the most ironic statement of the year when he attacked Turkey for supporting rebel and terrorists groups fighting in Syria. From Reuters:
In an interview with Turkey's Halk TV due to be broadcast later on Friday, Assad called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan "bigoted" and said Ankara was allowing terrorists to cross into Syria to attack the army and Syrian civilians.
Assad is actually right: Countries that attempt to ride the tiger by backing al Qaeda and allied groups have ultimately paid a heavy price. Look no further than Pakistan, which has supported, and continues to support, the Taliban in Afghanistan and a host of local Pakistani jihadist outfits to fight the Indians in Kashmir. These groups have since turned around and bitten the hand that feeds them.
Assad has made the same mistakes. He allowed al Qaeda in Iraq and other Islamist insurgent groups to use Syria as a base to attack US and Iraqi forces from 2003 up until the Syrian insurgency began in 2011. The US grew so frustrated with Assad's support that it took the unusual step of launching a cross-border raid to decapitate a dangerous facilitation network that operated in eastern Syria in October 2008.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has since morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or Syria) and the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant; both groups have become dangerous foes and are instrumental in radicalizing the Syrian insurgency. Assad probably never saw this one coming, but he should have.
Welcome to the party, Assad.
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Posted: 04 Oct 2013 05:13 PM PDT
A report in today's Copenhagen Post describing a new letter-writing campaign launched by Danish Salafists to Muslims in Danish prisonsnoted that the campaign coincides with the reported death of Danish Salafist leader Shiraz Tariq in Syria. Tariq, also known as Abu Musa, is the leader of Kaldet til Islam ("Called to Islam"), the group conducting the campaign.
Reports of Tariq's death arose after a martyrdom video about him surfaced over the past week. A post on the video sharing website LiveLeak alleged that Tariq had been killed in Syria's Latakia province on the morning of Sept. 25; it also said that the "whereabouts and condition of his pupil Abu Khattab" were unknown. Khattab is also a member of Kaldet til Islam.
On Aug. 15, Khattab was featured in the first Danish-language jihadist video from Syria posted on the Internet, according to theCopenhagen Post. In the video, he appealed to Danish Muslims to come to Syria for jihad, calling it the "forgotten implication." Khattab is known in Salafist circles in Denmark. [See Threat Matrix report, Denmark looking at support networks for Syrian jihadists.]
The recently released martyrdom video for Tariq claims that he died while fighting alongside the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Emigrants Army, which is made up of more than 2,000 foreign fighters and thousands of Syrians. The Emigrants Army is linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, one of two al Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria.
According to the LiveLeak post, Tariq is said to have been in Syria for some time, along with several other Danish jihadists, for whom he served as a leader. An Aug. 30 article in the Danish paper Politiken described the 34-year-old Tariq as "the spider" in the Danish Salafist environment, a committed jihadist who for years had pulled the strings in the background. He had been questioned in several terrorism cases and arrested once. His family came from the Sialkot region of Pakistan, according to Politiken.
Danish authorities have estimated that 65 Danes have gone to Syria for jihad, but the actual number may higher, as Islamist forces continue to extend their reach in the increasingly chaotic country. Authorities believe that so far six Danish jihadists have died in Syria. In May, jihadist forums released a video announcing the death of Danish jihadist Kenneth Sørensen, who had fought with the Muhajireen Brigade (Emigrants Army). [See LWJ report, Danish jihadist killed while fighting for Muhajireen Brigade in Syria.]
Just a few days after Tariq's reported death, Politiken noted that Danish authorities are looking for another jihadist in Syria, a 23-year-old from Bellahoj identified only as "A.S." One of the problems faced by Danish authorities is the fact that Danish law does not currently prevent persons from traveling to Syria to fight; only those who participate in the abuse or killing of civilians or join a terrorist organization can be prosecuted.
Neither of al Qaeda's two Syrian affiliates, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, appear on the European Union's list of designated terrorist organizations; nor has the ISIL-linked foreign fighter group, the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Emigrants Army, been listed as a banned organization.
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Posted: 04 Oct 2013 01:53 PM PDT
In a statement released to jihadist forums today, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya in Sinai threatened to kill anyone found aiding Egyptian security forces. The group's statement, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, further denounced the army for waging "war on Islam and Muslims" and trying to push through a "new idolatrous constitution."
Anyone providing Egyptian security forces with "information and spies for them, and those who participate in their sinful campaigns against the villages, and works as a guide for them...is merely an apostate and deserves to be killed by us," the jihadist group declared. "We will get him, Allah permitting, even if all the forces of the army and the police protect him. We will reach him, by the help of Allah, even if at his home," the statement continued.
In a message directed specifically at tribal leaders, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya warned that "the treacherous agent will only get the sword."
The statement concluded by offering a chance for those aiding Egyptian security forces to repent. "[T]he door of repentance is open to all who were tainted with agency, and we accept it from him no matter what his past actions," the statement said.
Along with its threats against those cooperating with Egyptian security forces, the jihadist group reiterated accusations that the army is killing innocent people in its operations in the Sinai. Security forces are "attacking everyone who has any Islamic appearance," the statement charged. According to al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya, the "war on the mujahideen" has become "a war on the innocent residents of Sinai."
The jihadist group further contended that Egyptian authorities, described as "apostate forces," are targeting those who live along the border in order "to create a buffer zone to protect the Jews from any jihadi operations from Sinai."
Al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya did not announce the death of anyone in the statement, but claimed that "[t]he mujahideen anticipated the bad intentions of the army in targeting the residents with the excuse of having mujahideen among them, so the mujahedeen preferred to withdraw in order to save the residents from this war and that criminality." In a Sept. 10 statement, Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis), another Sinai-based jihadist group, similarly alleged that it knew what the security forces were going to target in their recent operations. "[We] had learned of the targets of this campaign from the way it was launched and the formations of the forces in it and through information they received," the communique stated. As a result, "the mujahideen ... undertook a studied evacuation operation that would make this operation lose its goal."
In jihadist forums, along with the statement the Sinai-based group provided links to recent video releases from the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center as well as Ansar Jerusalem detailing some of the alleged crimes of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai.
Today's statement from al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya comes a month after the group charged that the Egyptian army was lying about its operations in the Sinai Peninsula. In that communiqué, the group argued that Egyptian operations in the Sinai must be "repulsed and thwarted." [T]his is what the mujahideen are doing every day with operations that harm them and destroy [the army's] powers," the statement said.
A few weeks earlier, on Aug. 22, the jihadist group released a statement calling on Muslims to fight the "apostate" Egyptian army. The communiqué was particularly notable, as last fall the group had said that "the army and the police are not our targets and that our weapons are directed at the enemies and the enemies of our Ummah the Jews." And similarly, in mid-May, the jihadist group had said "the target of the Salafist Jihadist current in Sinai is the Zionist enemy and its operations are directed to them, and the Egyptian soldiers are not a target for us."
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