NOVA TIME NEWS!: 8 Νοε 2013

Παρασκευή 8 Νοεμβρίου 2013

Posted: 07 Nov 2013 08:13 AM PST

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has named Mullah Fazlullah, the radical cleric from Swat in northwestern Pakistan, to lead the group following the death of its former emir last week in a US drone strike.

"Fazlullah is the new TTP [Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan] chief," Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani, the head of the group's executive council who was appointed interim emir after Hakeemullah's death, told reporters "at a press conference at an undisclosed location in northwest Pakistan," Dawn reported. Asmatullah also told AFP that a commander known as Sheikh Khalid Haqqani was appointed as Fazlullah's deputy.

Shahidullah Shahid, an official spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, also confirmed to Reuters that Fazlullah is the new emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Fazlullah was one of four top Taliban commanders thought to be in the running to replace Hakeemullah, who was killed in a US drone strike on Nov. 1 in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan. Khan Said, who is also known as Sajna Mehsud and who served as the group's deputy emir under Hakeemullah, was rumored to have been appointed to lead the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistanimmediately after Hakeemullah's death. But the Pakistani Taliban did not officially confirm the report.

Sajna was thought to be the frontrunner to replace Hakeemullah, as he has served as the deputy emir and is based in South Waziristan, a hub of the group's power in the tribal areas. Both Hakeemullah and Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor and the founder of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, were from South Waziristan.

Fazlullah, who is also known as Mullah Radio for his radical sermons broadcast throughout the northwest, has been among the top leaders of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan since its founding in 2007. He engineered the Taliban takeover of Swat and neighboring districts from 2007-2009, and brutally ruled over a cowed civilian population. The Pakistani military intervened only after Fazlullah forcesinvaded Buner and advanced to just 60 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. He has vowed to continue the fight to regain control of the Swat Valley.

He is one of the most extreme commanders in a group filled with extremists. He was one of the first leaders to have opposed polio vaccinations. Last year, he proudly ordered the assassination of Malala Yousufzai, the young schoolgirl who passionately spoke out against the Taliban in Swat, and accused her of violating sharia, or Islamic law. This year, he took credit for the assassination of a Pakistani Army general who commanded operations in Swat.

Fazlullah is also closely tied to al Qaeda. When he openly ruled Swat from 2007 to 2009, he said al Qaeda fighters were welcome there and that training camps were in operation. One of his top deputies, Ibn Amin, also served as a leader of one of six known brigades in al Qaeda's Lashkar-al-Zil, or Shadow Army. Amin was killed in a US drone strike in Khyber in December 2010.

The new Taliban emir is known to take shelter in Afghanistan's remote northeastern province of Kunar. US forces largely withdrew from Kunar and neighboring Nuristan provinces beginning in 2009 after remote Army outposts came under deadly attacks. US military officials claimed the insurgency would recede from the two provinces and that al Qaeda would lose support as US forces were fueling the insurgency. Instead, al Qaeda and groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan have become entrenched in the two provinces since the US withdrawal.

Key jihadi ideologue: Jihad against Egyptian army is 'religious duty'

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:41 PM PST

In a recent article published on the website Minbar al Tawhid wa'l Jihad, leading global jihad ideologue Sheikh Abu al Mundhir al Shinqiti called on Egypt's Muslims to wage jihad against Egyptian security forces, in particular within the Sinai Peninsula. According to Shinqiti, the Egyptian army "is an army of infidels and apostates" that is no different from the armies of the US, Israel, or the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria.

"[B]elonging to this army is apostasy from Islam and a pledge of allegiance to the enemies of Allah. Belonging to this army is belonging to a sect that is at war with Allah," Shinqiti wrote. He further argued that "Muslim women married to a member of the army should know that their marriage is nullified because [their husbands] are apostates."

In the article, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, al Shinqiti also questioned the Muslim Brotherhood's approach to the July 2013 overthrow of Mohammed Morsi. Shinqiti also declared that anyone advocating non-violence "is a criminal thug who wants the Ummah to be eradicated and to be slaughtered."

According to Shinqiti, the Egyptian army must be fought as "peaceful change ... is now impossible." "Every attempt to avoid fighting the Egyptian Army is like treating a disease with the wrong medicine," he wrote. Shinqiti further called on Egyptian Muslims to "come and respond to the call of jihad ... come and shed blood for the sake of establishing Allah's law." Moreover, he declared jihad against the Egypt army to be "a religious duty and divine obligation."

"Every Muslim must support them according to his ability. Whoever is able to travel to them, fight with them, and increase their ranks, it is a duty to do so ... whoever is unable must support them with money, by inciting to fight [with them], and by [helping to] prepare the fighters," Shinqiti stated.

With regard to ongoing Egyptian military operations in the Sinai, al Shinqiti contended that they are merely an attempt to protect Israel. "The goal of the security campaign that the tyrannical army in Egypt is directing in the Sinai is to protect Israel and its borders after jihadi groups in the Sinai became a real threat to it," Shinqiti wrote.

In addition, Shinqiti praised ongoing attacks by "your mujahideen brothers" in the Sinai and called on Egyptian Muslims to join them, "support them, increase their ranks, and be an aid and a champion of them." "[J]ihad in the Sinai is a great opportunity for you to gather and unite under a pure flag, unsullied by ignorant slogans," Shinqiti claimed.

Jihadist statements on overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi

Since the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi in early July 2013, there has been a plethora of statements from jihadists in response to the ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. For example, Harith bin Ghazi al Nadhari (also known as Muhammad al Murshidi), an official in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), charged on Aug. 25 that the Egyptian government was seeking "to return Egypt to the era of oppression, tyranny and the domination of the security and intelligence agencies."

On Aug. 17, jihadist ideologue Abu Sa'ad al 'Amili posted a series of tweets to his Twitter account urging Egyptian Muslims to prepare for an "open war." Likewise, Abdullah Muhammad Mahmoud of the jihadist Dawa'at al-Haq Foundation for Studies and Research warned Egyptian Muslims, in an article posted to jihadist forums on Aug. 14, that "if you don't do jihad today, then only blame yourselves tomorrow."

Similarly, on Aug. 15, Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Four days later, Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, urged Egyptian Muslims to "pick up arms and defend yourself." In addition, on Aug. 30, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant called on Egyptians to wage 'jihad' against army.

And on Aug. 22, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya in Sinai released a statement that called on Muslims to fight the "apostate" Egyptian army. The communiqué was particularly notable as last fall the group said: "[T]he 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." More recently, in mid-May, the jihadist group said: "[T]he 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."

More recently, on Sept. 10, Ansar Jerusalem declared that "it is obligatory to repulse them [the Egyptian army] and fight them until the command of Allah is fulfilled." Similarly, on Sept. 15, the Salafi jihadist group declared: "We in Ansar Jerusalem and all the mujahideen in Sinai in Egypt as a whole stress that the blood of innocent Muslims will not go in vain."

In addition, on Sept. 22, the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center (ITMC), a jihadist media unit tied to the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, called for jihadists to strike the Egyptian army. Now is the time for the "mujahideen to hit without fail so as to thwart those criminals from among the Egyptian army," the group said. And on Oct. 4, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya in Sinai threatened to kill anyone found aiding Egyptian security forces.

Along with the calls for attacks, another theme that has been emphasized since the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi is the argument that the Muslim Brotherhood had made a mistake in engaging in the democratic process. This theme is a general jihadi talking point that al Qaeda and its affiliates, such as al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have pushed repeatedly since Morsi's ouster. In July, AQIM official Abu Abdul Ilah Ahmed al Jijeli said Morsi's overthrow should teach Egyptian Muslims "that the price for applying principles on the ground is a mountain of body parts and seas of blood, because evil must be killed and not shown mercy, and righteousness must be achieved by cutting the head of those who corrupt and not reason with them."

An essay released in July by Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, a global jihadi ideologue and former mentor of Abu Musab al Zarqawi made a similar argument. In the essay, dated July 11, 2013, al Maqdisi contended that armed struggle was the only way to achieve the liberation of Muslim lands. Al Maqdisi further claimed that the ouster of Morsi proved "the soundness of the jihadi project and the choice of the ammunition box over the ballot box."

And in his most recent message, which was released to jihadist forums on Oct. 11, al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri concentrated on Egypt. In the audio message, Zawahiri called on Egyptian Muslims to unite and "rid Egypt of this criminal gang that jumped on power with iron and fire and took advantage of the concession of some factions in their drooling behind the mirage of the delusional reconciliation."