Category Archives: Islamic State Terrorist Attacks

Islamic State Newsletter Adds to Claim of Las Vegas Massacre

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 October 2017

Al-Naba 100, page 2

In Las Vegas, just after 22:00 Pacific Time on 1 October [6:00 on 2 October, British time], 64-year-old Stephen Paddock fired about 1,100 rounds over a ten-minute period from the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel at the crowd gathered on the Las Vegas Strip for the Route 91 Harvest music festival (the country singer, Jason Aldean, was playing at the time). When the shooting stopped, fifty-eight people had been murdered—making this the deadliest mass-shooting in American history—and 546 people had been injured. Paddock was found dead in the hotel room, having apparently shot himself.

The Islamic State claimed the Las Vegas attack via Amaq on 2 October, and soon released a fuller statement naming the killer as “Abu Abd al-Bir al-Amriki”. This followed the previous pattern laid down by IS when it claims its foreign terrorist attacks. There is as yet no definitive evidence of Paddock being motivated by jihadist ideology, nor of contact between Paddock and IS, and U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement have been quick to claim that such links do not exist.

In the 100th edition of Al-Naba, IS’s weekly newsletter, IS added details to its claims, page three contained a brief article adding details to IS’s claims about Las Vegas. A rough translation of the Naba article is reproduced below. Continue reading →

Islamic State Claims it Caused the Evacuation at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Reiterates Claim of Parsons Green Attack

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 23 September 2017

Al-Naba 98, 22 September 2017

The ninety-eighth edition of the Islamic State’s (IS) newsletter, Al-Naba, was released on 22 September 2017. This Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, was evacuated on 17 September due to a bomb scare, and later declared to be a “false alarm”. This edition of Naba claims that an IS operative in fact planted a bomb, causing the chaos at Charles de Gaulle. Al-Naba 98 also contained a further acknowledgement of the “bucket bombing” at Parsons Green tube station in London, Britain, which took place on the morning 15 September 2017. Continue reading →

The Islamic State’s Fourth Attack in Britain in 2017

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 September 2017

“Bucket bomb” on the Parsons Green trube (image source)

At 8:20 on 15 September 2017, a bomb detonated in a rear carriage of a tube train at Parsons Green station in London. The passengers on the packed, rush-hour train described a flash “fireball” that travelled down the train. Thirty people were injured, some horribly burned, but there were no fatalities and the main explosive clearly did not detonate. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS). Continue reading →

The Islamic State’s Newsletter on the London Bridge Attack and Melbourne Siege

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 June 2017

Al-Naba 84

The eighty-forth edition of Al-Naba (The News), released by the Islamic State on 8 June 2017, included a section on the terrorist attacks in Britain, on London Bridge, on 3 June, and in Australia, the siege of the apartment block in Melbourne, on 5 June. Continue reading →

Islamic State’s Attack in Iran Was a Bid For the Mantle of ‘Protector of the Sunnis’

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Published at The Telegraph

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 7 June 2017

Armed terrorists stormed the Iranian parliament complex in Tehran (CREDIT: OMID VAHABZADEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

In its choice of target and timing, ISIL has shown, once again, its skill in exploiting the rivalries of its enemies—setting them against one another to buy itself greater room for manoeuvre. Continue reading →

Islamic State Newsletter Says Manchester Bomber Was a “Soldier of the Caliphate”

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 May 2017

Article about Manchester Arena suicide-killer Salman Abedi, page 2 of Al-Naba 82

The Islamic State (IS) released the eighty-second edition of its newsletter, Al-Naba, on 25 May 2017. The first article in Al-Naba 82 was about the suicide attack on the Manchester Arena on 22 May, which IS claimed the next day. The article in Al-Naba provided very few details about the murderer, Salman Abedi, or IS’s role in the attack, mostly gloating over the allegedly panicky reaction of the British state. Continue reading →

Islamic State Attacks Have Sown Division in France, Marine Le Pen Would Sow More

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Published at The Telegraph

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 21 April 2017

Security forces stand guard after attack in Paris, 20 April 2017 (CREDIT: ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA)

In Paris last night a gunman parked his car, stepped out, and opened fire on a police van outside a Marks & Spencer’s on the Champs Élysées. One policeman was murdered; two were wounded. A female tourist was also injured. The attacker was killed by police as he tried to flee and continue his rampage. Within two hours, the Islamic State (ISIL) had claimed the attack via its Amaq News Agency, and, rather unusually, had named the killer: “Abu Yusuf al-Baljiki”.

It has been widely reported that “Abu Yusuf the Belgian” is really Karim Cheurfi the Frenchman, a 39-year-old imprisoned for fifteen years after being convicted for three counts of attempted murder in 2001. Notably, two of his intended victims were police officers. French media has reported that Cheurfi was briefly arrested on 23 February after expressing an intent to kill law-enforcement officials, but released due to lack of evidence; the Interior Ministry refused to comment. Continue reading →

Don’t Assume the Westminster Terrorist is a ‘Lone Wolf’

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 April 2017

The 22 March attack outside Westminster by Khalid Masood is the most significant act of Islamist terrorism since the 7 July 2005 bombing by al-Qaeda of the London public transport system. Masood’s attack highlights a number of historic trends in British jihadism and starkly poses the question of the extent of IS’s penetration of the United Kingdom. Continue reading →

Islamic State Newsletter Claims Algerian Suicide Bombing

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 9 April 2017

Picture published in Al-Naba 71 of Izzadeen Balqamri, the Islamic State suicide bomber in Constantine, Algeria, on 26 February 2017.

In the seventy-first edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s English-language newsletter, published on 9 March 2017, the organisation claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing outside the police station in Constantine, Algeria, on 26 February. Al-Naba published a picture of the attacker and named him as Izzadeen Balqamri. Continue reading →

Islamic State Claims the Westminster Attack

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 31 March 2017

Al-Naba 74, page 12, 30 March 2017

The seventy-fourth edition of al-Naba, the Islamic State’s newsletter, released online on 30 March 2017, reiterated the terrorist group’s 23 March claim via Amaq of the 22 March Westminster attack by Khalid Masood (born: Adrian Russell Ajao). The brief article is reproduced below.
Continue reading →