By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 August 2023
Islamic State Introduces the Fifth “Caliph”
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Tag Archives: Hamid al-Zawi
The World Cup in Qatar and “Personal Freedom” Make the Islamic State Very Angry
Islamic State Announces That Caliph Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi Is Dead
The Islamic State’s Take on the 2008-09 Israel-HAMAS War
Islamic State Profiles a Young Iraqi Jihadist Killed During the Battle of Mosul
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 September 2022
Abu al-Zubayr al-Askari || Al-Naba 352, p. 9
Islamic State Spokesman Counters “Accusations” Against the Group and Explains its Purpose in Syria
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 September 2022
The Islamic State is Taking Advantage of the Mess in Northern Syria
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 July 2022
The United States announced on 12 July that it had killed the Islamic State’s (ISIS) governor of Syria in a drone strike in the village of Galtan in the Jinderes district of the north-western Syrian province of Efrin on the border with Turkey. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) statement identified the slain man as “Maher al-Agal”, though a more precise transliteration is Maher al-Aqal (ماهر العقال). Riding on the motorcycle alongside Al-Aqal when he was killed was a “senior ISIS official” with whom he was “closely associated”. This ISIS official was “seriously injured during the strike”, CENTCOM notes, adding that the Jinderes strike caused no civilian casualties. Continue reading
Another Islamic State “Caliph” Falls
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 February 2022
The compound where Islamic State leader Amir Muhammad al-Mawla killed himself, 3 February 2021 || Image taken from social media
Islamic State Profiles the Man Who Led the Last Stand of the Caliphate
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 20 September 2021
Al-Naba 304, page 10
The 304th edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s (IS) weekly newsletter, published on 16 September, mostly consists of reports from the various wilayats (provinces) about military activities: at the Centre in Iraq and Syria, in Egypt, Nigeria, and even further south in Africa, in the Congo. Notably IS keeps quiet about Afghanistan in Al-Naba 304, perhaps related to the series of attacks by the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISKP) over the weekend: ISKP is often silent before planned attacks. Al-Naba 304 devotes pages ten and eleven to a profile of a veteran Iraqi jihadist, Abu Umar al-Khlifawi, who led the jihadists for a time in the final pocket of the caliphate at Baghuz, Syria, despite previous injuries that nearly cost him his hand and blinded him in one eye, before he trekked on foot for a month back to Iraq and ended his life as the military emir of Fallujah. A summary of that profile is below.
Continue reading
Islamic State Profiles the Godfather of its Media Department
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 May 2021
Wael al-Ta’i (Abu Muhammad al-Furqan), Al-Naba 285, p. 3
The 285th edition of Al-Naba, the weekly newsletter of the Islamic State (IS), released on 6 May, had a biography of Abu Muhammad al-Furqan, one of the most important IS leaders, the head of its Central Media Department and its operational ruler when he was killed in September 2016. Continue reading
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