Tag Archives: Iraq

Islamic State Describes Running an Insurgency From the Syrian Desert

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 1 September 2022

Al-Naba 349, p. 8

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Africa Dominates Two Months of Islamic State Propaganda

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 31 August 2022

Islamic State fighters from Wilayat Sinai in Egypt || Al-Naba 348, p. 5

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The ‘Strategic Plan’ of the Islamic State

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 August 2022

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United Nations Report Finds Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Reduced, But Reviving

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 July 2022

Islamic State in Palmyra, December 2016

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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

The Challenge for Western Intelligence in Talibanized Afghanistan

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 June 2022

A U.S. helicopter above the American Embassy in Kabul, 15 August 2021 | AP

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Islamic State Attacks Israel for the First Time in Five Years

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 31 March 2022

Israeli security forces reacting to the terrorist attack in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, 29 March 2022 || Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said his country is “facing a new wave of terrorism” after five attacks in the last ten days have killed eleven people. The Islamic State (IS) has effectively admitted to carrying out two of the atrocities, the first time in five years the terrorist group has carried out attacks in the Jewish state. This hiatus, partly a reflection of the fact that, unlike some other Islamist extremists, IS does not make the anti-Israel cause a central plank of its propaganda, also reflects the relatively small inroads IS’s ideology has made to this point among Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. Whether this is now changing is unclear. Continue reading

Islamic State Appoints a New Leader and Spokesman

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 March 2022

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The Fall of Afghanistan and Western Foreign Fighters

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 February 2022

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, fell to jihadists on 15 August 2021, and this has emboldened the jihadist movement across the world, providing it with a morale boost and a model, as well as renewing the terrorist safe haven that incubated 9/11. Continue reading

Islamic State and “Breaking the Walls”: Jihadist Prison Breaks

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 January 2022

Islamic State car bombing against Al-Sinaa prison in Syria, 20 January 2022 [image source]

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