By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 November 2021
The Islamic State movement published an 87-page book, “Informing Mankind of the Birth of the Islamic State” or “Informing the People of the Birth of the Islamic State” (I’lam al-Anam bi-Milad Dawlat al-Islam), on 7 January 2007. The document was released by Al-Furqan Media Foundation, the central Islamic State propaganda institution, and first appeared on the World News Network website. A rough translation of the book appears below.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 1 November 2021
Hibatullah Akhundzada
A ten-minute audio tape attributed to the Taliban’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada appeared on 30 October, the first such communication since the jihadist takeover of Afghanistan in August. Hailed as Akhundzada’s “first public appearance” or his decision to step into “the limelight”, the reality is more complicated. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 October 2021
This article was originally published at European Eye on Radicalization
Sami Jassim al-Jaburi (Haji Hamid) | IMAGE SOURCE
Mustafa al-Khadhemi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, announced on the morning of 11 October that the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) had arrested Sami Jassim al-Jaburi (Haji Hamid), the effective finance emir of the Islamic State (ISIS), in “a complex external operation”. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 6 October 2021
Army Jawans hold the National Flag near the snow-covered border on the 71st Republic Day (ANI Photo)
The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman arrived in India today for a three-day visit. Afghanistan will be high on the agenda. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 September 2021
Al-Naba 305, page four. Caption on the picture reads: “The moment an explosive device blew up a vehicle of the apostate Taliban militia in the city of Jalalabad.”
The 305th edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State (IS) newsletter, released on 23 September, documents the serious escalation in Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) attacks over the preceding week. This consequence of the NATO withdrawal was entirely predictable—and predicted. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 9 September 2021
Front page of Al-Naba 302
The Islamic State (IS) released the 302nd edition of Al-Naba, its weekly newsletter, on 2 September. The major focus of Al-Naba 302 was the 26 August bombing of the Kabul Airport by IS’s “Khorasan Province” (ISKP) that killed nearly 200 people, including thirteen members of the U.S. military (eleven marines, one soldier, and one navy corpsman), and wounded 150 people. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 7 September 2021
Anti-Taliban fighters watch U.S. airstrikes at Tora Bora, 16 December 2001 || REUTERS/Erik de Castro
The State Department spokesman Ned Price said, on 27 August, “The Taliban and the Haqqani Network are separate entities”. The next day, the Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby slightly modulated this, having first tried to dismiss the question, by conceding there was “a certain amount of … commingling … there’s a marbling … of Taliban and Haqqani”, before saying he was “pushing back … [on] the relevance of that discussion”.
What these officials were trying to do was two-fold: (1) to refute press reports that U.S. officials in Kabul had shared “a list of names of American citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies” with the Taliban, amounting to having “put all those Afghans on a kill list”, as one “defense official” put it; and (2) to deny that the U.S. coordination with the Taliban to evacuate people the jihadists wanted to kill—a surreal enough situation—had involved the additional political and legal problems of coordinating with a formally registered Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), as the Haqqani Network is. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 August 2021
Al-Naba 301, page ten, headline reads: “Abu Khattab al-Kashmiri — May God Accept Him”
The Islamic State’s weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, released its 301st issue on 26 August. Page ten has an obituary for an Indian jihadist named as Zahed Dass (Abu Khattab al-Kashmiri). Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 August 2021
Page three, Al-Naba 300
The Islamic State (IS) released the 300th edition of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, on 19 August, wherein the main editorial on page three dealt with the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban on 15 August. The editorial was entitled, “Finally, They Elevated Mullah Bradley”. IS has used the term “Mullah Bradley” or “Mullah Bradley project” to refer to the Taliban, the accusation basically being that the Taliban are American agents. (The Taliban obviously are agents of a foreign power, but not the Americans.) The rest of the editorial fleshes out this idea that the U.S. and the Taliban have conspired in the Talibanization of Afghanistan, and the fact that all other Islamists support this—the Sururis, Muslim Brotherhood, etc.—only shows that IS is the sole standard bearer of Islam. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 August 2021
The Taliban took over Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday after a nine-day offensive captured one provincial capital after another. The United States had already decided to abandon the country, and without the US the other NATO states had no choice but to leave. It was quite clear that the Afghan state would crumble in the absence of a Western presence, though it seems President Joe Biden thought he would have a longer “decent interval” before the Saigon evacuation scenes and the massacres began. Continue reading
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