By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 March 2021
The Islamic State’s Acknowledgement of the Deaths of Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir
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Tag Archives: Islamic State
Islamic State Announces the “Harvest of the Good” Campaign
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 March 2021
Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, the implied caliph of the Islamic State movement between 2006 and 2010, gave his sixteenth speech on 17 March 2009. The title of the speech was, “Harvest of the Good (The Gathering Will Be Defeated, and They Will Turn Their Backs and Flee)”.[1]
The First Speech of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 March 2021
Destruction at the Sadeer Hotel in Baghdad, 9 March 2005
The Islamic State movement, then-known as Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM), used a suicide truck bomb to blow up the Sadeer Hotel, where many foreign contractors were staying, and the next-door Agriculture Ministry, on 9 March 2005, murdering three people and wounding forty, thirty of them Americans. Reporting at the time noted that “insurgents wearing police uniforms first shot to death a guard at the Agriculture Ministry’s gate, allowing the truck to enter a compound the ministry shares with the adjacent Sadeer hotel”, and these details were confirmed in a two-minute audio message released later in the day by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the veteran Egyptian jihadist who would take over AQM when its founder was killed in 2006.[1] A transcript of the brief speech is reproduced below. Continue reading
Inducement and Terror: How the Islamic State Deals With Sunni Social Leaders
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 14 March 2021
Abdul Munim al-Badawi (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir), the then-leader of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM), released his fourth audio statement on 28 September 2006. The speech was entitled, “Ta’alaw ila Kalimatin Sawa” (تعالوا إلى كلمة سواء): “Come to a Just Word”.[1] An English transcript was released by the jihadists and is reproduced below. Continue reading
Islamic State Denounces the Pope’s Visit to Iraq as a Conspiracy Against Islam
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 13 March 2021
Al-Naba 277, page 3
The Islamic State (IS) released the 277th edition of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, on 11 March 2021. The main editorial focused on the Catholic Pope Francis’ 5-8 March apostolic visit to Iraq, where inter alia a Roman Pontiff for the first time visited Ur, believed to be the birthplace of Abraham, and took Mass in the Chaldean rite (at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Baghdad). Continue reading
The Second Cabinet of the Islamic State
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 March 2021
The Islamic State (IS) movement announced its second “cabinet” on 21 September 2009. The “State” had been announced in October 2006, and the first cabinet had been “appointed” in April 2007.
The First Cabinet of the Islamic State
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 March 2021
On 19 April 2007, seven months after the Islamic State (IS) movement declared its “State”, the official spokesman, Muharib al-Jaburi, announced the first “cabinet” for this “state”, appointing leaders for various “ministries”. Unusually for IS in this era, the speech was delivered as a video address—albeit (as can be seen) with Muharib’s face blurred out—rather than as an audio address. The reason for this was clearly to push back against the criticism of the IS movement that its leader could not be the “caliph” of all the Muslims, which at this stage IS was not overtly claiming, while being faceless and nameless, known only by his kunya.
Qassem Sulaymani: Life and Ambition
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 2 March 2021
A year ago, U.S. President Donald Trump gave the order to kill Qassem Soleimani, the de facto deputy leader of Iran. Arash Azizi’s The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the U.S., and Iran’s Global Ambitions is an effort to explain who Soleimani was, how he rose to controlling the lives of millions of people well outside the borders of Iran, and how in the end he was brought down. Continue reading
Russia’s View of the Endgame in Afghanistan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 23 February 2021
Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov
Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s current special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, spoke to Sputnik’s Tajik service on 17 February, and a translation of the interview is published below with some interesting sections highlighted in bold. Kabulov was the KGB resident in Kabul in the 1980s and early 1990s, and later in the 1990s, during the Taliban’s reign over Kabul and much of the rest of the country, he was an adviser to the United Nations peace envoy. Continue reading
Islamic State Claims America, Asad, and Turkey Are Conspiring Against It In Syria
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 January 2021
Al-Naba 270, p. 3
In the 270th edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s (IS) weekly newsletter, on 22 January, the main editorial on page three is entitled, “Towards A ‘Unified Syria’ Under the Rule of Unbelief!” The basic premise is that the United States is trying to orchestrate a reunification of Syria that keeps Bashar al-Asad in power, supported by Russia (with, curiously, no mention of Iran, not in the whole article); brings the PKK (“Syrian Democratic Forces”) home to Damascus; and reconciles the “Awakening” (rebel) forces supported by “secular Turkey” to this state system. Continue reading
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