Pro-al Qaeda Saudi cleric calls on ISIS members to defect

February 3, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Influential al Qaeda-linked jihadists have denounced the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) in recent weeks and are now calling on its members to defect. They have supported Ayman al Zawahiri and al Qaeda's senior leadership in their dispute with ISIS.

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Al Qaeda's general command disowns the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham

February 3, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Al Qaeda's general command has disowned the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), which has been fighting with other jihadist groups in Syria and pursuing its own agenda.

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Al Nusrah Front launches another suicide attack in Lebanon

February 2, 2014
By Bill Roggio

The Al Nusrah Front, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham continue to target Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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Report: Senior al Qaeda facilitator 'back on the street' in Iran

January 31, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Al Jazeera reports that Yasin al Suri, the head of al Qaeda's Iran-based network, is facilitating the terror network's operations from Iranian soil once again. Al Suri was detained by the Iranian government after the US government exposed his network, and the deal between Iran and al Qaeda, in 2011.

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ISIS suicide team assaults Iraqi ministry

January 30, 2014
By Bill Roggio

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham suicide assault team killed 17 people in the Ministry of Transportation before Iraqi security forces killed them.

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2 al Qaeda commanders killed in December airstrike in Afghanistan

January 30, 2014
By Bill Roggio

The Dec. 13 airstrike in Nangarhar killed two al Qaeda commanders who were associated with slain al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

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Ahrar al Sham leader criticizes head of Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham

January 29, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Hassan Abboud, a top official in Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front, has issued a stinging rebuke of ISIS emir Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Earlier this week, ISIS rejected a reconciliation effort that would have put an end to the infighting between jihadist groups in Syria.

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Ansar Jerusalem claims Cairo assassination and Sinai pipeline attack

January 28, 2014
By David Barnett

The group issued statements today threatening that the fate of the Interior Ministry official in Cairo would be shared by others, and that attacks against the Egyptian army's economic interests would continue.

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Saudi cleric's reconciliation initiative for jihadists draws wide support, then a rejection

January 27, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Saudi cleric Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini offered a reconciliation initiative for the jihadists in Syria to end their infighting. His proposal mirrored a message issued by Ayman al Zawahiri. Although the initiative garnered much support, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham has rejected it.

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Saudi MSC in Jerusalem fighter fought in Libya, sought to join 'mujahideen' in Somalia

January 27, 2014
By David Barnett

Saudi national Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli, who died in June 2012 in an attack against Israel, had originally sought to join the "mujahideen" in Somalia. In 2011, he traveled to Libya to fight in the Libyan civil war.

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Weekend attacks in Somalia deal Shabaab a double blow

January 26, 2014
By Bill Roggio & Zachary Elkaim

Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat, Shabaab's intelligence unit, is reported to have been killed in a drone strike.

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Ansar Jerusalem claims SAM attack as 3 soldiers killed in Sinai bus ambush

January 26, 2014
By David Barnett

Ansar Jerusalem claimed responsibility for at least four additional attacks in North Sinai, but appeared to back off its original claims for attacks near the Talabiya police station and Behooth metro station in the Cairo area on Jan. 24.

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Ansar Jerusalem claims responsibility for Cairo attacks that killed 6

January 24, 2014
By David Barnett

The attacks came just hours after one of the group's members issued an audio warning threatening attacks. The group also reiterated that its official material is released only through the jihadist forums of Al Fajr Media Center, al Qaeda's exclusive media distribution outlet.

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Bombings in Cairo kill at least 6, injure dozens more

January 24, 2014
By David Barnett

The largest attack, which targeted the Cairo Security Directorate, came only a few hours after an Ansar Jerusalem official urged Egyptian security personnel to repent and save themselves.

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US drone strike targets AQAP in central Yemen

January 24, 2014
By Bill Roggio

Four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters were killed in a town that is known to serve as a base for the Yemen Soldiers Brigade.

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Al Qaeda head addresses infighting in Syria

January 23, 2014
By Thomas Joscelyn

Ayman al Zawahiri has released an audio message addressing the infighting between various jihadist factions inside Syria. Although Zawahiri does not address any group or individual by name, his message was clearly aimed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), one of al Qaeda's two official branches fighting inside Syria.

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After al Qaeda disowned the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, a prominent pro-al Qaeda Saudi cleric called on ISIS members to defect. An Islamic Front official praised al Qaeda's move, and claimed ISIS is now "without cover or co-sponsor ... totally stripped after al Qaeda and the people abandoned it." An observer group said the son of a well-known nonviolent activist was tortured to death by Syrian military intelligence, and the group called for help in pressuring the regime to release tens of thousands of detainees. Islamic battalion fighters targeting a village in Hama killed five students when a rocket hit a school. In Raqqah, Kurdish YPG fighters clashed with ISIS and Islamic battalion fighters near Karsour, and killed six ISIS fighters in an attack on an ISIS base in Berkno. Regime forces battled Islamic battalion fighters near the Al-Tabaqa military airport in Raqqah. An Islamic battalion commander was killed by ISIS in northern Aleppo province.

The military claimed that its forces and allied Awakening fighters killed 57 Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham fighters in Anbar, three more in Mosul, and an emir of the group in Baqubah. The ISIS killed 23 Iraqis in a series of car bombings in and around Baghdad.

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said Turkish forces "had to hit" an Islamic State of the Iraq and the Sham convoy on Jan. 28 as the al Qaeda-linked group is threatening Turkey. Thousands of Turkmen living along the Syrian border have entered Turkey over the past week, fleeing clashes with ISIS. Syrian National Coalition offices in Istanbul and Gazientep were closed on Feb. 2 due to security threats posed by ISIS.

A suicide bomber detonated on a passenger van, killing himself and wounding the driver and a passenger in an area near Hebollah strongholds in southern Beirut. Security forces said the van was not the intended target, as the bomber had first tried to board a taxi but was refused. A north Lebanon mukhtar denied that Amjad Fawzi Abdel-Karim was the attacker in the Feb. 1 suicide bombing in Hermel; security forces said the attacker's SUV had passed through Arsal before reaching Hermel. The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam claimed that its Marwan Hadid Brigades carried out the Jan. 25 rocket attacks in Hermel jointly with the al Nusrah Front in Lebanon.

Officials said 20 terrorists were killed and 41 others wounded or arrested in North Sinai operations. In central Sinai, unidentified gunmen wounded an Egyptian soldier. Security sources said some of those behind the recent bombings in Cairo were apprehended. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with 50 others, was referred to trial on charges of inciting violence.

A raid by Kenyan police on the Masjid Mussa mosque in Mombasa has devolved into two days of rioting by youths the police say were being radicalized by pro-Shabaab Islamists. So far 129 have been arrested, and authorities are debating whether to close the mosque.

After the Somali government complained Kenyan troops were interfering with its attempts to assert authority, Kenya will decrease its troop presence in Kismayo. Sources claim that three Kenyan soldiers were killed, and one armored vehicle was damaged over the weekend in an ambush by Shabaab forces near Afmadow in Lower Jubba. Shabaab has arrested 16 people working for the Somali telecommunications company Hormud Telecom in Jilib in Middle Jubba.

A Muslim cleric who was openly critical of Boko Haram was assassinated in the Kaduna state city of Zaria. In an attempt to track Boko Haram's cross-border activities, the Nigerian government will buy three surveillance aircraft from the Czech Republic.

Libyan and US officials said all of Libya's remaining chemical weapons have been destroyed during a secret US-led operation over the past three months at a site in the Libyan desert. The French foreign ministry denied reports that US commandos are operating in southern Libya to eradicate al Qaeda forces there. In Derna, an air force colonel was assassinated and a businessman was murdered.

A group called the "al-Sahel Media Center" announced its creation, saying it will serve as the "podium of jihad and the mujahideen in Azawad and Mali." ECOWAS and the African Union are trying to get help from the UN and the European Union so that a rapid response standby force with "lift capacity" can be formed. Nearly two years after Islamists seized much of northern Mali, there are still 217,811 displaced persons in the country and another 167,000 in refugee camps in neighboring countries.

The Taliban killed four policemen in Kandahar and four more in Farah, and two aides of presidential candidate Abdullah in Herat. President Karzai said that the US "worked against me" and that he has not talked to President Obama in seven months.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham killed three soldiers in Hawijah, two soldiers in Fallujah, and a policeman in Qayyarah. Security forces killed the ISIS's emir for Sulaiman Pak and four associates, nine ISIS fighters in Thar Thar and Baghdad, and three more in Ramadi.

Al Qaeda' s General Command issued a statement disassociating itself from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, deploring the "sedition" and "the enormity of the disaster that afflicted the Jihad in Syria." An ISIS fighter who had previously served as a negotiator between ISIS and Islamic battalions detonated in the Islamic battalion center in Aleppo's Al-Ra'ii neighborhood, killing 16 Islamic battalion fighters, including two commanders. ISIS earlier battled Islamic battalions and rebels for control of the area. ISIS clashed with regime forces near al-Sfera city. In Raqqah, gunmen killed an ISIS commander, and ISIS seized a rebel battalion's weapons and held its commander for three days. Three Al Nusrah Front fighters died fighting regime forces in Quneitra. An ISIS suicide bombing in Aleppo yesterday killed Adnan Bakkour, head of the Tawheed Brigade; ISIS also killed Abu Hussein al-Dik, a commander of the Suqour al-Sham. Regime barrel bombs killed at least 85 people, including 65 civilians, in 24 hours in Aleppo. ISIS has reportedly formed two female battalions in Raqqah to check for male activists opposing ISIS who have disguised themselves in burkas. Video of a purported recent ISIS beheading in Homs was posted on social networks.