Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-18

Intel to Rent C de Waart [email protected] In Confidence

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-18

It's been a suspiciously long time since the leader of Al Qaeda made a public statement.

Intelligence reports have warned about an Al Qaeda plot to use Britons as human bombs for carrying out a 9/11 like terror attack in the United States as a 'tribute' to Osama Bin Laden.

The Islamic State may be plotting to launch mass casualty attacks in the US, according to sources in the US intelligence community.Questions about Zawahiri’s status are also pouring out of the jihadist community onto social media. If Zawahiri is still alive, said Skinner, a former case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the growing speculation will force him to not just issue a statement, but, “he must do something.”

Aug 10, Intelligence reports have warned about an Al Qaeda plot to use Britons as human bombs for carrying out a 9/11 like terror attack in the United States as a 'tribute' to Osama Bin Laden.According to the report by the Daily Mail, Al Qaeda's Khorasan group has been given the task of identifying the possible candidates, who hold either a British or European passport and could easily pass the security without raising any suspicion. It needs idle bombers, who can carry out a suicide attack, mid-flight, an Afghan intelligence official said. It is reported that Al Qaeda bomb-makers, in the meantime, are working on developing an 'undetectable' explosive device that can be implanted inside the human body. A senior Afghan intelligence official told the Daily Mail that the terrorist group, which once was headed by Osama Bin Laden, wants to target US cities. London and Paris are second 'preferred' locations for the terror attack, he added. Khorasan wants to carry out a 9/11 like attack as a 'tribute' to Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the series of four coordinated terrorist attacks in United States on the morning of 11 September, 2001.

Aug 11, The Islamic State may be plotting to launch mass casualty attacks in the US, according to sources in the US intelligence community. A senior US intelligence official told CNN that this plan would be a departure from the ISIS' current operation of engaging in lone wolf attacks. Previously, the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was viewed as the lone terrorist organisation capable of launching mass casualty attacks, which the group devastatingly showed in the series of four coordinated terrorist attacks in the US on Sept. 11, 2001.A competition for attention and recruits is happening between ISIS and AQAP, intelligence sources said, noting that last week, AQAP bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri appealed online to supporters to hold lone wolf attacks."I think they [ISIS leaders] are taking a lot of the new recruits that don't have time to train, who have not been brought up in their systems, and they're using them to create the type of mass casualty which produces the media attention, which is exactly what they want, that shows they're still powerful," according to CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. President Barack Obama unveiled last month the US four strategies against ISIS, which he calls a "terrorist organisation, pure and simple."These include a systematic campaign of airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The White House said since last year the US has launched more than 5,000 airstrikes against ISIS.The US has also increased its support to forces fighting ISIS on the ground by sending a contingent to support Iraqi forces including Kurdish fighters with training, intelligence and equipment.Obama also said the US is doubling its efforts to cut off ISIS' funding, improve intelligence, counter ISIS' "warped ideology" and stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East.The US is also providing humanitarian assistance to religious minorities that are being driven out of

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their countries by ISIS, Obama said. However, the efforts by the US to train rebels in Syria to fight ISIS is in trouble as half of those who have trained are missing or have been captured during an attack by al Qaeda-affiliate Nusra Front on a rebel site, according to CNN.A defense official said the Syrian fighters "are no longer a coherent military unit."

WASHINGTON Aug 10 — Ayman al Zawahiri, leader of Al Qaida Central (AQC), was duped, is part of a conspiracy, or died long ago according to his fellow terrorists and intelligence experts and officials around the globe. Those are the only reasons they can find to explain why he would swear allegiance to a dead man. In an online newsletter called Al Nafir on July 20, 2014, Zawahiri said, “The first edition begins by renewing the pledge of allegiance to [the] Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid, may Allah preserve him.” But Omar, the head of the Taliban and the man the late Osama bin Laden and AQC called their “Leader of the Faithful”, died in 2013, a year before Zawahiri’s pledge. The Taliban, which kept it a secret, confirmed it a more than week ago and has chosen a new leader. Richard Barrett, who tracked Zawahiri for a decade (2004-2013) as the Coordinator on the United Nations Al Qaida-Taliban Monitoring Team, told WTOP, “either Zawahiri was completely ignorant of what was going on with his so-called superior officer (Mullah Omar) or he was party to a long-standing deception. Either one would undermine his credibility in many of the other things he might have said.”Since the announcement of Omar’s death, a cascade of consequential events have created enormous pressure on Zawahiri to show himself. Barrett, now a Senior Vice President at the Soufan Group, a strategic security and intelligence firm based in New York, said other telling events have led to speculation that Zawahiri is dead.

“Beyond the absence of his comment about Mullah Omar, there’s the absence of a comment on the death of Nasir Al-Wuhaysi, the leader of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” said Barrett. Not only was Wuhaysi the head of AQAP, but according to Barrett, “he was the leader of the most important part of Al Qaida, and he was also Zawahiri’s general manager.” “Wuhaysi’s death was a huge blow,” said Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group.“He was basically the operational leader of AQC and he was killed and Zawhiri has said nothing. So they’ve lost their supreme leader and their number two; and the head of the group (Zawahiri), which is under tremendous pressure from ISIS, at least in terms of propaganda, has said nothing,” said Skinner.Questions about Zawahiri’s status are also pouring out of the jihadist community onto social media. Most notable among them are those from Muhamed Mahmoud, an Islamic State ISIL commander. In a blistering series of tweets on July 30, 2014, after the death of Mullah Omar said, “here is the next bombshell: Az-Zawahiri has long been dead and Al Qaida is concealing this.”Mahmoud, a former Al Qaida operative, offered no concrete proof of Zawahiri’s death, but anecdotally pointed out that Zawahiri, “loved the camera and published an audio or video (message) for every event.” Zawahiri he said, “has not produced any kind of messaging in almost a year.”

In the last year, numerous key Al Qaida figures have been killed. They include:Adnan El Shukrijumah, a top-tier, longtime operative, who once held a U.S. green card.Longtime American spokesman Adam Gadahn, a Southern California man of Jewish descent.Muhsin Al Fadhli, leader of the Khorasan group, and one of the few who had advanced knowledge of

the 9/11 attacks. He died, too, without any acknowledgment from Zawahiri.“In their (jihadist) circles, these guys were rock stars, legends and they lost many legends and he hasn’t said a word since September”, said Skinner.If Zawahiri is still alive, said Skinner, a former case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the growing speculation will force him to not just issue a statement, but, “he must do something.”“Written statements don’t mean anything, because Mullah Omar gave two EID addresses from the grave.”Omar, was believed to have released Eid al-Fitr addresses celebrating the end of Ramadan in 2014 and


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2015, but as it turned out, he was already dead. Someone else wrote them and dispatched them in his name.A key question is: was Zawahiri in the dark, part of the conspiracy to keep the legacy of the organization alive, or is he dead as well? Skinner said Zawahiri might just be exercising caution and putting his own self-preservation over that of the organization. But he and Barrett both agree, if Zawahiri is alive, he’s embarrassed about his endorsement of a dead man. Barrett and Skinner say he’s likely aware the only way to rescue his reputation and to prevent Al Qaida’s fighters from defecting to ISIL is to launch a large scale attack on a western target. U.S. and western intelligence officials said they have no concrete proof Zawahiri’s alive or dead, but they believe Al Qaida is still capable of striking western targets, including the U.S.

Al Qaeda After Omar Why His Death Could Hurt the Terrorist Group and Empower ISISBy Barak Mendelsohn Last month’s announcement of the death of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar occasioned a barrage of commentary about the implications for the Taliban and the ongoing Afghan peace talks. But his final departure from the scene could have a momentous impact on the jihadi movement as well, strengthening ISIS and further diminishing al Qaeda.The reclusive Omar was a strong ally of al Qaeda, and his passing is a major blow to the group and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Omar had been a loyal friend to al Qaeda since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996. In those years, he stood by Osama bin Laden even as the al Qaeda chief defied his orders to stop giving interviews to Western media, which were complicating the Taliban’s efforts to normalize relations with the international community. Omar’s loyalty to bin Laden even caused discord within the Taliban; one faction wanted Omar to cut ties with the uncontrollable Saudi. The costs of protecting bin Laden and his followers mounted still further after 9/11, when Omar refused to hand over bin Laden, leading to the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

Al Qaeda’s approach toward the Taliban was more utilitarian. In 1998, bin Laden pledged allegiance to Omar, reluctantly and through a proxy rather than in person. It was an effort to assuage the Taliban’s anger about al Qaeda defying Omar’s instructions to lower its profile and avoid doing anything that harmed Afghanistan’s interests. In subsequent years, al Qaeda continued to view the pledge (Bay’a) through a pragmatic lens, shifting the way it used the oath to suit its own interests. After the Islamic State (also called ISIS) began its rise, al Qaeda found the pledge a useful tool for thwarting its former branch.Still reeling from the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders, and grasping for a response to the events of the Arab Spring, al Qaeda didn’t have much power to counter ISIS. It was too weak to discipline its Iraqi branch by force. So instead, al Qaeda chose to disavow the group, only to see ISIS’ power continue to grow a few months later when it captured Mosul and gained control over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. When ISIS followed its success by announcing the revival of the caliphate, with its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the new caliph, al Qaeda remembered its old friend, the Taliban. In an effort to resist ISIS encroachment and to challenge the legitimacy of the self-styled caliphate, Zawahiri renewed the Bay’a to Omar. The leaders of al Qaeda’s branches followed suit, reiterating their allegiance to Zawahiri and, through him, to the Taliban leader.Omar’s death makes al Qaeda more vulnerable to ISIS’ demand that it—along with Muslims everywhere—recognize Baghdadi’s authority.

Al Qaeda’s logic was simple. First, it wished to challenge ISIS’ claim to represent all Muslims by reminding jihadis and their sympathizers worldwide that Omar had assumed the title of the Emir of the Faithful years before Baghdadi. The Taliban presented itself as only an emirate, a much less ambitious claim than calling itself a caliphate, but Omar’s title was sufficient to suggest that ISIS’


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authority was contested. Second, by reiterating its ties to the Taliban, al Qaeda sought to fend off ISIS demands that it submit to the self-styled caliph. Third, al Qaeda tried to distinguish itself from ISIS by signaling that it adheres to its commitments. Baghdadi, in contrast, reneged on his oath to Zawahiri. Finally, by reaffirming Bay’a, Zawahiri suggested that al Qaeda was focused on pleasing God and acting for the good of the Muslim community, whereas Baghdadi was seeking personal power.Now that Omar’s death has been announced, al Qaeda’s strategy could crumble. At the very least, it makes al Qaeda more vulnerable to ISIS’ demand that it—along with Muslims everywhere—recognize Baghdadi’s authority. Al Qaeda’s allegiance to Omar does not transfer automatically to his successor. In theory, Qaeda could reassess the situation and shift its allegiance to ISIS, but it is highly unlikely that Zawahiri would ever agree to subordinate himself to al Qaeda’s former branch. At the same time, defending a decision to stick with the Taliban is going to be more difficult. Omar has been replaced by a considerably less well regarded leader, and the succession process exposed some major internal rifts within the Taliban.

Zawahiri had been quite successful at keeping other al Qaeda branches loyal to him during ISIS’ meteoric rise. Although the group has suffered from defections to ISIS, primarily from rank-and-file and mid-level operatives, most leaders have continued to stand by Zawahiri. Even when the leaders of al Qaeda’s franchises in Yemen and Somalia died in drone strikes, their successors remained loyal to central command. But Omar’s death is likely to intensify pressure from members to join hands with ISIS. The reports that the Taliban kept Omar’s death a secret for two years (denied by the Taliban) undermine the militant group’s credibility and bolster ISIS’ allegations that the Afghanistan-based group suffers from religious deficiencies; after all, if Omar indeed died long ago, the Taliban was led for two years by a figure who was not nominated through a legitimate Islamic procedure. True or not, the doubts regarding the timing of Omar’s death will weaken al Qaeda’s ability to use the Taliban as a counterweight to ISIS and are bound to lead to a wave of defections to ISIS. The longer it takes for Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, to unite the Taliban around his leadership, the harder it will be for al Qaeda to contain the fallout. ISIS is likely to continue to use the gap between the reported date of Omar’s passing and the Taliban’s announcement to intensify doubts about Zawahiri. If Omar has been dead for two years, the question of what Zawahiri knew is bound to come up. On the one hand, it is possible that he knew about the death of the Taliban leader, but could not divulge the information in deference to the Taliban’s leadership. But if that was the case, al Qaeda’s effort to use the authority of a dead man to delegitimize the Baghdadi’s self-styled caliphate makes it complicit in the Taliban’s deceit. On the other hand, if he did not know that the Taliban leader was dead, Zawahiri could be exposed as uninformed, making it evident that al Qaeda’s influence in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been greatly diminished. Thus, unless evidence is produced that Omar has only very recently died, Zawahiri will come under attack for ignorance, poor judgment, or both. Either way, his leadership has suffered a major hit.

The ability of al Qaeda’s leader to preserve the organization will be further limited by threats to his own survival. Zawahiri has not been heard from since September 2014 when he introduced AQIS, al Qaeda’s newest branch in the Indian subcontinent. He has become increasingly dependent on al Qaeda’s franchises in Yemen and Syria to keep the organization afloat. Already under pressure, Zawahiri has to worry about ISIS loyalists on the ground even as he continues to watch for U.S. drones above. After all, for ISIS, capturing the al Qaeda chief could be a game-changer.

Al Qaeda’s misfortune is ISIS’ good luck. The group’s leaders can celebrate not only weakening the opposition to its expansion in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also the boosting of its claims for leadership of the jihadi movement. Although the demise of the Taliban leader is unlikely to strengthen ISIS’ authority over all Muslims, the group no doubt sees Omar’s death as another positive omen that its caliphate is here to stay.

It's been a suspiciously long time since the leader of Al Qaeda made a public statement


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BRUCE RIEDEL, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Aug. 10, 2015 The emir of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, has not made any public statements since September 2014.His now 11-month long absence is unprecedented. Next month will be a key test for Zawahri: the anniversary of 9/11—a milestone he has spoken out on for years. Al-Zawahri was chosen by Osama bin Laden to be his successor. A veteran of 35 years of terrorist plotting, the Egyptian has legitimacy and experience. But he has a lot of other baggage too.He is a poor speaker, prone to ideological fights and lacks bin Laden's charisma. Zawahri designated Yemeni Nasir al-Wuhayshi — leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — to be his successor in 2013. Then this June, al-Wuhayshi died in a drone attack in Yemen. Zawahri did not give a eulogy for his deputy.Then the Afghan Taliban belatedly announced its leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, the self-appointed Commander of the Faithful, had died. The Taliban's office in Qatar put the date of his death at April 23, 2013, but provided no reason for why it had not been announced publicly for over two years. The Afghan government said he died in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The Taliban said Omar had not left Afghanistan in the past 14 years — "not even for a day to go to Pakistan or any other country." The Taliban are determined to cover up the fact that Mullah Omar was a “guest” of the Pakistani intelligence service since 2002, hidden at their safe houses in Quetta and Karachi. Admitting the truth would undermine the Taliban's claim to be nationalist holy warriors fighting NATO's Crusader army. It would also deeply embarrass Islamabad. Jihadi circles sometimes said Omar lived after 2002 in “the land of the dirty,” a play of words on Pakistan, which means “the land of the pure” in Urdu.Yet Mullah Omar was a key ally of al-Qaida. Both bin Laden and Zawahri repeatedly pledged their allegiance to Mullah Omar, beginning well before 9/11 and repeated often since. Mullah Omar mourned bin Laden's death by SEALs in May 2011. Zawahri repeated his pledge of loyalty to Omar as late as last year. Did he know Omar was dead?Other major jihadi leaders like Hafez Sayed, the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), have publicly eulogized Omar as a hero of the global jihad. LeT even held a vicarious funeral to mark his passing. The LeT is very close to Pakistan's spies. It attacked Mumbai in 2008 in an operation closely connected to the intelligence service known as the ISI.Three of al-Qaida's franchises in Syria, Yemen, and the Maghreb issued a joint eulogy . They praised Mullah Omar for refusing to surrender bin Laden to America after 9/11. It was a dramatic illustration that the al-Qaida network is still a united global jihad. But not a word from Zawahri. A blank slate. No statement for his deputy’s death or his titular leader. His organization is still active in Pakistan. Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, the group Zawahri lauded last September in the last message he made, is actively plotting attacks. Pakistani security officials recently killed one of its commanders in Baluchistan. Other senior al-Qaida operatives have also been killed in Pakistan recently.So what accounts for the silence? Why is Zawahri missing in action? Of course, only he and his closest circle know for sure. Perhaps Zawahri is ill and his health precludes any public role. Like Mullah Omar, he may be incapable of activity or even dead. But there is no hint of that in the jihadi Web sites or chatter. More likely his silence is deliberate. He is biding his time and focusing on his own security. Al-Qaida has often chosen to out wait its enemies and go underground. When confronted with a furious Saudi attack on its infrastructure in the kingdom in 2006, it retreated into Yemen only to reemerge as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in 2009. It adopted a similar tactic in Iraq, reemerging from the surge after the Americans had gone home. Zawahri knows the Americans are leaving Afghanistan next year; perhaps he is just waiting for them to go home. September 11, 2015 will be an interesting test. Normally since 9/11, al-Qaida delivers a major message to mark what it calls the Manhattan Raid. Often Zawahri comments on the state of the global jihad. If he remains silent this anniversary, it will be very unusual.


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Yemen's al-Qaida branch has exploited the chaos in this embattled country to capture three towns near the southern port city of Aden where pro-government forces have been advancing against Shiite rebels in recent weeks, officials said Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen is a tragic blunder. BRUCE RIEDEL, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Aug. 4, 2015, The Houthi rebels and their ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, former president of Yemen, show no sign of bending to the will of Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Addul-Aziz Al Saud Salman after more than four months of war.The grim struggle in Yemen goes on with a frightful toll for the Yemeni people.The leader of the Zaydi Houthi rebels, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, gave a speech this week to his followers promising "we are in a great battle in which we must use all our efforts."He acknowledged the Saudis and their allies had retaken the southern port of Aden but said "the enemy threw all their weight to gain a limited achievement."Abdul-Malek accused the Saudis and their ally, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, of working with both Israel and the Islamic State to take Aden. He called for an internal Yemeni political solution to the war. Former President Saleh, in an interview, went further and called Hadi a traitor for backing the Saudis who should be tried for treason. Saleh called his former deputy "an enemy of all Yemenis" who should be tried for war crimes in the International Court of Justice in The Hague.Saleh went on to blast the new Saudi leadership for abandoning the wise policies of the late King Abdullah who died in January. The new leadership "is no longer a sisterly or friendly country but rather an aggressor against our Yemeni people."Meanwhile, the Yemeni people are heading towards a humanitarian disaster as the war continues.Some aid is now moving into Aden but the rest of the country is desperately short of water, food, and medical supplies. Both sides have sabotaged efforts to arrange short cease fires to allow temporary relief. The strong words of defiance from Abdul-Malek al-Houthi and Ali Abdullah Saleh suggest they are not cowed by Saudi air power. Their forces retain control of most of what used to be North Yemen. The Saudis, Hadi, and al-Qaida have control of the ports of what used to be South Yemen: Saudi Arabia and Hadi have Aden; al-Qaida has Mukalla. The Saudis and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are pouring arms into Aden and trying to expand their foothold north. It's slow work uphill literally. A major battle is underway at a large Soviet-built air base north of Aden at Al-Anad. The air


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base is on the main road to Taiz, the next Saudi military objective.The Saudi press reports 1,500 troops from the UAE are participating in the battle for Al-Anad, the first major ground unit from the coalition to enter the war. This suggests the Hadi forces are too weak to win on their own. Hadi is calling for total victory.Inside the kingdom growing doubts about the war are circulating quietly. The king's ambitious son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and minister of defense, is derisively called the "little general" behind his back for his role in starting the war.

The late foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal is rumored to have opposed the war and warned that it would be a quagmire or worse before passing away. Saud enjoys great respect among Saudis; invoking him against the young Mohammed bin Salman is a calculated maneuver to undermine the war and the prince. Of course, Saud cannot speak for himself.Southern People's Resistance militants loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi take


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positions on the frontline of fighting against Houthi fighters in the country's southern province of Lahej A great humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in the Arabian Peninsula. The international community appears powerless to help the Yemeni people or, even worse, indifferent to their fate. The richest countries in the Arab world are waging war and blockade against the poorest nation in Arabia with no end in sight. For its part, the United States has committed to accelerating arms deliveries to the kingdom and the Gulf states which helps them continue the air and naval blockade.

By Merhat Sharipzhan August 06, 2015 The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is not only allied to the Islamic State (IS) group, it now considers itself part of it. In a 2-1/2 minute video viewed by RFE/RL on August 6, IMU leader Usmon Ghazi and his fighters are shown taking an oath of allegiance, in Arabic, to IS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The confirmation of subservience, coming directly from Ghazi, would be significant in and of itself. But the leader of the extremist group active in Pakistan and Afghanistan does not stop there. Ghazi goes on to say, according to a narrator's translation of his oath, that "from now on we are not just a movement, we are a state." IMU fighters, he says, should henceforth be described as IS fighters from the Khorasan region. "Thank the Lord, following the Almighty's will we have pledged our allegiance (Bayaht, or Bay'a) to the Caliphate that has bowed to Islam," Ghazi is quoted as saying. "And we are now part of it."The declaration is significant because it is the latest, and perhaps final, step of the IMU's journey to full absorption into the IS, which seeks to establish a vast caliphate centered on the Middle East and extending into Asia.In September 2014, Ghazi issued a statement on the IMU's website in which he said that "on behalf of members of our Islamic Movement, I herewith announce to the world that we are siding with the Islamic Caliphate." But as Damon Mehl of the of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point noted in a June analysis, Ghazi fell short of using the word Bay'a, which would indicate a pledge of allegiance. Such a pledge came in March, as reported by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, but from a person named Sadulla Urgenji who claimed to be from a group of Uzbeks fighting for IMU in northern Afghanistan. Urgenji said his group was recognizing the authority of IS leader Baghdadi, but the message did not come from Ghazi himself.The latest message from the IMU leader leaves no uncertainty. "We now say that we have our state and there are possibilities for all for hijrat (holy migration)," Ghazi explains in the new video. "Those who want to join us, let them join." The video does not state when it was filmed, but it appears to show scenes from Afghanistan and describes itself as representing the Khorasan Vilayat, or Khorasan region. In January, an Islamic State spokesman announced the group's expansion into Khorasan -- an ancient province that included parts of modern Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.The video's emergence comes shortly after the IMU issued a statement in which outlined its grievances with the Afghan Taliban, with which it has had longstanding relations. In the August 2 statement obtained by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, the IMU accused the Taliban of lying about the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar, and demanded that it tell the truth about the late Taliban leader's demise. Afghan officials announced on July 29 that Omar died in 2013 in Pakistan, and the Taliban confirmed the news shortly thereafter, although without naming a time or place.The IMU statement declared that the Taliban "cannot be trusted," and accused the Afghan militant group of collaboration with Pakistan's spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).The IMU mainly consists of men and women from Uzbekistan and other former Soviet Central Asian republics. Aside from its relations with the Taliban, it was also known to have ties to Al-Qaeda It is on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations and is banned in Central Asian countries and Russia.

2015-08-11 An al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group founded by veteran Algerian terrorist Mokhtar


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Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility in statements to media outlets for a hotel siege in central Mali at the weekend in which 17 people died. Sahara-based al Mourabitoun, which also has links to radical Islamic leader Amadou Koufa, told the AFP news agency that it had carried out the attack on the Byblos Hotel in the central town of Sevare, 600 km (375 miles) northeast of the Malian capital Bamako. "The hand of Allah has guided the mujahedeen of Sevare against the enemies of Islam," a spokesperson for the group, Souleyman Mohamed Kennen, said in a phone interview.Qatari-based television network Al Jazeera also said it had received a brief statement from al-Mourabitoun claiming responsibility for the attack, which began early on Friday and ended nearly 24 hours later when security forces stormed the building.“Elements of the al-Murabitoun group which follows al Qaeda, following a lengthy period of surveillance and diligence, managed to carry out the operation in the city of Sevare, and specifically on the Byblos Hotel, which was inhabited by Western nationals,” al Jazeera quoted the statement as saying.“We will issue a subsequent statement with full details of the operation,” the group said.


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Documents

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-18