The title of this release is in reference to Qur’anic verse 2:191. Here it is in full: “And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.”
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Source: Telegram
To inquire about a translation for this video message for a fee email: [email protected]
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In the aftermath of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death, I noted that the Islamic State (IS) was likely to start a bayat campaign for its new Caliph Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. Beginning November 2, IS’s official Telegram channels began posting such bayat.
There are two main reasons for this: 1. pledges are leader-specific rather than group-specific and thus need to be renewed with each succession and 2. it is a way to legitimize al-Qurashi’s rule and create a media event so that the group can promote itself as it transitions to a new phase.
The first reason is also something that IS pointed to when it began to overtly feud with al-Qaeda (AQ) in 2013, by saying that following Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi’s death, his successor Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir gave baya to the newly created Islamic State of Iraq’s leader Abu ‘Umar al-Baghdadi and even after Abu ‘Umar was killed, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took over in 2010 and then Usamah Bin Laden was killed in 2011, Abu Bakr never publicly gave baya to Ayman al-Zawahiri, even if al-Zawahiri claims he gave it to him privately. Therefore, from the perspective of IS this whole process is not trivial, but important for legitimacy of its leadership and to potentially weed out any insubordination before it manifests into something larger as it already did in the past vis-a-vis AQ.
This post will be updated with the latest official pledges.
November 2, 2019:
Wilāyat Saynā’
al-Binghāl
November 3, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Ṣūmāl
November 4, 2019:
Wilāyat Bākistān
Wilāyat al-Yaman – al-Bayḍā’
November 5, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥawrān
Wilāyat Khurāsān
November 6, 2019:
Tūnis
November 7, 2019:
Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah – Nījīrīā
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥimṣ
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Khayr
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Raqqah
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā
Wilāyat Wasaṭ Ifrīqīyyah
November 8:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥimṣ
November 9:
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā
Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah – Mālī and Būrkīnāfāsū
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Barakah
November 12, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥalab
November 14, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Shamāl Baghdād
November 15, 2019:
Wilāyat Lībīyā
November 16, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Dijlah
November 17, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Diyālā
November 18, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn
November 19, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Karkūk
November 22, 2019:
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā – Indūnīsīyā
November 29, 2019:
Adhirbayjān
On 26 July, the LNA announced the arrest of an alleged member of the Islamic State’s (IS) religious police, Atiya Abdul Hamid Shalawi, in the Shiha neighbourhood of Derna. Shalawi was arrested in an ambush at dawn as he was trying to enter the city.
On 29 July, the 24th report of the UN’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida/Taliban Monitoring Team was published. The reported stated that IS activity in southern Libya had “gained momentum as a consequence of the preoccupation of the Libyan National Army with the battle around Tripoli.” Despite being removed from Libya’s coastal areas, IS fighters continue to be “a significant threat in the subcostal region, from south of the oil fields in the east to the boarders with Algeria in the west.” The reported also noted that the groups numbers had dropped to low hundreds and that “the only non-Libyan in the top leadership of IS is Libya is Iraqi national Abu Moaz al-Tkriti (not listed), while the rest of the leadership are Libyan nationals.”
On 4 July, security forces in Sirte allegedly arrested a suspected IS member. The individual was allegedly planning to organise and undertake a terror attack.
On 24 July, the Misratan Joint Security Force undertook a dawn raid against alleged al-Qaeda leaders in an undisclosed suburb of Tripoli. The GNA’s interior ministry stated that those arrested were connected to attacks launched in Tripoli. The primary target for the raid was an Algerian national dubbed “al-Chaoui” along with several other Libyans. The names and the total number of those arrested have not been officially disclosed. Weapons and documents for producing explosives were reportedly discovered.
A weekly update of ISIS’s actions, the Western response, and developments pertaining to Libya’s other militias are available by subscribing here. To read about Western countries’ responses to ISIS in Libya this week, click here. To read their explanation of the developments within the anti-ISIS Coalition of Libyan militias, click here.
On 17 July, Hashem Abedi, the brother of the suicide bomber Salman Abedi who blew himself up at a concert the British city of Manchester in May 2017, was extradited from Libya to the UK. A spokesperson for the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), who had detained Hashem in Tripoli, confirmed his extradition. Hashem is wanted on charges of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to cause an explosion. Abedi is likely to appear before the Westminster Magistrates Court after questioning.
On 11 July, IS released its al-Naba newsletter no 190, which featured a eulogy for Abu Assem al Sudani (aka Mohamed Bin Ahmed al-Falata). The Sudanese national was allegedly one of the ISIS Libya’s media officers and was killed fighting against LNA force in southern Libya. He is thought to have documented the groups June 2018 attack on the Qanan Police Station, close to Ajdabiya.
On 9 July, the Shahat CID arrested a suspected IS member, Ayoub Salah Abdul Aziz al-Alsoinai. The CID claims al-Alsoinai confessed to murdering several military and police officers.
On 6 July, the Islamic State’s (IS) Libya ‘wilayat’ (province) released a 4:52 minute video titled, “And the Best Outcome Is for the Righteous” where they renewed their pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi following his order for obedience from all of IS’s external provinces. The video marks the seventh cross-provincial series entry for IS. The video features as many as 68 fighters and 12 armed vehicles. The group’s leader Abu Mus’ab al-Libi narrates the video, whom it has been suggested is the eastern IS leader Mahmoud Barassi.
On 4 July, security forces in Sirte allegedly arrested a suspected IS member. The individual was allegedly planning to organize and undertake a terror attack.
On 6 July, Benghazi Shura Council militia forces were observed moving within the vicinity of Sirte.
For prior parts in this video series see: Azerbaijan, Wilāyat Khurāsān, Wilāyat al-Qawqāz, Wilāyat Sharq Asīā, Wilāyat Saynā’, and Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah. The title of this release is in reference to a part of Qur’anic verses 7:128, 11:49, and 28:83.
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Source: Telegram
To inquire about a translation for this video message for a fee email: [email protected]
On 26 June, the US Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Paul Selva, reportedly told a group of reporters in Washington that the US administration is seeing a “small resurgence of those [IS] camps in the central region” following the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) assault on the capital in April. Selva also alleged that certain Tuareg groups were “helping out the IS militants and moving people back and forth across the border to the south.” Selva suggested the LNA and the Government of National Accord (GNA) had been “keeping a lid on IS for their own individual interest for a fair period of time”, yet he was concerned that IS might become a “third party in the fight in Libya.”
On 23 June, unconfirmed reports suggested a prominent Al-Qaeda member, Adel Al-Hanashi, has been fighting amongst GNA-aligned forces against the LNA in the Tripoli suburb of Aziziyah. Al-Hanashi is said to have lived in Yemen in the 90’s and then under the name of “Rabee al-Janzouri” travelled to Afghanistan where he joined Al-Qaeda.
To read all four sections of this week’s Eye on ISIS in Libya report, click here.
Clashes between Libyan National Army (LNA) units and Islamic State (IS) fighters occurred in the Harouj mountains on 12, 14 and 15 June. On 13 June, LNA forces claimed to have killed six IS members, while others retreated into the mountains. On 14 June, the LNA forces composed of the Khalid Bin Walid Brigade and the 10th Infantry Brigade claimed to have killed twelve IS members and destroyed six ‘technicals’ – jeeps with guns mounted on the back.
On 14 June, IS released an Amaq report claiming to have killed fifty LNA fighters as well as the destruction of multiple armoured vehicles over two days of clashes with the LNA at multiple locations including Fuqaha, Samnu, and Tmassah, west of the Harouj mountains. In separate statements, one issued on the same day, the other on 13 June, IS claimed to have killed 30 and 19 LNA fighters respectively. On 15 June, IS claimed responsibility for an improvised explosive (IED) attack targeting LNA forces near Tmassah.
On 11 June, security forces stopped two Sudanese migrants at the Algerian-Tunisian border on suspicion of being members of IS as they had travelled from Libya. This follows reports on 8 June that the Algerian army fired upon a suspected IS armed group as they approached the boarder.
On 17 June, LNA forces claimed they observed IS elements between Sirte and Saddada.
=&1=& Other Jihadis On 13 June, a jury in a federal court in Washington found Mustafa al-Imam guilty on two terrorism-related charges – conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and aiding in the destruction of American property – in relation to the attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012. The sentencing jury continues to deliberate on an additional fifteen charges.
