Islamic State Profiles the Leadership

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 6 April 2019

Islamic State flag in front of the main gate of Saddam Husayn’s palace in Tikrit, 5 April 2015 // AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED SAWAF

A lengthy document—roughly sixty pages and 12,000 words—was published online on 21 February 2019 containing biographies of twenty-seven senior Islamic State (IS) officials, past and more recent. Those bios that are dated were written between October 2018 and the time of publication, with one exception that was written in the summer of 2018. The author claims to be an IS veteran. While longevity is difficult to prove, the fact that the author provides heretofore unseen images of some of the IS leaders suggests that at a minimum he is an IS operative.

Islamic State Claims the Killing of a Canadian Citizen

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 March 2019

Al-Naba 175, page 8

Kirk Woodman, a Canadian geologist working for a Vancouver-based mining company, Progress Minerals Inc., was found dead in Oudalan province, north-east Burkina Faso, on 16 January 2019. Woodman had been kidnapped the previous day from a mining camp. Ouagadougou announced that Woodman had been killed the following day. Woodman’s body was described as “bullet-riddled”. It was noted by one outlet that Woodman had been taken in “a border region infiltrated by jihadis”, but not very much more has been said of the case in the last two months. On 28 March, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the murder in the 175th edition of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba.

Jihadist Groups Capitalize on Far-Right Terrorism in New Zealand

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 29 March 2019

Al-Nur Mosque, Christchurch, New Zealand [image source]

In the wake of the terrorist atrocity against two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019, by Brenton Harrison, an Australian far-Right ideologue, jihadist groups released various statements seeking to exploit the event for their own purposes, an illustrative case of two extremisms feeding off one-another, a phenomenon known as “reciprocal radicalisation”, which seems likely to become more prevalent in the future.

Islamic State Spokesman Dismisses Coalition Claims of Victory

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 21 March 2019

The spokesman for the Islamic State (IS), Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, gave his a speech on 18 March 2019, entitled, “He Was True to Allah and Allah Was True to Him” (or “He Was Honest/Sincere Towards God, so God Fulfilled His Wish”). This is the sixth speech given by Abu Hassan since he was announced in December 2016 as the replacement for Taha Falaha (Abu Muhammad al-Adnani). Abu Hassan’s true identity remains mysterious. An English translation was released by IS and is reproduced below with some editions in transliteration.

Islamic State Obituary for French Jihadist Fabien Clain

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 March 2019

Fabien Clain, Al-Naba 173, page 9

The U.S.-led Coalition against the Islamic State (IS) announced on 28 February that it had killed Fabien Clain (Abu Anas al-Firansi), a French citizen. Clain and his brother, Jean-Michel (Abu Uthman), were targeted by a Coalition airstrike in Baghuz, the final pocket of the “caliphate” in eastern Syria, on 20 February. It was unclear what happened to Jean-Michel, though the 173rd edition of IS’s newsletter, Al-Naba, published on 14 March, says (pp. 9-10) that he was killed a few days after Fabien.

Islamic State Says the West Has Admitted the Group Cannot Be Defeated

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 March 2019

Front page of Al-Naba 170

The 170th edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State (IS) newsletter, was produced on 21 February 2019. Its main editorial on page 3 focused on the organisation’s apparent “inability to surrender”.

Islamic State Newsletter Celebrates Guerrilla Campaign, Attacks Saudi Arabia as ‘Stalinist’

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 February 2019

Front page Al-Naba 169

The Islamic State (IS) released the 169th edition of its newsletter, Al-Naba, on 14 February 2019. Al-Naba 169 leads with the attack on the governor of Borno in Nigeria by IS’s branch in that country. In terms of volume, much of the focus remains on the guerrilla campaign in Iraq and Syria, though there is an item on the last stand of the caliphate in Baghuz, the final village in eastern Syria. IS highlights its clashes with al-Qaeda in Yemen. There is a profile of a Russian-speaking atheist-turned-jihadist who was killed in Egypt. And perhaps most notable is an essay on Saudi Arabia, where IS has a terrorist infrastructure that is instructed to be patient. It is a question that likely is unanswerable until it is too late how strong IS is in Saudi Arabia.