DEVELOPING: Just as #ISIS' spox releases the group's latest message, @StateDept announces $3 million reward for Muhammad Khadir Musa Ramadan - a senior ISIS leader & propagandist who plays "played a key role in ISIS's propaganda operations to radicalize, recruit, and incite"
This new speech from #ISIS spox Abu Hamza al-Qurashi comes as #Iraq has been touting successes in its crackdown on the terror group
Earlier this week, @IraqiSpoxMOD said the ISIS governor of Iraq Moataz al-Jabouri, aka Hajji Taysir, was killed
The +39 minute speech by #ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al Qurashi is titled, "And the Disbelievers Will Know who Gets the Good End" per @siteintelgroup translation
It's his 3rd speech since becoming the group's spox last October, following the death of ex-spox Abu Hassan al-Muhajir
Per @siteintelgroup, Abu Hamza al Qurashi juxtaposes the biblical story of the ten plagues w/#COVID19, saying #Daesh's enemies are being punished like Pharoah
#ISIS' Abu Hamza al Qurashi also calls on the group's fighters to escalate attacks on Iran-backed militias in #Iraq
On #ISIS-#Khorasan, Abu Hamza al Qurashi references November's defeat in #Nangarhar province but says: "their operations...are still continuing in the heart of the capital of the tyrant and in other areas of Khorasan"
#ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al Qurashi accuses #alQaida in #Africa of trying to stifle ISIS' growth - "Today, they kill those who leave them to join the caliphate"
More: #ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al Qurashi makes a mention of new leader Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurashi, saying he gave the go-ahead to the latest "battle of attrition" in #Iraq#Syria
Of #ISIS' future, spokesman Abu Hamza al Qurashi says, "what you are seeing today is nothing but indications of major transformations that the Muslim countries will witness in the coming period"
NEW: Islamic State-Somalia getting boost from an "influx of foreign fighters"
A just-issued UN sanctions monitoring team report warns the foreign fighters "have expanded and enhanced the group’s capabilities against al-Shabaab"
Influx of foreign fighters to IS-Somalia " has coincided with the re-emergence of the Al-Karrar office as a
key administrative and financial hub for [ISIS] globally" per the UN report
IS-Somalia being led by "a cadre of former al-Shabaab
militants based in the Bari region of Puntland" per UN report
Abdirahman Fahiye Isse Mohamud is the emir of IS-Somalia, per report, "responsible for [ISIS] operations in Somalia"
NEW: Senate Democrats ask @DeptofDefense @TheJusticeDept to look at Elon Musk's reported contact w/Russian officials - "determine whether this behavior should force a review of Mr. Musk’s
continued involvement in SpaceX’s varying contracts" w/the US government
"Communications between Russian government officials and any individual with a security
clearance have the potential to put our security at risk" per @SenatorShaheen @SenJackReed
"We urge you to take appropriate action immediately"
Musk's alleged contacts with Russian officials was first reported by @WSJ, which cited current and former U.S., European and Russian officials
JUST IN: Iranian, 2 men from New York charged in connection with plot to kill Americans, including President-elect Donald Trump & a US journalist of Iranian origin
.@TheJusticeDept filed charges against 51yo Farhad Shakeri of Iran, 49yo Carlisle Rivera & 36yo Jonathon Loadholt
Shakeri remains at large in Iran
Rivera & Loadholt have been detained pending trial
@TheJusticeDept US Atty General Merrick Garland, in statement, calls Shakeri "an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump"
Pentagon assesses since February 2022, Russia's suffered 600,000 casualties
This September, "Russian forces sustained more casualties in terms of both killed & wounded in action than in any other month" per a sr US defense official
"#Russia|n losses, again, both killed & wounded in action in just the 1st year of the war exceeded the total of all Russian losses or Soviet losses in any conflict since World War Two combined" per sr US defense official
#Ukraine "have sunk, destroyed or damaged at least 32 medium to large #Russia|n Federation navy vessels in the #BlackSea" per sr US defense official
NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ