In a new video, IS-Somalia released footage showing, it says, a multi-hour battle in the Cal Miskaad Mountains between insurgents & Somali Puntland regional state forces backed by U.S. forces and air strikes:

THREAD 🧵 The "battle" was defensive on IS-Somalia's part, with the militant group saying it was "repelling" a Puntland state attack, aided by U.S. forces & air power, on it in the Cal Miskaad Mountains;

IS claims (key word) "around 10 'apostate' & 'Crusader' soldiers" killed:

THREAD 🧵

In 2022, Islamic State (IS) claims it or its affiliates carried out 2,058 attacks globally causing 6,881 casualties (killed & wounded), destroying 2,310 houses or residences, 156 heat-sensor cameras (mostly in Iraq), & 865 vehicles of various types.

THREAD 🧵 Islamic State (IS) claims it carried out attacks in Yemen (1), Uganda (1), Benin (2), Indian-administered Kashmir/"Hind" (2), Iran (2), Palestine (1), Cameroon (7), Philippines (6), Burkina Faso (4), Libya (3), Mali (22), Somalia (32),

THREAD 🧵

IS-Mozambique claims it attacked a "Christian" village in the Palma area in Cabo Delgado province two days ago, killing 2 villagers: IS-Mozambique claims it attacked a joint Mozambican & Tanzanian army patrol in an ambush in Palma, Cabo Delgado province, destroying 3 vehicles and seizing weapons & ammunition:

Starting in 2011, Al-Shabaab began withdrawing, after publicly announcing its intention to do so, from Mogadishu & continued to withdraw from major urban centers in the face of a major AMISOM & Somali government, backed by allied militias in some areas, offensive.

🧵THREAD AS generally did not choose to make "last stands," unlike Islamic State in Mosul and (to a lesser extent) Raqqa city in 2016-2017, perhaps having learned its lesson during disastrous "Ramadan offensives" in previous years. Insurgent operations & media were interrupted.

🧵THREAD

The late AQ in the Indian Subcontinent leader Ustadh Ahmad Faruq:

Part 1/3 AQ in the Indian Subcontinent leader Ustadh Ahmad Faruq & the late AQC administrator Mustafa Abu al-Yazid:

Part 2/3

Al-Shabaab funery prayer (salat al-janaza) & burial of Shaykh Nur Mu'alim 'Abdi Rahman, a religious scholar affiliated with the Islamic Courts Union & then Al-Shabaab.

A thread🧵: Born in 1960/1961 (1380 hijri) in Adan Yabal, Middle Shabelle, he studied in Mogadishu & later at the University of Science and Technology in Yemen & Sudan, memorizing the Qur'an & studying Arabic grammar, Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), & Shafi'i fiqh.

IS-Mozambique claims it attacked another Christian village in Meluco, Cabo Delgado yesterday, killing 1 & burning down houses & a government building: In a second claim, IS-Mozambique today claims it attacked an army barracks in Palma, Cabo Delgado:

IS-West Africa claimed responsibility for freeing hundreds of prisoners in an attack on a Nigerian government prison in Kuje outside Abuja (re: news.yahoo.com/nigeria-prison…):

(1/2) IS-West Africa video footage of their attack on the Kuje prison outside of the Nigerian capital city, Abuja, which freed hundreds of prisoners including members of the militant group:

(2/2)

String of attacks across Afghanistan claimed by IS-KP over the past few days:

(1) Attack killing 2 Afghan Taliban "militia" in Nurgal, Kunar province: (2) Pistol assassinations of 2 Afghan Taliban "militia" in Nangarhar province:

Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Haybatullah Akhundzada, in his annual 'Eid al-Fitr (1441) message, says the group seeks normal diplomatic relations with neighboring & other countries, unlike IS or AQ groups: Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Haybatullah Akhundzada, in his annual 'Eid al-Fitr (1441) message, claims that the group does not seek a national political monopoly & accuses "foreign intelligence networks" of trying to foment ethnic, tribal, & sectarian tensions in the country:

Today's "Ramadan Cooking with IS-East Asia" in the Philippines:

#JihadiFood Ramadan food with IS-Sinai:

#JihadiFood

I'm excited to offer this course in Fall 2020, "HIST 387: Jihad in the Islamic World," @GeorgeMasonU: historyarthistory.gmu.edu/courses/hist38…. D.C. area students can enroll through the Consortium (registrar.gmu.edu/topics/washing…). Friends & colleagues at D.C. area universities, please spread the word! I'm also teaching 2nd new topics course Fall 2020, "GOVT 444: Revolutionary Islam & the State: Militants, Nationalists, Rebels," from Kharijites to Khomeini to IS" @GeorgeMasonU. D.C. area students enrollment through Consortium (registrar.gmu.edu/topics/washing…). Please spread the word!

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for 2 SVBIED attacks on a Ugandan AMISOM base at the Baraawe airport, Lower Shabelle, "opening the month of Ramadan"; Al-Shabab claimed it inflicted significant, but an unspecified number, of casualties while AMISOM claimed it "repulsed" the attack (re:

https://twitter.com/amisomsomalia/status/1253711781807226887

).

My new article, "Addressing the Enemy: Al-Shabaab’s PSYOPS Media Warfare" in the @CTCWP Sentinel looking at 6 cases of the Somali jihadi-insurgent group's psychological warfare & information and influence operations:

ctc.usma.edu/addressing-ene… The case studies examined: (1) January 2020 Manda Bay airfield attack (2) 2010 Mogadishu stalemate & start of Al-Shabab's "jihadi journalism" (3) 2011 Dayniile ambush (4) 2014 Mpeketoni raids (5) Kenya's 2017 general elections (6) 2019 mass shootings & natural disasters in U.S.

Mozambique jihadists seize key town in Cabo Delgado
(BBC): bbc.com/news/world-afr… IS "Wilayat Central Africa" statement claimed today to have attacked 5 Mozambican army positions in Mocimboa de Praia, Cabo Delgado;

The IS statement claimed soldiers fled leaving weapons, ammunition, and "a number of vehicles" behind for IS militants to capture:

Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) juridical opinion (fatwa) says Muslims in areas hard hit by COVID-19 are "not permitted" to gather for congregational Friday prayer until situation returns to normal (The Jakarta Post):

thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/1… Indonesia halts mass congregation of nearly 9,000 Muslim pilgrims/Jamaat Tabligh missionaries and began quarantining them and checking their health (AP):

news.yahoo.com/indonesia-halt…

Turkey continues taking out Syrian Ba'th regime forces, shooting down 2 jets and destroying tanks, radar systems, and other regime vehicles, in retaliation for a Russian airstrike that killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers last week:

theguardian.com/world/2020/mar… Turkish officials acknowledged Russia was responsible for the airstrike but said the latter was not a target;

Turkey has killed at least 106 soldiers, 14 Hizbullah, and 21 Afghan or Pakistani militiamen in IRGC-affiliated groups Lashkar-e Fatimiyyun & Lashkar-e Zaynabiyyun.

In a new statement Al-Shabab's Political & Provinces Office alleged that the vast majority (80%+) of U.S. military strikes over the past few years have targeted non-AS targets, instead killing farmers, nomadic pastoralists, & other civilians.

#IslamizingRebelGovernance This is a continuation, AS alleged, of U.S. hostility in particular toward Somalis since the early 1990s UN mission.

The statement focused not only on the human victims but also on the material damage to homes and other buildings and the killings of valuable livestock.

IS-Somalia, which is distantly behind Al-Shabab in the field of jihadi-insurgency in East Africa, released a new propaganda video today showing off, primarily, Ethiopian & Swahili-speaking militants + the requisite somersaulting, jumping, running, crawling training camp footage: The training camp was named after a dead military trainer, 'Abu Dawud al-Somali." The propaganda film features Amharic and Swahili-speaking fighters including a number identified as being from Ethiopia, some delivering domestic/localized sectarian messaging.

New attack by Al-Shabab on government military base at El-Salin (El-Salini), Lower Shabelle, kills over 20 soldiers, VOA's @HarunMaruf reports: voasomali.com/a/5295098.html ; Same base attacked by insurgents in late September killing 20 soldiers (re: voanews.com/africa/al-shab…). @HarunMaruf Al-Shabab also attacked government forces in Qoryoley, Lower Shabelle, the site of frequent attacks by the insurgent group (re: twitter.com/search?q=ibnsi…).

IS-Somalia militants train at the 'Military Training Camp of the 2 Mujahid Shaykhs, Abu Bakr al-Qurayshi (al-Baghdadi) & Abu Hasan al-Muhajir' in an unidentified part of Somalia, probably Puntland: After the April 2010 killings of Islamic State of Iraq amir Abu 'Umar al-Baghdadi & "war minister" Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Al-Shabab "honored" the two ISI chiefs by carrying out an SVBIED attack in Mogadishu.