Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Who is Lebanon's Jamaa Islamiya

2024-05-07

[AlMonitor] At least four people, including a child, were reportedly injured by stray bullets in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
’s northern Akkar district during a funeral procession held by the Islamist group al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi.
The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
over the weekend.

Members of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya held a funeral procession Sunday in the town of Bebnine for two of the group's fighters. They were killed two days earlier in an Israeli dronezap in the eastern Bekaa region. Heavy gunfire accompanied the procession.

Dozens of masked and gunnies were seen walking the town's streets, brandishing their weapons and firing in the air.

According to the local L’Orient Today news outlet, the stray bullets hit four people, including one woman, a man and a 10-year-old child who were inside their homes when the procession passed. Cars and property in the area were also reportedly damaged by the gunfire.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya is a Sunni Islamist political group founded in 1964 as the Lebanese branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. The group is present in Sunni-dominated cities and towns in both the south and the north. It is seen as an ally of Hamas
Hamas

...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
and has carried out joint attacks with the group, one of its officials said last month.

Its military wing, al-Fajr Forces, was founded in 1982 to fight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon during the civil war at the time. Its relations with Hezbollah, the dominant Iran-backed Shia murderous Moslem group in Lebanon, have fluctuated. The two took opposite sides during the civil war and in the conflict in Syria, with Jamaa opposing Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
. Their relations have improved in the last two years and as Hezbollah-Hamas coordination increased inside Lebanon.

UNCONTROLLED ARMS
The videos and images of the gunnies in Bebnine sparked widespread outrage among civilians and politicians and renewed the debate about the spread of weapons in the country amid the deterioration of the Lebanese state.

In a post on X on Sunday, independent parliament member Mark Daou condemned the presence of militias as a violation of the country’s illusory sovereignty, calling for the state for arms control.

Ibrahim Mneime, another independent politician, said al-Jamaa al-Islamiya bears responsibility for the "military demonstration" and the fall of the maimed in Akkar. He also condemned what he described as the group maintaining control of these weapons through intimidation.

Gunfire at events like weddings and funerals is common in some parts of Lebanon. Supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah movement are known for firing bursts of bullets in the air when the group’s leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
, delivers his televised speeches.

The practice has killed several people over the years. Most recently, last August, a seven-year-old girl was killed when a stray bullet struck her in the head while she was at a summer camp in the town of Hadath near Beirut.

Arms possession in Lebanon is poorly regulated and many civilians along with Paleostinian and Lebanese factions own firearms. Hezbollah, which is heavily backed by Iran, owns a large arsenal of weapons that includes thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles and drones.

Amid the controversy, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya issued a statement on its website saying it regretted "the armed convoy and shooting during the funeral procession from Tripol to Bebnine." The statement went on, "Any scene that raises panic and fear among the Lebanese is unacceptable," and "We affirm that the group is keen on the stability of the homeland and the security of citizens."

HOSTILITIES ON ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER
Since the cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in October, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya’s military wing has claimed several rocket launches toward Israeli territory.

On Friday, two senior commanders of the group were killed when an Israeli dronezap hit their vehicle on a road linking the villages of Sarira and Meidoun in the Bekaa region in the east of the country. The group identified the commanders as Mosab Saeed Khalaf and Bilal Mohammed Khalaf.

Israel confirmed the strike, saying it had killed Mosab Khalaf, who was behind a series of attacks against Israel in Shebaa Farms, a disputed territory in the south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging heavy fire along the southern border since Oct. 8, the day after the Israel-Hamas war in the Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation.
Strip broke out.

Several Paleostinian factions and allied groups inside Lebanon have since joined the battle in support of Hamas.

In a statement on Telegram, Hamas’ military wing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades grabbed credit for a barrage of rockets fired from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel on Monday.

The Israeli military told Agence La Belle France Presse that 20 rockets were launched toward Israel from Lebanon and that most of the projectiles were intercepted.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

While diplomatic efforts go on, IDF is bracing for short but devastating war in Lebanon

2024-03-31

Hattip Grom the Reflective.

[IsraelTimes] As Defense Minister Gallant met with US envoy Amos Hochstein in DC, escalations by Hezbollah cast doubt on notion anything but a military solution will deter the terror group

The last few days on the Israeli border with ~~Lebanon~~ Hezbollahstan
<del>Lebanon</del> Hezbollahstan

...In 2020 Hezbollah blew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate facility exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that. And it ain't never coming to trial...
can be defined as violence-heavy. Both sides are on an escalatory ladder, and both are climbing it, trying to stay on top — while avoiding stepping too high.

A symmetry of sorts has taken shape in the north over the last five months, as Hezbollah has maintained its near-daily attacks on Israel and the Jewish state has responded in kind, a symmetry reflected not just in strikes but in the civilian toll as well. Just as Israel felt compelled to establish a kind of "security zone" in the north, evacuating tens of thousands of residents from towns near the border, similar action has been taken in south Lebanon. Some 80,000 residents of northern Israel have been forced to leave their homes amid the hostilities. According to Israeli estimates, more than 120,000 Lebanese have become internally displaced by the fighting.

In certain south Lebanese villages where Israel has intelligence on a major Hezbollah presence, the IDF’s fire policy is strict: Anyone defined as a suspect is attacked.

Amid the daily cross-border attacks, Wednesday’s Israeli strike in Lebanon — in which seven members of the Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
terror group planning to carry out an infiltration attack on the border were killed — was different from what we’ve seen so far, both in scope and in the identity of those killed.

The terror cell in question was made up of Paleostinians active in an holy warrior Sunni Islamist organization centered in the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon, who were eliminated far from their normal area of operations. They appeared to choose the Mount Dov area for their planned attack, with the lack of a border fence making it relatively easier to infiltrate into Israeli territory.

Interestingly, throughout the months-long conflict, Hezbollah has chosen to send Paleostinian groups rather than its own people to carry out such infiltration attempts. The organization appears to be doing this in order to be able to portray the acts as ostensibly tied to the defense of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, rather than unprovoked aggression.

In an official announcement after the elimination of the terror cell, the IDF emphasized that the strike was conducted to thwart an imminent attack. It is quite possible that Israel had been following the cell for some time.

Hezbollah was quick to respond to the strike, accusing Israel of massacring civilians and launching a barrage of 30 rockets at Kiryat Shmona and the surrounding area.

One of the rockets struck and killed 25-year-old Zaher Bashara in the Druze village of Ein Qiniyye.

The escalation in cross-border fire came at the end of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to Washington, where he met with the US special envoy to the region Amos Hochstein, who has been leading efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Israel-Hezbollah standoff.

Despite the latest Israeli fatality caused by Hezbollah, Israel is committed to staying the course with Hochstein as he tries to find a way out of the crisis.

Israel’s Archimedean point is unchanged for now: Gaza comes first. Everything else will wait for a time when conditions are right.

But that doesn’t mean Israel isn’t preparing for an expanded conflict on the northern front.

DRILLING FOR A SHORT WAR; WATCHING A ’CONSIDERABLE’ RETREAT
On Wednesday, battalion commanders in the IDF completed a seminar organized by the 36th Division in preparation for a possible offensive in Lebanon. The division, which was stationed in Gaza for more than three months at the start of the war, shared its lessons from the fighting and how they may be implemented in Lebanon.

And on Thursday the IDF said it carried out a surprise exercise aimed at preparing the military for war in the north. The drill, led by the Operations Division, involved all the IDF’s commands, wings and directorates, as well as the General Staff.

Still, as far as the IDF is concerned, the current situation in southern Lebanon with regard to Hezbollah’s deployment is fundamentally different from that of Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", in Gaza on October 7.

"Practically, we aren’t that far from [UN Resolution] 1701, in terms of Hezbollah presence," a security bigshot said, referring to the motion that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and which mandated that Hezbollah forces retreat kilometers from the border — a resolution the terror group has patently ignored for many years.

"The organization has retreated considerably [in recent weeks], including the Radwan forces that had been deployed along the border in the last year," he said, referring to the elite commandos seen as a particular threat by Israel. "So the threat of a raid is significantly decreased."

This raises the question of whether residents of evacuated northern communities should be able to return home. After all, the threat of a Hamas-esque invasion was the chief reason for the rapid evacuation of northern border communities at the start of the war in Gaza.

Such a decision can only be made by politicians, and until they do decide, official policy remains the same — residents will only be allowed to return after Hezbollah is removed from the border, peacefully or otherwise.

HITTING ’HEZBOLLAH’ OR ’LEBANON’
"The next Lebanon war, whenever it breaks out, will be shorter than we think, especially because of the issue of international legitimacy," a diplomatic source told The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site Zman Yisrael.

"International scrutiny of events in Lebanon is different from that in Gaza," the source said. "There are many Western nations and international bodies involved in Lebanon, and therefore the time Israel would have to operate against Hezbollah in Lebanon would be far less than that afforded to it in Gaza."

This means Israel will need to prepare a lethal plan of action, one that will bring about the desired goals in a very short time. Israel has not specified what that will look like, but it’s clear that a war would be a matter of weeks and not longer.

Some in the IDF hold an optimistic view on the prospects for such action and have presented their position to politicians. The latter will no doubt examine it carefully, for fear an operation could stall and fizzle out as in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, dealing a heavy blow to Israeli deterrence.

The intensity of such a war must be taken into account — both in the damage Israel will suffer and that caused to Lebanon. The ferocity of such a war, particularly when taking into account Hezbollah’s massive stock of missiles and rockets, only underlines the need for a swift, decisive campaign.

Nearly six months into the conflict, Israel is still finding it difficult to define when the Rubicon will be crossed — when it would have to move from harming strictly Hezbollah to the Lebanese state itself.

An adherence to the principle of not harming Lebanese state assets could in the end mean a longer war, and severe damage to the projection of Israeli power and its regional deterrence.

Israeli Air Force resumes training exercises following halt since October 7

[IsraelTimes] The Israeli Air Force has returned to carrying out exercises, which had largely been on hold since the onset of the war on October 7.

The military says it has approved a new training program for the IAF amid the war, with an emphasis on preparing for war in the north.

The IDF says that as the war began on October 7, the IAF "froze the annual training program and all resources and attention were directed to the war effort."

For the past few weeks the IAF has gradually been returning to training, and a new program was recently approved, the IDF says.

"The training program will focus on increasing the Air Force’s readiness for war in the northern arena and in other theaters, amid prolonged combat," the IDF says in a statement.

The IDF says the drills will include "massive, long-range strikes, flights deep in enemy territory, decision-making in war conditions... and surprise exercises will be held for the various units."

According to the IDF, the drills have been adapted to not harm the IAF’s routine operations amid the war in the Gazoo Strip and on other fronts.

Link

Africa North

Explainer: Who is Egypt’s Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya that the US is removing from its terrorism blacklist?

2022-05-17

Expanding on this story from yesterday.

[AlAhram] The US is set to remove five inactive turban groups from its foreign terrorist organizations list, including al-Jamaa al-Islamiya

... the State Department at the moment prefers to spell it Gama’a al-Islamiyya...

...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
, which is blamed for terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of coppers, civilians and tourists in Egypt.

Active since the late 1970s, the group has been blamed for a campaign of violence in Egypt, especially in the 1990s, and is designated by the country as a terrorist group.

The five groups are expected to be formally removed from the US blacklist next week, the US State Department said in notices to politicians, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has been on the US foreign terrorist organizations list over the past 25 years, since 1997. This was the same year that saw a massacre by Islamist bully boyz of 71 people, including tourists, outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor.

Although investigations have proved the group members were behind the massacre, the group denied in 2013 its involvement in the attack.

MAJOR ATTACKS
The Egyptian Islamist movement surfaced in the eighties and nineties with a spate of terrorist attacks aimed at overthrowing the regimes of Presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
The group is believed to have been involved in the liquidation of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 during the commemoration ceremony of the 1973 victory over Israel in the October War.

The group is also believed to have been involved in the liquidation attempt against President Hosni Mubarak in 1995, along with the Islamist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, and the liquidation of parliament speaker Rifaat El-Mahgoub in 1990.

Other terrorist operations have also been blamed on the group, including the murder of well-known columnist Farag Foda in 1992. In 1996, the group killed several Greek tourists mistaken for Israelis outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo.

Following years of confrontations with security forces, the Islamist group's presence has been barely felt over the past decades.

In the late nineties, the group launched a non-violence initiative, where its members formally renounced violence and bloodshed.

Following the 2011 revolution, the group took the political route, establishing El-Benaa Wel Tanmia (Building and Development) political party. However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the Supreme Administrative Court issued a final ruling in 2020 to dissolve the party and confiscate its funds for funding terrorist groups.

Link

Africa North

Egypt state gazette publishes names of 164 Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya members placed on terrorism list

2018-11-12

[AlAhram] Egypt’s official gazette published on Sunday the names of 164 members of the hard-line Islamist movement al-Gamaa al-Islamiya

...also in our files as Moslem Brotherhood-allied Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...

who were placed on a terrorism list by a Cairo criminal court on 28 October.

The court placed the group, which waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s but renounced violence more than a decade ago, on a "terrorist entities" list, and placed 164 of its members on the terrorism list for five years.

The list includes the group's leading members Assem Abdel-Maged,

...he once shared a prison cell with Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and was jailed for 25 years for his part in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat. He was last seen living in exile in Qatar...

Mohammed El-Islambouly

... also known as Mohammed Showqi al-Islambouli, brother of Khalid al- Islambouli, the assassin of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat...

and Tarek El-Zomor.

...currently sheltered in Turkey and accused of leading and financing Ansar Beit al Maqdis/Wilayat Sinai (ISIS)...

The court also ordered that the funds of those added to the list be seized and managed by a special committee.

"These are judicial precautionary measures that seek to preserve, protect and [serve] the interest of the entire society," said the court.

The court's decision was based on a memo prepared by the High State Security Prosecution that says many leaders and members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya "renounced their previous initiative to stop violence and declared their adherence to the ideology of the organization that justifies violent acts," and regard the president as an infidel for failing to abide by Islamic Sharia law, the official gazette said.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya was implicated in the 1981 liquidation of Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat before they renounced violence more than a decade ago.

....in between they busied themselves with the 1997 Luxor temple massacre of 62 people, mostly foreign tourists...

The group stepped out of the shadow after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
After he came in to office in 2012, Mubarak's successor Mohammed Morsi freed some members of the group who had been nabbed
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
during the group’s armed insurrection against the state in the 1990s.

Morsi, a leader of the Moslem Brüderbund group who was removed from office after a one-year rule, is now serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted for involvement in the killing of protesters during demonstrations that culminated in his ouster, and a 25-year jail term over spying for Qatar

...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
Egyptian authorities banned the Brotherhood in 2013 and declared it a terrorist organization.

Al Arabiya adds:

The court said that the decision came after the disclosure of attempts by the leaders of the group to revive its terror activities, incitement against the state, recruitment of fighters from the governorates of impoverished Upper Egypt and its association with foreign parties.

Link

Africa North

Egypt's Supreme State Security Prosecution says number of Wilayat Sinai terrorists received Daesh training in Syria, Iraq

2018-05-10

The benefits of signing on as a franchise...

[AlAhram] Egypt’s Supreme State Security revealed a number of details in a case against accused members of the Wilayat Sinai (the Province of Sinai) terrorist group on Wednesday, including that some suspects had received training from ISIS in Syria and Iraq in the use of weapons and explosives.

On Monday, Egypt’s Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek referred 555 suspected members of the terrorist organization to military court on charges of forming 43 terrorist cells, carrying out or providing support for 63 terrorist attacks against civilians and security forces, disseminating ISIS propaganda and plotting further attacks around the country.

Wilayat Sinai is the self-proclaimed name of the terrorist group formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which declared allegiance to ISIS in November 2014.

The primary suspect in the case, Ali Salman Ali Salem al-Derz, is accused of tasking a number of cadres with spreading ISIS's ideology in North Sinai. The group accuses the head of state, members of the army and Christians of being infidels.

The prosecution also accused Tarek El-Zomor, a prominent Egyptian leader of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
who resides in ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, of having a leading role in the Wilayat Sinai terrorist organization and providing financial assistance to the organization from abroad.

The terrorist organization is said to have divided North Sinai into six administrative sectors under a general commander known as al-Wali who is aided by three primary lieutenants responsible for military, administrative and financial affairs, respectively, the prosecution said.

Suspects in the case are also accused of staking out a number of civilian and political targets with the aim of carrying out attacks.

Among the intended targets were churches in Giza, Hurghada and Cairo's outskirts, as well as the interior ministry headquarters in Cairo and ships in the Suez Canal and Damietta port.

Members of terrorist cells affiliated with the organization are also accused of abducting and killing a number of civilians in North Sinai in retaliation for thier alleged cooperation with security officials in the area.

Some 88 suspects incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in the case gave detailed confessions on 63 terrorist attacks carried out in North Sinai, the prosecution said.

Several defendants are accused of providing material and logisitical support for attacks, including plotting to sabotage a gas pipeline between Port Said and Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai.

The prosecution said that according to confessions by 216 of the defendants, a number of suspects were involved in the killing of Central Security Captain Mahmoud El-Zamlout and army Lieutenant Mohammed Abdel-Razek in 2016, as well as the shooting of a total of 10 security personnel and targeting of armored vehicles, checkpoints and security locations with explosives and automatic weapons.

Link

Terror Networks

Islamic State’s Baghdadi likely to be in Africa, experts say

2018-01-11

(IraqiNews.com) Several experts in Islamist groups affairs have said the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s supreme leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
is likely to be in Africa, being the safest place at the meantime for the hard boy group, the Russian agency Sputnik reported.

Sameh Eid, an expert in Jihadist groups affairs in Egypt, said Baghdadi is likely to be in Africa, after the group members fled Iraq and Syria.

Africa, according to Eid, is the biggest battlefield that the group seeks entering in order to have access to Egypt. Regarding the access to Africa, he said that it just needs the help of intelligence to guarantee transferring him from one place to another in Africa, which is possible, especially in light of accusations among intelligence services over transferring the Death Eaters from Syria and Iraq.

Baghdad could make an audio or video recording, if alive, to show that the group still exists, Eid said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand......
Najeh Ibrahim, former leader with Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
h, said Baghdadi is likely to me in other places like the Sahara desert, northern Chad or the borders between Algeria and Niger.

Speaking to Sputnik, Ibrahim said those place are considered as safe shelters due to suffering security failure in addition to being mountainous areas, where he can hide for long time. Members from these countries, which suffer poverty and conflicts, can be recruited.

Moreover, Nasser al-Hawari, Libyan expert, said the group seeks including the biggest number of terrorist cells in Libya, Chad, Niger and Sudan.

He added that tension at some African countries will help the group recruit more members, especially at countries that witness conflicts.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jamaa Islamiya Official Resigns in Wake of Tripoli Poll Results

2016-06-01

[An Nahar] Political official of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
in the North and Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
Ihab Nafeaa submitted his resignation on Tuesday in protest to the outcome of the municipal elections in the northern city, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

"Agreements and alliances were formed in the municipal elections in Tripoli which did not live up to the expectations of many in the city," said Nafeaa in a statement announcing his resignation.

"A leader can foresee from his position better than a normal person would, and he might be mistaken in his effort and has therefore to bear the responsibility of his decisions," he added.

He pointed to the outcome of the municipal elections in Tripoli, and said: "The results of the polls have shown that our choice was not a proper one. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya did not live up to the expectations of the people of Tripoli. I therefore shoulder the responsibility in front of my family and supporters of the Jamaa and I submitted my resignation."

Nafeaa's resignation came a day after Tripoli MP Robert Fadel submitted his resignation from parliament, protesting the surprising results of Sunday's elections in the northern city in which no Christian candidates managed to win seats on the municipal council.

A list backed by resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi achieved a stunning victory Sunday against a list backed by Hariri, ex-PM

Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi, Jamaa Islamiya, al-Ahbash and the Arab Democratic Party.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Would-Be Suicide-Bomber Seeking to Attack 'Shiite Target' Arrested in North Leb

2015-04-30

[AnNahar] A potential suicide-bomber was locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
last week as he was headed to Syria where he was set to prepare himself for carrying out a bombing against a Shiite target in Leb, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Wednesday.

Arrested by the General Security, Mohammed al-Aqla, 22, said he had joined the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front in Syria.

He was expected to meet up with the group, which would determine the target of his suicide-bombing in Leb.

The suspect confessed to belonging to the group and aspiring to follow in the footsteps of Paleostinian suicide-bombers, Adnan al-Mohammed and Nidal al-Mougheer, who both hailed from al-Bisariyeh camp.

Mohammed had carried the bombing in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut on November 19, 2013 and al-Mougheer had carried out the bombing in front of the Iranian Cultural Center on February 19, 2014.

Al-Aqla hails from the southern town of al-Bisariyeh in the al-Zahrani province.

His family fled the border town of Yarin in the wake of the Israeli invasion of 1978.

It relocated to al-Bisariyeh where he was raised it its Shiite environment, said al-Akhbar.

He was last seen in the area about three weeks ago and his family was informed of his disappearance about a week later.

He failed to complete his school education and worked in construction sites and gardening.

Recently, al-Aqla became closed off from those around him and he spent his time at prayer in the town mosque that is led by Sheikh Ahmed Abid of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
.

His father, a retired army officer, is not affiliated with any political party, but his relatives are devout Moslems and known for their good ties with al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

Al-Aqla's case was referred to intelligence directorate for further investigation.

A number of terror suspects have been arrested in recent months. A number of them have confessed to belonging to terrorist groups and of seeking to stage attacks against various targets in Leb, as well as its army.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Wanted Suspect Arrested in Tripoli, Prompting Tensions with Army

2014-07-21

[An Nahar] Tensions were high in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
following the army's arrest of a wanted suspect overnight, reported Voice of Leb radio (93.3) on Sunday.

It said that tensions mounted after the arrest of Sheikh Hussam al-Sabbagh, who is wanted on terrorism charges, in Tripoli's Abi Samra neighborhood.

His supporters took to the street to protest the detention.

Youth gatherings have been reported near the Harba Mosque and the office of Salafist holy man Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi.

A meeting of Mohammedan scholars, chaired by Rafehi, was held at dawn in order to address the development.

The gatherers condemned Sabbagh's arrest, deeming it as "provocative", reported VDL.

The army confirmed the arrest in a statement later on Sunday, saying that Sabbagh and his ~~lover~~ companion, Mohammed Ali Ismail Ismail, were detained at a checkpoint in the al-Manar area in Tripoli.

Unknown assailants later tossed a hand grenade at an army checkpoint in Tripoli's al-Mankoubin area, it added.

Known as Abu Hassan, Sabbagh holds Lebanese and Australian citizenships and is wanted by authorities in both countries for belonging to al-Qaeda, most notably the Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred.
group, reported MTV.

It described Sabbagh as one of the most wanted suspects in Leb and one of the most dangerous men in the country.

The suspect initially joined the ranks of the Baath Party in Iraq before joining al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
group.

Influenced by al-Qaeda's mentality during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he joined the group in fighting U.S. troops in the country.

He also sent members of al-Qaeda through Leb and Syria to fight in Iraq against invading U.S. troops in 2003, added MTV.

He then disappeared off the scene for several years until the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

He became noticed in Leb during May 2013 following the arrest of Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya Denies al-Qaida Presence in Lebanon

2011-12-30

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya
...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
has denied allegations that the al-Qaeda terrorist network was operating in Leb, but stressed that some Islamic fascisti believe in the late Osama bin Laden's
... who abandoned all hope when he entered there...
thoughts.

The party's politburo chief Omar al-Masri told An Nahar daily published Thursday that the reports about al-Qaeda's presence in Leb "are an old story."

The terrorist network has no base in Leb, al-Masri said, but he stressed that "some Islamic fascisti believe in bin Laden's ideology" when he was asked about demonstrations in Tripoli and other northern towns where the photos of the slain terrorist leader were raised.

The party official told An Nahar that the U.S. administration had exaggerated the role of al-Qaeda which paved way for Arab regimes to strengthen their grip on power ahead of their collapse by mass demonstrations.

Al-Masri believes that the Syrian regime is using the same technique by claiming that al-Qaeda was behind two deadly bombings that shook Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
last week.

"What they're doing is a farce," he said, stressing that most of the victims were detainees and army dissidents.

The opposition Syrian National Council has said that the Syrian regime had intentionally put them at the scenes of the blasts to reveal to the public the alleged victims of the kabooms through TV footage.

Al-Masri added that Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, who claimed that al-Qaeda Death Eaters were operating in and out of the border town of Arsal, had been framed.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hizbullah, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya Confirm 'Resistance's Role in Fortifying Nation'

2011-08-11

[An Nahar] Head of Hizbullah's politburo Ibrahim Amine al-Sayyed held talks on Wednesday with a delegation from al-Jamaa al-Islamiya headed by Azzam al-Ayoubi, the National News Agency reported.

The conferees stressed on "the resistance's role in fortifying the future of the nation and in protecting our nations from offensive threats."

Hizbullah's media department said in a statement that they discussed the Lebanese local affairs and the regional developments.

The two sides urged officials to be responsible during this critical stage.

They congratulated the Islamic and Arab world for Ramadan, asking God to "stabilize, fortify and unite these countries against those who want to bring chaos to our region in order to benefit the Zionist entity."

Link

Terror Networks

Bin Ladens successor to face financing crisis

2011-05-13

Observers believe that Bin Laden's death will not weaken the jihadist movement in Afghanistan and Pakistan and elsewhere in the world; however Al Qaeda was a Bin Laden construct, he was behind the September 11 attacks, whilst all members of Al Qaeda pledged their allegiance to Osama Bin Laden the man, rather than to the organization or to any specific ideology. In this regard, Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group [Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya al-Muqatilah bi Libya -- LIFG], stressed that there are huge problems within the Al Qaeda organization following Osama Bin Laden's death. Benotman, who today is a Senior Analyst (Strategic Communications) at the London-based anti-Islamist think tank Quilliam, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the financial support that was being provided to Al Qaeda, from figures in the Gulf and Pakistan, was being provided due to trust and confidence in Bin Laden, and that the financial aid may dry up following the death of the Al Qaeda leader. He added "with the death of Bin Laden, Al Qaeda is lacking the force of a commander to inspire the disparate groups that are connected to the organizations in the Middle East and North Africa."

Benotman also told Asharq Al-Al-Awsat that Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's deputy leader, was the "mastermind" behind Osama Bin Laden, describing the Egyptian jihadist as being "the brains" of Al Qaeda. He also acknowledged that the strategic turning point in the history of Al Qaeda, namely the targeting of the US as the great enemy, rather than the Middle East regimes, represented a blow to al-Zawahiri, who wanted to overthrow the Egyptian government. According to Benotman, Bin Laden influenced al-Zawahiri's ideology in this regard, telling him "forget the closest enemies [the Middle East governments], and instead put your sights on the main enemy, and that is the United States."

And we all saw how that turned out.

Link

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