Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Amid PA crackdown in Jenin, videos seem to show gunmen acknowledging ties to Iran

2024-12-18

[IsraelTimes] Unverified videos circulating on social media show Paleostinian button men in Jenin acknowledging their connections to the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
, and pledging their commitment to Tehran’s objective of exporting the Islamic Revolution.

"From here, from Paleostine, from the Jenin Battalion, from the free and honorable people of Paleostine, we send our greetings to the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran, to Imam Ali Khamenei, and we will soon establish the state of the Imam Mahdi," a masked gunman says in one of the videos.

That figure is mostly revered in the Shiite Islam that is practiced in Iran, and is less relevant to the Sunni Islam practiced in the Paleostinian territories, raising questions about the authenticity of the videos, with some critics of the PA claiming that the clips have been fabricated by the PA as part of its propaganda against rival factions.

Over the past days, Paleostinian Authority security forces have been engaged in a crackdown on terror groups in Jenin, and on Saturday killed the local leader of Paleostinian 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...
, Yazid Jaysa.

On Sunday, the US reportedly asked Israel to approve the urgent delivery of military assistance to the PA as it attempts to restore order in Jenin. Some have viewed the PA’s ongoing crackdown on armed factions in Jenin as an attempt by Ramallah to prove it can assert military control over West Bank territories under its jurisdiction, in preparation for a role it seeks to play in the future governance of the 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 a rusty 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...
Strip.

Since at least 2022, Iran has inundated the West Bank with arms, smuggling them across the border from Jordan to foment unrest with Israel, according to a report published in April by The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
.

The Islamic Theocratic Republic has long provided financial support to Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad terror groups as part of its Axis of Resistance® against Israel, which has suffered heavy blows after the decimation of the military capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah in Leb
...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?...
and the fall of the Iran-backed Assad regime in Syria.o

313 by itself refers to the 313 men in Shia Twelvers belief that will rise to fight alongside elMahdi upon his reappearance -
There was a compilation video of their irgc supporting statements by YaffaNews, am attaching here: pic.twitter.com/ORxY7HZOFK
— Mo Ghaoui (@moghaoui) December 16, 2024

… That's what the PA raids and operation in Jenin are all about – the United States has asked Israel to approve a shipment of ammunition, vests, helmets, night vision equipment, small arms, and vehicles to PA forces who are woefully and inadequately equipped to fulfill this critical and dangerous task. Palestinians being in charge of their own security is a superior option to the Israeli military conducting raids and inflaming tensions that fuel a vicious cycle.

The IRGC has stood up ideological fighters who are repeating Shia religious slogans and explicitly praising Tehran, all while forming a highly suspicious fighting formation that they’re calling “Brigade 313” – a religiously-inspired name that has appeared in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere. These are not “resistance” fighters as clueless “pro-Palestine” imbeciles are claiming: this is something entirely new and unprecedented. These are agents of chaos that the Islamic Republic is hoping will bring about the collapse of the PA and trigger a massive Israeli counterattack, which would trigger more violence in a desperate bid to save the destroyed “Axis of Resistance.”

The United States and its allies must do all that’s possible to empower the PA and its forces and allow for an organic counterterrorism operation against PIJ, Hamas, and other thugs and gangsters. This is an opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy of a Palestinian-led security architecture that serves the interests and needs of all, something that could be a framework for future security in the Gaza Strip.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Seven Iran-backed fighters killed in airstrike in east Syria

2020-05-17

Probably Armenian Airforce
[Jpost] Seven Iranian-backed militants were killed after unidentified aircraft attacked a site belonging to Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias near Al-Bukamal in the Deir Ezzor area near the Syria-Iraq border on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The strikes, which destroyed a structure inside the base, came just days after Iranian militias sent reinforcements to the site. The death toll is expected to rise as a number of people were also reported wounded.

Local media reported two large explosions in Aleppo early on Saturday morning, with some outlets claiming that an alleged Israeli airstrike had targeted Iranian sites in the city. Syrian state media later denied that the explosions had been caused by an airstrike. The SANA state news agency reported early Saturday morning that an explosion had been heard in Aleppo, without providing further details.

A correspondent for the Step News Agency reported that the explosions were believed to have been caused by a strike on Iranian sites in the city and that four bodies had been brought from the scene of the explosion to a hospital in Aleppo, but it was unknown whether the casualties belonged to the Syrian military or Iranian militias.

The reports indicated that the airstrikes targeted the Ramouse suburb near a military school. The opposition-affiliated Halab Today TV also reported on the alleged airstrikes, stressing that no official source provided information on the cause or location of the explosion.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday that while the source of the explosion was unknown, unidentified aircraft were said to have been over the area when the explosion occurred. The SOHR also reported that the explosion occurred in the Ramouse area.

However, State media later denied reports of an attack targeting the Aleppo International Airport or the Artillery School in Ramouse, which is located southwest of Aleppo.

On Friday, Iranian militias began to withdraw from the area near the Aleppo International Airport and moved to Al-Safira, southeast of Aleppo, according to Halab Today. The militias were replaced by Russian forces. The militias included members of the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, the Shi'ite Liwa Zainebiyoun militia and the Shi'ite Quwat Al-Ridha, and evacuated due to recent alleged Israeli airstrikes, according to the report.

Iranian-backed militias have been shuffled throughout Syria since a series of airstrikes targeted Iranian and Syrian targets in the country in recent weeks, according to local reports.

The Liwa Fatemiyoun and Brigade 313 militias were transferred out of the Deir Ezzor area of eastern Syria last week, according to local news source DeirEzzor24.

The formerly Iranian-backed and currently Russian-backed Palestinian Liwa al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigade) militia which was located in Aleppo entered the city of Al-Bukamal in the Deir Ezzor area, in order to take over the headquarters of Iranian militias in the city after a request by Russia, according to Halab Today.

Earlier this month, alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted a research center and a military base in Aleppo where Iranian militias are based, the fifth such strike in two weeks, according to Syrian media. During those strikes, sites in the Deir Ezzor area were also targeted.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that airstrikes that were likely carried out by Israel targeted the scientific research center in Aleppo where both Iranian militias and Syrian forces are based, destroying ammunition depots in the area.Western intelligence sources say Iranian-backed militias have long been entrenched in Aleppo province where they have bases and a command center and installed advanced weapons, part of a growing presence across government-controlled Syria.

Aleppo was targeted by alleged Israeli airstrikes last year in March as well.

Shortly after the strikes in Aleppo, additional airstrikes by unidentified aircraft were carried out in Al-Mayadeen in the Deir Ezzor area located near the Syria-Iraq border. Fourteen Iranians and Iran-backed militants were killed in the alleged Israeli airstrikes in Deir Ezzor, according to SOHR.

A regional intelligence source said Israel was stepping up raids in Syria at a time when world attention and the region, including Syria, were distracted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Will IRGC-established militia in Syria sabotage de-escalation agreement?

2017-11-11

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Iranian Revolutionary Guards established a new militia named Brigade 313 in South Syria, it has been revealed.

Syrian opposition figures warned that the militia, which consists of young men from Daraa and which is trained and funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, aims to sabotage the de-escalation agreement in South Syria.

The name of the militia is linked to sectarian concepts, which Tehran is trying to solidify in the region. Syrian chief opposition negotiator Mohammed Sabra said the militia’s composition falls within the context of Iran’s divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
policies in the region.

The newly-formed militia is headquartered in the Christian majority city of Izra but its fighters consist of Shiites from South Syria. Sabra said Iran formed the brigade on a certain sectarian basis while ignoring the rest of the region’s components.

Hamburg agreement
Iran is trying to move around the Hamburg agreement between Russia and the US and which impose keeping Iranian forces and militias affiliated with it at least 35 kilometers away from Syrian-Jordanian borders.

The militia’s headquarters in Izra is around 30 kilometers away from the borders with Jordan and Israel, which poses a direct threat to the agreement between Washington and Moscow.

Link

India-Pakistan

Advantage Al Qaeda

2011-10-04

[Dawn] HIGH-PROFILE terrorist attacks in South Asia over the last few years demonstrate that Death Eaters are either quick learners or are part of the same nexus. Similarities in a few terrorist attacks across different countries and regions can be shrugged off as copycat acts, but when the likeness almost becomes a trademark it merits a closer look.

In recent years, Death Eaters have gone after new targets and evolved new tactics in a near-simultaneous manner that point to an increasing exchange of notes, so to speak. Shared ideological, political and, sometimes, operational objectives bring Death Eaters closer.

In that context, similarities between the Sept 13 attacks on US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
targets in Afghanistan, the assault on Pakistain's Mehran naval air force base in May this year and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks may not be surprising.

The operational and tactical likeness of these attacks reflects that Death Eaters have enhanced their operational capabilities and demands counterterrorism measures that are commensurate with the new challenges.

A broader conceptual framework and effective coordination among states facing the shared threat of terrorism can build an effective pre-emptive mechanism. But such a synchronised effort to take on terrorism has not been achieved even a decade after 9/11. Interstate cooperation against terrorism remains a pipe dream in South Asia in particular, even as Death Eaters grow ever-savvy and constantly find sophisticated techniques of striking their targets.

The security crisis and the insurgency that erupted in Iraq after the US invasion of that country in 2003 was a watershed moment in the history of terrorism. Iraq proved a virtual laboratory for Death Eaters where Al Qaeda tried and perfected new and sophisticated techniques of wreaking havoc, which were later exported to other regions, including Afghanistan and Pakistain.

Al Qaeda's edge in terrorism expertise influenced the Taliban and other turban movements in the region, which had been under immense pressure from the state after 9/11. Al Qaeda's support in the form of improved capabilities and techniques for striking their targets was a virtual lifeline for them.

The February 2008 suicide kaboom in Kandahar that targeted a dog-fight festival was the first in Afghanistan where the tactics could be compared to those involving attacks targeting pilgrims in Iraq starting 2003. The objective was similar: to kill as many members of opponent tribes, sects and political adversaries as possible, even if they were civilians. More destructive suicide jackets were developed to maximise the impact.

Also in 2008, Pakistain saw progression in techniques in three major terrorist attacks which targeted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in Lahore and the Danish embassy and Marriott hotel in Islamabad. In the FIA attack, Death Eaters used a pickup truck loaded with over 50kg of C4 plastic explosives, in a tactic that was strikingly similar to the April 2005 botched attack on Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison by Al Qaeda, with the aim of freeing detainees and targeting US forces in a series of car boomings. The method adopted in the devastating Marriott suicide kaboom showed their enhanced capabilities and the ability to strike at will the most protected parts of the country.

The Mumbai attacks were another defining moment, when a new technique of urban guerrilla warfare proved brutally effective in the hands of terrorists, who have since developed such tactics further, adding elements of suicide kaboom to it and striking in Pakistain and Afghanistan more than a dozen times.

Terrorists imitated the Mumbai attacks in four major assaults in Pakistain in 2009: an attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi, an assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and two attacks on a police training school in the same city. Afghanistan suffered a similar attack in Kabul in February 2010 when Death Eaters targeted a shopping centre, a guesthouse and a hotel.

One tactic has been to target a particular city through repeated strikes with a view to terrorising the population and enhancing the impact of attacks beyond just physical damage. In 2009, Death Eaters repeatedly targeted Beautiful Downtown Peshawar in that manner and in 2010 they focused on Lahore. In 2011, Bloody Karachi seems to be high on the terrorists' list. In Afghanistan, initially Kandahar was a magnet for such sustained attacks and now it is Kabul.

At the level of nexus, things have been much clearer. Terrorist groups that shared similar ideological and political ambitions not only borrowed tactics and techniques ascribed to each other, but also mirrored other terrorist outfits' approaches by merging or otherwise converging, transforming or altering their organizational composition. This happened in the case of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and a few Kashmire-based turban groups, mainly Brigade 313 headed by Ilyas Kashmiri.Under Al Qaeda's influence these outfits have transformed and have been imitating each other on the tactical, operational and organizational levels. Typically, the influence has impacted smaller groups who had been struggling to survive or had material deficiencies and required external help to survive. Al Qaeda has been more than willing to help out, through both ideological and operational support. There is little doubt that quid pro quo has been involved.

That was the conclusion that slain Pak journalist and expert on terrorism reporting, Syed Saleem Shahzad, had reached in his book Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban, pointing out that Al Qaeda was in the driving seat and that the Taliban and other turban groups were essentially acting like its foot soldiers.

He had argued that the Mumbai attacks were planned by Al Qaeda, which used Lashkar-i-Taiba to execute the plan. He believed that Al Qaeda wanted to destabilise the region to break the alliance of the ruling Mohammedan elites and the masses with the West and make the region the base for a global caliphate.

The challenges that terrorism poses in the 21st century are complex, and in many cases insurmountable in the absence of interstate cooperation. Effective collaborations are impossible without trust, to state the obvious. When partners in the war on terror talk to each other through the media or consider arm-twisting and threats of use of force to be the preferred modes for winning cooperation, prospects for teamwork are doomed. By acting in this manner, states fall into the trap of terrorists.

No prizes for guessing which party to this new kind of war ends up the winner then and which ends up shooting itself in the foot.

Link

Terror Networks

Pakistan's Jihadist Movements - Top 25 Commanders

2010-10-23

[MEMRI] This week MEMRI is launching its South Asia Studies Project. Be sure to visit the South Asia Studies Project daily.

This paper seeks to identify the top jihadist commanders of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other Sunni terrorist organizations in Pakistain who remain free despite the security operations conducted by the Pak military in recent years.

On September 1, 2010, the U.S. Department of State designated Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP, or the Movement of Pak Taliban) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), and declared Hakimullah Mehsud, the Emir of TTP, and his deputy Waliur Rehman as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. A reward of $5 million each was also announced for information leading to the location of the two terrorist commanders.

The decision came within a month of the U.S. Department of State declaring Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) as an FTO and its commander, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. On August 6, the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society also listed Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri as a global terrorist for "being associated with" Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, or the Taliban, and for "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf [of], or in support of" Al-Qaeda.

Like Hakimullah Mehsud and other TTP commanders, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri is also believed to be based in the Pak tribal region of Wazoo. Kashmiri heads the Brigade 313, an operational unit of Al-Qaeda. In a sign of undeniable cooperation between the TTP and Al-Qaeda, Pak media reports indicated that the December 31, 2009, suicide kaboom on the CIA's forward base in Afghanistan's Khost province was planned by Ilyas Kashmiri, Hakimullah Mehsud, and other jihadist commanders based in the Pak tribal region. A video that emerged later showed Humam Al-Balawi, who carried out the Khost attack, sitting alongside Hakimullah Mehsud while recording his reasons for carrying out the suicide kaboom.

Now, the operational relationships between the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, HuJi, and other Sunni jihadist organizations are so linked that it is impossible to delineate true differences between these groups. The Taliban are united under the leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar, Emir of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government in Afghanistan). Though the Afghan Taliban are currently focused on their goal to drive out the U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan, their relationships with the Pak Taliban are inalienable. The Pak Taliban are united under the banner of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), but consider Mullah Omar as their Emir.

After the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, a large number of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces of Evil returned to their familiar bases in South Wazoo, where they were commanded by Nek Mohammad. However,
The infamous However...
after the killing of Nek Mohammad in mid-2004 in a U.S. missile attack, the forces of Evil were leaderless.

In December 2007, Baitullah Mehsud established the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain to organize the forces of Evil in South Wazoo. The TTP soon emerged as a loose confederation of a number of turbanic groups based in Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs), which are situated along the Afghan border. Haroon Rashid, a senior Pak journalist who has reported developments in the Pak tribal region over several decades, noted in August 2009 that "unlike the other Taliban capos such as Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazir Ahmad, Baitullah Mehsud's objectives were not limited to establishing Islamic Shari'a within South Wazoo and the tribal region; rather Baitullah Mehsud wanted the enforcement of Islamic Shari'a in Pakistain and across the entire world, and had indeed begun planning and was prepared to take bigger risks."

Link

India-Pakistan

Zapee ID'd as Mohammed Usman

2010-10-08

The US killed a senior aide to Osama bin Laden who served as a key link to al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other jihadist factions in Pakistan.

Mohammed Usman, a Pakistani citizen from Punjab province who was wanted for the murder of a policeman in 1997, was killed in one of the five Predator strikes this week in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, according to the Asia Times. Usman was a key member of Ilyas Kashmiri's Brigade 313, al Qaeda's military formation in Pakistan, and also helped to unite al Qaeda and multiple Pakistani terror groups.

Usman, who is also known as Chotu and Punjabi Usman, was a prominent member of Pakistan's jihadist circles during the 1990s, and went to Afghanistan after the US invasion following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Link

Afghanistan/South Asia

The Jihad Lives On — Part 2

2005-03-09

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)

Acting under the establishment dictum, one of the most dangerous jehadi organizations operating from Pakistan and active in J&K, the JeM, restyled itself as the Khudamul Islam, claiming it is devoted to preaching Islam and social work. The Jaish chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, who had to be released by the Indian Government in December 1999 after an Indian airplane was hijacked, is one of India's 20 most-wanted men. However, Maulana Masood Azhar had to face the wrath of the Pakistani intelligence establishment after his group was found involved in the December 2003 suicide attacks against General Musharraf in Rawalpindi. Investigations into these attacks later cleared Masood Azhar's name after it transpired that one of the two suicide bombers - Mohammad Jameel - actually belonged to the Jaish's dissident group - Jamaatul Furqaan, led by Maulana Abdul Jabbar alias Maulana Umer Farooq. Much before the suicide attacks, Masood had informed the ISI high-ups in writing that Jabbar and 11 of his associates had revolted against him and he was no more responsible for their actions.

Despite its renaming, the US State Department designated the Jaish a foreign terrorist organization in December 2001, compelling Musharraf to ban the group in January 2002. Masood Azhar got his outfit registered under the new name of Khudamul Islam within no time. The Jaish chief was kept under house arrest for a few months after the 9/11 terror attacks, but was subsequently set free. Though Masood Azhar, while conceding to the ISI's pressure, had directed his henchmen not to target the American interests in Pakistan, there are strong fears in the Pakistani intelligence circles that the dissident members of the Jaish, who are unknown and have gone underground, constitute the real threat.

The murmurs of dissent in the outfit first surfaced when Masood Azhar failed to react to General Musharraf's policy change on Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attacks. Several prominent Jaish members favoured retaliatory attacks against US interests in Pakistan to pressurize the military ruler against supporting the Bush administration. But acting under the agencies' command, Masood refused to acquiesce. As things stand, there are fears that ongoing disputes over possession of the various Jaish offices, mosques and other material assets could lead to more serious clashes between the two banned factions.
The main cause behind the fighting is the embezzlement of fundsby Azhar and his family members, his lucrative profession is the main reason he has been so loyal to the establishment.

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)

Led by Rawalpindi-based Yousaf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, HM is the outfit to watch in the coming months. Of all the militant groups operating in J&K, the HM is the largest, with a 20,000-strong cadre base drawn from both indigenous and foreign sources. The Hizb happens to be one of the most lethal jehadi groups, and controls about 60 per cent of militants operating in J&K. With India and Pakistan finally agreeing to allow travel across the Line of Control (LoC) by bus between Srinagar-Muzaffarabad, the Pakistani establishment has asked HM Chief Salahuddin to halt, for the time being, all militant operations against the Indian security forces in J&K. However, the United Jehad Council (UJC), an alliance of 13 Kashmiri jehadi organizations led by Salahuddin, has been restructured and three Pakistan-based jehadi groups, the LeT, JeM and Al-Badar Mujahideen have been brought into the UJC. This new adjustment is called Muwakhaat ('agreement on the basis of brotherhood') that is aimed at putting an end to the internal differences among the jehadi groups waging the Kashmir jehad.
There have been numerous clashes between the Pakistani Jihadis and the ethnic Kashmiri Jihadis, as well as fighting between the Salafis and the others

According to the intelligence sources, reorganizing the command and control structure of the HM-led UJC was part of a strategy change to enable Pakistani intelligence to have tighter control over its running. With the restructuring of the UJC, they said, no component member of the UJC would be allowed to launch an attack in J&K, unless approved by the Council. That is why most of the smaller groups, which had been irritants for the ISI, have been merged to reduce the number of their representation in the Jehad Council from thirteen to five. Al-Barq, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Islamic Front, Brigade 313 and the Kashmiri component of HuM have been merged to form the Kashmir Freedom Force, which would be led by Farooq Qureshi of Al Barq. The Muslim Janbaz Force, Al Jehad Force, Al Fateh Force, Hizbullah and Jamiatul Mujahideen (JuM) have also been merged to form the Kashmir Resistance Force, which would be led by Ghulam Rasool Shah. Similarly, many of the militant training camps have been moved from Azad Kashmir to Pakistan in Punjab and the Frontier provinces, with strict restrictions on the movement of militants. The training camps have reportedly been relocated at Taxila, Haripur, Boi, Garhi Habibullah and Tarbela Gazi.
The reorganisation actually took place a while ago

Harkatul Mujahideen (HuM)
Led by Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil till recently, the HuM has regrouped and is working in a low-key manner under the name of the Jamiatul Ansar, but insisting that it has a non-militant agenda. As the Government's anti-extremism drive brought into sharp focus Maulana Khalil's alleged al-Qaeda links, he had to resign from the top slot of the organization in January 2005, as advised by his spy masters. Khalil, who was released in December 2004 after an eight-month detention in a seven by seven foot cell, submitted his resignation at a January 2005 meeting of the 'executive committee' of the HuM and asked the committee members to elect Maulana Badar Munir from Karachi as the new chief. Intelligence sources, however, insist that Khalil remains in the good books of the establishment and would continue calling the shots from behind the scene, despite his resignation as the Harkat chief, which was nothing more than an eye wash.

HuM's association with Osama bin Laden was established on August 20, 1998, when US planes bombed the al-Qaeda training camps near Khost and Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan in retaliation to US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The US bombs destroyed two HuM training camps and killed 21 of its activists. As of today, the US intelligence agencies believe the Harkat still retains links, like most other jehadi groups, with the Taliban remnants and al-Qaeda operatives hiding on the Pak-Afghan border.

Despite enthusiastic applause from the West for anti-militancy efforts of Pakistan's 'visionary' military ruler, it is evident that much remains to be done on the ground before these efforts will actually bear fruit. With changing scenarios all over the world, there has been a change of minds, yet what is required is a change of hearts.

Link

Afghanistan/South Asia

25,000 hard boyz in Karachi

2004-07-13

Over 25,000 Jehadis, who have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan, are operating in the troubled port city of Karachi and Punjab province targeting Shias and continuing with their anti-Indian activities unbriddled, media reports said here. ''The Jehadis are continuing to kill Shias quite freely. In some cases the Police has been found involved in the Shia-killing spree,'' reports Friday Times. It said leaders of the coalition of the Jehadi organisations -- Brigade 313 -- were either allowed to flee or escape from police dragnets. Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkatul Jihad Islami, Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami and Lashkar -e-Jhangvi are among the coalition.

The authorities have recently captured some police officials who maintained close links with the Harkatul Mujahideens and other groups, it said and added the Jehadis, facing trial in the province, were being acquitted by the courts. The Weekly said that a worrying development was that Punjab was becoming a sanctuary for the Lashkar Jhangvi terrorists. President Pervez Musharraf,who had launched a campaign against the terrorist groups, have failed to contain their activities in Punjab and Sindh Provinces as Jehadis have stepped up their activities. The President said that Al Qaeda elements were operating from the tribal Areas and were responsible not only for acts of terror inside Pakistan, but also in other friendly countries including China.

The Weekly said that leaders of the top five terrorists groups were ''either in confinement or allowed to remain at large. Those in confinement under the state surveillance have been allowed to get out and disappear.'' At least two important terrorist satraps Hafiz Mohammed Saeed of the LeT and Maulana Masood Azhar of JeM, whose groups were actively involved in ''low intensity conflict in Kashmir'' were virtually free and issuing ''provocative statements'', it said. Both Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Azhar had maintained links with Osama bin Laden. It said ''the militants that would kill President Musharraf are militants that have spearheaded the Kashmir jihad. They are all deobandi-Wahhabi in character and aligned with the Al-Qaeda. President Musharraf should grasp the mettle [sic] of terrorism in Pakistan and get rid of it even it means no option on the resumption of Jehadi in Kashmir. The price for Kashmir option is very high and the people of Pakistan may finally refuse to pay it with their blood.''

Link

Afghanistan/South Asia

Are jihadis waiting in the wings?

2004-07-02

Is Pakistan rid of its terrorists? Is General Pervez Musharraf determined to eliminate the remnants of jihad that turned terrorist? Since they have tried to kill him, will the general refuse to spare them if the Congress government in New Delhi forces him to revive the jihad in Kashmir? Is the jihad in Kashmir more important than his own life?

Recent incidents demonstrate that the jihadis are continuing to kill the Shias in Pakistan quite freely. In some cases the police has been found involved in this Shia-killing spree. It has been trying to spare the sectarian killers of Al Qaeda by interpreting murders as family feuds or the doing of the âforeign handâ, India or American, in the latter case an extension of what is happening in Najaf in Iran. After a recent Mughalpura-Lahore massacre of a family of Shias, a senior police officer declared that it was, InshaAllah (sic!), not a sectarian crime. The family was shot to death and one member who was absent on the night of the execution was killed later after the police got him to agree to a cooked-up FIR. He was killed after he was allowed to circulate without police protection. The fact that the walls of the house in which the murders took place were spray-painted with âkafirâ was ignored by some papers while speculating that someone intent on settling a vendetta had written the sectarian message as a red herring. Everyone ignored that fact that a few days earlier someone had blown up a Shia gathering at the Haideri Masjid in Karachi, which was definitely a part of the country-wide campaign against the hapless community. According to a police source quoted by Herald, there were 25,000 jihadis in Karachi who had taken training in Afghanistan. A worrying development was that Punjab was acquitting Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists standing trial there, and Karachi was receiving them back. Lashkarâs dreaded leader Malik Ishaq was expected to be released by the Lahore courts in the near future.

Is Musharraf really getting after the murderers? People are now doubtful. Pakistani journalist Amir Mir writing in the foreword of A to Z of Jehadi Organisations in Pakistan by Amir Rana (Mashal, Lahore) informs us that a five-member âcoalitionâ of the jihadi organisations was launched in 2001 to avenge the invasion of Afghanistan. The coalition was called Brigade 313 (the number of warriors in the battle of Badr in the times of the Prophet PBUH) and comprised Lashkar-e-Tayba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The leaders of these organisations were either in confinement or allowed to remain at large. Those in confinement under state surveillance have been allowed to get out and disappear; at least one is out in the open, publishing extremely provocative statements in the Urdu press on a daily basis. At least two out of the five were crucial to the low intensity conflict in Kashmir. Can one say that he has not killed them so far because he wants to use them again in Kashmir? The two militias are offshoots of Al Qaeda and have served Osama bin Laden well in the past. The leaders, Masood Azhar (absconding) and Hafiz Saeed (making public statements) give rise to all kinds of speculations.

Available literature on Al Qaeda reveals close contacts between Lashkar-e-Tayba and Osama bin Laden. The Lashkar was set up by Hafiz Saeed, a lecturer at the Engineering University of Lahore, who was sent to Saudi Arabia for higher studies and later allowed to establish his headquarters near Lahore by the ISI. A follower of the Wahhabi tradition and a rebel from Pakistanâs Ahle Hadith parties, he had his stronghold in Faisalabad from where a top leader and ârecruiter-trainerâ of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaida, was most dramatically captured and handed over to the United States. Hafiz Saeed was kept in custody for some time by the government but later released. He is a part of the Brigade 313 sworn to kill President Pervez Musharraf, but he is not out in the open issuing statements against him almost on a daily basis. Everyone knows who wants to kill President Musharraf. But why is he allowing the âfanaticâ terrorist elements to roam around freely in Pakistan? Jaish, together with Lashkar-Tayba, was the top âfreedom-fightingâ organisation in Held Kashmir. Its leader Maulana Masood Azhar, a graduate of Karachiâs Banuri Masjid seminary, was on the side of Osama bin Laden in Sudan when the Pakistani troops were representing the UN in Somalia. We know that Osama bin Laden helped Somalian warlord General Eidid kill 24 Pakistani troops in Mogadishu after an ambush. Lahore has always been home to rumours that Pakistani mujahideen were among those who fired and killed the Pakistani troops in Mogadishu in 1993.

The militias that would kill President Musharraf are the militias that have spearheaded the Kashmir jihad. They are all Deobandi-Wahhabi in character and aligned with Al Qaeda. If Pakistan is keeping its Kashmir options open, then these very militias are an important part of the jihadi equation. Pakistan has too many internal crises waiting to be addressed to allow space for a reconsideration of the foreign policy changes effected in the aftermath of 11 September 2001. President Musharraf should grasp the nettle of terrorism in Pakistan and get rid of it even if it means no option on the resumption of jihad in Kashmir. The administration is trying very hard to play down the sectarian violence of the jihadi militias to stave off public resentment. The Shia-killers of Brigade 313 are being secured against the stain of fratricide in Pakistan. The price for the âKashmir optionâ is very high and the people of Pakistan may finally refuse to pay it with their blood.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Six jihadi group members among 36 arrested in Karachi

2004-06-12

Police on Friday arrested 36 suspects from parts of Karachiâs southern localities and handed them over to the joint investigation teams for questioning Thursdayâs attack. Some residents of Akhtar Colony, Mehmoodabad and Manzoor Colony told Daily Times that police and security agencies picked up 36 suspects from these localities and took them to undisclosed places. The authorities also intensified the hunt for Amjad Farooqi, a militant allegedly linked to attempts on President Musharrafâs life in December and US journalist Daniel Pearlâs murder. A security official said âa nationwide hunt is already on to arrest Farooqiâ, for the attack on the corps commander. âFarooqi has been seen in Karachi recently but escaped to Quetta before we could catch him,â an investigator said. Six of the arrested are said to have links to five jihadi outfits which have formed a conglomeration called Brigade 313.

But the Paks sprung the head of Brigade 313, whom they had in custody. Did the boss sell out his faithful henchmen? Normally, we round up the henchmen to get evidenc against the mastermind, but this is Pakland, after all...

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Al Qaeda kills its mentor?

2004-06-07

The author formerly worked with Indian intelligence
On May 30, 2004, unidentified terrorists riding a motorbike shot dead Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, the chief of the hardline Deobandi Binori madrasa of Karachi and one of his sons and a nephew as he was returning to his house, located just across the road from the madrasa. As it normally happens in Pakistan after each such terrorist strike, there have been speculations galore in the media as well as amongst the public. Sections of the local media, including the prestigious "Daily Times" of Lahore, have projected it as a possible act of retaliation by Shia extremists for the suicide-bombing of the Haideri Masjid by Sunni terrorists in the beginning of last month, in which 18 Shias were killed. However, many colleagues of Shamzai in the Binori madrasa have refrained from blaming the Shia extremists for the assassination and condemned attempts to project it as the outcome of the growing Shia-Sunni divide in Pakistan in general and in Karachi in particular. They blame the US for the assassination and accuse the provincial administration of Sindh, in which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain now plays a predominant role, of acting as the stooge of the US and facilitating his murder by not providing him with effective security despite the fact that he was in receipt of increasing threats to his life since the beginning of this year.

Threats from whom, I wonder?

In fact, in their First Information Report (FIR) lodged with the local police after the assassination, the office-bearers of the madrasa wanted to name the MQM Governor of Sindh Ishratul Ibad as their principal suspect, but they were persuaded by other religious leaders not to do so without evidence lest their action further spoil the atmosphere in Karachi and lead to acts of violence against the Mohajirs (migrants from India), whose interests the MQM represents. Pakistanâs military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is himself a Mohajir and has been under attack by the religious extremist elements since October, 2002, for having rehabilitated the MQM and inducted its nominees into positions of power in Karachi in return for its support for the Government nominated by him in Islamabad and for his continuing as the Army chief in spite of his having crossed the age of superannuation.
The MQM are certainly capable of it, they turned Karachi into a war zone in the mid 90âs and were able to survive death squads sent against them by the government, in the days before they became allies with the establishment. They are a staunchly secular party who are one of the principal enemies of the Islamists, and were able to eject the Jamaat-e-Islami from Karachi for a while by killing enough of itâs members.

I didn't know Perv was a Mohajir...

Mufti Shamzaiâs real age is not known. Some say he was 52, but others say he was actually 70.

From his pictures, he was closer to 70 than to 52. If he was 52, he had a really dissolute youth...

In Pakistanâs religious hierarchy, he occupied the second position after Mufti Rafiuddin Usmani, who is the chief Mufti of Pakistan, but he was better known than Usmani in Pakistan as well as in other countries of the Islamic world and had a much larger following in Pakistan and Afghanistan. After the Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan towards the end of 1979, Shamzai in association with other mullas of Pakistan issued a fatwa calling for a jihad against the USSR. Mufti Shamzai was then the blue-eyed Mullah of not only Pakistanâs Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but also of the USAâs Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Saudi intelligence and played an active role in the recruitment of Muslims from Pakistan and other Islamic countries and training them with the help of Pakistanâs military-intelligence establishment for waging a jihad against the Soviet troops. He became close to Zia, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Gen. Mohammad Aziz, presently Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen. (retd) Muzaffar Usmani, former Corps Commander, Karachi and Vice-Chief of Army Staff, and three former jihadi chiefs of the ISI, namely, Lt.Gen.Hamid Gul, Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir and Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed.

During his career, he had issued nearly 2000 fatwas. In the 1970s and the 1980s, his fatwas were mainly directed against the USSR, India and Israel. After Osama bin Laden formed his International Islamic Front (IIF) in February, 1998, his fatwas became increasingly directed against the US. After the US-led coalition started its so-called war against terrorism in Afghanistan in October, 2001, he issued a fatwa calling upon the Muslims of the world to join the jihad against the US. Shamzai was the mentor and godfather of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and its militant wing the LEJ, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-E-Mohammad (JEM). He was designated as the Patron-in-Chief of the JEM and was a member of the shoora of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

... which conveniently have interlocking directorates.

Shamzai, who strongly backed Musharrafâs seizure of power in October, 1999, became increasingly critical of him after the General decided to co-operate with the US in its operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. He and his followers helped the leaders of the Taliban, including its Emir Mulla Omar, to escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan and take sanctuary there. It was reported in 2002 that during the US operations against Al Qaeda in Tora Bora, the followers of Shamzai managed to evacuate Osama bin Laden, who had sustained a sharpnel injury, to the Binori complex in Karachi where he was treated till August, 2002, by serving and retired medical doctors of the Pakistan Army. He later left the madrasa.

That's an interesting rumor. Karachi was certainly Terror Central at the time...

Post-9/11, Shamzai promoted the formation of a clandestine organisation called Brigade 313 to wage jihad against Western nationals and interests and Christians in Pakistani territory. All the members of this Brigade are also members of the IIF. At his instance, members of this Brigade infiltrated into Iraq to join the jihad against the US troops there.

Shamzai was the principal exponent of International Islamism which holds, firstly, that the loyalty of a Muslim is first to his religion and then only to the country of which he is resident or a citizen; secondly, that Muslims do not recognise national frontiers and hence have the right and the obligation to wage jihad anywhere to protect their religion; and, thirdly, that the Muslims have the right and the religious obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction to protect their religion, if necessary. These ideas strongly influenced the thinking of bin Laden. Since the beginning of this year, there have been reports of differences in Al Qaeda and the IIF over the action of some sections of Al Qaeda and the IIF in targeting the Saudi ruling family and its administration. Shamzai, who had close contacts with the Saudi ruling family and religious clerics and was in receipt of large funds from them, was reportedly increasingly critical of Al Qaeda leadership for allegedly weakening the jihad against the USA and Israel by targeting the Saudi authorities and thereby losing their support for the international jihad. Al Qaeda elements were accusing him of letting himself be bought by the Saudi authorities and supporting the pro-US apostate regimes of the Islamic world. Did these differences have anything to do with his assassination? If so, did Al Qaeda or the IIF have any role in his assassination? These questions are quite relevant, but remain without definitive answers at present.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Sectarianism strikes at the top

2004-05-31

Someone has killed Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, chief of the great Deobandi madrassah in Karachi, clearly in revenge for the suicide-bombing of cityâs Haideri Masjid where 18 Shias died earlier in the month. The police in Karachi, one of whose constables blew up the Haideri Masjid, is silent about the motivation of the killing, but that is quite ânormalâ with a department whose personnel have been involved in assassination attempts on General Pervez Musharraf himself. Mufti Shamzai was going from his Banuri seminary to his house right across the road when killers on a motorbike shot him dead. His son, nephew and a driver were injured. Two police guards, which he did not think much of, were nowhere around. Everyone knew that he was a target, yet nothing could be done to save him.
The motorcycles of death did some good for once

Deobandi students of the Banuri Masjid came out on the roads in many parts of Karachi and indulged in angry vandalism, once again making a show of strength in a city already harassed by violence. They destroyed the police station in Banuri Town, making the police force run for their lives, and torched a number of vehicles. The violence recalls the anarchy witnessed when a few years ago another Banuri Town religious personality, Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, was done to death after his sectarian campaigns. No one knows who killed Mufti Shamzai but one can recall an earlier sequence of violence. Last year, massacres occurred in quick succession in Quetta and Karachi, targeting the Shias. When the government as usual was unable to apprehend the culprits, the killers struck in Islamabad and shot dead Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the banned-for-terrorism Sipah Sahaba, along with his official bodyguards.
Other suspects include rival Jihadis, Shias, moderate Sunnis, India, Iran, America, Musharraf etc ad nauseum

Mufti Shamzai was head of the Banuri complex in Karachi. He was rated the most powerful man in Pakistan during the Taliban rule of Mullah Umar in Afghanistan. He was patron of the foremost Deobandi jihadi outfit Harkat-ul Mujahideen. In 1999, after his release from an Indian jail, Maulana Masood Azhar, a top pupil of Mufti Sahib, walked out of Harkat and formed his own organisation (now banned-for-terrorism) Jaish-e Muhammad. Shamzai was clearly inclined to favour Masood Azhar and became a member of the Jaish âshuraâ (governing council). He was already a member of the âshuraâ of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. After the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 a new situation arose. A five-member âcoalitionâ of the jihadi organisations was launched to avenge the American invasion. The coalition was called Brigade 313 (the number of warriors in the battle of Badr in the times of the Prophet (PBUH) and comprised Lashkar-e Tayba, Jaish-e Muhammad, Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami, Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami and Lashkar-e Jhangvi. The coalition was said to be responsible for the killings of Christians in Murree, Islamabad and Taxila as revenge against America.

Among the above-mentioned Brigade, three outfits are the backbone of the Kashmir jihad and will become critical for Islamabad if General Musharraf exercises the option of jihad in Kashmir once again. That is probably why the leader of the banned Jaish-e Muhammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, âdisappearedâ from Bahawalpur before activists of the Jaish and Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami allegedly carried out the December 2003 attacks on General Musharraf in Rawalpindi. This was revealed by the captured leader of Lashkar-e Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, and widely publicised in the national press. The leader of the Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami, Qari Saifullah, a graduate of the Banuri seminary, was likewise allowed to flee to the Middle East. The Banuri seminary has lost a powerful leader. Needless to say, his death will be laid at the door of the United States.

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