SOURCE ::
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/aqi.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2015/11/sec-151125-voa05.htm?_m=3n%2e002a%2e1574%2eka0ao00b2h%2e1g2e
Daesh / Daash
Former military officers and intelligence officials still loyal to Hussein’s Ba'ath Party have been key participants in the Sunni insurgency, forming a common cause with Islamic State militants. The Islamic State rallied Sunni Muslims in western and northern Iraq by promoting itself as their defender against Iraq’s Shiite-led government and security forces. By mid-2014 it ruled an area larger than the United Kingdom.
SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) reported 23 January 2007 that the Islamic State of Iraq issued a document titled: “The Legality of the Flag in Islam,” which contains the image of its flag and information to its symbolism, today, Tuesday, January 23, 2007. Text on the flag reading, “No God, but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger,” are the words contained on the flag of the Prophet Muhammad that he carried into battle and handed to generations of bearers. The Islamic State provides evidence and legitimacy for this banner from Islamic scholars, and goes into detail regarding opinions of the flag’s material, title, and significance. According to the group the circular shape matches the ring stamp of the Prophet found on many scripts, and the order of the words are to indicate the supremacy of Allah over the Messenger.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/aqi.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2015/11/sec-151125-voa05.htm?_m=3n%2e002a%2e1574%2eka0ao00b2h%2e1g2e
IS Presence Shows Signs of Expanding in Bangladesh
By
Zahurul Alam, Matiur Rahman
November 25, 2015
Bangladesh's home minister says two Islamic State militants connected with the killing of a Japanese agricultural scientist near Dhaka have fled and crossed into India.
The revelation by Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal came as a Dhaka court indicted a suspected coordinator of the Bangladesh chapter of Islamic State and three other members of the militant group under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The militant group recently claimed its presence in South Asia, particularly in West Bengal and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has been denying an IS presence on its soil and has blamed violence on homegrown terrorists and opposition politicians. But the admission by the home minister and the indictment contradict that stance.
Kamal told the Indian English daily The Hindu on Tuesday that two IS militants were involved in the killing of the Japanese agriculturalist, Kunio Hoshi, 55, on October 3 in northern Bangladesh.
"We have alerted Indian authorities about their presence," he said. "The border area around Bangladesh, especially certain regions in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, have hideouts that are being used by these terrorists as bases.'
Bangladeshi authorities have reportedly stepped up their efforts to combat IS and its affiliates in the country.
State detectives arrested a person in Dhaka in recent days for allegedly conducting propaganda supporting IS on the Internet using the pseudonym 'Jihadi John.'
"This detained person, Nahid Hossain, was using the IS logo in a Facebook page called Dawa al Islamia, introducing himself as so-called Jihadi John," the joint commissioner of detective police, Munirul Islam Islam, told VOA's Bangla service.
One suspect also was arrested for threatening some prominent citizens in Bangladesh in the name of IS, police said.
IS also has claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella, 50, on September 28 in Dhaka. IS also claims responsibility for a suicide attack on a Shi'ite procession in the capital last month that killed two people and wounded dozens.
The militant group claimed responsibility for injuring a Bangladesh-based Italian pastor, Piero Parolari, who was hurt in a gun attack last week in Bangladesh.
There also are fears in Dhaka that IS could be plotting to use the country and Bangladeshis recruited from abroad as a springboard to spread its network in parts of Asia.
The radical group claimed in the latest issue of its online magazine Dabiq that it now has a "regional leader in Bengal," the Dhaka-based Bdnews24 said.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh disclosed threats from IS, calling it a challenging task for the government to counter.
Noor Zahid of VOA's Extremism Watch Desk contributed to this report.
Daesh / Daash
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Former military officers and intelligence officials still loyal to Hussein’s Ba'ath Party have been key participants in the Sunni insurgency, forming a common cause with Islamic State militants. The Islamic State rallied Sunni Muslims in western and northern Iraq by promoting itself as their defender against Iraq’s Shiite-led government and security forces. By mid-2014 it ruled an area larger than the United Kingdom.
In early 2014 Obama told The New Yorker that he considered ISIS to be al-Qaeda’s weaker partner. “If a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” the president said.
A DIA report, written in August 2012, states "The deterioration of the situation has dire consequences on the Iraqi situation... This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters. ISI could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] declared itself an "Islamic caliphate" on 29 June 2014, led by Caliph Ibrahim. This came as many of the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims started observing the holy month of Ramadan. ISIL spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said the caliphate will extend from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo to Diyala Province in Iraq. He described the establishment of the caliphate as "the dream in all the Muslims" and "the hope of all jihadists.” They removed 'Iraq and the Levant' from their name and urged other radical Sunni groups to pledge their allegiance. ISIL announced that it should now be called 'The Islamic State' and declared its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as "the caliph" of the new state and "leader for Muslims everywhere," the radical Sunni militant group said in an audio recording distributed online on Sunday. This is the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 that a Caliph – which meant a political successor to Prophet Muhammad – had been declared.
The State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran, Brett McGurk, described ISIL as "a full-blown army" and "worse than al-Qaida" - with a potential reach far beyond the Middle East.In testimony on 24 July 2014 he said “ISIL is able to funnel 30 to 50 suicide bombers a month into Iraq. We assess these are almost all foreign fighters" he said. "It would be very easy for ISIL to decide to funnel that cadre of dedicated suicide bombers - global jihadists - into other capitals around the region, or Europe, or, worse, here [in the United States]."
A former CIA officer warned 04 September 2014 that sleeper cells of the ISIL terror group were already in the United States and capable of launching an attack on the homeland. “The people who collect tactical intelligence on the ground, day-to-day – and this isn’t Washington – but people collecting this stuff say they’re here, ISIS is here, they’re capable of striking,” Bob Baer told CNN. Baer said that some American citizens who had been to Syria to fight alongside ISIL were now back in the United States by crossing the Mexican border. US intelligence agents were aware of some people they suspect of being ISIL members and were working to gather evidence to arrest them, Baer said, adding that there are concerns about “the unknown.... They don’t know what their plans and intentions are. But it’s a definite concern... They’re waiting to get enough intelligence to actually run them in... “And then there’s the unknown, of how many people have come back they’re not even aware of.”
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant aims to establish an Islamic state in the regions it controls in eastern Syria and western Iraq. It aims to control at least the Sunni part of Iraq, and much of Syria and Lebanon. The emergence of a radical jihadist state in the heart of the Arab world would threaten the US, and American allies in the Middle East and Europe. In the long term the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant wants to be a global power, and, with the resources
it is acquiring, the West and its allies face a difficult job to stop it.
it is acquiring, the West and its allies face a difficult job to stop it.
A statement attributed to Al-Qaida posted 03 February 2014 on websites frequently used by al-Qaida announced it was severing ties with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL [the authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified]. The move was seen as an attempt to redirect the Islamist effort towards unseating President Bashar al-Assad rather than waste resources in fighting other rebels. ISIL has fought battles with other Islamist insurgents and secular rebel groups, often triggered by disputes over authority and territory. Several secular and Islamist groups announced a campaign in January 2014 against ISIL.
In Syria they restored land taken by the President Bashir al-Assad regime to the tribes people. They allowed them to run their businesses. They married into families. So they enhanced their position locally.
ISIL continued to gain strength from the struggle in Syria resulting in an overflow of recruits, sophisticated munitions and other resources to the fight in Iraq. The threat that ISIL is presenting is not just a threat to Iraq or the stability of Iraq, but it is a threat to the region. The states of Iraq and Syria are not able to control major population centers and have lost control of huge countryside areas. This meant that ISIL control territory, border crossing points, oil resources, mineral resources, and trade income. They have a base in the middle of the Middle East, and can organize and carry out their goals in larger parts of the Middle East.
Jihad on the Outside, Baath on the Inside
One reason ISIS was so successful was because many of their founding members, including the top strategist, were part of Saddam Hussein’s professional security apparatus. Former Iraqi intelligence officers gave the organization a “religious face” in 2010. “We will appoint the smartest ones as Sharia sheiks... We will train them for a while and then dispatch them,” the ISIS mastermind Haji Bakr, whose real name was Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, noted. “Brothers” would be selected in each town to marry the daughters of the most influential families, in order to "ensure penetration of these families without their knowledge.” Haji Bakr, the strategic head of ISIS, was killed in a firefight in 2014, but left behind information regarding a trove of blueprints for ISIS intelligence services’ structure and plans of a takeover of large parts of Syrian territory.
Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra of the Associated Press reported 08 August 2015 that "the Islamic State group's top command is dominated by former officers from Saddam's military and intelligence agencies, according to senior Iraqi officers on the front lines of the fight against the group, as well as top intelligence officials, including the chief of a key counterterrorism intelligence unit."
Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer who served in Iraq, said Saddam-era military and intelligence officers were a "necessary ingredient" in the Islamic State group's battlefield successes in 2014. "Their military successes last year were not terror, they were military successes," said Skinner, now director of special projects for The Soufan Group, a private strategic intelligence services firm.
It was backed by former military officers and other members of Saddam Hussein's regime -- including the Naqshabandi Army led by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former regime's number two leader who eluded US and Iraqi forces ever since the 2003 US-led invasion. The reinvigorated Ba'athist Party, known as the Jaysh Rijal al-Tariqah al-Naqshabandia (JRTN), clings to Baathist ideology and often mix it with Islamic sufi ideology. JRTN and the ISIL worked together in Fallujah, where they have been battling government troops since January 2014. In conjunction with ISIL they were able to take Mosul. Overwhelmingly a majority of the fighters under the ISIL banner are Iraqi.
Apocalypse Now
Graeme Wood wrote in March 2015 that "... much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.... The Islamic State differs from nearly every other current jihadist movement in believing that it is written into God’s script as a central character.... pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it."
William McCants wrote in February 2015 "Westerners are not used to encountering apocalyptic messages in Islamist propaganda. Al-Qaeda downplayed Islamic prophecies of the Day of Judgment, preferring more accessible political rhetoric and wary of stirring messianic fervor.... the Islamic State is different. While its tactics and strategies are practical, its goals and motivations are eschatological. The interplay has expanded the group’s territory and enlarged its ranks." Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology, has said denials of the Islamic State’s religious nature are rooted in an “interfaith-Christian-nonsense tradition.... People want to absolve Islam... It’s this ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ mantra."
Sheikh Ali Abu Muhammad ad-Dagestani, the new leader of the Imarat Kavkaz (Caucasus Emirate or IK), noted: “When jihad began in Shama, we were overjoyed, first, because we studied Islamic sciences in Shama, but second because we studied the hadiths which tell about the achievements of Shama, about the fact that in the end-time of troubles the faith will be in Shama, that Allah’s angels will spread their wings over Shama, that the best land is in Shama, and that the Heavenly Group will be in Shama at the end of time.”
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant aims to establish an Islamic state in the regions it controls in eastern Syria and western Iraq. It aims to control at least the Sunni part of Iraq, and much of Syria and Lebanon. The emergence of a radical jihadist state in the heart of the Arab world would threaten the US, and American allies in the Middle East and Europe. In the long term the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant wants to be a global power, and, with the resources it is acquiring, the West and its allies face a difficult job to stop it.
SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) reported 23 January 2007 that the Islamic State of Iraq issued a document titled: “The Legality of the Flag in Islam,” which contains the image of its flag and information to its symbolism, today, Tuesday, January 23, 2007. Text on the flag reading, “No God, but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger,” are the words contained on the flag of the Prophet Muhammad that he carried into battle and handed to generations of bearers. The Islamic State provides evidence and legitimacy for this banner from Islamic scholars, and goes into detail regarding opinions of the flag’s material, title, and significance. According to the group the circular shape matches the ring stamp of the Prophet found on many scripts, and the order of the words are to indicate the supremacy of Allah over the Messenger.
This flag, the group prays, is to be the flag for all Muslims, especially the people of Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq was established to protect the Sunni Iraqi people and defend Islam, by the Pact of the Scented People. It is composed of a variety of insurgency groups, including the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq, Conquering Army [Jeish al-Fatiheen], Army Squad of the Prophet Muhammad [Jund al-Sahaba], Brigades of al-Tawhid Wal Sunnah, and Sunni tribes. It claims a presence in the governorates of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Ninawa, and parts of Babel and Wasit, and is headed by the Emir of the Believers, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
