Global terrorism thread

A man the Nigerian army has described as a leading member of the Boko Haram terrorist group could neither read the Quran, the Muslim holy book, nor explain how Muslim prayers were performed, according to video footage of his interrogation seen by Anadolu Agency.

Bulama Modu is said to be a Boko Haram commander from the Bulakuri area of Nigeria's restive northeastern region, where, according to army spokesmen, dozens of militants were recently captured by the army, according to army spokesman Sani Usman.

"I don't know how to read the Quran," the captured militant chief admits in the footage in response to interrogators' questions about his understanding of Islamic jurisprudence.

He adds: "And I don't know how to perform [Muslim] prayers either."

While Boko Haram says it wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, the group is despised by most Nigerian Muslims who view its violent activities-which include frequent attacks on civilian targets-as entirely un-Islamic.

Nigeria on Wednesday claimed Boko Haram's six-year insurgency was nearing an end, after the military said it had cleared rebel camps, rescued hundreds of women and children and arrested dozens of suspected militants.

But apparent government and military confidence in counter-insurgency operations was off-set by nearly 140 deaths in a series of bomb attacks and fears of more civilian bloodshed over the Eid al-Adha holiday.

ISIS supporters and Syrian rebel groups are vowing to turn Syria into a “graveyard for Russians,” launching what collectively amounts to an anti-Russia propaganda campaign that in part is calling on fighters to prepare for war against the major world power.

Jaish al-Islam, a coalition of Islamist units battling the Syrian regime, is especially contributing to the online fight. It published a video to You Tube claiming that the group prepared explosives and mines to be used against Russian soldiers. Another video circulating allegedly shows Jaish al-Islam firing rockets on a Russian base in Latakia, a Syrian port city.

Verbal attacks targeting Russian soldiers are simmering across social media platforms. Posts from accounts affiliated with the Islamic State and Syrian rebel groups are threatening Russia with the hashtag “Syria is the graveyard of Russians and Shiites” (#سوريا_مقبرة_الروس_والمجوس). One ISIS forum also posted a “warning to ISIS soldiers,” saying “war between ISIS lions and the Iranian-Russian coalition is near.”

Other social media accounts, particularly those operated by Syrian rebel groups, shared photos and a video showing what they claim are Russian jets maneuvering in Syria’s skies, although the authenticity of the video could not be verified.

Syria’s foreign minister said last week his country was considering asking for Russian troops to join the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Monday, two U.S. officials told Reuters that Russia has started drone surveillance missions in the country. The drone operations seem to be based out of Latakia, where fighter jets, helicopter gunships and naval infantry forces have arrived in recent days, the officials told Reuters.

The life of an Islamic State fighter is far cry from what a growing number of jihadists thought it would be, according to a research organization that tracks members of the group. Dozens of disillusioned militants have deserted the self-declared caliphate in the last two years and gone on to criticize it for what they claim are a series of shortcomings and infractions. The report, published Monday by the International Center for the Study for Radicalization at King’s College London, identified 58 former militants who spoke out publicly against ISIS. While that number is just a fraction of the 20,000 foreigners believed to have joined ISIS and other militant groups in the Middle East, their criticism establishes a powerful counter-narrative to the jihadist utopia the extremist group has made a core piece of its propaganda strategy.

After the Russians and Iranians, Chinese troops reportedly are teaming up with the Syrian regime forces in what is being termed as thedeal that will allow President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power.

A report claims that a Chinese naval vessel carrying dozens of "military advisers" is on its way to Syria and the Chinese troops will then join with the "hundreds" of Russian soldiers.

"The Chinese will be arriving in the coming weeks," a Syrian army official told Lebanon-based news website -Al-Masdar Al-'Arabi.

The Chinese ship has crossed the Suez Canal in Egypt and is currently in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Iraqi military announced Sunday that it had agreed to share intelligence about the Islamic State with Russia, the Syrian government and Iran, an agreement that caught the Obama administration off guard.

The Iraqi military said in a statement that the new agreement was necessary because thousands of volunteers who have joined the Islamic State have come from Russia. Asked if he welcomed the accord, Secretary of State John Kerry said it was important that the United States and Russia coordinate.

“I think the critical thing is that all of the efforts need to be coordinated,” Mr. Kerry said at the start of a meeting in New York with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. “This is not yet coordinated. I think we have concerns about how we’re going to go forward, but that’s precisely what we’re meeting on to talk about now.”

The United Nations has imposed sanctions on four British citizens who are fighting with Islamic State militants in Syria, following a request from the British government.

The UN's updated sanctions list named the two men and two women as Omar Hussain, Nasser Muthana, Aqsa Mahmood and Sally Anne Jones, who will now face a travel ban and a freeze on their assets for their role in fighting and recruiting others to join Islamic State via social media.

The move marks the first time in 10 years that Britain has submitted names to the UN's sanctions list and is designed to deter Britons from travelling to Syria or Iraq to join militant groups.

"The prime minister has been absolutely clear that we will do all we can to stop British citizens from going to fight for ISIL and that foreign fighters should face consequences for their actions," a Downing Street spokesman said.

"It sends a clear deterrent message to those thinking of going to fight for ISIL. We will continue to consider whether more individuals should be subjected to these sanctions."Britain estimates that more than 700 Britons have travelled to Syria, with a significant proportion thought to have joined Islamic State, which has taken over vast areas of the country and neighbouring Iraq.

The government spokesman said those who had been added to the list were actively seeking to recruit others to Islamic State and using social media to promote activity online, including providing guidance on how to make homemade bombs.

The four named by the government have been widely reported by the British media for their alleged IS activities.

• Aqsa Mahmood, 21, has been accused of recruiting three London schoolgirls to join IS - something her parents have denied.
• Nasser Muthana, 21, is accused of appearing in videos showing beheadings, although his father said it was not him.
• Sally-Anne Jones, 46 - reportedly a former rock musician - has been dubbed the "punk jihadi" by the tabloid newspapers and is accused of recruiting for the group.
• Omar Hussain, 28, a former supermarket security guard, has appeared in a propaganda video and was interviewed on Newsnight.

Aqsa Mahmood travelled to Syria in 2013 and is believed to have married an IS fighter. She is described on the list as being a recruiter for the militant group and a key figure in the al-Khanssaa brigade - a female brigade within IS, established in the Syrian city of Raqqa to enforce its interpretation of Sharia law.

Nasser Muthana and Omar Hussain travelled to Syria in 2013 and 2014 respectively and are both described as IS fighters.

Sally-Anne Jones, who was married to Junaid Hussain, a British jihadist killed in a Syria drone strike, travelled to Syria with her husband in 2013 and is on the list for being a recruiter for the group.

The UN list contains the names of 72 organisations and 231 individuals. British nationals Abu Hamza al-Masri, currently serving a life sentence in prison after being found guilty of supporting terrorism, and Syrian-born Mohammed al Ghabra, 35, from east London, who has been linked to al-Qaeda, were already on the list.

Afghan forces mobilise for Kunduz counteroffensive

Afghanistan has mobilised military reinforcements for a counteroffensive to take back Kunduz, a day after Taliban fighters overran the strategic northern city in their biggest victory since being toppled from power in 2001.

Tuesday's mobilisation came as the US carried out its first air strike on Kunduz, capital of Kunduz province.

US Army Colonel Brian Tribus, spokesman for the US and NATO missions in Afghanistan, said the raid was conducted "in order to eliminate a threat to the force", though there were no foreign troops left inside the city.

The flood of foreigner fighters joining the ranks of ISIS include roughly 2,000 Russians who are now being targeted by airstrikes in Syria ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian fighter jets carried out airstrikes on positions in Syria that the Kremlin on Wednesday insisted belonged to ISIS fighters, but that U.S. officials argued belonged to rebel groups opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

There the two superpowers differ, but they agree that confronting ISIS on the ground was preferable to preventing an attack on home soil. The number of Russians filling the ranks of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State are only second to Tunisia. ISIS’ persistent global appeal continues to be a challenge for other governments as well.

Speaking in New York this week Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said that foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq number around 28,000, up from the 15,000 reported a year ago. “The trend line is nonetheless disturbing. 28,000 people from 100 countries worldwide,” said Carlin, “who threaten not only the regions to which they travel, but also the countries to which they return.”

The growing numbers continue to confound government officials struggling to understand whether it is ISIS’ powerful propaganda or the group’s ability to connect directly with supporters online that has boosted their ranks.

“That is the exact question every Western government is asking themselves,” said Patrick Skinner from The Soufan Group, which has been studying this phenomenon for years. “How can it be after a year of really intense counter-narrative and high profile and costly counter-travel effort that the numbers remain the same? With such attention after the fall of Mosul, how on earth can it be still so bad?”

President Obama chaired a U.N. Security Council meeting this week touting the numbers behind his broadening coalition of countries that had joined the fight against ISIS, either by strengthening their domestic laws, border controls or using intelligence to disrupt possible attacks.

Obama said fighting the group on the ground in Iraq and Syria would not be enough. “We have to prevent it from radicalizing, recruiting and inspiring others to violence in the first place. And this means defeating their ideology,” he told the committee. “Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they’re defeated by better ideas — a more attractive and compelling vision.”

Among those strategies: a propaganda hub in the U.A.E. designed to debunk ISIS’ media broadcasts, and “working to lift up the voices of Muslim scholars, clerics and others, including ISIL defectors, who courageously stand up to ISIL and its warped interpretation of Islam,” Obama said, using another name for ISIS, which is also known as the Islamic State.

Skinner echoes U.S. official comments that the fight against ISIS will take years. “We can try to limit it but never eliminate it. Not without losing what makes us Western democracies,” he told Vocativ. “ISIS will step into that stream and pick out vulnerable people and direct them towards the false caliphate. They’ve made teenage angst and bad decisions now a fatal or lifelong mistake.