Reuters News
written by Ahmed Aboulenein and Omar Fahmy
Sunday September 13, 2015
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries to carry out attacks inside there and urged greater unity between militants.
"I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America," he said in an audio recording posted online on Sunday, referring to nations making up the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.
He suggested Muslim youth in the West take the Tsarnaev and Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Boston marathon bombings and Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris respectively, and others as examples to follow.
It was not clear when the recording was made but references to former Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar as being alive suggest it is at least two months old. Omar's death was announced by Afghanistan's government in late July.
Zawahri reiterated his position on Islamic State, repeating what he said in a recording posted on Wednesday - that he viewed the group's claim to be a caliphate as illegitimate but would join them in fighting Western and secular forces in Iraq and Syria.
Former Egyptian doctor Zawahri urged unity between Islamist militant factions in Syria and Iraq, where a Western-led coalition is bombing Islamic State targets, but recognized it would he be difficult. He called for the formation of an independent sharia court to settle disputes.
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The Washington Post
written by Guy Taylor
Monday September 14, 2015
The latest audio recording from al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri contains the most explicit appeal to date for unity between rival jihadi groups worldwide, shedding new light on the complex, wary relations between Osama bin Laden’s original terror network and the newer Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The recording, which circulated on Sunday, carries a notably less hostile tenor toward the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, than an earlier messages from al-Zawahiri, including one that appeared online just last week on Sept. 9.
There is uncertainty about when the recordings were actually made. But terror analysts say one thing is clear: The man who intelligence officials say has led so-called “al Qaeda prime” since bin Laden was killed in a 2011 U.S. raid in Pakistan has adopted a less hostile vision of the rival extremist group that exploded onto the scene last year.
In the Sept. 9 recording, al-Zawahiri took an open swipe at Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose declaration of a “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq — and the movement’s subsequent popularity among young extremists worldwide — have increasingly challenged al Qaeda’s dominance as the lead actor on the global jihadi stage.
The message featured what analysts say was al-Zawahiri’s voice accusing al-Baghdadi of “sedition” and insisting that the Iraq-born terrorist is not the true leader of Muslims that he proclaimed he was when he declared himself the “caliph” of the Islamic State last year.
The harsh words fit within the narrative of a rhetorical and actual shooting war that has played out for months between al Qaeda and the Islamic State, especially in Syria, where Islamic State fighters regularly clash with militants from the al Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s recognized branch in the war-torn nation.
But in the apparently newer recording that circulated on Sept. 14, al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who long served as bin Laden’s top aide, suggests that the better course would be for the al Nusra Front and the Islamic State to stop fighting and instead form a united front against both the Syrian military and the U.S., which has been pounding both groups with airstrikes for months.
According to The Long War Journal, published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, the Sept. 14 recording features al-Zawahiri’s voice calling on all of the “mujahedeen” in Syria and Iraq to cooperate and “help each other,” because the jihadis’ enemies are supposedly waging a vicious “crusade” against them.
Al-Zawahiri says at one point in the new audio message: “Were I in Iraq or in [Syria], I would cooperate with [Islamic State] in fighting the crusaders, the secularists, the Nusayris (Alawites) and the [Shia Muslims] … because the matter is bigger than me and their claim of establishing a caliphate.”
Thomas Joscelyn, The Long War Journal’s senior editor, said that even as ideological rifts may continue between the Islamic State and al Qaeda, al-Zawahiri’s call for unity should not come as a surprise.
“It is likely that while al-Qaeda considers Baghdadi and most of his inner circle to be a lost cause, the group still hopes that part of the Islamic State can be reconciled,” Mr. Joscelyn wrote in an article posted on the journal’s website. “At a minimum, Zawahiri hopes to limit the ‘fitna’ (discord, or strife) that plagues the jihadists’ efforts, and so he hopes to convince followers of the Islamic State to avoid targeting their ideological cousins in al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.”
The rift between Islamic State and the al Nusra Front is one of the most complicated aspects of the multifront Syrian civil war that has left more than 240,000 people dead and millions displaced since 2011. And the prospect that the two groups might be able to suddenly unite is a particularly vexing one for the Obama administration. While the White House’s stated goal is to crush both groups in Syria, administration officials have appeared to put a far greater stress on the fight against Islamic State.
Lone wolf attacks
The al Qaeda leader’s latest message was also notable for its open appeal for young Muslim men in the U.S. and other Western nations to carry out attacks in their homelands — a call that seemed to piggyback onto similar messages circulated by al-Baghdadi and Islamic State propagandists over the past year.
“I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America,” al-Zawahiri said in the recording, according to Reuters.
Al-Zawahiri suggested that young Muslim jihadis in the West take the Tsarnaev and Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings and Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, respectively, as examples to follow.
The al Qaeda leader also urges potential recruits to research al Qaeda’s official media arm, known as As Sahab, and to examine the terrorist network’s magazine, Inspire.
The latest issue of Inspire, which surfaced on the Internet last week, called for more “lone wolf” attacks — specifically targeting such U.S. economic leaders as Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Charles and David Koch, as part of a larger goal of derailing the “revival of the American economy.”
While it was not clear when the Sept. 14 recording was made, there are references in it to the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar as being alive, suggesting that it is at least two months old.
Omar’s death was announced by Afghanistan’s government in late July.
Al-Qaeda leader pledges allegiance to new Taliban chief. The same Taliban President Obama, the White House and Vice-President Joe Biden said were our friends. The same Taliban that tried to assassinate Malala and her friends on a school bus in Pakistan because they want girls to be educated too. The Taliban were angry Malala survived their assassination attempt AFTER they shot her in the head execution style. The same Taliban that have been terrorizing the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan with suicide bombers and ambush attacks daily.
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