Jordanian Al-Qaida Fighter Killed in Afghanistan

by Florian Flade

“The hero of Khorasan Zaid Saleh al-Hourani, known to everyone as Abu Musab al-Hourani”, the beginning of a short biography of a Jordanian Jihadist fighter killed in Afghanistan reads. The article about Al-Hourani was posted on Jihadist Internet forums recently and gives a rare insight into the situation of foreign fighters in Afghanistan these days.

“Abu Musab al-Hourani”, a resident of Amman, from a Jericho family, allegedly was a close aid to former Iraqi Al-Qaida leader Abu Musab az-Zarqawi and recruited about 30 other Jordanians to Jihad in Iraq. In Jordan al-Hourani was imprisoned for 5 years because of his terrorist activities.

In 2010 he traveled to Pakistan and joined the mujaheddin in the tribal areas. Pictures released with his biography are showing Abu Musab al-Hourani in the Pakistani tribal agency of Orakzai. “He took part in operations targeting the Pakistani military”, the biography reads. Al-Hourani was wounded during the fighting in Pakistan, both in battle with Pakistani troops (on his leg) and in CIA drone strikes (again his leg) but recovered from the injuries.

After two years as part of the Al-Qaida forces in Pakistan Abu Musab al-Hourani decided to wage Jihad in Afghanistan. In July 2012 he was killed during a US military raid in the province of Ghazni.

British Jihadi Killed By U.S. Drone In Somalia

by Florian Flade

They are Al-Qaida´s hidden force, joining Al-Shabaab, fighting and training in a country that has suffered from civil war, occupation and drought for decades – foreign Jihadi militants in Somalia.

Hundreds of foreign fighters are actively training and fighting in Somalia, Western intelligence agencies and Somali government officials are estimating. Most of these so-called “Al-Mujahiroun” are suspected to be from other African countries like Sudan, Kenya, Chad or Eritrea followed by the Arab fighters, some of which are Pakistan/Afghanistan-trained and experienced.

The real concern for Western intelligence services are the Jihadis holding Western passports. The threat these Islamists from Europe and North America are posing has long been underestimated according to various European counter-terrorism officials. Dozens of young men from the Somali communities of Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and the United States have joined Al-Shabaab in recent years, turning the group into an international terrorist organization.

Nevertheless Al-Qaida has successfully established its own branch in Somalia, regularly cooperating with Al-Shabaab. One of these Al-Qaida members in Somalia was killed today by what local sources believe to be a U.S. drone strike on a car.

“At around 2 p.m., a U.S. drone targeted our Mujahidin. One foreigner, a Lebanese with a British passport died”, the chief spokesman for Al-Shabaab, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told news agency Reuters, “Bilal Al-Barqawi, a great Mujahid brother who was in Somalia for a long time was killed today. He was in a car in Elasha. This foreigner is a martyr.”

The British-Lebanese is Bilal Al-Barqawi known as “Abu Hafsa”, a Islamist who grew up in West-London and came to Somalia in 2006 and served as the deputy to Fazul Abdallah, Al-Qaida´s most senior commander in Somalia killed in June 2011 by Somali troops in a Mogadishu shoot-out.

When a U.S. airstrike targeted Lower Jubba region in Southern Somalia in July 2011 Bilal Al-Barqawi was injured on his head and later received treatment in Kenya according to Al-Shabaab.

British intelligence officials have warned about the emerging threat of Western Jihadi militants trained as terrorists in Somalia – especially those holding Western passports. Numerous of these foreigners have died in Somalia, most of them during gun-battles, others became suicide bombers. If the news of Bilal Al-Barqawi is confirmed, this shows: a Western Jihadi was for some years Al-Qaida´s No.2 man in the country.

Al-Qaida in Iraq Releases “Spring Of Al-Anbar”

by Florian Flade

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U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq used to call the Al-Anbar Province the “Wild West” of the country. A desert region reaching from central Iraq all the way to the Syrian, Jordanian and the Saudi-Arabian border, ruled by local Sunni tribes, huge family clans with ties to the surrounding countries. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 Al-Anbar became a hotspot of the insurgency. Various local groups, armed militias as well as foreign fighters allied to Al-Qaida were present in Al-Anbar, turning the province in one of the most dangerous places for U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies.

A new propaganda video released by “Al-Furqaan”, the media wing of the “Islamic State of Iraq” (ISI) (which is de facto Al-Qaida) sets focus on Al-Anbar and the Jihadi activities there. Titled “The Spring of Al-Anbar”, the new video shows Al-Qaida fighters training in the Iraqi desert, carrying out attacks on convoys and barracks U.S. and Iraqi troops and patrolling the streets of the Al-Anbar towns and villages.

Among other militants the video features a high-ranking Al-Qaida commander named “Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani” and two suicide bombers named “Abu Usama al-Ansari” and “Abu Jafar al-Ansari”.

Al-Qaida´s message is clear: the Mujahidin of the organization are still present in the province, still fighting Jihad and still causing harm to coalition forces and the Iraqi troops as well as the Sunni militias who have formed the so-called “Awakening Council” (basically U.S. paid militias to fight Al-Qaida).