WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has denounced what he said was a dishonest propaganda campaign by rival jihadist group the Islamic State against his organisation, in an audio message released Thursday (Jan 5).
In the message found and translated by US-based watchdog the SITE Intelligence Group, the Egyptian extremist accuses IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of slandering his group.
Al-Qaeda, founded by the late Osama Bin Laden, is locked in a battle with the so-called Islamic State — which sprang from its Iraqi faction — for the leadership of a global jihad.
In his message, the 65-year-old Zawahiri complained that Al-Baghdadi had alleged that Al-Qaeda opposes sectarian attacks on Shiites and was prepared to work with Christian leaders.
“The liars insist upon their falsehood, to the extent that they claimed we do not denounce Shiites,” Zawahiri said, according to the translation of the message, which was released by Al-Qaeda’s media arm.
Zawahiri denied he had said that Christians could be partners in the governance of a future Islamic caliphate, having only said that they could go about their affairs within it.
“What I have said is that they are partners in the land, such as agriculture, trade, and money, and we keep their privacy in it, in accordance with the laws of our Sharia,” he said.
And he insisted he had not called for Shiite Muslims to be spared, but had suggested focusing attacks on Shiite-led Iraqi forces and not on random atrocities against civilians.
“I had told them several times to stop explosions in markets, husseiniyats and mosques, and to concentrate on military, security and police forces and Shiite militiamen,” he said.
A husseiniyat is a Shiite place of worship and the Iraqi security forces, in their battle against the Islamic State group, are backed by Shiite religious militias.
The Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda have both carried out hundreds of attacks on civilian targets, but some Al-Qaeda propaganda has called for less indiscriminate tactics.
Zawahiri also denied Al-Baghdadi’s charge that Al-Qaeda had supported ousted former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who attempted to rule through the ballot box.
The Al-Qaeda leader, who took charge after Bin Laden was killed by US commandos in 2011, is thought to be somewhere in Pakistan’s unruly border region hiding from a global manhunt.
He communicates with the group’s remaining supporters through semi-regular video lectures, reiterating — as in his latest message — the need to target the United States.
But Thursday’s message did not include any footage of Zawahiri speaking.
The audio message restated the urgency of this goal — “Tell America, to other than Allah we do not kneel” — but also argued for a dialogue on tactics with other jihadists.
“We are not infallible, but we are human beings and we hit and we miss. We must listen to advice,” he admitted, while rejecting Al-Baghdadi’s criticism.
“What we want is to manage a conversation between those who are working for Islam — and the people of jihad at their forefront — around the best method and wisest techniques to bring victory to the religion,” he said, according to SITE. AFP
The identity of a US Navy Seal who shot and killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 has been revealed as Rob O’Neill.
Mr O’Neill, 38, is a highly decorated veteran who became a public speaker following his 16 years of service in the US military.
He has been named by the special operations community blog SPFrep.com ahead of an interview with Fox News, in which he decides to waive his anonymity and claims to be the man who killed Bin Laden, due to air on 11 and 12 November.
Mr O’Neill’s father, Tom O’Neill, confirmed his son’s identity to the Daily Mail, and told the paper that he is not worried about the potential threat posed by Rob revealing his identity as the member of Team Six who shot the al-Qaeda founder three times in the head.
“People are asking if we are worried that Isis will come and get us because Rob is going public. I say I’ll paint a big target on my front door and say come and get us,” he told the paper.
Mr O’Neill had previously been referred to as “The Shooter” since the two minute raid of Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May 2011, and his apparent identity has been kept secret by US officials to protect his safety.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took personal responsibility, and praise, for the US finding and killing Osama bin Laden Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took personal responsibility, and praise, for the US finding and killing Osama bin Laden.
But Mr O’Neill has reportedly decided to speak out after losing some of his military benefits because he left the Seals after 16 years instead of serving a full 20 years.
The veteran was decorated 52 times and was awarded two Silver Stars and four Bronze Stars with Valour, among many others.
Fox News publicised its interview with O’Neill before he revealed his identity, with correspondent Peter Doocy stating that the two-part programme called The Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden would provide “an extensive, first-hand account of the mission, including the unexpected crash of one of the helicopters that night and why Seal Team Six feared for their lives”.
The revelation of the identity of Bin Laden’s apparent killer comes a day after the head of the US Naval Warfare Special Command issued a letter warning Navy Seals against breaking their promise to maintain secrecy after their missions.
In the letter obtained by CNN, Adm. Brian Losey reminds Seals that “the most important credit we can garner is the respect of our Teammates and Partners”.
Rob O’Neil has become a public speaker since leaving the US Navy Seals
He writes: “We do not abide wilful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety and financial gain.
“Any real credit to be rendered is about the incredible focus, commitment, and teamwork of this diverse network and the years of hard work undertaken with little individual public credit. It is the nature of our profession,” he wrote.
KUALA LUMPUR: LESS than a decade after local militant groups were thought to have been neutralised, security agencies are warning of the emergence of four new terror organisations.
Intelligence sources told the New Straits Times that these four groups, permutations of earlier terror cells, such as Jemaah Islamiah and Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, are embarking on an aggressive recruitment drive and pushing their agenda ahead. They are believed to be operating from, among others, Perak and Selangor.
Under an understanding with intelligence sources, the NST will only refer to these organisations by their acronyms: BKAW, BAJ, DIMzia and ADI.
Their endgame is the establishment of a “super” Islamic caliphate, called Daulah Islamiah Nusantara, comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, southern Thailand and southern Philippines.
This was, more than a decade ago, the ultimate goals of several regional terror groups which was forced to be shelved after many of their leaders were picked up in a global terror clampdown.
Although the four groups currently operate independently of one another, sources revealed that they subscribe to the same salafi Jihadi ideology, which mirror that of terror group al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The cornerstone of the ideology is to fight and reject the democratic system applied by Muslim nations, including Malaysia.
Leaders and senior members of these terror groups, according to sources, had established solid links with similar groups in the region, active in places such as southern Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, as well as Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf and Isil, which has a strong presence in the Middle East.
Police are also monitoring a terror organisation based in Sabah, called Darul Islam Sabah, whose members were the last to be released from detention under the Internal Security Act.
United by a common agenda, it is believed these groups may eventually cooperate with other far-flung terror groups such as Isil, to achieve their ultimate aim.
Authorities, who have their pulse on the groups’ communications and movements, said intelligence revealed that the members of these groups, which are slowly gaining strength, had gone through training to perfect their battlefield knowledge and tradecraft, including producing their own weapons and explosives.
Experience gleaned by Malaysian militants from their Syrian and Afghan campaigns, sources believe, could also be tapped and put to use, eventually, by groups here.
They have strong local financial backers, including businessmen and professionals, as well as those whose employment status had not been ascertained.
One of the more high-profile Malaysian militants was a former drummer of a local rock outfit.
These terror groups go though great lengths to ensure that their set-up and agenda are not disrupted. In their meetings, members are constantly warned that death is the punishment for betrayal.
Authorities revealed that these groups were also behind the sending of Malaysians to be embedded in jihadist groups in Syria.
Prior to them being deployed to Syria, recruits would be sent for basic training in southern Thailand and with the Abu Sayyaf group.
The main Abu Sayyaf training camp was called Camp Hudaibiyah. It was here that recruits were taught, among others, the art of combat, urban warfare, hand-to-hand techniques, how to set up booby traps and construct improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and how to field strip weapons.
It is understood that the BKAW group, in building its strength, had been recruiting members through Facebook as well as through a series of ceramah. Their primary targets are youth and students from local institutions of higher learning.
Its members had pledged to procreate to give birth to a fresh supply of fighters.
It is understood that Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, 26, the Malaysian linked to Isil and credited with blowing up 25 elite Iraqi soldiers at Iraq’s SWAT headquarters on May 26 in a suicide attack, was part of BKAW. He, and several others, had undergone training in Port Dickson late last year.
The NST learnt that the DIMzia, established earlier this year, was a splinter group of the BAJ. The split happened when two BAJ leaders had a falling out over the misappropriation of funds.
The sources said while the leader of DIMzia had been picked up by authorities, their members had been keeping the group active.
DIMzia had, in early April, held an orientation programme in Ijok, Perak, where members were put through rigorous physical training, which included scaling up the seventh level of a waterfall. Members were also made to soak in cold water as a test of their mental strength.
There, they were also supposed to get lessons on how to detonate a bomb using a handphone as the trigger mechanism. However, the local man who was supposed to teach them did not turn up.
It was also revealed that these groups refer heavily to “manuals” penned by militants, including Indonesian Abu Bakar Bashir, leader of Jemaah Islamiah, who in 2011 was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting a training camp.
Although barely a year old, ADI, which is allegedly headed by a respectable academic figure, was believed to have strong links with foreign militant groups, including Indonesia’s Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT).
Abu Bakar had, in 2008, reportedly announced his intention to create JAT, which also meant “partisans of the oneness of God”, when the Indonesian government was preparing to execute the three convicted Bali bombers. JAT is on the United States’ terror list.
Malaysian authorities share the concerns of their counterparts in the region that locals who join their militant brethren in Syria and Iraq would then return to their country of origin to “export” their knowledge and ideology.
“We are also looking at Syria and Iraq as a petri dish for local militants to establish international contacts and propagate their goals, not only in their respective countries, but in the region as a whole.
“Those countries (Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan) are real battlegrounds, unlike the basic training they went for in the southern Philippines or in other training camps.
“When they return, their insurgency tactics and battlefield knowledge would have been highly honed.
“To their supporters here, they will be seen as high-profile jihadists and it would be easier for them to pull in more young members,” a high-ranking intelligence officer said.
Police are seeking an Islamic studies lecturer with Universiti Malaya (UM) and a staffer with the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) among five Malaysians suspected of recruiting members for militant Islamic groups in conflict-riddled Syria and the Philippines. – See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/wanted-for-islamic-militancy-um-lecturer-selayang-council-staffer#sthash.Y8dgMsTQ.dpufProfiles of the five men, complete with their pictures, were released in a wanted poster by Bukit Aman’s counter-terrorism unit.
Inspector-general of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said three of the suspects are believed to be serving the Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant (ISIL) while the other two are members of Darul Islam Sabah, a group now affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist sect based in South Philippines.
Among those identified as ISIL recruiters is Dr Mahmud Ahmad, otherwise known as Abu Hanadzalah, a lecturer attached with Universiti Malaya’s (UM) Academy of Islamic Studies faculty.
Also linked to ISIL is Mohd Najib Husen – who also goes by the name of Abraham – the operator of a photocopy and stationaries shop in UM, and Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee or Abu Nur, a secretariat staff with the Selayang city council.
Linked to the Darul Islam Sabah group, meanwhile, were Mohd Amin Baco and Jeknal Adil, both from Tawau, Sabah.
Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysia Police)
