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Friday, March 29, 2024

ISIS Claims More Than 1,800 Attacks in First Half of 2019

ISIS claims it has conducted more than 1,800 attacks in the first half of this year, and separately distributed a list of appropriate countries to strike due to their associations with the United States.

ISIS cells around the globe, from Africa to Asia, have been releasing videos vowing renewed allegiance to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with several releases so far in the series “The Best Outcome Is for the Pious.”

The infographic released by the terror group’s Amaq news agency says that their attacks since the beginning of 2019 have killed and wounded more than 8,000 people and “wrecked & destroyed” 834 vehicles.

With a map graphic, ISIS claims 12 attacks in Libya, 135 in West Africa, 112 in Egypt, and 18 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the group claimed its first attack in April, and Mozambique.

They also claimed 534 attacks in Syria, 666 in Iraq, 180 in Afghanistan, 46 in Yemen, 12 in Pakistan, 45 in Somalia, and 21 in the Philippines and Indonesia. Twenty-two more attacks, for a total of 1,803, included places such as Sri Lanka, where 259 people were killed in coordinated Easter bombings.

The ISIS infographic counted Sri Lanka among its “most significant events” of the first half of the year, stressing the targeting of churches and hotels with “nationals from international coalition countries.”

Syria and Iraq were labeled significant for continued attacks in their former caliphate; Iraq attacks were characterized as “continuous operations to drain through attrition the Iraqi army, Iraqi police, Peshmerga,” etc.

Jihadists were also lauded for the front they opened in Ebola-stricken DRC as well as multiple attacks across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Mali and Burkina Faso. ISIS claimed last month’s bombings at a base in the Philippines, and said they were “extending security operations” to new parts of Afghanistan.

Separately, ISIS media channels distributed a list of countries “led by U.S. in war against the Islamic State.” The target list also includes organizations: the Arab League, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), INTERPOL, NATO and the European Union.

ISIS supporters who boost the terror group’s recruitment and incitement operations through a glut of online propaganda posters have been lately concentrating on London in their barrage of threats.

One image of Big Ben vows that “Crusaders” will “soon be pursued in your own homeland.” It bears the branding of “Greenbirds,” a reference to jihadists killed while conducting terror attacks.

“Greenbirds” also appears on an image of 10 Downing Street in flames, declaring “the mujahideen’s fire will burn soon. Just you wait.”

Earlier in the month, ISIS supporters depicted a camouflage-clad child armed and sitting in front of Big Ben, with the text “London, stay tuned for the invasions of Caliphate cubs.” ISIS refers to its jihadists as “lions” and kids in their training programs as “cubs.” The same image, in Arabic, was circulated in June.

Around the same time, another “Greenbirds” poster depicted an explosion on the edge of Tower Bridge, with the words, “The London Bridge will fall soon.”

ISIS Kids, Women Raise Flag of Terror Group at Syrian Camp

ISIS Claims More Than 1,800 Attacks in First Half of 2019 Homeland Security Today
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. A veteran journalist whose news articles and analyses have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe, Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor and a foreign policy writer at The Hill. Previously she was an editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and syndicated nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. Bridget is a terrorism analyst and security consultant with a specialty in online open-source extremist propaganda, incitement, recruitment, and training. She hosts and presents in Homeland Security Today law enforcement training webinars studying a range of counterterrorism topics including conspiracy theory extremism, complex coordinated attacks, critical infrastructure attacks, arson terrorism, drone and venue threats, antisemitism and white supremacists, anti-government extremism, and WMD threats. She is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate 15 and a private investigator. Bridget is an NPR on-air contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Observer, National Review Online, Politico, New York Daily News, The Jerusalem Post, The Hill, Washington Times, RealClearWorld and more, and has myriad television and radio credits including Al-Jazeera, BBC and SiriusXM.
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. A veteran journalist whose news articles and analyses have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe, Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor and a foreign policy writer at The Hill. Previously she was an editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and syndicated nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. Bridget is a terrorism analyst and security consultant with a specialty in online open-source extremist propaganda, incitement, recruitment, and training. She hosts and presents in Homeland Security Today law enforcement training webinars studying a range of counterterrorism topics including conspiracy theory extremism, complex coordinated attacks, critical infrastructure attacks, arson terrorism, drone and venue threats, antisemitism and white supremacists, anti-government extremism, and WMD threats. She is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate 15 and a private investigator. Bridget is an NPR on-air contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Observer, National Review Online, Politico, New York Daily News, The Jerusalem Post, The Hill, Washington Times, RealClearWorld and more, and has myriad television and radio credits including Al-Jazeera, BBC and SiriusXM.

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