A new English-language magazine from ISIS supporters insists that territorial losses were a tactical decision by the Islamic State, and called for loyalists to be broken out of prisons around the world including in the United States.
The first issue of “The Voice of Hind” was released in late February to coincide with President Trump’s visit to India. The second issue of “Voice of Hind,” released in March, encouraged attacks using simple weapons and tactics specifically targeting military and police officers who “have been deployed in their streets and alleys, thus making them an easy target” during the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic.
That issue also listed some ways to “annihilate the disbelievers,” including vehicle attacks, knife and ax attacks, arson, and poisoning food and drink.
Between its fourth and fifth editions, the creators released a “lockdown special” edition of the magazine encouraging steps to “annihilate the disbelievers” including stabbing people with scissors and expending “less effort” by spreading deadly coronavirus. The issue tried to goad followers into spreading the virus, calling it “a weapon far greater than stones” and adding, “What better chance can you get to kill the disbelievers in multitudes than COVID 19?”
In the new sixth edition of the magazine, the authors mention “beloved sister” Aafia Siddiqui, aka “Lady al-Qaeda,” while discussing ISIS prison break operations, as well as the ISIS wives still being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. “There are still thousands of sisters imprisoned by the apostate SDF in al Houl Camp and they are living in extreme difficult conditions,” the article states, noting “many others who are still in the prisons of America, Europe and the rest of the world.”
The magazine threatens one European country — “we still consider Spain ours and its revenge is inevitable” — and vows to “never forsake our brothers who are in the prisons of America, Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Africa and others.”
Another article in the issue talks about jihadists “lying in wait for the enemy every day” to “make sure that no day will goes [sp] by without shedding the filthy blood of the enemies of Allah,” calling “like one battle” Islamic State operations “from Iraq to Syria, Yemen to Sinai, East Asia to West Africa, Khurasan to Hind.”
“Today, the enemy has penetrated into the cities and is roaming the streets and setting up bases almost everywhere. However, it does not mean that the enemy has achieved its goals and defeated the Munahedeen. Since our battle is actually within the populations in the cities and the tactics of defense and attack vary according to the situation,” the article continues. “And the results of such a fierce battle do not come in a matter of weeks or months, but rather a decisive victory for either side in such type of war takes a long time. If the Islamic State had to tactically retreat from some areas where Allah’s Shariah was enforced, it did not do so unless it made sure that every inch the Kuffar took from the Islamic State proved as an inferno for the infidels.”
The magazine adds that territory reclaimed from ISIS is only “a temporary transition and it is only a matter of time that Islamic State takes them back, this time more strongly though.”