Periodical Review: Summary from the Jihadi Forums – The Second Half of January 2012
This report summarizes the most prominent events brought up in the Jihadi online forums in the second half of January 2012. Following are the main issues raised in this report:
• The Nigerian group Boku Haram has taken responsibility for a series of coordinated attacks perpetrated on January 20, 2012, against several police institutions in Kanu, the second-largest city in Nigeria.
• Using a car laden with explosives, the Somali group Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen carried out a suicide terrorist attack against the regional headquarters of the Ethiopian Army in the city of Beledweyne.
• Ansar Al-Sharia has succeeded in taking over the city of Rada’a in Yemen.
• The Shari’a Council of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has ruled that the faithful may kill the Houthis in Yemen, and stating that, in fact, it is the duty of every Muslim to wage war against the Houthis.
• The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq has emphasized that the jihad in Iraq will continue even though the US has withdrawn its troops, and that now the majority of effort will be directed against Iran’s agents in Iraq and their Shi’ite allies.
• A new jihadist group called “The Aid Front for the Syrian People” has been established, with the central goal of overthrowing Bashar Al-Assad.
• A new Salafi group has been established in Egypt named “Followers of the Sunna for the Salvation of Egypt” and headed by Hani Al-Sibai and Tariq Abd Al-Halim.
• A new jihadist Turkish periodical, ?slam Dünyas?, has been published.