Global Jihad: Summary from Arabic Sources – The Second Half of June 2011
This report summarizes the most prominent articles on the subject of global Jihad published in the Arabic media in the second half of June 2011. Following are the main issues raised in this report:
• Ayman Al-Zawahiri is officially declared as Al-Qaeda’s leader to replace Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda promises that Jihad will continue until the Day of Resurrection. Commentators from the Arab world explain that Al-Zawahiri taught Bin Laden the ways of combative Jihad, and that he was the one who actually ran the organization. They predict that the organization will carry out an operation to establish the position of its new leader.
• Continued waves of terrorism in Iraq and Pakistan.
• The armed confrontations between armed operatives from Al-Qaeda and the Yemeni army continue in the Abyan Province, which Al-Qaeda has declared to be an Islamic emirate. The confrontations spread to the Lahij Province as well. Opposition elements continue to claim that this is a deliberate action taken by the authorities.
• Mauritania carries out a military operation deep inside Malian territory against an Al-Qaeda base in the Wagadu Forest.
• The Somali Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen movement gives its support to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and acts to reinforce its position amongst the elders of the local tribes in the various provinces of Somalia.