Periodical Review: Summary from the Jihadi Forums – The First Half of July 2012
This report summarizes notable events discussed on Jihadi Web forums during the first half of July 2012. Following are the main points covered in the report:
• The deputy consul in Aden, who is being held captive by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), appeals for a second time to the Saudi authorities to release Muslim women prisoners, in exchange for his release.
• The Al-Nusrah Front takes responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks against the Syrian regime’s security forces.
• Ansar Al-Din publishes a new propaganda video of its battles against its enemies in the Azawad region of Mali.
• A new Nigerian Salafi-jihadist group, Jamat Ansar Al-Muslimin fi Bilad Sudan [Supporters of the Muslims in the Land of Sudan], officially declares its establishment.
• Boku Haram takes responsibility for a July 8, 2012 terrorist attack against Christians and Nigerian security forces in Plateau State, Nigeria, in which 22 Christians, two of them Nigerian MPs, are killed.
• Jihadist Web forums highlight the plight of Muslims in Myanmar (formerly Burma), who are being persecuted and exiled by the Myanmar authorities. They call for jihad in Myanmar.
• Reports abound that Abu Hafs Al-Mauritani, the former mufti of Al-Qaeda, has been released from the prison in Mauritania to which he was extradited after ten years in an Iranian prison.
• Jihadmin, a new Turkish-language jihadist Web forum, is launched.
