Periodical Review: Summary from the Jihadi Forums – The Second Half of March 2012
This report summarizes the most prominent events brought up in the Jihadi online forums in the second half of March 2012. Following are the main issues raised in this report:
• In two separate audio files, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri exhorts the Pakistani people to oppose their army and government, and the Afghani people to join jihad and beware of Muslims who collaborate with the US.
• Muhammad Al-Zawahiri, brother of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is released from prison in Egypt.
• The Pakistani Taliban will wreak vengeance on the Pakistani regime and gain control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, according to top Taliban commander in Mohmand tribal region Sheikh Omar Khaled Al-Khurasani.
• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) will strike at the heart of Germany, it says, unless the German government frees a Muslim woman prisoner in exchange for the release of a German hostage being held by AQIM.
• Contributors to jihadist Web forums praise Mohammed Merah, the terrorist from Toulouse, and urge Muslim youth in the West to emulate him.
• Leading jihadist Web forums Al-Fida, Shumukh Al-Islam, and Ansar Al- Mujahideen cease functioning during the latter half of March 2012. Ansar Al- Mujahideen and Shumukh Al-Islam resume activity in early April.
