From territorial to virtual: Is ISKP the next Al Qaeda?


“We beat them through their own app; all they can do is delete our IDs,” an Islamic State (IS) supporter from Qawqaz, the Arabic name for the Caucasus region, boasted in a closed chat room on the Darknet.

He was live-updating other IS members about the attack that killed more than 140 people at a concert hall near Moscow in March — the worst attack to hit Russia in years. Soon after, the militant Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the attack. While there was no official word on the motive, security analysts have pointed out that for at least two years preceding the attack, the ISKP had been fixated on Russia, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda.

Read more…
Source: Dawn News


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Israel: Explosive device hurled at police force in East Jerusalem

    January 30, 2023

    An improvised explosive device was on Monday hurled at police in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. There were no injuries in the incident but a building was damaged. Read more… Source: YnetNews  

  • Pakistan: 28 killed, 150 injured in blast at Peshawar Police Lines mosque

    January 30, 2023

    A blast inside a mosque shook Peshawar’s Police Lines area on Monday, with officials saying that at least 28 people were killed and 150 were injured. Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Mehsood confirmed the casualties, adding that a rescue operation was under way inside the mosque as a number of people were buried under the rubble. So far, it ...

  • UN reports tense situation in eastern DR Congo after rebel attacks, deadly blast

    January 28, 2023

    Attacks by the M23 Movement rebels and an explosion wounding 18 civilians leave a tense situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a UN spokesman said on Thursday. One clash was in the southeast of Kitchanga, in North Kivu province, while other fights, including heavy weapons, occurred in Kishishe, about 25 km northwest ...

  • UK: Serving member of British Army charged with terror and explosives offences

    January 28, 2023

    A serving member of the British Army has been charged with terror and explosives offences, the Metropolitan Police said. Daniel Abed Khalife, of Beaconside, Stafford, was charged over two incidents in Staffordshire in August 2021 and January this year. He is accused of “eliciting or attempting to elicit information of a kind likely to be useful to ...

  • UK: NHS terror suspect had ‘pressure cooker bomb filled with gunpowder’ outside hospital

    January 27, 2023

    A man suspected of terrorism had a pressure cooker bomb filled with gunpowder outside a hospital, a court heard. Mohammed Farooq, 27, was caught with a bomb containing 13kg of explosives outside a maternity ward in Leeds on January 20. Read more… Source: The Mirror  

  • UNODC: Opium poppy cultivation estimates increase in Myanmar in 2022

    January 26, 2023

    In its newest survey on opium cultivation in Myanmar, released in Bangkok today, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates poppy cultivation to have increased by 33 per cent in comparison to the previous season. The results of the 2022 opium survey for Myanmar, which covers the first season following the military takeover ...

  • Spain: Elderly man arrested over high-profile letter bomb attacks

    January 25, 2023

    Spanish police have arrested a 74-year-old man on suspicion of sending letter bombs to high-profile targets, including the country’s prime minister. The man was reportedly taken into custody in the town of Miranda de Ebro the north of Spain and is due to appear in court later this week. Read more… Source: BBC News  

  • DR Congo: Bomb injures at least 12 people near a market in Beni

    January 25, 2023

    A bomb exploded at a market in eastern Congo on Wednesday, injuring at least a dozen people, authorities said. An unknown person detonated a bomb inside a bag in North Kivu’s Beni town, said Tharcisse Katembo, a local official. “Damage was documented (and) at least 12 people were injured. They were injured in the lower limbs, others ...

  • Belgium: Over 120 kg of explosives used in Brussels attacks, court learns

    January 24, 2023

    The Brussels Court of Assizes, which is currently presiding over the trial of suspects involved in the Brussels terror attacks at the Maelbeek metro station and Zaventem Airport, listened to the testimony of an expert who was able to trace the equipment used by the IS militants in their 2016 attack. The investigators revealed the detailed ...

  • Pakistan: Soldier killed in Bannu IED blast

    January 24, 2023

    A soldier of Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) in general area Jani Khel of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Monday, the military’s media wing said. The incident comes two days after a policeman embraced martyrdom while two of his colleagues sustained injuries as another check post came under terrorists’ ...

  • Somalia: Explosion, gunfire near mayor’s office in Mogadishu

    January 22, 2023

    A huge blast tore through buildings near the mayor’s office in central Mogadishu on Sunday, with gunfire erupting afterwards in an attack claimed by Al-Shabaab, police and witnesses told AFP. “Terrorists blasted a vehicle loaded with explosives onto a perimeter wall of the Mogadishu mall which is next to the Banadir administration headquarters,” police officer Abdullahi ...

  • Yemen: Roadside bomb explosion kills 2 government soldiers in Shabwa

    January 22, 2023

    Two soldiers of Yemen’s government forces were killed and four others injured in an explosion in the country’s southeastern oil-rich province of Shabwa, a military official said. A local military officer told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity on Saturday that an improvised explosive device on the roadside exploded when a motorcade of military vehicles ...

  • Jammu and Kashmir: Police suspect use of IED in Narwal blast

    January 21, 2023

    Just two days before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra is scheduled to reach Jammu, two back-to-back explosions rocked a busy locality on the outskirts of the city on Saturday, leaving nine people injured, officials said. Police suspect that IEDs were used to carry out the twin explosions in an SUV parked in a repair ...

  • Yurtugh Tactical: Profiling the Anti-Chinese Uyghur Training Group in Syria

    January 20, 2023

    The rise of tactical groups dates to 2017 and 2018, when the first videos and photos of Malhama Tactical in Syria began to circulate. In those same years, other tactical groups began operating in Syria, but escaped the scrutiny of analysts because they were not present on social networks, did not have websites, and avoided ...

  • At Least 32 Peacekeeping, Associated Personnel Killed in Malicious Attacks during 2022, United Nations Staff Union President Says

    January 20, 2023

    At least 32 United Nations peacekeeping personnel — 28 military and four police, including one woman police officer — were killed in deliberate attacks in 2022, the United Nations Staff Union said today. For the ninth year in a row, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was the deadliest for peacekeepers with ...

  • Nigeria: Double explosions rock Port Harcourt APC rally

    January 20, 2023

    Three persons have been reported injured, following double explosions that rocked a rally of the All Progressives Congress, APC, at the Rumu-Woji Play Ground, also known as Ojukwu Field, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Publicity Secretary of the APC, Rivers State, Darlington Nwauju, who shared photos of two female members affected. Read more… Source: Vanguard  

  • Jammu and Kashmir: IED defused near Government Medical College in Rajouri

    January 18, 2023

    Panic gripped Rajouri as an IED was found inside the city area near the Government Medical College on Wednesday. The IED was defused by a bomb disposal squad that reached the spot after locals informed the police about a suspicious black packet. As per initial information, the IED was packed in a tiffin box and kept ...

  • Pakistan ‘concerned’ over rising militancy along Pak-Afghan border

    January 17, 2023

    Pakistan has expressed concern over the uptick in militancy along its border with Afghanistan. In an interview with the leading American magazine, Newsweek, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Munir Akram warned that unless the economic situation improves in Afghanistan, the Taliban may begin to lose members to more militant groups like ISIS or ...

  • Somalia: Al-Shabab launches deadly attack on military base north of Mogadishu

    January 17, 2023

    Al-Shabab launched a deadly attack on a Somali military base on Tuesday, just a day after the government claimed a “historic victory” over the jihadists with the capture of a strategic coastal town. The Islamists detonated a car packed with explosives outside the camp 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Mogadishu before gunmen stormed the compound, ...

  • Pakistan: Police mobile van escapes bomb blast in Lakki Marwat

    January 17, 2023

    Mobile van of the Lakki Marwat city police station narrowly escaped a bomb blast here on Monday. An official said unknown miscreants had planted an improvised explosive device under a culvert on the Old Kutchery Road to target a police patrolling party. He said the area where the bomb was planted was at a stone’s throw ...

  • DR Congo: Bomb detonates in church in North Kivu province

    January 15, 2023

    In a statement sent to reporters, military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said that the “terrorist act” occurred in a pentecostal church in the town of Kasindi in North Kivu, which lies on the border with neighbouring Uganda. “The security services have already taken control of the place and the injured have been evacuated to local health facilities,” ...

  • India: CRPF personnel injured in IED blast in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district

    January 14, 2023

    An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was on January 14 injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by suspected Naxalites exploded in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, police said. The incident took place around 8:45 a.m. near Pegdapalli village under Tarrem police station limits when a road opening party of the CRPF’s ...