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The US military and Afghan Air Force hit a Taliban command and control center and seven “drug labs” in what the Coalition described as “previously untargeted safe havens in south and southwest” Afghanistan. With a shift in strategy, strikes such as these will become the new normal, the top US commander in Afghanistan said.The coordinated airstrikes took place over the last day in three Taliban controlled or contested districts in northern Helmand province: Musa Qala (four strikes), Kajaki (three), and Sangin (one). Musa Qala and Sangin are controlled by the Taliban, while Kajaki is hotly contested, according to ongoing...

The Taliban released a statement attributed to its emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada, earlier today. The propaganda message was clearly crafted with a Western audience in mind. Like other statements published by the jihadist group, Akhundzada’s message should be subjected to scrutiny and not taken at face value, especially given that parts of it are directly contradicted by the Taliban’s own words and deeds. Akhundzada explains that “peace” is only possible if the US and its Western allies, referred to as “occupation” forces, retreat from the country. “The main obstacle in the way of peace is the occupation,” Akhundzada’s statement reads. “Peaceful...

[Editor’s Note: Below is Thomas Joscelyn’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry into the United States. The hearing is titled, “The Terrorist Diaspora: After the Fall of the Caliphate.” A version with footnotes will also be posted.] Chairman Gallagher, Ranking Member Watson Coleman, and other distinguished Committee Members, thank you for inviting me to testify today concerning foreign fighters and the threat some of them pose to the U.S. and Europe. The fall of Mosul and the likely fall of Raqqa won’t be the end of the Islamic State. The group has already...

“…The Islamic State has become especially adept at turning various makes and models of cars into vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). Armor is fixed to large and small vehicles alike in order to make it more difficult for Iraqi and American forces to destroy them before they reach their target. The US has been able to take out dozens of VBIEDs before their drivers could complete their missions. But the video showcases some of the jihadists’ more successful bombings. In one instance, one VBIED is driven into a security checkpoint and then a second snakes its way through an apartment...

Nine pages from Ahmad Khan Rahami’s journalEarlier today, Mike Levine of ABC News tweeted an image of one of the blood-soaked pages found in Ahmad Khan Rahami’s journal. Catherine Herridge of FOX News has obtained an additional set of eight pages from the notebook and shared them with The Long War Journal. The images, ten in all, are reproduced below. The journal contains multiple references to jihadi figures and related issues. Rahami is charged with detonating a bomb on 23rd Street in New York City on Sept. 17 and placing three other bombs.

Podcast: first 19 minutes

Al Qaeda confirmed that the US killed its military commander for the "Khorasan," or Afghanistan and Pakistan, in a drone strike in Waziristan in early 2014. Sufyan al Maghribi, a Moroccan who served as the group's military chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of many unknown al Qaeda leaders who "work in silence and leave in silence," according to a prominent jihadist who reported his death one year ago. Maghribi was also a contributor to the jihadist group’s Vanguards of Khorasan magazine. Maghribi's death was confirmed in a message released yesterday by al Qaeda that featured Ayman al Zawahiri....

Jihadists in Syria have released the second edition of Al Risalah, an English-language magazine. The publication, which was distributed via social media earlier today, is a thinly-veiled piece of al Qaeda propaganda. It isn’t officially published by the organization, but its al Qaeda messaging is obvious. Al Risalah’s newest edition includes an interview with a jihadist known as Usama Hamza Australi, who is originally from Queensland, Australia. “I’ve been a member of Al Qaeda for approximately fourteen years – since mid-2001 until today,” Australi says. “I’m currently in Syria as a member of Al Qaeda Central (AQC), working on their...

Ahrar al Sham, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group that fights side-by-side with Al Nusrah Front throughout Syria, claims to have launched rockets at the Hmeimim (or Hamim) airbase in the Latakia province. Russian forces are stationed there. The group made its latest claim on Twitter earlier today, following up with a photo of a rocket being launched from the back of a truck and a short video purportedly showing the operation. The photo can be seen above. The Long War Journal cannot independently verify what, if any, damage the rockets caused. This isn’t the first time Ahrar al Sham has...

The Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials. The camps are spread throughout Islamic State-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria and are off limits in the U.S.-led international bombing campaign because of concerns about collateral damage, said officials familiar with planning and execution of the yearlong bombing campaign. Additionally, the IS (also known as ISIS or ISIL) camps have been so successful that Islamic State leaders are considering expanding the camps to Libya and Yemen....

US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that “more than 10,000″ Islamic State fighters and commanders have been killed since the air campaign in Iraq began in August 2014 and subsequently in Syria in September 2014. If true, US intelligence estimates on the strength of the Islamic State are grossly underestimated.

The Islamic State’s so-called “Khorasan province” threatened the Taliban in a video released late last month. The video, which is more than 15 minutes long, features a lengthy speech by an unnamed jihadist (see image above) in front of armed fighters and local villagers. The speaker, citing the Prophet Mohammed, warns that there cannot be two caliphs. If one of the caliphs fulfills the appropriate criteria for being the ummah’s supposed leader — that is, the head of the worldwide community of Muslims — then the other must be vanquished, the speaker says. Although he doesn’t name Afghan Taliban leader...

This Department of Defense news article (reproduced in full below) on the status of the fight against the Islamic State couldn’t have been more poorly timed. Published on May 15, the same day that the Islamic State overran the government center in Ramadi, the report provides a pollyannaish view from Brigadier General Thomas D. Weidley of the US military’s air campaign and the Iraqi military’s fight against the Islamic State. Weidley is the chief of staff for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led coalition that was put together to “defeat and dismantle” the Islamic State. Weidley described...

Audio 39:52 Interview with two journalists who keep the Long War Journal which closely follows terrorists activities in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Wilayat Sinai, or the Sinai Province of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks throughout the Sinai yesterday via posts on Twitter. In a statement released earlier today, the organization said the operations were revenge against the Egyptian government for imprisoning the "sisters" (Muslim women). Two pictures of the attacks, one of which can be seen above, were posted with the statement. The same justification has been offered by Ajnad Misr ("Soldiers of Egypt") for its operations in Cairo and elsewhere. The jihadists claim that devout Muslim women are being oppressed by the government and, therefore, need...

A video uploaded to YouTube appears to show a large Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting weapons, troops, and armored vehicles to the front to fight the Islamic State. Several American-made military vehicles, including an M1 Abrams tank, M113 armored personnel carriers, Humvees, and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP), as well as Iranian-made Safir 4x4s and technicals (armed pickup trucks) are in the convoy. The Hezbollah Brigades is US-designated foreign terrorist organization that has been involved in killing American soldiers in Iraq. At one point in the video, a transport truck is shown carrying an M1 Abrams tank. The Hezbollah Brigades' flag...

Last month, Senator Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the executive summary of their final report investigating the CIA's controversial detention and interrogation program. As part of their study, the Democrats compiled twenty case studies, which were intended to address claims made by the CIA regarding the efficacy of its interrogations. One of those case studies focused on the identification and arrest of Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, who was freed from a US prison just days ago. Al Marri served as a "sleeper" operative for al Qaeda inside the US in 2001....

Ansar al Islam, which goes by the moniker Jamaat Ansar al Islam in Syria, has been coordinating its efforts with the Al Nusrah Front and Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar in a major battle for two Shiite villages north of Aleppo. The villages of Zahra and Nubl have been besieged by anti-regime elements since late November. Rebel forces have previously surrounded the villages and cut off electric and water services to the citizens. The two towns are located on a road to Turkey that is a key supply route into Aleppo. Ansar al Islam is an al Qaeda-affiliated group that...

Audio ___ first 20 minutes John Batchelor interviews journalist w/ Long War Journal re our involvement in Syraq, Yemen, Algeria, Saudi Arabia

A brief but important follow-up to Ed’s item this morning. You probably don’t recognize the name in the headline; until recently, I didn’t either. In fact, the name of the Khorasan Group itself wasn’t leaked to the media until last week, although James Clapper had alluded months ago to unnamed AQ operatives inside Syria wanting to hit the U.S. from afar.Turns out al-Fadhli has been on U.S. intel’s radar for a loooong time, though. And now he’s dead — maybe. Among the Al Nusrah Front positions targeted in the bombings are locations where members of the so-called “Khorasan group”...