Deprived of its former bases in the Iraqi-Syrian areas, ISIS is retreating into the Internet. A trend accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which incites the terrorist organisation to intensify its online activity.
Mohamed Hassan Dadou is a Muslim Brotherhood leader of Mauritanian origin, residing in Doha, Qatar. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Union of Muslim Ulemas, a body linked to the Muslim Brotherhood founded by the Egyptian-Qatari preacher, Youssef al-Qaradawi, of whom he was long the number 2.
According to a UN report, ISIS still has an estimated $30-45 million war chest. The report states that this is mainly cash, but notes that some of it has been converted into investments, via nominees, in Iraq, Syria and especially Turkey.
The appointments at the head of ISIS, following the death of its “caliph”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and its spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, confirm the growing control of AMNI, the former intelligence service of the Caliphate, over the terrorist organization’s governing bodies.
Apart from belonging to radical Islamist ideology, what is the common link between Al-Qaeda and Daesh, even though they are rivals? And the one between the brain behind the 11 September attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the ‘star’ preacher of the Al-Jazeera chain, Youssef Al-Qaradawi? And a myriad of pro-Islamic networks of influence and funding, established both in the Arab world and in the great capital cities of the West?
The answer is unequivocal: the pan-Islamic Fraternity of the Muslim Brotherhood! This emerges from a very detailed study titled ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’s ties to Extremists’ produced by the US think-tank Counter Extremism Project.
According to the findings of a confidential French investigation, the leader of the oil tanker Total kidnapped in Libya last April, then released for ransom, was watched over by militias allied with the government of Fayez el-Serraj, since the beginning of the attack of the Marshal Haftar on Tripoli.
Confidential exchanges between several European intelligence services state plans for attacks in the Mediterranean Sea and kamikaze operations targeting the Italian, French and Spanish coasts.
In a recent confidential note, Europol expressed concern about Daesh’s logistics networks, identified several months ago, which are involved in major movements of trafficking and storage of explosives in several Central European countries and the Balkans.
The ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared in a propaganda video published by the mediatic arm of the organization Al-Furqan. An outbreak that marks a turning point in the operating mode of the terrorist organization that his boss described as “war of attrition”.
UAVs, small remote-controlled flying devices, made their appearance in the world of intelligence and counter-terrorism on September 7, 2000. Almost one year to the day before the tragic turn of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a Predator-type drone flew over a farm in southern Kandahar, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was reportedly staying as part of a reconnaissance mission codenamed “Afghan Eyes”.
