Referring to the recently failed Latakia offensive into Alawite territory that was launched by ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and Salafi groups, the second FB page featured a statement from 'our lord Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (may God protect him): We are striving for there to be Eid prayers in al-Qardaa' ¸ ¥a.'
This statement should illustrate what the ultimate purpose behind the Latakia offensive was. Far from being an area of vital strategic importance, the aim was instead to score a symbolic and psychological victory against the regime by aiming to capture the Alawite heartland and Assad's ancestral village in particular.
In addition to this online material, videos have emerged recently from Tripoli showing the ISIS banner. For example, on 9 August, a video was posted on Facebook of a demonstration in Tripoli for Islamist inmates imprisoned at Roumieh prison in Lebanon - an issue that has been around for quite some time. In the video, entitled 'Victory march of the oppressed in Roumieh,' demonstra-tors can be seen holding ISIS banners. It is quite possible that the inspiration for this demonstration came from the ISIS jailbreaks in Baghdad the previous month.
This year's Eid celebrations also saw the ISIS banner on display in Tripoli's Sunni areas.
Sinai
As for the Sinai, support for ISIS is limited to an image doing the rounds on pro-ISIS social media pages, purporting to show jihadists in the Sinai pledging allegiance to ISIS. In the grand scheme of the wider jihad in the Sinai since the coup that deposed Morsi, this photo and the purported explanation for it mean very little. Yet depending on ISIS' long-term success, it would not be all that implausible if some ISIS muhajireen in particular eventually decide to bring armed struggle to Egypt beyond the Sinai with support from Sheikh Baghdadi.
In the second part of his analysis, published this August on Syria Comment file:///Users/deen/Documents/Support for bagdadi Part 2.webarchive, Tamimi states:
IS, it should be recalled, has a Gazan contingent known as the Sheikh Abu al-Nur al-Maqdisi Battalion. Thus it would be fair to characterize Jamaat Ansar al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Bayt al-Maqdis as an IS network in the Gaza-Sinai area.More recently, a statement was put out on jihadi forums with the announcement of a "Jund al-Khilafa bi Ard al-Kenana" ("Soldiers of the Caliphate in Egypt"), declaring a pledge of allegiance to IS. Pointing to the actions of the "dogs of the Rafidites- the agents of the Majus from the filthy Safavids, and the disbelieving Nusayris [Alawites]" against Sunnis in Iraq and al-Sham, and attacking the "dog of the Jews - the disbelieving tyrant of Egypt" Sisi, the purported new group pledged its allegiance to "the commander of the believers, the Caliph of the Muslims - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini (may God protect him)." A threat was also issued to the "enemies of Islam from among the Americans and the Cross-Worshippers," making clear that their bases and embassies are legitimate targets.
Ansar al-Shari'a Tunisia was known for its staunchly pro-ISIS stance last year, as one of its leading members had written a lengthy tract concluding that it was obligatory on members of Jabhat al-Nusra to switch allegiance to ISIS. The group has found the notion of IS as the Caliphate more difficult to accept, however rank-and-file ground members are aligning with IS and heading off to Iraq-Syria to become fighters for IS.
Libya
Like Ansar al-Shari'a Tunisia, many of Ansar al-Shari'a Libya's rank-and-file members have undoubtedly had IS leanings, translating to a Libyan fighting division within IS:
Maghreb Area
Of note here is a pro-IS break-off from AQIM known as "J und al-Khilafa fi Ard al-Jaza'ir" ('The Soldiers of the Caliphate in the land of Algeria'), which released a statement this month affirming a 'renewal' of allegiance to the Islamic State, criticizing the "corruption" of the "manhaj [program] of al-Qa'ida.
(Recently, a French tourist was captured in a mountainous region of Algeria by a local Islamist group and, when France refused to pay a ransom, beheaded.)
PhilippinesThere have been some indications of support for IS (and its prior incarnation ISIS) from some members of the jihadi group Abu Sayyaf: the most notable case being a bay'ah to IS by a senior Abu Sayyaf leader called Isnilon Hapilon, who emerged with a group of followers in a video pledging allegiance to the 'Caliph' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
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