This report summarizes notable events discussed on jihadist Web forums during the Second Half of May 2013. Following are the main points covered in the report:
• Sheikh Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, the mufti of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), calls on Yemen’s religious scholars to promote AQAP and forbid Yemeni soldiers from attacking the group.• Sheikh Mokhtar Belmokhtar of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and leader of the Signers in Blood Brigades takes responsibility for a double suicide attack in Niger.• Abu Yahya al-Shanqiti, a member of AQIM’s Shari’a [Islamic Law] Council, calls on Mauritania’s religious scholars to inveigh against France and its allies.• Abu al-Ila al-Jalili al-Jazaari, the director of AQIM media center Al-Andalus, calls on the Ennahda Party, the interim government and the minister of the interior in Tunisia to immediately cease the oppressing Ansar Al-Sharia.• Bloody clashes rage between security forces and Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia, inciting a wave of denigration by contributors to jihadist Web forums.• A member of Somalia’s Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen advises Muslims in the US and mujahideen in Somalia to kidnap US citizens and use them to bargain for the release of Muslims from US prisons.• AQIM’s blog launches a series of biographies of martyrs.• Issue No. 11 of Inspire, an influential English-language jihadist magazine, is published.
Periodical Review: Summary from the Jihadi Forums - The Second Half of May 2013