Periodical Review: Summary from the Jihadi Forums - The Second Half of May 2013

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.