Abu Omar al-Muhajir | |
---|---|
أبو عمر المهاجر | |
Occupation | Official spokesman of the Islamic State |
Predecessor | Abu Hamza al-Qurashi |
Successor | Abu Hudayfah Al-Ansari |
Movement | Islamic State |
Abu Omar al-Muhajir served as the fourth spokesman for the Salafi jihadist group Islamic State (IS), [1] [2] from 10 March 2022 until his capture in April 2023 by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). [3] He succeeded Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi in March 2022, and was replaced by Abu Hudayfah Al-Ansari in August 2023. [4] [5]
Abu Omar al-Muhajir was announced as spokesman in an speech of Al-Furqan Foundation in March 2022, and he made four audio speeches in his tenure as spokesman for the Islamic State.
His speeches included: [6] [ unreliable source? ]
Little is known about Abu Omar al-Muhajir. It was speculated by Yemeni journalist Mohammed Faisal on Twitter that he is Juma'a Al-Badri, a brother of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, [9] but this was never confirmed. Many analysts[ who? ] believed his accent to be Iraqi after analyzing his speeches.[ citation needed ] HTS did not present him before media after his capture nor comment on his capture. [3]
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, born Hamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al-Zawi was an Iraqi militant who was the Emir of the Islamic militant umbrella organization Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), and its successor, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), which fought against the U.S.-led Coalition forces during the Iraqi insurgency.
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition of multiple Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Ahrar al-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud until his death in 2014. In July 2013, Ahrar al-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, which at the time made it the second most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army. It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front and was a major component of the Islamic Front. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in 2015, Ahrar al-Sham became the largest rebel group in Syria after the Free Syrian Army became less powerful. Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey. On 18 February 2018, Ahrar al-Sham merged with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to form the Syrian Liberation Front.
The Islamic State of Iraq was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law in Iraq.
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Sami Mahmud Mohammed al-Oraydi or Abu Mahmoud al-Shami is a senior sharia official for the al-Qaeda affiliated Hurras al-Din who was the chief religious authority for al-Nusra Front and the group's former second-in-command.
The Idlib Governorate clashes , were military confrontations between Syrian rebel factions led by Ahrar al-Sham and their allies on one side and the al-Qaeda-aligned Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and their allies on the other. After 7 February, the clashes also included Jund al-Aqsa as a third belligerent, which had re-branded itself as Liwa al-Aqsa and was attacking the other combatants. The battles were fought in the Idlib Governorate and the western countryside of the Aleppo Governorate.
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the Syrian Civil War. It was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between Jaysh al-Ahrar, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. The unification process was held under the initiative of Abu Jaber Shaykh, an Islamist commander who had been the second Emir of Ahrar al-Sham.
The Qalamoun offensive (2017) was a military operation launched by Hezbollah, the Syrian Armed Forces, and later the Lebanese Armed Forces, against members of Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the Lebanon–Syria border. The Lebanese Army denied any coordination with Hezbollah or the Syrian Arab Army.
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On 19 February 2018, heavy clashes erupted between the newly established Syrian Liberation Front, which consists of Ahrar al-Sham and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, backed by the Suqour al-Sham Brigades, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the western Aleppo Governorate. The conflict soon spread to the Idlib Governorate and the SLF captured several towns from HTS. A ceasefire between the two groups was reached on 24 April 2018. Fighting again resumed on 1 January 2019, ending with a total HTS military victory on 9 January.
Tanzim Hurras al-Din sometimes also known as Al-Qaeda in Syria, is a Salafi Jihadist organization fighting in the Syrian civil war. The group's head, Abu Humam al-Shami, was the general military commander of the defunct Al-Nusra Front, and had fought for Al-Qaeda in the 1990s Afghan civil war and the Iraqi insurgency. Hurras al-Din was established by the leaders of the AQ-affiliated Khorasan group and Al-Qaeda loyalists of Al-Nusra Front who opposed Jabhat Fatah al-Sham 's dissolution and merger with other Islamic groups to form Tahrir al-Sham. Abu Humam Al-Shami announced the formation of Hurras al-Din on 27 February 2018.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was an Iraqi militant and the second caliph of the Islamic State. His appointment by a shura council was announced by the Islamic State media on 31 October 2019, less than a week after the death of previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Idlib Governorate clashes were a series of armed confrontations between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Be Steadfast Operations room, led by the Guardians of Religion Organization. The conflict began after HTS arrested the leader of the Ansar al-Din Front, Abu Salah Al-Uzbeki, and a dissenting leader of a group within HTS.
The Tahrir al-Sham–Junud al-Sham conflict was a series of violent clashes between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and several rival jihadist factions operating in the Idlib and Latakia governorates. The clashes began on 25 October 2021 after HTS demanded that the jihadist leader Muslim al-Shishani should stand trial after they accused him and his group of sheltering members of the Islamic State.
Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, probably born Nour Karim al-Mutni Al-Obaidi Al-Rifai, was an Iraqi militant and the third caliph of the Islamic State. He was named as caliph on 10 March 2022, in an audio message by the new spokesperson of IS, Abu Umar al-Muhajir, whose announcement came more than a month after the death of his predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The message said that Abu al-Hassan was given a pledge of allegiance in response to the will of the former caliph. The Turkish government claimed that he was arrested in Istanbul on 26 May 2022. Later, Islamic State sources denied news reports of his arrest in the 347th issue of their weekly newsletter Al-Naba.
Clashes occurred between the Levant Front and the Hamza Division, two factions of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, across the Turkish-occupied areas of the Aleppo Governorate on 10 October 2022, as part of the on-going civil war in Syria. On 12 October, the Sunni Islamist group Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) joined the fighting on the side of the Hamza Division, entering the Afrin region.
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi was the fourth caliph of the Islamic State and allegedly the first Syrian to serve as caliph. He took office on 30 November 2022.
Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari is the current spokesman of the Islamic State. He was announced as the spokesman in a speech released by Al-Furqan Foundation media in August 2023. He replaced Abu Omar al-Muhajir as the spokesman of the Islamic State, who was arrested by Tahrir al-Sham.