Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem | |
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Black Standard of ISIL | |
Leaders | Abū al-Muḥtasib al-Maqdisī ('Abd Allah al-'Ashqar) |
Dates of operation | 2012 – present |
Active regions | Gaza Strip |
Part of | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (since 2014) |
Allies | |
Opponents | State Opponents Non-State Opponents |
Battles and wars | Gaza–Israel conflict |
The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem or simply the Mujahideen Shura Council (also known as the Mujahideen Shura Council of Jerusalem, in Arabic: Majlis Shura Al-Mujahideen, [1] Magles Shoura al-Mujahedeen, and other names) is an armed Salafi jihadist group [2] linked to al-Qaeda [3] that is active in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and in the Gaza Strip. The group was formed in 2011 or 2012 by Salafist Islamist Hisham Al-Saedni (also known as Abu al Walid al Maqdisi) [4] to coordinate the activities of the Salafi jihadist groups operating in Gaza even before the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 [5] and has carried out attacks against civilians in Israel. [3] The group describes violence against Jews as a religious obligation that brings its perpetrators closer to God. [6] Al-Saedni, who was the leader of the group and also of Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on 14 October 2012. [7] The group is subordinated with Al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula as of August 2012. [8]
In February 2014, the group declared its support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. [9] The group was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department on 19 August 2014, until the revocation of the designation in March 2022. [10] [11] In its explanation for the designation the State Department noted that:[ not verified in body ]
the Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem is an umbrella group composed of several jihadist terrorist sub-groups based in Gaza that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on Israel since the group's founding in 2012. For example, on August 13, 2013, MSC claimed responsibility for a rocket attack targeting the southern city of Eilat, Israel. Previously, MSC claimed responsibility for the March 21, 2013 attack in which Gaza-based militants fired at least five rockets at Sderot, Israel, and the April 17, 2013 attack in which two rockets were fired at Eilat, Israel. In addition to the rocket launches, MSC declared itself responsible for a Gaza-Israel cross-border IED attack on June 18, 2012 that targeted an Israeli construction site, killing one civilian. In addition to these physical attacks, the MSC released a statement in February 2014 declaring support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
One of these sub-groups is Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin [4] (or al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, "Unity and Jihad") which had been formed on 6 November 2008 and is also linked to Al Qaeda. In 2011 the group was also led by Hisham Al-Saedni. [12] Another sub-group is Ansar al Sunnah, which has taken responsibility for several rocket attacks against Israel, including a rocket attack in March 2010 that killed a Thai worker in Israel. Following the March 2010 attack, Haaretz reported that the group was "apparently linked to Jund Ansar Allah," another jihadist group operating in Gaza. [4]
Militants linked to the group launched a rocket in Israel, killing a worker from Thailand. The group later claimed responsibility for the attack. [13]
The group claimed responsibility for a cross border attack in Israel on 18 June 2012, when attackers detonated an improvised explosive device near the Egyptian-Israeli border and opened fire on vehicles carrying construction workers. Israeli civilian Saeed Fashafshe, a 35-year-old Arab resident of Haifa and a married father of four, was killed, as were at least two of the terrorists. [3] [14] [15]
In a video, the group said the attack was dedicated to Osama bin Laden and Syrian jihadists. It further stated that it is waging jihad "to become a building block in the global project aiming for the return of the rightly-guided Caliphate and the institution of the pure Shariah". It identified the leaders of the attack as Egyptian citizen Khalid Salah Abdul Hadi Jadullah (also known as Abu Salah al Masri) and Saudi citizen Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli (also known as Abu Hudhayfa al Hudhali). [3] [16] [17]
In a later video statement released in July, the group characterized the attack as "a gift to our brothers in Qaedat al-Jihad and Sheikh Zawahiri" and retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden. [18] [19]
The group launched three rockets at the Israeli city of Sderot on 26 August 2012. One of the rockets damaged a building in an industrial area near the city. One person was lightly wounded and a second was treated for acute stress reaction. [20]
In an internet statement, the group took credit for the attack and asked God to "assist us against the unbelieving people". It emphasized the following points in explaining the rationale for the attack:
On 7 October 2012, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency carried out an air strike in the southern Gaza Strip targeting Tala'at Halil Muhammad Jarbi, who the IDF said was involved in the planning and execution of the June 18 attack and other terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip. Also targeted in the air strike was Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai, who was said to be a member of the group. [19]
On 14 October 2012, al-Saedni was killed while on a motorcycle in an Israeli airstrike. Israel said it was responding to a rocket attack on southern Israel earlier. [7]
Around 7:15 am on 21 March 2013, on the second day of a visit by US President Barack Obama to Israel, the group fired four rockets from Beit Hanoun at Sderot, triggering alarms in local communities and forcing residents on their way to work or school to run to bomb shelters. One rocket hit the backyard of a home in the city, spraying shrapnel into the walls and shattering windows. A second projectile landed in an open area within the surrounding Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. The two remaining rockets landed within the Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. [21] [22] [23]
The group claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it was meant to show that Israeli air defenses could not stop attacks on the Jewish state. [24]
In July 2013, Hamas cracked down on PRC and MSC activities in Gaza, arresting a number of their members. [25]
The group denied involvement in the August 2012 Egypt-Israel border attack, in which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed and an Israeli border post was stormed. [5]
The Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) (Arabic: مجلس شورى المجاهدين في العراق), was an umbrella organization of at least six Sunni Islamic insurgent groups taking part in the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. and coalition and Iraqi forces: Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn ('al-Qaeda in Iraq'), Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Saraya al-Jihad Group, al-Ghuraba Brigades, and al-Ahwal Brigades.
Army of Islam, officially The Army of Islam Group in Jerusalem, is a Salafi Jihadist militant organization in the Gaza Strip. It was founded by the Doghmush clan in 2006, and is based in the Tzabra neighborhood in the center of the Gaza Strip. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the UAE.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq or al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, officially known as Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn or TQJBR, was an Iraqi Salafi Sunni jihadist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, for two years.
Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).
Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Arab–Israeli conflict. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by the United Nations, the European Union, and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets to be illegal under international law.
Jund Ansar Allah was an armed Islamist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. It was founded in November 2008. On 14 August 2009, the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa, announced the establishment of the al-Qaeda inspired Islamic Emirate of Rafah in the Palestinian territories and criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. In response, Hamas attacked the organization, resulting in 24 people being killed, including Moussa, and Jund Ansar Allah ceased to exist.
Rocket attacks on the neighboring cities of Eilat, in Israel, and Aqaba, in Jordan, have been a tactic used by militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and organizations linked with Al-Qaeda because of the relative ease of launching rocket attacks against these two cities from adjacent desert areas. Most of these attacks target Eilat, the last attack on Aqaba was in 2010.
Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin is a Sunni Islamist Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula, and is the branch of al-Qaeda in Gaza. The establishment of the group was publicly announced on 6 November 2008, with communiqués vowing loyalty to al-Qaeda, after having "received the messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri." Various forms of the "Tawhid al-Jihad" label have appeared in relation to developments in the Gaza Strip. The size of the group is not publicly known.
On August 18, 2011, a series of cross-border attacks with parallel attacks and mutual cover was carried out in southern Israel on Highway 12 near the Egyptian border by a squad of presumably twelve militants in four groups. The attacks occurred after Israel's interior security service Shin Bet had warned of an attack by militants in the region and Israeli troops had been stationed in the area. The militants first opened fire at an Egged No. 392 bus as it was traveling on Highway 12 in the Negev near Eilat. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. Eight Israelis – six civilians, one Yamam special unit police sniper and one Golani Brigade soldier—were killed in the multiple-stage attack. The Israel Defense Forces reported eight attackers killed, and Egyptian security forces reported killing another two.
Hisham Al Saedni, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Walid al-Maqdisi, was a Palestinian military activist and a Muslim leader and founding member of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in the Gaza Strip and he was also leader of al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, a branch of al-Qaeda in Gaza.
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Al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula, or AQSP, was an Egyptian militant jihadist organization possibly formed by a merger between al-Qaeda operatives in Sinai and Ansar al Jihad. It was Al-Qaeda's branch in the Sinai peninsula, and is composed of many Al-Qaeda factions in the area. AQSP made international headlines in November 2014 when the organization pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in a nine-minute audio speech released on Twitter.
Jaysh al-Ummah al-Salafi fi Bayt al-Maqdis, also known as Jaysh al-Ummah fi Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis or just Jaysh al-Ummah, is a Gaza Strip-based Palestinian and Salafi jihadist militant organization. The group is supportive of al-Qaeda and critical of Hamas.
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