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January 2019 MLM VOLUME X, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2019 JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION Libyan Militia Advocate of Hezbollah’s CAPTURED: Wali Leader Salah Badi Armed Rebellion: Salafist Ally in Jamal al- —The Self- A Profile of Lebanon: Ahmad Mashhadani Proclaimed Chadian Rebel Reveals Inner Abd al-Karim al- George Leader Dr. BRIEF Workings of IS Saadi Washington of Abakar Tollimi Libya FARHAN ZAHID ANDREW NICHOLAS A. HERAS RAFID JABOORI DARIO CRISTIANI MCGREGOR VOLUME X, ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 2019 Al-Qaeda’s Man in the Indian Kashmir Their members are slightly more educated than Insurgency: Zakir Musa their predecessors. Born as Zakir Rashid Musa in the Tral area of Palwama district in 1990, Farhan Zahid Musa is a son of an Indian government civil servant. Musa studied engineering at Apparently, al-Qaeda finds it difficult to lure in Chandigarh College in Punjab province, but fresh Islamist militants amid the rise of the dropped out in his third year and joined Hizb ul Islamic State (IS) in 2014 and the establishment Mujahedeen (HuM) in 2013 (HuffingtonPost.in, of its self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate. This is December 16, 2018). With HuM, he conducted not the case in South Asia. Al-Qaeda Central terrorist attacks and engaged in other violent remains strong in the region, and core Islamist activities in the southern districts of Indian terrorist organizations orbiting around it have Kashmir. After the death of Burhan Wani, the not moved out of its circle. In Pakistan, Jamaat young Emir of Hizb ul Mujahedeen, in an Ansar al-Sharia pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda encounter with Indian security forces in 2016, Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri, while in India, the Musa ascended to replace him. He soon left Zakir Musa-led Ansar Ghazwa tul Hind (AGH) HuM to found AGH and declared his ambition surfaced in Indian Kashmir with openly pro-al- to establish an Islamic Caliphate and state in Qaeda stances. Kashmir. He denounced both the Pakistani Musa symbolizes a new generation of Islamist government and Hurriyat Conference (the terrorists operating in Indian Kashmir. This new political wing of the Indian Kashmir pro- generation appears far more radical in their independence parties). His anti-Hurriyat views views of violent Islamism and are actively were noticed when he threatened Kashmiri utilizing social media to profess their views. !1 VOLUME X, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2019 JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION leaders for calling their struggle political, instead them had left LeT to join AGH before being of Islamic. He said: killed by the security forces in a gun battle on August 1, 2017. He said: Our struggle is for implementation of Shariah. It is an Islamic They decided to join the cause of struggle… I am warning them Islam the moment they heard (Hurriyat leaders) not to play their about it and played a major role in politics. If they again try to formation of Ansar Ghawzat-Ul- become thorns in our path, the Hind (the Islamic name of the first thing we will do is behead you local al-Qaeda group),…those who and hang you in Lal Chowk. We used to call them traitors are will leave the infidels and kill you shamelessly paying homage to first (Wire India, May 15, 2017). them (Hindustan Times, August 5, 2017). The Global Islamic Media Front—the official online media wing of al-Qaeda Central— In December, 2018, six associates of Musa’s— accepted Zakir Musa’s pledge of allegiance and including his deputy Soliha, a.k.a Rehaan Khan officially announced that he was the leader of its —were killed in an encounter with police in associated group in Indian Kashmir. (Economic Palwama district after a shootout (NDTV, Times, July 14, 2018). December 22, 2018). That encounter showcased the growth of Musa’s AGH in Kashmir. Musa Currently he is one of the most-wanted terrorists himself was spotted in the Indian state of Punjab in Kashmir (Times of India, June 2, 2017). during the first week of December 2018, which Apart from his connections with his former led intelligence agencies to issue security alerts organization HuM, Musa is believed to be close about his presence in the Ferozpur and Bathinda to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and his fighters districts (part of Malwa region) in Punjab. He work in tandem with them. Musa’s strategy was described as possibly being disguised as a appears to be attracting many Islamist militants Sikh (Indian Express, December 6, 2018). Musa from other Islamic insurgent groups in Indian is well acquainted with the area, as he studied Kashmir. For example, a number of HuM there until 2013. He may have been planning militants have left their organization to join terrorist strikes in Punjab, or developing inroads hands with Musa. The number of AGH with Sikh nationalist separatist groups. Indian members is rising according to Indian security intelligence and security agencies described assessments (India Today, July 6, 2017). Musa’s group as a small cell. After the deaths of Abu Dajana and Arif Lelhar Musa is held in high esteem among Islamist —two important military commanders of terrorist circles because of his affiliation with and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)—Musa claimed that they homage to al-Qaeda’s leadership, which were the first martyrs in the struggle for an considers his organization as accomplishing part Islamic Kashmir. Musa also stated that both of !2 VOLUME X, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2019 JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION of its broader objectives. This indicates that Hezbollah’s Salafist Ally in Musa has grand designs of his own, which Lebanon: Ahmad Abd al- perhaps would constitute a new brand of Karim al-Saadi Islamist terrorism in the Indian Kashmir insurgency. Many Kashmiri protestors have been Nicholas A. Heras seen in the recent past carrying al-Qaeda and IS flags—a new but serious development in this part Recently, a senior Iranian national security of the world. official stated that his country would utilize its proxy forces in Lebanon and Gaza to unleash an “inferno” on Israel (Times of Israel [Jerusalem], January 29). These comments come as Israel has increased its military activities against Iran in Syria and conducted a campaign to remove tunnels built by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon that lead to northern Israel (Times of Israel [Jerusalem], January 28; Haaretz [Jerusalem], January 26). As tensions between Israel and Iran continue to grow over the future of Syria, Iranian-backed local militant actors in Syria and Lebanon are gaining power. Ahmad Abd al-Karim al-Saadi (a.k.a. Abu Mihjan), a Lebanese-Palestinian Salafist militant commander of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Usbat al-Ansar (League of the Supporters), is one such leader (U.S. Department of State, Accessed on February 1). It has murky ties to the global al-Qaeda organization, and it has been linked to a plot to kill the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon (Asharq al-Awsat, October 17, 2001). Despite this attention and pressure from the United States, Usbat al-Ansar remains influential within the broader Lebanese Salafist militant movement and acts as one of the powerbrokers within the Ain el-Helweh camp (YouTube, March 20, 2012). Usbat al-Ansar is estimated to have more than 2,500 armed members, with a core group of 800 full time !3 VOLUME X, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2019 JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION fighters, in the Ain el-Helweh camp fighters, including his brother Abu Tarik al-Saadi, Abu including Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian Mihjan is still believed to be the ultimate members. [1] Notably, despite its sectarian decision-maker of his organization. It was under affiliation, under al-Saadi’s leadership Usbat al- his leadership that Usbat al-Ansar was tied to its Ansar has been brought into Hezbollah’s most intensive period of operations against coalition, and the group’s representatives targets inside and outside of the Ain el-Hilweh participated in a conference in Tehran in camp: including against the leadership of rival December 2018 (al-Mustaqbal [Beirut], organizations, stores that sell alcohol, nightclubs, November 28, 2018; YouTube, March 20, 2012). and representatives of the Lebanese state, judiciary, and military (YouTube, March 20, Al-Saadi, 56, is a native of the Ain el-Helweh 2012; Asharq al-Awsat, October 17, 2001). In refugee camp, a major settlement within close recent years, especially due to concerns over the proximity of Lebanon’s southern coastal city of spread of Islamic State to the Lebanese- Saida. Believed to be a devout Salafist since his Palestinian camps, Usbat al-Ansar has engaged youth, al-Saadi is a veteran of the internecine more cooperatively with the Lebanese security Palestinian factional conflicts that have occurred services and other Palestinian factions, although in Ain el-Helweh. He made his reputation as a al-Saadi’s continued, underground role as the particularly effective operative in these battles (al- organization’s leader is still a controversial Nahar [Beirut], April 3, 2017; YouTube, March subject (el-Nashra [Beirut], January 28). 20, 2012).). He is a veteran of the still-existing, Lebanese-Palestinian, Ansar Allah (Partisans of Al-Saadi is representative of Iran’s efforts to God) movement, from which Usbat al-Ansar build a network of local militant leaders— developed as a splinter organization. Al-Saadi regardless of their sectarian affiliation—inside of has been on the run from Lebanese authorities Lebanon that will support Hezbollah’s influence. since 1995, on charges that he personally His sizable armed group, positioned in one of ordered the assassination of a prominent cleric Lebanon’s most sensitive areas, provides from a rival organization in the Ain el-Helweh Hezbollah and its allies with a Sunni ally in the camp (al-Nahar [Beirut], April 3, 2017; al-Araby Saida region, which has historically been a al-Jadid, August 29, 2014).
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