Overview of Daesh Propaganda
In the week of 26 March to 01 April, official affiliate propaganda outlets claimed attacks and killings in Yemen, Afghanistan, the Philippines, India, Libya, Egypt’s Sinai region, Iraq and Syria. Al-Naba carried an article on the tactic of ambush and an infographic on the fighting role of women. A video released under the brand of ‘Sinai Province’ gave Daesh’s view of the Egyptian military campaign against it. Unofficial propaganda outlets made threats of attacks using Arabic and English language posters. One poster used a photo of the French Police Officer killed during the recent killings in France and called for more such attacks. Another unofficial message announced the merger of two pro-Daesh media channels on Telegram.
Daesh’s ambush theme
In the latest al-Naba edition issued on 29 March, an article entitled “road ambushes: coming terror” focusses on the theme of ambush as a warfare tactic. It states that the tactic used by the group before the “caliphate” is making a strong comeback in Iraq and this time with a higher frequency and more coordination. A second article highlighted the “increase” in guerrilla tactics.
To amplify these articles Daesh released pictures of an ambush on Iraqi security forces using a fake checkpoint, claiming to have killed 13 members of the Iraqi Security forces. They also claim that militants “in disguise” killed five Iraqi soldiers in Mosul.
Video on the Egyptian military campaign
A 26-minute video, titled “The failed confrontation”, was released under the brand of ‘Sinai Province’. It accuses the Egyptian military campaign, “Sinai 2018”, as only having the political goal of reinforcing the popularity of the Egyptian President, who it describes as a ‘tyrant’. It features Daesh’s recently claimed attacks against Egyptian soldiers and police and claims that the Egyptian president has not visited any of the attacked checkpoints. In addition, the video shows an interview with one of the Sinai province fighters who describes the Egyptian soldiers and military campaign as failures.
Female fighters
An infographic in al-Naba, entitled “The jihad of Women”, describes the ways in which women are allowed to participate in battle. Although at first stating that women’s ‘jihad’ includes “no battling” it describes certain circumstances in which a woman can engage in physical combat, such as when she needs to defend herself and when an enemy storms her country. It also included ways to participate without battle, like giving to charity, cooking, serving the mujahidin and carrying back the dead.
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