Overview
Daesh used its Amaq brand to claim attacks in Libya, Russia and Somalia. It released an infographic claiming it has mounted 175 operations in Afghanistan over the last 12 months, killing almost 1,300 people. In an Al-Naba article, it claimed two separate attacks on Libyan soldiers and oil facility guards. Using a lead editorial and an infographic in the weekly al-Naba news-sheet, the group kept up its campaign against democratic elections, with a particular focus on Iraq.
Unofficial channels released various threatening posters with images of potential targets: Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia; the Spanish Prime Minister; a Vancouver street; the World Cup in Russia; the Berlin U-Bahn railway; and the Egyptian president. A French language magazine, MediAction, consisted of a single article attacking Turkey’s President Erdogan.
Attempt to establish new Amaq websites
Amaq mainly uses Telegram to publish its attack claims, but on 1 and 2 May, it tried to establish new websites with innocent sounding URLs, such as https://libertie.eu and https://newseurope.ru. BBC Monitoring reported that both were offline by the following day.
Anti-democracy messaging
An article in al-Naba, released on 4 May, restates Daesh’s opposition to democracy. It focuses particularly on the coming election in Iraq, but also describes recent attacks on election targets in Afghanistan and Libya. The article justifies attacks on civilians, stating that ignorance of Daesh’s views on the elections is not an excuse. It makes further threats on voting places and courts and on anyone voting or involved in running the elections.
Threats to Egyptians
A series of posters targeting Egyptians were released by an unofficial channel from 6 May onwards under the heading “Campaign of Monitoring Apostates”. Each featured the picture of an individual, starting with President Sisi and going on to a series of alleged soldiers and intelligence agents, all of whom were named. The posters called on supporters to find them, post more information about them on social media and kill them if possible.
See previous editions of the insight bulletin here.