Author: Aaron Y. Zelin

New statement from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: “Concerning the U.S Visa Offer Encouraging Afghan Exodus”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

The offer of visas and encouragement to leave their home country by the US government to Afghans who worked with the American occupation as interpreters and in other sectors is plain interference in our country which the Islamic Emirate condemns.

We had already announced that interpreters and other workers who previously allied with the US will not face any trouble following the end of the American occupation.

They may live comfortably in their homeland without any fear of threats.

We urge the United States along with other countries to desist from such interventionist policies.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

25/12/1442 Hijri Lunar

13/05/1400  Hijri Solar               05/08/2021 Gregorian

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New video message from al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula’s Shaykh Sa’īd al-Shihrī: “Concepts #31″

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Click here for prior parts in this video series: #30, #29, #28, #27, #26, #25, #24, #23, #22, #21, #20, #19, #18, #17, #16, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, and #1.

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To inquire about a translation for this video message for a fee email: [email protected]

Check out my new review essay for the Texas National Security Review: “Tracing the Line of Foreign Fighters Over Time”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Over the past decade, research on foreign fighters in the jihadi movement has become ubiquitous. This is due to the unprecedented mobilization of individuals to fight in Syria alongside the Islamic State, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch,43 and other smaller jihadi groups. The mobilization to Syria was four times larger than the number of foreign fighters who joined the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. Although there was little scholarship on jihadism, let alone Muslim foreign fighters, in the aftermath of the Afghanistan war, in 1992, Middle East scholar Martin Kramer identified the potential fallout of foreign fighters returning home: “The Arab volunteers began to return home, where they became involved in violent opposition to their own governments.”44 In particular, Kramer notes the cases of the Algerian civil war and the terrorism campaign in Egypt.45 Despite this prescient work on Muslims who travel to fight in foreign conflicts, a phenomenon we have continued to see in the decades since, Daniel Byman’s newest book Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad is the first comprehensive study that provides a sweeping history of this phenomenon from its infancy in Afghanistan in the 1980s through the most recent call to fight in Syria.

Click here to read the rest.