Alessandra Ciffo
On March 28th, Al-Furqan Foundation, the Islamic State (IS) Al-Furqan Media Center, published a 41.05 min audio message from the official spokesman, Abu Huzaifa Al-Ansari, entitled “We swear by Allah this matter will be completed.”
Abu Huzaifa Al-Ansari started addressing the 10th anniversary of the IS Khilāfah proclamation, back ten years ago, which nowadays it remains active through military operations in various areas, from the Middle East to Africa, from Iraq to the Sahel, despite the international coalition efforts led by the United States, globally plunging into a “major war of attrition”. The spokesman continued saying that despite the series of bombing and counterterrorism military operations against IS targets and forces from its defeat in between the Bush and Obama Administrations , the Islamic State surprises the entire world with its resilience to survive, its ability to make and strengthen massive alliances against the Western, especially The United States, managing to expand throughout the world, in particular in the MENA region and Africa, recalling the most famous battles of the decade, including the ones in Mosul, Raqqa, Baghouz, Sirte, and Marawi. Abu Huzaifa emphasized the straightforwardness and braveness of all 4 IS “caliphs” during these ten years because no one of them “died in his bed, all died in battle with the enemies, fighting and dying like thousands of their fighters…, choosing to be hidden, despite their numerous merits and valor.”
In these ten years, The IS has been fighting the Western countries and also the countries who are allied or have a relationship with them, their Security Forces, and Intelligence Agents, reporting that “have not lowered its banner, did not soften its approach, did not become kinder to its enemies, did not concede or compromise, and fought with everything it had.”
Abu Huzaifa Al-Ansari conveyed greetings to various Islamic State Wilayats: Mozambique Province, praising the local militants for their “diligence and courage” and the need to call the local Christian population to Islam; the IS Central Africa Province (ISCAP) mujahideen calling to intensify the fight against Christian authorities and groups; IS West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters, greeting their military merits and achievements; as well as IS Khorasan Province (ISKP), listing, also his “achievements” mentioning the recent massive armed assault in the Crocus City Hall, Krasnogorsk outskirts, Moscow city, Russia; IS East Asia Province (ISEAP) militants in the Philippines, urging to shift their armed operation from forests to city centers. To the Somalia State, inviting it to start launching attacks towards city centers. The spokesman also exhorted IS mujahideen from IS-Libya, Yemen Province, and Sinai Province (IS-SP) to be “united and patient,” congratulating them to the Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon for the Kerman suicide bombing in Iran, on January 2024, declaring “this attack is only the first in a long series of retributions.” It follows the greetings to IS militants from Syria, highlighting their military operations in the Syrian desert against the Syrian Army (SAA), and Russian Forces, burning several of their convoys, and the IS militants from Iraq, addressing them as “bearers of the banner of the Caliphate… those who ignited the spark of the Caliphate and fanned its flame,…those who turned the life of the Shiites into hell, deprived them of imaginary security and forced them to curse the imaginary victory.” After making fun of the Iraqi Government Security Forces' counterintelligence inefficiency and its inability to counter response to IS operativeness, Abu Huzeifa Al-Ansari reported the goal of IS is to "gather and destroy their armies and cleanse Iraq of their filth, In Shaa Allah."
It followed an address to all “Ummah of Islam”, saying that the ongoing “tragedy” in Gaza is just “a repetition of the tragedies that happened in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries, and there is only one way to stop this - unification in one I am building around one ruler under the banner of Sharia, and all the efforts of the Islamic State are aimed at making this happen…”, referring also to the policy regarding the Palestinian issue overtime, consisting on in fighting the Jews in Israel, and its supporters worldwide, which is the reason why “ghazwa in support of Palestine was carried out wherever there is an ISIS presence…”, thanking everyone who participates and aid in it, and praying Allah to help the IS fighters in reaching Palestine and “enter into a religious war with the Jews”. Moreover, referring to the IS prisoners of war and their relatives, he “bows his head, not even knowing what to say to them, what words of support, since simply words about the need to persevere in truth and patience are not the way out, and that on the neck of the IS militants and their leadership owes a huge debt to the captives and they will do everything to repay this debt, no matter how difficult the adversities along the way.” Then, he reports the following messages to the prisoners from the Caliph Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi: “What harm will it bring to you that people have forgotten about you if the Lord of the Worlds remembers you? And this is because hearts are broken. It is out of His kindness that Allah, Praise be to Him, crushes the souls of His slaves until they return to Him, and until He closes all doors in front of them except His own. Until they humiliated and humble, lie down on His threshold, persuading Allah to look at them and their state of complete suffering, hoping for His forgiveness, mercy, and relief from Him. Even if nothing else is enough for you, this understanding alone is enough for joy, so rest assured, because Allah has allocated only a certain time for each test and it will end when Allah has ordained it. And take advantage of your high position before Allah by supporting your brothers with a strong weapon and a sharp sword, so that Allah can protect them from your enemy and their enemy - for after mercy from Their Lord, they fight because of your dua that you offer to Allah, and they draw support from you in their war. Don't underestimate your weakness ask Allah for a reward and the quick news of relief from Allah is Allah’s promise to his slaves if adversity and suffering become unbearable, and troubles increase many times over.”
The official IS secretary press follows up by focusing on the problem of the al-Hol camp, and Kurds calling on IS Syria militants to attack the authorities and employees of the al-Hol camp with all kinds of attacks, including suicide bombers, stating “there is no better retribution for horror than horror”, and exhorting the mujahideen “not to stop at anything and not to be limited in their revenge, except for what Shariah limits - because the Kurds treated the camp residents cruelly and insulted them.”
He started to talk about the “crusaders, unbelievers and Jews” saying their war with IS has reached a stalemate point, becoming an issue with no solution, because all potential solutions have been spent in the war between IS in Iraq and Syria and USA and its allies, whom has not stopped and continue to attack.
In the fight against IS, the spokesman said the United States “suffered failure after failure, since all its attempts to destroy the organization on the ground were unsuccessful.” In the past, they failed to “extinguish the flame of jihad” in Iraq during the Bush Administration, stop the creation of the Caliphate during the Obama Admin., and destroy it with Trump and during Biden’s, the USA also failed to stop the spread of IS power worldwide, because “only Allah gives power on earth to whomever he wishes, including his slaves.” Even, the US allies are faced with a war of attrition in many countries, not able to achieve any concrete results. The USA has to consider that during the time of launching the Iraqi invasion, 20 years ago, they faced a hybrid conflict against different small militias and groups, but nowadays they are fighting “by a state created by one of these groups, and not only in Iraq alone, but rather by those militants that operate in Iraq (this is just one of the IS armies in one of the wilayat…” with limited capabilities, and in Africa, even though its great efforts, the Western countries are still failing to assemble a coalition of local regimes against the Islamic State, stating also that due to the rise of national and transnational issues, losses and damages, when the United States will leave Iraq to this, the Iraqi government forces “will face the inevitable fate of the second Spiker and the third Fallujah, or even worse, if it is the will of Allah” and “if your first withdrawal of troops from Iraq was a mistake, oh which you regretted, now your continued stay will be an even bigger mistake."
