The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 8, 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) – Al-Qaeda in Iraq – released a recorded audio message by its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in which he announced that the Syria jihadi group Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) has been merely an extension of ISI in Syria. Al-Baghdadi confirms that Jabhat Al-Nusra has been receiving monthly funds from ISI. In this vein, Al-Baghdadi announces that the names ISI and JN are not to be used anymore; instead, he declares the official merging of the two groups under the name "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham."
Al-Baghdadi's message is 21:30 in duration, and was released on leading jihadi forums.
Following is a summary of the message:
Al-Baghdadi begins his message by announcing the coming of glad tidings to the Muslim ummah. In the following ten minutes, Al-Baghdadi speaks about the ever-changing nature of jihadi groups, and in particular about the fact that jihadi groups go through phases of maturity that demand a change in their name in order to meet the reality-dictated necessities. Al-Baghdadi provides the ISI and its previous incarnations as an example of such evolution. ISI, Al-Baghdadi says, went through phases where it was initially called Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, then Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, then Majlis Shura Al-Mujahideen, and finally its current name, the Islamic State of Iraq. Al-Baghdadi says that such a change is normal, and...
