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| Boko Haram emir Abubakar Shekau, from a propaganda tape. |
The emir of Boko Haram, the Nigerian terror group that has ties to al
Qaeda, has praised the global jihadist organization, and said he and
his fighters support jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Chechnya,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Algeria, Libya, and Mali.
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, lauds and supports al
Qaeda and its affiliates in a videotape that was released yesterday on
jihadist forums. Shekau's speech, which was obtained and translated by
the SITE Intelligence Group, was issued in Arabic, which is an
indication that he is seeking to appeal to both the wider jihadist
community and al Qaeda's leaders. The 39-minute-long videotape includes
numerous clips of Boko Haram fighters in training, as well as video of
weapons seized by the group during raids.
Shekau repeatedly refers to the fighters in the jihadist theaters as
his "brothers." He directly addresses "the soldiers of the Islamic State
in Mali ... our brothers and sheikhs in beloved Somalia ... our
brothers and sheikhs in Libya ... our brothers and sheikhs in oppressed
Afghanistan ... our brothers and sheikhs in wounded Iraq ... our
brothers and sheikhs in Pakistan ... our brothers and sheikhs in blessed
Yemen ... our brothers and sheikhs in usurped Palestine, and other
places where our brothers are doing jihad in the Cause of Allah."
Shekau warns "Britain, America, Israel, and Nigeria" that the killing
of jihadist leaders and imams will not defeat the groups. He also
refers to some of al Qaeda's top leaders who were killed over the past
two decades, and notes that "jihad" did not end with their deaths.
"Don't think that jihad stops with the death of imams, because imams
are individuals," Shekau says.
"Don't you see and think how many sheikhs
and men were martyred, like Sheikh Abdullah Azzam [the co-founder of al
Qaeda], Abu Musab al Zarqawi [the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq], Abu Omar
al Baghdadi [the emir of al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq], Osama bin
Laden, Abu Yahya al Libi [a top al Qaeda leader], Abu Yusuf Muhammad bin
Yusuf al Nigiri [the former emir of Boko Haram], and others ...."
Shekau says that Boko Haram is "with our mujahideen brothers" in the
major theaters of jihad in their fight against "the Jews and the
Crusader Christians."
"We are with our mujahideen brothers in the Cause of Allah
everywhere, in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan, Kashmir, Iraq, the
Peninsula of Muhammad [Saudi Arabia], Allah's peace and prayer be upon
him, Yemen, Somalia, Algeria, and other places that I didn't mention,"
Shakau says.
Shekau's videotape is very similar to tapes issued by Shabaab in
2008, when the Somali terror group was making overtures to openly join
al Qaeda.
Shabaab officially joined al Qaeda in February 2012,
but the two groups had already worked closely for years, and al Qaeda
leaders served in Shabaab's top leadership circles prior to the merger.
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