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| Abu
Adam (a.k.a. Mounir Chouka), a German citizen who fights with the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Photo from the SITE Intelligence Group. |
A German citizen who serves as a leader in the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan and is linked to al Qaeda has urged jihadists to conduct
attacks in Germany.
Mounir Chouka, who is also known as Abu Adam al Almani ("the
German"), said that "jihad in Germany is only a matter of time," in a
video released on jihadist web forums on Feb. 9 by Jundallah Studio, the
propaganda arm of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The video, which
supposedly was created on Dec. 13, 2011 in Waziristan, was translated by
the SITE Intelligence Group.
In the video, Mounir claimed that Germany has publicly criticized the
US while secretly supporting rendition of al Qaeda operatives to
foreign governments for interrogations and "torture."
"It is in the interest of the Americans to have the German media
display them as the big criminal, because the Germans can continue their
secret work," he claimed.
Mounir claimed that the German government was deceiving its citizens
on the scale of Nazi Germany's extermination of the Jews in World War
II.
"After the fall of Hitler's regime, many, or rather, most of the
German people, were shocked how that [the Holocaust] could happen in
such a short period of time. It is a shock that is still visible until
this day, and it is shown in the memorials erected for the Jews in every
large city," he said.
He also accused the Germans of working with the Uzbek government to interrogate the "mujahideen."
"As the German mujahideen, along with their Uzbek brothers here in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, raise high the flag of jihad, the Germans
cooperate with the tyrannical dictators like Karimov in Uzbekistan and
sit together at a table, and the German secret service interrogate the
mujahideen of the IMU in Uzbek prisons and forget about human rights
under the tyranny," he said.
Mounir then accused the Germans of aiding the US to kill Germans in
drone strikes, and said the German Army is in Afghanistan to kill
Muslims. He cited the Sept. 2008 airstrike in Kunduz that
killed scores of Taliban fighters and civilians.
"Let me ask you something else: what would you do if someone followed
the example of the military attack in Kunduz on 14 September 2008, and
came to German soil and killed dozens of people? What would you do?!
For us, Islam doesn't allow that. The question of jihad in Germany is
only a matter of time."
He said that "the target is the German politicians and the executives
who work for the Jews in the background. Allah willing, there must
also be a series of attacks against the people also, because attacks in
Germany are a type of revenge and reaction."
Mounir is not the first German citizen to use jihadist media outlets
to issue propaganda threatening to carry out attacks in Germany. In
2009, Bekkay Harrach, who was also known as Al Hafidh Abu Talha al
Almani,
warned that Germany would suffer an attack
if Chancellor Angela Merkel was reelected. Harrach worked with both al
Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan along the Afghan-Pakistani
border before he was killed while leading an assault on Bagram Air Base
in 2010.
The Choukas, brothers in jihad
Mounir and his brother Yassin, also known as Abu Ibrahim, were added late last month
to the US's list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists
for serving as "fighters, recruiters, facilitators and propagandists
for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan," which in itself is on the list
of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The two brothers "carry out operations as members of the IMU along
the Afghanistan-Pakistan border" and "are also senior members of
Jundallah Media, the IMU's media production arm."
As senior leaders in Jundallah Media, the Chouka brothers have
released numerous propaganda and martyrdom statements. According to
State, Monir said the IMU was behind the deadly
Oct. 29, 2011 suicide attack
that targeted an armored bus in Kabul. Five Americans, a Canadian,
eight ISAF civilian employees, three Afghan civilians, and a policeman
were killed in the attack.
Mounir also said that the IMU was involved
in the May 19, 2010 suicide assault on Bagram Air Base. One US soldier was killed in the attack.
According to the IMU propaganda tape,
the Bagram assault was launched "in coordination and cooperation with
other jihadi groups," and the assault team included "Turks, Tajiks,
Arabs, Pashtuns, and Afghans." Bekkay Harrach
is thought to have been killed while
leading the assault on Bagram. Harrach led a team of 20 fighters made
up from the ranks of al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, according to a previous statement released by
the IMU. The various terrorist groups carry out military operations in
Afghanistan and Pakistan under the aegis of the Lashkar al Zil, or the
Shadow Army [for more information, see
LWJ report,
Al Qaeda's paramilitary 'Shadow Army'].
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| Abu Ibrahim al Almani, from an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan propaganda tape. |
Yassin, Mounir's brother, has also released propaganda for the IMU. In February 2011, Yassin published a report
that described his travels from Europe to Pakistan,
which included a stop in Yemen and several meetings with Anwar al
Awlaki, the wanted American-born terrorist who served as a senior
ideologue and operational commander for al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula before he was killed in a Predator strike.
In June 2011, Yassin
announced the death of "Abdullah from Essen,"
a German citizen from Afghanistan who was known as Miqdad. The German
was killed while fighting US forces in northern Afghanistan, according
to Yassin.
One of the brothers was rumored to have been wounded in a US drone
strike. In August 2011, the Victorious Sect, a terror group with ties to
the IMU, issued a statement indicating that Mounir
may have been wounded in a US Predator airstrike along the Afghan-Pakistani border. The report was never confirmed.
Washington Time
Kabul Time
London Time
