Over the course of the war in Syria, a number of media activists on the ground have emerged to cover the events. One such activist is 'Mahmoud al-Hamawi,' who originates from the town of al-Latamina in north Hama countryside. He is currently displaced in the insurgent-held areas of northern Syria. Follow his current Youtube channel here and his current Twitter account here. Below is an interview I recently conducted with him.

Q: Could you speak in summary about your life before the Syrian revolution?And what was your role in al-Latamina?

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While the Islamic State's 'Central Africa Province' has primarily been associated with operations in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the group's operations have expanded eastward from the DRC into Uganda, which in fact is the ultimate origin of the Islamic State-affiliated insurgency in the DRC, as the insurgency grew out of the majority faction within the so-called 'Allied Democratic Forces' that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. To all African governments: I advise you for the sake of clarity to stop calling Islamic State insurgencies by the names of the groups in which they originated.

Below are today's suicide bombing claims by the Islamic State, translated by me:

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Overnight there were reports of an attempt to assassinate Iraq's prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi via a drone strike. The capabilities displayed in this attack seem to suggest that it was unlikely the Islamic State was involved. Given Kadhimi's tensions with some of the pro-Iranian factions, there are suspicions that one of them could be behind the attack. That said, figures from the main pro-Iranian factions with political influence have largely condemned the attack so far, as has Iran. A somewhat different tone is struck by 'Abu Ali al-Askary,' who is reportedly a leading official in Kata'ib Hezbollah. It is certainly possible that one of the newer brands of pro-Iranian armed groups that claim attacks on U.S. forces in the country and have murky relations with the 'mainstream' factions and Iran are behind the assassination attempt. It seems unlikely though that any group will claim the attack.

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While the Islamic State's affiliate in 'Khorasan Province' (primarily based in Afghanistan but also encompassing some border areas with Pakistan at least, if not the entirety of Pakistan now, as I note the last operation claimed in the name of 'Pakistan Province' was in August) did not capitalise on the collapse of the previous Afghan government to seize large amounts of territory, the group has proven to be a security problem for the country's new Taliban government. This week's issue of the Islamic State's al-Naba newsletter features an infographic on a month of operations in 'Khorasan Province' (October-November 2021). Below is the infographic translated.

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The Islamic State's affiliate in Yemen is one of the group's least successful enterprises around the world. Even so, there has been the occasional report of a foreigner in the Yemen affiliate's ranks. It would seem though that to the extent that there are foreigners in the group's ranks, they are primarily drawn from foreign refugees in Yemen (e.g. the Somali refugee community) or other foreigners with Yemeni roots. The latter is the case for one 'Abu Rayana al-Britani,' a 'martyred' military commander of the Islamic State's Yemen affiliate profiled in this week's issue of the group's newsletter al-Naba'. Abu Rayana, as it turns out, was born in Britain to a family with roots in Dhali' governorate in south Yemen. Early in his life, he was involved in the gangs and had criminal convictions. However, he felt anger at the 'Crusaders' for the invasion of Islam and eventually became religious, travelling to Dammaj (which was a centre of Salafism in northern Yemen) and studying Arabic and Shari'i sciences.

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