Islamic State Celebrates An Operative Who Tried to Disrupt the Battle of Mosul
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In the 352nd edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s (IS) weekly newsletter, released on 18 August, there was a biography of Abu al-Zubayr al-Askari, a heretofore unknown jihadist, whose real name we still do not know. Abu al-Zubayr’s life touches on some important parts of the story in IS’s development, beginning with his birth—between mid-1995 and mid-1996—and his upbringing in a jihadist milieu, showing some of the changes that overcame Iraq in the last years of the old regime. Some parts of Abu al-Zubayr’s biography are template narratives IS uses—his purity of belief leading to a determination to be a suicide bomber and his military comrades beseeching him not to because they need his skills in battle; the extraordinary, borderline fantastical, acts of personal bravery—but the details about the diversionary raids he led during the battle for Mosul (
Islamic State Celebrates An Operative Who Tried to Disrupt the Battle of Mosul
Islamic State Celebrates An Operative Who…
Islamic State Celebrates An Operative Who Tried to Disrupt the Battle of Mosul
In the 352nd edition of Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s (IS) weekly newsletter, released on 18 August, there was a biography of Abu al-Zubayr al-Askari, a heretofore unknown jihadist, whose real name we still do not know. Abu al-Zubayr’s life touches on some important parts of the story in IS’s development, beginning with his birth—between mid-1995 and mid-1996—and his upbringing in a jihadist milieu, showing some of the changes that overcame Iraq in the last years of the old regime. Some parts of Abu al-Zubayr’s biography are template narratives IS uses—his purity of belief leading to a determination to be a suicide bomber and his military comrades beseeching him not to because they need his skills in battle; the extraordinary, borderline fantastical, acts of personal bravery—but the details about the diversionary raids he led during the battle for Mosul (