Homeland Security News

One of Usama bin Laden’s sons urged Muslims to attack Jewish and Western interests and suggested creating a mega-army to attack Jerusalem, in a video released Monday.

In the video, which was created between January and February 2016 and distributed by Al Qaeda supporters, Hamza bin Laden praises the escalating violence by Palestinians against Israelis and calls on Muslims to continue “killing the Jews and attacking their interests everywhere," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor.

Bin Laden adds that those who support Jews, such as the U.S. and Europe, "must pay the bill in their blood.” He also suggests launching a massive Syrian-based army in order to "defend" Jerusalem from the Jewish people, as he put it.

Read more: Fox News

Gunmen injured six Russian policemen during a night attack on a checkpoint on the outskirts of the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said on Thursday.  Chechen rebels and Russian forces have fought two wars in the southern Russian republic since 1994. 

Read more: Reuters

The elusive leader of Al Qaeda released over the weekend his first audio message to followers in several months, calling on jihadists fighting in Syria's civil war to come together.   CBS News' Khaled Wassef reports Ayman al-Zawahiri said rebels should join with the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's representative in the five-year-old conflict and one of the two most powerful groups fighting Syrian government forces outside of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS.)  Al Nusra and ISIS were once joined, but split in 2013 amidst a power struggle.

Zawahiri said there are numerous forces jihadists must fight in Syria, from Russia to the Assad regime to Shiites.  We have to want the unity of the Mujahideen in Sham (Syria) so it will be liberated from the Russians and Western crusaders. My brothers ... the matter of unity is a matter of life or death for you," Zawahri said, according to Reuters.

Read more: CBS News

For nearly two years, U.S. airstrikes, military advisers and weapons shipments have helped Iraqi forces roll back the Islamic State group. The U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 5,000 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq at a total cost of $7 billion since August 2014, including operations in Syria. On Tuesday a U.S. Navy SEAL was the third serviceman to die fighting IS in Iraq.  But many Iraqis still aren't convinced the Americans are on their side.

Government-allied Shiite militiamen on the front-lines post videos of U.S. supplies purportedly seized from IS militants or found in areas liberated from the extremist group. Newspapers and TV networks repeat conspiracy theories that the U.S. created the jihadi group to sow chaos in the region in order to seize its oil.

Read more: Stars and Stripes

Boko Haram appears to be reverting to using cash loans to recruit members as it struggles to maintain its numbers in the face of the continuing crackdown by Nigerian government forces.  Witnesses have told the Guardian that Boko Haram is trying to get poor traders to spy on their communities and provide information on military movements in return for cash.  

Read more: The Guardian