The pro-al-Qaeda media group al-Hijrah is propagating a “dead or alive” wanted notice online targeting U.S. President Donald Trump for “crimes against Islam.”
Al-Qaeda accuses President Trump of “treason, murder, injustice, kidnapping, massacre, extremism, negligence, hate,” says the notice according to Newsweek, which cites the monitoring site Jihadoscope.
Al-Hijrah released the notice on Tuesday, the same day that the U.K.-based Research Policy think-tank warned that al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups are winning the ongoing “netwar” against authorities struggling to prevent the dissemination of extremist propaganda online.
Tuesday’s al-Qaeda message for President Trump also blasts the American commander-in-chief’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda is still operating with the help of its ally the Taliban despite ongoing U.S. efforts to annihilate both groups.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on the American homeland carried out by al-Qaeda with the assistance of the Taliban.
“It is clear that Trump is waging this war only for his hatred of Muslims,” reportedly says the message. “You will never be victorious, you will be defeated.”
Echoing the Taliban, the message stresses that Afghanistan will become a “graveyard” for U.S. troops.
According to the Research Policy report, jihadi-affiliated content online is accessed more frequently in Turkey, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Kingdom, respectively.
“At present, we are certainly not winning the war online,” declared the British think-tank, later adding, “As a society, we are struggling to grasp the extent of the challenge and also appropriate ways of responding. It is clear that the status quo is not working. It is time for a new approach.”
Under former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, the American government admitted that it was losing the online propaganda war against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), one of the most active jihadist groups in cyberspace.
“The al-Qaeda-ISIS jihadist movement has survived and spread around the world by dint of its adaptability, malleability, and capability to exploit local dynamics,” notes American Gen. David Petraeus in a foreword to the Policy Exchange report, later adding:
They are also exploiting the vast, largely ungoverned spaces in cyberspace, demonstrating increasing technical expertise, sophistication in media production, and agility in the face of various efforts to limit its access. The threat posed by jihadist extremism online has, in fact, metastasized in recent years.
The former director of the CIA, who also served as the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, dismissed international efforts to combat jihadi propaganda on the web as “inadequate.”
Newsweek reports that al-Qaeda has intensified its online propaganda efforts.
“Al-Qaeda has had a resurgence online in recent months, using the heir of the group’s late leader Osama bin Laden—his son Hamza—as a propaganda pawn whose family lineage boosts its image,” notes the news outlet.
Research Policy points out that al-Qaeda’s “jihadist cloud” has “allowed it to remain resilient within ‘its virtual spaces and niches on the Internet’, irrespective of physical setbacks.”
In August, the pro-al-Qaeda al-Hijrah media group published a poster featuring Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, a U.S. ally, as “wanted dead or alive.”