Red Cell: Terrorist Attack. Social Sciences Essay

Red Cell: Terrorist Attack
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Introduction
When someone mentions the Islamic State (IS) terrorists, then what comes to mind is the Middle East, where the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) exist. You are not mistaken to think that because it is a terrorist group, it follows the doctrines of the Salafi Jihadist, a fundamentalist of the Sunni Islam CITATION AlI14 \l 2057 (Al-Ibrahim,, 2014). In early 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or ISIS, dominated the news headlines globally after driving the Iraqi forces working for the government out of key cities, like when they captured Mosul and after conducting the Sinjar massacre CITATION AlS14 \l 2057 (Al-Salhy, Suadad, Arango, & Tim, 2014). While the news of the capture of Mosul was growing, the group’s firm grip of the Saharan Africa was equally quietly growing, but not after it had a merger with Boko Haram. Over the years later, other IS affiliates started growing started coming out especially in African countries like the West Africa there is a group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) or the ISIS West Africa, another one called the Islamic state in Somali (ISS) which are located in the northern Somali stretching to Puntland, and the third one just close by is known as the Islamic State in Somali, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (ISISSKTU) which is raising a lot of concern.
Terrorist Group Profile
ISIS in Greater Sahara (ISGS)
This began with a merger of two other jihadi groups, the movement for oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and the Masked Men Brigade, from which emerged another group called al-Mourabitoun. With the leader being Mokhtar Belmokhtar also known as the one-eyed commander CITATION WAR17 \l 2057 (WARNER, 2017). This group operates in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The first thing a group like this does is to carry on attacks in the countries allied to the United States. In February 2017, the group ambushed a convoy of the Nigerien army close to the Mali border, near a place called Tirzawane village. They seized vehicles, ammunitions and arms from the convoy and went ahead to kill 16 soldiers and civilians and wounded 18CITATION Men18 \l 2057 (Cooper, Thomas, & Gibbons-Neff, 2018). In October 2017, the group carried on an attack at the Sahel region where they ambushed a joint US – Nigerian force which led to the death of 4 green berets and many soldiers from Niger CITATION Jou18 \l 2057 (Journalist of Menastream, 2018). The second way, hypothetically, will be to recruit members who will disguise themselves as those who come to the US to seek asylum or further their education. Since this group has money, funding education in the US is nothing to them. Once they are there, they can rent apartments and make them a place where they create bombs. Since this kind of people are deluded to carryout suicide attacks, and when they are in the country, they can access most public places, that way, they carry bombs with them (sometimes tied around their waist or chests).
Terrorist Group Profile
ISGS is affiliated to the ISIS, therefore they draw their strategies and ideologies from the IS, even their way of carrying out attacks are the same. This group pledges their loyalty to the IS and is determined to participate in achieving the IS’s objective which is restoring the Islamic caliphate. ISGS was branched from an affiliated group from Al Qaeda which is allied to the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). There was a video on the Internet where the founder of ISGS declares their allegiance to the IS with the founder of the group Sahrawi, also known as Baghdadi gave assurance of the status of the caliph CITATION Wei16 \l 2057 (Weiss, Thomas, & Joscelyn, 2016). This happened even after the former spokesperson of the MUJAO and the Emir of Al Mourabitoun had pledged allegiance to the IS, which was in May 2015. Later, the US government in May 2018 designated Sahrawi as a global terrorist. In 2015, there were deaths of the prominent leaders of Al Mourabitoun, this even emboldens the leadership of Abu Walid al Sahrawi, who became the emir of Al Mourabitoun CITATION Nos16 \l 2057 (Nossiter, 2016). The founder and the leader of AQIM Mokhtar Belmokhtar together with his friends had a swipe at the leadership of Sahrawi citing it as illegitimate since they believed that he wasn’t experienced and didn’t have enough familiarity of the Jihadi strategy and the ideology of the AQIM. This brought a lot of tensions from within which made Sahrawi be aligned more with the ideology of the IS, and contradicted any effort to reconcile Belmokhtar with AQIM CITATION Lya16 \l 2057 (Lyammouri, 2016).
Obtaining Funds and Capability
These terrorist groups operate at the Sahel region, and this region has become a highway of late, this has been a way for the south American drug supply to Europe, and human trafficking happens through this route as well. The terrorist group benefit from these kinds of trades and are gett...