In his first statement in 10 months, the Islamic State\u2019s spokesman on Sunday called for violence against neighboring Arab nations, suggesting that the group\u2019s focus was turning closer to home.<\/p>\n
The remarks were a departure from the last pronouncement issued by the spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, which aimed to incite attacks against Europe and North America. It comes as the group is retrenching in its core territory after losing all but 3 percent of the area it once held in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n
In a nearly hourlong audio recording, released inside the group\u2019s chat rooms in the messaging app Telegram, the spokesman called on fighters to redirect their ire toward the leaders of Arab nations in the region, whom he described as \u201capostates,\u201d a term the group uses to refer to fellow Sunnis who have strayed from its extreme interpretation of the faith.<\/p>\n
The spokesman said there was \u201cno difference\u201d between fighting the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and the Palestinians \u201cand their American Crusader allies, or the Russians or the Europeans.\u201d He argued that they deserved to be treated even more harshly because \u201cthese are Arabs and are more fierce and vicious against Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the spokesman\u2019s last speech, released in June of 2017, he recalled famous battles from early Islamic history in which Muslims prevailed despite being outnumbered, and called for lone-wolf-style attacks in Europe, including in Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The June recording echoed a much-quoted speech by the group\u2019s original spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, that was released in 2014 \u2014 the year ISIS pivoted from a regional threat to a global one. The 2014 speech was routinely quoted by attackers across the world as justification for their acts of violence, including in video wills left by the suicide bombers who blew themselves up at a stadium and concert hall in Paris in 2015.<\/p>\n
Now, it appears that the group\u2019s canvas has shrunk and it is returning to its roots as a regional insurgency.<\/p>\n
Hassan Hassan, a resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said the speech was in line with the group\u2019s recent evolution. It \u201caligns perfectly with ISIS\u2019s recent moves, of going ever more internal,\u201d he said in a\u00a0series of Tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n