By Patrick Poole. The Islamic State has released a new 11-minute video called “We Will Burn America” that calls for supporters to attack the American homeland and promises another 9/11.

[Editor’s note: without explanation, the video posting site “SendVid” has taken the Islamic States’ video down, likely due to its gruesome content]

(Read more from “Watch: New Islamic State Video Calls for Attacks on the American Homeland, Promises Another 9/11” HERE)

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Islamic State Group Destroys Ancient Ruins of Nimrud

By Sinan Salaheddin. Islamic State militants hammered, bulldozed and ultimately blew up parts of the ancient Iraqi Assyrian city of Nimrud, destroying a site dating back to the 13th century B.C., an online militant video purportedly shows.

The destruction at Nimrud, located near the militant-held city of Mosul, came amid other attacks on antiquity carried out by the group now holding a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. The attacks have horrified archaeologists and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who last month called the destruction at Nimrud “a war crime.”

The seven-minute video, posted late Saturday, shows bearded militants using sledgehammers, jackhammers and saws to take down huge alabaster reliefs depicting Assyrian kings and deities. A bulldozer brings down walls, while militants fill barrels with explosives and later destroy three separate areas of the site in massive explosions.

“God has honored us in the Islamic State to remove all of these idols and statutes worshipped instead of Allah in the past days,” one militant says in the video. Another militant vows that “whenever we seize a piece of land, we will remove signs of idolatry and spread monotheism.”

The militants have been destroying ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violate their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law, including the ancient Iraqi city of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Authorities also believe they’ve sold others on the black market to fund their atrocities. (Read more from this story HERE)

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By Joanna Paraszczuk. A Chechen militant who says he is fighting alongside the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has posted a heartfelt open letter to his mother, confessing that he misses her when he is alone at night but hoping that he will make her proud when he becomes a “martyr” and dies in battle.

Abu Abdullah Shishani (“The Chechen”) shared the letter on his VKontakte account on March 15.

“Mama, I know you are crying — it hurts that you lost me…And I also feel longing at night when I am alone… remembering you,” Abu Abdullah writes.

Abu Abdullah’s letter is part of a trend that has developed among Russian-speaking, usually North Caucasus militants from various factions in Syria, who use social media to post their own writings — poems, open letters, diary entries, accounts of dreams — that tell of their experiences. These militants, including Abu Abdullah, usually express their thoughts, memories, and opinions using the language and ideology of militant jihad.

While their accounts are intended to be shared among others in order to move and motivate them, unlike the “official” polished and glossy propaganda material published by IS’s Al-Hayat media wing, they appear to be written for consumption within the smaller Russian-speaking “jihad” community and do not have messages for a Western audience. (Read more from “‘Dear Mom, Don’t Cry,’ Chechen IS Militant Writes, ‘I’m Waging Jihad'” HERE)

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Islamic State’s Propaganda Magazine Justifies Use of Child Executioners

By Joanna Paraszczuk. The latest edition of Dabiq, the full-color, glossy propaganda magazine published by Islamic State (IS) militants, praises two children who have carried out execution-style killings for the militant group.

The eighth issue of Dabiq magazine, whose cover has the headline Sharia Alone Will Rule Africa, was shared on social media on March 30.

An article titled The Lions Of Tomorrow features photographs of the two child militants, both of whom are shown in videos apparently shooting captives that IS had accused of being foreign agents.

One of the children, who was shown apparently shooting dead two men accused of being Russian spies in a video released in January, looks very similar to a young Kazakh boy who appeared in an earlier video showing a group of ethnic Kazakh children undergoing military and ideological instruction.

The second child is shown in a video released earlier this month, where he appears to shoot dead a Palestinian man whom IS had accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad. (Read more from ” Islamic State’s Propaganda Magazine Justifies Use of Child Executioners” HERE)

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