Watch Floor Brief · ISIS
ISIS spokesman Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari was apparently hiding in a mud-brick house in Yemen. That should get our attention.
The U.S. government is increasingly focused on the ISIS threat in Africa. But ISIS is not only an Africa problem.
I have been saying for some time that Afghanistan and Syria have become dangerous blind spots. Now, the reported death of ISIS’s global spokesman in Seiyun, Yemen, gives us another reason to look at the entire map.
Yemeni counterterrorism forces, backed by Saudi-led coalition special forces, raided the house in the early morning hours. The operation was intended to capture al-Ansari alive.
But this is the part I am watching: they came out of that house with two laptops, five phones and two tablets. They also captured another man who was with him. Killing the spokesman is a blow to ISIS. Finding out who he was talking to may be far more interesting.
Why was ISIS’s global spokesman in Hadramout? How long had he been there? And what do those devices tell us about the connections between ISIS leadership, its branches and, most importantly, other terrorist groups?
Sometimes the most important part of a raid is not who did not make it out. It is what did.
Africa matters. So do Afghanistan, Syria and now this house in Yemen. ISIS does not organize itself around Washington’s political priorities. This is another reminder of that.