Formation of new extremist group strengthens Al Qaeda faction, according to terror report

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) released the April terror threat snapshot, which found that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had merged with Al-Mourabitoun and Ansar Dine to form a new extremist group called Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.

The committee said the group’s merger provided them with increased coordination and bandwidth in the Mali region. In what was described as the group’s first assault, 11 Malian soldiers were killed in an attack on a military camp in Boulikessi on March 5.

The report’s release also coincided with the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian civil war and the one year anniversary of the deadly ISIS-inspired attacks in Brussels.

“One year after the heinous attack in Brussels, ISIS continues to leverage the power of lone-wolfs targeting the West—most recently at the heart of the British government,” McCaul said. “We must remain clear-eyed about the threats we face. Islamist terror has been franchised to followers not only in strongholds like Iraq and Syria, but in all corners of the world, and they are using everything from sophisticated explosives to their own vehicles to kill innocent people.”

McCaul called for intensifying the nation’s efforts to deny terrorists safe havens abroad, while more aggressively countering jihadist radicalization efforts in the United States.

The snapshot also detailed an attack led by the ISIS Khorasan group on an Afghani military hospital, which killed at least 50 people including both hospital staff and patients.

The committee releases monthly terror threat snapshots to highlight the growing threat America and its allies face from extremist groups around the world.