Al-Qaeda Announces Re-Launch Of English-Language Inspire Magazine; Promotional Video Features Terrorist Attacks On New York City’s Time Square And Subway System

From Memri

On December 26, 2023, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, released a trailer previewing a soon-to-be-released video titled, “What America & The West Do Not Expect.”[1] The one-and-a-half-minute trailer, produced by AQAP’s media arm, Al-Malahem Media, heralded the re-launch of the group’s English-language Inspire magazine. The promotional trailer depicted scenes of terrorist attacks in New York City, including suicide attacks on the city’s subway system and in Times Square, as well as plane hijackings.

The trailer opens by displaying Quran 4:84,[2] which reads in part: “And fight in the way of Allah, you are not held responsible except for yourself […] And inspire the believers.”

The video’s opening scenes juxtapose footage of Muslim pilgrims circling the Ka’aba in Mecca with dramatized images of an Israeli airstrike targeting Gazan children. An English-speaking narrator states: “Because we are one ummah and one body, our happiness is one and our sorrows are one.”

The trailer announces the re-launch of AQAP’s Inspire Magazine, which aimed to incite jihadi attacks in the West before ceasing publication in August 2017. “We have returned to you again in a new form, and we present to you Open Source Jihad,” the video’s narrator declares, suggesting that AQAP has re-invented the Inspire brand to include media other than a print format.

The trailer also threatens terrorist attacks on New York City. It depicts lone wolf operatives entering the city’s subway system, for example, and shows an explosion within an aircraft – suggesting a hijacking – as well as scenes of New York’s crowded Times Square. Also suicide bombers wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh

“We will be with you wherever you may be,” the narrator says in conclusion: “We will overcome obstacles together, step by step, in order to reach our goal and the correct equation.”