BEYOND SYRIA IRAQ

AYMENN AL TAMIMI
Bahrain)—one cannot seriously speak of any real territorial control, and it is
doubtful the original motivation behind accepting allegiance pledges to form
these provinces could be seen as achieving territorial control and implementing
governance. Rather, the Algeria province primarily seems to have symbolic
value as a renowned historic arena of jihad, besides presenting a chance
to poach affiliates of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Only very
sporadic reports emerge of IS activity in Algeria, mostly relating to attacks on
the Algerian army. The importance of Bilad al-Haramayn, of course, lies in
its being home to the two holiest sites in Islam at Mecca and Medina. While
IS has carried out a number of attacks in Saudi Arabia and expanded the
scope of operations into Kuwait, claiming a suicide bombing there targeting
Shiites, this points only to the existence of terrorist cells, not territorial control
or governance.
A more developed case, though not approaching a meaningful level of
governance comparable to Iraq and Syria, is that of IS Sinai, which evolved
from the pledge of allegiance of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of the
Holy House). The Sinai affiliate has been able to conduct a number of hardhitting
attacks targeting the Egyptian security forces, and it placed the bomb
that downed a Russian airliner taking off from the Sharm al-Sheikh resort.
The Sinai affiliate controls no major strongholds or significant contiguous
territory in the peninsula, however. Documentary evidence mainly points to
its distributing statements to the local population, such as warnings against
cooperation with the Sisi regime or such-and-such individual on the grounds
that he works with the regime, rather than administrative documents such
as one sees from Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the Sinai media wing mostly
advertises military operations and executions of spies, only occasionally featuring
governance in what might be deemed proto-hisba activity, with the
Hisba Department and Islamic police confiscating and destroying illicit
goods like cigarettes and drugs. A more recent photo series also featured a
medical clinic, but the exact location was not given, and it seems probable it
is a facility set up to provide treatment for the Sinai affiliate’s own fighters.
The situation in Yemen arguably provided an ideal environment for the
growth of IS, with the chaotic conditions of a civil war and Sunni-Shiite
sectarian tensions culminating in the takeover of the capital, Sana, by the
Zaidi Shiite Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement, which is supported by Iran.
In addition, one could read an October 2014 statement by al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as sympathetic to IS in its denunciation of the
idea that the latter was a movement of khawarij (Kharijites, referring to a sect
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