Recently, a statement circulated on social media in the name of a purported group calling itself ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis’ (‘Soldiers of Jerusalem’). The group supposedly constitutes a new al-Qaeda affiliate. But is there anything to this story?
As can be seen from the purported statement above, ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis’ dates its announcement to 22 February, several days prior to the beginning of the American and Israeli military campaign against Iran. The statement asserts that ‘in response to the recent Zio-Crusader campaign led by the criminal Trump and the child-killer Netanyahu against the Islamic Ummah, in order to extinguish what remains of the ember of dignity in it and seize its resources and go to great lengths to humiliate it, ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis Group’ pledges allegiance to the ‘Qaedat al-Jihad Organisation’ [al-Qaeda] which raised the call for general mobilisation in the face of this evil invasion, arrogant enemy and oppressive massing [of forces].’ With a typical bombastic jihadist tone, the statement continues: ‘We will set alight the land and sea from under their feet…and by God’s permission bring them the torment from where they don’t know.’ The statement concludes with an address to the ‘soldiers of Iraq and al-Sham and the sons of the Ummah,’ urging them to seize the chance for victory or martyrdom.|
Deeming the statement to be a fabrication, Syrian journalist and analyst Hussam Hammoud asserted that ‘Al-Qaeda has not declared a general mobilization in response to what is being described as the American–Israeli war against Islam and Muslims.
Nothing yet definitively proves or disproves the actual existence of the group.
There has been no official statement from the organization announcing such a call to arms.’
However, Hammoud’s statement is incorrect here. al-Qaeda’s General Command (which is likely headed by Sayf al-Adel, who may be based in Iran and if so is likely restricted in his movements by the Iranian government) did in fact issue a mobilisation call for jihad recently (see below). In a statement dated to January 2026 and entitled ‘So consider, oh people of insight,’ the group warned that the ‘contemporary Zio-Crusader campaign…is mobilising again to complete its Crusader project it inaugurated at the beginning of the century.’ This campaign ‘has come to occupy the entire region, and not to wage war on a specific state.’ As such, the ‘Shari‘i stance’ to take is ‘to wage jihad against it, fight it and target it before their feet tread on the land of Islam.’ For whereas the campaign targeted Afghanistan yesterday and Gaza today, ‘tomorrow [it will target] Afghanistan again, as well as Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the rest of the Muslims’ land, just as the Jewish criminal Netanyahu said.’
The statement then gives the example of Trump’s demands for the Taliban to hand back Bagram airbase in Afghanistan last September, only to be rebuffed by the Taliban, and supposedly for this reason Trump has sent ‘these masses of Crusader forces to our Islamic world in order to wage war on it and besiege it.’ Citing also the example of how Trump deposed Venezuela’s president, the statement suggested that if those ruling the Muslim world had an ounce of rationality, they would allow ‘the people of Islam and its noble youth’ to defend Islam and Muslims and ‘target the Crusaders and their interests in every place.’ And so, ‘we for our part urge our Islamic Ummah in general and the youth of Islam in particular to mobilise to wage jihad in God’s path, and target these Crusader masses in the entire region.’
The statement issued in the name of the purported ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis’ group is not necessarily inconsistent with the al-Qaeda call for mobilisation.
As such then, the statement issued in the name of the purported ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis’ group is not necessarily inconsistent with the al-Qaeda call for mobilisation. The al-Qaeda leadership’s call for mobilisation itself was likely tied to the U.S. military build-up in the Middle East prior to the military campaign against Iran. Some have interpreted the positioning of al-Qaeda’s General Command as evidence that the group’s central leadership is acting as some kind of proxy for Iran. But one may also argue that if the central leadership is based in Iran, they would have reason to fear that a joint American-Israeli campaign against Iran’s government might also target them with airstrikes and assassination attempts. After all, in 2020, Israeli agents operating in Iran took out senior al-Qaeda official Abu Muhammad al-Masri, reportedly doing so at the request of the Americans.
Leaving aside the scenario of demise through airstrikes or assassination, if the American-Israeli campaign against Iran were to succeed in bringing down the Islamic Republic and installing a pro-Western government or at least one more conciliatory towards the U.S., then that new government would most likely seek to hand over any al-Qaeda leaders located in the country.
Some al-Qaeda supporters appear divided as to the actual legitimacy of the purported new group.
More generally, from the perspective of al-Qaeda’s central leadership, the American-Israeli campaign is likely seen as the greater evil in that it threatens to cement U.S. and Israeli hegemony over the entire region, whereas Iran’s own wider regional influence has been diminished, most notably with the fall of the Assad regime. This fear of American and Israeli hegemony over the entire region and its consequences becomes apparent in the statement’s reference to America’s eye being on Khorasan [the Afghanistan area] and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate: that is, after complete hegemony is cemented over the Middle East region, the Americans will next come after Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where members of al-Qaeda’s central leadership may also be based.
al-Qaeda’s main jihadist rival- the Islamic State, which considers Shiism and its manifestations to be a greater danger to Islam than ‘original disbelievers’ like the Jews and Christians- has seized upon the General Command statement to argue that al-Qaeda’s leadership has become a tool of Iran, arguing in a recent editorial in its al-Naba’ newsletter that the statement reads ‘as though it were issued by one of the branches of the ‘resistance axis.’’ Asking why al-Qaeda’s leadership did not similarly call for such mobilisation during the ‘Crusader campaign’ against the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the editorial characterises the statement as ‘Iranian allurement and theorisation of the jihadists’ and a collection of ‘methodological catastrophes,’ even as it does not seek to argue that al-Qaeda’s central leadership has somehow become Shiite.
Islamic State editorial criticising the al-Qaeda statement.
The upshot of this discussion is that it is plausible that some al-Qaeda supporters might seek to attack U.S. forces in the region at this time. However, on social media, al-Qaeda supporters appear to be divided as to the actual legitimacy of the purported new group. Some claim it is a legitimate entity and praise its claim to have targeted an American base in northeast Syria as fighting the ‘Crusaders’, but others appear to be skeptical or remain agnostic. For instance, ‘Shibl al-Aqida’- a Syria-based al-Qaeda supporter who is gleeful about the idea of America and Iran fighting each other and expressed joy at Khamane‘i’s death- seems to have retracted his initial endorsement of the group, deleting all references to the group on his page (see below for a now deleted post where he shared the group’s announcement of its existence).
There are also a couple of points that may raise questions about the legitimacy of the group’s existence. Firstly, consider the attack that has so far been claimed by the group: namely, the firing of two rockets at a base in al-Shaddadi in al-Hasakah province that was formerly used by the Americans (see graphic below, with a video having been released in the group’s name that also shows the firing of two rockets). Contemporary social media reports indicate that either projectiles were fired at the base overnight on 2 March or that explosions were simply heard in the sky in the area. But at least two other entities appear to have claimed the same purported rocket attack on the base: one being the ‘Islamic Resistance in Syria- Awali al-Ba’s’, another being the ‘Syrian Popular Resistance.’
Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis claim for attack on al-Shaddadi base
The ‘Syrian Popular Resistance’ claim of the same attack.
The second issue is that al-Qaeda previously had a Syrian branch called Hurras al-Din, which claimed to have dissolved itself in January 2025 per a decision issued by al-Qaeda’s central leadership, probably in light of the fact that the Assad regime had been brought down and as such the existence of Hurras al-Din as a group had outlived its purpose. In other words, one would have to suppose that Hurras al-Din or at least some of its members or supporters were somehow resurrecting an al-Qaeda branch in Syria. Moreover, the group’s first statement suggests it is also supposed to have a presence in Iraq, but what exactly is the network of al-Qaeda members or supporters in Iraq? The group would almost certainly be subjected to crackdowns by the Iraqi government and its security forces if it were actually present.
In conclusion, nothing yet definitively proves or disproves the actual existence of the group. There are the following possibilities: (i) the statements put out in the name of ‘Ajnad Bayt al-Maqdis’ should be taken at face value even as it is currently unclear whether al-Qaeda’s central leadership accepts the group as an affiliate, (ii) the group is a ‘jihadist’ media front for an Iranian-linked entity, (iii) the purported group does not exist at all but is intended to sow discord and confusion among Sunni jihadists.
Published originally on March 4, 2026.
