A gathering of jihadis

Check out the number of countries waging war on Syria.  At last count there were jihadis from  21 countries killing Assad's soldiers and supporters, which include Christians, Shiites, Alawites and other minorities. Citizens from 21 countries around the world!!  Is it any wonder that Assad's government, which is still the legitimate govt. of Syria,  had to beg Hezbollah and Iran to come to their aid?    (To access additional links, photos, videos go to the link below.)

Steven Stalinsky and R. Sosnow writing at Memri Reports:
.....Introduction  
Over the past few months, online jihadis have been using Twitter on a daily basis to disseminate photos of martyrs killed on jihadi fronts in Syria. These martyrs are from around the world – Italy, Spain, Belgium, Albania, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Morocco, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Dagestan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Bahrain, and Algeria – and among them are prominent sheikhs, well-known writers on online jihadi forums, scientists, students, and others, from many different terrorist/jihadi organizations (see MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 939, Faces Of Death: On Twitter, Jihadis Distribute Photos Of 'Martyrs', February 22, 2013).

These martyrdom tweets serve multiple purposes: publicizing the martyrs' last wishes, celebrating their actions, informing the martyrs' family and friends of their deaths, and inspiring others by portraying the martyrs as heroes who should be emulated. Yet another purpose is to ask readers for information about unidentified martyred jihadis.

One notable martyr whose death photo has been widely disseminated is Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. For example, on April 20, 2013, @albaraibnmalik1 tweeted: "Boston bomber 'Tamerlan Tsarnayev,' you have the peace of God, and I saw the great freedom does not have an age." He uses the hashtags #Boston, #America, and #bombing (warning – graphic image).

These martyrdom photos are very frequently retweeted. In addition, some Twitter accounts are major disseminators of images of dead martyrs. These include: @FaresKm44, identified as belonging to one "Fares Shami," and described as "a field activist and  a journalist for the Mujahideen in Syria"; @albaraibnmalik1, identified as belonging to "Abu Al-Baraa Al-Ahsa'i" and described as of "the martyr sheikh Abu Abdelmalik Al-Ahsa'i"; and @KAIKawthar, identified as belonging to "Kateeba Al-Kawthar" and described as "a group of Mujahideen & nation builders." Tweets from these accounts are included in this report.

It is interesting to note that in one tweet, @albaraibnmalik1 stated, "Praise to you, people of Libya" because, he claims, that country has sent the most mujahideen who have died as martyrs.
Additionally, hashtags are created to honor specific "martyrs," and are widely used when disseminating videos of the individual in life and in death, his last will and testament, and thoughts and prayers from family and friends. Samples of tweets from the #Martyrdom_Abdallah_Ibrahim_Al-Dakheel and #Martyrdom_Ali_Bin_Sa'di_Al-Samali_Al_Subai'i hashtags are included in this report.

Over the past month, since MEMRI finished compiling the tweets included in this report, the number of martyr tweets has increased exponentially; when MEMRI first began focusing on the phenomenon, only a few Twitter accounts were sending them out, and not in great numbers. This is indicative of jihadis' increasing embrace of and dependence on Twitter.

This report presents a sampling of martyrdom tweets posted and martyrdom hashtags created since the February publication of Part I of this series (warning – graphic images).
The following are some notable tweets from this report:

A Basket Of Sweets Celebrating Martyrdom Of Saudi National
"#Talha-Al-Nada – By the name of Allah, if birds could carry us, we would come to congratulate you. I miss you. I congratulate you on your acceptance as an intercessor. #Syria Abu Asid Martyrdom of Abdallah Ibrahim Al-Dakhil."...........