Combating al-Naba: ISIS' Tool for Promoting Lone-Actor Attacks on Social Media

Al-Naba is one of ISIS’s official media outlets, operating under its Central Media Diwan, the same entity responsible for Al-Furqan, Amaq, and the group’s provincial media centers. It functions as a weekly newsletter and serves as a primary platform for ISIS to communicate its ideological positions, glorify attacks, and issue direct calls for violence.

- Europol – Online Jihadist Propaganda 2022
- U.S. Congress – Testimony to the House Committee on Homeland Security (Aaron Y. Zelin)
- U.S. Department of Justice – Affidavit in the Mohammed Khalifa Case
- UN Women – Regional Office for the Arab States
- Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC)

The danger of al-Naba is that, as stated in one of its publications, it promotes a lone-actor model, where attacks no longer require complex infrastructure or logistics, but only an ideologically committed individual who absorbs ISIS doctrine, receives minimal guidance (“jihad code”) in Arabic (or translated), and acts quickly, highlighting online platforms as a core mechanism for remote incitement and instruction.

Al-Naba's weekly publication is regularly circulated across social media platforms, including Facebook and TikTok. Posts typically share publication pages directly, copy or quote content from them, or include links in comments directing users to Telegram channels or external sites where the material can be accessed. In most cases, standard user reporting through the platforms' own mechanisms did not result in takedowns; only after direct escalation by WJC were such posts removed. Below are some examples of al-Naba publications that WJC reported to Facebook and TikTok.

Issue No. 413 (published October 19, 2023): Titled “Practical Steps to Fight the Jews,” it incites lone wolves to target Jewish neighborhoods, embassies, and synagogues in the US and Europe.

Issue No. 513 (published September 18, 2025 *just 2 weeks before Manchester synagogue attack Incident*): Calls on Muslims worldwide to “attack, explode, bomb, shoot, and slaughter” Jews everywhere, explicitly naming Europe and highlighting the UK, France, and Belgium.

Issue No. 526 (published December 18, 2025): It celebrates the Sydney attack and explicitly redirects incitement toward Belgium, urging “refugees” there to carry out local attacks against Jews and Christians.

Issue No. 527 (published December 25, 2025): This issue openly frames Jewish and Christian holidays as "a good opportunity for killing, revenge, and terrorizing the enemies of Allah." It repeatedly calls for attacks in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere, and to lower the barrier for participation, it encourages "lone mujahideen" to use readily available tools, such as trucks for ramming or heavy hammers for crushing skulls, if they cannot obtain firearms.