Yurtugh Tactical: Interview with their spokesman and their goals in the "Jihadist Galaxy".
From around 2018 onwards, several tactical jihadist groups have emerged in the Syrian landscape. The best known and most propagandistically active has been Malhama Tactical, which after several years of independent activity is now closely linked to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), providing exclusive training to the “Al-Asaib al-Hamrah” special forces brigade.
Other, instead, Islamist tactical groups are: the Turkish-led “Fursan Tactical” and “Saliq Tariq Tactical”, but they produce little propaganda and are integrated to HTS.
Then there is a jihadist tactical group with interesting and qualitative propaganda, among others that have often collaborated with Yurtugh Tactical, which is “Albanian Tactical”, belonging to the jihadist group Xhemati Alban. The most recently emerged tactical group is “Muhojir Tactical”, (an analysis of this new tactical group here) aligned with Liwa al-Muhajireen wal Ansar (LMA) and Tavhid va Jihod Uzbek (KTJ).
What differentiates Yurtugh Tactical from the aforementioned groups is not only the presence of consistent and qualitative propaganda but also their operational and leadership independence and clear long-term goals (my full analysis of the group here).
The following is an interview the author did with Yurtugh Tactical’s spokesman and media manager.
In what year was the tactical group born?
“The group was formed in 2018”.
What motivated the birth of the group?
“Our people have been deprived of military knowledge by the Chinese regime since it occupied East Turkestan. Since the full occupation of the Communist regime in 1949 until our present day, military knowledge has evolved drastically, and we realized our people were very far behind in this field”.
What are your objectives?
“To provide accurate military knowledge to Uyghur-speaking peoples and to lay the foundation for a future East Turkestan state”.
Is the tactical group linked to the Turkestan IslamicPartyy (TIP)?
“We share the same goal as the TIP which is to free East Turkestan from the Chinese occupation. Yurtugh is independent in its work”.
Is the group composed only of Uyghurs?
“Yes, It is composed of Uyghurs as our focus is the Uyghur cause”.
A Syrian analyst stated a few months ago that the group is named after its leader. Is this true?
“No this is false information. Yurtugh was a military term which was used during the time of Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate, it was a special unit in the dynasty”.
Some researchers said that your group took inspiration from the Malhama tactical group! Is this true?
“We have no relation with Malhama tactical neither any of our members went to their camps, thus this has no basis”.
What are your relations with other tactical groups in Syria?
“Since we are operating in Idlib and there is a unified military body which is governed by the al-Fathul-Mubeen Military Room, we have relations through this body with other tactical groups”.
What are your relations with Middle Eastern and Asian Mujahideen groups?
“We do not have any relation to military groups outside of our location”.
Why have you chosen not only to operate in the field but also to disseminate your videos and photos on social networks and messaging apps?
“As we have stated earlier the Uyghur people have been deprived of military knowledge by the Chinese regime, thus through our media work other Uyghurs can start to get familiar with this knowledge. We also want to show our people that our land was taken by us by force and it can only be returned in the same way”.
Some Western analysts have argued that tactical groups like yours can be called contractors because, in addition to training, they also conduct special operations on behalf of other groups and receive donations and payments. How would you respond to this claim??
“Our aim is clear and that is to liberate our land from the Chinese occupiers”.
Daniele Garofalo is a researcher and analyst on Jihadist terrorism and an expert in monitoring Jihadist media channels.
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