(Washington Times) Guy Taylor - "Boko Haram is meticulously choreographing the images and symbolism in its videos to Islamic State videos," said Jacob Zenn, an African and Eurasian affairs analyst at the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, who noted the Nigerian group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, declared his own "caliphate" in Africa just a month after Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did the same thing in Iraq. Shekau also pledged support to al-Baghdadi's group in a video circulated by Boko Haram in July. Recent editions of the Islamic State's glossy propaganda magazine Dabiq have made explicit reference to Boko Haram's kidnapping of Christian women in northern Nigeria as justification for its own kidnapping and sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women in Iraq. A Boko Haram video in August declared the group's intention to recreate an ancient Islamic caliphate that once included parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. AP reported that the group now controls 10% of Nigeria's territory. Zenn said there has been a noticeable strategy shift by Boko Haram "to seize and hold territory in northeastern Nigeria instead of using its former hit-and-run tactics."
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