Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a statement supporting jihad in Xinjiang against Chinese, in the Caucasus against the Russians and naming Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as battlegrounds [REF].
Al-Qaeda ideologue Mustafa Setmariam Nasar wrote in support of the East Turkestan Independence Movement,[REF] Mustafa Setmariam Nasar had met some of these Uyghurs in Afghanistan where they trained as mujahidin [REF].