Eye on Extremism -July 26, 2021

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Eye on Extremism - July 26, 2021
By: Counter Extremism Project 07-26-21
Re: info@counterextremism.com

Note: As of July 26th 2021:

The National: Senior Hezbollah Member Killed In Syria

“A senior Hezbollah member stationed in Syria has been killed, media outlets affiliated with the Iran-backed party said on Sunday. Imad Al Amine, known as Sayyed Al Gharib, died in the line of duty, the reports said. News of his death followed reports of an Israeli attack on Homs in Syria on Thursday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was aimed at Hezbollah’s military positions and weapons depots in Al Qusair, an area on the border with Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. After the attack, it was reported that a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as Sayed Ahmed Qurayshi had been killed. Qurayshi a member of the Fatemiyoun division, an Iran-backed Afghan militia, had reportedly fought in Syria for years. He was said to have taken part in operations alongside Qassem Suleimani, the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Suleimani played a key role in expanding Iran’s military operations across the region and co-ordinated attacks by Tehran-backed militias on US forces and their allies. He was assassinated in Baghdad last year in an air strike ordered by former US president Donald Trump. Attacks on US targets in Iraq and Syria have intensified in recent weeks since a visit by an Iranian delegation led by Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief Hossein Taeb.”

Reuters: At Least 16 Killed In Road Ambush By Suspected Militants In Eastern Congo

“At least 16 people, including six women and two children, have been killed in a suspected Islamist militant attack on a remote road in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, the director of a local hospital said on Friday. The attack took place on a road near the town of Oicha, around 390 km (242 miles) north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma. Nine others were injured, with three, including a baby, in critical condition, according to hospital staff. Survivors blamed the assault on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant group that claims links to Islamic State. They have been accused of killing thousands of people since 2014, mostly in similarly remote areas. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the ADF could not be reached. Maman Masika Kahindo, a local farmer, said she was travelling in a minibus with her 11-year-old son when fighters dressed in ADF fatigues fired on the crowded vehicle and killed her son. “They fired several bullets and the driver immediately died,” Kahindo said, wearing bandages over her chest where she said she had been grazed by gunfire. “They took him out of the vehicle and shot my child in the head.” Janvier Kasayiro, who heads a local coalition of civil society groups, also blamed Islamist militants, adding that several people who had been travelling in the same bus as Kahindo were still missing.”

Syria

Reuters: Two Turkish Soldiers Killed In Attack In Northern Syria

“Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an attack on their armoured vehicle in northern Syria, and Turkish forces immediately launched retaliatory fire, Turkey's defence ministry said on Saturday. “Our punitive fire against terrorist positions is continuing,” the statement on Twitter on said. It said the attack was in the region where Turkey launched the cross-border “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016 to drive away Islamic State militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Media reports said the attack was in the al-Bab area. Turkey continues to hold sway in northwest Syria and has a significant military presence there. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group linked to militants who have fought a decades-old insurgency against the state in southeast Turkey. It has staged several incursions into Syria in support of Syrian rebels to push the YPG from the Turkish frontier.”

The National: ISIS Member Omaima Abdi Convicted Of Keeping Yazidi Slaves

“A German-Tunisian woman convicted of being an ISIS member, has had her sentence extended by a court in Hamburg after she admitted to keeping two Yazidi slaves in Syria. Omaima Abdi, 37, who is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in a terrorist organisation, has had a further six months added to her sentence. Abdi had initially denied the slavery charge at her first trial last year. But at the beginning of her second trial, she admitted that the two Yazidis had cleaned her flat in Raqqa, Syria in the spring of 2016. One of the Yazidis, a 14 year old, gave evidence at the trial. Abdi has apologised to the victims, but Judge Ulrike Taeubner told her that it was time she took responsibility for her actions. Abdi is the widow of notorious ISIS member Denis Cuspert, a German rapper who was also known by his stage name Deso Dogg. He joined ISIS in 2014 and was killed in an air strike in Syria in early 2018. Abdi had followed Nadir Hadra, her husband at the time and an ISIS member, to Syria in 2015 and took her three children with her. But he was killed in the city of Kobani only weeks after he arrived. Abdi then married Cuspert but returned to Germany in the autumn of 2016. For three years, Abdi was able to live in Hamburg with her three children, and another she had with Cuspert.”

Iran

Washington Examiner: US Investigates Qatar Over Claims That It Finances Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps

“The State Department has opened an inquiry into an Israeli government report that Qatar’s monarchy funded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. “We are looking into the allegations,” a State Department spokesman told the Washington Examiner earlier this month, adding that “Qatar and the United States have a robust strategic, security, and counterterrorism partnership. Qatar is one of the United States's closest military allies in the region. U.S.-Qatar military and security cooperation contributes to the safety and stability of the region.” The alleged terror finance activities of the Islamic regime in Doha surfaced during last month’s Oval Office meeting between President Joe Biden and outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin furnished the White House with intelligence regarding “recent funding that Qatar provided to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the Times of Israel reported, citing an Israel diplomatic official speaking on the condition of anonymity. The person also added that the information alarmed the U.S. officials at the meeting.”

Iraq

Al Jazeera: Iraqi PM Announces Arrests Over Suicide Bombing Claimed By ISIL

“Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced on Saturday the arrest of a “terror cell” behind a Baghdad market bombing that killed dozens and was claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group. The attack, the worst since January, sparked revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of ISIL, which lost its last territory in Iraq after a gruelling three-year campaign that ended in late 2017. The group is believed to retain sleeper cells in remote desert and mountain areas. The bombing took place on Monday at al-Woheilat market in Sadr City, a Shia suburb in the capital, and officially killed at least 35 people. “We have arrested all the members of the cowardly terrorist cell that planned and perpetrated the attack,” Kadhimi said on Twitter, “and they will be put before a judge today.” The prime minister did not specify the number of people arrested, but a source at the interior ministry said the suspects were anticipated to make televised “confessions”, a common occurrence for major crimes in Iraq. Deadly attacks were common in Baghdad during the sectarian violence that followed the US-led invasion of 2003, and later on as ISIL swept across much of Iraq in a lightning 2014 offensive.”

Afghanistan

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Intensifies Airstrikes In Afghanistan As Taliban Offensive Nears Kandahar

“The U.S. has stepped up airstrikes in southern Afghanistan amid growing apprehension over a Taliban offensive threatening Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city and spiritual capital of the Taliban movement. The fall of Kandahar would deal a heavy blow to the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, which is trying to impart calm to its citizens as the Taliban has seized swaths of the countryside, but so far failed to take a major city. The airstrikes, about a dozen in recent days, point to a continuing role for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, despite confidence expressed by President Biden and the Pentagon that the Afghan armed forces are well-equipped and ready to fight the Taliban on their own. U.S. forces are due to depart Afghanistan by the end of August. Kandahar, population 600,000, was home to deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and host to key military bases once maintained by the U.S. It is also a major economic prize. The Taliban have advanced dozens of miles toward Kandahar city in recent weeks, squeezing it from three directions, capturing swaths of territory in the Panjwai and Arghandab valleys, places where foreign troops fought for decades to keep the Taliban at bay.”

Associated Press: To Reach A Peace Deal, Taliban Say Afghan President Must Go

“The Taliban say they don’t want to monopolize power, but they insist there won’t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed. In an interview with The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the group’s negotiating team, laid out the insurgents’ stance on what should come next in a country on the precipice. The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals — advances that come as the last U.S. and NATO soldiers leave Afghanistan. This week, the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, told a Pentagon press conference that the Taliban have “strategic momentum,” and he did not rule out a complete Taliban takeover. But he said it is not inevitable. “I don’t think the end game is yet written,” he said. Memories of the Taliban’s last time in power some 20 years ago, when they enforced a harsh brand of Islam that denied girls an education and barred women from work, have stoked fears of their return among many. Afghans who can afford it are applying by the thousands for visas to leave Afghanistan, fearing a violent descent into chaos.”

Voice Of America: Afghanistan's Media Freedom In Retreat As Taliban Advances

“The day the Taliban entered Balkh district, 20 km west of Mazar e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province last month, local radio station Nawbahar shuttered its doors and most of its journalists went into hiding. Within days the station started broadcasting again, but the programming was different. Rather than the regular line-up, Nawbahar was playing Islamist anthems and shows produced by the Taliban. The switch in programming is a far cry from how Nawbahar usually operates. The station started up in the northern province in 2004—broadcasting news and entertainment in Dari and Pashto languages thanks to funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Its experience reflects a growing trend for Afghanistan’s independent media. As the security situation deteriorates, so does the situation for all the other gains the country made in the last 20 years, including press freedom. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism says Afghanistan went from zero independent media under Taliban rule to 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and multiple TV stations since the U.S.-led invasion of the country 20 years ago. Now that foreign troops are almost gone and the Taliban have nearly doubled the territory under their control, many journalists working in insecure areas are fleeing to safety.”

India

Bloomberg: India Plans More Power Islands To Counter Cyber, Terror Threat

“India is discussing a plan to create so-called power islanding systems in several cities to protect critical infrastructure from potential attacks on the electricity grid, power minister Raj Kumar Singh said. Cities including Bengaluru, known as India’s Silicon Valley, and Jamnagar, which has two of India’s largest oil refineries, are among cities being assessed for an islanding system, Singh told lawmakers in parliament Thursday. Existing systems in cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai are being revamped, he said. The plan follows a major power outage in India’s financial hub Mumbai last year that brought the city to a halt and prompted speculation about a cyber attack. The year before, the country’s nuclear power monopoly reported computer systems at one of its generation plants had been attacked by malware. Power grids the world over are increasingly digitalized, leaving them vulnerable to such attacks. Islanding systems feature generation capacity and can isolate automatically from the main grid in the event of an outage. For the new systems, provinces need to submit proposals for setting up generation and storage capacities, Singh said in his written comments Thursday. The strategy was questioned in some quarters.”

Nigeria

Reuters: Kidnappers In Nigeria Release 28 Schoolchildren, Another 81 Still Held, Says Negotiator

“Kidnappers who raided a boarding school in northern Nigeria earlier this month released 28 children on Sunday but another 81 remain in captivity, according to a pastor involved in the negotiations for their release. The attack on the Bethel Baptist High School in the state of Kaduna was the 10th mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria, which authorities have attributed to criminal gangs seeking ransom payments. A first batch of 28 children was released two days after the raid. Parents told Reuters that 180 students typically attend the school, and that pupils were in the process of sitting exams. “Twenty-eight students were freed this morning,” Reverend Ite Joseph Hayab told Reuters on phone. “Quite a number of the students before now escaped ... but 81 are still in captivity.” Nigerian authorities have attributed the kidnappings to what they call armed bandits seeking ransom payments. The police and Kaduna state commissioner for internal security and home affairs were not immediately available for comment. Radika Bivan, a parent whose daughter is among those kidnapped confirmed that 28 of them were released but said she did not see her child among them. Kaduna authorities had ordered the closure of the school and 12 others in the area following the kidnap, without saying when they may reopen.”

Deutsche Welle: Nigeria Receives US Planes For Boko Haram Fight

“Nigeria's air force said on Friday that it has received six US attack aircraft as part of the country's drive to crack down on jihadist insurgents. “The batch of A-29 Super Tucanos aircraft have arrived in Kano today,” air force spokesman Edward Gabkwet said. The Nigerian government signed the deal to buy a total of 12 of the Brazilian-developed planes manufactured in the US in August 2017 under the Trump administration. The propeller-driven planes, which have reconnaissance, surveillance and attack capabilities, were built in Florida by Brazil’s Embraer and the private US firm, the Sierra Nevada Corporation. That pact also includes the supply of ammunition, training and aircraft maintenance believed to be worth more than $500 million. The contract had been set to go through in May 2016 but the then-president, Barack Obama, froze the deal after the Nigerian army accidentally bombed a camp for displaced people, killing 112 civilians. An insurgency led by Boko Haram and rival offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced more than two million. Fighting has also spread to parts of neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, forcing the nations to form a regional military coalition to fight the jihadists.”

Somalia

Voice Of America: US Lends More Airpower To Somalia's Fight Vs. Al-Shabab

“The United States is again targeting fighters with the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab terror group in Somalia, launching its second airstrike in the past four days following a nearly six-month hiatus that began when President Joe Biden took office. The strike, by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), appears to be part of an effort to lend U.S. airpower to what has been described as a fierce struggle on the ground between the Somali military and al-Shabab in Galmudug state, the same region targeted in Tuesday's airstrike. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told VOA and other reporters traveling aboard a U.S. military aircraft with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Friday's strike was carried out in support of Somali forces near the village of Qeycad. He said the strike was permitted by the powers granted by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. Kirby added that just as with the earlier airstrike, U.S. troops were not on the ground with Somali forces but were conducting a remote advise-and-assist mission. Further information was not provided because of “operational security.” A statement issued earlier Friday by the Somali government said the precision airstrike “destroyed al-Shabab fighters and weapons with zero civilian casualties.”

Mali

Reuters: Man Accused Of Attempted Assassination Of Mali President Dies In Custody

“A man accused of attempting to stab Mali's interim President Assimi Goita last week has died in hospital while in the custody of security services, the government said in a statement on Sunday. Goita, a special forces colonel who orchestrated two coups in the last year, escaped unharmed after the assailant tried to stab him during prayers at a mosque in the capital Bamako on Tuesday. Security agents threw a man into the back of a military pickup truck, video obtained by Reuters showed, as Goita was ringed by bodyguards. “During the investigations ... his state of health deteriorated,” the statement said. He was taken to hospital, where he died, it said. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death. Mali, the theatre of French-supported operations against al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked insurgents for a decade, was thrown into political turmoil after a military junta led by Goita toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020. Goita served as vice-president to transitional leader Bah Ndaw until the latter's ouster in May.”

Africa

Reuters: At Least Six Cameroonian Soldiers Killed In Raid By Islamist Insurgents

“At least six Cameroonian soldiers were killed and four wounded during an attack by Islamist insurgents on an army outpost in the far north of the country, state broadcaster CRTV said on Saturday. The attack is the deadliest in recent months in northern Cameroon, which alongside neighbouring Nigeria and Chad, has been battling the Boko Haram militant group for years and, more recently, militants linked to Islamic State. “Our outpost in Sagme was attacked this morning around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) by a horde of assailants. There were six to seven vehicles and motorcycles and some were on foot. It was a massive attack,” Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, administrative head of the district in the Far North Region, told Reuters. State television reported the death toll on Twitter, but gave no further details about the attack. Two military sources who requested anonymity had told Reuters that at least eight soldiers had been killed and several others were wounded. Local authorities said there has been a steady increase in attacks on the military in the region since the death of Abubakar Shekau, the former leader of Boko Haram. “Since Shekau's death there has been an increase in attacks, as the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) move to conquer territories previously held by Boko Haram,” Ndongo said.”

Newsweek: UN Says 'Heightened Threats' Are Emerging From ISIS, Affiliated Groups Around The World

“A new report from the United Nations warns that “heightened threats” are emerging from ISIS and other terror groups, most prominently in Africa. The memo comes as the U.S. is set to complete a withdrawal of troops stationed in Afghanistan, where ISIS and al Qaeda are rooted, by Aug. 31. The report, compiled by the U.N. monitoring team that tracks global jihadi threats, said that terror groups tend to prosper when other forces aren't putting pressure on them. With U.S. pressure soon to be absent from Afghanistan, any mitigation of their threat could experience “further deterioration,” the report said. The U.N. said that parts of West and East Africa as especially susceptible to the growing presence of terror groups, “where affiliates of both groups can boast gains in supporters and territory under threat, as well as growing capabilities in fundraising and weapons, for example, in the use of drones.” One of these high-risk areas is Somalia, where special forces are “struggling to contain” Al-Shabaab, an offshoot of al Qaeda, in light of the U.S. troops' exit and a decrease in pressure from the African Union Mission. Affiliates of al Qaeda are increasingly present in Mali as France starts to pull back on its own anti-terrorism campaign in the country.”

France

The New York Times: France Adopts Laws To Combat Terrorism, But Critics Call Them Overreaching

“French lawmakers have adopted two bills the government says will strengthen its ability to fight terrorism and Islamist extremism following a series of attacks that have hardened feelings of insecurity ahead of next year’s presidential election. Debate on the bills, adopted Thursday and Friday, had been pushed out of the headlines by a flare-up of the Covid-19 pandemic, but critics say they curtail civil liberties and extend police powers to a worrying degree. One of the new laws gives France’s security services more tools to keep track of suspected terrorists and surveil them online; it was adopted late Thursday by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, by a vote of 108 to 20. The other, passed on Friday by the same chamber by a vote of 49 to 19, aims to combat extremist ideas at every level of French society. Among a range of steps, it toughens conditions for home-schooling, tightens rules for associations seeking state subsidies, and gives the authorities new powers to close places of worship seen as condoning hateful or violent ideas. Both measures had been pushed by President Emmanuel Macron and his government as necessary responses to a persistent threat posed by Islamist extremism against France’s ideals, especially secularism, and its security.”

New Zealand

Reuters: New Zealand Accepts Return Of Islamic State-Linked Citizen

“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she has agreed to a request from Turkish authorities to accept the return of a New Zealand citizen accused of having links to the Islamic State, and her two young children. The three have been in immigration detention in Turkey after they were caught earlier this year trying to enter Turkey from Syria. Turkish authorities requested that New Zealand repatriate the family. “New Zealand has not taken this step lightly. We have taken into account our international responsibilities as well as the details of this particular case, including the fact that children are involved,” Ardern said in a statement after a cabinet meeting in Wellington. The woman had held New Zealand and Australian citizenships. Her family moved to Australia when she was six and she grew up there before departing for Syria in 2014 on an Australian passport. But the Australian government revoked her citizenship and refused to reverse the decision despite calls from New Zealand. Earlier this year, Ardern said Australia's decision was wrong and the country was abdicating its responsibilities by “unilaterally” cancelling the citizenship of the woman. Australia has provided assurances it will consult with New Zealand if similar such case arises in future, Ardern said.”