Eye on Extremism - February 4, 2021

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Eye on Extremism - February 4, 2021
By: Counter Extremism Project - 02-04-21
Re: info@counterextremism.com

As of February 4, 2021:

Voice Of America: Iraq, US-Led Coalition Ramp Up Pressure On IS

“Iraq and its Western allies appear to be accelerating a crackdown on elements of Islamic State, taking more key terror group leaders off the battlefield. The U.S.-led anti-IS coalition Wednesday confirmed the death of Abu Hassan al-Gharibawi and three other fighters in what it described as a “dynamic airstrike” west of Baghdad on Tuesday. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi first announced the results of the airstrike in a series of tweets Tuesday, calling al-Gharibawi the leader of IS in southern Iraq. Al-Kadhimi also said the strike killed Ghanem Sabah Jawad, an IS facilitator “responsible for transporting suicide bombers.” Tuesday’s airstrike follows last week’s Iraqi-led operation that killed 39-year-old Abu Yasar al-Issawi, an IS deputy commander and the terror group’s most senior leader in Iraq. Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service killed al-Issawi following a firefight January 27, west of the city of Kirkuk, in area thought to be an IS stronghold. The operations come as pressure mounts on the Iraqi government to retaliate against IS for the double suicide bombing last month of an open-air market in Baghdad. At least 32 people were killed, and more than 100 others wounded.”

Wall Street Journal: Iranian Diplomat Sentenced To 20 Years For Foiled Bomb Plot In France

"A Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison for plotting a bomb attack against a gathering of Iranian dissidents outside Paris in 2018, in a case that has strained Tehran’s ties with Europe. Assadollah Assadi, a counselor at Iran’s embassy in Vienna, was Thursday convicted of organizing the foiled attack that targeted a rally held by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella opposition group dominated by the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, or MEK. The court in Antwerp sentenced three other Iranians to 15, 17 and 18 years in prison for collusion, concluding that Iranian state intelligence had ordered the plot. “The attack plan was conceived in the name of Iran and under its leadership,” the Belgian state security service VSSE said in a letter to the public prosecutor last year. Mr. Assadi, in prison in Antwerp since 2018, claimed protection by diplomatic immunity and refused to appear at the court hearings. The three others maintained their innocence Mr. Assadi’s lawyer said before the verdict that he would appeal a guilty sentence."

The New York Times: Canada Formally Declares Proud Boys A Terrorist Group

“Canada formally designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist group under its criminal law on Wednesday, a move that could lead to financial seizures and allow police to treat any crimes committed by members as terrorist activity. Government officials said they believe Canada is the first nation to label the Proud Boys a terrorist entity. The events last month in Washington, they added, contributed to the move, which was already under consideration. “Since 2018, we have seen an escalation, an escalation toward violence in this group,” Bill Blair, the public safety minister, told a news conference, adding that the Proud Boys and 12 other groups added to the list on Wednesday are “all hateful, intolerant and, as we’ve seen, they can be highly dangerous.” An official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said that while information gleaned after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington was a “contributing factor, it certainly wasn’t the driving force.” Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right, all-male organization that lauded street brawling as part of its founding idea, played a prominent role in storming the United States Capitol.”

United States

CNN: FBI Raids Homes Of 2 Men Who Held Rally On Eve Of Capitol Attack

“The FBI recently raided the homes of two men who sponsored an invective-laced rally near the US Capitol a day before the deadly insurrection, the first known search warrants involving people who organized and spoke at rallies preceding the attack. CNN learned of the raids through an eyewitness account, public records, a lawyer representing one of the rally organizers and an FBI spokeswoman who confirmed details of the searches. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed that federal agents executed search warrants last week at two properties in Orange County, California, which public records indicate belong to Russell Taylor and Alan Hostetter. The two men run the American Phoenix Project, which co-sponsored a pro-Donald Trump rally near the Supreme Court on January 5, one day before the attack. Neither man has been charged with any crimes. Footage of the rally shows the men spewing militant vitriol: Hostetter told the crowd to prepare for “war tomorrow” against “vipers” in Congress who refused to nullify President Joe Biden's win. Taylor said, “We will not return to our peaceful way of life until this election is made right.”

Insider: Right-Wing Extremism Is On The Rise, But Ideological Killings Dropped Significantly Last Year

“Right-wing extremism is on the rise in the US, and was linked to at least 16 killings last year, the Anti-Defamation League found. Every year the ADL tracks murders associated with ideological extremism, and for the last three decades, extremist killings in the US have been overwhelmingly associated with right-wing movements, according to the ADL. In 2020 an overlapping pandemic, far-reaching anti-racism protests and contested election contributed to political tension and division in the US. The beliefs and organization of extremist groups and conspiracy movements like the Proud Boys, Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, and QAnon became widely known. While right-wing extremism was spreading rapidly, and documented through the dissemination of white-supremacist propaganda, the overall number of extremism-related killings dropped significantly from previous years, the ADL found. In total, there were 17 victims of fatal extremism last year - 16 associated with right-wing movements and one, the killing of Patriot Prayer's Aaron Danielson, was associated with a left-wing movement. It's the lowest number of ideological killings since 2004, the ADL reported.”

Syria

Kurdistan 24: Kurdish-Led SDF Arrests 4 ISIS Suspects In Eastern Syria With Coalition Support

“The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Tuesday that it had arrested four suspected members of the so-called Islamic State in Syria’s Deir al-Zor and Hasakah provinces in separate operations this week. The SDF Media Centre said in an online posting that its forces had arrested three of the militants “in al-Fidyn village, south of Al-Swar town, Deir Ezzor (Deir al-Zor) countryside.” During the operation, an unspecified quantity of weapons and documents were also reported confiscated. “The captured terrorists are responsible for supplying and transporting weapons and money,” the SDF said. Moreover, the SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Centre on Twitter announced on Wednesday that another Islamic State member had been arrested, also with Coalition support, in al-Shaddadi, located in Hasakah province. The suspect was accused of “facilitating transporting money to active cells in #NE_Syria (Northeast Syria), equipments and documents were confiscated.” Although the SDF and US-led anti-Islamic State Coalition announced the territorial defeat of the Islamic State in Syria in March 2019, sleeper cell attacks persist, especially in liberated territories, in what appears to be a deliberate campaign to destabilize the area.”

Afghanistan

Associated Press: Taliban On Diplomatic Blitz After Afghan Peace Talks Stall

“The Taliban have been on a diplomatic blitz since peace talks with the Afghan government stalled in Qatar last month and the Biden administration said it plans to review a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed last February. The flurry of activity — including Taliban visits to Iran and Moscow, and a planned trip to Turkey — comes as the Afghan government’s negotiating team warned this week that if the Taliban fail to resume the talks, the government could recall its team from Doha. The peace talks resumed in early January in Qatar, where the Taliban have a political office, but quickly halted, marred by a spike in violence across Afghanistan, with the warring sides blaming one another. A Taliban official said the talks stalled after the Taliban demanded the government side accept a new “inclusive Islamic system” that includes all “tribes and groups” in Afghanistan — language that indicates the Taliban seek guarantees that Islamic rule would be in place in post-war Afghanistan. The government instead demanded the Taliban first join the current political system and declare a cease-fire, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.”

NBC News: Bipartisan Report Urges Postponing Planned U.S Troop Exit From Afghanistan To Shore Up Peace Process

“A bipartisan report released Tuesday urged the Biden administration to postpone a May deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, warning an early exit would allow terrorist groups to reemerge and undercut a tenuous peace process. A U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha last year calls for the United States to fully withdraw its remaining 2,500-strong force by May. But the report from the Afghanistan Study Group, commissioned by Congress in 2019, recommended an “immediate diplomatic effort to extend the current May 2021 withdrawal date in order to give the peace process sufficient time to produce an acceptable result.” Although the authors of the report supported efforts by the former Trump administration that had created a “pathway” for peace, they wrote that a “significant revision of U.S. policy” was required to safeguard U.S. interests and ensure peace was secured. The report was issued against the backdrop of an urgent policy review by the Biden administration, which has already said it is weighing options on Afghanistan and suggested it may delay the scheduled May troop withdrawal.”

Pakistan

Al Jazeera: Father Of Pakistani Rights Activist Arrested On ‘Terror’ Charges

“A Pakistani court has granted police custody of Muhammad Ismail, the father of a prominent Pakistani human rights activist, on “terrorism” charges that rights groups say are part of a sustained campaign of harassment. The court in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar granted police custody of Muhammad for three days during proceedings on Wednesday, his daughter, Gulalai Ismail, told Al Jazeera. The 66-year-old had been arrested a day earlier at a bail confirmation hearing. Gulalai, a prominent and award-winning women’s rights activist, is a leading member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) rights group that calls for accountability for Pakistan’s powerful military for alleged rights abuses committed during its war against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its allies. The PTM and other rights groups have documented hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and alleged extrajudicial killings during the campaign in the country’s northwest. Its leaders, including members of Parliament, have faced a widespread campaign of arrests and legal cases against them across Pakistan since the group’s formation in 2018.”

Lebanon

The Times Of Israel: Hezbollah Fires Anti-Aircraft Missiles At Israeli Drone Over South Lebanon

“The Hezbollah terror group fired surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon in a major escalation of conflict, amid lingering tensions along the border. “Anti-aircraft missiles were just fired toward an IDF remote-piloted aerial vehicle during routine activity over Lebanese territory,” the military said in a statement. According to the IDF, the aircraft was not damaged in the attack and continued on its mission as planned. A Hezbollah-affiliated journalist, Ali Choeib, said the terror group was behind the attack, part of an apparent new policy by Hezbollah to repel all Israeli incursions into Lebanese airspace. “What is certain is that [Hezbollah’s] decision to try to prevent the enemy from continuing to violate its airspace has been made permanent,” Choeib, who works for multiple outlets linked to the terror group, wrote in a tweet. The missiles fired at the UAV represented a significant increase in the level of violence along the border. Unlike in a case on Monday in which a small, off-the-shelf IDF drone was allegedly downed by Hezbollah as it performed a reconnaissance mission along the Lebanese border, the drone that was fired upon on Wednesday was a much larger and more advanced military model.”

Somalia

Shabelle Media Network: Somalia: Al-Shabaab Militants Killed After Mortar Attack

“Somalia on Tuesday killed three Al-Shabaab members who carried out a mortar attack aimed at targeting a high-level government delegation in the central city of Dhusamareb, local media reported. A barrage of mortar shells fired by the militants on Monday injured a police officer and civilians in Dhusamareb, where the Somali president and prime minister arrived to attend a conference on the country's next elections. According to the Somali state-run broadcaster, security forces shot dead three attackers, including a senior al-Shabaab member, and injured another. They also arrested two attackers. The state television showed pictures of the arrested militants. It also displayed heavy machines guns and other weapons seized from the al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group. The attack came a day after al-Shabaab terrorists killed at least 10 people, including a retired army general and former Defense Minister Mohamed Nuur Galal in the capital Mogadishu. Earlier this week following pressure from the international community, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed called on regional leaders to attend a three-day consultative summit in the city to resolve outstanding issues over the holding of timely and credible elections in the country.”

Mali

Africanews: At Least Nine Malian Soldiers Killed In Suspected Militant Attack

“Nine troops were killed in Mali's troubled central region early Wednesday when their camp came under attack from jihadists, security sources said. Their position at Boni, located between Douentza and Hombori in the Mopti region, was attacked by “heavily armed individuals in armoured vehicles,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several soldiers were injured, the source said, an account confirmed by another security official and a local government official. An initial toll gave four dead and 10 injured, two of them seriously. The source said the camp had been seriously damaged and the assailants had made off with lots of equipment. The attack is the latest in a brutal conflict that has been raging in Mali since 2012, when militants overtook a rebellion by mostly ethnic Tuareg separatists in the north. The conflict, which has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, then spread to central Mali, an ethnic powderkeg, and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Jihadist attacks in central Mali typically involve roadside bombs or hit-and-run raids on motorbikes or pickups, and the use of armoured vehicles, if confirmed, is extremely rare. Heni Nsaibia, a researcher with an NGO project called the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), said jihadists had seized armoured vehicles from the armed forces in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.”

Africa

Reuters: IED Kills Four Tunisian Soldiers In Mountain Region

“An improvised explosive device killed four Tunisian soldiers patrolling in a mountain region near the Algerian border, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zekri said on Wednesday. The mountainous Moghila area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to an Islamist militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years. Tunisia faces a small but persistent militant threat, foreign diplomats focused on security say. As well as jihadist cells holed up in remote mountain regions, who have not made successful forays beyond their strongholds in recent years, there is also a threat from militants radicalised online. Last year militants tried to attack the U.S. embassy in Tunis, killing a policeman at a security point with a suicide vest, and months later stabbed two security officers in a knife attack in the city of Sousse. In October, a young Tunisian migrant arrived in France and immediately killed three people in a church.”

RFI: Sahel Jihadists Eye Expansion Into Cote d’Ivoire And Benin Says French Spy Boss

“France’s top spy chief warned this week that militant jihadist groups in the Sahel are pursuing expansion into the Golf of Guinea, with a focus on Cote d’Ivoire and Benin. In a rare public appearance, Bernard Emié, head of the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) revealed intelligence purportedly showing a meeting between top al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb commanders. “The agenda of this meeting was the preparation of a series of large scale attacks against military bases,” said Emié during a speech on Monday alongside Defence Minister Florence Parly at the d’Orléans-Bricy airbase. “This is where leaders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) devised their expansion plans for the countries of the Gulf of Guinea,” he added. Cote d’Ivoire suffered an attack in 2016 when three gunmen opened fire at a beach resort in Grand-Bassam killing 19 people. Benin was the scene of an attack against a police station in February 2020, and the kidnapping of two French tourists and a local guide from Pendjari National Park in May 2019. Emié’s appearance in public, as well as presentation involving intelligence the spy agency had gathered, was somewhat rare.”

United Kingdom

Daily Mail: Man In His 20s Is Arrested At Heathrow Airport On Suspicion Of Terrorism Offences After Arriving In The UK On A Flight From Turkey

“A man in his 20s has been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences. The British man, who had arrived on a flight from Turkey, was apprehended by counter terrorism detectives in a 'pre-planned operation' at around 6.10pm today, said the Met Police. He was arrested on suspicion of the preparation of terrorist acts - in relation to alleged offending in Syria - encouragement of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist publications. The suspect remains in custody at a police station in south London. 'Officers from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command arrested the man, aged in his 20s, at Heathrow Airport at approximately 18.11hrs today, Wednesday, 3 February.' The Met Police added: 'The Section 5 arrest relates to suspected offending in Syria. 'The man - a British national - had arrived on a flight from Turkey. 'He was arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and taken into custody at a south-London police station, where he currently remains.'“

Technology

The National: Dropbox And Microsoft Exploited By ISIS For Propaganda Campaigns Launched On RocketChat

“ISIS has been using RocketChat and online services from companies such as Dropbox and Microsoft to host its propaganda, according to a monitoring group. Videos purportedly showing bomb attacks by the terrorist group were posted on the sites. The first, on January 24, showed the Egyptian military transporting two bulldozers, which ISIS claimed it had damaged in Sinai. The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) think tank has been monitoring ISIS and far-right propaganda across social media sites. The report said that the video was spread more widely through a number of file-sharing sites. “Links to the video were spread via RocketChat,” the latest CEP report said. The researchers found "at least eight websites" – File.Fm, Streamable, PixelDrain, Top4top, Dropbox, the Microsoft One Drive, the Internet Archive, and Mega.Nz – had then been used as platforms to distribute the materials. It has also identified ISIS propaganda on podcasting platform Spreaker. However, the specific material tracked by the CEP only appeared to remain hosted on some of the services for a limited amount of time. “Four days later, the video was only available on two websites: Top4top and the Internet Archive.”