Eye on Extremism April 24, 2019

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Eye on Extremism / April 24, 2019
RE: info@counterextremism.com

April 24, 2019

CNN: ISIS Suspect Gave Advance Warning Of Sri Lanka Bombings, Source Says

“Early warnings from India's intelligence services to Sri Lankan officials ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings were based on information gleaned from an ISIS suspect, CNN has learned. Delhi passed on unusually specific intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the attacks, Sri Lankan officials have said, and at least some of it was gleaned from material obtained during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India, an Indian official told CNN. The suspect gave investigators the name of a man he trained in Sri Lanka, who is associated with a local extremist group implicated in the bombings, the source said. The man, Zahran Hashim, was identified in a video of the purported attackers released Tuesday by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday killings. In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the group said the attackers were “fighters of the Islamic State.” The involvement of a foreign organization would explain how a previously marginal domestic extremist group blamed for the attacks, National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ), could have pulled off one of the worst terrorist atrocities since 9/11. The number of casualties could have been even higher.”

The Wall Street Journal: Sri Lanka Bombers Were Inspired By Islamic State, Government Says

“The suicide bombers who carried out Sunday’s coordinated Easter attacks in Sri Lanka were inspired by Islamic State and may have received funding from the group, Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said in a news conference Wednesday. Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed at least 359 people. Mr. Wijewardene said authorities were investigating whether the attackers had received direct training from Islamic State. He called the attacks a “major lapse” in security by the government, acknowledging that Sri Lanka had been warned by India days before the bombings. “If the intelligence information had been given to the right people, this could have been avoided or at least minimized,” he said. The attackers belonged to a splinter faction consisting of the most extremist members of a Sri Lankan Islamist group, the National Thowheeth Jamath, and drew members from a second Sri Lankan group, the Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim, according to Mr. Wijewardene. The leader of the group, whom the minister declined to name, was one of the suicide bombers.”

The Hill: The Hill: Sri Lanka Social Media Ban Leaves Tough Questions

“Sri Lanka's decision to block all social media following deadly bombings on Easter Sunday is reigniting the debate over how to combat online disinformation. Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and an adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said social media bans are not always effective and raise concerns about free speech. Farid, though, added that he believes the “abdication of responsibility on behalf of social media companies” forced the government of Sri Lanka's hand. “I think given the repeated failures of social media companies to deal with the weaponization of disinformation, it's an understandable response,” Farid told The Hill on Tuesday in a phone interview. “I think this was a proportional response to the horrific violence.” Farid said he thinks the issue highlights the growing lack of faith in tech platforms and increasing understanding of the government's response. “I think now everyone is waking up to the fact that this is a really unhealthy ecosystem,” he said.”

The New Yorker: ISIS Still Has Global Reach, Despite The Caliphate’s Collapse

“Exactly a month after losing its final piece of territory, the Islamic State is giving notice that it can still surprise the world—this time in Sri Lanka. On Tuesday, it claimed responsibility for Easter bombings of three churches and three popular hotels which killed more than three hundred innocent civilians, including more than forty children, and injured another five hundred. “The perpetrators of the attack that targeted nationals of the coalition states and Christians in Sri Lanka were from the ranks of the fighters of the Islamic State,” the isis news agency, Amaq, claimed in its chat rooms on Telegram, a social-media app. “Coalition” refers to an international alliance of more than seventy countries that ousted isis from its territory in the Middle East. A second isis communique included a video of eight men standing in front of the black-and-white isis flag, seven with their faces covered by black-and-white kaffiyehs, as they pledged bayat, or allegiance, to the Islamic State. The communique identified each man who targeted each site on an “infidel holiday.” Evidence beyond the claim is far from definitive. But Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, at a press conference, that government officials had early suspicions about ties between isis and two local Muslim extremist groups.”

The Wall Street Journal: Macron, Ardern Seek Pledge To Purge Extremism From Social Media

“The leaders of New Zealand and France plan to host a meeting of global leaders and tech executives in an effort to stamp out the transmission of violent extremism on social-media sites. Meetings over two days in Paris next month will take place alongside a Group of Seven meeting of digital ministers and a separate technology summit, New Zealand’s government said Wednesday. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she and her co-chair, French President Emmanuel Macron, would seek a pledge from attendees to end the use of social media to organize and promote terrorism and extremist violence. “Our plan is to try and build unity around this issue,” Ms Ardern said. She said details of the pledge were still being developed, and attendees for the event are yet to be confirmed. New Zealand’s leader is seeking to take a leadership role on the issue after a gunman killed 50 people during an attack on two mosques in Christchurch, the country’s second-largest city, on March 15.”

The Economist: Global Jihadists Increasingly Turn Against Religious Targets

“TWO DECADES ago al-Qaeda made its name by mounting a succession of bombings against America across the world. These included the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; an American destroyer moored in Yemen in 2000; and, most bloodily of all, the attacks of September 11th 2001 on American soil. Though Osama bin Laden, the group’s founder, had long railed against “Jews and Crusaders”, so giving a religious sectarian dimension to his global jihad, his central target was clear: “kill the Americans and their allies.”

United States

The Washington Post: ‘Please God Let There Be A Race War.’ Coast Guard Officer’s ‘Views On Race’ Drove His Plans To Launch Terrorist Attack, Prosecutors Allege

“The U.S. Coast Guard officer accused of planning a widespread terrorist attack on politicians and media personalities in the Washington area conducted Internet searches for the best gun to kill black people and the home addresses of two Supreme Court justices before going to firearms sales websites, prosecutors asserted in new court documents. The fresh allegations come in a motion that government officials filed Tuesday as they prepare to argue that Lt. Christopher P. Hasson, 49, should remain in jail pending trial. Hasson is set to appear in federal court in Greenbelt, Md.,, Md., on Thursday for a review of his detention status. Hasson, of Silver Spring, has been charged with drug and weapons offenses but no *terrorism-related counts. He has entered a plea of not guilty. His federal public defender has argued that the government has no proof Hasson intended to launch an attack and that it would be inappropriate to keep him in jail on drug and weapons charges. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office say in recent court filings that Hasson “continues to pose a serious danger.” Prosecutors also argued that one of the weapons counts involving the suspected illegal possession of silencers reflects what they say is a plot for destruction by a self-professed neo-Nazi.”

CBS News: Car Rams Into 8 People At Calif. Intersection, Possibly On Purpose

“A car plowed into eight pedestrians at a Sunnyvale, California intersection Tuesday evening and it might have been intentional, authorities said. Some of those hit have serious injuries and all were brought to area hospitals, the city's Department of Public Safety told CBS News. Sunnyvale DPS Captain Jim Choi said the youngest person struck was 13 years old. Choi said the car stopped when it hit a tree and the driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was taken into custody but hasn't been charged with anything yet. The driver's name hasn't been released. Choi told CBS San Francisco the car sped through an intersection and directly into people in a crosswalk and on a sidewalk. "It looks like this may have been an intentional act by the driver, based upon what's on scene and also some statements of pain," Choi said. "We are conducting that investigation. We don't know what the motives were.”

Syria

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Struggles to Get International Support for Syria Plan

“The Trump administration has asked at least 21 of its allies to provide troops and other logistical support in Syria to prevent an Islamic State resurgence, but nearly half so far have declined and others have agreed to provide only nominal support, U.S. and foreign officials said.The hurdles to assembling an allied force in Syria have complicated U.S. planning and troop withdrawal efforts in the period following the capture last month of the last Islamic State-held territory in Syria, officials said. Besides keeping up pressure on Islamist extremist groups, the U.S. wants to dissuade Turkey from crossing its southern border into Syria to pursue Kurdish forces, who have been an ally to the U.S. military, but are seen as an enemy by Ankara. The Trump administration has held at least two rounds of formal meetings to present its official position in the hope that allies would contribute to ongoing efforts, several U.S. and foreign officials said. At those sessions, allies were provided with lists of required capabilities to take away and consider, according to two foreign officials who were briefed on the meetings. One set of meetings took place in January, when the U.S. held meetings in the capitals of seven allies, many already part of the campaign against Islamic State: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia and Belgium, according to one of the foreign officials.”

Israel Hayom: Report: 18 Killed In Separate Blasts In Syria

“At least 17 people were killed on Wednesday in an explosion in the center of Jisr al-Shughour, a rebel-held city in northwestern Syria, a day after heavy Russian air strikes, rescue workers and residents said. Several buildings collapsed as a result of the blast which shook the city in Idlib province, near a road between the coastal city of Latakia and city of Aleppo. The city has been a target of bombardment by the Russian air force and the Syrian army in recent weeks. Most of its inhabitants have fled to the safety of areas close to the Turkish border, residents and local officials say. In a separate incident, Syrian state-run media reported a bomb had killed a civilian and wounded five other people in a Damascus neighborhood. The official SANA news agency says the bomb had been placed in a car in the Nahr Aysheh district in southern Damascus and killed the driver when it detonated. The agency says an investigation is underway.”

Al Arabiya: 12 Killed In Blast In Northwest Syria, Says Monitor

“Twelve people, all but one civilians, were killed in an explosion in the militant-held region of Idlib in northwest Syria on Wednesday, a war monitor said. It was not clear if the cause of the blast near the market in the town of Jisr al-Shughur was a car bomb, or a vehicle carrying explosives, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.”

The Washington Post: Amal Clooney: Prosecute Islamic State Extremists For Rape

“Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney on Tuesday demanded justice for victims of an “epidemic of sexual violence” in conflicts, especially rapes and other abuses perpetrated by Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria. The rights activist told the Security Council that if the U.N.’s most powerful body cannot prevent the prevalence of sexual violence in wars all over the world, “then at least it must punish it” and make justice a priority. Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney, addressed the council along with Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nadia Murad and Dr. Denis Mukwege to spotlight the need to prosecute perpetrators and help survivors. But the resolution adopted by the council after they spoke was watered down to win approval, and while it made some advances it failed to take the significant actions they urged. The resolution eliminated long-used language on providing “sexual and reproductive health care” to survivors of rape and abuse to avert a veto from the Trump administration. And it eliminated a positive reference to the International Criminal Court’s work in prosecuting alleged perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. French Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council after the vote that eliminating the reference to sexual and reproductive health of victims of sexual violence “is unacceptable and undermines the dignity of women.”

The Jerusalem Post: Rumors Seek To Drive U.S. And Iran Into Conflict In Eastern Syria

“Over two consecutive nights, rumors of airstrikes by the US against pro-Syrian regime forces in eastern Syria have led to false reports and denials. The frequency of the reports points to attempts by different actors in the conflict to create tensions between not only Iran and the US, but also between the Syrian regime and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are backed by Iran and the US, respectively. The reports are laundered via various publications and spread on social media. For instance Al-Masdar News, which is generally supportive of the Syrian regime, claimed on Tuesday night that the US is "plotting to expel [the] Syrian army, IRGC from key border town.” The report is based on another report in Al-Watan which claims that “these forces will attempt to expel the Syrian Arab Army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the key border town of Albukamal and the large town of Al-Maydeen in rural Deir Ezzor.”

The Defense Post: ISIS Steps Up Attacks On Pro-Assad Troops In Syria’s Badia Desert

“Islamic State drew a significant number of pro-Syrian regime troops into a protracted engagement in the country’s Badia desert over the past week, killing several of them, a number of sources reported. The group “besieged” two units of some 500 fighters near the town of Sukhnah, resulting in a number of dead and wounded, the pro-regime Liwa’ al-Quds (the Jerusalem Brigade) militia claimed on its Facebook page on Friday. According to the statement, the encircled force had been sent out to search for members of the Syrian Arab Army’s 18th Division “who had been lost in the Syrian desert in the village of al-Kom in the area of Sukhnah” in another attack days prior. ISIS claimed responsibility for both attacks through its Amaq propaganda agency. The jihadist group claimed to have killed 20 SAA and pro-regime militia fighters and wounded others in the ambush on the rescue force near Mount Bishri, between Sukhnah and Deir Ezzor on Thursday. According to Amaq, the ambushed force had been tracking ISIS fighters in response to the attack near Kom on Wednesday, after which ISIS claimed to have killed 15 pro-regime fighters. Posts on pro-regime social media accounts appeared to corroborate the attacks, stating that at least a dozen were killed or missing, including an SAA colonel.

Iran

Haaretz: Trump Must Lift Sanctions And Apologize Before Iran Returns To Nuclear Negotiations, Rohani Says

“Washington's announcement that it will halt waivers on imports of Iranian oil caused rising oil prices and further tightened global supply. Iran is willing to negotiate with America only when the United States lifts pressure and apologizes, Iranian President Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday, according to state media. Oil prices hit their highest level since November on Tuesday after Washington announced all waivers on imports of sanctions-hit Iranian oil would end next week, pressuring importers to stop buying from Tehran and further tightening global supply. "We have always been a man of negotiation and diplomacy, the same way that we've been a man of war and defense. Negotiation is only possible if all the pressures are lifted, they apologise for their illegal actions and there is mutual respect," Rohani was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his official website that Iran can export as much oil as it needs."

Iraq

The Washington Post: Iraqi Women, Children Bear The Burden Of IS Legacy

“When Ahmed Khalil ran out of work as a van driver in the Iraqi city of Mosul three years ago, he signed up with the Islamic State group’s police force, believing the salary would help keep his struggling family afloat. But what he wound up providing was a legacy that would outlast his job, and his life. In Mosul and elsewhere across Iraq, thousands of families — including Khalil’s widow and children — face crushing discrimination because their male relatives were seen as affiliated with or supporting IS when the extremists held large swaths of the country. The wives, widows and children have been disowned by their relatives and abandoned by the state. Registrars refuse to register births to women with suspected IS husbands, and schools will not enroll their children. Mothers are turned away from welfare, and mukhtars — community mayors — won’t let the families move into their neighborhoods. The Islamic State group’s “caliphate” that once spanned a third of both Iraq and Syria is now gone but as Iraq struggles to rebuilt after the militants’ final defeat and loss of their last sliver of territory in Syria earlier this year, the atrocities and the devastation they wreaked has left deep scars. “They say my father was Daesh,” said Safa Ahmed, Khalil’s 11-year old daughter, referring to IS by its Arabic name.”

Iraqi News: Iraqi Security Apprehend Senior Islamic State Leader In Diyala

“Iraqi security forces arrested on Tuesday a senior Islamic State leader in the eastern Diyala province, a security chief was quoted as saying. Speaking to Baghdad Today news website, Sadiq al-Husseini, the head of the security committee in Diyala provincial council, said that intelligence forces arrested a senior Islamic State leader after receiving accurate intelligence reports about his location in Hamreen mountain range, some 65 km northeast of the provincial capital Baquba. “The IS leader was implicated in several violence acts that targeted civilians and security forces,” al-Husseini added Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.”

Afghanistan

Reuters: Afghanistan Civilian Casualties Fall Amid Fewer Suicide Attacks-UN Report

“Civilian casualties from the Afghan conflict dropped by almost a quarter in the first three months of the year, amid freezing winter weather and a sharp fall in the number of suicide attacks, the United Nations said in a report on Wednesday. Overall civilian casualties fell to 1,773 in the January to March period, a 23 percent drop from the same period a year earlier, the latest report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said. That was made up of 581 killed and 1,192 wounded. At the same time, the report pointed to the large number of casualties caused by U.S. and Afghan government air strikes, which killed 145 people and made up the largest single cause of civilian deaths during the period. It said 140 of those came from U.S. air strikes. With overall casualties caused by militant groups down by more than a third over the period, for the first time since the UN began compiling records more than a decade ago, pro-government forces caused more deaths. “A shocking number of civilians continue to be killed and maimed each day,” Tadamichi Yamamoto, the top UN official in Afghanistan, said in a statement calling on all sides to do more to protect civilians.”

Xinhua: Taliban Shadow District Chief Among 17 Killed In N. Afghanistan

“A total of 17 militants including a key Taliban commander and shadow district chief Mawlawi Abdul Razaq have been killed and 13 others injured in Dasht-e-Qala district of Afghanistan's northern Takhar province, said an army statement released here Wednesday. The government forces, according to the statement, launched “massive offensive against Taliban insurgents in Dasht-e-Qala district early Wednesday morning” and so far 17 armed militants including eminent commander Mawlawi Abdul Razaq, a shadow district governor for the neighboring Baharak district, have been killed and three others wounded. Several villages have also been recaptured, the statement said, adding the operations backed by fighting aircraft would continue until the law and order return there. Taliban militants who overrun a security base in Dasht-e-Qala district last week and expanded their grip there have not commented.”

Yemen

Al Arabiya: Yemen’s Houthi Official Dies In A Hezbollah Hospital In Beirut

“An official in the pro-Iranian Houthi militia in Yemen died in Al-Rasool al-Azam Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburb, al-Dhahiya, on Saturday, sources confirmed on Tuesday to Al Arabiya English. A Lebanese official told Reuters on Monday that the Houthi official died in a hospital in Lebanon without specifiying the location. The Al-Rasool al-Azam Hospital is owned and controlled by the Lebanese Hezbollah. Abdul Hakim al-Maori who held the post of the interior minister in the Houthi militia died at the age of 60 while receiving treatment for a chronic disease in a Lebanese hospital, Houthi-run Masirah TV said on Saturday. But conflicting reports said that he died from injuries sustained from an air strike by the Arab Coalition on a post in Yemen. Lebanon is the home of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement also receives support from the Islamic Republic.”

Arsharq Al-Awsat: Yemeni Activists Blast Houthi Recruitment Of All-Female Militias

“Yemeni human rights activists decried Houthi militias over their wide-reaching campaign for recruiting women and girls in territories under their control. In a fashion which is foreign to Yemen’s Arab heritage, drafted women and minor girls are being trained in armed combat and tasked with specialized missions. The Iran-backed insurgency group has recently celebrated graduating a new all-female brigade, which joined the religiously branded ‘Zaynabiyat’ force. The new unit is said to be led by Zainab al-Gharbani and holds light arms and electricshock weapons. As for its mission, commanders announced that the unit will be deployed to actively disband women protesters holding frequent demonstrations in the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, and other territory run by coup militias.”

Lebanon

Voice Of America: Analysts: US Initiative First Of Many Actions To Drain Hezbollah's Financing

“A United States initiative toward three key figures within Hezbollah's financial networks would be the first in a series of actions against the Lebanese militant group to drain it of resources, analysts predict. The U.S. on Monday offered $10 million for information on three financiers of the Lebanese terror group. “This looks like it will be one move of many targeting the funding streams Hezbollah uses,” Phillip Smyth, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA on Tuesday. “While some offers for rewards have been better with some groups over others, this may show further cracks within the group regarding overseas financiers and those linked to them,” he added. Cash rewards program The U.S. announcement is part of the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, which has largely focused on offering cash rewards for information that leads to the capture of wanted terrorists around the world. U.S. officials said this announcement marks the first time that the U.S. State Department has offered a reward for information on Hezbollah financial networks. “In previous years, Hezbollah has generated about $1 billion annually through direct financial support from Iran, international businesses and investments, donor networks, and money-laundering activities,” Assistant Secretary for State for Diplomatic Security Michael T. Evanoff said during a press briefing on Monday.”

Egypt

The New York Times: Egypt Approves New Muscle For El-Sisi, Its Strongman Leader

“The lone protester stood in an affluent corner of Egypt’s capital on Sunday, nearly an hour’s drive from the downtown square where tens of thousands had massed in 2011 to denounce the country’s strongman leader in the heady days of the Arab Spring. Though he had broadcast a plea on Twitter for others to join him, Ahmed Badawy had only a sign to accompany him this time, black marker on red poster. “No to amending the constitution,” he had written. He was quickly arrested. Egypt has another strongman now, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who tightened his dictatorial grip this week when Egyptians approved a set of constitutional amendments that granted him expansive new powers over the judiciary and Parliament while allowing him to remain in office until 2030. Not surprisingly for a vote that Mr. el-Sisi and his allies stage-managed from the beginning, the authorities said Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the polls closed, that the final count showed the amendments passed 89 percent to 11 percent, with a turnout of 44 percent. The outcome of the three-day referendum crystallized what analysts say has become increasingly evident in recent years.”

Libya

Reuters: Libyan Forces Push Back Haftar's Troops South Of Tripoli: Witnesses

“Forces supporting Libya’s internationally recognized government pushed back troops loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar to more than 60 km (37 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday, Reuters reporters said. The town of Aziziya was fully under the control of the Tripoli forces, with shops reopening after days of fighting, a Reuters team at the scene said. Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a rival government in eastern Libya, mounted an offensive on Tripoli almost three weeks ago but despite heavy fighting last week it has failed to breach the city’s southern defenses. In recent days, forces backing the Tripoli administration have pushed back the LNA in some areas. But fighting still raged in some southern suburbs on Tuesday, with shelling heard throughout the day even in central Tripoli, residents said. The Reuters team driving south of Aziziya through villages on the road to Hira saw several burnt-out cars belonging to Haftar’s forces and five dead fighters. The Reuters reporters made it to about 25 km (16 miles) from Gharyan, the forward base for Haftar’s offensive to take Tripoli. The town could still be a challenge to recapture as it lies in the mountains starting after Hira.”

Voice Of America: WHO: 264 Dead In Weeks Of Fighting In Libya

“The World Health Organization says 264 people have been killed and 1,266 wounded in three weeks of fighting by rival governments for control of Libya. The U.N.'s health agency said large numbers of civilians are seeking shelter from the fighting in medical clinics. But it says its immediate concern is for the thousands of people trapped inside government-run detention centers close to the fighting. Along with a call for an immediate cease-fire, U.N. humanitarian officials say they urgently need more than $10 million to keep helping beleaguered civilians in Libya. The officials say they have received just 6% of pledges so far. Meantime, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi held an emergency meeting of three other African Union members Tuesday to talk about the crisis in Libya. El-Sissi told diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and South Africa that the international community must “assume its responsibility” and bring the warring parties in Libya back to the peace table. ​”The Libyan people have been subject to an abuse of their resources over the past years. Unprecedented chaos caused by militias and terrorist organizations, human trafficking and smuggling due to political disputes between various factions supported by foreign powers.”

Africa

AFP: Morocco Arrests Seven ISIS-Linked Extremist Suspects

“Moroccan authorities said on Tuesday they had arrested seven suspected extremists with links to ISIS. An initial group of six suspects, aged between 22 and 28, were “supporters” of ISIS and suspected of planning “terrorist acts,” the central bureau of investigations said in a statement. They were arrested in the coastal town of Sale, near Rabat, in a raid led by the bureau’s anti-terrorism squad. Electronic devices, bladed weapons, and “extremist” documents were found during the raid, it said. Investigators later said a seventh person had been arrested in the Western Sahara town of Dakhla on suspicion of links with the Sale detainees. Morocco has been spared large-scale extremist attacks since a 2011 bombing in Marrakesh’s famed Jamaa El Fna Square that killed 17 people, mainly European tourists. But authorities regularly announce they have dismantled ISIS cells. Suspected extremists are to go on trial in Sale next week for the murder of two Scandinavian women in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains last December.”

Reuters: Mali Jihadists Say Army Base Attack Was Revenge For Village Massacre

“Al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on a military base that killed at least 11 soldiers, saying it was revenge for the massacre of some 160 Fulani civilians last month, the SITE Intelligence Group said. Sunday’s assault on a base in west-central Mali was the latest in a series of deadly raids by heavily armed jihadists, who have stepped up their attacks in central Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger in recent months. The militants have tapped into festering tensions between semi-nomadic Fulani herders and farming communities across West Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region to try to win support among the Fulani, who often feel politically and socially marginalized. Suspected militiamen from the Dogon ethnic group killed about 160 Fulani in the village of Ogossagou on March 23 in Mali’s worst ethnic bloodletting in living memory. In a statement, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the leading Islamist group in Mali, said its attack was “in commitment to its past vow to avenge and exact retribution for the martyrs from the Ogossagou massacre”, according to U.S.-based SITE, which monitors jihadist websites.”

United Kingdom

BBC News: Teenage Neo-Nazi Admits Terror Offences

“A teenage neo-Nazi who suggested Prince Harry should be shot for marrying a woman of mixed race has pleaded guilty to terror offences at the Old Bailey. Michal Szewczuk, 19, of Leeds, admitted two counts of encouraging terrorism and five of possessing documents useful to a terrorist. The charges relate to a neo-Nazi group called the Sonnenkrieg Division.Co-defendant Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, from west London, pleaded guilty in December to encouraging terrorism. Both of them were granted conditional bail and are due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 17 June. The pair produced Sonnenkrieg propaganda that, among other things, said Prince Harry was a “race traitor” who should be shot, and lionised the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. They publicised the propaganda on the social media site Gab, including on a page for the Sonnenkrieg group itself. Szewczuk, hiding behind a pseudonym, also used a separate account to posts links to self-authored diatribes that called for the “systematic slaughtering” of women and the rape of babies. Detectives found Szewczuk in possession of bomb-making instructions, documents describing how to conduct Islamist terror attacks and a “white resistance” manual.”

France

Kurdistan 24: Top French Court Rejects ISIS Nationals Demands For Repatriation From Syria

“A French court has rejected repatriation demands from its nationals in Syria who are accused of membership in the so-called Islamic State. France’s top administrative court, Conseil d’Etat or the Council of State, said in a court statement on Tuesday that it “rejects the demands for repatriation made by French nationals and for their children, currently in Syria,” Reuters reported. The court statement argued that a judge was unable to rule on the matter because it involved “negotiations with foreign authorities.” Tens of thousands of militants and their wives and children remain in Syrian Democratic Forces) SDF custody after the Kurdish-led group military defeated the Islamic State on March 23. The US-backed forces have called on nations to alleviate their burden and take back their citizens, and even called for the establishment of an international court in Syria to try the prisoners. In March, France said it would support the prosecution of Islamic State fighters in custody in Syria and Iraq, but called the international tribunal a “complex operation.” In Iraq, the French government has cooperated with Baghdad as it continues to hold trials for dozens of foreign Islamic State fighters.”

Southeast Asia

The New York Times: Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ Amid Warnings That Threat Remains

“Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests. The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said. But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs. The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large. As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” and Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense said the danger had not passed."

The Washington Post: ISIS Claimed The Sri Lanka Church Attacks, But There Are Still Many Unanswered Questions

“Days after a series of explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that appeared to target Christians and foreigners and left more than 300 people dead, some details of who was behind the attacks and their motives are beginning to come out. In particular, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks Tuesday, while Sri Lankan authorities said that Islamist extremists had carried out the attacks in retaliation for a white supremacist’s attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, that left 50 Muslims dead. But big, unanswered questions remain about how the attacks were possible and what links exist between the Islamic State and local extremists, if any. Here, we try to break these questions down. In the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s attacks, no group claimed responsibility. Local authorities pointed toward local groups — National Thowheed Jamath and the Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim — but hinted at outside help. On Tuesday, the Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claimed responsibility, putting out a statement that Christians and “coalition countries” were targeted by fighters from its organization. Amaq cited a “security source” as having provided the information.”

The New York Times: Grief, Anger And Recriminations In Sri Lanka As ISIS Claims It Staged Bomb Attacks

“The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the Easter Sunday bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, as the government there raised the number of people killed to 321. The group’s Amaq news agency called the bombers “Islamic State fighters.” The government said the bombings might have been in retaliation for the killing of 50 people last month at mosques in New Zealand, and that two Islamist extremist groups might have been involved, not one. Recriminations continued over the Sri Lanka government’s failure to act on warnings that terrorists were planning to attack churches. The country’s highest Roman Catholic prelate joined those chastising the government. In his first national address since the attacks, President Maithripala Sirisena announced major changes to the country’s security apparatus. “I must be truthful and admit that there were lapses on the part of defense officials,” Mr. Sirisena said. As the first mass funerals were held, grief, for some, was hardening into anger. In a country that is no stranger to religious tensions, some spoke of revenge. Muslim-owned shops were vandalized, and hundreds of Muslim families fled religiously mixed areas.”

Reuters: U.S. Believes There Is Ongoing Terrorist Plotting In Sri Lanka: Envoy

“The United States had no prior knowledge of the Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, but now believes there is ongoing terrorism plotting in the country, Washington’s ambassador to Colombo said on Wednesday. “We had no prior knowledge of these attacks,” Ambassador Alaina Teplitz told reporters in Colombo. “We believe there are ongoing terrorist plots. Terrorists can strike without warning. Typical venues are large gatherings, public spaces.”

CNN: Even In Defeat, ISIS' Ideology Inspires Mass Murder

“Five years ago, ISIS reigned over 34,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria and collected billions of dollars in taxes and oil revenues as well as from looting banks. Today, its so-called caliphate is virtually gone. And yet on Sunday, the continued influence of ISIS' ideology became gruesomely apparent: A terrorist attack, one of the most lethal since 9/11, killed at least 321 people at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. On Tuesday Sri Lankan authorities accused a local Islamist group, National Tawheed Jamath, of carrying out the attacks. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, “This could not have been done just locally,” and that some of the terrorists involved had traveled abroad and had foreign links. A US official told CNN's Barbara Starr that ISIS inspired the group behind the attacks in Sri Lanka. CNN has also learned that an ISIS suspect told Indian officials that he had trained a Sri Lankan militant who is associated with NTJ, the local Islamist group that Sri Lankan officials have blamed for the attacks. The attacks are a terrible reminder that ISIS' ideology, which treats adherents of other religions and Muslims who don't share their Sunni extremist agenda as “infidels,” was not extinguished with the loss of its caliphate.”

Bloomberg: Sri Lanka Attacks Mark The Birth Of Terrorism 3.0

“Until the other day, few Americans could likely find Sri Lanka on a map, nor even dimly remember its British colonial name, Ceylon. But the Indian Ocean nation flashed across news screens over the Easter weekend with a highly sophisticated and lethal series of bombings across the island nation of some 20 million. The attacks were probably inspired, encouraged and possibly assisted by the so-called Islamic State, and — on a population adjusted basis — amounted to a 9/11 level attack on a multicultural and multireligious state, killing more than 320 people thus far across nine sites with hundreds more wounded. The attacks were conducted with suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices, executed at a level that seems far beyond the capabilities of the Sri Lankan radical Islamic splinter group Nations Thawahid Jaman that has claimed responsibility. Previously, the group had specialized in comparatively benign defacement of Buddhist statues (70 percent of Sri Lankans are Buddhists). The idea that this organization could suddenly plan and conduct a nationwide, precisely timed series of nine bombings seems highly unlikely. Thus suspicion grows that ISIS was involved at an operational level — a modus operandi associated with their increasing globalization.”

The Washington Post: Sri Lanka’s Bombings Came At A Time Of ‘Terrorism Fatigue.’ It’s Time To Break Out Of That.

“One disturbing aspect of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka was that the slaughter of 321 victims came at a time when the United States is suffering what might be described as terrorism fatigue. The wars against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are part of a painful past that policymakers and the public want to escape. Those Middle East conflicts were costly and distracting. They didn’t produce many tangible gains, other than killing terrorists. Sept. 11, 2001, feels like it happened a long time ago, and many politicians want to move on. But the networks of violent extremists are still there, stretching to places most of us probably hadn’t even imagined, like Sri Lanka. The bombings there of churches and other sites were allegedly staged by two obscure Islamist groups, National Thowheed Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim — with the Islamic State claiming that it also played a role. Terrorism is metastasizing in other ways, as militant white nationalists join the melee. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, an Australian extremist, allegedly shot and killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month after circulating a manifesto expressing rage at migrants.”

The Washington Post: The Sri Lanka Bombings Are Part Of An Ugly Anti-Christian Pattern Across The Globe

“It is shocking that people who gathered to celebrate Easter together were consciously targeted in this malicious attack,” read a statement from German Chancellor Angela Merkel in response to the bombing of three Christian churches and three high-end hotels Sri Lanka that killed at least 321 people and injured hundreds more. Yet the shocking thing about the carnage is that it is not shocking — and instead forms part of an ugly, predictable global pattern. On major Christian feast days, somewhere in the world, some number of Christians are likely to be killed for no reason other than that they chose to attend religious services. Because Christmas and Easter are the holiest days on the Christian calendar, churches tend to be especially full, presenting ripe targets for anti-Christian hatred. In 2012, a car bomb exploded near a church in Kaduna, Nigeria, while Easter was being celebrated, killing 41 people in an attack suspected of being the work of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. In 2016, 75 people died and more than 300 were injured when bombs exploded in a park in Lahore, Pakistan, as Christians were celebrating after Easter services. The following year, Coptic Christians in Egypt were forced to scale back Easter celebrations after bombings at two churches on Palm Sunday the week before, which opens the Easter observances, killed more than 40 people.”

The National Interest Online: Lessons Learned From South Asia's Terrorism Troubles

“South Asia has one of the highest regional concentration of militant groups in the world, including some of most-wanted jihadist groups by the United States such as Al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Ahead of the expected U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) claimed attack on India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Kashmir’s Pulwama district has revived the concerns of a more lethal and dangerous militant landscape in South Asia. The Pulwama attack has once again exposed the vulnerability of the two South Asian nuclear rivals, India and Pakistan, to terrorist blackmail, by pushing them to the brink of war. The aftermath of the attack underscores a new phase of militancy in violence-infested Kashmir and renewed hostilities between India and Pakistan. In the absence of joint counterterrorism and extremism frameworks at the regional level, South Asian militant groups will continue to exploit inter-state mistrust rivalries and mistrust to expand and entrench themselves in the region. The timing of the Pulwama attack is instructive. It came ahead of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan indicating a revival and return of groups like JeM, which has twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand trained militants, to Kashmir.”

Technology

The Washington Post: Shut Down Social Media If You Don’t Like Terrorism?

“In the aftermath of Sunday’s violent terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government shut down access to social media sites as the investigation into the bombings proceeded. News reports listed Facebook — including its WhatsApp and Instagram platforms — YouTube, Snapchat and Viber as sites the government had banned. According to these reports, the ban will be temporary. This wasn’t the first time the government had shuttered social media in Sri Lanka, although the previous incident, last April, was in response to violence that the government claimed originated from rumors spread on social media platforms. Nor is Sri Lanka the only country to grapple with concerns over social media-inspired violence: India has blamed WhatsApp in particular for inciting violence. Governments around the world have begun to scrutinize how perpetrators of violence use social media to publicize their violent actions. A recent and vivid example is the attempt by the alleged assailant in the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand to live-stream his actions. Taken together, these developments may lead most observers to greet the actions of the Sri Lankan government with a collective shrug, comfortable in the belief that this is simply an effort to deal with negative spillovers from social media platforms.”

The Wall Street Journal: A Silicon Valley Apostate Launches ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ For Tech

“Tristan Harris emerged as the conscience of Silicon Valley two years ago, when his presentations about tech addiction prompted the industry’s giants to change the way they design products and grapple more seriously with the dark side of social media and smartphones. Now he is issuing a new warning: None of the changes are even close to being enough. Starting with a multimedia presentation in San Francisco on Tuesday, Mr. Harris is launching a roadshow in which he will present his central argument that technology is having a broader, more corrosive effect on society than most realize. None of the reform efforts being discussed around Silicon Valley and in Washington are enough to reverse the trends, he believes—not design tweaks or proposals to make companies pay for data or even breaking up the tech giants. Technology hasn’t just hacked the attention of users, but it is having negative effects on their self-esteem through the obsession with likes and followers, and their self-will through features like autoplay on YouTube and Netflix that feeds videos continuously unless users make them stop.”