Eye on Extremism - April 29, 2020

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Eye on Extremism - April 29, 2020
By: Counter Extremism Project
Re: info@counterextremism.com

As of April 29th - 2020:

Reuters: Driver Who Rammed Paris Police Pledged Allegiance To Islamic State: Prosecutor

“The driver who rammed his car into two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Tuesday. A 29-year-old French man was arrested at the scene of Monday’s attack, which occurred in the suburb of Colombes, in the northwest of the city, and was in custody, the prosecutor’s statement said. The officers had been stationary and conducting routine checks when they were hit by a black BMW. A police source said both policemen had both their legs broken. One also had his wrist broken and suffered a serious trauma to the head. A letter containing a pledge of loyalty to Islamic State was found in the suspect’s car, as well as a knife, the prosecutor said. It did not say if he had been formally charged. The man, who has not been named, was not previously known to intelligence services, according to the department’s statement. A police source said the man had no recent convictions. A judicial source told Reuters the suspect lived in Colombes, about 500 metres from where the attack took place. Footage from the scene on the website of daily newspaper Le Parisien showed one police motorbike sandwiched between the crumpled bonnets of a police car and the BMW. Debris from a second bike lay strewn on the road.”

Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Violate Ceasefire 151 Times In Two Days

“The Saudi-led coalition accused Houthi rebels of committing 151 ceasefire violations over the past 48 hours, meanwhile, the Iran-backed militia group continued to intensify its presence at four fronts in Yemen. On Tuesday, the Arab coalition said the Houthi violations include “hostilities and the use of light and heavy weapons.” The coalition confirmed it was applying utmost restraint and complying with rules of engagement, yet reserves the right of response to self-defense on the fronts. It also stressed its continued commitment to ceasing hostilities amid the pandemic and expressed its support for peace efforts by UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. In a related development, a press office of the Yemeni government forces, supported by the coalition, said on Tuesday, citing its sources, that there were clashes between the government troops and the Houthis in the country's western province of Hodeidah, which resulted in heavy casualties among the rebels and caused serious damage to their military equipment. Early in April, the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Houthi insurgents has declared a two-week ceasefire in the country in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.”

CNN: Senators Seek Details On Coronavirus Impact On Counterterrorism Efforts

“A bipartisan pair of senators pressed national security leaders Tuesday on how the coronavirus was impacting counterterrorism efforts amid warnings that extremists were taking advantage of the pandemic. In a letter, Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said they were concerned about threats from terrorists during the outbreak and cited a Missouri man's plot to bomb a hospital treating coronavirus patients last month and a recent ISIS newsletter calling coronavirus “a soldier of Allah.” They also noted that government counterterrorism officials may have been forced to work from home while some front-line police forces have been hobbled as they fight the virus themselves. “The continuation of existing terrorism threats combined with the prospect of groups like ISIS attempting to exploit the Covid-19 crisis therefore puts a high priority on the federal government maintaining an uninterrupted counterterrorism posture during our response to the pandemic,” the senators wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.”

United States

The Brookings Institute: Preventing Violent Extremism During And After The COVID-19 Pandemic

“While the world’s attention appropriately focuses on the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, the threat of violent extremism remains, and has in some circumstances been exacerbated during the crisis. The moment demands new and renewed attention so that the gains made to date do not face setbacks. Headlines over the past few weeks have suggested that violent extremist and terrorist groups ranging from Colombian hit squads to ISIS affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa to far-right extremists in the United States are watching the disruption caused by COVID-19. Many are at least aware of the potential to benefit from that disruption, and in some cases they are already taking advantage. As with so much reporting on and analysis of the pandemic, however, there is a shortage of data and evidence to support the headlines. The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), where two of the authors work, has surveyed 50 local NGOs it supports to build community resilience against violent extremism in eight developing countries worldwide, to try to understand the nature of the threat. Six themes recur. First, in most communities surveyed, with many schools closed and recreational and cultural activities suspended, most young people are now confined to their homes, and are spending even more time online.”

Defence Connect: COVID-19 An Opportunity For Terrorists Or A Threat To Their Existence

“Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher for the Counter Extremism Project, says that groups like the ‘Nordic Resistance’ and ‘Hundred Handers’ have sought to increase their membership by capitalising on the pandemic, and ‘Generation Identity’ has used the crisis to promote European ethnonationalism. In the Australian context, extreme right-wing groups in Australia are well positioned to use fake news to drive a wedge between ethnic communities, such as by demonising Asians for spreading the COVID-19 virus from China. The coronavirus has made drastic changes to our society, and terrorism and terrorists are not blind to the effects and the opportunities it presents or the coronavirus itself. Whether it is to their advantage or detriment is yet to truly play out.”

Syria

BBC News: Syria War: Dozens Killed In Truck Bomb Attack At Afrin Market

“At least 40 people have been killed in a bomb attack in the north-western Syrian city of Afrin, Turkey says. The governor of the neighbouring Turkish border province of Hatay said a fuel tanker rigged with a hand grenade exploded at a crowded market place. He and Turkey's defence ministry blamed a Kurdish militia group, the YPG, which they see as linked to Kurdish militant groups inside Turkey. Afrin is controlled by Turkish forces and allied Syrian opposition factions. In 2018, they launched a joint operation to drive the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia out of the city and its surrounding region. The Turkish government accuses the YPG of being an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and EU. The YPG, which the US relied on to defeat the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria, says they are separate entities. The fuel tanker exploded at an open air market in the central Souk Ali area of Afrin on Monday afternoon, close to the local government's offices, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. The market is usually full of shoppers in the hours before Muslims break their daily fasts for the holy month of Ramadan.”

Voice Of America: IS Militants Stepping Up Attacks In Syria’s Desert

“Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group have increased their attacks in recent weeks against military forces and civilians in the desert region of Syria. Experts believe the militant group now presents a major insurgent threat throughout the desert, known as the Badiya, a year after U.S.-backed forces declared the territorial defeat of the group in eastern Syria. Last month, IS announced via its Amaq News Agency that IS fighters would begin a new operation dubbed as “the saga of exhaustion 2” against Syrian government forces and allied militias. It reportedly is a second phase of a previous campaign started by the group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed last August in a U.S. operation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. Local news outlets have reported several attacks carried out by IS militants against forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the sprawling desert area, including the Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria, where U.S.-backed forces also control some strategic parts. In those attacks, at least 15 Syrian government soldiers and allied Iranian-backed militia fighters were killed and dozens more were wounded.”

Iraq

Al Monitor: Islamic State Conducts Attacks Near Iraq’s Syrian And Iranian Borders

“An uptick in Islamic State (IS) attacks in Iraq’s Diyala province, which borders Iran but also stretches south to the outskirts of the capital, has concerned Iraqi officials and analysts. On April 27, Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanmi visited the 5th Division in Diyala to assess the current situation in light of the increased threat. There have also been significant security incidents in recent weeks in neighboring Kirkuk and Salahuddin provinces, including an attempted suicide attack on Kirkuk intelligence offices on April 28. A screen grab from an IS video showcasing fighters launching mortars under a bright Iraqi sun “shows they are confident enough now to conduct attacks in the daytime,” a Diyala security officer told Al-Monitor in an interview conducted via WhatsApp on April 25. “The attacks always used to happen only after it got dark,” he added, noting that the screen grab sent to Al-Monitor was of an attack conducted about two weeks before near Lake Hamreen in Diyala. The Diyala security officer, who cannot be named as he had not received authorization to speak to the media, said that “IS uses groves of trees between Kulajo to Jalawla to hide in.” He claimed that among the IS fighters active in the area are Kurdish Iranians who have crossed into the province from Iran as well as dozens of locals from the Karwi tribe in Jalawla.”

Associated Press: Iraq Officials Say IS Targets Intelligence Bureau; 3 Wounded

“A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel, Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group. Iraqi security forces had spotted two men, one wearing an explosive vest and a driver, approaching the gate of the Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Directorate in the Qadisiyah neighborhood in the northern city of Kirkuk, a security official said. The man hurled a grenade and then detonated his explosives vest before entering the premises, the official said. The other man, apparently the driver, sped away from the the scene. There was no claim of responsibility by the Islamic State group, which was largely defeated in Iraq in 2017 but still maintains sleeper cells to target Iraqi forces. Suicide bombings were a hallmark of the militant group, which at the height of its power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria. A senior Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press that the department “had knowledge that Daesh would carry out a suicide operation against the Intelligence Directorate, but we did not know on which day.”

Kurdistan 24: Amid Heightened Terrorist Activity, Iraqi Forces Aggressively Pursue ISIS

“Iraqi forces launched two separate military operations on Monday to pursue the remnants of the so-called Islamic State in central parts of the country as well as in long stretches of desert wasteland near the Syrian border. The offensives come as the terrorist group has renewed its insurgency across various parts of Iraq. One of the operations took place in the westernmost parts of the largely-barren Rutba district of western Anbar province, Iraqi state media INA reported Monday. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—an umbrella grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shia militias known in Arabic as the Hashd al-Shaabi—also participated. The operation came after an incident on Sunday in which fighters thought to be from the Islamic State but described in military statements only as a “terrorist group” launched an armed assault on a village in Rutba’s al-Walid subdistrict, kidnapping one resident. A security unit deployed to the area and clashed with the fleeing fighters, killing one. The exchange also led to the death of one civilian and injuries to three others.”

Afghanistan

Associated Press: Afghan Officials: Suicide Bomber Kills 3 Civilians In Kabul

“A suicide bomber on Wednesday targeted a base belonging to Afghan special forces on the southern outskirts of the capital, Kabul, killing at least three civilians and wounding 15, officials said. The government blamed the Taliban for the attack, which took place a day after the country's defense minister and the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan visited the facility. The bombing happened outside the base for army commandos as civilian contractors working in the facility waited outside to get into the base, said a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media about the attack. Tareq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the site of the bombing was in the Chahar Asyab district and blamed the Taliban for the attack, calling it a crime against humanity. “The target was likely the base itself, but the bomber failed to reach his target and instead killed innocent civilians,” Arian said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Kabul and its surroundings and have repeatedly struck military and civilian targets.”

Middle East

Asharq Al-Awsat: Palestinian Stabs Israeli Woman, Shot By Bystander

“A Palestinian teenager stabbed an Israeli woman on Tuesday before being shot and wounded by a bystander, Israeli police said. The attack came on Israel's Memorial Day, when the country mourns those killed in wars and militant attacks. Israelis usually mark the occasion by visiting the graves of loved ones, but military cemeteries are closed this year and small ceremonies are being held without attendees as part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The police said the 62-year-old woman, who was moderately to seriously wounded, and the 19-year-old assailant, who was seriously wounded, were taken to hospital for treatment. They did not identify the attacker. The attack took place in Kfar Saba, a town near Tel Aviv. Israel has seen a series of shootings, stabbings, and car-ramming attacks in recent years, mostly carried out by lone attackers with no apparent links to armed groups. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups have praised the attacks but have not claimed them.”

Libya

Associated Press: Eastern Libyan Forces Say Turkish Drone Killed 5 Civilians

“Eastern Libyan forces laying siege to the country's capital of Tripoli accused their rivals Tuesday of staging an attack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians. The militia groups loosely allied with a U.N.-supported but weak government in Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital. Khalifa Hifter, who declared the start of an operation to root out the militias and unify the country in 2014, is commander of the east-based forces attempting to take control of Tripoli. They control most of eastern and southern Libya. The embattled administration in Tripoli rules just a corner of the country’s west. Both sides are supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers. The Tripoli-based health ministry reported Tuesday that at least six artillery shells launched by Hifter's forces struck a local field hospital, causing severe damage to the clinic and to several of its ambulances. Patients being treated were evacuated and there were no immediate reports of casualties. It was the third assault on a medical facility in the besieged city in a week.”

The Libya Observer: Libya's Interior Ministry Arrests ISIS Media Expert

“The Libyan Interior Ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA) arrested Tuesday the media expert of ISIS terrorist groups in Sirte, Saied Abdelkareem, (A.K.A. Abu Rami) who is a 34-year-old Sudanese national, born in Sirte. The Ministry said the Anti-Crime-Terrorism Deterrence Apparatus detained the ISIS militant after a security operation that had been ongoing for weeks. Abu Rami was part of Ansar Al-Sharia's media teams from 2012 to 2014, then he pledged allegiance to ISIS and worked at ISIS-linked Al-Bayan Radio in Sirte as a video and news editor and presenter. Abu Rami was part of the team of ISIS senior leader Ahmed Al-Himmali (Abu Abdullah) who was the leader of Tripoli ISIS sleeper cell that carried out attacks in 2014 and 2015 before he was killed by Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous forcs in Sirte Liberation battles in 2016. The Interior Ministry said it had found with Abu Rami an archive for information about the activities of ISIS when they were controlling Sirte, adding that he was later sent to the Public Prosecution for further legal procedures.”

Washington Examiner: Russian Presence In Libya More Dangerous Than ISIS Says US Africa Command

“Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the rebel leader who controls Libya’s oil-rich east, recently declared he has a popular mandate to rule all of the North African nation, a move that may give Russia the upper hand if he can succeed in taking Tripoli amid nearly a decade's worth of sectarian strife. In the disarray since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed in 2011, a civil war has raged across Libya, and ISIS remnants have secured a tenuous footing in the south. But more troubling, say U.S. Africa Command officials, is that Russia has inserted a paramilitary group to support Haftar and position itself on the southern flank of NATO. “They're acting out on U.S. strategic interests in North Africa, but at the same time doing it at a low cost, and if they mess up, then the Kremlin has plausible deniability,” an AFRICOM defense official told the Washington Examiner on Monday. “They are likely banking on that if they come out on the winning side, that they'll have access to lucrative port and mineral extraction deals, as well as have influence over a future government of Libya,” he added. A senior defense official at U.S. Africa Command explained that Russia could benefit from a whole host of economic and geopolitical advantages by siding with a successful Haftar.”

Africa

Reuters: Mozambique Forces Killed Over 100 Islamist Insurgents In Past Month: Government

“Mozambique security forces killed at least 129 insurgents in the northern Cabo Delgado region that has been besieged by violence for at least the last three years, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Since 2017, infrequent but violent raids on government buildings and villages by militias with suspected links to the Islamic State have intensified in the gas-rich northernmost province of one Africa's poorest nations. The interior ministry said the 129 killings were the total for the month, and were a retaliation for an attack in Xitaxi in Muidumbe district earlier in April, where insurgents killed 52 villagers. Little is known about the insurgents, though initial attacks were claimed by a group known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama. More recently, Islamic State has claimed a number of attacks. Security officials have struggled to contain the attacks. Since clinching re-election in January President Filipe Nyusi has vowed to dedicate more resources to fighting the insurgency. Exxon Mobil and Total, among the multi-national oil majors developing the gas projects off the shore of northern Mozambique thought to be worth more than $60 billion, have expressed concern the violence could affect operations.”

United Kingdom

BBC News: Man Jailed For Blackburn Town Hall 'Isis' Bomb Hoax

“A man who planted a fake bomb outside the town hall in Blackburn, Lancashire, has been jailed for three years. Craig Slee, 50, of Logwood Street, Blackburn, left an open laptop with a mobile phone taped to its screen and a record box with “ISIS” written on its front outside the building in May 2019. A detonation team were called and the area was evacuated for three hours. On Friday at Preston Crown Court he was convicted of placing an article with intent. He was given a restraining order banning him from entering a designated area of Blackburn town centre for five years. Lancashire Police said members of the public who found the items left by Slee on King William Street had raised the alarm. Police said the the devices were seized but were found to be not “viable”. Det Con Fiona Hall, of Lancashire Police, said: “This incident had a significant impact and I welcome the sentence which reflects the gravity of the offending. “His actions and complete lack of regard for other people caused widespread and unnecessary worry over an already sensitive and concerning subject.”

France

Associated Press: France: Terrorism Probe Into Car Attack That Hurt 3 Police

“A 29-year-old Frenchman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group is facing possible terrorism charges after he rammed his car into police, injuring three officers. The incident occurred Monday in the northwestern Paris suburb of Colombes, while police were conducting an ID check. The driver slammed into police cars and police motorcycles, sending three officers to the hospital, the national counter-terrorism prosecution office said in a statement Tuesday. The driver was arrested, and investigators found a knife in his car along with a letter pledging allegiance to IS and claiming to want to impose Islamic sharia law around the world, the statement said. Counter-terrorism prosecutors decided to take over the investigation after the driver underwent a psychological examination Tuesday and was found to be of sound mind. The man, who was not identified, is facing possible charges of links to criminal terrorism and attempted killing of officers in connection with a terrorist enterprise, the statement said. More than 200 people were killed around France in Islamic State attacks in 2015 and 2016, and police and soldiers have been repeatedly targeted by violent extremists.”

Germany

The Star: Holocaust Memorial Sites In Germany Fight New Threat From Far Right

“From swastikas sprayed on the walls to Hitler salute selfies, far-right provocations are a growing problem at the sites of former Nazi concentration camps in Germany. Museum directors have sounded the alarm over a spike in incidents, which include visitors writing messages of Holocaust denial in the guestbook and challenging tour guides on the facts of the genocide. “Messages glorifying Nazism or demanding the camps be reopened for foreigners have become more common, “ said Volkhard Knigge, museum director at the former Buchenwald concentration camp in eastern Germany. “There have always been incidents at memorial sites, but we have noticed an escalation due to the far right’s breaching of language taboos, “ he said. At Buchenwald, where 56,000 people died between 1937 and 1945, the number of reported incidents has doubled since 2015. Right-wing extremists have also been known to take smiling selfies in front of furnaces used to cremate victims and leave stickers glorifying their fellow revisionists, Knigge said. More recently, a growing number of tour guides have been interrupted by extremists propagating revisionist theories. Uwe Neumaerker, director of Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, said that his museum faced similar problems.”

Technology

The Guardian: Amazon And Other Platforms Allowing Payments To Far-Right Groups

“Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). The groups still receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter, an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the killing of a protester. The CMD report – called Funding Hate – finds that despite previous, widely publicized crackdowns, and explicit policies forbidding racist far-right groups from their services, companies are still allowing income to flow to white nationalist, neo-Confederate and neo-Nazi hate groups. The report found three such groups were still using DonorBox, including the American Freedom party, which advocates the deportation of non-white people and the creation of a white ethnostate. DonorBox banned the Council of Conservative Citizens, which Roof named as the source of his beliefs about “black-on-white crime”, after being contacted by CMD.”