March 10, 2020

Al Jazeera: US Calls For A UN Vote On Taliban Deal: Diplomats <[link removed]>

“The United States has called for a Tuesday vote at the UN Security Council to endorse Washington's deal with the Taliban that is supposed to pave the way to peace in Afghanistan, diplomats said. The US military has begun withdrawing troops as part of the pullout agreed in the February 29 agreement with the Taliban. The request for a UN vote came after negotiations on a draft resolution, diplomats said on Monday. The deal signed in Qatar is aimed at ending the US's longest war, fought in Afghanistan since 2001. The agreement seeks the withdrawal of all US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in 14 months. It also secured a Taliban guarantee that Afghanistan would not be used as a launching pad for activities that would threaten the security of the US in the future. Intra-Afghan negotiations are also set to begin by Tuesday to work out a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. About 14,000 US troops and approximately 17,000 troops from 39 NATO allies and partner countries are stationed in Afghanistan in a non-combatant role. The US-Taliban talks were launched in 2018 as part of a push by US President Donald Trump's administration to strike a deal with the armed group, which has been fighting the US-led forces in Afghanistan since being toppled from power in 2001.”

Time: Sudan's Prime Minister Survives 'Terror Attack' In Capital <[link removed]>

“Sudan’s prime minister said Monday he survived a “terror attack” after an explosion and gunfire targeted his motorcade in the capital of Khartoum. Abdalla Hamdok, a longtime economist, tweeted he was “safe and in good shape” following the explosion. Sudanese state TV said Hamdok had been heading to his office when the attack took place. Hamdok also tweeted a photo of himself smiling and seated at a large desk, while a TV behind him showed news coverage reporting he’d survived. The attack highlighted the fragility of Sudan’s transition to civilian rule, almost a year after pro-democracy protesters forced the military to remove autocratic President Omar al-Bashir from power and replace him with a joint military-civilian government, which has promised to hold elections in three years. However, Sudan’s generals remain the de facto rulers of the country and have shown little willingness to hand over power to civilians. Hamdok, in his brief statement on Twitter, said, “Rest assured that what happened today will not stand in the way of our transition, instead it is an additional push to the wheel of change in Sudan.” No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.”

United States

The Hill: The Coronavirus: Blueprint For Bioterrorism <[link removed]>

“Regardless of the source of the coronavirus, it is now a roadmap for future bioterrorism. The damage has been quick and enormous — much greater than 9/11 — and worldwide. The responses have been predictable and ineffective. And the cost of a potential weapon such as this is close to zero. It represents the perfect asymmetric warfare strategy, and there should be little doubt these lessons are being studied carefully by military planners in North Korea, Tehran, Moscow, Beijing and desert caves throughout the Middle East.  The conventional, and most likely, view of the COVID-19 outbreak is that it originated in Wuhan, China, near the most sophisticated Chinese bioweapons lab and then proceeded into the world from there, leaving people to guess whether it originated in the lab and leaked, came from wild bats or snakes, or came from an exotic meat market. But now, or in the future, there is another possibility: an intentional bioweapons attack from a non-state (or, perhaps, hidden, state) actor, and that represents a serious threat that America must take seriously. ISIS and other terrorist groups long have sought effective bioweapons as the “poor man’s nuclear weapon.”

Syria

The Daily Beast: Far-Right Terrorists Want Syria Crisis To Bring On Race War <[link removed]>

“The indifference of Europeans and the West to the long Syrian civil war is once again blowing up in their faces. The Assad regime and its backer, Russia, are bombarding Idlib province, the last “safe haven” for the rebels, pushing nearly a million displaced Syrians to flee to the Turkish border.  President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who wants to force the Europe Union to engage, has meanwhile opened his country’s E.U. frontier for refugees to enter the continent. It’s a heartbreaking and chaotic situation where nobody wins—except for the far right.  These extremists are driven by a false narrative of a Muslim “invasion” of the West. For years, it has helped them gain political power while inspiring terrorist attacks in places like Oslo and Christchurch. Now, as boats of refugees arrive again at Greek shores and desperate migrants try to storm their way through fences or slip through rivers and fields, the far right’s mythology is getting a boost. Much like Europe’s refugee crisis of 2015, all corners of the far right are seizing on Turkey’s announced opening of its European borders. In Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Austria, Ukraine, and Greece itself, far-right groups are characterizing this crisis as an all-out race war, declaring “heads should roll and White Men should regain control of their lands.”

Iraq

The New York Times: U.S. Military Reviewing Iraq Operations After 2 Troops Die Fighting Isis <[link removed]>

“American military commanders are reviewing how their forces conduct missions in Iraq and Syria after the deaths of two U.S. Special Operations troops in northern Iraq on Sunday during an operation against Islamic State fighters, military officials said on Monday. The review, spurred by the particular circumstances surrounding Sunday’s mission, will examine how U.S. forces advise and accompany local troops, the officials said. During the review, American military operations will continue, they said. The Americans killed were part of a Marine Special Operations team partnered with Iraqi counterterrorism forces, and were locked in a brutal gun battle while clearing a well-defended cave complex in mountains near the town of Makhmur, roughly 40 miles southwest of Erbil. The U.S. deaths are the first of 2020 in the nearly six-year American campaign against the terrorist group. According to one military official, the Americans who were killed had to be pulled out with a hoist after falling into a crevice. In a statement, Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the American-led mission in Iraq and Syria, said U.S. troops had to deploy additional forces to recover the dead in an effort that took roughly six hours. Other officials said that those additional troops were drawn from the elite Delta Force.”

Turkey

Asharq Al-Awsat:Turkish Interior Ministry: 282 Isis Militants Deported Since November <[link removed]>

“The Turkish interior ministry announced Sunday deporting two German nationals and one Swedish ISIS militant holding French citizenship as part of a program to extradite foreign fighters. It said 282 ISIS terrorists have been deported since November 11. Among them are 32 Germans, 19 French citizens, and six Dutch, six British and three Swiss nationals, as well as two from each of Belgium, the United States, Ireland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Belarus, Switzerland, Australia, Greece and Croatia. Turkey launched the campaign to deport foreign fighters in November 2019, saying it would repatriate most detainees with suspected links to ISIS. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Sunday that Turkey is not a “hotel” for ISIS militants. Speaking to reporters, Soylu said Turkey would send back any captured ISIS militant to his country even if his citizenship was revoked. “We will send them back ... but the world has come up with a new method by revoking their citizenship,” Soylu said. “They are saying they should be tried where they have been caught. This is a new form of international law, I guess.”

Asharq Al-Awsat: Hamas New Base In Turkey After Limiting Presence In Lebanon, Qatar <[link removed]>

“The Hamas leadership is currently based in Ankara and Doha, however, it has been frequently conducting its operations from Turkey, after Qatar and Lebanon asking the movement to reduce its public presence on their territories, sources from the movement told Asharq Al-Awsat. The sources indicated that Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and his deputy Saleh al-Arouri are settling in Turkey at this stage, while others are settling in Qatar and Lebanon. They pointed out that Haniyeh moves between Turkey and Qatar, depending on the situation, and that others stay between the two countries. Haniyeh chose Turkey despite the strong ties he has with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad. In 2017, Qatar asked Hamas not to use its territories in any way that could be interpreted as an attack or aggression directed against Israel, due to political developments in the region. The decision came shortly after US President Donald Trump's attacked Hamas, describing it as a terrorist organization, and criticizing everyone who provided cover to the movement. About a year ago, Hamas received a similar request from Turkey, when Israel launched a media campaign against Arouri.”

Modern Diplomacy: Al Qaeda Thanks Turkey For Protecting It Against Assad, Russia, Iran <[link removed]>

“On March 7th, Al Qaeda’s now largest branch, which is its Syrian organization that used to be called Al Nusra, praised Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan because his Government stands up for Al Qaeda, and for other jihadist organizations which are trying to overthrow Syria’s secular Government, which is led by Bashar al-Assad. Al Qaeda in Syria now calls itself Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and their announcement basically reaffirms their continuing 9-year war against Syria’s Government (which war has been armed and funded mainly by the U.S. and the Saud family), and it especially damns Russia for assisting that secular Government’s efforts to destroy Al Qaeda and all other jihadist groups in Syria, which fight to eliminate all secular government and to replace it with God’s government. Before this group was called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, it called itself al-Nusra, but it is simply Al Qaeda in Syria, and it was the backbone of America’s effort to overthrow Syria’s secular Government and replace it with one that would be selected by the Saud family. The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham announcement is titled “The Moscow Agreement: A New Mirage” and it is signed by a pro-jihadist scholar, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi.”

Afghanistan

Reuters: Islamic State Claims Rocket Attack Targeting Afghan Inauguration: Statement <[link removed]>

“Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack targeting the inauguration of Ashraf Ghani as Afghan president in Kabul on Monday, the group said in a statement on an affiliated Telegram channel without giving evidence. Ghani’s ceremony was disrupted by the sound of two rockets hitting the edge of the compound of the presidential palace compound in the capital Kabul, Reuters witnesses said, but there was no word of any casualties and he continued his speech.”

The Washington Post: The Taliban Deal Is Failing To Take Hold <[link removed]>

“Peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and a delegation including the U.S.-backed government were to begin Tuesday under the accord signed by the Taliban and the Trump administration last month. They won’t, thanks to political chaos in Kabul, where rival presidents were inaugurated Monday, and disputes over a prisoner release. The Taliban has renewed attacks against government forces, killing dozens, despite assurances by senior U.S. officials that a previous reduction of violence would be sustained. In short, the U.S.-Taliban deal is failing to take hold. Yet the U.S. withdrawal is going forward; hundreds of troops are headed out of the country, officials told the Associated Press on Monday. This raises an obvious question: Does President Trump intend to hold the Taliban to its commitments to break with al-Qaeda and negotiate peace with the Afghan government, or will he yank U.S. forces from the country no matter what? The signals are not encouraging. On Friday, the president offered the verbal equivalent of a shrug when asked whether the Taliban might overrun the country and reestablish its harsh dictatorship. “It’s not supposed to happen that way but it possibly will,” he answered. “Countries have to take care of themselves.”

Pakistan

The New York Times: Pakistan Army Colonel, 2 Militants Killed In Shootout In NW <[link removed]>

“A Pakistani army colonel and two militants were killed Monday in a shootout during a pre-dawn raid in the country's northwest, military and intelligence officials said. In a statement, the military described the militants as “high-value” targets who were planning attacks. It said the raid took place on the outskirts of a town called Tank, and said weapons and explosives were found. It did not provide further details on the militants' identities or affiliation. Local intelligence officials gave the identity of the slain officer as army Col. Mujeeb Ur Rehman. The intelligence officials said the slain militants belonged to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group had a strong presence in the region until recent years, when the army killed or arrested most of its members in series of operations. Tank is a strategic town in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, which has witnessed dozens of militant attacks in recent years, most claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. Militants have recently been trying to regroup in the region, raising fears among residents because of the increased army operations against the insurgents.”

Newsweek: Pakistan’s Armed Forces Foil ‘Major’ Terrorism Attempt <[link removed]>

“Pakistan’s armed forces on Monday gunned down two “high-value” terrorists during an intelligence-based operation in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, foiling a major terrorism attempt, according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate. “As soon as troops cordoned the area, terrorists opened fire,” read the statement. “During operation two terrorists (high value targets) were killed. In intense exchange of fire Colonel Mujeebur Rehman embraced shahadat,” it added. According to the statement, a large cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the terrorists’ hideout during the sanitization operation. Prime Minister Imran Khan responded to the intelligence operation by applauding its success and hailing the courage and bravery of the martyred Col. Mujeebur Rehman. He also prayed for the departed soul of Col. Mujeebur Rehman. In a statement, the prime minister said all of Pakistan acknowledged the sacrifices of the armed forces and security institutions. He said the unprecedented sacrifices of the country’s security forces had resulted in the eradication of terrorism from the state and allowed for peace to flourish. Special Assistant to the P.M. on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan also hailed the intelligence operation in a posting on Twitter.”

Saudi Arabia

The New York Times: Militant Hamas Criticizes Saudi Trials Of Members, Backers <[link removed]>

“Hamas on Monday criticized the secretive criminal trials in Saudi Arabia of dozens of members and supporters of the militant Palestinian group. The group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Saudi authorities detained dozens of “the best of and the most elite of the Palestinian people residing in Saudi Arabia.” A popular account on Twitter focused on the arrests and trials of dissidents reported that the Saudi government is conducting the trials before the Specialized Criminal Court, a secretive tribunal established to try terrorism cases. The arrests intensified in 2019 and there has been no official comment from the Saudi government on either the arrests or the trials. Ties have not been warm between Hamas, an offshoot of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, and Saudi Arabia in recent years. The Palestinian group relies more on Saudi’s regional rival Iran for funds, weapons and expertise. Hamas says the detainees, among them some Jordanians, were held for “supporting the Palestinian cause.” Earlier, a Hamas official explained that this means raising funds and soliciting donations. In January, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Tehran to attend the funeral of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq.”

Egypt

Asharq Al-Awsat: Egypt Sentences 41 People To Life On Terror Charges Linked To Hasm Group <[link removed]>

“A military court in Cairo sentenced 41 people to life in prison on terror-related charges, rights lawyer Khaled el-Masry said. The military sentenced 98 others to prison terms ranging from three to 15 years. It acquitted 50. The court convicted the defendants of joining a militant group known as Hasm, which has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Egypt, where it is considered a terrorist organization. Hasm has targeted mainly Egyptian security forces in bombings and drive-by shootings. The 41 were also accused of carrying out several militant attacks, including one that killed a senior Egyptian army officer and the attempted assassination of a deputy public prosecutor in 2016. The verdicts can be appealed, el-Masry said. Egypt has for years been battling a long-running insurgency centered in North Sinai that is now led by an ISIS group affiliate.”

Nigeria

Punch Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills Hospitalised Soldiers, Villagers In Niger <[link removed]>

“An attack by Boko Haram terrorists on an army post in the southeastern Niger region of Diffa left eight dead and three missing, state radio said Monday. Local sources had said Sunday that a “major” attack had killed soldiers who were hospitalised in Diffa, but they did not give figures. Chetima Wangou came under attack by Boko Haram by around 20 heavily armed vehicles, the radio report said. “On the friends’ side there were eight dead, eight wounded, three missing. On the enemy side almost all the assailants were neutralised,” the radio said. It said there were three successive clashes and that vehicles that had managed to cross the border into Nigeria were “almost all neutralised” by air strikes by a joint multinational force of Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. The region which abuts Nigeria and Chad has repeatedly suffered attacks by the Boko Haram jihadist group since 2015, but they have subsided since late last year. The new attack was partially enabled by a lower water level on the Komadougou River marking the border between Niger and Nigeria, a humanitarian source told AFP. In February last year, seven Nigerian soldiers were killed in an attack in the same village of Chetima Wangou.”

Somalia

Air Force Mag: US Airstrikes Kill 6 Al-Shabab Militants In Somalia <[link removed]>

“U.S. airstrikes on al-Shabab targets killed six people and wounded two more in the first week of March as U.S. Africa Command continues to ramp up its operations targeting the group in Somalia. Three of the strikes—two on March 2 and a third on March 5—targeted al-Shabab militants near Qunyo Barrow, Somalia, in the country’s Middle Juba region. A fourth strike targeted one of the terror group’s camps near Gandarshe, which is located about 33 miles south of Mogadishu, on March 7, the command said. All of the strikes were coordinated with Somalia’s federal government. AFRICOM said no civilians were harmed in the strikes. “Al-Shabab’s leadership recently reiterated its primary focus of attacking American and Western targets beyond Somalia’s borders,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Miguel Castellanos, the command’s deputy director of operations, said in a March 5 release. The series of airstrikes brings this year’s total to at least 21 so far. That high pace, following the 63 total strikes conducted in 2019 that killed about 320 terrorists, is part of the “consistent pressure that we’ve applied to that network,” U.S. Africa Command spokesman Col. Christopher Karns said at AFA’s 2020 Air Warfare Symposium. “What we’re doing on the continent is very much containing the threat to make sure that it doesn’t continue to grow in a way where their violence is exported more broadly,” Karns said.”

Africa

Reuters: At Least 43 Killed In Attack On Burkina Faso Villages <[link removed]>

“Unidentified assailants killed at least 43 people in raids on villages in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, in one of the deadliest such attacks of the past year, the government said. The attackers struck at least two villages inhabited by Fulani herders in the North region, near the border with Mali, the government said in a statement on Monday. No claim was immediately made for the attack, but tit-for-tat reprisal killings between the Fulani and rival farming communities have surged over the past year across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, compounding violence by jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State. The violence killed hundreds of civilians last year across the Sahel, a semi-arid strip of land beneath the Sahara Desert, alarming Western powers who have poured money and troops to combat the Islamist groups. It comes as the United States considers a drawdown of troops in the region. Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Sunday’s attack was one of six incidents in northern Burkina Faso since the start of the year that the organization is investigating in which vigilante fighters allegedly killed civilians or suspected jihadists.”

Reuters: Mali Militants Say They Are Open To Talks If Foreign Troops Leave <[link removed]>

“Al Qaeda-linked militants have said they will only attend peace talks with Mali’s government if it expels French and United Nations forces. There was no immediate response from the government which has been proposing talks in recent weeks to try and end an insurgency that has spread violence across the West African state and its neighbors. But Malian authorities have repeatedly said they want French forces to stay, and France has promised to boost its military presence in the Sahel region. Attacks by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger killed hundreds of civilians last year, and stoked even deadlier ethnically-charged reprisals. The bloodshed has worsened despite the presence of more than 11,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Mali and around 5,000 French troops across the region. “There can be no talking about negotiations under the shade of occupation, before the departure of all French forces and their followers from Mali,” al Qaeda-linked Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) said in a statement issued on social media on Sunday. JNIM also called on the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSMA to leave, saying it was echoing the demands of Malian protesters, some of whom have called on foreign troops to withdraw.”

The Guardian: Schools Close In North-East Kenya After Al-Shabaab Targets Teachers <[link removed]>

“A series of targeted killings of schoolteachers by a militia group in Kenya has seen an exodus of staff and the closure of hundreds of schools across the north-east of the country. Thousands of teachers have left their posts in the past two months following several suspected al-Shabaab attacks in the region. Schools in rural areas near the Somali border have been badly hit. On 13 January, suspected members of the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab attacked the village of Kamuthe in Garissa county and killed three non-local teachers and destroyed a communication mast. A few days earlier, a boarding school in another remote village in the Dadaab area of Garissa was targeted by al-Shabaab attackers, according to the Kenyan police. They killed three students and a teacher. Predominantly inhabited by ethnic Somalis, north-eastern Kenya shares a long, porous border with Somalia and it is one of the country’s most marginalised areas. It is inhabited mostly by nomadic pastoralists whose access to education has been limited. “When the teachers leave, the students go back to their nomadic lifestyle,” said Ahmed Abdi Mohamed, headteacher of Balambala boarding school, Garissa county, where seven non-local teachers have left in recent weeks.”

News 24: Boko Haram Jihadists Attack Niger Army Position After Lull In Conflict <[link removed]>

“Boko Haram jihadists have attacked an army position in southeastern Niger, sources said on Sunday, following a lull in violence since the end of last year. The attack on Saturday in Niger's Diffa region, which has been targeted since 2015 by the jihadist group, left an unknown number of soldiers injured. “The military base of Chetima Wangou was attacked by heavily armed Boko Haram elements who came in vehicles,” a local journalist told AFP.  “There were injuries among our soldiers who were admitted to Diffa Hospital for emergency medical treatment,” the journalist added. “The attack took place but we do not have a toll,” a security source told AFP. Chetima Wangou is a small village about 25km southwest of the regional capital Diffa. Since 2015, the group has targeted areas near Lake Chad, north of the city. The attack was the latest ascribed to the jihadist group which began a bloody insurgency in neighbouring Nigeria in 2009 that has spread to nearby countries, prompting a regional military response.”

United Kingdom

The Guardian: Police Referred Own Staff To Counter-Terrorism Scheme <[link removed]>

“Two police forces referred members of their own staff to a government programme designed to steer vulnerable individuals away from committing acts of terrorism, inspectors have revealed. The revelation comes after a 21-year-old frontline Metropolitan police officer was arrested on suspicion of being a member of a banned rightwing terror group. “Insider” threats posed by staff vulnerable to radicalisation are overlooked by the majority of forces, according to a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). The report also called into question the omission of the Ministry of Defence police (MDP) from the list of public sector bodies subject to the Prevent statutory duty, which legally compels workers to refer concerns about extremism to the programme. The MDP is a civilian force that provides armed and unarmed security at sites around the country such as the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, housing estates for military personnel and training areas. Overall, the inspectorate found that forces were meeting their Prevent duty with “many positive aspects of the Prevent work police forces do.”

Technology

The Hill: Facial Recognition Could Stop Terrorists Before They Act <[link removed]>

“America lost another piece of its soul when two homemade bombs exploded on Patriots Day, 2013, at the Boston Marathon. That act of home-grown terrorism killed three spectators and wounded hundreds of others. With it, the innocence of a celebrated event, and others like it, became forever lost. In the seven years since the Boston Marathon bombing, there have been successive acts of domestic terrorism: 14 dead and dozens wounded in San Bernardino, 2015; 49 dead in the 2016 Orlando night club shooting; 8 killed in the 2017 New York City pickup truck incident; 22 killed in the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, And three sailors killed in the Pensacola Naval Air Station shooting last December. All of these crimes were committed by men with deeply extremist views. Most documented their hate on social media postings prior to doing the deed. And some even showed up in a law enforcement database. Regrettably, none of this information was used to prevent their horrific acts. Today, local police and national law enforcement agencies have a greater chance to identify, anticipate and preempt terrorist actions through new artificial intelligence — AI — tools.”



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The Counter Extremism Project - United States
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