March 31, 2020

The New York Times: At Least 27 Afghan Security Personnel Killed In Taliban Assaults <[link removed]>

“Taliban insurgents have killed 27 members of the Afghan security forces, police and government officials said on Monday, as a peace effort brokered by the United States struggles to get off the ground. The Taliban and the United States struck a deal last month allowing the United States and its allies to withdraw their forces in exchange for Taliban promises on preventing terrorism. A Taliban commitment to talk peace with the U.S.-backed government was part of the pact but efforts to get talks going have been hampered by differences between the government and the Taliban on a prisoner exchange and on negotiating teams. The Taliban have not agreed to a ceasefire with government forces and fighting has not ended, although the insurgents have not announced any spring offensive, which they normally do at this time of the year. In the latest clashes, insurgents stormed the compound of a top police officer in the northeastern province of Takhar on Sunday, killing 13 policeman and wounding the senior officer, a spokesman for the force said. In the southern province of Zabul, Taliban forces attacked government security outposts, killing at least 11 soldiers, also on Sunday, police said. The ministry of defense said on Twitter six soldiers were killed in those clashes.”

Premium Times: Terrorism: UN General Assembly Condemns Killing Of Nigerian Soldiers <[link removed]>

“President of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijani Muhammad-Bande, has condemned the recent killing of several Nigerian soldiers by terrorists in Borno State. Mr Muhammad-Bande, who is Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UN, reacted to the incident in a tweet on Monday. Twenty-nine soldiers died when Boko Haram fighters ambushed their convoy at Gorgi Village in Borno State, according to the Defence Headquarters. Coordinator of the Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, a major general, said 39 others were wounded in the attack which occurred on March 23. The Nigerian envoy said the attack was more disturbing coming amid the coronavirus pandemic. “My condolences on the recent heinous attacks in #Nigeria by Boko Haram. I join the international community in its condemnation. “These callous acts are more worrisome in light of the #COVID19 pandemic. “With Nigeria’s leadership and global cooperation, we will defeat terrorism,” he said in the tweet.”

Voice Of America: Lebanese Activists Fear Hezbollah-Led Government Is Using Coronavirus To Solidify Power <[link removed]>

“Lebanese activists and journalists say they fear the Hezbollah-led Cabinet could be using the COVID-19 pandemic as justification to further consolidate its power through targeting dissent. A state of emergency announced March 15 introduced strict restrictions on citizens. Activists deemed the step a “security plan” that lacks regard for public health. They say the government could use its expanded powers to imprison activists who were involved in organizing protests last October. “The government activated criminal laws to arrest and charge people at a time that it did not stop flights from [coronavirus] epicenters like Iran and ignored taking necessary measures to protect the people,” Jad Yateem, an activist and founding member of LiquaaTeshrin, told VOA. LiquaaTeshrin is a group formed by Lebanese activists who demand government reform. The group last week called on the Lebanese government to change its state of emergency in the face the spread of the virus in the country. It said the government needed more effective measures to safeguard society’s health and livelihood. Members of Hezbollah's Islamic health unit walk past closed shops while disinfecting a street, as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus disease, in Sidon, Lebanon, March 28, 2020.”

United States

NBC News: Missouri Man Planned To Bomb Hospital During Pandemic To Get Attention For White Supremacist Views <[link removed]>

“A Missouri man who was killed last week was planning to set off a bomb at a hospital to further his radical white supremacist ideology, federal authorities said Monday. Timothy Wilson, 36, died March 24 when the FBI sought to arrest him after a six-month investigation. A summary of the case in an FBI advisory sent to law enforcement Monday said he met with an undercover FBI employee and talked about setting off a vehicle bomb at a hospital because of “the increased impact given the media attention on the health sector” due to the coronavirus pandemic. Agents said Wilson bought several bags of fertilizer that can be used in bombs and kept them in a storage unit. They said Wilson and the undercover operative visited the hospital and discussed planning the attack. On March 24, Wilson met the undercover at the storage unit and picked up what he thought was a working bomb but was actually an inert device constructed by the FBI. He was killed in a shootout when the FBI moved in to arrest him. “Wilson had taken the necessary steps to acquire materials needed to build an explosive device,” the FBI said last week in a public statement. Investigators “kept close track of Wilson in order to protect public safety.”

New York Magazine: The Prep-School Nazi <[link removed]>

“Six years before he would found a neo-Nazi group called the Base — Mein Kampf–ing its launch with a tweeted Hitler photo and the caption “Führer, you were only the beginning. We will finish what you started” — the prep-school grad from New Jersey was getting dressed in his room at the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. His father, Michael, helped him into his tuxedo jacket. Playing the best-man role, his friend Don fastened a white lily to the lapel. Later, he would be known to his followers as Norman Spear. Now, at 39, he was just Rinaldo Nazzaro. An earlier engagement hadn’t worked out, but today he was getting married. Across town, at the Gramercy Park Hotel, Lyudmila Sergeyeva, Nazzaro’s pretty, dark-haired 31-year-old Russian fiancée, was having her hair done. She put on a strapless Vera Wang wedding dress and ivory Vera Wang Lavender slingback pumps. Her florist Stacey arrived with a bouquet, inspired by Kate Middleton’s, of garden and tea roses and flax flowers. “All white and pure,” as the bride would write later in a Facebook testimonial.”

Syria

The Washington Post: Kurdish-Led Forces Put Down Revolt By ISIS Detainees At Prison In Syria <[link removed]>

“Kurdish-led forces on Monday put down a revolt at a prison in northeast Syria for former Islamic State fighters after militants complaining about their conditions seized control of parts of the facility. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the riot was quelled by Monday night, more than 24 hours after prisoners inside smashed doors, broke down walls and took over at least one wing of the prison. “Due to great efforts made by our forces & swift intervention against the insubordination of ISIS detainees inside one prison, we were able to avoid catastrophe & take control. No prisoners escaped,” the SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Kobane Abdi, said on his Twitter account.The prison revolt was the most serious yet by the thousands of former Islamic State fighters detained in prisons in the area, typically in cramped, overcrowded conditions that have drawn criticism from human rights groups. The uprising coincided with mounting fears across northeast Syria that the coronavirus will arrive in the war-ravaged area, with potentially devastating consequences in the crowded prisons. U.S. officials say about 10,000 foreign fighters from dozens of nations and family members are being held in detention centers and camps there, along with tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis.”

Iran

Reuters: Iran Says Attack By “Terrorists” Inside Turkey Halts Natural Gas Exports <[link removed]>

“Iran said on Tuesday its natural gas exports to Turkey have stopped after an attack on a pipeline inside the neighbouring country, an Iranian official told state TV. “This morning, terrorists attacked a natural gas pipeline inside Turkey near Iran's Bazargan border with Turkey ...Flow of gas has been halted,” said Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, director of National Iranian Gas Co. “The pipeline has exploded several times in the past. It is also likely that the PKK group has carried out the blast,” he told Iran's state news agency IRNA, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. The pipeline, which carries around 10 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Turkey annually, frequently came under attack by Kurdish militants during the 1990s and up until 2013, when a ceasefire was established. Jamshidi said that because of the new coronavirus outbreak, “the Turkish border guards have left, but we have informed them of the explosion and are waiting for their response”, IRNA reported. “It takes usually three to four days to repair and resume gas exports.”

Foreign Policy: How An Iranian Airline Tied To Terrorism Likely Spread The Virus (And Lied About It) <[link removed]>

“There are many reasons why Iran has become the Middle East’s flaming epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. They include the government trying to hide the outbreak; insufficient testing capacity; refusal to cordon off cities and Shiite shrines; superstition, politicization, and propaganda blaming Iran’s usual enemies; and the lack of seriousness in dealing with the crisis. All these factors undoubtedly play a role, but there is another, far less public suspect for bringing the disease to Iran and worsening its spread among the population: a private Iranian airline tied to the regime’s ideological army and sanctioned by the United States, which continued uninterrupted flights to and from China, including Wuhan, many weeks after the epidemic had already broken out. Bahram Parsaei, a member of Iran’s parliament, recently singled out Mahan Air and Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization as the prime suspects behind the country’s devastating outbreak. What has made the suspicions worse are contradictory statements and misinformation coming from officials and airline executives.”

Turkey

Daily Sabah: Turkey Fighting Terrorists' Fake News Campaigns, Spread Of Coronavirus <[link removed]>

“While Turkey struggles to fight the coronavirus pandemic, it is also battling against the disinformation campaigns of terrorist groups, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said Monday. “Just as our government goes after those who practice stockpiling critical materials and price gouging, we are also going after terror groups like FETÖ (Gülenist Terror Group), the PKK and DHKP-C who actively wage disinformation campaigns to undermine our public health and safety measures,” Altun wrote on Twitter. “We are also very careful about confronting disinformation campaigns, as well as misinformed advice on social media as well as other mediums. We are actively fighting against inflammatory and deceptive posts that intend to provoke and agitate our people,” he said. Altun’s statements came after a Cabinet meeting took place headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where the spread of the coronavirus was discussed. Erdoğan launched a national solidarity campaign, which resulted in a large number of politicians, cabinet members and businessmen pledging personal donations for the fight against the pandemic.”

Afghanistan

The Washington Post: Key In Trump’s Deal With The Taliban: Ex-Prisoners Whose Release In 2014 Unleashed Republican Furor <[link removed]>

“As American negotiators raced to clinch last month’s landmark deal with the Taliban, several shadowy figures played a surprising but significant role: former Guantanamo Bay detainees whose release in a 2014 prisoner exchange sparked a partisan firestorm. The so-called Taliban Five, a group of high-level militant inmates traded for an American during the Obama administration, worked behind the scenes to build support for the agreement, current and former U.S. and Taliban officials say. Several of the men wielded their clout, as prominent figures from the Taliban’s pre-9/11 government and longtime prisoners of the United States, to push months of fractious negotiations toward a deal. One of them, a fearsome former commander accused in the deaths of religious minorities in Afghanistan, traveled at least twice to Pakistan to generate buy-in among skeptical militant commanders, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the negotiations. The Trump administration heralded the Feb. 29 agreement as a milestone toward ending nearly two decades of war, but expected talks among feuding Afghan parties have not materialized amid disagreements over initial steps and political disarray in Kabul.”

India

The Diplomat: The Islamic State’s Increasing Focus On India <[link removed]>

“On March 25, a lone terrorist affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) carried out an attack on a Sikh place of worship, the Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib, in Kabul, Afghanistan killing 25 worshipers. Some reports mentioned the presence of three attackers, including suicide bombers, in an attack that lasted for hours holding some 80 people hostage. The terrorist behind the Kabul gurudwara attack has been identified as Abu Khalid al-Hindi (real name Mohammed Mohsin) from the Indian state of Kerala. A statement by the Islamic State’s (IS) Amaq media claims the attack was “revenge for the Muslims in Kashmir” who were facing alleged atrocities at the hands of the Indian government. The recent attack, scattered violence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and recent propaganda directed toward Indian Muslims suggest a reorientation of IS strategy in an attempt to garner support by capitalizing on recent incidents of civil unrest in India. IS has always thrived on polarization between religious groups and social chaos for its activities and recruitment, and India is no exception. This was the second ISKP attack on Afghanistan’s minority Sikh community after the 2018 suicide bombing of a convoy of Hindus and Sikhs in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, which killed 19 people.”

Lebanon

Asharq Al-Awsat: Hezbollah Holds Onto Lebanon’s Cabinet In Message To Its Allies <[link removed]>

“Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's strong support has salvaged the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab from a shakeup, politicians with close ties to the March 8 alliance told Asharq Al-Awsat. Last week, Speaker Nabih Berri expressed anger over the government's delay in bringing back Lebanese expatriates who were stranded in their countries of residence following the closure of Beirut’s airport as part of the coronavirus lockdown measures. The Speaker threatened to suspend his support for the government if it did not act to bring the expatriates back home. “If the government holds onto its position on the issue of expatriates … we will suspend our representation in the government,” Berri said in a statement released by his office. Political sources told the newspaper on Sunday that Diab was concerned that Berri’s warning was in line of a Shiite decision for a government change. However, the sources asserted that the PM’s concerns dissipated after a meeting with the Hezbollah leader’s political aide Hussein Khalil, who delivered Diab a message from Nasrallah. Khalil eased tension between the Speaker and the PM.”

Middle East

The Jerusalem Post: Security Forces Arrest Palestinians Suspected Of Terrorism <[link removed]>

“Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinians in the Ramallah area, including the father of a terrorist responsible for two deadly attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in 2018. The Palestinians were arrested by Israel Border Police officers on suspicion of involvement in several terror incidents in recent months, the Israeli police said. During the operation hundreds of Ramallah residents threw stones, Molotov cocktails, as well as bottles of paint and other objects towards the troops who responded with riot dispersal means including teargas and stun grenades. According to Wafa news agency, troops raided two Ramallah-area villages and detained Omar Barghouti and his son Mohammed in the village of Kobar as well as Mahmoud Murrar, a lawyer from the village of Budrus and seized his car. Omar Barghouti is the father of Asam and Saleh Barghouti who carried out a shooting attack at Ofra Junction on December 9th 2018 which injured seven Israelis, One newborn child, who was delivered prematurely as a result of the attack, died three days later. Asam Barghouti is suspected of carrying out another shooting attack outside the outpost of Givat Assaf, just south of Ofra, days later in which two IDF soldiers, Staff Sergeant Yuval Mor Yosef and and Sergeant Yosef Cohen were killed.”

Egypt

Asharq Al-Awsat: Egypt Postpones Trial Of ‘Hasm’, ‘Liwa Al-Thawra’ Terror Suspects <[link removed]>

“A Cairo Military Court postponed Sunday the trial of 271 terrorist suspects to Monday. The Public Prosecutor had ordered the defendants to be referred to the military judiciary after they were charged with “assuming command of and joining the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist Liwa al-Thawra and Harakat Sawa'd Misr (HASM) groups.” They are also accused of committing 12 terrorist operations against police officers, as well as booby-trapping cars and monitoring public and economic installations and public figures in order to later commit hostile acts against them. According to the probe, the defendants supplied the two groups with money, explosives, firearms, ammunition and other logistic support. They also committed several murders and attempted murders against officers and members of the police force in various provinces of the country. Investigations also linked the case to leading Muslim Brotherhood members in Turkey. “The fugitives abroad devised a terrorist plot to restructure the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, in cooperation with leading fugitives inside the country, in order to commit hostile acts against judicial and police officials, the armed forces and prominent state figures and economic installations,” the probe found.”

Germany

Daily Sabah: Racism Not Main Motive For Hanau Terror Attack: German Police <[link removed]>

“German federal police investigators do not believe that the perpetrator who carried out a deadly terror attack targeting foreigners in Hanau last month was a far-right extremist, local media reported Monday. The suspect, who has been identified only as Tobias R, reportedly chose his victims with the aim of attracting the most attention possible for his conspiracy theories involving secret service surveillance. He did not go through a typical far-right extremist radicalization, the broadcasters WDR and NDR, and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported. A federal prosecution spokesman declined to comment on Monday, saying that investigations are ongoing. Tobias R. stormed into two shisha bars and fatally shot nine people of foreign descent, including five Turks, during the Feb. 19 attack in the center of Hanau. The 43-year-old then returned home and killed his 72-year-old mother and himself. He had disseminated woolly thoughts, abstruse conspiracy theories and racist views online. The reports suggest a change of focus by investigators. Prosecution officials said from soon after the attack that there were “serious indications of a racist motivation.”

Australia

Yahoo News: Charities Watchdog Eyes Terror Financing <[link removed]>

“Australia's charities regulator has 19 investigations under way into terrorism financing. More than 57,000 bodies are registered under the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, which was set up in December 2012. An audit report released on Tuesday found 34 out of 53 terrorism-financing investigations had been completed as of the end of January, with the remaining 19 cases in progress. Seven charities have so far been deregistered as a result of the investigation project, which also involves co-operation with the anti-money laundering body AUSTRAC. The audit report was largely positive in regard to the charities watchdog, which oversees bodies earning about $142 billion a year. To date, 77 charities have had their registration revoked for various reasons as a result of the ACNC's compliance activities. But the auditor-general found there were some issues that needed to be addressed. “The ACNC has processed applications in a timely manner, but should better document assessment processes under its 'light touch' approach to registration,” the audit report found. The commission had been largely effective in helping charities meet their ongoing compliance obligations. “It has been less effective in addressing non-compliance,” the report found.”



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