Eye on Extremism
April 7, 2020
Reuters:
Taliban Break Off Talks With Afghan Government On Prisoner
Exchange
“The Taliban on Tuesday broke off talks with the Afghan government
on a prisoner exchange, a main step in peace talks being brokered by
the United States after it agreed on a troop withdrawal pact with the
militants. Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgent
group’s political office in Qatar, said on Twitter a technical team
would not participate in “fruitless meetings” and the release of their
prisoners was being “delayed under one pretext or another”. The late
February pact between the United States and the Taliban, under which
U.S.-led international forces will withdraw in exchange for Taliban
security guarantees, is the best chance yet of ending the 18-year war.
But peace hinges on talks between the U.S.-backed Afghan government
and the militants. A prisoner exchange is meant to build confidence on
both sides for those talks. A spokesman for the government said it
would maintain its work on the prisoner release plan. “We ask the
Taliban to not sabotage the process by making excuses now,” said Javid
Faisal, a spokesman for the National Security Council in
Kabul.”
ABC
News: UN Report Says Syria Or Allies Likely To Blame For
Attacks
“A U.N. investigation has concluded it is “highly probable” that
the Syrian government or its allies were responsible for attacks on
five facilities in the last opposition stronghold in the northwest in
2019 — a school, two health care centers, a hospital and a child care
facility. The investigators said it is “probable” a sixth attack on a
Palestinian refugee camp in Aleppo was carried out either by armed
opposition groups or by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest militant
group in northwest Idlib province that is affiliated with al-Qaida. A
summary of the 185-page confidential report by a board of inquiry
appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was released
Monday. It was charged with investigating incidents in the northwest
after Russia and Turkey agreed to establish a “de-escalation zone” in
Idlib on Sept. 17, 2018. Guterres said in a letter accompanying the
report that the Syrian government did not respond to repeated requests
to visit the country. Noting the findings, he said, “I would emphasize
in this connection that a board of inquiry is not a judicial body or
court of law: It does not make legal findings or consider questions of
legal liability or legal responsibility.” While the summary said it is
“highly probable” the Syrian government and/or its allies were
responsible for five of the six attacks investigated, it never
mentioned Damascus’ key ally, Russia, which has provided significant
air power to President Bashar Assad.”
United States
NBC
News: Texas Teen Faces Terrorism Charge For Threatening To Spread
Coronavirus, Police Say
“Police in Texas are searching for an 18-year-old girl who claimed
in a series of Snapchat videos to have tested positive for and to be
“willfully spreading” the coronavirus. The teenager, identified by
police in Carrollton, near Dallas, as Lorraine Maradiaga, faces a
charge of making a terroristic threat. “We have no confirmation
Maradiaga is actually a threat to public health,” police said in a
statement Sunday. “We are, however, taking her social media actions
very seriously.” Jolene DeVito, a Carrollton police spokeswoman, said
it is unclear when the videos were recorded. “People started tagging
us and sharing the videos on Saturday,” DeVito told NBC News on
Monday. One of the videos circulating on social media is believed to
have been taken at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site, DeVito said. In
it, a health care professional can be heard telling Maradiaga that she
needs to go home and wait for test results. Another video shows
Maradiaga at a store, DeVito said. “I'm here at Walmart about to
infest every motherf------, because if I'm going down, all you
motherf------ are going down,” she says in the video, according to
DeVito. Another video later shows Maradiaga in a car, coughing into
the camera.”
Iraq
Foreign
Policy: Islamic State Aims For Comeback Amid Virus-Expedited U.S.
Withdrawal
“Inside an operational command room at Ain al-Asad air base, which
is lined with maps of past missions against the Islamic State, three
American radio operators stand at their desks. In past months, they
provided intelligence and helped coordinate their Iraqi counterparts’
operations against Islamic State cells within large swaths of the
Iraqi desert in Anbar province. But since U.S. drones killed Iranian
military commander Qassem Suleimani and his ally Iraqi militia
commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in early January, there has been a
pause as the withdrawing Americans focus on protecting their own
troops. Now the area the Americans are surveying has shrunk down to a
fraction of its previous size, leaving large portions of the desert
unmonitored. Lt. Col. Tim Garland, a U.S. officer who works directly
in anti-Islamic State operations from Ain al-Asad, told Foreign Policy
that if they had once surveyed an area the size of Texas, now they
were looking at a sliver of that the size of Dallas. And the Islamic
State, which has been on the back foot for years now, is eager to move
back into this vacuum, aided by the coronavirus-expedited withdrawal
of U.S. and allied troops in support of the Iraqi military.”
Afghanistan
Al
Jazeera: Taliban Launches Campaign To Help Afghanistan Fight
Coronavirus
“When 55-year-old Khairullah from a village in Afghanistan's
northern Jawzjan province was invited to join a meeting after Friday
prayers on March 27, he was not prepared for what he witnessed.
Despite the unusually cold spring weather, Khairullah, who asked for
his name to be changed, and his neighbours were welcomed by Taliban
fighters holding their AK-47s and dressed in complete medical PPE
(personal protective equipment) for a workshop on the prevention of
the coronavirus. “It's been about a week since the Taliban has been
conducting such awareness campaigns here. They are asking people to
use masks and gloves, talking about washing hands with soap, those
kinds of things,” Khairullah told Al Jazeera, in a phone call from his
village in the Taliban-controlled Darzaab district. “They have
cancelled all public gatherings, weddings and have asked people to
pray at home instead of the mosques,” he added. While Afghanistan has
fewer than 400 confirmed cases of coronavirus, there are worries of an
outbreak of the deadly virus in a country already facing years of
conflict, displacement and poverty.”
Radio
Free Europe: U.S. Rejects Taliban Claim It Is Violating Doha Peace
Deal
“The U.S. military has rejected a claim by the Afghan Taliban that
the United States is violating the terms of a peace deal signed by the
two sides in late February. U.S. Forces-Afghanistan “upheld and
continues to uphold the military terms of the U.S.-[Taliban]
agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless,” spokesman Colonel
Sonny Leggett tweeted on April 5. Leggett also wrote that the militant
group “must reduce violence” and warned that the U.S. military will
continue to defend Afghanistan's security forces if attacked, in line
with the terms of the agreement. In a statement issued earlier in the
day, the Taliban accused U.S. and Afghan forces of conducting raids
and air strikes against the group in noncombat zones and of launching
operations on civilian areas. It also chastised the Afghan government
for delaying the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners as promised
in the agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in the
Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29. The militants claim they have
reduced their attacks compared with last year and warned that
continued violations would create “an atmosphere of mistrust” that
would “damage the agreements” and “increase the level of
fighting.”
Yemen
Asharq
Al-Awsat: Yemen Urges UN Intervention After Houthi ‘Massacre’ At
Women’s Jail
“The Iran-backed Houthi militias’ shelling of a women’s prison in
Yemen’s Taiz region sparked uproar in the country and demands for the
United Nations and international community to intervene to put an end
to the militant’s crimes. The militias had shelled the women’s ward of
the Taiz Central Prison on Sunday, leaving six prisoners dead and 28
wounded, revealed government and rights sources. Yemeni Prime Minister
Moeen Abdulmalek condemned the “terrorist crime,” saying the Houthis
are continuing their “ugly massacres” against civilians. Their attack
against the prison is clear indication that they are maintaining their
aggressive tactics in rejection of all UN and international calls for
peace, he remarked. He listed the Houthis’ attack of the Safer oil
pumping station over the weekend and their continued attempts to
target Saudi territory as new damning evidence of their criminal
nature. Moreover, the PM condemned the international community for
continuing to turn a blind eye to these “barbaric crimes”, which only
encourages the Houthis to maintain their destructive agenda in Yemen
in total disregard for all binding international resolutions.”
Lebanon
The
Jerusalem Post: Mossad Blamed For Assassination Of Hezbollah Commander
- Report
“After a Hezbollah commander in charge of pursuing spies and
collaborators was found killed in southern Lebanon over the weekend,
Lebanese and Iranian media began reporting that the Mossad “and its
mercenaries” were suspects in the assassination. Hezbollah commander
Ali Mohammed Younis was killed by unknown assassins in southern
Lebanon on Saturday. The Hezbollah commander was “responsible for
pursuing spies and collaborators,” according to unofficial statements,
the Iranian Fars news agency reported. The Fars report included an
image of a body lying next to an open vehicle. Hezbollah sources said
Younis was found stabbed to death in his vehicle, Lebanese MTV news
reported. He was found south of Nabatiya, Sputnik news reported. A
body was found on Saturday at the same location with stab and bullet
wounds, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. The report
included an image that appeared the same as the image published in the
Iranian reports about Younis’s death. A suspect has been arrested, NNA
reported. Al-Quds Al-Araby reported that the statement issued by
Hezbollah mourning Younis indicated that his death was connected to
his work, adding that the death may have also been due to differences
between Younis and another group over financial issues.”
Nigeria
Sahara
Reporters: Breaking: Boko Haram Terrorists Burn Houses, Loot Shops In
Adamawa Village
“Boko Haram terrorists have attacked a village in Adamawa State,
destroying residential buildings and looting shops. The terrorists
attacked Kirchinga under Madagali Local Government Area of the state
on Monday night, razing no fewer than five houses. A source told
SaharaReporters that the terrorists in large numbers arrived the
village in pickup vans and motorcycles at about 4:00pm. The Boko Haram
fighters also shot an octogenarian in the leg before being repelled by
troops of the Nigerian Army. A resident said, “The devastation would
have been worst but for the timely response by soldiers stationed in
Kirchinga.” Commander of the troops in Madagali, Colonel Abdulsalam,
also confirmed the attack. He said, “Yes, there was an attack but it
was repelled successfully.”
Africa
The
New York Times: Gunmen Kill 25 Soldiers In North Mali Attack: Army
Spokesman
“Unidentified gunmen killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in
an attack in the Gao region of northern Mali on Monday morning, army
spokesman Diarran Koné told Reuters. No other details were available.
Northern Mali is under siege from armed jihadist groups with links to
Islamic State and al Qaeda that have carried out frequent deadly
attacks on the military in recent years.”
North
Africa Post: Tunisia: Two Terrorists Linked With ISIS Killed In
Kasserine
“Tunisia security forces Saturday slain in restive Kasserine
governorate two notorious terrorists whose group is known as an
affiliate cell of the Islamic state terror group (ISIS). Forces from
the defense and interior ministries, Tunis Webdo reports, laid an
ambush on Salloum mountain, a hideout for terror groups. The forces
managed to kill two wanted terrorists who had been part of a string of
attacks on armed forces and the killing of civilians. Mohamed Ouanas
Ben Mohamed Midani Ben Mohamed Hajji aka “Abou mosaab” and Nadhem Ben
Mohsen Ben Ammar Dhibi aka Abou Ammar/Adam, both from Jound Al
Khilafa; a group affiliate to ISIS, were killed in the preventive
operation. Both men according to the defense ministry were involved in
several attacks and other gruesome killings notably the beheadings of
three shepherds, Said Ghozlani (2016), Khalifa Soltani (2017) and
Khaled Ghozlani (2018). The forces also managed to seize weapons and
ammunition in the operation. The Tunisian army and security forces
have lost dozens of men in the Kasserine mountainous region located at
the border with Algeria and used as safe haven by terrorists who often
lay ambushes to security patrols.”
United Kingdom
BBC
News: Boy From Newcastle Accused Of Right-Wing Terror
Offences
“A boy has been charged with right-wing terrorism offences. The
16-year-old from Newcastle faces 11 charges including supporting the
banned neo-Nazi group National Action. He was charged after being
summonsed to Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier, with a first
official court hearing to be held in due course. The offences, which
also include encouraging terrorism and inciting racial and religious
hatred, date from between May and October last year. He was arrested
in October by Counter Terrorism Policing as part of an investigation
into “suspected right wing terrorism online”, a force spokeswoman
said. National Action was proscribed by the government, meaning it is
a criminal offence to be a member, in December 2016. The boy faces
four counts of inviting support for National Action in social media
posts, three of publishing statements to encourage an act of terrorism
and three of distributing materials intended to stir up racial hatred.
He also faces one charge of distributing material intending to stir up
religious hatred.”
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