**NOTE: Eye On Extremism will be suspended on Thursday July 4 and Friday July 5 in observance of American Independence Day. It will resume Monday, July 8.**

Eye on Extremism

July 3, 2024

Bloomberg: Germany Cracks Down On Foreigners Who Glorify Terrorist Acts

“Germany’s ruling coalition is seeking to crack down on foreigners who glorify the killing of Israeli civilians or similar acts of terror with updated legislation that would facilitate their expulsion from the country. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet will approve the amendment to Germany’s deportation law at its regular meeting Wednesday in Berlin, according to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a member of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats. It’s part of a push to claw back the initiative in an increasingly heated debate over migration, an issue successfully exploited by the far-right Alternative for Germany party. The updated rules would mean that even a single comment on social media deemed to be lauding terror can be enough to prompt deportation for people without a German passport.”

Associated Press: Expanding Extremist Groups In Africa Fuel Worries That They Could Attack The US Or Western Allies

“Violent extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are growing in size and influence across Africa, fueling worries that as they improve their tactics they could attack the U.S. or Western allies. U.S. defense and military officials described the threats and their concerns about growing instability in Africa, where a number of coups have put ruling juntas in control, leading to the ouster of American troops and a decline in U.S. intelligence gathering. “Threats like Wagner, terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations continue to sow instability in multiple regions,” Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in opening remarks Tuesday at a conference of African chiefs of defense in Botswana. “I think we can all agree, what happens in one part of the world, does not stay in one part of the world.””

The CEP CounterPoint: Expert Analysis

• CounterPoint Brief: U.S. Designated Nordic Resistance Movement as Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization
• CEP-KAS: Sahel Monitoring April 2024 
• ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in May 2024 
• The Houthis Fortify Their Regime by Targeting Yemen's Youngest 
• 'We will dance again' – Remembering the horrors of October 7 at a powerful new exhibition

CEP Mentions

DHN: Turkish Right-Wing Extremists Also Active In Germany

“... This is likely to lead to more and more irritation, because the "wolf salute" is considered a distinguishing feature: supporters of the Grey Wolves use the wolf salute to show what they stand for. "This is a right-wing extremist, deeply anti-Semitic movement that is directed against a free and democratic basic order," said terror expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA at the beginning of the year. The ultra-nationalist group was founded in Turkey in the mid-1950s. Its supporters call themselves "Ülkücüler", which translates as "idealists". Anyone who does not belong to the Turkic peoples is considered inferior to them, for example Kurds and Armenians.” Turkish national player Merih Demiral makes the "wolf salute" at the 2024 European Championship.”

NBC News: The Enemy Of My Enemy: Biden Admin Weighs Working With The Taliban To Combat ISIS-K

“Facing a growing global terrorist threat, Biden administration officials are debating expanding cooperation with the Taliban regime in Kabul to help track ISIS-K, the branch of the terrorist group active in Afghanistan, according to two sources familiar with the matter and a former U.S. official. Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit organization, said he was skeptical that the Taliban could be a reliable partner that would help the West prevent terrorist attacks by ISIS-K. Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit organization, said he was skeptical that the Taliban could be a reliable partner that would help the West prevent terrorist attacks by ISIS-K.”

Turkey

Reuters: Turkey Closes Syria Border After Violence Flares In Both Countries

“Turkey closed its main border crossings into northwest Syria on Tuesday after Turkish troops came under fire from Syrians angered by violence against their compatriots in Turkey, a Syrian opposition source and residents said. In Turkey, police detained 474 people involved in attacks targeting the Syrian community across the country overnight, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, in spreading unrest that began late on Sunday. Properties and vehicles owned by Syrians were vandalised and set on fire in the central city of Kayseri, stoked by social media reports that a Syrian man had sexually abused a female child relative. Yerlikaya said the incident was being investigated. The violence spread to the provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep, Konya, Bursa and an Istanbul district, Turkey's MIT intelligence agency said in a statement. There were social media reports of some injuries among Syrians.”

Yemen

Reuters: Yemen's Houthis Claim Attack On Vital Target In Israel's Haifa

“Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday that they, along with the Islamic resistance in Iraq, have conducted a joint military operation, attacking a vital target in Israel's Haifa. The military operation has been carried out with "a number of winged missiles," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement, without identifying the target that was attacked. The Houthi group has been launching drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes since November, in what it says is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Iran-aligned Houthis first launched drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes in November. In dozens of attacks, they have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.”

Lebanon

Associated Press: Hezbollah’s Deputy Leader Says Group Would Stop Fighting With Israel After Gaza Cease-Fire

“The deputy leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday the only sure path to a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israel border is a full cease-fire in Gaza. “If there is a cease-fire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion,” Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in an interview with The Associated Press at the group’s political office in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hezbollah’s participation in the Israel-Hamas war has been as a “support front” for its ally, Hamas, Kassem said, and “if the war stops, this military support will no longer exist.” But, he said, if Israel scales back its military operations without a formal cease-fire agreement and full withdrawal from Gaza, the implications for the Lebanon-Israel border conflict are less clear.”

Middle East

Reuters: Thousands Flee Their Homes As Israeli Forces Bomb Southern Gaza

“Israeli forces bombarded several areas of the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in what could be part of a final push of Israel's intensive military operations in nine months of war. Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, health officials said. Israel's military said that two soldiers had been killed in battle a day earlier. Israel's leaders have said they were winding down the phase of intense fighting against Hamas, the Islamist group that has governed Gaza since 2007, and would soon shift to more targeted operations. Later on Tuesday, 17 Palestinians were killed in Israeli tank shelling of a street in the densely populated Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City in the north of the Strip, medics said. Footage on some Palestinian social media that Reuters was not immediately able to verify showed the scene at a local market, with bread scattered on a floor stained with blood.”

Africa

Voice Of America: Chad, Cameroon Say Boko Haram In Villages After Strikes Kill 70 Terrorists

“The Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad basin says several hundred fighters from jihadist groups Boko Karam and Islamic State West Africa Province have fled to Chad and Cameroon after the task force attacked camps and killed more than 70 terrorists Sunday. The ongoing operation, dubbed Lake Sanity 2, aims to obliterate all terrorist camps around Lake Chad, the task force said. In a video circulated on social media and broadcast on Chadian state TV, scores of villagers shouted that at least two dozen relatives died in attacks in villages along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, and that 12 more people were injured. The four-nation task force, created to fight terrorism in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, said the deceased seen in the video are some of the more than 70 Boko Haram and Islamic State terrorists “neutralized” in Sunday’s attacks. The joint task force also said many jihadists surrendered in the air and ground operations but did not give a precise number.”

United Kingdom

BBC: Hospital Bomb Plotter Guilty Of Terror Charge

“A man who plotted to bomb a hospital in Leeds and an RAF base has been found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism. Mohammad Farooq, 28, targeted St James's Hospital in January 2023 but was stopped by a member of the public. A trial at Sheffield Crown Court heard how the clinical support worker had planned to "kill as many nurses as possible" by detonating a pressure cooker bomb. Jurors unanimously convicted Farooq, of Hetton Road in Leeds. He will be sentenced at a later date. Farooq was employed by the hospital at the time as a nursing assistant. He was stopped from carrying out the attack by a patient who moved him away from the building, talked him down and called police. The court heard how Farooq's first target was RAF Menwith Hill, a spy base near Harrogate which is operated by US and UK staff. When he thought that was not possible, jurors were told Farooq then switched to the "softer and less well-protected target" of St James's Hospital in the early hours of 20 January last year.”

Reuters: Man Convicted Of Terrorism Offence For Planning Attack On UK Military Base

“A British man was convicted on Tuesday of planning an attack on a military base after being arrested with an explosive device in the grounds of a hospital, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said. Mohammad Farooq was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court, in northern England. The 28-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, possession of an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances, possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist, and other offences. Farooq was arrested outside St James's Hospital in Leeds, where he had previously worked as a student nurse, after showing a member of the public a gun and saying he "felt like killing everyone", the CPS said. Police who attended the scene discovered in Farooq's bag a pressure cooker with wires attached, which bomb disposal experts found to be a viable explosive device."

Germany

Reuters: Germany Arrests Five Suspected Of War Crimes In Syria

“German police arrested four stateless Syrian Palestinians and one Syrian national suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria some 10 years ago, prosecutors said. The men, identified in line with German privacy laws only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. are suspected to have been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement armed militia in Syria. Mazhar J. is suspected to have been a Syrian Intelligence Officer, said prosecutors in a statement on Wednesday. "The individuals ... are strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians (which) qualified as crimes against humanity and war crimes," the statement said. Jihad A., Mazhar J. and Sameer S. were arrested in Berlin, Mahmoud A. in Frankenthal in the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Wael S. in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, said prosecutors.”

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