Eye on Extremism
July 18, 2024
Associated Press: Islamic State Attacks On Track To Double In Iraq And Syria Compared To Last Year, US Military Says
“The U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that the Islamic State group is trying “to reconstitute” as the number of attacks in Syria and Iraq is on track to double this year, compared to the year before. IS claimed 153 attacks in the two countries in the first six months of 2024, CENTCOM said in a statement. According to a U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly on the matter, the group was behind 121 attacks in Syria and Iraq in 2023. “The increase in attacks indicates ISIS is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” CENTCOM said. In northeastern Syria, Kurdish-led authorities issued a general amnesty Wednesday that would include hundreds of Syrians who have been held by the main U.S.-backed force over their roles within IS. The U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, are holding over 10,000 captured IS fighters in around two dozen detention facilities — including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them.””
Garowe Online: A Bomb Explosion Reported In Somalia, 2nd Attack In A Week
“A few weeks after a bomb blast in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, another explosion has been reported in central regions, which could trigger questions about the progress made in the fight against Al-Shabaab, a group that has been fighting to take over the government. According to reports, Wednesday's explosion was reported in a restaurant in Beledweyne' Hawo Tako neighbourhood, which is frequented by people from all walks of life, including those from low-income regions within the city. The explosion left a government soldier and a civilian dead, police said, without mentioning the cause of the landmine explosion. Most of those affected were from the Guufaale area of Beledweyne, the capital of the Hiiraan region in central Somalia. Further reports indicate that the explosion also injured a woman who was running the restaurant. She has been taken to a medical facility in Beledweyne, the capital of the Hiiraan region, multiple sources confirmed later.”
CEP Mentions
Stars And Stripes: Rising ISIS Attacks In Iraq And Syria Signify Efforts To Regroup, CENTCOM Says
“...Analysts also have pointed to worrisome indications that the group is resurging, particularly in central Syria. For example, ISIS militants conducted at least 215 attacks in Syria in 2023, a 168% increase over the total in 2022, the international nonprofit Counter Extremism Project said in a March report. “After suffering significant losses in 2021 and 2022, ISIS took on a renewed aggressive posture in 2023 — not only through carrying out more attacks on military and civilian targets in Syria, but also by reintroducing tactics that have not been commonplace for several years,” Gregory Waters, an analyst for the group who authored the report, said in March. Despite the recent increases, overall ISIS-claimed attacks trended downward since at least 2019, according to a March 20 report from The Washington Institute for Far East Policy.”
Voice Of America: US Fears Islamic State Comeback In Syria, Iraq
“...The nonprofit Counter Extremism Project (CEP), which has been tracking IS activity in Syria, has likewise been warning of a more active and violent trajectory. “The level of violence increased in June by every metric compared to May,’ CEP said in its monthly report. “Several brutal attacks were carried out against local tribesmen in the Jubb Jarah region of eastern Homs that resulted in locals hunting down and killing two ISIS members,” it added. “Still, the vast majority of ISIS activity remained focused on [Syrian] security forces.” CENTCOM said it has begun pushing back against the renewed IS activity, launching almost 200 operations with the SDF and the Iraqi military over the first six months of 2024. It says those operations led to the deaths of 44 IS fighters, including eight senior leaders, and the arrest of another 258 IS members.”
ABC News: Neo-Nazi's Social Media Suspension Is Only A Drop In The Ocean Against Extremism, Warn Experts
“...The suspension comes after Sewell was referred to as an 'international movement leader' by not-for-profit the Counter Extremism Project in its submission to the federal government's inquiry, which also highlighted concerns about X and its lack of content moderation. University of Canberra researcher Dr Jordan McSwiney also submitted to the government's inquiry and said while suspending the account was a good step, it didn't address the depth of the problem on the website. "I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves," he said. "I would like to think that anyone who supports and advocates for neo Nazism wouldn't be present on mainstream social media platforms … and I don't think it would be easy for them to raise money that will go into what is essentially an extremist subculture that glorifies violence.”
United States
The New York Times: Why The Pentagon Is Warning That ISIS Attacks Could Double This Year
“Attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria this year are on the rise and on track to double last year’s count, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, indicating a resurgence of the terrorist group a decade after it wrought destruction and death across the region. The group, also known as ISIS, took responsibility for 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of this year, according to a report by the military’s Central Command, despite continued operations targeting the organization’s operatives by a U.S.-led coalition and partner forces in both countries. In all of last year, ISIS claimed 121 attacks in Iraq and Syria, a defense official said. The group, a Sunni Muslim organization that traces its roots to Al Qaeda, exploited the power vacuum that emerged after Syria’s civil war broke out to conquer large areas. Notorious for kidnappings, sexual enslavement and public executions, ISIS took its largest prize when it seized Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, before being beaten back in 2014.”
Associated Press: US Military Pier For Carrying Aid To Gaza Will Be Dismantled After Weather And Security Problems
“The U.S. military-built pier to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to starving Palestinians. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander at U.S. Central Command, told reporters in a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday that the pier achieved its intended effect in what he called an “unprecedented operation.” As the U.S. military steps away from the sea route for humanitarian aid, questions swirl about Israel’s new plan to use the port at Ashdod as a substitute. There are few details on how it will work and lingering concerns about whether aid groups will have enough viable land crossings to get assistance into the territory besieged by war between Israel and Hamas. Cooper said the Ashdod corridor will be more sustainable and it has already been used to get more than a million pounds of aid into Gaza.”
Afghanistan
Reuters: US Aid Vetting Failures May Have Benefited Militants In Afghanistan, Watchdog Finds
“Two State Department bureaus could not prove compliance with internal policies for vetting aid groups in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that received $293 million in funds, raising a risk that extremists may have profited, a U.S. watchdog said on Wednesday. "It is critical that State knows who is actually benefitting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties," said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report. The Taliban, the report said, has tried to obtain U.S. aid funds "through several means, including the establishment of humanitarian organizations," underscoring the need for the department to "fully and consistently assess the risks posed by its implementing partners." The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
Pakistan
Reuters: Pakistan Summons Taliban Envoy After Attack On Military Base
“Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned the Taliban's deputy head of mission on Wednesday and urged the latter's administration to take action against Afghanistan-based militant groups that Islamabad says attacked a military base this week. Militants attacked the base in Bannu in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, ramming a vehicle loaded with explosives into the perimeter wall and killing eight Pakistani security force members. The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, which Pakistan's military said operates out of neighbouring Afghanistan. Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of rising cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration, raising tensions between the neighbours whose security forces have clashed at the border in recent years. The Taliban, whose spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has previously denied allowing the use of Afghan territory by militants.”
Associated Press: Pakistan Summons Afghan Diplomat To Protest A Suicide Attack That Killed 8 Soldiers In The Northwest
“Pakistan summoned a senior Afghan diplomat Wednesday to strongly protest a deadly militant attack that left eight soldiers dead in the northwest bordering Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry said. A bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the ouster wall of an army housing complex on Monday in the city of Bannu in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In return, security officers opened fire, killing 10 insurgents. A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by a militant commander Gul Bahadur, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The TTP is a separate group but also an ally of the Afghan Taliban and has stepped up its attacks in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it asked Kabul to fully investigate the bombing and take immediate action against the perpetrators.”
Yemen
Bloomberg: Damaged Internet Subsea Cables Repaired In Red Sea Amid Militant Attacks On Ships
“Repairs have finally commenced on three subsea telecommunications cables that were damaged in the Red Sea in February, even as Houthi militants escalate their attacks on ships in the area. The AAE-1 cable, a 25,000-kilometer (15,500 miles) fiber optic link between Asia and Europe, was repaired by a ship owned by E-Marine, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Group. The cable came online this week, a Yemeni government official said. The same ship, Niwa, remains in Yemeni waters to repair the remaining two cables, Seacom and EIG. The cables, among more than a dozen that run through the Red Sea, were severed by the anchor of a cargo ship sunk by Iran-backed Houthi militants in late February. Repairs to the cables have depended on gaining access to infrastructure in Yemen’s waters, a task complicated by the country’s split government and the fact the Red Sea is a conflict zone."
Lebanon
The Washington Post: Hezbollah Leader Threatens New Attacks On Israeli Towns As Tensions Rise
“The leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group threatened Wednesday to target new areas in Israel if its military does not stop striking civilians in southern Lebanon. Hasan Nasrallah delivered his televised speech marking Ashura, a Shiite Muslim day of mourning, amid an increase in exchanges of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border and fears that the all-out war in Gaza might expand to other fronts. “If Israeli tanks come to Lebanon, they will not only have a shortage in tanks but will never have any tanks left,” said Nasrallah. Listing towns and villages in southern Lebanon where he said Israeli strikes had killed civilians in recent days, Nasrallah vowed a stronger response if they continued. “The resistance missiles will target new Israeli settlements that were not targeted before. The fighting on the northern border of Israel began just hours after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israeli communities outside the Gaza Strip, with Hezbollah launching rockets in support of Hamas.”
Middle East
Associated Press: Far-Right Israeli Minister Visits Sensitive Jerusalem Holy Site, Threatening Gaza Cease-Fire Talks
“Israel’s far-right national security minister visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday, threatening to disrupt Gaza cease-fire talks. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader, said he had gone up to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of the hostages “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.” The move threatens to disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israel-Hamas war. Israeli negotiators landed in Cairo on Wednesday to continue talks. The visit also came just days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves for a trip to the United States, where he will address Congress. Ben-Gvir said while standing in front of the golden dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque that he “is praying and working hard” to ensure that Netanyahu will not give in to international pressure and will continue with the military campaign in Gaza.
Mali
Reuters: Mali Army Chief Launches Investigation Into Video Of Soldier 'Cannibalism'
“Mali's armed forces have ordered an investigation into a video showing a man in Malian military uniform cutting into a corpse in front of his peers, the army chief said in a statement on Wednesday, describing it as a "rare atrocity" akin to cannibalism. It added that the act did not align with the Sahelian West African nation's military values. Rights groups and the United Nations have repeatedly accused Malian soldiers of serious abuses, including executions and torture, committed against civilians suspected of collaborating with jihadist groups that have been waging an insurgency in the Sahel since 2012. The army has always denied wrongdoing. The shocking video was trending on X on Tuesday and has since been removed for violating the platform's rules. It showed a man in military uniform sporting a Mali Armed Forces (FAMA) badge, carving up the stomach of a dead body with a machete.”
France
France 24: French Security Services Arrest Far-Right Extremist Over Suspected Paris Olympics Plot
“A far-right extremist has been arrested in France on suspicions he was preparing attacks during the Paris Olympics that open next week, a security source told AFP Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The 18-year-old suspected neo-Nazi was the administrator of a group on the Telegram phone application called "French Aryan division" where he made threats against the July 26-August 11 Paris Olympics, the source said. He was detained in the eastern Bas-Rhin region, which includes the city of Strasbourg, and was being questioned by anti-terror police. French security services are on high alert ahead of the Paris Games when around 10 million visitors and 10,000 athletes are expected in the French capital. In May, they arrested a Chechen teenager suspected of plotting an "Islamist-inspired" attack on an Olympics football game in the southeastern city of Saint-Etienne.”
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