“The top U.N. envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the
threat of terrorism is “resurging” with attacks by Islamic State extremists set
to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a “protracted state
of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions.” U.N. Special Envoy Geir
Pedersen said Syria is “riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups,
foreign armies and front-lines” 13 years after President Bashar Assad’s
crackdown on peaceful protests against his government turned to civil war.
Nearly a half million people have died in the conflict and half the country’s
pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced. The Islamic State group
declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and
Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following
a three-year battle that killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in
ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries.”











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Eye on Extremism



July 23, 2024



Associated Press: UN Envoy Warns That Threat Of Terrorism Is `Resurging’ With
Attacks By Islamic State Extremists
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“The top U.N. envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the
threat of terrorism is “resurging” with attacks by Islamic State extremists set
to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a “protracted state
of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions.” U.N. Special Envoy Geir
Pedersen said Syria is “riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups,
foreign armies and front-lines” 13 years after President Bashar Assad’s
crackdown on peaceful protests against his government turned to civil war.
Nearly a half million people have died in the conflict and half the country’s
pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced. The Islamic State group
declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and
Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following
a three-year battle that killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in
ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries.”



Reuters: Israeli Parliament Votes To Label UN Relief Agency A Terror
Organisation
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“The Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval on Monday to a bill that
declares the main United Nations relief organization for Palestinians a
terrorist organisation and proposes to sever relations with the body. The vote
against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees
(UNRWA) is the latest step in a Israeli push against the agency, which Israeli
leaders have accused of collaborating with the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
The bill was approved in a first reading and will be returned to the foreign
affairs and defence committee for further deliberation, the Knesset information
service said. The bill's sponsor, Yulia Malinovsky, was quoted as describing
UNRWA as a "fifth column within Israel". UNRWA provides education, health and
aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and
Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel but relations have
deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called
repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded.”



CEP Mentions



The Sun: Prison Love Triangle How Cops Snared Two Female Prison Workers Who
Sent Sordid Sexts To Inmate – As Ex-Governor Slams ‘There’s No Control’
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“A FORMER prison governor says the system is on the verge of collapse due to
novice guards and out-of-control inmates. The comments of ex-governor Professor
Ian Acheson come following a series of high-profile cases of female prison
staff engaging in inappropriate relationships with male inmates. Among the most
scandalous cases was that of Aleesha Bates, 29, and Jodie Wilkes, 27, who
exchanged thousands of messages with the same inmate during an illicit love
triangle at Buckley Hall jail in Rochdale. Bates even sent naked photos to the
drug trafficker and was given two years and eight months for misconduct, while
Wilkes got 12 months, suspended for two years, in March this year. Professor
Acheson, who has written a book called Screwed about prison problems, says
while overpopulated jails are a major issue, lack of staff discipline and
corruption is rife.”



Yemen



ABC: Red Sea Tensions Reach New High As US Weighs Terrorist Designation For
Houthis
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“Israel and Houthis in Yemen have traded fire for the first time, escalating
tensions nine months after commercial ships in the Red Sea started to come
under threat from the rebel group -- in a waterway the U.S. Navy has been
patrolling since the war in Gaza began. Israel's strike on Yemen's port of
Hodeidah on Saturday killed three and injured 87, the Yemeni Ministry of Health
said, in a fighter jet assault over 1,000 miles away from Tel Aviv. Israel says
it was a response to a Houthi drone attack Friday that killed one person in Tel
Aviv. The exchange of fire was a first for the conflict in the Red Sea, where
Houthi attacks had forced an Israeli port to close but had not struck its
territory. The U.S. Navy has been engaged in a firefight with the Houthis since
October, hitting Houthi launch sites and batting down incoming drones and
ballistic missiles. Tallies of reporting from U.S. Central Command count 14 of
these missiles and nearly 60 drones fired by the Houthis and destroyed by the
U.S. Navy in June alone, which by some assessments has made the sea combat the
United States' most sustained naval fight since World War II.”



DW: Violence Between Houthi Rebels And Israel Escalates
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“Abdel-Malik al-Houthi was resolute. The leader of the Yemeni Houthi rebels
said there was a "new stage of escalation" and he was "very happy" about the
"direct battle" with Israel. A Houthi spokesperson said that there would be no
"red lines" in the response against Israel, marking the readiness for
confrontation. On Friday last week, the Houthis launched a drone attack and
were able to hit Tel Aviv from Yemen, despite the distance of more than 2,000
kilometers (1,243 miles). One person was killed in the explosion and eight were
injured. In retaliation, Israel sent fighter jets to strike military targets
near the port of Hodeida in western Yemen. According to Israeli media reports,
the air strikes targeted oil facilities and a power station. The Houthi-run
health ministry said that there had been several casualties. The Houthi rebels
then targeted the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Israel said it had intercepted a
ballistic missile. The Houthis derive from a tribal group out of northern
Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia. They are Shiite Muslims, but they
belong to a specific branch called the Zaydi Shiites.”



Lebanon



BBC: Damage, Destruction And Fear Along The Israel-Lebanon Border
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“BBC analysis has uncovered the extent of damage caused by nine months of
fighting between the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel. Satellite
photos, radar imagery and records of military activity show that entire
communities have been displaced, with thousands of buildings and large swathes
of open land damaged on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Both sides have
so far stopped short of all-out war, but evidence shows that near daily attacks
have left communities in both Israel and Lebanon devastated. The current
fighting began when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions, which the
group said was in solidarity with the Palestinians, a day after the outbreak of
the Israel-Gaza war. Israel’s military offensive on Gaza was triggered by
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Data gathered by the
US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled) and analysed by
the BBC suggest both sides together carried out a combined 7,491 cross-border
attacks between 8 October 2023 and 5 July 2024. These figures indicated that
Israel has carried out around five times as many as Hezbollah.”



Middle East



Reuters: Israeli Forces Kill Seven Palestinians Including Two Militants In
West Bank Raids
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“Seven Palestinians, including two militant commanders and a woman, were
killed on Tuesday during Israeli raids targeting gunmen in the occupied West
Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. One Israeli raid took place in
the city of Tulkarm, where fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli
soldiers erupted in the streets. Two militants, one from the Islamist group
Hamas and one a member of the rival Fatah faction, were killed, according to
Palestinian sources, as well as a woman, according to the Palestinian health
ministry. The identity of two other fatalities was not immediately clear. An
Israeli military spokesperson said an airstrike had hit armed militants
operating in the area and that exchanges of fire were ongoing. The Palestinian
health ministry said two Palestinians were killed in a separate raid near the
city of Hebron. It did not give their identities. Violence in the West Bank had
been on the rise even before Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that
sparked the war in Gaza. Since then, over 500 Palestinians, including
militants, have been killed in clashes in the West Bank.”



Reuters: Palestinian Factions Agree To Form Unity Government After Talks In
China
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“Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah agreed to end their
divisions and form an interim national unity government during negotiations in
China that ended on Tuesday, China's foreign ministry said. The Beijing
Declaration was signed at the closing ceremony of a reconciliation dialogue
among 14 Palestinian factions held in China's capital from July 21-23,
according to the readout. Previous efforts by Egypt and other Arab countries to
reconcile Hamas and Fatah have failed to end 17 years of power-sharing conflict
that have weakened Palestinian political aspirations, and it remains to be seen
whether this deal will survive the realities on the ground. The meeting was
held amid attempts by international mediators to reach a ceasefire deal for
Gaza, with one of the sticking points being the "day-after" plan - how the
Hamas-run enclave will be governed once the war that began on Oct. 7 ends.
Senior Hamas official Hussam Badran said the most important point of the
Beijing Declaration was to form a Palestinian national unity government to
manage the affairs of Palestinians.”



Somalia



Reuters: Scores Killed In Clashes Between Somali Forces And Al Shabaab
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“Dozens of fighters were killed in clashes on Monday in the southern tip of
Somalia when al Shabaab militants tried to overrun three army bases, officials
and the insurgent group said. A local security official said government forces
repulsed the attacks and safely detonated four car bombs around 80 km (50
miles) southwest of the port city of Kismayo in Jubbaland state. Videos posted
by Jubbaland officials on social media showed at least 35 bodies in a mix of
military fatigues near the village of Buulo-Xaaji. "We thank the federal and
Jubbaland forces who killed over 80 al Shabaab fighters and took their
weapons," the government said in a statement on the state-owned Somalia
National News Agency (SONNA). The government and al Shabaab often provide
wildly differing accounts of the casualties on each side. Farah Hussein, a
military official, said five soldiers were killed. "We got the information that
al Shabaab was coming, we deserted the three bases and then encircled their
fighters, killing dozens of them. I counted 30 dead al Shabaab and I could see
even more bodies lying ahead of me," Hussein told Reuters.”



Mali



Reuters: Over 20 Killed In Attack On Central Mali Village
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“Gunmen killed 26 people in an attack on a village in central Mali's
insurgent-hit Mopti region on Sunday, a local official said on Monday. The
attack targeted a village in the Circle of Bankass, one of several areas in
Mali's north and centre where jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic
State are waging a violent insurgency. Armed assailants opened fire on
villagers working their fields on Sunday evening, Bankass Mayor Moulaye Guindo
said via telephone. Soldiers deployed to the area only reached the village
after the attack, Guindo said, deploring worsening insecurity in the West
African country. The army did not respond to a request for comment. The
insurgency in the Sahel region south of the Sahara has gained momentum since it
took root in Mali on the back of a 2012 Tuareg rebellion. Despite costly
military pushbacks, jihadists have spread into neighbouring Burkina Faso and
Niger, and more recently into the north of coastal countries such as Togo,
Ghana and Ivory Coast. Thousands of people have been killed and millions more
displaced. Around 40 people died in a similar attack on a village in Bankass at
the start of July and over 20 in another attack at the end of May.”



United Kingdom


BBC: Man With Nazi Views Encouraged Terrorism, Trial Told
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“An alleged far-right extremist talked online about making firearms with 3D
printers and buying materials for them from Tesco, a court was told. Gabriel
Budasz, 24, born in Poland but resides in Weston-super-Mare, is on trial at
Winchester Crown Court accused of posting bomb-making tutorials online and
encouraging terrorism. Prosecutor Maryam Syed KC said Mr Budasz expressed
“extreme racist views against black and Jewish people and encouraged others to
direct action against them” online. He denies all charges against him. Officers
reportedly discovered the explosive-making video on his internal computer
storage when Mr Budasz was arrested at his supporting living accommodation in
Drove Road on 1 August last year, the court was told. He asked, while
handcuffed, to turn off his computer with his leg, which was refused. Opening
the case, Ms Syed said Mr Budasz was found by police as someone who used a
number of social media sites under different usernames to post extreme
right-wing material, such as on Telegram, Omegle and Odysee.”



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