Eye on Extremism
April 24, 2020
The
Wall Street Journal: In A Global First, Syrians Face Trial For State
Torture
“The first trial on Syrian state torture began Thursday in Germany,
in what lawyers and human-rights groups see as a test case for the
role European courts can play in accountability for war crimes
committed in the Syrian conflict. The case involves two former members
of the Syrian government’s intelligence service who allegedly
participated in the suppression of opposition activity stemming from
the 2011 antigovernment uprising, according to German federal
prosecutors. The main defendant, Anwar Raslan, 57, led an
investigations unit of the Syrian intelligence service and is charged
with committing crimes against humanity, 58 counts of murder, rape and
grave sexual assault, according to the indictment. The other defendant
is a lower-ranking officer who, according to the German charges,
helped catch antigovernment demonstrators and brought them to the
intelligence service’s al-Khatib prison in Damascus, which was
supervised by Mr. Raslan. There, prosecutors allege, detainees were
tortured as part of the Syrian secret intelligence’s bid to suppress
opposition antigovernment activities with “systemic, brutal, physical
and psychological abuse.” Mr. Raslan defected and left Syria in late
2012 and arrived in Germany in July 2014.”
National
Review: Revolutionary Guard Chief Orders Navy To ‘Destroy Any American
Terrorist Forces’ That Threaten Iranian Vessels
“The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that Iran
will destroy U.S. warships that threaten Iranian security in the
Persian Gulf, a day after President Trump issued a similar threat
regarding Iranian ships that “harass” U.S. vessels. “I have ordered
our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the
Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran’s military or
non-military ships,” Major General Hossein Salami told state TV.
“Security of the Persian Gulf is part of Iran’s strategic priorities.”
“I am telling the Americans that we are absolutely determined and
serious in defending our national security, our water borders, our
shipping safety, and our security forces, and we will respond
decisively to any sabotage,” the commander-in-chief added. “Americans
have experienced our power in the past and must learn from it.” A day
earlier, on Wednesday, Trump wrote in a tweet that he has “instructed
the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian
gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” Pentagon officials later
said that they would apply the president’s order although it did not
indicate a change in the rules of engagement.”
Voice
Of America: Taliban Rejects Afghan Truce Calls During
Ramadan
“The Taliban has turned down calls for a cease-fire in Afghanistan
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins Friday. The
Afghan government and others had hoped to enable health officials to
better respond to the “common threat” of the coronavirus pandemic. A
spokesman for the Islamist insurgency argued Thursday that its
agreement with the United States outlines an internationally endorsed
“comprehensive framework” on how to promote Afghan peace. “If it is
implemented [fully], it will take us to a lasting cease-fire and
peace,” tweeted Suhail Shaheen, referring to the February 29 landmark
U.S.-Taliban pact. The agreement for a phased withdrawal of U.S. and
coalition troops from Afghanistan calls for the release of up to 5,000
Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails in exchange for 1,000 government
security forces being held by the insurgents. The U.S.-Taliban deal,
endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, required the prisoner swap to
be concluded by March 10, when Taliban and Afghan teams were supposed
to open direct peace talks to negotiate a sustainable cease-fire and
power-sharing arrangement.”
Egypt
Today: Libyan Army Arrests Most Dangerous Egyptian Terrorist In
Libya
“Spokesperson for the Libyan National Army (LNA)Ahmed al-Mismari
announced on Wednesday the arrest of the most dangerous terrorist in
Libya, called Mohammad Mohammad al-Sayyid, known as Mohamed
al-Sanbakhti or “Abu Khaled Munir”. Sayyid was the assistant of
executed Egyptian terrorist Hisham Ashmawy and was involved in
committing terrorist crimes in Egypt, ashe participated in the bombing
of several Coptic churches. According to the official spokesman of the
armed forces, Al-Qaeda terrorist belongs to an Egyptian family
convicted of terrorism, as he has two brothers in Egyptian prisons.He
noted that Abu Khaledis Ashmawy's successor in Libya. On March 2,
Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Egyptian terrorist Hesham Ashmawy and
36 members of Ansar Bait al-Maqdes terror group to death over multiple
crimes including assassinating policemen. The case was referred to the
Grand Mufti for religious advisory on February 1 as a standard
procedure that seeks the religious authority’s approval on sentencing
a defendant to death, although the Grand Mufti's decision is not
binding. In this case, 208 defendants were charged with 54 crimes that
include assassinating policemen, attempted murder of former Minister
of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim, and bombing security institutions’
buildings.”
United States
NBC
News: Coronavirus And Its Social Effects Fueling Extremist Violence,
Says Government Report
“The coronavirus pandemic and its social repercussions are fueling
violence by both frustrated individuals and domestic terrorists,
according to a new intelligence report by the Department of Homeland
Security obtained by NBC News. The unclassified report by a Florida
field office cites two incidents involving suspected domestic
extremists, and two incidents in Florida that DHS labeled
non-ideological. On March 24, the DHS report says, a “racially
motivated violent extremist espousing white supremacist extremist
beliefs died after a confrontation with FBI agents in Missouri as they
tried to arrest him for plotting to blow up a local hospital.” The man
had been the subject of a domestic terrorism investigation for
plotting to commit an act of terrorism — specifically a bombing — and
considered several targets, including a school with a large population
of black students, a synagogue, and a mosque, according to the FBI. As
the COVID-19 pandemic expanded, the man allegedly chose to target a
local hospital with a vehicle bomb to cause severe harm and mass
casualties, according to the FBI.”
Syria
Asharq
Al-Awsat: Israel Warns Hezbollah To Stay Clear Of Its Strike Targets
In Syria
“Israel had deliberately avoided killing Hezbollah members during a
strike on Syria last week, reported the New York Times on Thursday.
According to several current and former Israeli and Middle Eastern
officials, Israel has adopted a policy of warning Hezbollah operatives
in Syria before bombing their convoys to avoid killing them and
risking a devastating war in Lebanon. Hezbollah operatives in Syria
have received surprise phone calls from Israeli officials warning them
to evacuate their bases before they are bombed, according to an
official from the pro-Iran regional alliance, reported NYT. And the
first missile fired at the Hezbollah Jeep last week was a deliberate
miss, a warning shot aimed at forcing the men to flee so their gear
could be destroyed, an intelligence official said. The plan failed in
this case because the men retrieved their bags before the car was hit.
Last August, Israel sent an exploding drone into the heart of the
Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut to destroy what Israeli
officials described as machinery vital to the precision-missile
production effort. But in order to avoid killing Hezbollah members,
the attack took place before dawn when no one was around, the senior
Middle Eastern official said.”
Iraq
Kurdistan
24: Iraqi Raids Kill 10 ISIS Militiants As Terrorist Attacks
Continue
“The Iraqi military announced on Thursday that it had killed 10
“terrorist” in two separate operations targetting hidden Islamic State
positions in rural areas of Diyala and Nineveh provinces in the latest
anti-terror campaign to root out suspected members of the group still
lurking in various parts of the country. In the first incident, a
Diyala Operations Command unit “trapped terrorist elements inside a
hideout and clashed with them in the area bordering Lake Hamrin,” an
area where Islamic State sleeper cells have long taken refuge, said
the Iraqi military communications center known as the Security Media
Cell. Located to the east of Lake Hamrin are the sprawling Hamrin
Mountains, a rugged ridge located in Diyala province near the Iranian
border and westward to the eastern banks of the Tigris River,
straddling the borders of Salahuddin and Kirkuk provinces. The area
has long been a safe haven for extremist groups that maintain caves
and tunnels there from which they have often planned attack on nearby
villages and towns. The military statement said that alleged
terrorists then “tried to escape towards Lake Hamrin, where the army’s
airstrikes hit them, killing seven.” The statement also noted that
security forces destroyed “a hideout that contained foodstuffs, a
motorcycle, 8 gasoline barrels, two gas canisters… and a boat was also
destroyed in the lake itself.”
Afghanistan
Radio
Free Europe: Afghan Government Releases More Taliban Prisoners Before
Ramadan
“Ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Afghan government
has released another 55 Taliban prisoners, the National Security
Council has said. Council spokesman Javed Faisal said in a tweet the
detainees were released on April 22 from nine provinces -- Paktia,
Logar, Badakhshan, Jawzjan, Ghazni, Baghlan, Khost, Paktika, and
Maidan Wardak -- as part of ''our efforts to advance peace and fight''
the coronavirus epidemic. The Western-backed government in Kabul has
released more than 480 Taliban inmates since April 8, while the
militants have freed 60 Afghan security and defense personnel they
were holding. A pact signed by the United States and the Taliban on
February 29 calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban
fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks
aimed at ending the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan. The militant
group has vowed to release some 1,000 Afghan government troops and
civilian workers it is holding. The prisoner swap was scheduled to be
completed by March 10, before the start of intra-Afghan peace talks,
but it has been delayed by disputes between the sides.”
Al
Jazeera: Trump, Qatar's Emir Talk Amid Taliban Attacks Across
Afghanistan
“US President Donald Trump and Qatari leader Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad Al Thani have agreed in a phone call on the importance of
reduction in violence in Afghanistan, the White House said, as clashes
between government forces and Taliban fighters kill dozens nationwide
this week. The attacks are threatening to derail a fragile peace
process, with the Taliban rejecting the Afghan government's repeated
calls for a ceasefire as the country also attempts to deal with a
growing coronavirus outbreak and prisoner exchanges to take place with
an eye to formal peace talks. After a week-long reduction in the
violence leading up to the signing of a troop withdrawal agreement
with the United States in February, the Taliban launched a number of
attacks on Afghan forces, though it has held back on attacking foreign
forces. Eight Afghan security personnel were killed in a Taliban
attack on a checkpoint at the Mes Aynak Copper Mine in eastern Logar
province on Tuesday evening, Abdul Qadeer Mufti, a spokesman for
Afghanistan's Mine and Petroleum Ministry, said in a
tweet.”
Pakistan
Eurasia
Times: Arrested ISIS Commander Reveals Direct Links With Pakistan’s
Spy Agency: Afghan NDS
“According to reports, the Indian Security forces launched a cordon
and search operation (CASO) in the Melhora area of Shopian on Tuesday
night after receiving intelligence about the presence of militants
there, a police official said. The four militants killed in the
encounter, which broke out between militants and security forces on
Tuesday night, were part of the terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
One of the slain militants was a top commander of the terror outfit. A
joint team of Army’s 55 RR, police in Shopian, and CRPF laid a siege
at Melhora village late Tuesday evening. A police officer said that
the operation was launched following inputs about the presence of some
militants in the area. He said that the exchange of fire took place in
the area soon after the joint team fired some warning shots towards
the suspected spot. The militants tried to break the cordon amid the
exchange of fire and an encounter pursued. The police have taken DNA
samples of all four militants and are conducting burial in presence of
the magistrate. So far, one family member of the militant has turned
up for the burial. Those who claim to be family of the killed
militants, their DNA samples will be taken for further course of
action.”
Yemen
Yemen
Online: Al-Qaida Militants Kill Security Member, Kidnap Another In
Southern Yemen
“A Yemeni security member was killed and another was kidnapped
after an attack launched by al-Qaida militants in Yemen's southern
province of Abyan on Wednesday, a government official said. The local
government source said on condition of anonymity that “nearly eight
terror elements of the al-Qaida group attacked a security checkpoint
located in Lawdar district, northeast of Abyan province.” He confirmed
that the attack resulted in the killing of a member of the
newly-recruited security belt forces stationed in the country's
southern part. The source indicated that the attack also resulted in
the kidnapping of another security member from the same checkpoint who
was taken to an unknown destination by the terrorists. The source did
not disclose more details about the nature of the armed attack or the
causalities among the assailants. The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) network, which mostly operates in the eastern
and southern provinces, has been responsible for many high-profile
attacks against security forces in the country.”
Libya
Al
Jazeera: Can Libya's Khalifa Haftar Pull Back Following Tripoli
Defeat?
“The campaign will be swift. This was eastern-based renegade
military commander Khalifa Haftar's pledge to his supporters at home
and abroad when he launched his offensive against the internationally
recognised government in Tripoli in April 2019. But more than a year
into the operation, his Libyan National Army (LNA) could not be
further away from its goal of overtaking the city of 2.3 million
people. On April 14, it was dealt its biggest setback yet when a
counteroffensive by the United Nations-brokered Government of National
Accord (GNA) resulted in the loss of seven western cities stretching
from the capital all the way to the Tunisian border. “Haftar's loss of
an area estimated at 500-square kilometres is an event of seismic
magnitude both for him and his foreign supporters,” said Walid Ratima,
a Turkey-based Libyan columnist. Amid a global economic downturn
caused by the new coronavirus, questions over the feasibility of
Haftar's project are unlikely to fade away from the minds of his
international supporters, said Ratima. “The cost of supporting Haftar,
both financial and material, is becoming too heavy to bear for the
United Arab Emirates,” he said, referring to one of the Ajdabiya
native's key backers.”
Africa
The
Times: Jihadist Massacre Is Latest Threat To £44bn Mozambique Gas
Project
“Islamist militants massacred 52 villagers who refused to join
their ranks in an escalation of terrorism that is threatening Africa’s
largest gas project. The victims were beheaded or shot in northern
Mozambique, home to a £44 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG)
programme that emboldened jihadists are targeting for an Islamist
caliphate. In recent weeks the insurgents have scored their biggest
triumphs in a 30-month onslaught in the southern African state. A
helicopter belonging to a South African private military company,
which replaced defeated fighters from Russia, was shot down by the
militants. Islamic State, which put out a video claiming
responsibility, is feared to have ambitions to establish “franchise”
operations in Africa’s conflict zones.”
Germany
Yahoo
News: German Court Tries IS Jihadist Over Yazidi
Genocide
“A man believed to have belonged to the Islamic State (IS) group
goes on trial in Germany on Friday accused of genocide and murdering a
child belonging to the Yazidi minority who he held as a slave.
Identified only as Taha al-J., the 37-year-old Iraqi man is also
accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and human trafficking
in the case, heard before Frankfurt judges. His wife, a German woman
named Jennifer Wenisch, has been on trial for a year at a Munich
court. She too is charged with murdering the young Yazidi girl who the
pair are believed to have allowed to die of thirst in the Iraqi city
of Fallujah in 2015. The start of Wenisch's trial in April last year
appeared to be the first formal proceeding anywhere in the world
related to the Islamic State group's persecution of the Yazidi
community. A Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, the
Yazidis were specifically targeted and oppressed by the jihadists
beginning in 2015. The mother of the young girl, identified only by
her first name Nora, has repeatedly testified in Munich about the
torment visited on her child, named as Rania. Court documents allege
that Taha al-J. joined IS in March 2013, holding different positions
within its hierarchy in the jihadists' “capital” in the Syrian city of
Raqa, as well as in Iraq and Turkey.”
Europe
The
New Yrok Times: Spain Probes How Ex-Rapper Is Fighter Slipped Into
Europe
“Spanish police who this week arrested a former London rapper
allegedly turned Islamic State fighter in Syria say they have no
evidence he was planning an attack in Europe, but his illegal,
undocumented entry into Spain raises suspicions about his motivation.
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, whose father was convicted in the U.S. of
involvement in al-Qaida bombings, was one of Europe’s most wanted
foreign IS fighters and “extremely dangerous” according to Spanish
police. The 29-year-old was arrested on Monday along with two more
suspects in the southern coastal city of Almería. A National Police
anti-terrorism expert involved in the arrests told The Associated
Press that if Abdel Bary had repented he would have sought a
legitimate way of returning to Europe. “The fact that he used
clandestine means and a middleman in the illegal migration network
doesn't fit the profile of somebody who wants to normalize his
return,” said the investigator. He spoke on condition of anonymity as
he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media. “At this
point, we have no evidence on whether he was planning to stay in Spain
or continue his trip,” he added. “We also don't know what his ultimate
goal was.”
Southeast Asia
The
Manila Times: 6 Abu Sayyaf Rebels Killed, 8 Soldiers Hurt In Sulu
Clash
“Security forces killed at least six Abu Sayyaf terrorists in a
clash that left eight soldiers wounded in the southern Philippine
province of Sulu where the military mounted fresh assault against the
pro-ISIS group, officials said Thursday. Government troops engaged the
gunmen in a battle late Wednesday in Latih village in Patikul town, a
known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, one of 5 provinces under
the Muslim autonomous region. Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, commander of
the anti-terror Joint Task Force-Sulu, said they recovered 3 bodies
and he identified them as Guro Khalid, Udal Muhamadar Said and Budah.
“Based on reports, three more enemies were killed and many others were
wounded in the fighting that lasted over half an hour,” he said,
adding, an all-out offensive was launched to subdue the Abu Sayyaf in
the province. “The armed confrontation further resulted in the
wounding of eight soldiers who were immediately extricated from the
encounter site and evacuated to Kuta Heneral Teodulfo Bautista Station
Hospital and onward to Camp Navarro General Hospital (in Zamboanga
City) for medical attention,” Vinluan said. Lt. Gen. Cirilito
Sobejana, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, asked
Filipinos to pray for the safety of soldiers fighting the terrorist
group, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the extremist group,
ISIS.”
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