Eye on Extremism
August 1, 2024
Associated Press: For Iran And Hezbollah, Calibrating Response To Israeli Strikes Leaves No Room For Error
“Two back-to-back strikes in Beirut and Tehran, both attributed to Israel and targeting high-ranking figures in Hamas and Hezbollah, have left Hezbollah and Iran in a quandary. Analysts agree that both strikes hit too close to home to pass without a response, and were serious security breaches for Iran and Hezbollah. Calibrating that response to restore deterrence without sparking an even more damaging escalation may be the most delicate balancing act in nearly a year of teetering on the brink of a regional war. Tuesday’s rare strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed a top Hezbollah commander who Israel says was responsible for a missile strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, killing 12 children and teenagers. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.”
Reuters: Radical UK Islamist Preacher Choudary Jailed For Life For Terrorism Offences
“British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday for directing a terrorist organisation. Choudary, 57, was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun, which was banned as a terrorist organisation more than a decade ago, and encouraging others to support the proscribed group. "Organisations such as yours normalise violence in support of an ideological cause," Judge Mark Wall told Choudary at London's Woolwich Crown Court. "Their existence gives individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts which otherwise they might not do. They drive wedges between people who otherwise could and would live together in peaceful coexistence." Wall imposed a life sentence on Choudary with a minimum term of 28 years before he can be eligible for parole, less just over the year that he has spent in custody since his arrest.””
CEP Mentions
UnHerd: Anjem Choudary Is Only The Tip Of Britain’s Islamism Problem
“Yesterday, without ever having directed or plotted — much less committed — an act of violence, Anjem Choudary was jailed for a minimum of 28 years for terrorism offences. He was found guilty of continuing to direct the proscribed organisation, al-Muhajiroun (ALM). Pointing out that Choudary himself has never been involved in anything resembling actual terrorism is not to downplay or deny the fact that in Britain, perhaps no single figure has done as much to spread the ideology of Salafi jihadism. It is this doctrine to which very real terror groups such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State and al-Shabaab belong. And all of these groups have recruited British extremists, many of whom would have once been in Choudary’s orbit.”
DW News: Is The Middle East On The Brink Of A Wider War?
“Your questions answered! Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' top political leader, has been assassinated in Tehran, Iran. According to a Hamas statement, Haniyeh "died as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran," where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran's paramilitary guard, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, confirmed Haniyeh had been targeted and killed at his residence in Tehran, along with his bodyguards. Earlier in April, an Israeli strike killed three of Haniyeh's sons in Gaza. Interview with CEP Senior Director Hans-Jakob Schindler.”
WTOP News: The Hunt: Israeli Government Blamed For Death Of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh
“Palestinian militant group Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for the shock assassination. Iran’s supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel. On this week’s episode of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, talks about what happened.”
Middle East In ‘Most Dangerous Moment Since October 7’ As Hezbollah & Iran Plot Two Pronged Revenge On Israel | The Sun
“Professor Asher Kaufman told The Sun that Iran and its largest terror proxy Hezbollah could launch a double pronged attack against Israel after days of ratcheting tensions. Prof Kaufman warned: "The region is on edge, and I would say large parts of the global system is on edge. "I'm sure that Iranian leadership and Hezbollah are now as we speak, deliberating what should be their response and how to respond together. "To think strategically about a response that will involve Hezbollah and Iran." It comes after Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed on Monday in a suspected Israeli precision missile strike as they slept in Tehran. Sir Ivor Roberts, senior adviser to UANI and the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), also spoke to The Sun about a possible retaliation to this week's developments. Sir Roberts, who lived in Lebanon and dealt with Hezbollah in the 1980s, said "the whole region is a tinderbox". He told The Sun that the strike on Iranian soil which killed Haniyeh is a "challenge" to the authority of the new Iranian president and a "major slap in the face.”
United States
BBC: Three Men Accused Of Plotting 9/11 Reach Plea Deal - Pentagon
“Three of the men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US have entered into a pre-trial agreement, the Department of Defense says. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi have been held at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for years without going to trial. Details of the deal have not been announced, but US news outlets say the men will plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution agreeing not to seek the death penalty. Nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were killed in the attacks, which sparked the "War on Terror" and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Brett Eagleson, the president of 9/11 Justice, an organisation that represents 9/11 survivors and relatives of victims, said in a statement provided to the BBC that the families are “deeply troubled by these plea deals”.”
Iran
Reuters: Iranians Mourn Hamas Leader Haniyeh's Assassination
“Iranians turned out to mourn Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday, a day after he was assassinated in Iran's capital in an attack that has heightened fears of a direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel. State TV broadcast live images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading prayers at Haniyeh's funeral at Tehran University, where thousands of mourners dressed in black chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America". His body will be flown to Qatar, where Haniyeh was usually based, for burial on Friday. "Rest in peace, Abu Al-Abed Ismail Haniyeh. Our nation, Iran, the Axis of Resistance, your people, your fighters ... are united in the choice of resistance to end the Zionist occupation," said Hamas deputy chief in Gaza Khalil Al-Hayya in a televised speech at Tehran University. The Axis of Resistance is an alliance built over four decades of Iranian support to resist Israeli and U.S. influence in the Middle East.”
Lebanon
BBC: Hezbollah Confirms Commander Died In Israeli Strike
“Hezbollah has confirmed one of its senior military commanders was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Late on Wednesday, the Iran-backed group said Fuad Shukr's body had been found in the rubble of a building that was hit on Tuesday. Four other people were killed in the strike, including two children. Earlier, the Israeli military said Shukr had been the target of an "intelligence-based elimination". It said the strike was a response to a rocket attack that killed 12 people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which Israel says the commander helped plan. Hezbollah has denied having any involvement. Fuad Shukr, who was in his early sixties, is believed to be a key military adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The strike targeted a building in Haret Hreik, a part of the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut.”
Middle East
Reuters: Khaled Meshaal, Who Survived Israeli Assassination Attempt, Tipped To Be New Hamas Leader
“Khaled Meshaal, tipped to be the new Hamas leader, became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman. The hit against a key senior figure of the Palestinian militant group, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so enraged Jordan's then-King Hussein that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers and scrapping Jordan's peace treaty with Israel unless the antidote was handed over. Israel did so, and also agreed to free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to assassinate him seven years later in Gaza. For Israelis and Western states, the Iran-backed Hamas, which has directed suicide bombings in Israel and fought frequent wars against it, is a terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction.”
Somalia
Garowe Online: Somalia PM Lauds Jubaland Forces For Thwarting Al-Shabaab Attacks
“Somalia's Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre has lauded the Jubaland army for playing a special role in the defeat inflicted on the Alshabaab militants, arguing that the team managed to thwart a series of raids organized by the group in parts of the state. In a series of operations, the Jubaland army with special help from the Somali National Army (SNA), killed over 100 Alshabaab militants in different parts of Jubaland. This was one of the most effective operations to be carried out by the forces. At Bulo-Haji, one of the battlefields where Al-Shabaab suffered casualties, Prime Minister Hamsa Abdi Barre said the Dervish forces had done the country proud by 'defeating the Al-Shabaab' at the time the country is determined to liberate several strategic towns.”
Mali
Reuters: Mali Strikes Rebels Who Killed Many Soldiers And Russians
“Mali has carried out air strikes on insurgent targets in and around the town of Tinzaouaten, in its vast northern desert, after ethnic Tuareg rebels and Islamist fighters killed a large number of Malian soldiers and their Russian allies in recent days. Mali's army and the Russian private military company Wagner both said they had suffered losses between July 22 and 27 in the Tinzaouaten area, on the border with Algeria, in what appears to be Wagner's worst setback on African soil. The Russians have been in Mali since the army, which seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, kicked out French and U.N. troops that had been involved in fighting Islamist insurgents for a decade, replacing them with Wagner. The Malian army said late on Tuesday that it had attacked what it called a "coalition of terrorists" in the Tinzaouaten area jointly with forces from its neighbour Burkina Faso, which is also run by a pro-Russian military junta. "Specific high-value targets including caches, logistical positions and vehicles have been hit," it said, urging civilians to stay away from insurgent positions."
United Kingdom
The New York Times: How Disinformation Fed A Far-Right Riot After A Deadly Stabbing In England
“Less than two hours after mourners gathered in Southport, England, on Tuesday evening to honor three children killed in a brutal stabbing attack, hundreds of rioters flooded the streets of the already traumatized town. More than 50 police officers were injured in the ensuing violence, as demonstrators threw bricks at a mosque, attacked the police, set cars on fire and damaged a convenience store. Although some details of the unrest remain opaque, one thing is clear, according to the police, lawmakers and experts in online extremism: Disinformation and far-right agitators fueled the violence. Supporters of the English Defence League, an extremist anti-Islam organization, were part of a large group that attacked a mosque in Southport around 7.45 p.m., according to a statement from the Merseyside Police Service, which covers the region.”
Southeast Asia
Voice Of America: Militancy Expands In Indian-Controlled Side Of Jammu And Kashmir
“Residents of Kastigarh, a sub-district in central Jammu and Kashmir, say they are staying close to their homes following a recent attack by anti-India militants that injured two soldiers who were sheltering in a dilapidated school after a patrol. A large group of Indian forces “had decided to rest in the school after a long search in the area. At around 2 a.m. we woke up to gunfire and realized that militants had attacked them,” said a local resident who requested anonymity to discuss the pre-dawn July 18 incident. “Since then we have been living in fear. People prefer not to venture alone, especially after dark, for safety,” he told VOA. The patrol at Kastigarh was part of a larger effort of the Indian army to search for anti-India militants believed to be hiding in the dense forests and remote areas of the larger Doda district, which includes Kastigarh.”
Canada
BBC: Canadian Police Thwart Alleged Toronto Terror Plot
“Canadian police say they have stopped a planned terrorist attack in Toronto and arrested a father and son in connection to the plot. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, said on Wednesday that 62-year-old Ahmed Eldidi and 26-year-old Mostafa Eldidi were arrested on Sunday at a hotel in Richmond Hill, Toronto. The pair are accused of a plot to carry out a "violent, serious attack" in Canada's largest city, for the benefit of or at the direction of the Islamic State group. Both are facing charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. Matt Peggs, RCMP assistant commissioner, said the men were in the “advanced stages” of planning the attack. Both are residents of the Toronto area and Canadian citizens, police said. Authorities became aware of the alleged plan in early July. They did not say what information led to the probe. Police called the investigation "fast-moving" and said they were still working to determine the intended target. The exact nature of the threat is covered by a publication ban.”
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