“Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United
States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and
prevent an even more destructive regional conflict. Tensions have soared
following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior
Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran
and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has
begun discussions on choosing a new leader. Netanyahu said Israel was ready for
any scenario. Jordan’s foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part
of diplomatic efforts — “We want the escalation to end,” Ayman Safadi said —
while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region. “We are doing
everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White
House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC.”











<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



Eye on Extremism



August 5, 2024



Associated Press: US And Allies Prepare To Defend Israel As Netanyahu Says
It’s Already In ‘Multi-Front War’ With Iran
<[link removed]>



“Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United
States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and
prevent an even more destructive regional conflict. Tensions have soared
following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior
Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran
and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has
begun discussions on choosing a new leader. Netanyahu said Israel was ready for
any scenario. Jordan’s foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part
of diplomatic efforts — “We want the escalation to end,” Ayman Safadi said —
while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region. “We are doing
everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White
House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC.”



Reuters: Renewed Rioting Sweeps British Cities In Wake Of Child Murders
<[link removed]>



Violent disorder swept across several British cities on Saturday, injuring
police and damaging property in the most widespread rioting in the country for
13 years, following the murder of three young girls in northwest England. Riots
involving hundreds of anti-immigration protesters have erupted in towns and
cities after false information spread rapidly on social media that the suspect
in Monday's knife attack at a children's dance class in Southport was a radical
Muslim migrant. Police have said the suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in
Britain but protests by anti-immigration and anti-Muslim demonstrators have
continued, descending into violence, arson and looting. Violent disorder
erupted in Liverpool, Bristol, Hull and Belfast - four cities located in
different corners of the UK - with scuffles breaking out and bricks and bottles
thrown as anti-immigration protesters faced groups opposed to racism.




CEP Expert Analysis

* Counterpoint Brief: US Designates Nordic Resistance Movement Specially
Designated Global Terrorist Organization
<[link removed]>
* ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in March 2024
<[link removed]>
* CEP Report: Central Syria’s ISIS Insurgency In 2023
<[link removed]>
* CEP Statement Calling For U.S. Sanctions Against Qatar, DIMDEX Conference,
And Al Thani Royal Family
<[link removed]>
* Extremist Content Online: The Base Calls For Members of Other White
Supremacist Groups to Join
<[link removed]>



CEP Mentions



The National: Disinformation To Destabilisation: Summer Of UK Riots Feared
<[link removed]>



“... Former prison governor Prof Ian Acheson, now a specialist at the Counter
Extremism Project think tank, told The National the events show the need for
stricter regulation of social media. “It is time that these catalysators of
extremism and violence are held to account,” he said. It is not known precisely
where the fake news about the Southport killer originated. However, a website
called Channel3 Now, which purports to be a US-based news outlet but is
actually Russia-owned, was among the first to relay it, shortly after a
UK-based anti-lockdown activist. This was shared by Russian state-backed media
and the accounts of influential agitators – including far-right activist Tommy
Robinson and Andrew Tate. The leader of the UK's populist Reform Party, Nigel
Farage, was also criticised for suggesting the police were covering up the
killer’s identity.”



ABC News: Active Clubs And White Supremacy Groups Targeting Young Men A
'Threat To Social Cohesion' In Australia
<[link removed]>



“Right-wing extremism is a shape-shifting, rapidly evolving beast. The latest
form lures young men from mainstream society under the cover of training in
sport or physical combat and fraternity. They're known as Active Clubs. The
Counter Extremism Project says the goal of Active Clubs is "to build a shadow
militia while evading law enforcement scrutiny". "Active Clubs pretend to have
deradicalised and to only focus on sports and brotherhood," the project's
Alexander Ritzmann told a Senate hearing last week. "They're often founded by
members of established open extreme right neo-Nazi groups to attract members
from mainstream society." And they've made it to Australia. A South
Australia-based Active Club known as Croweater has surfaced online in recent
months.”



Page News Greece: Turkey’s Role In The West-Russia Prisoner Exchange
<[link removed]>



“Joe Biden called the West-Russia prisoner exchange a "diplomatic feat",
which was described as historic and the largest exchange of prisoners since the
end of the Cold War. Of particular interest to diplomats, however, is the role
of Turkey in this exchange. An exchange that took place on Turkish soil. […]
Germany's willingness – according to DW – to release Vadim Krashikov (a former
Russian security service (FSB) officer convicted of murdering a Chechen
ex-Georgian officer in Berlin in 2019) and Turkey's role as a mediator were
instrumental in made a historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West
possible this week, according to Hans-Jakob Schindler, a German
counter-extremism expert and senior director of the nonprofit Counter Extremism
Project. In a treaty that calls for new approaches involving new partners,
Schindler sees Turkey, having also been involved in prisoner-of-war exchanges
between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces during the ongoing war, as
playing a key mediating role.”



Iran



Associated Press: Jordan’s Top Diplomat Makes Rare Visit To Iran As Fears Of A
Wider Regional War Soar
<[link removed]>



“Jordan’s foreign minister met Iran’s acting foreign minister in Tehran on
Sunday as the United States and its Arab allies try to prevent a wider war
after the back-to-back killings of top Iran-allied militants sparked vows of
revenge against Israel. Ayman Safadi is the first senior Jordanian official to
pay an official visit to Iran in over 20 years. Jordan is a close Western ally
and helped intercept scores of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward Israel
in April. Iran said it was retaliating for the killing of its generals in an
Israeli strike in Syria. Many fear Iran and its regional allies could launch a
similar attack following the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in an
Israeli strike on Beirut last week and of Hamas’ top political leader Ismail
Haniyeh in an explosion in Tehran a day later. Both attacks were widely blamed
on Israel, which has acknowledged killing the Hezbollah commander. Iran,
Hezbollah and Hamas have vowed to avenge the killings.”



The Wall Street Journal: Iran Rebuffs Calls For Restraint In Its Response To
Killing Of Hamas Leader
<[link removed]>



“Iran rejected U.S. and Arab efforts to temper its response to the killing in
Tehran of Hamas’s top political leader, as authorities were investigating the
security breaches that led to the attack. Iranian prosecutors said Saturday
that they had opened a formal investigation into the killing of Ismail Haniyeh,
which came hours after an Israeli strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in
Beirut. The two attacks, following a rocket strike on a soccer field in the
Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, escalated a recent cycle of violence and
threatened to push the region to the brink of war. Iranian leaders have vowed
to retaliate. On Saturday, Iran told Arab diplomats it didn’t care if the
response triggered a war, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The U.S. asked European and other partner governments to convey a message to
Iran not to escalate, warning any significant strike would draw a response and
signaling that efforts by Iran’s new president to improve engagement with the
West would have a better chance if Iran shows restraint, according to people
involved in the discussions.”



Yemen



Reuters: Yemen's Houthis Down US Drone Over Saada, Sources Tell Reuters
<[link removed]>



“Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement downed US drone “MQ-9” over the
country's northern Saada province, two sources from the group told Reuters on
Sunday. The attack would be the first to be claimed by the Houthis since Israel
carried out a retaliatory airstrike against the group in the port of Hodeidah.”



Associated Press: Missile Attack By Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Hits Container Ship
In First Attack In 2 Weeks
<[link removed]>



“A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a Liberian-flagged
container ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden, authorities said Sunday, the
first assault by the group since Israeli airstrikes targeted them. The Houthis
offered no explanation for the two-week pause in their attacks on shipping
through the Red Sea corridor, which have seen similar slowdowns since the
assaults began in November over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But
the resumption comes after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in
Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, amid renewed concerns over the war breaking
out into a regional conflict. The rebels separately said they shot down another
U.S. spy drone Sunday, later publishing imagery of the aircraft’s wreckage on
the side of the mountain. The attack on Saturday happened some 225 kilometers
(140 miles) southeast of Aden in a stretch of the Gulf of Aden that has seen
numerous Houthi attacks previously.”



Lebanon



Associated Press: Horror At Deaths Of 12 Children Unites Druze Across Borders.
But Mideast’s Wars Tear At Their Bonds
<[link removed]>



“Alma Ayman Fakhr al-Din, a lively 11-year-old who loved basketball and
learning languages, was playing on a soccer field a week ago in Majdal Shams, a
Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, when the rocket hit. Running
to the site, her father Ayman pleaded with emergency workers for information
about his daughter. “Suddenly I went to the corner, I saw such a tiny girl in a
bag,” he said. He recognized her shoes, her hand. “I understood that that’s it,
nothing is left, she’s gone.” She was among 12 children and teens killed. The
shocking bloodshed unified the Druze across the region in grief – and laid bare
the complex identity of the small, insular religious minority, whose members
are spread across Israel, the Golan Heights, Lebanon and Syria. The Druze
religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of
Shiite Islam. Outsiders are not allowed to convert, and most religious
practices are shrouded in secrecy.”



Voice Of America: Source Close To Hezbollah Reports Israeli Strikes Near
Syria-Lebanon Border
<[link removed]>



“A source close to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said late Friday that
Israel carried out strikes on a convoy of trucks entering Lebanon from Syria.
"Three Israeli strikes targeted a convoy of tanker trucks on the
Syrian-Lebanese border in the Hawsh el-Sayyed Ali area, injuring one Syrian
driver," the source told AFP. It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes
in the border area, the source added.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
war monitor also reported Israeli strikes inside Syria near the border with
Lebanon, without mentioning any casualties. Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong
presence on both sides of the eastern stretch of the Lebanese-Syria border,
where it supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group has
been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel since its Palestinian ally Hamas
attacked Israel on October 7, sparking war in Gaza.”



Middle East



Reuters: Israeli Strikes Kill 15 Palestinians In Gaza School, Nine West Bank
Militants
<[link removed]>



“An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City
killed at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday, hours after two strikes in the
occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander,
Hamas said. The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit
a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell it said
was on its way to carry out an attack. A Hamas statement said one of those
killed was a commander of its Tulkarm brigades, while its ally Islamic Jihad
claimed the other four men who died in the strike as its fighters. Hours later,
a second airstrike in the area targeted another group of militants who had
fired on troops, Israel's military said, during what it described as a
counterterrorism operation in Tulkarm. Palestinian news agency WAFA said four
people had died in that strike, and Hamas said all nine of those killed in the
two Israeli attacks in the West Bank were fighters.”



Reuters: Hamas Says It Has Begun Process Of Choosing New Leader
<[link removed]>



“Hamas, the group that runs the Gaza Strip, issued a statement on Saturday
saying that it has initiated a broad consultation process to select a new
leader of its movement following the assassination of its former leader Ismail
Haniyeh.”



Voice Of America: Yazidis Seek Justice On 10th Anniversary Of Islamic State
Genocide
<[link removed]>



“Advocates for justice for Iraq’s Yazidi community say much more needs to be
done 10 years on to address the brutal genocide it experienced at the hands of
Islamic State militants on August 3, 2014, and its aftermath. On August 3,
2014, Islamic State militants invaded Iraq’s Sinjar province brutally
attacking, killing, displacing, and enslaving hundreds of thousands of Yazidis
in their ancient homeland in the country’s north. Ten years on, more than 6,000
women and children remain captives of the Islamic State with nearly 2,800 still
missing. Many of the displaced still live in camps which Iraq says will close.
Yazidi activists and religious freedom advocates say restorative justice is
needed for the community to recover from the genocide and remain in Iraq.
Speaking at Washington’s Wilson Center, they use the terms Islamic State and
ISIS interchangeably.”



Nigeria



Voice Of America: Nigerian Protests Fizzle Out Amid Deadly Police Crackdown
<[link removed]>



“Protests against a soaring cost of living in Nigeria ebbed on Monday as few
people turned out in major cities after security forces used lethal force to
quell demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets in cities
including the capital Abuja and the commercial hub Lagos demanding relief from
economic hardship and widespread insecurity in protests which started last
Thursday and were meant to continue until Aug. 10. Amnesty International said
at least 13 people have been killed in clashes with the police since Thursday.
Police have put the death toll at seven, blaming some on accidents and an
explosive device. A firm police response and a call for a protest pause by
President Bola Tinubu have dampened the demonstrations. In Lagos, where
demonstrations have been largely peaceful, about 100 people gathered at the
protest venue singing and chanting "we are hungry." In Abuja, there were no
signs of protests at the main stadium where protesters have been gathering
since Thursday.”



Somalia



Reuters: Somalia Beach Attack Kills 37 Civilians, Minister Says
<[link removed]>



“At least 37 civilians were killed and 212 were injured in an explosion at a
popular beach restaurant in the Somali capital late on Friday, the health
minister said, an attack the government blamed on militant Islamist group al
Shabaab. Ali Haji told a press conference that 11 of those injured in the
attack in Mogadishu were in a critical condition. It was the deadliest attack
in the Horn of Africa country since twin car bombs detonated near a busy market
intersection in October 2022, killing at least 100 people and wounding 300
others. In addition to the civilians killed at the beach restaurant, police
spokesperson Abdifatah Aden said one soldier was killed during the assault. One
of the attackers blew himself up while three others were killed by security
forces. One attacker was captured alive, Aden said. There was no immediate
claim of responsibility by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which has claimed
similar attacks in the past, including the car bomb attack in 2022.”



Africa



Reuters: Al Qaeda Affiliate Says It Has Taken Two Russians Hostage In Niger
<[link removed]>



“An al Qaeda affiliate in West Africa's Sahel region has taken two Russian
citizens hostage in Niger, according to a video released by the group on
Friday. The video from the media foundation of Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa
al-Muslimin (JNIM) includes what appears to be on-camera statements by the two
captives, who say they were working for a Russian company in southwest Niger
when they were taken prisoner. Speaking in Russian-accented English, both
identified themselves as Russians and said they were taken hostage in Mbanga,
an area about 60 km (40 miles) west of the capital Niamey. They did not say
when this happened. One called himself Yuri and said he was a geologist, the
other gave his name as Greg and said he came to work in Niger a month ago. It
was not clear when the video was filmed or where. The pair spoke in front of a
backdrop made out of traditional West African cloth. The video did not include
a ransom demand.”



The Counter Extremism Project depends on the generosity of its supporters. If
you value what we do, please consider making a donation.

DONATE NOW
<[link removed]>
 




Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>