The driver who rammed his car into two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb
had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the French anti-terrorism prose

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


April 29, 2020

 

 

Reuters: Driver Who Rammed Paris Police Pledged Allegiance To Islamic State:
Prosecutor
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“The driver who rammed his car into two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb
had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor
said on Tuesday. A 29-year-old French man was arrested at the scene of Monday’s
attack, which occurred in the suburb of Colombes, in the northwest of the city,
and was in custody, the prosecutor’s statement said. The officers had been
stationary and conducting routine checks when they were hit by a black BMW. A
police source said both policemen had both their legs broken. One also had his
wrist broken and suffered a serious trauma to the head. A letter containing a
pledge of loyalty to Islamic State was found in the suspect’s car, as well as a
knife, the prosecutor said. It did not say if he had been formally charged. The
man, who has not been named, was not previously known to intelligence services,
according to the department’s statement. A police source said the man had no
recent convictions. A judicial source told Reuters the suspect lived in
Colombes, about 500 metres from where the attack took place. Footage from the
scene on the website of daily newspaper Le Parisien showed one police motorbike
sandwiched between the crumpled bonnets of a police car and the BMW. Debris
from a second bike lay strewn on the road.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Violate Ceasefire 151 Times In Two Days
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“The Saudi-led coalition accused Houthi rebels of committing 151 ceasefire
violations over the past 48 hours, meanwhile, the Iran-backed militia group
continued to intensify its presence at four fronts in Yemen. On Tuesday, the
Arab coalition said the Houthi violations include “hostilities and the use of
light and heavy weapons.” The coalition confirmed it was applying utmost
restraint and complying with rules of engagement, yet reserves the right of
response to self-defense on the fronts. It also stressed its continued
commitment to ceasing hostilities amid the pandemic and expressed its support
for peace efforts by UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. In a related
development, a press office of the Yemeni government forces, supported by the
coalition, said on Tuesday, citing its sources, that there were clashes between
the government troops and the Houthis in the country's western province of
Hodeidah, which resulted in heavy casualties among the rebels and caused
serious damage to their military equipment. Early in April, the Saudi-led Arab
coalition fighting Houthi insurgents has declared a two-week ceasefire in the
country in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.”

 

CNN: Senators Seek Details On Coronavirus Impact On Counterterrorism Efforts
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“A bipartisan pair of senators pressed national security leaders Tuesday on
how the coronavirus was impacting counterterrorism efforts amid warnings that
extremists were taking advantage of the pandemic. In a letter, Sen. Maggie
Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma
Republican, said they were concerned about threats from terrorists during the
outbreak and cited a Missouri man's plot to bomb a hospital treating
coronavirus patients last month and a recent ISIS newsletter calling
coronavirus “a soldier of Allah.” They also noted that government
counterterrorism officials may have been forced to work from home while some
front-line police forces have been hobbled as they fight the virus themselves.
“The continuation of existing terrorism threats combined with the prospect of
groups like ISIS attempting to exploit the Covid-19 crisis therefore puts a
high priority on the federal government maintaining an uninterrupted
counterterrorism posture during our response to the pandemic,” the senators
wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad
Wolf and Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.”

 

United States

 

The Brookings Institute: Preventing Violent Extremism During And After The
COVID-19 Pandemic
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“While the world’s attention appropriately focuses on the health and economic
impacts of COVID-19, the threat of violent extremism remains, and has in some
circumstances been exacerbated during the crisis. The moment demands new and
renewed attention so that the gains made to date do not face setbacks.
Headlines over the past few weeks have suggested that violent extremist and
terrorist groups ranging from Colombian hit squads to ISIS affiliates in
sub-Saharan Africa to far-right extremists in the United States are watching
the disruption caused by COVID-19. Many are at least aware of the potential to
benefit from that disruption, and in some cases they are already taking
advantage. As with so much reporting on and analysis of the pandemic, however,
there is a shortage of data and evidence to support the headlines. The Global
Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), where two of the authors
work, has surveyed 50 local NGOs it supports to build community resilience
against violent extremism in eight developing countries worldwide, to try to
understand the nature of the threat. Six themes recur. First, in most
communities surveyed, with many schools closed and recreational and cultural
activities suspended, most young people are now confined to their homes, and
are spending even more time online.”

 

Defence Connect: COVID-19 An Opportunity For Terrorists Or A Threat To Their
Existence
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“Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher for the Counter Extremism Project, says
that groups like the ‘Nordic Resistance’ and ‘Hundred Handers’ have sought to
increase their membership by capitalising on the pandemic, and ‘Generation
Identity’ has used the crisis to promote European ethnonationalism. In the
Australian context, extreme right-wing groups in Australia are well positioned
to use fake news to drive a wedge between ethnic communities, such as by
demonising Asians for spreading the COVID-19 virus from China. The coronavirus
has made drastic changes to our society, and terrorism and terrorists are not
blind to the effects and the opportunities it presents or the coronavirus
itself. Whether it is to their advantage or detriment is yet to truly play out.”

 

Syria

 

BBC News: Syria War: Dozens Killed In Truck Bomb Attack At Afrin Market
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“At least 40 people have been killed in a bomb attack in the north-western
Syrian city of Afrin, Turkey says. The governor of the neighbouring Turkish
border province of Hatay said a fuel tanker rigged with a hand grenade exploded
at a crowded market place. He and Turkey's defence ministry blamed a Kurdish
militia group, the YPG, which they see as linked to Kurdish militant groups
inside Turkey. Afrin is controlled by Turkish forces and allied Syrian
opposition factions. In 2018, they launched a joint operation to drive the
Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia out of the city and its
surrounding region. The Turkish government accuses the YPG of being an
extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as
a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and EU. The YPG, which the US relied
on to defeat the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria, says they are
separate entities. The fuel tanker exploded at an open air market in the
central Souk Ali area of Afrin on Monday afternoon, close to the local
government's offices, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
UK-based monitoring group. The market is usually full of shoppers in the hours
before Muslims break their daily fasts for the holy month of Ramadan.”

 

Voice Of America: IS Militants Stepping Up Attacks In Syria’s Desert
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“Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group have increased their
attacks in recent weeks against military forces and civilians in the desert
region of Syria. Experts believe the militant group now presents a major
insurgent threat throughout the desert, known as the Badiya, a year after
U.S.-backed forces declared the territorial defeat of the group in eastern
Syria. Last month, IS announced via its Amaq News Agency that IS fighters would
begin a new operation dubbed as “the saga of exhaustion 2” against Syrian
government forces and allied militias. It reportedly is a second phase of a
previous campaign started by the group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
who was killed last August in a U.S. operation in the northwestern Syrian
province of Idlib. Local news outlets have reported several attacks carried out
by IS militants against forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in
the sprawling desert area, including the Deir al-Zour province in eastern
Syria, where U.S.-backed forces also control some strategic parts. In those
attacks, at least 15 Syrian government soldiers and allied Iranian-backed
militia fighters were killed and dozens more were wounded.”

 

Iraq

 

Al Monitor: Islamic State Conducts Attacks Near Iraq’s Syrian And Iranian
Borders
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“An uptick in Islamic State (IS) attacks in Iraq’s Diyala province, which
borders Iran but also stretches south to the outskirts of the capital, has
concerned Iraqi officials and analysts. On April 27, Iraqi Army Chief of Staff
Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanmi visited the 5th Division in Diyala to assess the
current situation in light of the increased threat. There have also been
significant security incidents in recent weeks in neighboring Kirkuk and
Salahuddin provinces, including an attempted suicide attack on Kirkuk
intelligence offices on April 28. A screen grab from an IS video showcasing
fighters launching mortars under a bright Iraqi sun “shows they are confident
enough now to conduct attacks in the daytime,” a Diyala security officer told
Al-Monitor in an interview conducted via WhatsApp on April 25. “The attacks
always used to happen only after it got dark,” he added, noting that the screen
grab sent to Al-Monitor was of an attack conducted about two weeks before near
Lake Hamreen in Diyala. The Diyala security officer, who cannot be named as he
had not received authorization to speak to the media, said that “IS uses groves
of trees between Kulajo to Jalawla to hide in.” He claimed that among the IS
fighters active in the area are Kurdish Iranians who have crossed into the
province from Iran as well as dozens of locals from the Karwi tribe in Jalawla.”

 

Associated Press: Iraq Officials Say IS Targets Intelligence Bureau; 3 Wounded
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“A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern
Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel,
Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group. Iraqi
security forces had spotted two men, one wearing an explosive vest and a
driver, approaching the gate of the Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism
Directorate in the Qadisiyah neighborhood in the northern city of Kirkuk, a
security official said. The man hurled a grenade and then detonated his
explosives vest before entering the premises, the official said. The other man,
apparently the driver, sped away from the the scene. There was no claim of
responsibility by the Islamic State group, which was largely defeated in Iraq
in 2017 but still maintains sleeper cells to target Iraqi forces. Suicide
bombings were a hallmark of the militant group, which at the height of its
power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria. A senior Iraqi
intelligence official told The Associated Press that the department “had
knowledge that Daesh would carry out a suicide operation against the
Intelligence Directorate, but we did not know on which day.”

 

Kurdistan 24: Amid Heightened Terrorist Activity, Iraqi Forces Aggressively
Pursue ISIS
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“Iraqi forces launched two separate military operations on Monday to pursue
the remnants of the so-called Islamic State in central parts of the country as
well as in long stretches of desert wasteland near the Syrian border. The
offensives come as the terrorist group has renewed its insurgency across
various parts of Iraq. One of the operations took place in the westernmost
parts of the largely-barren Rutba district of western Anbar province, Iraqi
state media INA reported Monday. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—an
umbrella grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shia militias known in Arabic as the
Hashd al-Shaabi—also participated. The operation came after an incident on
Sunday in which fighters thought to be from the Islamic State but described in
military statements only as a “terrorist group” launched an armed assault on a
village in Rutba’s al-Walid subdistrict, kidnapping one resident. A security
unit deployed to the area and clashed with the fleeing fighters, killing one.
The exchange also led to the death of one civilian and injuries to three
others.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Associated Press: Afghan Officials: Suicide Bomber Kills 3 Civilians In Kabul
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“A suicide bomber on Wednesday targeted a base belonging to Afghan special
forces on the southern outskirts of the capital, Kabul, killing at least three
civilians and wounding 15, officials said. The government blamed the Taliban
for the attack, which took place a day after the country's defense minister and
the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan visited the facility. The bombing
happened outside the base for army commandos as civilian contractors working in
the facility waited outside to get into the base, said a military official,
speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the
media about the attack. Tareq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry,
said the site of the bombing was in the Chahar Asyab district and blamed the
Taliban for the attack, calling it a crime against humanity. “The target was
likely the base itself, but the bomber failed to reach his target and instead
killed innocent civilians,” Arian said. No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group
are active in Kabul and its surroundings and have repeatedly struck military
and civilian targets.”

 

Middle East

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Palestinian Stabs Israeli Woman, Shot By Bystander
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“A Palestinian teenager stabbed an Israeli woman on Tuesday before being shot
and wounded by a bystander, Israeli police said. The attack came on Israel's
Memorial Day, when the country mourns those killed in wars and militant
attacks. Israelis usually mark the occasion by visiting the graves of loved
ones, but military cemeteries are closed this year and small ceremonies are
being held without attendees as part of efforts to slow the spread of the
coronavirus. The police said the 62-year-old woman, who was moderately to
seriously wounded, and the 19-year-old assailant, who was seriously wounded,
were taken to hospital for treatment. They did not identify the attacker. The
attack took place in Kfar Saba, a town near Tel Aviv. Israel has seen a series
of shootings, stabbings, and car-ramming attacks in recent years, mostly
carried out by lone attackers with no apparent links to armed groups. Hamas and
other Palestinian militant groups have praised the attacks but have not claimed
them.”

 

Libya

 

Associated Press: Eastern Libyan Forces Say Turkish Drone Killed 5 Civilians
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“Eastern Libyan forces laying siege to the country's capital of Tripoli
accused their rivals Tuesday of staging an attack in which a Turkish drone hit
a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians. The
militia groups loosely allied with a U.N.-supported but weak government in
Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying they targeted trucks carrying
equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital. Khalifa
Hifter, who declared the start of an operation to root out the militias and
unify the country in 2014, is commander of the east-based forces attempting to
take control of Tripoli. They control most of eastern and southern Libya. The
embattled administration in Tripoli rules just a corner of the country’s west.
Both sides are supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers.
The Tripoli-based health ministry reported Tuesday that at least six artillery
shells launched by Hifter's forces struck a local field hospital, causing
severe damage to the clinic and to several of its ambulances. Patients being
treated were evacuated and there were no immediate reports of casualties. It
was the third assault on a medical facility in the besieged city in a week.”

 

The Libya Observer: Libya's Interior Ministry Arrests ISIS Media Expert
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“The Libyan Interior Ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA)
arrested Tuesday the media expert of ISIS terrorist groups in Sirte, Saied
Abdelkareem, (A.K.A. Abu Rami) who is a 34-year-old Sudanese national, born in
Sirte. The Ministry said the Anti-Crime-Terrorism Deterrence Apparatus detained
the ISIS militant after a security operation that had been ongoing for weeks.
Abu Rami was part of Ansar Al-Sharia's media teams from 2012 to 2014, then he
pledged allegiance to ISIS and worked at ISIS-linked Al-Bayan Radio in Sirte as
a video and news editor and presenter. Abu Rami was part of the team of ISIS
senior leader Ahmed Al-Himmali (Abu Abdullah) who was the leader of Tripoli
ISIS sleeper cell that carried out attacks in 2014 and 2015 before he was
killed by Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous forcs in Sirte Liberation battles in 2016. The
Interior Ministry said it had found with Abu Rami an archive for information
about the activities of ISIS when they were controlling Sirte, adding that he
was later sent to the Public Prosecution for further legal procedures.”

 

Washington Examiner: Russian Presence In Libya More Dangerous Than ISIS Says
US Africa Command
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“Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the rebel leader who controls Libya’s oil-rich east,
recently declared he has a popular mandate to rule all of the North African
nation, a move that may give Russia the upper hand if he can succeed in taking
Tripoli amid nearly a decade's worth of sectarian strife. In the disarray since
dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed in 2011, a civil war has raged across
Libya, and ISIS remnants have secured a tenuous footing in the south. But more
troubling, say U.S. Africa Command officials, is that Russia has inserted a
paramilitary group to support Haftar and position itself on the southern flank
of NATO. “They're acting out on U.S. strategic interests in North Africa, but
at the same time doing it at a low cost, and if they mess up, then the Kremlin
has plausible deniability,” an AFRICOM defense official told the Washington
Examiner on Monday. “They are likely banking on that if they come out on the
winning side, that they'll have access to lucrative port and mineral extraction
deals, as well as have influence over a future government of Libya,” he added.
A senior defense official at U.S. Africa Command explained that Russia could
benefit from a whole host of economic and geopolitical advantages by siding
with a successful Haftar.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: Mozambique Forces Killed Over 100 Islamist Insurgents In Past Month:
Government
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“Mozambique security forces killed at least 129 insurgents in the northern
Cabo Delgado region that has been besieged by violence for at least the last
three years, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Since 2017, infrequent but
violent raids on government buildings and villages by militias with suspected
links to the Islamic State have intensified in the gas-rich northernmost
province of one Africa's poorest nations. The interior ministry said the 129
killings were the total for the month, and were a retaliation for an attack in
Xitaxi in Muidumbe district earlier in April, where insurgents killed 52
villagers. Little is known about the insurgents, though initial attacks were
claimed by a group known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama. More recently, Islamic State
has claimed a number of attacks. Security officials have struggled to contain
the attacks. Since clinching re-election in January President Filipe Nyusi has
vowed to dedicate more resources to fighting the insurgency. Exxon Mobil and
Total, among the multi-national oil majors developing the gas projects off the
shore of northern Mozambique thought to be worth more than $60 billion, have
expressed concern the violence could affect operations.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Man Jailed For Blackburn Town Hall 'Isis' Bomb Hoax
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“A man who planted a fake bomb outside the town hall in Blackburn, Lancashire,
has been jailed for three years. Craig Slee, 50, of Logwood Street, Blackburn,
left an open laptop with a mobile phone taped to its screen and a record box
with “ISIS” written on its front outside the building in May 2019. A detonation
team were called and the area was evacuated for three hours. On Friday at
Preston Crown Court he was convicted of placing an article with intent. He was
given a restraining order banning him from entering a designated area of
Blackburn town centre for five years. Lancashire Police said members of the
public who found the items left by Slee on King William Street had raised the
alarm. Police said the the devices were seized but were found to be not
“viable”. Det Con Fiona Hall, of Lancashire Police, said: “This incident had a
significant impact and I welcome the sentence which reflects the gravity of the
offending. “His actions and complete lack of regard for other people caused
widespread and unnecessary worry over an already sensitive and concerning
subject.”

 

France

 

Associated Press: France: Terrorism Probe Into Car Attack That Hurt 3 Police
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“A 29-year-old Frenchman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group is
facing possible terrorism charges after he rammed his car into police, injuring
three officers. The incident occurred Monday in the northwestern Paris suburb
of Colombes, while police were conducting an ID check. The driver slammed into
police cars and police motorcycles, sending three officers to the hospital, the
national counter-terrorism prosecution office said in a statement Tuesday. The
driver was arrested, and investigators found a knife in his car along with a
letter pledging allegiance to IS and claiming to want to impose Islamic sharia
law around the world, the statement said. Counter-terrorism prosecutors decided
to take over the investigation after the driver underwent a psychological
examination Tuesday and was found to be of sound mind. The man, who was not
identified, is facing possible charges of links to criminal terrorism and
attempted killing of officers in connection with a terrorist enterprise, the
statement said. More than 200 people were killed around France in Islamic State
attacks in 2015 and 2016, and police and soldiers have been repeatedly targeted
by violent extremists.”

 

Germany

 

The Star: Holocaust Memorial Sites In Germany Fight New Threat From Far Right
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“From swastikas sprayed on the walls to Hitler salute selfies, far-right
provocations are a growing problem at the sites of former Nazi concentration
camps in Germany. Museum directors have sounded the alarm over a spike in
incidents, which include visitors writing messages of Holocaust denial in the
guestbook and challenging tour guides on the facts of the genocide. “Messages
glorifying Nazism or demanding the camps be reopened for foreigners have become
more common, “ said Volkhard Knigge, museum director at the former Buchenwald
concentration camp in eastern Germany. “There have always been incidents at
memorial sites, but we have noticed an escalation due to the far right’s
breaching of language taboos, “ he said. At Buchenwald, where 56,000 people
died between 1937 and 1945, the number of reported incidents has doubled since
2015. Right-wing extremists have also been known to take smiling selfies in
front of furnaces used to cremate victims and leave stickers glorifying their
fellow revisionists, Knigge said. More recently, a growing number of tour
guides have been interrupted by extremists propagating revisionist theories.
Uwe Neumaerker, director of Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe,
said that his museum faced similar problems.”

 

Technology

 

The Guardian: Amazon And Other Platforms Allowing Payments To Far-Right Groups
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“Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via
mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to
a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). The groups still
receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the
“Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter,
an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several
groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that
ended in the killing of a protester. The CMD report – called Funding Hate –
finds that despite previous, widely publicized crackdowns, and explicit
policies forbidding racist far-right groups from their services, companies are
still allowing income to flow to white nationalist, neo-Confederate and
neo-Nazi hate groups. The report found three such groups were still using
DonorBox, including the American Freedom party, which advocates the deportation
of non-white people and the creation of a white ethnostate. DonorBox banned the
Council of Conservative Citizens, which Roof named as the source of his beliefs
about “black-on-white crime”, after being contacted by CMD.”



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