“Hundreds were killed in north-central Burkina Faso on Saturday after suspected
jihadists opened fire on them as they were digging trenches around a town to
protect it from attacks, victims' relatives and a source who spoke to wounded
survivors said. The attack outside the town of Barsalogho is one of the
deadliest since groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State moved into Burkina
Faso from neighboring Mali almost a decade ago, plunging the Sahel nation into
a security crisis that contributed to two coups in 2022. The ruling junta has
condemned the violence but did not say how many people were killed. Hundreds of
wounded people were evacuated to healthcare facilities in the city of Kaya,
around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south, where a source who did not wish to be
named for fear of retribution said the death toll from the attack was likely
higher than 500.”











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Eye on Extremism



August 28, 2024



Reuters: Suspected Jihadists Kill Hundreds In Burkina Faso Attack
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“Hundreds were killed in north-central Burkina Faso on Saturday after
suspected jihadists opened fire on them as they were digging trenches around a
town to protect it from attacks, victims' relatives and a source who spoke to
wounded survivors said. The attack outside the town of Barsalogho is one of the
deadliest since groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State moved into Burkina
Faso from neighboring Mali almost a decade ago, plunging the Sahel nation into
a security crisis that contributed to two coups in 2022. The ruling junta has
condemned the violence but did not say how many people were killed. Hundreds of
wounded people were evacuated to healthcare facilities in the city of Kaya,
around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south, where a source who did not wish to be
named for fear of retribution said the death toll from the attack was likely
higher than 500.”



Associated Press: A Hostage In Gaza Is Rescued By Israel After 326 Days Of
Captivity
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“Qaid Farhan Alkadi was alone underground Tuesday after 326 days of captivity
in Gaza when Israeli forces scouring Hamas’ vast tunnel network found and freed
him. “Suddenly, I heard someone speaking Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t
believe it, I couldn’t believe it,” Alkadi, 52, recounted from an Israeli
hospital during a phone call with Israel’s president as his large Bedouin Arab
family gathered around his bedside in a joyful reunion. He was the eighth
hostage to be rescued by Israeli forces since about 250 were kidnapped during
the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war, and the first to be found alive
underground. The rescue brought a rare moment of relief to Israelis after 10
months of war but also served as a painful reminder that dozens of hostages are
still in captivity as international mediators try to broker a cease-fire in
which they would be released.”




The CEP CounterPoint: Expert Analysis

* Counterpoint Brief: ISIS Knife Attack in Solingen, Germany
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* Counterpoint Brief: Hamas Names Yahya Sinwar as New Leader
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* Counterpoint Brief: Implications of Hezbollah Attack on Majdal Shams
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* Reactions to Trump Assassination Attempt From Extreme Right Telegram
Channels
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* Thirty years on, AMIA victims still looking for justice
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CEP Mentions



Blick: How IS Finances Its Terror
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“... The video is still being reviewed, says Hans-Jakob Schindler, Counter
Extremism Project expert and former UN Security Council adviser on global
terrorism sanctions. But it is obvious that the attack followed the IS script:
"With such attacks, which are difficult to detect in advance, IS is showing
that it is still important." In 2017, IS lost its state base in Syria and Iraq,
said Schindler. But the group is now on the rise again, for example in
Afghanistan and West Africa. The West has withdrawn from the core areas of IS
terrorists. "Because the pressure there has decreased, attacks in the West are
becoming more likely again ." This raises the question of how terrorists are
financed. Although an attack like the one in Solingen - which is presumably
inspired by IS but carried out without personal instructions - costs the group
nothing, says Schindler. But in Syria, IS is again carrying out more and more
bomb attacks.”



Afghanistan



Voice Of America: Female Journalist Silenced On Air Apparently In Compliance
With Taliban Morality Law
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“A Taliban-controlled state broadcaster in Afghanistan silenced a female
journalist and her image during a live media event Tuesday, apparently in
compliance with the radical rulers’ recently enacted morality law that bans
women from speaking or showing their faces in public. Officials of the de facto
Taliban interior ministry organized a news conference in Kabul to share their
annual performance before taking questions from around 10 journalists,
including a woman. The RTA broadcaster aired the voices and images of all male
reporters without interruption. However, when the female journalist from the
local Ariana news channel started asking a question, the broadcast abruptly
went silent for the next minute or so until she finished, and the focus
remained on Taliban officials instead. The channel's audio was unmuted when
ministry representatives started answering her query and those asked by others
subsequently until the event ended.”



Pakistan



Voice Of America: 'Digital Terrorism' Spurs Debate On Social Media Use In
Pakistan
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“Pakistan’s military is increasingly issuing warnings about what it calls
"digital terrorism," a poorly defined term that some rights activists fear can
be applied to anyone who posts criticism of the military online. Pakistani
General Asim Munir, chief of army staff, recently warned that digital terrorism
was being used to spread "anarchy and false information" against the armed
forces. On Pakistan's 77th Independence Day at the Pakistan Military Academy in
Abbottabad earlier in August, the top general said, digital terrorism aims to
divide state institutions and citizens. The general did not try to
differentiate between political opponents of the military who believe it should
play a smaller role in the country’s civilian government, versus insurgent
separatist groups in places like Balochistan that have battled the army for
years. Nor did he identify any individuals, groups or parties as leaders of
what he called a “digital terrorism campaign.”



Yemen



Reuters: Greek-Flagged Oil Tanker Appears To Be Leaking Oil, Pentagon Says
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“The Greek-flagged crude oil tanker Sounion that was recently attacked by
Yemen's Houthis is still on fire in the Red Sea and now appears to be leaking
oil, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday. The Sounion was targeted last week
by multiple projectiles off Yemen's port city of Hodeidah. The Houthis, who
control Yemen's most populous regions, said they attacked it in the Red Sea, as
the Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians
in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major
General Patrick Ryder said that a third party had tried to send two tugs to
help salvage the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to attack them. He said
the tanker was carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil.”



Middle East



Associated Press: Israel Launches A Large-Scale Military Operation In The
Occupied West Bank, Killing 9 Palestinians
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“Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank
on Wednesday, where its forces killed at least nine Palestinians and sealed off
the volatile city of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has
carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack
out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there. Israel says it is rooting out
militants to prevent attacks on its citizens, while Palestinians in the West
Bank fear it intends to broaden the war and forcibly displace them. Lt. Col.
Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “large forces” had
entered the volatile city of Jenin, which has long been a militant stronghold,
as well as Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp dating back to the 1948
Mideast war, all in the northern West Bank. He said the nine dead were all
militants, including three killed in an airstrike in Tulkarem and another four
in an airstrike in Al-Faraa.”



Reuters; Israeli Strike Kills Four Fighters On Syria-Lebanon Border, Security
Sources Say
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“An Israeli drone strike on a car crossing through a Syrian checkpoint near
the border with Lebanon on Wednesday killed three Palestinian fighters and one
member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources told Reuters.
The car was not transporting weapons, the sources said. There was no immediate
comment from Hezbollah or from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, to which
one of the sources said the three Palestinian fighters belonged. Local Syrian
official Abdo al-Taqi told a Syrian radio station that a car was targeted on
Wednesday morning on the road between the Syrian capital Damascus and Lebanon's
capital Beirut, and four people were killed. Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other
armed factions have launched rockets and drones at Israel from southern
Lebanon. The groups have strong ties to Iran and to Syria's government and have
transported fighters and weapons through the porous Syrian-Lebanese border.”



Germany



The New York Times: The East Rises In Germany, And So Does Political Extremism
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“Anna Wenske, 69, worked for decades at the national theater of East Germany,
where she was born and still lives. “After the reunification, everything went
kaput,” she said. She lost her job and her savings; it took her years of
part-time work to reach a kind of equilibrium. Now she resents what she
considers the easy path offered to refugees while Germans suffer. “Too many
people exist on this planet, and everyone wants to come to us,” she said in a
sunny Weimar, “and we tell everyone welcome and we have nothing left for
ourselves.” When it comes to Ukraine, she said, President Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia lied when he said he would not invade, “but I don’t trust the United
States any more than Russia.” When her state, Thuringia, holds elections on
Sunday, she says she will probably support the Alternative for Germany party.
The radical right ethnonationalist party, known as the AfD, plays with Nazi-era
language and its state branch has been classified by domestic intelligence as
right-wing extremist.”



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