Eye on Extremism
October 29, 2024
Associated Press: Israeli Strike In Northern Gaza Kills At Least 60, Officials Say, As Hezbollah Announces New Leader
“An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 60 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. In a separate development, Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah said it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem as its new top leader following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month. Israel also faced backlash from aid groups after its parliament passed legislation that could severely restrict the ability of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees to operate in the Palestinian territories. The agency, known as UNRWA, is the largest aid provider in Gaza. Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general. Hezbollah vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.””
The Washington Post: Bloody Attack In Mali’s Capital Shows Al-Qaeda’s Shifting Strategy
“Following an attack by one of al-Qaeda’s most powerful affiliates that killed dozens in Mali’s capital, the group’s message was clear: Its target had been Mali’s junta government — and the Russian mercenaries meant to be serving as its protectors. When militants struck Bamako before dawn last month, filming much of their assault, they ambushed a military training school and set fire to planes at the international airport, where Russia’s Wagner Group is reported to have one of its bases in Mali. The al-Qaeda affiliate released a statement afterward declaring the attack had been driven by vengeance — a punishment for “massacres and slaughters committed by this ruling clique and its Russian allies against our Muslim people.””
CEP Mentions
CBS News: Lebanon’s Hezbollah Says Naim Qassem Will Replace Slain Leader Hassan Nasrallah
“Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group announced Tuesday that Naim Qassem, a deputy to its slain long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, will helm the Iran-backed organization. Qassem has been serving as the group's acting leader since Nasrallah's death. […] Qassem, 71, was among the founding members of Hezbollah in 1982 and has served as the party's second in command since the group entered the political realm in the early 1990's, according to The Counter Extremism Project, an international organization. He was born in 1953, and his family is from the village of Kfar Fila, on the border with Israel. Nasrallah, who only gave speeches via video because of his fear of assassination, led the terrorist group for 30 years with fiery rhetoric. Qassem was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group's 2006 war with Israel, and was seen as the group's leading media personality, the Counter Extremism Project said.”
Idnes.cz: The Struggle For Power In The Taliban. The Wanted Minister Offers Himself To The World As A Milder Alternative
“The United States imposed a reward of 10 million dollars (over 230 million crowns) on the Minister of the Interior of the Taliban, Sirajuddin Haqqani, for his bloody actions. He nevertheless visited foreign countries this year with the aim of gaining allies for the movement. According to behind-the-scenes information, he intends to use them in his opposition to the leader of the Taliban, against whom he presents himself as a voice of moderation. […] Haqqani is also trying to convince Western countries, led by the US, that the Taliban is a valuable ally in the fight against international terrorism. "Collaboration with the Haqqani network is a dangerous idea," warns Hans-Jakob Schindler, former coordinator of the UN monitoring group on Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. “You don't know what side they will be on the day you deal with them. Whether on your side, on their side, or on the side of international terrorists.””
United States
The Week: Extremism Is Becoming More Common Among Veterans And Service Members
“There is a steadily growing faction among U.S. military veterans and service members: extremists. While the number of people in the military who practice extreme ideologies remains small compared to the 2.86 million active service members and 16 million veterans, experts are concerned that this extremism is continuing to infiltrate armed-forces ranks. Recent deep dives into the phenomenon have shined a light on these ideologies, which most often manifest as far-right extremism but can encompass all facets of the political spectrum. And concerns are growing that this radicalization could lead to violence, as it has in the past."
Iran
Reuters: Iran Executes Iranian-German National After Terrorism Conviction, State Media Says
“Iran executed Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd after he was convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks, Iranian state media said on Monday. Sharmahd, who also holds U.S. residency, was sentenced to death in 2023 on charges of "corruption on earth", a capital offence under Iran's Islamic laws. He was accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country. "Jamshid Sharmahd was not even given the opportunity to defend himself in the trial against the charges levelled against him," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday on social platform X, calling the execution "a scandal". German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also condemned the execution and criticised the "inhumane regime" in Iran. "We made it clear to Tehran time and again that the execution of a German national would have serious consequences," Baerbock said in a statement.”
Pakistan
Reuters: Policeman Killed In Attack On Polio Vaccination Teams In Pakistan
“At least one policeman was killed in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday as unidentified gunmen attacked a health office where polio vaccination teams were gathered, an official working at the government body tackling the spread of polio in the province said. The attack occurred in Upper Orakzai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where around 13 polio team members were present, Mohammad Zeeshan Khan, deputy coordinator of the government body managing polio campaigns, told Reuters "We are in touch with local authorities and confirm the polio teams are safe," Khan said, adding two militants were also killed. "The polio campaign has been suspended in the area," he said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamist militant groups in the region have previously claimed similar attacks on polio teams, falsely portraying the inoculation campaigns as a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.”
Yemen
Reuters: Yemen's Houthis Launched Drones Towards Israel's Ashkelon, Spokesperson Says
“Yemen's Houthis launched drones towards an industrial zone in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the militant group's military spokesperson said on Tuesday. The Yemeni fighters, who have being attacking ships crossing the Red Sea since November of last year, say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and in support of Lebanon against Israeli strikes. The Israeli military said on Tuesday morning that sirens sounded in Ashkelon after a drone crossed into Israeli territory but fell in an open space in the area. Israel condemns the Houthis as terrorists following the instructions of its arch-foe Iran. The group, which controls the capital Sanaa and the most populous areas of Yemen, is part of Iran's self-proclaimed "Axis of Resistance" against Israel and U.S. influence in the Middle East. The Axis also includes the Palestinian group Hamas, that ignited a year-long war with Israel on Oct.7, the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, along with various Shi'ite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.”
Associated Press: Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Target Ship In The Bab El-Mandeb Strait Off Red Sea
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship traveling through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea on Monday, though it escaped undamaged, authorities said. The attack ended an 18-day lull in reported assaults attributed to the Houthis, who have been attacking ships traveling through the Red Sea corridor for nearly a year now over the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. The violence has disrupted international shipping through the region, once valued at $1 trillion in goods annually. The vessel passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa, reported the attack, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The ship’s captain reported two explosions near the ship, though “the vessel and all crew are reported as safe,” the UKMTO added.“
Lebanon
Reuters: Hezbollah Elects Naim Qassem As Head To Succeed Nasrallah
“Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had elected deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut's southern suburb over a month ago. The group said in a written statement that its Shura Council had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general. He was appointed as Hezbollah's deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group's then-secretary general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year. Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah's leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.”
Reuters: Israeli Campaign Leaves Lebanese Border Towns In Ruins, Satellite Images Show
“Israel's military campaign in southern Lebanon has caused vast destruction in more than a dozen border towns and villages, reducing many of them to clusters of grey craters, according to satellite imagery provided to Reuters by Planet Labs Inc. Many of the towns, emptied of their residents by the bombing, had been inhabited for at least two centuries. The imagery reviewed includes towns between Kfarkela in southeastern Lebanon, south past Meiss al-Jabal, and then west past a base used by U.N. peacekeepers to the small village of Labbouneh. "There are beautiful old homes, hundreds of years old. Thousands of artillery shells have hit the town, hundreds of air strikes," said Abdulmonem Choukeir, mayor of Meiss al-Jabal, one of the villages hit by Israeli attacks. "Who knows what will still be standing at the end?"
Reuters compared satellite images taken in October 2023 to those taken in September and October 2024.”
Middle East
The Washington Examiner: IDF Captures 100 Hamas Militants In North Gaza Hospital
““The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents,” the military said. The IDF released footage of an interrogation of one person it detained, who revealed that Hamas had been using ambulances at the hospital to move operatives around, and it was present in various parts of the facilities. Israeli forces’ siege at the hospital is a part of their larger operations in northern Gaza, which have further devastated the decreased population in the area due to repeated demands to flee south over the course of the war. Israeli forces have also operated in several Gaza hospitals, often to the detriment of civilians in desperate need of care and shelter due to Hamas’s proximity in, around, and underneath hospitals.”
Africa
Reuters: Around 40 Killed In Attack On Chad Military Base, Presidency Says
“Around 40 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base in Chad's Lake region over the weekend, the central African country's presidency said on Monday. President Mahamat Idriss Deby was in the area on Monday to launch an operation to track down the assailants, a presidency statement said. The presidency blamed Sunday's attack on Boko Haram in a second statement issued later on Monday. The Lake Chad region has been repeatedly attacked by insurgencies including by Islamic State in West Africa and Boko Haram, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and spread to the west of Chad. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the group. Chad is an important ally for French and U.S. forces aiming to fight jihadists in the Sahel, which has become the epicentre of global terrorism under attack by factions loyal to al Qaeda and Islamic State.”
Technology
NBC News: How Wellness-Related Instagram Accounts Can Steer Users Toward Extremism
“I’ve noticed a bit of a trend on Instagram. While perusing my feed, I’ll see someone repost something health- or fitness-related that strikes me as a little … off. Maybe it’s about the purported virtues of drinking raw milk — which, seriously, you should not do — or organic skin care, but it’s rarely overtly right-wing. Yet when I visit the original page that posted it, in many cases, it usually only takes me a few scrolls to realize it belongs to some MAGA kook who espouses conspiracy theories and pushes far-right propaganda under the guise of health consciousness. And a new report shows how these ostensibly health-conscious accounts are helping steer users toward accounts that promote right-wing extremism, illustrating how such content can “serve as an entry point from wellness to narratives associated with the far-right.””
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