The United States on Thursday blamed Islamic State militants — not the Taliban
— for a gruesome hospital attack in Afghanistan this week that killed t

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


May 15, 2020

 

Reuters: U.S. Says Islamic State Conducted Attack On Kabul Hospital
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“The United States on Thursday blamed Islamic State militants — not the
Taliban — for a gruesome hospital attack in Afghanistan this week that killed
two newborn babies, and it renewed calls for Afghans to embrace a troubled
peace push with the Taliban insurgency. But it was unclear if the U.S.
declaration would be enough to bolster the peace effort and reverse a decision
by the Kabul government to resume offensive operations against the Taliban.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered the military on Tuesday to switch to
“offensive mode” against the Taliban following the hospital attack in Kabul and
a suicide bombing in Nangarhar province that killed scores of people. U.S.
Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad blamed Islamic State for both attacks
in a statement issued on Twitter, saying the group opposed any Taliban peace
agreement and sought to trigger an Iraq-style sectarian war in Afghanistan.
“Rather than falling into the ISIS trap and delay peace or create obstacles,
Afghans must come together to crush this menace and pursue a historic peace
opportunity,” Khalilzad said. “No more excuses. Afghans, and the world, deserve
better.” An affiliate of the Islamic State militant group claimed
responsibility for the Nangarhar bombing, according to the SITE Intelligence
Group. No one has claimed the hospital attack.”

 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Neo-Nazi Extremist Charged With Trying To Buy Assault
Weapons
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“A Bayside man whose Instagram account glorified anti-Semitic killings was
arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday after prosecutors say he tried to
purchase illegal assault rifles with defaced serial numbers. Joseph Miner, 29,
was arrested with his neighbor Tuesday night at a hotel near LaGuardia Airport,
where prosecutors say the men attempted to purchase a cache of weapons,
including the modified assault rifles. Miner, a former Cardozo High School and
Queens College track star, maintained a hate-filled Instagram account under the
name “Souljagoy,” in which he identified himself as a “Far Right Propagandist.”
Instagram posts and messages entered into evidence allegedly show Miner giving
the Nazi salute in a photo with the text “God I hate women jews and n——,”
holding a knife in a photo captioned “overthrowing [Jews] is our Christian
duty,” celebrating the anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, NY and praising Hitler.
Miner was arraigned before Magistrate Judge Robert Levy. Federal prosecutors
and Miner’s defense attorney Benjamin Silverman agreed on a permanent order of
detention during Miner’s initial appearance Wednesday afternoon.”

 

Syria

 

The Wall Street Journal: Syria’s Assad Defeated His Foes. Now He Targets His
Friends.
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“For nine years, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has waged a brutal civil war
against his enemies and allowed his friends to profit from it. Now, he is
squeezing those same allies to solidify power and ensure the economy stays
afloat as the costs of rebuilding from the conflict pile up. Mr. Assad has been
targeting more than a dozen pro-regime money men, in a shakedown that has
touched industries from real estate to telecommunications and energy and
imparted the message that he alone dictates Syria’s future. Among those caught
in the crosshairs is Rami Makhlouf, Mr. Assad’s cousin and ally who helped keep
the money flowing to the regime during Syria’s civil war. In two recent
Facebook videos, Mr. Makhlouf pleaded with the president not to seize his
assets. Appearing disheveled and cornered, the camera-shy tycoon said
accusations that he owed $250 million in taxes were fabricated by Syria’s
intelligence services. “Mr. President, please, this is the truth,” Mr. Makhlouf
said in his first video on April 30. “We are ready to open our books to
everyone, and go over them number by number. If you get this figure, then I
will gladly give it to you.” It wasn’t clear from Mr. Makhlouf’s video whether
he was still in Syria, and he has remained out of the public eye since.”

 

ABC News: 'Risk Of A Mass Breakout' At ISIS Prison Camps In Syria: Report
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“There remains the “high impact risk of a mass breakout” of Islamic State
prisoners from detention camps in Syria, according to a new U.S. government
report. Published on Wednesday, the quarterly Inspector General report --
covering January through March of this year -- provided Congress an update on
the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria using information from
the Defense Department, State Department and U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID). More than a year after the U.S.-led coalition and its
partners liberated the final territory of the so-called ISIS caliphate in
Syria, the coalition said that the ISIS prisoners pose “one of the most
significant risks to the success of the (defeat-ISIS) mission.” The Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), America's majority-Kurdish partner who did most of the
ground fighting in Syria, still hold approximately 2,000 foreign fighters and
8,000 Iraqi and Syrian fighters in about 20 detention centers in northeast
Syria, the report said. Concerns about an ISIS prison break escalated in
October as some SDF guards were pulled from prisons to join fighting against
Turkish forces who had invaded northern Syria.”

 

Iran

 

Taylor & Francis Online: Iran And Hezbollah’s Pre-Operational Modus Operandi
In The West
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“Tensions between the United States and Iran/Hezbollah have been on the rise
since 2018 when the U.S. administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.
These tensions spiked in January 2020 when U.S. strikes killed Qassem Soleimani
the leader of Iran’s IRGC-Quds Force. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence
that in recent years, Iran and Hezbollah have sought to create a sleeper
network in the U.S. and Western Europe, which could be activated to launch
attacks as part of a retaliatory attack. This paper assesses Iran and Hezbollah
pre-operational modus operandi in the West derived from court documents and
open source reporting of recent arrest of Hezbollah and Iranian agents in the
US and abroad. It sheds lights on the recruitment, training, and placement of
these agents and the intricacies of their past operations. While it is
impossible to predict when, where or how Iran/Hezbollah might retaliate as
retribution for Soleimani’s killing, this article argues that there is growing
number of indicators and warning signs for a possible attack in the U.S. or
against U.S. interests abroad.”

 

Iraq

 

Washington Examiner: Pentagon Watchdog Reports ISIS Continues To Wage
‘Low-Level Insurgency’ In Both Iraq And Syria
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“The latest quarterly report to Congress by the Pentagon’s Office of the Lead
Inspector General says that while the Islamic State remains unable to hold
territory, the group can still mount small-arms attacks and continues to wage a
“low-level insurgency” in both Iraq and Syria. “In Iraq, these attacks were
concentrated in mountainous and desert provinces north and west of Baghdad,”
writes acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, who was just appointed to the
post last month. “In Syria, the majority of attacks occurred in Dayr az Zawr,
Hasakah, and Raqqah provinces.” According to the U.S. special envoy for the
Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, there are still some 14,000 to 18,000 ISIS
remnants spread between Syria and Iraq, therefore remaining a threat as an
insurgency and terrorist operation. The report cites the U.S. Treasury
Department as reporting that ISIS continues to generate funds through criminal
activities and continues “to move money within and out of Syria and Iraq
through couriers and other money services.” ISIS, it says, “has access to
financial reserves in the hundreds of millions of dollars even as it works to
rebuild ‘significantly reduced’ fund-generating networks.”

 

Kurdistan 24: Iraqi Official Says ISIS Behind Recent Crop Fires
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“An Iraqi government official said on Thursday that members of the so-called
Islamic State were behind crop fires in at least two provinces in recent weeks,
though without much further clarification. Still-lit cigarettes left in grain
fields, deliberately or otherwise, are among a number of possible causes named,
said Mahdi al-Qaisy, an advisor for the Ministry of Agriculture, in comments to
the Iraqi News Agency in which he citing a Civil Defense Directorate
assessment. “Da’esh terrorist gangs are responsible for setting fires in
agricultural crops in two or more provinces and the rest of the fires were
caused by negligence and oversight,” said Qaisy. He also claimed that the
blazes had not threatened the country’s “food security.” Coinciding with the
arrival of the harvest season, crop field burnings started again recently, with
Islamic State militants being accused of being behind some of them. This is
amid a general uptick in the terrorist organization’s activity across Iraq. On
Thursday afternoon, local media reports indicated that militants launched three
mortar shells on a farming village in the western portion of Diyala province.
Five people were reportedly wounded and transported to a nearby hospital, as
security force teams were dispatched to the area.”

 

Turkey

 

Reuters: Turkey Detains Four More Kurdish Mayors On Alleged Terror Links
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“Turkish authorities detained mayors of four more municipalities in
Kurdish-majority areas on Friday as part of what it called terrorism related
investigations, a security source and state-owned Anadolu news agency said on
Friday. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayors of the eastern
provinces of Igdir, Siirt and districts of Baykan and Kurtalan were detained at
their houses, according to the source and to Anadolu. President Tayyip
Erdogan’s government accuses the HDP of having links to the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) militant group, leading to prosecutions of thousands of its members
and some leaders. The HDP denies such links. Since March 2019 local elections,
mayors have been replaced by trustees in more than half of the roughly 65
municipalities won by the HDP. Ankara has appointed governors and other local
authorities as trustees in those districts. The former co-leaders of the HDP
have both been jailed since 2016 on terrorism charges, with several other
prominent party members accused of supporting terrorism over what the
government says are links to the PKK.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Voice Of America: Taliban Respond To Ghani’s Statement With Attack
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“A Taliban attack on an Afghan army compound in Gardez city of Paktia province
Thursday morning killed at least five civilians and wounded dozens more,
including five people from the military. A spokesman for the army’s 203 Thunder
Corps, Aimal Khan Mohmand, told VOA the suicide attacker in an explosives laden
Mazda truck managed to damage the walls of the compound. Afghanistan’s Tolo
news has reported that based on social media pictures, the building was
“destroyed.” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility and
said the attack was a response to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s order to
resume offensive operations against the insurgent group. The operations were
suspended since the insurgent group signed a landmark deal with the United
States in Doha in February to try to end the war. The attack also comes days
after multiple attacks in other parts of the country, including on a hospital
in Kabul, killed more than 50 people including newborn babies. While Taliban
denied those attacks, senior Afghan officials, including first vice president
Amrullah Saleh, blamed the group for those attacks. The acting interior
minister Massoud Andarabi accused a deadly Taliban faction, the Haqqani
network, of having close ties with the local chapter of Islamic State which
claimed some of the attacks.”

 

Pakistan

 

The Week: Summer Of Terror
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“Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is busy shuttling between the military
offices in Karachi, the country’s financial capital, and the army headquarters
in Rawalpindi. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only hit Pakistan’s economy but
also turned international attention away from its favourite subject—Kashmir.
Its army, therefore, has taken centre stage to meet the two challenges. Even
before the pandemic, Pakistan’s economy had been witnessing a slump. There was
pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global terror
financing watchdog, which put Pakistan on the grey list and threatened
sanctions. At the same time, terror outfits were growing desperate after India
abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. Last October,
Bajwa met business leaders and government finance officials in Karachi to
discuss ways to tackle the economic slowdown. The growing role of the military
in the country’s economic management became clear when the military issued a
statement after the meeting. National security was intimately linked to
economy, said Bajwa, and to prosper, there should be a balance in security
needs and economic growth.”

 

Lebanon

 

The Jerusalem Post: Hezbollah Is A Terrorist Entity. The EU Must Not Be Afraid
To Say So
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“The recent German government’s blacklisting of Hezbollah in its entirety is a
significant step in the global fight against terrorism and Iranian aggression.
The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and our allies across the world – the
United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Arab League and the Gulf
Cooperation Council – have all designated the entire Hezbollah a terrorist
organization. It is therefore high time for the European Union (EU) to join the
international consensus in ceasing its differentiation between Hezbollah’s
so-called “political” and “military” wings, and outlaw the entire organization.
The false distinction between the two wings came about after Hezbollah bombed a
bus filled with Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012, killing six and
wounding several others. As a consequence, the EU could no longer deny
Hezbollah’s terrorist activities. But in order to not upset its relations with
Lebanon where Hezbollah is a significant political player - it introduced a
theoretical distinction between Hezbollah’s political and military wings, of
which only the latter was outlawed in July 2013. It should be noted that senior
Hezbollah leadership consistently and vehemently deny that there is any
distinction between their “wings,” and stress that it is one and the same
organization.”

 

Africa

 

Voice Of America: 26 Killed In Attack On South Sudan Government Paramilitary
Base
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“Twenty-six people, including civilians, were killed when unidentified gunmen
attacked a South Sudan Rapid Support Forces (RSF) base this week outside the
town of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. RSF leader General Hamdan Dagalo
condemned Monday’s attack. Kadugli town authorities said armed men in military
uniforms attacked the RSF base. Nineteen others were injured in the attack and
were airlifted to Khartoum for treatment, according to Major General Rasheed
Abdulhameed Ismeal, the military caretaker governor of South Kordofan state. No
arrests have been reported, and the gunmen remain unidentified but were said to
have arrived in four Land Rovers. General Dagalo, a Sudanese Sovereign Council
member, called the incident politically motivated. He accused unnamed
individuals of trying to create insecurity by fueling tribal conflict among
locals and pitting his RSF forces against the Sudan Armed Forces for political
gain. Dagalo warned politicians against trying to foment violence among
citizens. “Any politician who might have a plan of reaching any position should
do that without harming the country. Currently, people are trying to survive
the global pandemic, and many don’t have food to eat and at the same time
others are instigating violence,” said Dagalo.”

 

Germany

 

BBC News: Germany Far Right: Explosives Found At Elite Soldier's Home
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“German police investigating links between the military and the far right have
seized weapons and explosives at the home of a special forces soldier. The
45-year-old sergeant major in the elite KSK special forces command has been
under investigation since 2017. Reports say he had hidden a cache of weapons at
his home in Nordsachsen in the eastern state of Saxony. German military
intelligence (MAD) said in January there were 592 suspected far-right cases in
the army last year. In March, officials said they had identified 27 people as
far-right extremists. The KSK, considered the most secretive unit in the army,
is seen as a particular problem. It has some 1,000 soldiers trained for crisis
situations such as freeing hostages abroad and 20 of them have reportedly come
under investigation. Germany's Spiegel website says action has been taken
against nine of them. Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer promised
further investigation of possible extremist networks and said it was clear
there was no place for anyone in the armed forces who acted “in a radical way”.
The military's far-right problem emerged in 2017. Inspections were ordered on
all military barracks when Nazi-era memorabilia was found at two of them.”

 

Latin America

 

Reuters: Colombia Bombing Kills ELN Rebel Commander, Three Others
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“A commander from Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels known for
his management of illicit finances has been killed along with three others in a
military bombing, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The bombing in the
Montecristo rural area of Bolivar province was a joint operation between the
air force, army troops and the police, Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo
said. “Alias 'Mocho Tierra' was considered a high-value target and was involved
in the planning and execution of terrorist acts against the civilian population
and the armed forces,” Trujillo said. The leader, whose identity was not
disclosed, was an ELN member for nearly three decades and participated in a
1999 kidnapping of airline passengers. He was in charge of drug trafficking and
illegal mining in the region that generated monthly revenues of about 4 billion
pesos ($1 million), Trujillo said. The ELN, considered a terrorist group by the
United States and European Union, declared a unilateral ceasefire during April
in what it said was a humanitarian gesture amid the coronavirus pandemic. The
group renewed attacks following the ceasefire, with the army blaming it for a
series of bombings against oil pipelines.”

 

Technology

 

The National: How Extremists Are Using Zoom And Other Tools To Exploit This
Pandemic
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“Fresh evidence that radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are seeking to
exploit the coronavirus pandemic is a reminder that, despite the setbacks they
have suffered in recent years, Islamist extremists are actively seeking to
regroup. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, supporters of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Isis and others were very much on the defensive, not least because
of the catastrophic defeats they had suffered in Iraq and Syria following the
collapse of the so-called caliphate. There were also indications of similar
setbacks elsewhere in the Muslim world, with the Taliban under pressure to sign
a US-sponsored peace accord in Afghanistan and the Islamist-backed Government
of National Accord in Libya in danger of succumbing to the military offensive
being undertaken by Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar. But with global attention
focused on dealing with the coronavirus challenge, there is mounting evidence
that Islamist hardliners are seeking to use the pandemic to recruit and rebuild
their networks. As The National reported earlier this week, in Britain experts
have raised concerns that the lockdown has enabled the Brotherhood to spread
its ideology directly into the homes of potential sympathisers.”



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