A terrorist attack in the busy streets of central Vienna left at least three
people dead and many more wounded by gunfire on Monday night, government

 

 


<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
Eye on Extremism


November 3, 2020

 

The New York Times: Vienna Terrorist Attack Leaves At Least 4 Dead And Many
Wounded
<[link removed]>

 

“A terrorist attack in the busy streets of central Vienna left at least four
people dead and many more wounded by gunfire on Monday night, government
officials said. One gunman was killed by the police, and Interior Minister Karl
Nehammer called him an Islamic State “sympathizer” in a news conference on
Tuesday morning. The authorities initially said there were multiple attackers,
but on Tuesday morning, Mr. Nehammer left open the possibility that there had
been only one. The police were searching for potential accomplices, however,
and officials urged people to avoid central Vienna. The mayhem was unleashed on
a mild autumn night as many Austrians ventured outside for a stroll or a last
dinner out just hours before the country was to go on a new nationwide
coronavirus lockdown. There was gunfire in perhaps half a dozen locations, all
in the same area, the authorities said. At least 15 people were being treated
for injuries at hospitals, a spokesman for the hospital association said.
Michael Ludwig, Vienna’s mayor, said at least seven people were seriously hurt.
At least one of those shot was a police officer. “We are going through a dark
hour in our republic,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a statement. “Our
police will move consequently against the perpetrators of this despicable
terror attack.”

 

Reuters: Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Kabul University Attack
<[link removed]>

 

“Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on Kabul University on
Monday that killed 22 people including students, the group’s Amaq News Agency
said. In a message posted on Telegram, the group claimed to have “killed and
injured 80 Afghan judges, investigators and security personnel” who gathered on
completion of a training programme. The death toll released by Afghan officials
is much lower, at 22, and does not mention the killing of judges or
prosecutors. Officials said multiple students had been killed.”

 

United States

 

Chicago Sun Times: Tip Lines Allow Voters To Report Intimidation, Extremism At
The Polls
<[link removed]>

 

“With tensions rising ahead of Tuesday’s election, civil rights groups have
set up resources for voters to report intimidation at the polls and potential
extremist activities. David Goldenberg, executive director of the
Anti-Defamation League’s Midwest region, said his organization is being careful
not to “give oxygen” to fanatics while also getting across to elected
officials, law enforcement and members of the public “that the environment is
ripe for these types of incidents of election-related, extremist-motivated
violence to occur.” Both the ADL and the American Civil Liberties Union are
part of a coalition overseeing the Election Protection Hotline — a nationwide
resource to report voter intimidation — which you can access by calling
866-OUR-VOTE or by going to 866ourvote.org. The ADL is also manning a text line
(text “hatehelp” to 51555) for voters to report allegations of election-related
extremism and providing a “toolkit” to officials to prepare. Goldenberg said
his team is “keeping an eye” on Illinois and other surrounding states — though
he made it clear there’s been no indication as of Monday afternoon of any
direct threat before the polls close. He explained that researchers have merely
seen reports of intimidation at polling places but no “widespread amount of
violence before the election.”

 

Syria

 

Daily Sabah: Terror Attack At Market In Syria’s Ras Al-Ain Wounds 4
<[link removed]>

 

“A terror attack in a marketplace in northern Syria’s Ras al-Ain on Monday has
injured four civilians, one of whom was in a critical situation. Local security
forces investigating the attacks suspect the YPG/PKK terrorist organization is
responsible for detonating the bomb. Ras al-Ain was freed from the YPG/PKK on
Oct. 12 as part of Ankara's Operation Peace Spring, launched on Oct. 9, 2019,
to secure Turkey's borders by eliminating the terror group from northern Syria
east of the Euphrates River and to aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees as
well as ensuring Syria's territorial integrity. YPG/PKK terrorists, however,
continue to attack the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain despite pulling out of
areas under a deal reached by Turkey and the U.S. on Oct. 17. In its more than
40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist
organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union – has been responsible
for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.”

 

Afghanistan

 

New York Post: ISIS Expert Stunned By Online Images Of Kabul University Carnage

<[link removed]>

 

“Horrific images of the deadly Kabul University attack were quickly posted on
social media — and mark a “grotesque” new low in ISIS propaganda, a European
expert said Monday. Michael Krona, an assistant professor at Sweden’s Malmo
University and co-editor of last year’s “The Media World of ISIS,” reacted on
Twitter after photos emerged that appear to show dead students laying in pools
of blood next to their desks and chairs. “Not sure if I’ve ever seen a
terrorist attack being followed by such a rapid and extensive flooding of
gruesome visual imagery of victims on social media, as ongoing
#KabulUniversityAttack,” Krona tweeted. “Perhaps it has become standard
practice to dwell in the grotesque.” Krona also tweeted a screenshot that shows
recent revisions to a Wikipedia page about ISIS’s online propaganda outlet, the
“Amaq News Agency.” “#IS supporters increasingly using #Wikipedia to spread
propaganda, publishing links to IS content, and above all edit articles to be
sympathetic to #ISIS religious views,” he wrote. “Wikimedia and others
constantly blocking and removing, but it is an effective way of promoting
Islamic State. ISIS on Monday claimed responsibility for the carnage at Kabul
University, where at least 22 people were killed and 22 more injured, many
critically.”

 

Sky News: Al Qaeda Aiding Taliban In Helmand Fight, Afghan Governor Claims
<[link removed]>

 

“Fighters linked to the terrorist group al Qaeda joined with the Taliban in an
October attack on Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, its governor has
claimed. The Taliban strongly denied the allegation, saying all its forces were
from the local area. Any evidence of al Qaeda activity in Afghanistan could
threaten the core goal of the US-led, UK-backed mission in the country since
2001: to stop the group behind the September 11 atrocity in the United States
from launching international terrorist attacks once more from Afghan soil.
Mohammad Yasin Khan, the Helmand governor, told Sky News the Taliban insurgents
involved in the offensive came from inside and outside his region. “They
brought other Taliban from other parts of the country, as well as members of
Pakistani terrorists group and al Qaeda fighters - Pakistani groups such as
Jaish-e-Mohmmad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi & Lashkar-e-Taiba,” the governor said. “Also
other foreign fighters joined them and they launched a huge attack on Helmand,”
he said, speaking from the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. “Their aim was to
capture Helmand.”

 

Nigeria

 

Agence France-Presse: Boko Haram ‘Kills 12’ In Raid Near Nigeria’s Chibok
<[link removed]>

 

“Boko Haram jihadists on Sunday killed 12 people and abducted seven others in
a raid on a village near the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok, local sources
said. Chibok is the scene of the mass kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 by
Boko Haram which drew global outrage and international attention to the group.
Fighters in six pickup trucks drove into Takulashi village on Sunday, 18
kilometers (12 miles) from Chibok, shooting residents and setting homes ablaze.
“The terrorists killed 12 people, including two of our members who engaged them
in a gunfight,” Abwaku Kabu, the leader of a local government-backed militia
said. Anti-jihadist militia members from Chibok mobilized in two trucks to
defend the village but they were outnumbered by the militants who seized one of
the trucks, Kabu said. The insurgents who attacked the village from their
Sambisa forest enclave nearby abducted seven residents and burnt 70 houses
after looting food supplies, Ayuba Alamson, a community leader in Chibok said.
“The insurgents took away three women and their four children in the attack,”
said Alamson who has the same death toll. Troops have been stationed in Chibok
since the schoolgirls kidnap but deadly Boko Haram raids continue in the area.”

 

Mali

 

France 24: Mali Air Strikes Kill Dozens Of Jihadists Linked To Al Qaeda,
French Govt Says
<[link removed]>

 

“The French government said Monday its forces had killed more than 50
jihadists aligned to Al-Qaeda in air strikes in central Mali. The offensive
took place on Friday in an area near the borders of Burkina Faso and Niger,
where government troops are struggling to rout an Islamic insurgency, French
Defence Minister Florence Parly said after meeting members of Mali’s
transitional government. “On October 30 in Mali, the Barkhane force conducted
an operation that neutralised more than 50 jihadists and confiscated arms and
material,” Parly said, referring to the French-led anti-jihadist Operation
Barkhane. She added that around 30 motorcycles were destroyed. Parly, who
earlier met Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou and her Nigerien counterpart
Issoufou Katambe before heading to Bamako, said the operation was launched
after a drone detected a “very large” motorcycle caravan in the “three borders”
area. When the jihadists moved under trees to try and escape surveillance, the
French force sent in two Mirage jets and a drone to launch missiles, leading to
the “neutralisation” of the insurgents, Parly said. Military spokesman Colonel
Frederic Barbry said that “four terrorists have been captured.”

 

Africa

 

Bloomberg: Ethiopia Says Militants Killed 32 People In Oromia Region
<[link removed]>

 

“At least 32 people were killed in an overnight attack in Ethiopia’s restive
Oromia region, which the local government blamed on militants seeking autonomy.
The Nov. 1 raid, in the West Wellega Zone, was undertaken by members of the OLF
Shane, a militant breakaway group of the Oromo Liberation Front, working with
the support of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front or TPLF, the Oromia
regional government said. A spokesman for the OLF Shane didn’t respond to
repeated phone calls seeking comment. The TPLF denied involvement. Getachew
Reda, an executive member of the TPLF and former communications minister, said
the accusation was “just a boilerplate statement from a cabal that has been
orchestrating violence against innocent civilians to cling to power.” The raid
follows a spate of deadly attacks in Ethiopia, which have flared since Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed began opening up the country’s once tightly regulated
political space after coming to power in April 2018. His unbanning of
opposition and rebel groups has stoked political fragmentation and
long-suppressed rivalries among ethnic communities and calls for more regional
autonomy.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Guardian: Teenage Satanist And Far-Right Extremist Sentenced For Terrorism
Offences
<[link removed]>

 

“A teenage Satanist and far-right extremist has been given a suspended
sentence after posting bomb-making manuals on neo-Nazi forums and downloading
indecent images of children. Harry Vaughan, 18, a grammar school pupil who
achieved four A* grades in his A-levels, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on
Monday after admitting 14 terrorism offences and two child abuse image
offences. He was given two years’ detention suspended for two years. Vaughan
was arrested by police in June last year following an investigation into an
online forum called Fascist Forge. Police found that the teenager, of
south-west London, had been concealing his identity behind numerous aliases and
boasting about school shootings, sharing explosives manuals and neo-Nazi
propaganda online, expressing homophobic views and downloading indecent images
of underage boys. Digital forensic specialists retrieved 4,200 images and 302
files from Vaughan’s devices including an extreme rightwing terrorist book and
documents relating to Satanism, neo-Nazism and antisemitism. Police also
discovered graphics encouraging acts of terrorism in the name of the proscribed
organisation Sonnenkrieg Division and footage of the 2019 Christchurch mosque
massacre.”

 

France

 

France 24: French Police Make More Arrests As Catholics Pray In Shadow Of Nice
Attack
<[link removed]>

 

“French Catholics on Sunday celebrated the All Saints religious festival under
heavy security, as police made two new arrests over a knife attack on a church
in the southern city of Nice blamed on an Islamist assailant. Three people were
killed in the knife rampage Thursday in the Notre-Dame Basilica that
prosecutors say was carried out by a young Tunisian recently arrived in Europe.
It was the latest attack in France to be described by the government as an act
of “Islamist” terror, in the wake of the republication of cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed by the Charlie Hebdo weekly in September. In Nice, three men
were released from police custody on Sunday after authorities determined they
were not linked to the suspected attacker, a source close to the investigation
said. Three men remain in custody, including a 29-year-old Tunisian suspected
of migrating with the suspect from their homeland to France. The tensions did
not prevent Catholics going to church to celebrate the All Saints holiday in
Nice, authorities allowing an exemption during the coronavirus lockdown. “I was
apprehensive, I was scared of coming,” said Claudia, 49, as she went to church,
reassured by the presence of heavily armed soldiers.”

 

New Zealand

 

Newsroom: Action Zealandia Linked To Violent Overseas Extremists
<[link removed]>

 

“The white supremacist organisation Action Zealandia is publicising its
relationship with the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a far-right
Scandinavian group linked to several bombings. Two members of the New
Zealand-based group interviewed NRM member Andreas Johansson on their podcast
about Jews and the Nordic group's response to backlash against it. According to
the Counter Extremism Project, “NRM leaders and members have carried out
numerous attacks against gay people, Muslim asylum seekers, and the group's
ideological adversaries”. A quarter of the group's members have been convicted
of a violent crime. These events include successful bombings of a refugee
centre and a left-wing cafe in Sweden and a plan to assassinate journalists.
Although it operates an unsuccessful political party in Sweden and runs
branches in several other Nordic countries, the NRM is banned outright in
Finland. In response to Newsroom's reporting on Action Zealandia members'
alleged involvement in a terror threat against one of the mosques attacked on
March 15 and plans to start terror cells in New Zealand, the group has
previously claimed it “does not endorse illegal, or violent activities.”

 

Technology

 

The Guardian: The White Right: Facebook Has Become The Platform Of Choice For
Domestic Terrorists
<[link removed]>

 

“An alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was
planned in part on Facebook, with one leader of the scheme broadcasting a video
of his frustrations with Whitmer to a private Facebook group, and participants
later sharing footage of their paramilitary exercises and bomb-making training,
according to an FBI affidavit. A related Michigan militia group facing
terrorism charges also used Facebook to recruit new members, according to the
Michigan state police. Before Michigan, there was the militia group in Kenosha
that used a Facebook event to encourage armed citizens to take to the streets,
and the anti-government “boogaloo” cop-killer in California this May allegedly
met his accomplice on Facebook. The deadly Neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017, was originally organized as a Facebook event. Facebook has
defended itself as working hard to keep users safe and to adapt to emerging
threats on its platform, as well as coordinating closely with law enforcement.
But evidence has mounted for years that Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of using
Facebook to “bring the world closer together” and to “give people the power to
build community” has also built powerful tools for radicalization and
coordinated violence.”

 



Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>