Eye on Extremism

November 3, 2020

The New York Times: Vienna Terrorist Attack Leaves At Least 4 Dead And Many Wounded

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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.”