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Eye on Extremism
December 4, 2020
The Guardian: Taliban Denies Targeting Media After 50th Journalist Dies In Afghanistan
“The Taliban have denied they are deliberately targeting journalists in attacks amid the surge in violence throughout Afghanistan. The US watchdog Sigar (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) says Taliban violence has risen by 50% since September, with media workers saying they don’t feel safe doing their jobs. A spokesman for the Taliban told the Guardian they maintain a positive interaction with the media. “By our policy, we give great importance to the work of journalists,” Muhammad Naeem said, adding that the Taliban have given access to journalists in areas under their control. “Targeting civilians is not the policy of the Islamic emirate,” he said. But as talks between the militants and the Afghan government slowly progress, Afghan media are worried for their future. Last week reporter Elyas Dayee became the 50th journalist killed in the country since 2001, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, when he was hit by a car bomb in Helmand province. Just days before Dayee’s death, Yama Siawash of Tolo TV, Afghanistan’s biggest news channel, died in a similar attack in Kabul. No group has claimed either attack. “A series of targeted killings of civilians has recently begun in Kabul, including attacks on mosque imams, university professors and educational institutions,” Naeem acknowledged, though denying Taliban involvement.”
Arab News: US Could Designate Houthi Militia As ‘Terrorist’ Organization
“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could designate the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization this week, Al-Arabiya TV reported, citing the Washington Post. US National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien said earlier that the US had options to deal with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. O’Brien added that Washington has been constantly studying this decision, calling on the militia to stay away from Iran and stop attacking neighboring countries. He further criticized the Houthis for their failure in engaging in negotiations and showing good intentions to end the conflict in Yemen, adding that Washington has been monitoring the situation closely over the past period. The decision to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization is on President Donald Trump’s agenda during the remaining months of his administration, O’Brien said.”
United States
Reuters: Sen. Cruz Reintroduces Act To Designate Muslim Brotherhood A Terrorist Group
“Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) reintroduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act this week, his office announced on Wednesday. The act urges the US State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). “I am proud to reintroduce this bill and to advance America’s fight against radical Islamic terrorism,” said Cruz. “I commend the current administration’s work calling terrorism by its name and combating the spread of this potent threat, and I look forward to receiving the additional information this new bill requests from the Department of State. “Many of our closest allies in the Arab world have long ago concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group that seeks to sow chaos across the Middle East,” he said. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) co-sponsored the bill, saying that, “since the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Brotherhood-affiliated groups have consistently preached and incited hatred against Christians, Jews, and other Muslims while supporting designated radical terrorists. “I am proud that under the Trump administration, we continue to call out and combat radical terrorism, and I am glad to join my colleagues today in reintroducing this legislation,” he said. “We must continue to condemn foreign terrorist organizations and hold them accountable for the evil they perpetrate.”
Turkey
Daily Sabah: Turkish Security Forces Detain Daesh Suspects, Including 1 With Links To Vienna Attacks
“Turkish security forces continue to nab Daesh terrorists across the country, with the latest operations on Thursday taking place in metropolises such as Istanbul and western Izmir, where one of the detained suspects confessed having links to the Vienna attack. In Izmir, a suspect and 10 others with links to the terrorist group, were detained during a counterterrorism operation. The operation was conducted within the scope of Izmir's office of the chief prosecutor's investigation on the Salafi groups' actions within the province. In this respect, it was determined that the suspect Ramazan O., code-named “Ebu Haris,” who is already being sued in an ongoing trial, was carrying out terrorist activities from a bookshop in Izmir. Reportedly, the suspect had been conducting meetings in the bookshop to recruit terrorists for Daesh and influence youth through live events on his social media account while engaging in fundraising activities at the same time. He is also revealed to have links with one of the detained suspects in the Vienna attacks. Upon this evidence, simultaneous counterterrorism operations were conducted at 14 different spots. During the operation, a shotgun and various banned publishing were seized.”
Afghanistan
“Maj. Naiem Asadi was already in his attack helicopter over Kabul when the call blared over the radio: Militants were raining down mortars near the presidential compound, and someone needed to find them. Asadi, one of the most experienced pilots in the Afghan air force, whirled his MD-530 aircraft to scan the horizon and spotted the telltale plume of white smoke. He raked the area with a burst of rockets, killing the fighters during the 2018 mission, he said in an interview. His actions were featured in a video by the U.S.-led coalition eager to highlight skilled Afghan troops. But the exposure helped the Taliban mark him for death threats. U.S. officials granted his request to flee to the United States but reversed their decision hours before he was to depart — leaving Asadi wondering who will track him down first. “I found a house to hide from the Afghan government and the Taliban,” Asadi, 32, said by phone from an undisclosed location, where he has been sheltering with his 4-year-old daughter and wife after weeks of refuge at a U.S. base came to an end. The episode, first reported by Stars and Stripes, has rallied a dozen former U.S. pilots who worked with Asadi. They said U.S. officials turned their back on him after a career that includes saving the lives of American pilots and have urged lawmakers in their states to focus on the issue.”
Saudi Arabia
Gulf News: Saudi Arabia And Egypt Islamic Bodies In Sync Against Militants
“Saudi Arabia’s Islamic institutions and Al Azhar, Egypt’s influential Islamic centre, are united in exposing “misleading ideologies’ of radical groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a senior Saudi official.”There is consensus between Al Azhar and the religious authorities in the kingdom in warning against the misleading ideologies of the Brotherhood and the militant groups,” Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs and Call Abdulatif Al Sheikh added. He cited a recent statement issued by the Saudi Senior Scholars Council, Saudi Arabia’s top Islamic body, which condemned the Brotherhood and designated it as a terrorist group. “The statement came to consolidate the kingdom’s efforts in confronting the misleading Brotherhood,” Al Sheikh told the Sout of Al Azhar magazine. “This consensus will bear fruit for Muslims and spare them the misleading parties and their sedition,” he added. “It is necessary to stand firm against calls launched by the extremist groups underestimating the religious institutions and established scholars with the pernicious aim of monopolising the scene for spreading their radical ideas,” the official added. “We and Al Azhar represent the top of Islamic call, exchange visits and ideas as well as discuss all issues.”
Lebanon
The Jerusalem Post: Hezbollah In Nowhere Land
“The title of Prof. Hilal Khashan’s book – Hizbullah: A Mission to Nowhere – neatly encapsulates its invaluable contribution to our understanding of the Lebanese terrorist movement. Khashan accomplishes his declared goal, “to show readers that the emergence of Hizbullah was unnecessary – detrimental even – for the political evolution of Lebanese Shi’ites.” Equally important, the professor, who teaches at the American University of Beirut, covers in nine chapters the enormous damage Hezbollah has inflicted on the Middle East and across the international community. Khashan, a US-trained expert on Middle Eastern security, does yeoman’s service in analyzing how the Islamic Republic of Iran gave birth to Hezbollah and seeks to expand its radical jihadi ideology. “Directly created by Iran, its [Hezbollah’s] strategic mission goes beyond resisting Israeli occupation and controlling the joints of the Lebanese political system to exporting Khomeini’s Islamic revolution and wilayat al-faqih [Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist]. There is endless evidence to support the claim that Hizbullah is an Iranian Trojan Horse in the Middle East and possibly beyond,” he writes.”
Somalia
Dalsan Radio: Somalia: SNA Says 51 Shabaabs Killed In 'Botched' Raid On Somali Military Base
“The government confirmed that on Tuesday Somali troops killed 51 Al-Shabaab fighters during the latter's botched attack on the Somali National Army (SNA) base in the southern region on Monday. Osman Dubbe, Minister for Information said six al-Shabab terrorists were also arrested including the mastermind of the attack. The attack also left 15 other people, including soldiers dead. The government also lauded the civilians who teamed up with the soldiers to defeat the terrorists who had planned to overrun the military base in the southern town of Baladweyne in Mudug region. “Al-Shabab defeat in yesterday's (Monday) attack in Baladweyne is a clear example of how the people who stand by the army can easily stop the attacks and plots of the enemy against the Somali nation,” Dubbe said in a statement issued in Mogadishu. The minister said both the soldiers and the residents fought bravely to defeat the al-Qaida allied terrorist group which Dubbe termed as the “enemy of the Somali people.” However, the militant group said its fighters killed 53 government troops and seized six military vehicles including anti-aircraft guns during the Monday morning assault. The extremist group which is fighting to overthrow the government frequently exaggerates the number of troops/civilians they kill.”
Africa
BBC News: Is Africa Overtaking The Middle East As The New Jihadist Battleground?
“About 300 British troops have arrived in the troubled West African state of Mali at a time when the epicentre of the Islamic State group (IS) appears to have moved from the Middle East to Africa. In a three-year mission named Operation Newcombe they are joining a force of around 15,000 UN multinational troops, spearheaded by the French, in efforts to help stabilise a part of the continent known as the Sahel. Mali is one of several Sahel nations currently fighting jihadist insurgencies and the violence is getting worse. According to the Global Terrorism Index published on 25 November, the “centre of gravity” for the Islamic State group IS has moved away from the Middle East to Africa and to some extent South Asia, with total deaths by IS in sub-Saharan Africa up by 67% over last year. “The expansion of ISIS affiliates into sub-Saharan Africa led to a surge in terrorism in many countries in the region,” reports the Global Terrorism Index. “Seven of the 10 countries with the largest increase in terrorism were in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Mozambique, DRC, Mali, Niger, Cameroon and Ethiopia”. The report points out that in 2019 “sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest number of ISIS-related terrorism deaths at 982, or 41 per cent of the total”. Jihadists have long been active in Africa.”
Voice Of America: Displaced Nearing 400,000 In Mozambique's Islamist Insurgency
“Aid groups in northern Mozambique say attacks on civilians have displaced close to 400,000 people during three years of Islamist terrorism. Fifty-year-old Matumba Mussa said armed men showed up at his house in the port town of Mocímboa da Praia one October night and demanded he call his relatives. After his three brothers arrived, the men set fire to his house and three others, then took his brothers into the forest, according to Mussa. Three days later, he said, dismembered bodies were found in the forest. Insurgents linked to Islamic State took over Mocímboa da Praia in August – one of a series of brazen attacks this year in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province. Mussa fled south to the provincial capital's Metuge refugee camp, becoming one of close to 400,000 people displaced by the violence since 2017. The United Nations World Food Program's representative in Cabo Delgado, Cristina Graziani, said they are working to assist those in need. “The latest, official count is a bit above 366,000 people displaced in Cabo Delgado, in the province,” she said. “And that has obviously been an increase in the past six months.”
United Kingdom
“The so-called Islamic State is plotting Christmas terror attacks in Britain and European countries in revenge for the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in France, a former MI6 spy has warned. Aimen Dean, who spent eight years spying on al-Qaeda before his cover was blown by a US intelligence leak, claimed plots were being hatched in jihadi-held areas of northern Syria and Libya to terrorise Europeans this winter. He told a security conference in London that Abu Omar al-Shishani, an Isis commander who is thought to have survived a US strike in 2016, is planning to send extremists to the West via Turkey and across the Mediterranean from North Africa. They will then carry out a series of terror atrocities in Britain, France and Germany as their governments lift coronavirus restrictions ahead of Christmas, Dean said. Home Secretary Priti Patel moved Britain to its second-highest terror threat level of 'severe' after a series of horrifying attacks in France and Austria, where an Isis sympathiser killed four people during a gun rampage in Vienna. In France, schoolteacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in October for showing a classroom Mohammed cartoons in a lesson on free speech. Three Christians were killed in a mass stabbing by a Tunisian migrant in Nice just two weeks later.”
France
Axios: France And Austria Target “Islamist Separatism” After Terror Attacks
“In the wake of terror attacks by Islamic extremists, French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a campaign against “Islamist separatism,” while Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz plans to outlaw “political Islam.” Why it matters: Both leaders argue that they're targeting not Islam, but Islamic extremism. Both are being accused of fueling Islamophobia. Driving the news: Gérald Darmanin, Macron's conservative interior minister, ordered inspections of 78 mosques on Thursday and said those found to promote extremism would be shut down. Darmanin said these were isolated cases and that France was “far from a situation of widespread radicalization.” But he echoed the warnings about “separatism,” or the rejection of French laws and society. Macron has labeled separatism a threat to France's secular values and national unity. Macron's fiery rhetoric after the beheading of Samuel Paty — a teacher targeted for showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in class — led to protests from Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan and Turkey, and accusations at home that he was enabling discrimination or playing politics to fend off the far-right. What to watch: Kurz's proposal could be far more sweeping, though it remains fairly vague.”
Southeast Asia
Deutsche Welle: Philippines: Islamist Militants Attack Army Camp
“A group of around 50 Islamist militants attacked an army battalion camp and set fire to a police car, officials said on Friday. The attack took place in the town of Datu Piang, 960 kilometres (597 miles) south of Manila, on Thursday evening, said Lieutenant Colonel Alaric Delos Santos, a regional military spokesman. But soldiers repelled the attackers, who were believed to be members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a breakaway faction of a Muslim rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the government in 2014. “On their retreat, they saw a parked police car and burned it,” Delos Santos said. “There was no firefight but the public was alarmed because video of the burning car went viral on social media.” There were no civilians or troops hurt in the incident, he said. Social media posts overnight showed residents fearing that the attack would be similar to the seige on Marawi City in May 2017, when hundreds of Islamic State-allied guerrillas swooped down and took over the city. The siege triggered a five-month battle that left more than 1,200 dead and displaced over half a million residents in Marawi City, which was left in ruins. Top leaders of the militants, including the reported emir of the Islamic State in Southeast Asia, were killed at the end of the siege, while other militants were captured.”
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