At least 37 people in Syria have been killed in one of the biggest attacks
carried out by Islamic State since the fall of the self-proclaimed caliphat

 

 


<[link removed]>
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Eye on Extremism


January 4, 2021

 

The Guardian: Syria: Dozens Killed In Isis Bus Attack
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“At least 37 people in Syria have been killed in one of the biggest attacks
carried out by Islamic State since the fall of the self-proclaimed caliphate
last year. The assault on Wednesday reportedly targeted a convoy of Syrian
regime soldiers and militiamen returning from leave to their posts in Deir
ez-Zor province, a mainly desert area on the border with Iraq. The official
state news agency, Sana, reported that a terrorist attack on a bus on the main
highway killed 25 civilians and wounded 13. Other sources, including local
residents, a military defector and the UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights (SOHR), put the toll higher and claimed soldiers were onboard. One
source told Reuters that the men were from Bashar al-Assad’s elite Fourth
Brigade. According to SOHR, the bus was ambushed in a well-planned operation
near the village of Shula by jihadists who set up a checkpoint to stop the
convoy and detonated bombs before opening fire. Two more buses managed to
escape. “It was one of the deadliest attacks since the fall of the Isis
(self-proclaimed) caliphate” last year, the Observatory head, Rami Abdel
Rahman, told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the
incident.”

 

The New York Times: 100 Civilians Are Reported Dead After Attacks In Niger
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“A hundred civilians  were killed in attacks by suspected militants in the
West African nation of Niger on Saturday, according to government officials.
Armed men shot men and boys in what was said to be a revenge attack on the
villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye. The villages are in the
southwestern region of Tillabéri, where civilians have increasingly come under
attack in the past two years. “They opened fire on everybody,” said Jahafar
Koudize, a resident of Tchoma Bangou who managed to escape. The attack, which
came just a week after Niger’s presidential election, is one of the country’s
deadliest ever. Prime Minister Brigi Rafini, in remarks broadcast Sunday on
national television from a visit to the area of the assaults, put the death
toll at 100 but did not say who was responsible, Reuters reported. In December
2019 and January 2020, Nigerien security forces suffered huge losses in the
same region, which is also where four American Special Forces soldiers were
killed alongside five of their Nigerien colleagues in 2017. No group has
claimed responsibility for the killings, but the militants who have recently
been making inroads into Tillabéri are with the Islamic State in the Greater
Sahara, a franchise of the Islamic State. The entire region has become steadily
more dangerous for many of those living in it.”

 

Reuters: Islamic State Claims Knife Attack In Capital Of Russia’s Southern
Chechnya
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“Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a knife attack on police on
Monday in the capital of Russia’s southern Chechnya region, Al-Naba newspaper
affiliated with the group said on Friday. It made the claim without providing
any evidence. Two assailants killed one policeman and injured another on Monday
in Grozny, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said. The poor and mainly Muslim
region has seen previous attacks on security officials and an insurgency since
Moscow fought two wars with separatists after the 1991 Soviet Union breakup.
Kadyrov said the attackers were brothers from the neighbouring region of
Ingushetia who worked at a bakery in Chechnya. They were shot dead while trying
to seize weapons, he said.”

 

United States

 

USA Today: Why The Nashville Explosion Is Confounding Terrorism Experts
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“The Christmas Day explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, is puzzling even for
terrorism commentators and scholars. It employed many familiar features of
terrorist attacks in modern history, but the particular combination was
unprecedented, raising interesting questions about the motive of the
perpetrator and the very definition of terrorism itself. The facts of the case
generate more questions than answers. The incident began when a bomb-laden
recreational vehicle in downtown Nashville broadcast a loud message warning
bystanders to evacuate the area. This warning and the fact that the bomb
detonated at 6:30 a.m. spared countless lives. Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, is
identified as the lone person responsible for the bombing. He died in the blast
without leaving behind a manifesto or any other clear signpost of his motive.
This attack was weird for at least four reasons. While many attacks have
employed one of these traits, it is odd to see all four in the same violent
incident. First, Warner clearly sought to minimize casualties, especially
against civilians. His announcement attracted law enforcement to the vehicle
but encouraged them to evacuate city dwellers, minimizing the human toll.”

 

The New York Times: Pompeo Weighs Plan To Place Cuba On U.S. Terrorism Sponsor
List
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“State Department officials have drawn up a proposal to designate Cuba as a
state sponsor of terrorism, a final-hour foreign policy move that would
complicate plans by the incoming Biden administration to relax increased
American pressure on Havana. With three weeks left until Inauguration Day,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo must decide whether to sign off on the plan,
according to two U.S. officials, a move that would also serve as a thank-you to
Cuban-Americans and other anti-communist Latinos in Florida who strongly
supported President Trump and his fellow Republicans in the November election.
It is unclear whether Mr. Pompeo has decided to move ahead with the
designation. But Democrats and foreign policy experts believe that Mr. Trump
and his senior officials are eager to find ways of constraining President-elect
Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s initial months in office and to make it more difficult
for Mr. Biden to reverse Trump-era policies abroad. In recent weeks, Trump
officials have also sought to increase American pressure and sanctions on China
and Iran. A finding that a country has “repeatedly provided support for acts of
international terrorism,” in the State Department’s official description of a
state sponsor of terrorism, automatically triggers U.S. sanctions against its
government.”

 

Yahoo News: New Terrorism Guide Shows FBI Still Classifying Black 'Extremists'
As Domestic Terrorism Threat
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“More than three years after the FBI came under fire for claiming “Black
identity extremists” were a domestic terrorism threat, the bureau has issued a
new terrorism guide that employs almost identical terminology, according to a
copy of the document obtained by Yahoo News. The FBI’s 2020 domestic terrorism
reference guide on “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism”
identifies two distinct sets of groups: those motivated by white supremacy and
those who use “political reasons — including racism or injustice in American
society” to justify violence. The examples the FBI gives for the latter group
are all Black individuals or groups.  The FBI document claims that “many” of
those Black racially motivated extremists “have targeted law enforcement and
the US Government,” while a “small number” of them “incorporate sovereign
citizen Moorish beliefs into their ideology, which involves a rejection of
their US citizenship based on a combination of sovereign citizen ideology,
religious beliefs, and black separatist rhetoric.”

 

The Sacramento Bee: Do Cellphone Records Prove Sacramento ISIS Terror Suspect
Is Falsely Accused Of Murder?
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“For more than a year, federal defenders in Sacramento have been working to
get records out of Turkey that they say will prove their case that Omar Ameen,
a Sacramento truck mechanic arrested in August 2018 and accused of murdering an
Iraqi police officer in 2014, is innocent. Now, as Ameen sits in the Sacramento
County Jail awaiting word on whether he will be extradited to face trial in
Iraq and, possibly, executed, his lawyers have what they’ve been waiting for:
cellphones records from Turkey that they say prove he could not have been in
Iraq the day police Major Ihsan Abdulhafiz Jasim was slain by an ISIS convoy.
“As anticipated, they completely exonerate Omar Ameen,” federal defenders Ben
Galloway and Rachelle Barbour wrote in a filing in Sacramento federal court.
“The records show Mr. Ameen was at his home in Mersin, Turkey, on June 22,
2014, the day Mr. Jasim was killed in Rawah, Iraq. “In fact, the cellphone
records show that Mr. Ameen had two phone calls that very day, connecting
through the cell tower closest to his home in Mersin. The cellphone records
prove that Mr. Ameen was in Mersin during the entirety of June2014, including
in the days before and after Mr. Jasim’s murder.”

 

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Thanksgiving Shooting Spree Defendants Could Face
Terrorism Charge
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“A trio charged in a fatal Thanksgiving shooting spree that stretched from
Henderson into Arizona may have been motivated purely by the desire to
terrorize anyone in their path, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Outside a court
hearing for Shawn McDonnell, 31, and his wife, Kayleigh Lewis, 25, Chief Deputy
District Attorney Michael Dickerson said prosecutors had collected evidence
from multiple jurisdictions to build their case. McDonnell’s 28-year-old
brother, Christopher, is also jailed in the shootings. Prosecutors had
suggested that the suspects may have been targeting Black individuals, but
Dickerson indicated that terrorism could be added to the list of charges
against them, which include murder and attempted murder. “In assessing
everything that we see here, it appears that this was a crime spree that
occurred motivated by these individuals’ intent to cause violence to the
general population,” Dickerson said. “That’s why we’re looking at the act of
terrorism as a potential charging decision and enhancement to the charges.”
Prosecutors are also weighing the death penalty. “The gravity of the charges
surrounding the events is incredibly high,” Dickerson said.”

 

Syria

 

Reuters: Car Bomb Explodes In Syrian Border Town: State News Agency
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“A car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in the northeastern Syrian town of
Ras al Ain close to the border with Turkey, with reports of several killed and
wounded, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Saturday. Two children
were among those killed and their mother was wounded in the explosion, SANA
reported, adding the blast also killed several Turkish-backed fighters. Turkey,
which is allied with some rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, seized control of the town in 2019 in an offensive to push back
Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, which Ankara views as a terrorist group.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Syria Regime Forces Kick Off Campaign Against ISIS After
Deadly Ambush
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“Syrian regime forces, with Russian support, kicked off a wide operation in
the vast Badia (desert) in retaliation to the rising number of attacks launched
by ISIS remnants in the area. The latest attack took place in Deir Ezzor on
Wednesday when ISIS ambushed a bus carrying soldiers and pro-government
militias who had finished their leave and were on their way back to their base
in the desolate, sparsely populated area. Some 40 soldiers, mostly from the
army’s Fourth Brigade, were killed and six others were badly wounded. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the regime, backed by the National
Defense Forces and Palestinian Jerusalem Brigade militias, launched its
campaign on Friday with Russian air cover. Russian aircraft carried out dozens
of strikes against ISIS positions in the region that stretches from Hama,
Aleppo and al-Raqqa. The Observatory revealed that ISIS had killed 819 regime
members and allied militants throughout 2020, in ambushes, attacks and
fighting. The terror group lost 507 members in these clashes and in Russian and
regime air raids.”

 

Iran

 

The Washington Post: Bracing For A Possible Iranian-Linked Attack In Iraq,
U.S. Officials Warn ‘The Threat Streams Are Very Real’
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“The U.S. military is bracing for a possible attack on American personnel and
interests in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said, days before the first
anniversary of an American drone strike that killed an Iranian general in
Baghdad. The officials spoke as two B-52 bombers carried out a round-trip,
30-hour mission from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the Middle East
ending on Wednesday, in an effort to show American presence and military might
in the region to deter Iran. The Air Force conducted similar missions twice
before in the last 45 days. “The United States continues to deploy combat-ready
capabilities into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to deter any
potential adversary, and make clear that we are ready and able to respond to
any aggression directed at Americans or our interests,” said Marine Gen.
Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command. “We do not seek
conflict, but no one should underestimate our ability to defend our forces or
to act decisively in response to any attack.” The latest bomber deployment,
disclosed after the aircraft left the Middle East, was carried out as
supporters of the Iranian regime continue to mourn Qasem Soleimani, the
influential leader of Iran’s Quds Force, the special operations wing of the
Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

 

Radio Free Europe: Three Executed In Iran For 'Terrorist' Acts And Murder
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“Iran has hanged two men for “terrorist acts” and another for murder and armed
robbery, the judiciary's official Mizan news agency said. The three were
executed in the early morning of January 3 in the southeastern
Sistan-Baluchistan province, Mizan reported. Two were identified as Hassan
Dehvari and Elias Qalandarzehi, who were arrested in April 2014 after being
found with “a large amount of explosives” and weapons, the report said. The
pair were convicted of the abduction, bombing, murder of security forces and
civilians, and of working with the Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish al-Adl
(Army of Justice), Iranian media reported. The U.S.-based Human Rights
Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the two had been tortured in detention.
Dehvari and Qalandarzehi were also arrested in possession of documents from
Jaish al-Adl on “how to make bombs” as well as “takfiri fatwas”, terms used by
Iranian authorities to refer to religious decrees issued by Sunni extremists.
Jaish al-Adl has reportedly carried out several high-profile bombings and
abductions in Iran in recent years. In February 2019, 27 members of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed in a suicide attack in
Sistan-Baluchistan claimed by the group.”

 

Iraq

 

Kurdistan 24: SDF Kills Three Iraqi ISIS Members During Operation In Deir
Al-Zor
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“The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Friday announced they killed three
Iraqi members of the so-called Islamic State during an operation in the eastern
Deir al-Zor province on December 31. The suspected Iraqi terrorists were killed
in the Abu Nitil village in Suwar subdistrict in Deir al-Zor. On the same day,
the SDF Special Forces carried out operations against suspected Islamic State
hideouts in Deir al-Zor’s al-Tire and Kasrah towns. During the raids, they
arrested 14 elements allegedly plotting immediate attacks. Despite the SDF and
the US-led Coalition announcing the Islamic State’s defeat on March 23, 2019,
in Baghouz, the terror group’s sleeper cell attacks persist in areas the
Kurdish-led forces have liberated. Islamic State cells are especially active in
Deir al-Zor, where some local networks still maintain links to Islamic State
members. Furthermore, Syrian regime cells and others linked to Turkey are also
active in the region. In response, the SDF has carried out campaigns with
support from the US-led Coalition against remaining cells in northeastern Syria
to prevent Islamic State’s resurgence. The ISIS-affiliated weekly electronic
newspaper Al Bayan on Friday claimed responsibility for nine attacks in Syria
within the last week.”

 

Turkey

 

Reuters: Somalia's Al Shabaab Says Behind Turkish Company Attack, Four Dead
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“A car bomb targeting workers of a Turkish company killed four people
including one Turkish citizen on Saturday in Somalia, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry
said. The company’s staff were working on the construction of a road between
Mogadishu and Afgoye, northwest of the capital, the ministry statement said.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, military operation spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked al
Shabaab, said the group was behind the attack. Somali government officials did
not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The attack occurred
outside the capital Mogadishu, according to residents in the area of the blast.
Turkey has been a major source of aid to Somalia following a famine in 2011 as
Ankara seeks to increase its influence in the Horn of Africa to counter Gulf
rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Last January, Somalia’s
al Shabaab insurgents took responsibility for a car bombing that wounded at
least 15 people in Afgoye, with those injured comprising Turkish contractors as
well as Somali nationals.”

 

Reuters: Turkish Police Detain Islamic State Suspects - Anadolu
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“Turkish police detained people suspected of ties to the Islamic State
militant group in an operation targeting a total of 35 foreign suspects in
Istanbul on Thursday, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. It said the
counter-terror squad police carried out simultaneous raids on 34 addresses in
14 districts of the city after receiving intelligence about possible militant
attacks over the New Year period. Prosecutors in the capital Ankara ordered the
arrest of a further 15 suspects in another Islamic State-related investigation,
Anadolu also said. Turkey has imposed a lockdown from 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 to 5
a.m. on Jan. 4 as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Police
have rounded up alleged jihadist militants in late December in the last two
years, since New Year’s Day in 2017 when a gunman killed 39 people in an
Istanbul nightclub in an attack claimed by the militant group.”

 

Deutsche Welle: Turkey Tightens Control Over Ngos To 'Combat Terrorism'
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“The new legislation, entitled “Preventing Financing of Proliferation of
Weapons of Mass Destruction,” caused more than a few raised eyebrows in Turkey.
The bill is being sharply criticized for expanding government control over
civil-society groups in the name of “combating terrorism financing.” It was
passed by the Turkish parliament on December 27 and submitted to President
Tayyip Erdogan for approval. The controversial legislation would allow the
Interior Ministry to replace board members of associations with trustees as
well as suspending their operations if members are being prosecuted on
terrorism charges. Numerous NGOs including the Human Rights Association,
Amnesty International Turkey and the Federation of Women Associations of Turkey
warn that human rights activists are frequently accused of terrorism in Turkey,
and the new legislation relies on ambiguous definitions of terrorism.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Washington Post: Taliban Carrying Out Campaign Of Terror In Afghan Capital
Ahead Of Peace Talks Next Week
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“In a video, five turbaned fighters stand in a row, wearing flak jackets and
sneakers, assault rifles at the ready. One declares in Pashto that God hates
those “who stray from religion” and “cling to a worldly life,” and obliges the
faithful to wage jihad, even if they must face prison or death, to establish
the “law of the Koran” on Earth. The video, published Monday on a Taliban
spokesman’s Twitter account, came amid a rash of targeted shootings and
bombings in the Afghan capital that have killed several dozen journalists,
civic leaders, physicians, democracy advocates and government officials. The
mayhem has brought a new kind of personal terror to a city long accustomed to
insurgent attacks against official buildings and military targets. Even though
U.S. troops are leaving the country, the militiaman explained, “it is
permissible to kill the [American] puppet regime of Kabul” and those who aid
it. English subtitles accompanied his raised voice. “We are carrying weapons to
avenge our values and institutions,” he said. “We are wholeheartedly obeying
the supreme command of Allah.” The video was posted days before negotiations
between Taliban and Afghan delegates are set to resume Wednesday in Qatar,
after a two-week break.”

 

Pakistan

 

Reuters: Pakistan Arrests Alleged Militant Group Leader Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi
On Terrorism Financing Charge
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“Pakistan on Saturday arrested a man accused of being a leader of an Islamist
militant group blamed by the United States and India for the 2008 Mumbai
attacks, a counter-terrorism official said. The arrest is in relation to
terrorism financing, the official said, and not a specific militant attack.
“Proscribed organisation LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) leader Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi
(has been) arrested on charges of terrorism financing,” a spokesman for the
Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Pakistani province of Punjab said.
The suspect is said to have been running a medical dispensary to collect and
disburse funds for militant activities, the spokesman said. A U.N. Security
Council sanctions committee says Lakhvi is LeT’s chief of operations and
accuses him of being involved in militant activity in a number of other regions
and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Indian
authorities said the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai siege, in which
166 people were killed, had told interrogators before his execution that the
assailants were in touch with Lakhvi. India has long called on Pakistan to
bring Lakhvi to trial, but Islamabad says Delhi has not provided concrete
evidence to try the LeT leader. He was first arrested in 2008 but was later
released on bail.”

 

The Jerusalem Post: ISIS Claims Responsibility For Attack On Pakistan's
Shi'ite Minority
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“Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on Sunday that killed 11
miners from Pakistan’s minority Shi’ite Hazaras in Baluchistan province. The
attack took place early on Sunday morning in the Mach area of Bolan district
around 100 kms southeast of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, killing the miners
who were in a shared residential room near the coal mine where they worked,
officials said. “The throats of all coal miners have been slit, after their
hands were tied behind their backs and (they were) blind folded,” a security
official told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he is not allowed to speak to
media. A video clip making the rounds on WhatsApp groups, apparently shot by a
first responder, showed three bodies lying outside the room and the rest inside
in pools of blood. “The condemnable killing of 11 innocent coal miners in Mach
Baluchistan is yet another cowardly inhuman act of terrorism,” Pakistan's Prime
Minister Imran Khan said in a tweet. “Have asked Frontier Constabulary to use
all resources to apprehend these killers and bring them to justice,” he said.
Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack, through its Amaq
news agency via its Telegram communications channel.”

 

The Week: Pakistan's Increasing Grip On Afghan Terror Outfits Worry India
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“With the intra-Afghan negotiations going forward to ensure peace and
stability in Afghanistan, New Delhi is concerned after latest intelligence
reports revealed that Pakistan is now capitalising on creating alliances with
Afghanistan-based terror outfits to ensure its relevance post negotiations and
to further its interest in the country. Latest inputs revealed that the ISI is
working to form an umbrella alliance of deadly terror outfits across
Afghanistan to ensure Pakistani domination in affairs of that country by
exploiting these groups. “The ISI is in a series of parallel negotiations with
a number of outfits operating in Afghanistan,” said an intelligence official .
The latest inputs suggest that the spy agency is working to push the Haqqani
Network to establish connections with Islamic State of Khorasan province
(ISKP), an organisation where terrorists from Pakistani outfits like
Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba have infiltrated in such a large number
that the top post have now been occupied by the Pakistanis. Similarly the
Islamic State-Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have started to work together.”

 

Yemen

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Yemeni PM Accuses Houthis, Iran Of Deadly Aden Airport Blast
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“Yemen’s prime minister renewed accusations on Thursday that the Houthi
militias and Iran were responsible for the deadly explosion at the airport in
the southern Yemeni city of Aden the previous day that killed at least 25
people and wounded 110. The explosion took place as Cabinet members were
disembarking from a plane that had landed in Aden just minutes earlier on
Wednesday. AP footage from the scene showed many ministers rushing back inside
the plane or running down the stairs, seeking shelter. None of the Cabinet
members were hurt. Hours after the blast, the country's legitimate government
said the Iran-backed Houthis had fired four ballistic missiles at the airport.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that Houthi militias stand behind this
crime,” Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said as the newly reshuffled
Cabinet convened for the first time in Aden. “Intelligence also indicates that
some Iranian experts were prepping for such an operation over the last few
months,” Saeed said Thursday. Officials later on Wednesday reported a second
explosion, close to a palace in the city where the Cabinet members were taken
to following the airport attack.”

 

Lebanon

 

The Jerusalem Post: Hezbollah-Affiliated Financial Org Hacked, Information
Leaked
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“A hacker group called Spiderz claimed that it has succeeded in hacking into
Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial organization and leaked details on
depositors and borrowers from the lender, Lebanese media reported on Tuesday.
The group released lists of clients and the organization's annual budget on its
website, as well as a video announcing the hack on Saturday. The information
leaked included account numbers, government IDs and passport information, as
well as registration forms, account statements and additional financial
documents. The leak also included details of bank accounts that the hacker
group claims the organization owns in other Lebanese banks, including the
Jammal Trust Bank, which was subjected to US sanctions last year for allegedly
facilitating the financial activities of Hezbollah. The other banks listed
could face US sanctions as well if the information is verified. The hackers
promised in the video to publish more information about the financial
organization and other institutions affiliated with Hezbollah in the near
future. The identity and location of the hacker group is still unclear.”

 

Middle East

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: ISIS And Al-Qaeda Wage ‘Small’ Wars On Margins Of Civil Strife

<[link removed]>

 

“Civil wars and strife often witness smaller wars and conflict between parties
fighting in the same camp. This took place, for example, between Christian
parties during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil when the Kataeb and National Liberal
Party waged bloody battles for dominance. They culminated in the defeat of the
Tigers Militia – the armed wing of the NLP – and establishment of the Lebanese
Forces. In Afghanistan, Mujahideen factions fought against the communist rule
in Kabul and its Russian supporters. No sooner had the Mujahideen claimed
victory that they turned against each other in 1992, turning Kabul into rubble.
Their war only ended with the rise of the Taliban, which swallowed or nearly
swallowed them up whole. In Algeria, the 1990s saw the emergence of dozens of
armed groups that fought against the rulers in order to oust and replace them
with an “Islamic government.” They were battling the Algerian army, while the
factions were also fighting each other in order to “unite their banner.” The
infighting helped the Algerian security forces to turn the tide in their favor
and defeat all of the armed groups.”

 

Deutsche Welle: 'Islamic State': Weakened, But Still Dangerous
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“The two women and 12 children the German Foreign Ministry recently got
released from the al-Hol prison camp in northern Syria have returned to
Germany. It was a humanitarian gesture from the German side. And for the
Kurdish autonomous government, it means less of a burden on their security
forces. The camp houses about 64,000 people, most of them from a region once
occupied by the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist organization. Most of the
detainees are Syrian and Iraqi citizens, according to a UN report. It says
almost 9,500 come from elsewhere, many of them from Europe. For months, the
security authorities have demanded that the numbers in the camp be reduced,
warning that numerous inmates still have extremist ideas and pose a potential
threat. If these individuals were able to escape during an insurgency, they
would immediately rejoin IS or other jihadi groups, they argue. If potential
terrorists managed to rejoin IS, however, they would find an organization that
is only a shadow of its former self. The aura of its earlier years is gone; it
does not have the organizational or symbolic momentum it had before it was
defeated in 2017/18.”

 

Nigeria

 

Agence France-Presse: Boko Haram Landmines Kill 11 Nigerian Security Personnel
<[link removed]>

 

“Landmines planted by Boko Haram jihadists have killed 11 security personnel,
including four soldiers in northeast Nigeria, security sources said Tuesday.
Seven hunters recruited to help the military fight the Islamist insurgents were
killed on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a landmine in the village of Kayamla,
outside Borno State's capital Maiduguri. “Seven hunters died in the explosion
and nine others are badly injured,” Babakura Kolo, the head of a local
anti-jihadist militia, told AFP. “Their vehicle hit a landmine as they were
pursuing Boko Haram insurgents,” he added. Another local militiaman confirmed
the incident. Four Nigerian soldiers were killed on Monday when their vehicle
hit a landmine planted by Boko Haram fighters in Logomani village near the
border with Cameroon, two security sources told AFP. There has been a sharp
increase in attacks in northeast Nigeria since the start of the month. Last
week 40 loggers were kidnapped and three killed near the Cameroonian border. On
Christmas Eve, Boko Haram killed 11 people, burnt a church and seized a priest
in a village near Chibok, where it notoriously kidnapped more than 200
schoolgirls six years ago. Boko Haram and a splinter group known as ISWAP have
killed 36,000 people in the northeast and forced roughly two million to flee
since 2009, according to the United Nations.”

 

Somalia

 

Stars And Stripes: Three Al-Shabab Militants Killed In New Year's Day
Airstrikes In Somalia, AFRICOM Says
<[link removed]>

 

“At least three members of the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group were
killed and half a dozen buildings used by the militants were destroyed in U.S.
airstrikes on New Year's Day, U.S. Africa Command said. The twin airstrikes
launched in coordination with the Somali government targeted al-Shabab
compounds near the town of Qunyo Barrow, AFRICOM said in a statement released
Saturday.”Current assessments indicate the strikes killed three and wounded one
al-Shabab members and destroyed six and damaged one al-Shabab compound
buildings,” the statement said. No civilians were killed or injured in the
strikes, an initial assessment found. The first U.S. strikes of the year
against al-Shabab were carried out as American troops withdraw from Somalia,
following a Dec. 4 Defense Department directive. Most of them will be relocated
to countries elsewhere in East Africa, from where they can rapidly move in and
out of Somalia, AFRICOM has said. The pullout is expected to be completed
before President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20. The Expeditionary Sea
Base USS Hershel ''Woody'' Williams  conducts a passing exercise with a
Senegalese navy patrol vessel in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of
Africa in September 2020.”

 

Mali

 

France 24: Al Qaeda-Linked Jihadist Group Claims Deaths Of French Soldiers In
Mali
<[link removed]>

 

“The Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has claimed
responsibility for an attack that killed three French soldiers in Mali, a
statement released by its propaganda platform Al-Zallaqa said. The three died
on Monday when their armoured vehicle struck an explosive device in the centre
of the poor Sahel state. The group, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel,
cited a string of reasons for the attack including the continuing French
military presence in the region, cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by
a French newspaper and French President Emmanuel Macron's defence of them in
the name of freedom of expression. The deaths brought to 47 the number of
French soldiers killed in Mali since France first intervened militarily in
January 2013 to help drive back Islamist jihadists who had overrun parts of the
west African country. France's Barkhane force numbers 5,100 troops spread
across the arid Sahel region and has been fighting jihadist groups alongside
soldiers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who together make
up the G5 Sahel group.”

 

Africa

 

Bloomberg: Amid Surge In Violence In Congo, UN Experts See No ISIS Link
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“There is no proof Islamic State is behind a surge in “intense violence” in
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo despite the group’s claims it supported
nearly fifty attacks in the region this year, United Nations experts said in a
report published Thursday. The experts found no direct link between ISIS and
Islamist rebels known as the Allied Democratic Forces, whose attacks have
contributed to the displacement of millions of people in eastern Congo since
2014. ISIS-linked media routinely claim responsibility for ADF violence. The UN
researchers continue to investigate possible connections between the groups,
“particularly in light of the information contained in a few claims which
accurately matches details of attacks as well as the accompanying photographs
of some of the attacks,” the report said. The ADF has increasingly used
improvised explosive devices in attacks against civilians and Congo’s army,
which have killed more than 370 rebels since launching an offensive against the
group in October 2019, according to the report. The rebels have also become
active in cocoa smuggling from Congo into neighboring Uganda, the report said.
Congo officially produced about 27,000 tons of cocoa last year, according to
central bank statistics.”

 

Europe

 

Voice Of America: Europe Terror: EU Vows To Tackle Extremism As Attacks
Continue In 2020
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“Europe has faced a series of terror attacks on its soil during 2020,
prompting the European Union to pledge a crackdown on extremism both online and
within communities, alongside enhanced security at its borders. France was once
again a target for numerous terror incidents throughout the year. In September,
echoes of past attacks returned to haunt the country as four people were
wounded in a knife attack outside the Paris offices of the satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo. The French government said the 18-year-old suspect arrived in
the country three years ago and is of Pakistani nationality. In 2015, gunmen
killed 12 people in the same offices, after the magazine had published cartoons
of the Prophet Mohammad. Those cartoons were used earlier this year by teacher
Samuel Paty in a class on freedom of speech at a school outside Paris. In
October, a Chechen teenager lay in wait outside the school, stabbing and
beheading Paty in an attack that shocked France. Just days later, three people
were stabbed to death in a church in Nice. The attacker, an Islamist extremist,
had arrived in France as a refugee from Tunisia.”

 

Stars And Stripes: Poland Charges Two Iraqis With Supporting ISIS Fighter And
Bride From Germany
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“Polish authorities have charged two Iraqi citizens with financing the Islamic
State, following a yearslong investigation into money transfers to a German man
who went to Syria to join the terror group. The two Iraqi men, who were charged
on Dec. 14 in the western Polish city of Wroclaw, are accused of acting as
middlemen for money transfers sent between February 2015 to April 2016 to the
man and his wife in Iraq and Syria by relatives in Germany, Poland’s National
Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. Family members in Germany sent
money to them at least twice, the statement said. Authorities did not name the
family or the recipients of the funds, but information in the statement
indicates the militant was a man identified in earlier news reports as Mario
Sciannimanica. An investigation conducted between 2017 and this year by
Poland’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence service found that the Iraqi
men acted as brokers for the money transfers under a system known as “hawala.”
Hawala allows for speed and anonymity, and its lack of formalities allows it to
operate under the radar of the official banking system, the prosecutor’s office
said. Payers give cash to a broker, or hawaladar, who then sends orders via
fax, email, phone call, messaging app, social media post or other methods for
money to be released to the recipient by a broker in another location.”

 

Radio Free Europe: The Telegram App Gives Voice To The Oppressed In Belarus
And Russia. But Hate Groups Are Using It Too.
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“…The Counter Extremism Project, an international policy organization formed
to combat the growing threat from extremist ideologies, reported in May that it
was still finding Islamic State propaganda on Telegram. In addition, the
project said it had found “multiple white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups” on
Telegram celebrating the shooting death in the United States of an unarmed
black man, as well as encouraging mass shootings and violence against African
Americans. A quick perusal of some of the more sordid open channels on Telegram
reveals that it is a place for violence, criminal activity, and abusers,
regardless of what Europol says. Multiple channels host full-length, uncensored
videos showing the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New
Zealand preparing for and carrying out the attacks in which 51 people were
killed and 40 injured. Multiple videos of school shootings are available, and
uncut videos of ordinary people being stabbed, shot, bludgeoned, or mutilated
are ubiquitous.”

 

Southeast Asia

 

The New York Times: Indonesia Disbands Radical Islamic Group Over Charges Of
Violence
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“The hard-line Islamic Defenders Front was outlawed by the Indonesian
government on Wednesday and ordered to cease all activities less than two
months after its fiery leader, Rizieq Shihab, returned from self-imposed exile
and pledged to lead a “moral revolution.” In a statement signed by top
officials and the national police chief, the government said that members of
the group had engaged in terrorist and criminal acts and that activities
organized by the group had disturbed public order. Mr. Rizieq, 55, a cleric who
claims to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad, is accused of violating
coronavirus protocols by holding gatherings of thousands of people. He
surrendered to the police earlier this month and faces up to six years in
prison. Days before his arrest, six of his bodyguards were shot and killed by
the police in what the authorities said was self-defense. Mr. Rizieq remains in
jail. The order dissolving the group said that its government registration had
lapsed last year and that it was no longer a recognized organization. It is now
banned from conducting activities and using its logo, a triangular symbol with
a star at the center and its name in Indonesian and Arabic lettering.”

 

Yahoo News: Video Of Terrorist Training Camp Unearthed
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“Indonesian police have unearthed dramatic videos of a terrorist training camp
where members of an elite group learned how to kill. The training videos were
discovered on the laptop of a recently arrested terror suspect. Scores of
members of the resurgent Jemaah Islamiyah have recently been arrested, giving
authorities new insights into the terrorist group which trained members who
were then shipped off to fight in Syria. A compilation video of the training,
which was conducted in the period 2013-2018 and involved what has been
described as a JI special force, has been released by Indonesian police. The
video shows training sequences using weapons, kidnapping simulations, fighting
and physical training. It comes after the November arrest JI leader Aris
Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, who is among those who orchestrated the 2002
Bali bombings. He had been on the run for 18 years after the bombing of two
Bali nightclubs which left 202 people dead, 88 of them Australians. JI, which
is linked to al-Qaeda, is responsible for a string of deadly bombings in
Indonesia. But analysts had believed its influence and reach had waned in
recent years. National police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan said the terrorist
training camps had been running in 12 locations where seven groups of recruits
had been trained.”



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