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Eye on Extremism
January 4, 2021
The Guardian: Syria: Dozens Killed In Isis Bus Attack
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.”
“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.”
“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
“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
“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
“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 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
“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
“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
“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
“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'
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.”
“…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
“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
“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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