Malian and French forces killed about 100 jihadists and took another 20 captive
in a joint operation this January in central Mali, the West African

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


January 27, 2021

 

Australian Associated Press: Mali, French Forces Kill 100 Jihadists
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“Malian and French forces killed about 100 jihadists and took another 20
captive in a joint operation this January in central Mali, the West African
nation's army says. It says the campaign lasted from January 2 to 20 and
targeted areas bordering Burkina Faso, where militant groups with links to
al-Qaeda and Islamic State control large tracts of the remote desert and
regularly carry out raids on the army and civilians. “The purpose of this
operation was to force the enemy out of its areas of refuge,” the army said on
Tuesday. France has more than 5100 military personnel based in the West African
Sahel region to help counter the militants, an involvement that is facing
increased opposition at home and from some quarters in Mali.”

 

Associated Press: Maldives Police Say They Uncovered Plot To Attack School
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“Police in the Maldives said Tuesday they have uncovered a planned attack on a
school involving eight suspected members of an Islamic State-affiliated group
arrested last November. The suspects attempted to build an explosive device on
a boat at sea, conducted training on uninhabited islands and attempted to
recruit children, the Maldives Police Service said. Police raided the boat and
found items that could be used to build a bomb on board and gun cartridges in
the shallow sea, it said. The suspects were arrested after police were tipped
off by foreign intelligence agencies, it said in a statement. Evidence was
found in seized cellphones of a plan to attack a school while exams were in
progress, it said. It was unclear why the school was a potential target, but
religious extremists in the country are known to discourage people from giving
their children anything other than a strictly Islamic education. Police said
the details of the investigation have been submitted to the Prosecutor General
to press charges in court. Maldives is an archipelago state in the Indian Ocean
with a predominantly Sunni Muslim population. The country is known for its
luxury tourist resorts but has also been in the news for an increasing number
of young men going to fight along with Islamic militants in foreign wars.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Agence France-Presse: Afghan Government Envoys Accuse Taliban Of Snubbing Talks

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“Afghan government negotiators holding peace talks with the Taliban charged
Tuesday their opponents had been avoiding formal engagement for more than a
week, an accusation the insurgents denied. The two sides have been meeting in
the Qatari capital Doha since September in a US-backed effort to contain the
violence in their country, but the negotiations have already been interrupted
by several long pauses. “Peace and ending the violence are our people and
government's top priority,” tweeted Afghan government negotiator Nader Nadery.
“To achieve this noble goal, the (government) peace negotiation team is
committed and present in Doha.” His message added that no formal meetings had
been held for nine days and said “the other side is not willing to engage in
talks to end the conflict and save lives”. The Taliban rejected the suggestion
they were putting off direct, formal engagement with the government side.
“Reports that the intra-Afghan talks have been delayed indefinitely are false,
and the two teams are in touch with each other,” said the spokesman for the
Taliban's Doha office, Mohammad Naeem. “No negotiations can be continuous and
happening on a daily basis, since there may also be need for internal meetings.”

 

Newsweek: Taliban Calls On Biden To Follow Trump's Peace Plan In Afghanistan
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“The Taliban has called on President Joe Biden to follow through with the
landmark peace deal reached between his predecessor and the Afghan Islamist
movement amid concerns that the new U.S. administration could reconsider the
agreement. Trump struck the historic accord last February, promising to pull
troops from the longest war in U.S. history in exchange for peace and
power-sharing between the internationally-recognized government in Kabul and
the Taliban, officially known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Ongoing
violence and lingering political disputes have elicited a degree of skepticism
of the arrangement at home and abroad, but the Taliban remain steadfast in
their support for the pact. “The goal is the independence of the country and
the stability of peace in it,” Taliban spokesperson Mohammad Naeem said in a
statement sent to Newsweek. “The agreement reached between the Islamic Emirate
and the United States of America is the best means for this.” While Biden too
has offered support for an exit from Afghanistan, he and his officials have
also signaled some reservations with the arrangement they inherited less than a
week ago. National security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the matter Friday
with Afghan counterpart Hamdullah Mohib.”

 

Yemen

 

Arab News: Yemen Steps Up Diplomatic Drive For Houthi Terrorist Designation
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“The Yemeni government and its envoys abroad have cranked up a diplomatic
campaign to convince the world to designate the Houthi militia movement a
terrorist organization, stressing that doing so would put an end to Houthi
attacks inside and outside Yemen, and smooth the way for peace.  The official
news agency SABA reported on Monday that Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed
said during a video conference with the EU ambassadors to Yemen that the EU
should follow the example of the US by designating the Houthis terrorists,
since it would end the Houthis’ objections to peace plans, and hinder Iran. He
repeated his government’s pledges to work on mitigating the effects of the
designation on humanitarian activities in Houthi-controlled areas.  Similarly,
the country’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak urged Mauritania and
other countries to label the Houthis a terrorist organization, noting that the
US designation came in the context of increasing pressure by the international
community on the rebels to accept peace initiatives, and to stop fueling
violence in Yemen and the region, abandoning Iran’s “destructive” projects.”

 

Lebanon

 

Reuters: France Wants More U.S. 'Realism' In Dealing With Lebanon's Hezbollah
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“The United States under new President Joe Biden needs to adopt a more
realistic attitude towards the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement to help break
the political and economic impasse in Lebanon, a French presidential official
said on Tuesday. French President Emmanuel Macron has been spearheading
international efforts to rescue Lebanon, once a French protectorate, from its
deepest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. He has travelled twice to Lebanon
since a huge explosion at the Beirut port in August devastated swathes of the
capital, but no progress has been made to form a credible interim government.
“There is urgency in Lebanon and we think that there are priorities that we
(France and the United States) can pursue together,” the French official told
reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, saying Macron’s first priority
was putting together a viable Lebanese government. “We don’t expect a change in
American attitude towards Hezbollah, but more American realism on what is
possible or not given the circumstances in Lebanon,” he said, without
elaborating on what Paris wanted Washington to do.”

 

Middle East

 

Eurasia Review: Islamic State And Taliban Use Different Strategies To Appeal
To Women In English-Language Magazines
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“ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban use their English-language magazines to
encourage women to support jihad in different ways, according to new research.
Experts hope highlighting these varying recruitment strategies will be of use
for those trying to stop radicalisation and terrorism. The Taliban-produced
magazines encourage women to carry out a traditional role in the home and
support men rather than to be violent and commit jihad themselves. Tahrik-e
Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS encourage women to be violent – to pick up arms
and fight. The magazines encourage women to leave their husbands if they don’t
support jihad, even without permission. Researchers from the University of
Exeter analysed sixty-eight English language jihadi magazines by Islamic State
(ISIS), TTP – the Pakistani Taliban group which operates on the border of
Pakistan and Afghanistan which pledge allegiance to ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the
Taliban, coding data about the themes and messages they found manually to see
how frequently they were found in the publication. Their research is published
in the journal Small Wars & Insurgencies. Researchers examined at 68 magazines
produced between 2013 and 2020.”

 

Africa

 

The North Africa Post: Morocco’s Domestic Spy Agency Helps FBI Foil Terror
Attack In NY
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“Morocco’s General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), equivalent
of UK’s MI5, has tipped off the FBI about a terrorist plot hatched by a US
soldier who was nabbed by US authorities on January 19, said on Tuesday Mr.
Haboub Cherkaoui, Head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ).
The case of US Army private Cole Bridges, who was arrested in coordination
between FBI and US army for plotting a terrorist attack and for his ties with
ISIS, had set off concern of the Moroccan domestic intelligence agency for his
jihadist views posted in social media, said Mr. Cherkaoui in a statement to
Moroccan news agency MAP. In Sept.2020, the DGST informed the FBI about this
soldier and his terrorist activity, said chief of the BCIJ. The case of this
soldier, who will stand trial for plotting a terrorist attack on the 9/11
memorial in Manhattan, has been reported lately by US “News Talk Florida”.
“Bridges provided detailed diagrams and even training manuals to help ISIS
fighters better kill American forces,” according to US daily. Bridges joined
the US Army in 2019, the same year that prosecutors say he started being
immersed in the propaganda of terrorist groups and became a pledged supporter
of jihadi terrorists.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: 'I'm No Marvel Villain' Says Bristol Terror Defendant
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“A man found with bomb-making manuals and speeches on Islamic State has told a
court he is “not a terrorist”.

Souhaib Embarek was caught sharing “terrorist tutorials” and had videos and
images of terrorist attacks. He admits five charges of possession of
information useful to a terrorist, and one of disseminating terror documents,
on the basis he was “reckless”. “I'm not the guy the prosecution is trying to
make me - some Marvel villain,” he told the Old Bailey. On Tuesday, during a
hearing to decide the issue of his intent, Embarek insisted it was all a
“fantasy game”. The court heard he had poison recipes, speeches on Islamic
State and had shared jihadi “lessons” in the form of audio files via encrypted
Telegram chat. The 34-year-old was arrested after firearms officers forced
entry into his home in Clifton, Bristol, on 9 December 2019. “All this digital
stuff is just a game. I'm not attached to it because it doesn't mean anything
to me,” he said. The defendant said he would take on the role of “investigative
journalist” online and claimed he was the “victim”. The court heard Embarek
threw his mobile phone out of his bedroom window when armed police raided his
home. Asked why, he said: “I thought it was some hitman coming to kill me.”

 

Germany

 

Deutsche Welle: Tajik IS Cell Member In Germany Jailed For 7 Years
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“A German court on Tuesday sentenced a man to seven years in prison over plans
to to shoot dead a critic of Islam as part of an “Islamic State” (IS) terror
cell. Summing up the four-month trial, a Düsseldorf court spokesman said the
31-year-old man living in Wuppertal had formed an IS cell with other Tajiks
also living in Germany's western Ruhr District.  The accused, known as Ravsan
B., had later handed a functioning semi-automatic pistol over to another cell
member for use in a planned attack that was foiled through police
investigations, said the spokesman. His full name was not published because of
German privacy laws. The court also found that he with others — motivated by
jihadi radicalism —  had planned a contract murder in Albania in 2019 to earn
funds for the IS movement. That attack, however, was not carried out because at
the last moment doubts emerged about the identity of the intended victim,
described last year by German federal prosecutors as an Albanian businessman.
Four suspected members of the cell were arrested in April 2020. Wuppertal was
where authorities intervened in 2014 when Salafists patrolled streets in orange
vests emblazoned with the words “Sharia police.”

 

Technology

 

Morning Consult: Big Tech Is Running Out Of Excuses For Inaction
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"Facebook and Twitter’s recent efforts to deplatform individuals and groups
following the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 is but the latest
in a litany of reactive and piecemeal “too little too late” measures
implemented more to deflect criticism than protect the public. Although the
move has helped to slow the spread of violence-inciting misinformation, a
closer look at Big Tech’s history with removing extremist and terrorist content
reveals that the industry has done little to seriously address the systemic
ills that plague social media platforms ... We at the Counter Extremism Project
have long fought against extremists’ and terrorists’ misuse of social media and
the internet, urging Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others to remove and
prevent the reposting of content clearly prohibited by their Terms of Service.
Nonetheless, the tech industry has pushed back on such efforts through lobbying
and PR campaigns seeking to stymie criticism and paths to smart regulation,
choosing instead an approach of inaction that is ineffective and ultimately
dangerous."

 

The New York Times: Telegram, Pro-Democracy Tool, Struggles Over New Fans From
Far Right
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“The messaging app Telegram has long been an engine of resistance and an
annoyance for tyrants. Authoritarian leaders in Russia and Iran have tried to
ban it. When protests broke out recently in Belarus and Hong Kong, Telegram was
the glue that held democracy movements together in the face of violent
onslaughts by powerful security services. These days, though, Telegram is
quickly becoming an online refuge for a different kind of resistance. Far-right
conspiracy theorists, racists and violent insurrectionists have been flocking
to Telegram in recent weeks after being banished from the big American social
media platforms following the storming of the Capitol building in Washington by
a mob supporting President Donald J. Trump, who himself was cut off from
Facebook and Twitter. Twenty-five million new users flooded Telegram in the
days after Twitter and Facebook, reacting to the Jan. 6 mayhem at the Capitol,
purged users they deemed responsible for having incited violence or spread
disinformation. The company’s founder, Pavel Durov, described it as “the
largest digital migration in human history.” The cascade of new users presents
a new complication for Mr. Durov, who has positioned himself as an unambiguous
ally of the street and free speech.”

 

Business Insider: As Signal Downloads Surge, Employees Are Reportedly Worried
The Messaging App Isn't Doing Enough To Head Off Extremism
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“Employees at encrypted-messaging app Signal are worried that an explosion in
growth — prompted by users moving over from rival WhatsApp — could cause
extremism to spread on the platform, according to a new report from The Verge.
An engineer called Gregg Bernstein, who left Signal this month, told the Verge
that Signal's CEO Moxie Marlinspike was worryingly passive at the prospect of
extremists using the platform to organize.  “It's not only that Signal doesn't
have these policies in place. But they've been resistant to even considering
what a policy might look like,” said Bernstein. He said that after President
Donald Trump told the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys to “stand back
and stand by,” Marlinspike was asked at a company all-hands meeting how Signal
planned to prevent extremists from organizing on the app. “The response was: if
and when people start abusing Signal or doing things that we think are
terrible, we'll say something [...] You could see a lot of jaws dropping.
That's not a strategy — that's just hoping things don't go bad,” Bernstein
said. Signal is backed by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, which was started in
2018 with a $50 million loan by WhatsApp founder Brian Acton, and is popular
among activists and dissidents for its rigorous approach to privacy.”



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