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Eye on Extremism
March 12, 2021
Reuters: Western Nations Condemn Houthi Attack On Yemeni City Marib
“Western governments condemned on Thursday an attack by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on the city of Marib, according to a statement released by Britain’s foreign ministry. “We, the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, condemn the sustained Houthi offensive on the Yemeni city of Marib and the major escalation of attacks the Houthis have conducted and claimed against Saudi Arabia,” the statement said. The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas and have been battling a Saudi-led coalition since it intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March 2015, have recently pushed towards the gas-rich region of Marib, aiming to take the government’s last stronghold in the north of Yemen.”
Bloomberg: Nigeria To Use Greater Military Force To Tackle Insecurity
“Nigeria’s government vowed to use the full force of its military to end deteriorating insecurity that has disrupted schooling and farming in the northern part of Africa’s most populous nation. “Government will not allow itself to be blackmailed by any group or any individual who thinks he can hide under the surface and use proxies to deal a fatal blow on innocent people,” Babagana Monguno, national security adviser to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday at a briefing in Abuja, the nation’s capital. A decade-long insurgency by the Islamist-militant group Boko Haram, mass abductions by gunmen and violent attacks across several parts of the country are putting pressure on President Buhari, a retired army general who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to fight insecurity and improve safety in oil-dependent economy. Schools have had to close and many farmers forced to abandon their land following series of mass abduction of students and killing of farmers. The U.S., U.K., and France are providing intelligence to Nigeria and neighboring countries to help deal with the situation, Monguno said. “What’s most important is acting on the intelligence, that’s why we’re investing in equipment and assets.”
United States
The Washington Post: DOJ Seeks To Build Large Conspiracy Case Against Oath Keepers For Jan. 6 Riot
“The Justice Department and FBI are gathering evidence to try to build a large conspiracy indictment against members of the Oath Keepers for their roles in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with the matter, but the group’s sometimes fractious and fantasy-laden internal workings may complicate efforts to bring such a case. In the wake of the short-lived insurrection, the Oath Keepers is the most high-profile self-styled militia group in the country. While members use the jargon and trappings of a paramilitary organization, in daily practice the group is often more akin to a collection of local chapters with a similar, disinformation-fueled ideology about what they view as the inevitable collapse of the U.S. government as it becomes more tyrannical. “This was not a well-trained army or a disciplined military unit; this was a loose structure,” said Karl Schmae, who dealt with the Oath Keepers when he was an FBI negotiator responding to the 2016 occupation of a wildlife refuge building in eastern Oregon. The Oath Keepers group is a major target of the sprawling FBI investigation into the riot at the U.S. Capitol, along with another militant group, the Proud Boys, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.”
Iraq
Kurdistan 24: Peshmerga Leader Says ISIS Cells Bombed 28 Times Near Makhmour
“General Sirwan Barzani, the Peshmerga Commander at the Gwer-Makhmour front line, said on Thursday that Islamic State group cells in Iraq were attacked more than two dozen times in operations over the past day. The commander said that the US-led Coalition in coordination with the Peshmerga and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) had bombed the group 28 times since Wednesday night. “So far 10 different cells have been targeted. Such operations are set to continue until all terrorists are neutralized,” he added. Yehia Rasool, the military spokesperson for Iraq’s Commander-in-Chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi, tweeted on Tuesday that Iraqi air forces targeted Islamic State militants in the Hamrin Mountains in the Diyala province. Following the emergence of the Islamic State in 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces held their front lines in the areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, preventing sleeper cells from entering their territory despite the terrorist organization controlling adjacent land. Security in those regions, however, significantly deteriorated after Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Shia militias overran Kirkuk and other disputed territories and drove Kurdish forces out in response to the Kurdistan Region’s September 2017 independence referendum.”
Saudi Arabia
“A preliminary death sentence was issued on Thursday against five members of a cell affiliated with the terrorist group Daesh. The trial of the cell’s members, who numbered 45 in total, began after other members were killed in armed confrontations with security forces. After extensive investigations, the accused were found to be linked to terrorist operations in the Kingdom, including the assassination of Brig. Gen. Kitab Al-Otaibi, investigations director of the Al-Quwaiiyah governorate, west of Riyadh in April 2016. The brigadier-general was followed on his way to into work and shot dead when he reached Al-Arja police station in Al-Dawadimi province. Daesh later claimed responsibly for the attack. The accused were also involved in the bombing of three mosques; the first targeted the Special Emergency Forces mosque in Abha in Aug. 2015 and resulted in the killing of 15 people including 11 security forces members and four Bangladeshi workers. The second attack targeted the second largest mosque for the Ismaili community in the region, Najran’s Al-Mashhad mosque, in Oct. 2015, resulting in the killing of two people and injuring 27 others. The third attack was on Al-Ridha Mosque in Al-Ahsa in Jan. 2016, for its alleged links to the Shiite community.”
Nigeria
Vanguard: Nigeria: Troops Eliminate 25 Terrorists In Clearance Operation - Army
“The Nigerian Army troops of Operation Tura Takaibango have eliminated 25 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists and captured a cache of arms and ammunition in a clearance operation around Chikun Gudu and Kerenoa in Borno. Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Yerima, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said Chikun Gudu and Kerenoa are adjoining villages under Marte Local Government Area of Borno. Yerima said the operation was conducted on Tuesday by the combined troops of Sector I Operation Lafiya Dole and 402 Special Forces Brigade. He said two Browny machine guns, 20 AK-47 rifles, five FN rifles, two 60mm motar tube and two General Purpose Machine Guns were recovered by the troops during the encounter. He said: “Other weapons captured during the operation also include three anti aircraft guns, two automatic grenade launchers, two gun trucks and one CJTF Hilux among others.” Yerima said the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru had commended the troops and charged them to maintain the momentum. He said the army chief also instructed the troops not relent in their new offensive against the terrorists.”
Sahara Reporters: Nigerian Troops Kill 10 Boko Haram Terrorists In Borno
“At least 10 suspected Boko Haram members died on Wednesday when troops of the Special Forces Brigade in Borno state engaged the insurgents in a gun battle at Sassaawa village, a community in the Marte Local Government Area. SaharaReporters gathered that the raid was part of the ongoing second phase of operation Tura Takaibango. The troops also recovered weapons, including AK-47 rifles, mortar tubes, and a machine gun, a military source said. “The clearance onslaught was based on the directives given by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Ibrahim Attahiru when he visited the Theatre of Operation LAFIYA DOLE. During his operational visit recently to Dikwa, the COAS issued directives to troops to advance and recapture Marte and thereafter project further to clear other adjoining villages which include Sassawa, Chikun Gudu, Kerenoa, and environs. “Following the directive, the gallant troops moved in, achieved the objective, and projected ahead. In the course of the clearance operation, troops encountered heavy fleets of the terrorists, engaged and ultimately obliterated them. In the encounter, 10 members of the sect were killed,” the source said. Two soldiers however lost their lives while seven others sustained injuries during the attack.”
Africa
Agence France-Presse: Burkina Faso Makes Tentative Steps Towards Dialogue With Jihadists
“While he was on the campaign trail last November, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore had a mantra — “We shall not negotiate” — when talking about Burkina Faso’s jihadist insurgency. The policy set Kabore apart from former President Blaise Compaore, whose view was that dialogue with jihadists from neighboring Mali had discouraged attacks on Burkina Faso itself. Kabore’s declared refusal has been strongly backed by France, whose military campaign against jihadism in the Sahel is now in its ninth year. But sources say contacts have taken place with jihadists at the local level in parts of northern Burkina Faso. The initiative is limited in scope, they say, and among jihadist groups, the so-called Islamic State remains beyond the pale. In February, Prime Minister Christophe Dabire broached the delicate question of dialogue by saying “all major wars come to an end around a table.” A Sahel diplomat in Burkina described those words as “setting the cat amongst the pigeons.” “This amounts to recognition that the official break with the Compaore regime is only a facade and that the will to dialogue is still there,” the source said. The Burkinabe investigative fortnightly, L’Evenement, then reported that 29 jihadists were released as part of negotiations in 2020.”
Agence France-Presse: US Says Deadly DR Congo ADF Militia Linked To Islamic State
“Washington on Thursday labeled the ADF militia, suspected of hundreds of civilian killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east, a “foreign terrorist organization” linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group. In a statement, the US Department of State said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were also known as “ISIS-DRC” or “Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen.” The group is “notorious in this region for its brutal violence against Congolese citizens and regional military forces, with attacks killing over 849 civilians in 2020 alone” according to UN figures, it added. Commanded by Seka Musa Baluku, the ADF has come into the orbit of IS’ so-called “Central Africa Province” since the terror group launched it in 2019. It is mostly active in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces along the DRC’s border with Rwanda and Uganda. As well as the ADF, the State Department also labeled a separate militia in Mozambique, known as Ansar al-Sunna or al-Shabaab, as an IS-linked terror group, saying it “reportedly pledged allegiance to (IS) as early as April 2018.” “Since October 2017, ISIS-Mozambique, led by Abu Yasir Hassan, has killed more than 1,300 civilians,” it added. Nevertheless, both organizations are “distinct groups with distinct origins” from IS itself, the State Department said.”
Europe
Politico: Portugal Wants EU To Help Mozambique Military Fight Jihadists
“The EU should consider sending a military training mission to Mozambique to battle Islamist terrorists, Portuguese Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho told POLITICO in an interview. Over the past few years, a growing jihadist insurgency has plunged Mozambique’s northernmost province into chaos, with violence surging in the Cabo Delgado region, home to natural gas developments worth about $60 billion. According to some estimates, the death toll has already topped 600. Cravinho, whose country holds the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency, said that in response, a military training mission “in our view would be something that is very much worth contemplating.” Currently, the EU only provides Mozambique with development and humanitarian assistance. Mozambique is a former Portuguese colony and the two countries maintain close ties in a number of areas. In a video interview, Cravinho argued that the situation in Mozambique is “an extension” of the fight against Islamist terrorism taking place in Somalia, a kind of terrorism that “is now making inroads into Northern Mozambique.” “We understand what’s going on,” he said. Cravinho said an expanded EU presence in Africa is also what the United States wants, saying the EU ally “legitimately expects European countries to have a more active leadership role in the region.”
New Zealand
Radio New Zealand: Law Won't Be Changed For Mosque Shooting Witnesses To Get ACC, Andrew Little Says
“Nearly two years on from the Christchurch mosque attacks witnesses to the massacre say they feel forgotten. The government has just revealed its next steps in responding to the Royal Commission into the 15 March shootings which killed 51 people and injured 40. Witness Abdul Aziz said he was traumatised from what he saw, and wanted to be helped as a victim … Meanwhile, a research analyst with the US-based Counter Extremism Project, Joshua Fisher-Birch, says it is disturbing how easy it is to find the mosque shooting video online. The footage, found by using an alternative search engine to Google, has been viewed 128,000 times. It is banned in New Zealand and those watching or sharing it can face jail time. Fisher-Birch said it is one thing to find the video on the dark web, but quite another for it to appear through the simple use of a search engine. "That is absolutely horrific... There's been a massive, massive effort to try and prevent this video from proliferating around the world and I think it's very important that tech companies decide which side of that fight they want to be on."
Southeast Asia
Al Jazeera: Seven Dead In Myanmar As Amnesty Accuses Army Of ‘Killing Spree’
“At least seven people have been killed in Myanmar after security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters, according to witnesses and local media, as Myanmar’s military government accused deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi of accepting illegal payments. The violence comes after the United Nations Security Council called on the military to “exercise utmost restraint” in its response to peaceful demonstrators and rights group Amnesty International accused the military of adopting battlefield tactics against peaceful demonstrators. Six people were killed in the central town of Myaing on Thursday when security forces fired on a protest, one man who took part in the demonstration and helped carry bodies to hospital, told Reuters by telephone. A health worker there confirmed all six deaths. “We protested peacefully,” the 31-year-old man said. “I couldn’t believe they did it.” One person was killed in the North Dagon district of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, domestic media said. Photographs posted on Facebook showed a man lying prone on the street, bleeding from a head wound. Myanmar has been in chaos since its military toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.”
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