Armed men in southwestern Niger have killed at least 58 people when they
intercepted a convoy returning from a weekly market and attacked a nearby

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


March 17, 2021

 

Al Jazeera: Gunmen Kill At Least 58 Civilians In Attack On Niger Convoy
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“Armed men in southwestern Niger have killed at least 58 people when they
intercepted a convoy returning from a weekly market and attacked a nearby
village, the government said on Tuesday. The attacks on Monday occurred in the
Tillabery region, which is near the border with Mali and Burkina Faso and has
seen increasingly deadly attacks by armed groups active across the region with
links to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. The announcement was read on Niger state
television on Tuesday evening by government spokesman Abdourahmane Zakaria, who
declared three days of national mourning for the victims. The mass killings
underscore the enormous security challenges facing Niger’s new president,
Mohamed Bazoum, who won the election in late February to succeed outgoing
leader Mahamadou Issoufou. Attackers killed at least 100 civilians on January 2
in raids on two villages in Tillabery, one of the deadliest episodes in the
country’s recent history. The assailants this time intercepted four vehicles
transporting passengers from a weekly market to the villages of Chinagoder and
Darey Dey, the government said in a statement. “These individuals then
gutlessly and cruelly proceeded to carry out targeted executions of
passengers,” it said. “In the village of Darey Dey, they killed people and
burned the granaries.”

 

European Council: Terrorist Content Online: Council Adopts New Rules
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“The EU is working to stop terrorists from using the internet to radicalise,
recruit and incite to violence. Today, the Council adopted a regulation on
addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online. The aim of the
legislation is a swift removal of terrorist content online and to establish one
common instrument for all member states to this effect. The rules will apply to
hosting service providers offering services in the EU, whether or not they have
their main establishment in the member states. Radicalisation and incitement to
violence through social networks and video platforms, the live streaming of
attacks; these are becoming more and more frequent factors in recent terrorist
attacks. With the new rules adopted by the Council today our law enforcement
authorities will have an effective instrument to tackle this threat. Together,
we send a strong signal to the internet companies: it is time for faster, more
efficient action. Voluntary cooperation with the hosting service providers will
continue, but the legislation will provide additional tools for member states
to enforce the rapid removal of terrorist content where necessary. Competent
authorities in the member states will have the power to issue removal orders to
the service providers, to remove terrorist content or disable access to it in
all member states.”

 

United States

 

Reuters: Michigan Man Charged With Threatening To Kill Biden, Pelosi And
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“Michigan state prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old man with threatening to
kill President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Michigan Governor
Gretchen Whitmer, all Democrats, saying he claimed to “be the catalyst” for an
American revolution, officials said on Tuesday. Whitmer previously had been the
target of right-wing militia extremists who plotted to kidnap her ahead of last
November’s election, according to U.S. prosecutors. The new and separate
charges come as U.S. law enforcement officials including FBI Director
Christopher Wray have warned of the growing threat of homegrown violent
extremism in the United States. The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana
Nessel on Monday charged Joshua Docter, 21, of Holland, Michigan, with
threatening terrorism and using a computer to commit a crime. Each count
carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The suspect turned himself in
on Monday and faced a judge on Tuesday, Nessel’s office said in a statement. A
lawyer for Docter could not immediately be identified. The FBI, which initiated
the investigation, received a tip that Docter posted threats on the social
media site iFunny, and the case was later taken over by Michigan State Police,
the statement said.”

 

New York Post: Four People On Terror Watchlist Arrested At Southern US Border
Since October
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“Four people on the FBI’s terror watchlist have been arrested at the southern
border since October, a report said. Three of the people are from Yemen, and
the other is from Serbia, the Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed to
Congress on Tuesday, according to Axios. The terror watchlist includes people
who are “known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist
activities,” the report said, citing the FBI. The revelation comes as
Republican lawmakers touring the border on Monday said some suspected
terrorists had been heading to the crossing — along with the tens of thousands
migrants typically from Mexico or Central America. “Individuals that they have
on the watchlist for terrorism are now starting to exploit the southern
border,” Rep. John Katko (R-NY) said. “We need to wake up.” In the past two
fiscal years, fewer than four people on the watchlist were busted at the
border, sources told Axios. Six people from Yemen and Bangladesh were arrested
in fiscal year 2018. And in fiscal year 2017, more than 3,700 people on the
watchlist were stopped by the Department of Homeland Security — mainly at
airports, the report said.”

 

Fox News: NC 'Domestic Terrorist' Sentenced Over Failed Fire Attack On Police
SUV During George Floyd Unrest
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“A man from North Carolina – who federal prosecutors deemed a “domestic
terrorist” – was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison for attempting to set
fire to a marked police vehicle during demonstrations last summer that erupted
in the state capital of Raleigh in reaction to the viral bystander video
showing George Floyd pinned beneath Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin's knee.
Jabari Devon Davis, of Raleigh, was arrested by special agents of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) on June 4, 2020. He was charged
and convicted of one count of attempting to damage or destroy by fire a vehicle
owned or possessed by an institution receiving federal financial assistance, G.
Norman Acker III, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North
Carolina, said in a statement Monday following Davis' sentencing by U.S.
District Judge James C. Dever III. On May 31, 2020, at approximately 12:31 a.m.
a fire was discovered coming from the “fuel filler area” of a police vehicle
owned by the Raleigh Police Department (RPD) that was parked at the Raleigh
Police Southeast District Station (RPSDS), according to court documents.”

 

Iraq

 

Al Monitor: Flurry Of Sunni Triangle Ops Sparks Questions Over Islamic State
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“Mass killings, including ones in which attackers wore military attire, and
counterterrorism operations on a near-daily basis have revived concerns about
an oft-prophesized Islamic State (IS) “resurgence” in areas northwest of
Baghdad. While many analysts say low-level insurgency may continue for quite
some time without this leading to any territorial control by the nonstate
actors, locals contacted by Al-Monitor put the blame for the latest attacks on
armed forces deployed there. International coalition spokesman Col. Wayne
Marotto told Al-Monitor March 14, “[IS] is territorially defeated. It continues
to pursue an insurgency with hit-and-run tactics, murder, assassinating and
intimidating local leaders. Despite a recent uptick in simple low-level attacks
[the coalition] has not observed any indication of a resurgence.” The previous
day he had tweeted an article quoting a peshmerga officer as saying March 11,
“The US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State had carried out over two
dozen airstrikes against the group over the previous day.” When asked by
Al-Monitor whether such an unusually high number of airstrikes had actually
been conducted, Marotto replied, “I can’t confirm at this time.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Associated Press: Afghan Official: Gunmen Fire At University Bus, Killing 2
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“Gunmen opened fire at a minibus belonging to a university in northern
Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding six, a
provincial official said. Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the police chief in
Baghlan province, said a student and the driver of the minibus were killed in
the attack, which took place on the outskirts of Puli Khomri, the provincial
capital. The wounded were all university lecturers. The bus was carrying
students and teachers from the faculty of agriculture and was travelling to the
university, Basharat said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the
attack but Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the militant group was
not involved in it. Afghanistan is experiencing a nationwide spike in bombings,
targeted killings and other violence as peace negotiations in Qatar between the
Taliban and the Afghan government continue to face an impasse. The Islamic
State group’s local affiliate has claimed responsibility for some of the
violence, but many attacks go unclaimed, with the Afghan government putting the
blame on the Taliban. The insurgents have denied responsibility for most of the
attacks. Last November, Islamic State militants stormed Kabul University,
sparking an hours-long gunbattle in the Afghan capital that killed 22 people
and wounded another 22.”

 

Middle East

 

The Jerusalem Post: IDF Trains For Hamas Terrorist Infiltrations From The Gaza
Strip
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“As the IDF moves toward tightening cooperation between its different forces,
the Gaza Regional Division completed a wide-scale drill earlier this week,
exercising interoperability during an infiltration from the Gaza Strip. As part
of the drill, all the division’s units practiced going from routine operations
to emergency mode. The threats that the forces were facing were in multiple
arenas – on the ground, underground, in the air, at sea, and near-ground (the
drone threat). The forces came from different army wings – infantry, tanks,
missile batteries, navy vessels, and air force choppers. In addition,
intelligence units played a major role in guiding the other units and alerting
them about different threats. OC Gaza Division Brig.-Col. Nimrod Aloni said
after the drill ended that his units managed to “attack, with tight cooperation
with the air force, multiple targets in a short time. “We were operating
throughout the entire front, and it enabled us to examine and practice the
entire might of the Gaza Division,” he said. “It is the second division drill
we had in the past three months, and we keep going forward in this pace — being
sharper and becoming more lethal. The 75th Armored Battalion is now the tanks
unit in charge of defending the Gaza border."

 

Nigeria

 

Sahara Reporters: Boko Haram Counters Nigerian Army, Releases Pictures Of 16
Killed, Abducted Soldiers
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“Militants from the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic
State West Africa Province (ISWAP), formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah
lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, have released pictures of 15 soldiers killed by the
group during an ambush on Nigerian soldiers in Monguno, Borno state. This is
contrary to a statement by the Nigerian army that four soldiers died in the
attack. The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Yerima had on
Monday said the encounters, which took place on the Tumbus of Lake Chad’s
fringes, led to the destruction of the terrorists’ gun trucks and recovery of a
large cache of arms and ammunition. He added that the combined troops of Sector
2 advanced and cleared Daban Massara and Ali Sherifti villages among other
settlements before they harboured for replenishment and retrofitting along the
axis. “In the course of the hot pursuit which was aided by air cover provided
by the Air Task Team of Operation Lafia Dole, several terrorists were
neutralised and their gun trucks destroyed. “Unfortunately, however, one
officer and three gallant soldiers paid the supreme sacrifices while those
wounded in action are currently receiving medical attention at 7 Division
Medical Services and Hospital in Maimalari Cantonment.”

 

Mali

 

Reuters: Militants Kill 11 Malian Soldiers In Ambush, 11 Others Missing
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“Eleven Malian soldiers were killed and 11 more are missing after Islamist
militants ambushed a patrol in the desert north, the army said on Tuesday.
Fourteen soldiers were also wounded, eight of them seriously, in the attack in
the northern region of Gao on Monday, the army said in a statement. It added
that seven militants were killed in an ensuing exchange of fire. Islamist
militants, who seized Mali’s desert north in 2012 before being pushed back by
French-led forces the following year, have stepped up attacks in the north and
centre in recent years. Many are linked to al Qaeda or Islamic State. Last year
was Mali’s deadliest on record due to attacks by the militants, tit-for-tat
violence between rival ethnic groups and killings by security forces, according
to data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
The militants have also used Mali as a base to extend their operations into
neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, defying attempts by regional, French and
U.N. troops to contain them.”

 

Africa

 

The Washington Post: Children As Young As 11 Beheaded By Mozambique Militants,
Aid Group Says
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“A new report says that children as young as 11 were beheaded by militants in
Mozambique’s troubled Cabo Delgado province, where a local Islamist insurgency
is battling against the government forces. Save the Children, an aid group
based in Britain, said in a short account released Tuesday that it had spoken
to displaced families who gave details of their young children being killed by
militants from the local group referred to as al-Shabab. “That night our
village was attacked and houses were burned,” a woman referred to as Elsa, 28,
told the organization. “When it all started, I was at home with my four
children. We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and
beheaded him. “We couldn’t do anything because we would be killed too,” Elsa
said. Her son was 12, according to Save the Children. A 29-year-old woman whose
name was given as Amelia also told the group her son was beheaded in similar
circumstances. Save the Children did not give the full identity of the
witnesses or their real names to protect their identities. “After my
11-year-old son was killed, we understood that it was no longer safe to stay in
my village,” Amelia told the organization, explaining that they did not have
time to properly bury her child before fleeing.”

 

The Africa Report: Morocco’s ‘FBI’ Boss Decries Lack Of Anti-Terrorism
Cooperation With Algeria
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“Appointed at the end of November as head of the 'Bureau Central des
Investigations Judiciaires' (BCIJ), also known as the Moroccan “FBI”, Cherkaoui
Habboub is now at the forefront of Morocco’s fight against terrorism. Cherkaoui
Habboub will always remember 4 December 2020. On that day, he led his first
field operation as director of the Bureau Central des Investigations
Judiciaires (BCIJ). The aim of this operation was to dismantle a “dangerous
terrorist cell” in Tetouan, northern Morocco, with the help of the Groupe
d’Intervention Rapide (GIR). A few days earlier, on 29 November, he had been
appointed by Abdellatif Hammouchi, the director-general of the Direction
Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire (DGST), and the Direction Générale de
la Sûreté Nationale (DGSN) to head the BCIJ. The appointment was made at the
headquarters of the BCIJ, located in the heart of the “triangle of death”, as
the inhabitants of the city of Salé call it. The institution is located behind
the high walls of the Zaki prison and a few steps away from Salé’s
anti-terrorism court.”

 

Australia

 

ABC News Australia: Police Make Arrests After Counter-Terrorism Operation In
Melbourne
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“Police have arrested two men and a 16-year-old boy as part of a joint
counter-terrorism operation in Melbourne. Police will allege a 19-year-old
Epping man attempted to engage in a terrorist act. A 20-year-old Epping man is
still in custody, and a 16-year-old Pascoe Vale boy was released pending
further inquiries, a police statement said. Assistant Commissioner Michael
Hermans, from Victoria Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said police would
offer the 16-year-old support and “hopefully divert him away from the activity
that saw him come to our attention this morning”. Police said the operation was
ongoing, but they did not anticipate further arrests at this time. The
operation was conducted by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which comprises of
Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and other agencies. Assistant Commissioner
Hermans said it was Islamic “ideology-based, religious extremism”. But he
stressed it made “no difference” which religion was involved, as police focused
on the crime, not the religion.”

 

Europe

 

Radio Free Europe: Jehovah's Witness Convicted On Extremism Charges In Russia
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“A 77-year-old Jehovah’s Witness in Russia's Far Eastern Primorye region has
been handed a six-year suspended sentence on extremism charges amid an ongoing
crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in the country since
2017. A district court in the town of Volno-Nadezhdinskoye on March 15 found
retired military officer Vladimir Filippov guilty of taking part in the
activities of an “extremist organization” and also banned him from taking part
in any public groups for three years. Prosecutors had sought 6 1/2 years in
prison for Filippov. In his last testimony at the hearing, Filippov denied
taking part in the activities of any extremist groups. “I have never
participated in extremist affairs, never expressed any hatred towards people of
other nationalities and religions.... I did not commit a crime, but only
exercised my constitutional right to believe in Jehovah, God,” Filippov said.
The United States has condemned Russia's ongoing crackdown on Jehovah's
Witnesses and other peaceful religious minorities. For decades, the Jehovah's
Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant
Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.”

 

Southeast Asia

 

Daily Mail: Sri Lanka Considers Burqa Ban Two Years After ISIS Fanatics Killed
260 People With Bomb Attacks On Churches And Hotels
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“The Sri Lankan government will consider banning the burqa two years after
ISIS fanatics killed 260 people in bombings of churches and hotels. The
minister for law and order, Sarath Weerasekara, said the full face covering
worn by Muslim women was a national security risk. 'In our early days Muslim
women and girls never wore the burqa,' he said. 'It is a sign of religious
extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it.'  The
burqa was temporarily outlawed in the days after the 2019 Easter Sunday
bombings of three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo, which left eight
Britons dead. Bombs were detonated in rapid succession at three churches in
Colombo on Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days in Christianity. Explosions
also rocked three luxury hotels, targeting foreigners who were sitting down to
breakfast. The most deadly blasts were at the two Roman Catholic churches, the
Shrine of St Anthony and St Sebastian's, where 171 worshippers were killed.
Three five-star hotels on the beachfront were attacked around the same time:
the Shangri-La Hotel, the Cinnamon Grand Hotel and The Kingsbury. The attacks
killed more that 260 people, including eight British tourists and the three
children of the Danish billionaire owner of ASOS, Anders Holch Povlsen.”



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