“A senior Hezbollah member stationed in Syria has been killed, media outlets
affiliated with the Iran-backed party said on Sunday. Imad Al Amine, know

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


July 26, 2021

 

The National: Senior Hezbollah Member Killed In Syria
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“A senior Hezbollah member stationed in Syria has been killed, media outlets
affiliated with the Iran-backed party said on Sunday. Imad Al Amine, known as
Sayyed Al Gharib, died in the line of duty, the reports said. News of his death
followed reports of an Israeli attack on Homs in Syria on Thursday. The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was aimed at
Hezbollah’s military positions and weapons depots in Al Qusair, an area on the
border with Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. After the attack, it was
reported that a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known
as Sayed Ahmed Qurayshi had been killed. Qurayshi a member of the Fatemiyoun
division, an Iran-backed Afghan militia, had reportedly fought in Syria for
years. He was said to have taken part in operations alongside Qassem Suleimani,
the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Suleimani played a key role in
expanding Iran’s military operations across the region and co-ordinated attacks
by Tehran-backed militias on US forces and their allies. He was assassinated in
Baghdad last year in an air strike ordered by former US president Donald Trump.
Attacks on US targets in Iraq and Syria have intensified in recent weeks since
a visit by an Iranian delegation led by Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief
Hossein Taeb.”

 

Reuters: At Least 16 Killed In Road Ambush By Suspected Militants In Eastern
Congo
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“At least 16 people, including six women and two children, have been killed in
a suspected Islamist militant attack on a remote road in northeast Democratic
Republic of Congo, the director of a local hospital said on Friday. The attack
took place on a road near the town of Oicha, around 390 km (242 miles) north of
the eastern provincial capital of Goma. Nine others were injured, with three,
including a baby, in critical condition, according to hospital staff. Survivors
blamed the assault on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant
group that claims links to Islamic State. They have been accused of killing
thousands of people since 2014, mostly in similarly remote areas. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility, and the ADF could not be reached. Maman
Masika Kahindo, a local farmer, said she was travelling in a minibus with her
11-year-old son when fighters dressed in ADF fatigues fired on the crowded
vehicle and killed her son. “They fired several bullets and the driver
immediately died,” Kahindo said, wearing bandages over her chest where she said
she had been grazed by gunfire. “They took him out of the vehicle and shot my
child in the head.” Janvier Kasayiro, who heads a local coalition of civil
society groups, also blamed Islamist militants, adding that several people who
had been travelling in the same bus as Kahindo were still missing.”

 

Syria

 

Reuters: Two Turkish Soldiers Killed In Attack In Northern Syria
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“Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an attack on their
armoured vehicle in northern Syria, and Turkish forces immediately launched
retaliatory fire, Turkey's defence ministry said on Saturday. “Our punitive
fire against terrorist positions is continuing,” the statement on Twitter on
said. It said the attack was in the region where Turkey launched the
cross-border “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016 to drive away Islamic State
militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Media reports said the attack was
in the al-Bab area. Turkey continues to hold sway in northwest Syria and has a
significant military presence there. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist
group linked to militants who have fought a decades-old insurgency against the
state in southeast Turkey. It has staged several incursions into Syria in
support of Syrian rebels to push the YPG from the Turkish frontier.”

 

The National: ISIS Member Omaima Abdi Convicted Of Keeping Yazidi Slaves
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“A German-Tunisian woman convicted of being an ISIS member, has had her
sentence extended by a court in Hamburg after she admitted to keeping two
Yazidi slaves in Syria. Omaima Abdi, 37, who is serving a three-and-a-half-year
sentence for membership in a terrorist organisation, has had a further six
months added to her sentence. Abdi had initially denied the slavery charge at
her first trial last year. But at the beginning of her second trial, she
admitted that the two Yazidis had cleaned her flat in Raqqa, Syria in the
spring of 2016. One of the Yazidis, a 14 year old, gave evidence at the trial.
Abdi has apologised to the victims, but Judge Ulrike Taeubner told her that it
was time she took responsibility for her actions. Abdi is the widow of
notorious ISIS member Denis Cuspert, a German rapper who was also known by his
stage name Deso Dogg. He joined ISIS in 2014 and was killed in an air strike in
Syria in early 2018. Abdi had followed Nadir Hadra, her husband at the time and
an ISIS member, to Syria in 2015 and took her three children with her. But he
was killed in the city of Kobani only weeks after he arrived. Abdi then married
Cuspert but returned to Germany in the autumn of 2016. For three years, Abdi
was able to live in Hamburg with her three children, and another she had with
Cuspert.”

 

Iran

 

Washington Examiner: US Investigates Qatar Over Claims That It Finances Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards Corps
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“The State Department has opened an inquiry into an Israeli government report
that Qatar’s monarchy funded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a
U.S.-designated terrorist organization. “We are looking into the allegations,”
a State Department spokesman told the Washington Examiner earlier this month,
adding that “Qatar and the United States have a robust strategic, security, and
counterterrorism partnership. Qatar is one of the United States's closest
military allies in the region. U.S.-Qatar military and security cooperation
contributes to the safety and stability of the region.” The alleged terror
finance activities of the Islamic regime in Doha surfaced during last month’s
Oval Office meeting between President Joe Biden and outgoing Israeli President
Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin furnished the White House with intelligence regarding
“recent funding that Qatar provided to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps,” the Times of Israel reported, citing an Israel diplomatic official
speaking on the condition of anonymity. The person also added that the
information alarmed the U.S. officials at the meeting.”

 

Iraq

 

Al Jazeera: Iraqi PM Announces Arrests Over Suicide Bombing Claimed By ISIL
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“Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced on Saturday the arrest of a
“terror cell” behind a Baghdad market bombing that killed dozens and was
claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group. The attack, the worst since January, sparked
revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of ISIL, which lost its last
territory in Iraq after a gruelling three-year campaign that ended in late
2017. The group is believed to retain sleeper cells in remote desert and
mountain areas. The bombing took place on Monday at al-Woheilat market in Sadr
City, a Shia suburb in the capital, and officially killed at least 35 people.
“We have arrested all the members of the cowardly terrorist cell that planned
and perpetrated the attack,” Kadhimi said on Twitter, “and they will be put
before a judge today.” The prime minister did not specify the number of people
arrested, but a source at the interior ministry said the suspects were
anticipated to make televised “confessions”, a common occurrence for major
crimes in Iraq. Deadly attacks were common in Baghdad during the sectarian
violence that followed the US-led invasion of 2003, and later on as ISIL swept
across much of Iraq in a lightning 2014 offensive.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Intensifies Airstrikes In Afghanistan As Taliban
Offensive Nears Kandahar
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“The U.S. has stepped up airstrikes in southern Afghanistan amid growing
apprehension over a Taliban offensive threatening Kandahar, the country’s
second-largest city and spiritual capital of the Taliban movement. The fall of
Kandahar would deal a heavy blow to the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, which
is trying to impart calm to its citizens as the Taliban has seized swaths of
the countryside, but so far failed to take a major city. The airstrikes, about
a dozen in recent days, point to a continuing role for the U.S. military in
Afghanistan, despite confidence expressed by President Biden and the Pentagon
that the Afghan armed forces are well-equipped and ready to fight the Taliban
on their own. U.S. forces are due to depart Afghanistan by the end of August.
Kandahar, population 600,000, was home to deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar,
and host to key military bases once maintained by the U.S. It is also a major
economic prize. The Taliban have advanced dozens of miles toward Kandahar city
in recent weeks, squeezing it from three directions, capturing swaths of
territory in the Panjwai and Arghandab valleys, places where foreign troops
fought for decades to keep the Taliban at bay.”

 

Associated Press: To Reach A Peace Deal, Taliban Say Afghan President Must Go
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“The Taliban say they don’t want to monopolize power, but they insist there
won’t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in
Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed. In an interview with The
Associated Press, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of
the group’s negotiating team, laid out the insurgents’ stance on what should
come next in a country on the precipice. The Taliban have swiftly captured
territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are
threatening a number of provincial capitals — advances that come as the last
U.S. and NATO soldiers leave Afghanistan. This week, the top U.S. military
officer, Gen. Mark Milley, told a Pentagon press conference that the Taliban
have “strategic momentum,” and he did not rule out a complete Taliban takeover.
But he said it is not inevitable. “I don’t think the end game is yet written,”
he said. Memories of the Taliban’s last time in power some 20 years ago, when
they enforced a harsh brand of Islam that denied girls an education and barred
women from work, have stoked fears of their return among many. Afghans who can
afford it are applying by the thousands for visas to leave Afghanistan, fearing
a violent descent into chaos.”

 

Voice Of America: Afghanistan's Media Freedom In Retreat As Taliban Advances
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“The day the Taliban entered Balkh district, 20 km west of Mazar e Sharif, the
capital of Balkh province last month, local radio station Nawbahar shuttered
its doors and most of its journalists went into hiding. Within days the station
started broadcasting again, but the programming was different. Rather than the
regular line-up, Nawbahar was playing Islamist anthems and shows produced by
the Taliban. The switch in programming is a far cry from how Nawbahar usually
operates. The station started up in the northern province in 2004—broadcasting
news and entertainment in Dari and Pashto languages thanks to funds from the
U.S. Agency for International Development. Its experience reflects a growing
trend for Afghanistan’s independent media. As the security situation
deteriorates, so does the situation for all the other gains the country made in
the last 20 years, including press freedom. The Reuters Institute for the Study
of Journalism says Afghanistan went from zero independent media under Taliban
rule to 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and multiple TV stations
since the U.S.-led invasion of the country 20 years ago. Now that foreign
troops are almost gone and the Taliban have nearly doubled the territory under
their control, many journalists working in insecure areas are fleeing to
safety.”

 

India

 

Bloomberg: India Plans More Power Islands To Counter Cyber, Terror Threat
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“India is discussing a plan to create so-called power islanding systems in
several cities to protect critical infrastructure from potential attacks on the
electricity grid, power minister Raj Kumar Singh said. Cities including
Bengaluru, known as India’s Silicon Valley, and Jamnagar, which has two of
India’s largest oil refineries, are among cities being assessed for an
islanding system, Singh told lawmakers in parliament Thursday. Existing systems
in cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai are being revamped, he said. The plan
follows a major power outage in India’s financial hub Mumbai last year that
brought the city to a halt and prompted speculation about a cyber attack. The
year before, the country’s nuclear power monopoly reported computer systems at
one of its generation plants had been attacked by malware. Power grids the
world over are increasingly digitalized, leaving them vulnerable to such
attacks. Islanding systems feature generation capacity and can isolate
automatically from the main grid in the event of an outage. For the new
systems, provinces need to submit proposals for setting up generation and
storage capacities, Singh said in his written comments Thursday. The strategy
was questioned in some quarters.”

 

Nigeria

 

Reuters: Kidnappers In Nigeria Release 28 Schoolchildren, Another 81 Still
Held, Says Negotiator
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“Kidnappers who raided a boarding school in northern Nigeria earlier this
month released 28 children on Sunday but another 81 remain in captivity,
according to a pastor involved in the negotiations for their release. The
attack on the Bethel Baptist High School in the state of Kaduna was the 10th
mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria, which authorities
have attributed to criminal gangs seeking ransom payments. A first batch of 28
children was released two days after the raid. Parents told Reuters that 180
students typically attend the school, and that pupils were in the process of
sitting exams. “Twenty-eight students were freed this morning,” Reverend Ite
Joseph Hayab told Reuters on phone. “Quite a number of the students before now
escaped ... but 81 are still in captivity.” Nigerian authorities have
attributed the kidnappings to what they call armed bandits seeking ransom
payments. The police and Kaduna state commissioner for internal security and
home affairs were not immediately available for comment. Radika Bivan, a parent
whose daughter is among those kidnapped confirmed that 28 of them were released
but said she did not see her child among them. Kaduna authorities had ordered
the closure of the school and 12 others in the area following the kidnap,
without saying when they may reopen.”

 

Deutsche Welle: Nigeria Receives US Planes For Boko Haram Fight
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“Nigeria's air force said on Friday that it has received six US attack
aircraft as part of the country's drive to crack down on jihadist insurgents.
“The batch of A-29 Super Tucanos aircraft have arrived in Kano today,” air
force spokesman Edward Gabkwet said. The Nigerian government signed the deal to
buy a total of 12 of the Brazilian-developed planes manufactured in the US in
August 2017 under the Trump administration. The propeller-driven planes, which
have reconnaissance, surveillance and attack capabilities, were built in
Florida by Brazil’s Embraer and the private US firm, the Sierra Nevada
Corporation. That pact also includes the supply of ammunition, training and
aircraft maintenance believed to be worth more than $500 million. The contract
had been set to go through in May 2016 but the then-president, Barack Obama,
froze the deal after the Nigerian army accidentally bombed a camp for displaced
people, killing 112 civilians. An insurgency led by Boko Haram and rival
offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province has killed at least 40,000 people
and displaced more than two million. Fighting has also spread to parts of
neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, forcing the nations to form a regional
military coalition to fight the jihadists.”

 

Somalia

 

Voice Of America: US Lends More Airpower To Somalia's Fight Vs. Al-Shabab
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“The United States is again targeting fighters with the al-Qaida-affiliated
al-Shabab terror group in Somalia, launching its second airstrike in the past
four days following a nearly six-month hiatus that began when President Joe
Biden took office. The strike, by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), appears to be
part of an effort to lend U.S. airpower to what has been described as a fierce
struggle on the ground between the Somali military and al-Shabab in Galmudug
state, the same region targeted in Tuesday's airstrike. Pentagon press
secretary John Kirby told VOA and other reporters traveling aboard a U.S.
military aircraft with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Friday's strike was
carried out in support of Somali forces near the village of Qeycad. He said the
strike was permitted by the powers granted by the 2001 Authorization for Use of
Military Force. Kirby added that just as with the earlier airstrike, U.S.
troops were not on the ground with Somali forces but were conducting a
remote advise-and-assist mission. Further information was not provided because
of “operational security.” A statement issued earlier Friday by the Somali
government said the precision airstrike “destroyed al-Shabab fighters and
weapons with zero civilian casualties.”

 

Mali

 

Reuters: Man Accused Of Attempted Assassination Of Mali President Dies In
Custody
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“A man accused of attempting to stab Mali's interim President Assimi Goita
last week has died in hospital while in the custody of security services, the
government said in a statement on Sunday. Goita, a special forces colonel who
orchestrated two coups in the last year, escaped unharmed after the assailant
tried to stab him during prayers at a mosque in the capital Bamako on Tuesday.
Security agents threw a man into the back of a military pickup truck, video
obtained by Reuters showed, as Goita was ringed by bodyguards. “During the
investigations ... his state of health deteriorated,” the statement said. He
was taken to hospital, where he died, it said. An investigation is underway to
determine the cause of death. Mali, the theatre of French-supported operations
against al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked insurgents for a decade, was thrown
into political turmoil after a military junta led by Goita toppled President
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020. Goita served as vice-president to
transitional leader Bah Ndaw until the latter's ouster in May.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: At Least Six Cameroonian Soldiers Killed In Raid By Islamist
Insurgents
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“At least six Cameroonian soldiers were killed and four wounded during an
attack by Islamist insurgents on an army outpost in the far north of the
country, state broadcaster CRTV said on Saturday. The attack is the deadliest
in recent months in northern Cameroon, which alongside neighbouring Nigeria and
Chad, has been battling the Boko Haram militant group for years and, more
recently, militants linked to Islamic State. “Our outpost in Sagme was attacked
this morning around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) by a horde of assailants.
There were six to seven vehicles and motorcycles and some were on foot. It was
a massive attack,” Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, administrative head of the district in
the Far North Region, told Reuters. State television reported the death toll on
Twitter, but gave no further details about the attack. Two military sources who
requested anonymity had told Reuters that at least eight soldiers had been
killed and several others were wounded. Local authorities said there has been a
steady increase in attacks on the military in the region since the death of
Abubakar Shekau, the former leader of Boko Haram. “Since Shekau's death there
has been an increase in attacks, as the Islamic State West African Province
(ISWAP) move to conquer territories previously held by Boko Haram,” Ndongo
said.”

 

Newsweek: UN Says 'Heightened Threats' Are Emerging From ISIS, Affiliated
Groups Around The World
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“A new report from the United Nations warns that “heightened threats” are
emerging from ISIS and other terror groups, most prominently in Africa. The
memo comes as the U.S. is set to complete a withdrawal of troops stationed in
Afghanistan, where ISIS and al Qaeda are rooted, by Aug. 31. The report,
compiled by the U.N. monitoring team that tracks global jihadi threats, said
that terror groups tend to prosper when other forces aren't putting pressure on
them. With U.S. pressure soon to be absent from Afghanistan, any mitigation of
their threat could experience “further deterioration,” the report said. The
U.N. said that parts of West and East Africa as especially susceptible to the
growing presence of terror groups, “where affiliates of both groups can boast
gains in supporters and territory under threat, as well as growing capabilities
in fundraising and weapons, for example, in the use of drones.” One of these
high-risk areas is Somalia, where special forces are “struggling to contain”
Al-Shabaab, an offshoot of al Qaeda, in light of the U.S. troops' exit and a
decrease in pressure from the African Union Mission. Affiliates of al Qaeda are
increasingly present in Mali as France starts to pull back on its own
anti-terrorism campaign in the country.”

 

France

 

The New York Times: France Adopts Laws To Combat Terrorism, But Critics Call
Them Overreaching
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“French lawmakers have adopted two bills the government says will strengthen
its ability to fight terrorism and Islamist extremism following a series of
attacks that have hardened feelings of insecurity ahead of next year’s
presidential election. Debate on the bills, adopted Thursday and Friday, had
been pushed out of the headlines by a flare-up of the Covid-19 pandemic, but
critics say they curtail civil liberties and extend police powers to a worrying
degree. One of the new laws gives France’s security services more tools to keep
track of suspected terrorists and surveil them online; it was adopted late
Thursday by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, by a vote of
108 to 20. The other, passed on Friday by the same chamber by a vote of 49 to
19, aims to combat extremist ideas at every level of French society. Among a
range of steps, it toughens conditions for home-schooling, tightens rules for
associations seeking state subsidies, and gives the authorities new powers to
close places of worship seen as condoning hateful or violent ideas. Both
measures had been pushed by President Emmanuel Macron and his government as
necessary responses to a persistent threat posed by Islamist extremism against
France’s ideals, especially secularism, and its security.”

 

New Zealand

 

Reuters: New Zealand Accepts Return Of Islamic State-Linked Citizen
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“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she has agreed to a request from
Turkish authorities to accept the return of a New Zealand citizen accused of
having links to the Islamic State, and her two young children. The three have
been in immigration detention in Turkey after they were caught earlier this
year trying to enter Turkey from Syria. Turkish authorities requested that New
Zealand repatriate the family. “New Zealand has not taken this step lightly. We
have taken into account our international responsibilities as well as the
details of this particular case, including the fact that children are
involved,” Ardern said in a statement after a cabinet meeting in Wellington.
The woman had held New Zealand and Australian citizenships. Her family moved to
Australia when she was six and she grew up there before departing for Syria in
2014 on an Australian passport. But the Australian government revoked her
citizenship and refused to reverse the decision despite calls from New Zealand.
Earlier this year, Ardern said Australia's decision was wrong and the country
was abdicating its responsibilities by “unilaterally” cancelling the
citizenship of the woman. Australia has provided assurances it will consult
with New Zealand if similar such case arises in future, Ardern said.” 



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