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Eye on Extremism
August 5, 2021
The Wall Street Journal: Taliban Claim Attack On Afghanistan Defense Minister’s Home
“The Taliban claimed responsibility for a complex suicide attack targeting the home of Afghanistan’s defense minister that killed eight people and wounded 20, one of the most serious insurgent strikes in the Afghan capital in recent months. Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who took over as minister of defense after the Taliban swept through northern Afghanistan in June, wasn’t at home during Tuesday night’s attack. The ensuing gunbattle between Afghan special forces and Taliban fighters rattled downtown Kabul for several hours. The attack came as the Taliban have been pressing into provincial capitals around the country. Though the Taliban have fought their way into some of these cities, such as Helmand’s capital of Lashkar Gah, they have been stemmed by heavy U.S. airstrikes and by Afghan special forces flown in as reinforcements. The insurgents attacked the adjacent home of a member of Parliament during an hourslong gunbattle. The explosions destroyed the facades of nearby buildings. In a statement released Wednesday, the Taliban called the attack on Gen. Mohammadi’s heavily fortified residence “the beginning of retaliatory operations against the core officials of the Kabul administration.”
The National: What The Boko Haram Leader's Death Means For The War Against Terror
“On June 16, Boko Haram confirmed the death of its leader Abubakar Shekau. Shekau died during clashes with the competing Islamic State for the West African Province (Iswap) in the Sambisa Forest in north-eastern Nigeria, one of the last regions controlled by Boko Haram. At first sight, the death of Shekau, the mastermind behind many atrocities committed against African civilians, may come as a relief. But it also reveals a darker reality: the steady replacement of Boko Haram by ISIS in the Lake Chad Basin region – which includes Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon – and its new security implications. Shekau had led Boko Haram since 2009, the year the group’s founder Mohammed Yusuf died. The organisation caught international attention in 2014 with the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls that shocked the world and triggered the #BringBackOurGirls movement. But soon afterwards, Shekau and his commanders faced fierce competition from the emerging ISIS, whose extremist doctrine and military victories in Syria and Iraq during the same period, appealed to its combatants. By 2015, Boko Haram was losing ground against the Nigerian armed forces, especially after the battle of Gwoza in March that ended in a debacle for the terrorist group.”
United States
Associated Press: Officer Dead, Suspect Killed In Violence Outside Pentagon
“A Pentagon police officer died after being stabbed Tuesday during a burst of violence at a transit center outside the building, and a suspect was shot by law enforcement and died at the scene. The Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. military, was temporarily placed on lockdown after a man attacked the officer on a bus platform shortly after 10:30 a.m. The ensuing violence, which included a volley of gunshots, resulted in “several casualties,” said Woodrow Kusse, the chief of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, which is responsible for security in the facility. The deaths of the officer and the suspect were first confirmed by officials who were not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The Fairfax County Police Department also tweeted condolences about the officer’s death. Officials said they believe two bystanders were injured.”
“Aminah Mohamad, an 8-year-old girl born in Chattanooga but raised under ISIS control, has been rescued and is in a secure location in northeast Syria more than two years after her mother, a Chattanooga native, was killed in an airstrike. Peter Galbraith, a 70-year-old former U.S. diplomat, told BuzzFeed News this week that the girl was interviewed Saturday by a member of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism about her life under the control of ISIS, the Islamic State terrorist group. According to BuzzFeed, Galbraith has worked to “repatriate foreign women and children” from detention camps that hold tens of thousands of people linked to ISIS. Aminah's mother, Ariel Bradley, was a Hixson-born evangelical Christian who eventually joined ISIS. Aminah Mohamad's path back to the United States is uncertain at this time. She has lived most of her life in a war-torn country. Both of her parents are dead, according to Buzzfeed. One of her brothers was also killed in an airstrike and her second brother is reportedly missing. Bradley was among the first activists working with Chattanooga Organized for Action in 2010, a group that pushes for racial equality, fair housing policy and empathy for the poor.”
Syria
Stars And Stripes: ISIS Remains A Persistent 'Low-Level' Threat In Iraq And Syria, US Report Says
“The Islamic State group remains a threat seven years after it swept through Syria and Iraq, but it has not mounted any deliberate attacks on coalition forces in over two years, the U.S. military said. This week marks the anniversary of ISIS’s slaughter of some 5,500 members of the Yazidi minority in northwestern Iraq and forced enslavement of over 6,000 others in 2014. It’s been over two years since the terrorist group was ousted from the last of its territorial strongholds in Iraq and Syria, but it continues to exploit sectarian, political and security weaknesses in the region. U.S. Central Command believes that the terrorists can likely “operate indefinitely in the Syrian desert” at current levels, the Defense Department Inspector General’s office said in a quarterly report to Congress published Tuesday. “ISIS continued operating as a ‘low-level’ and ‘well-entrenched’ insurgency in rural areas of Iraq and Syria,” said the IG report, covering the period from April to June. Syrian Democratic Forces conduct a patrol during a joint operation with U.S. soldiers in Syria in May 2021. Seven years after the Islamic State group swept through parts of Syria and Iraq, ISIS it remains a threat, but hasn’t been able to mount any deliberate attacks on coalition forces in more than two years, the U.S. military said.”
Iraq
“In Iraq’s easternmost province of Diyala near the border with Iran, thousands of paramilitaries marched in neatly arranged columns, trailed by an imposing procession of tanks and armored vehicles. The June parade, triumphantly broadcast on a YouTube livestream, marked the seventh anniversary of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an amalgamation of Iraqi paramilitary factions originally formed to fight ISIS with Iranian support. The PMF is technically part of the Iraqi state, but its most powerful Iranian-backed factions often act outside the chain of command to attack their critics inside Iraq as well as U.S. military and diplomatic facilities. To the right of the procession towered a giant picture of the PMF’s late deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, killed by a U.S. drone strike in January 2020 alongside Qassem Soleimani, his mentor and Iran’s most powerful general. Popular Mobilization Forces tanks pass a giant picture of the late PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi Al Mohandis during a parade marking the seventh anniversary of the PMF's founding, in this screenshot from the official event livestream on YouTube. Atop a stage to the left, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi waved at the saluting troops as they passed, flanked by top PMF leaders who had largely avoided appearing with one another in public since the fateful U.S. strike.”
Afghanistan
Bloomberg: Taliban Seizes Border Posts, Draining Key Afghan Income Source
“The Taliban has seized key customs posts and is collecting import duties on goods entering Afghanistan, a Ministry of Finance official said, cutting off a key revenue source for President Ashraf Ghani’s beleaguered government. The ministry collected only 4.6 billion Afghanis ($58 million) in duties last month compared with 7.3 billion Afghanis in June from all 30 customs posts located on borders, cities and airports, ministry spokesman Mohammad Rafi Tabe said by phone. Most losses were at international border crossings where the Taliban took more than 2.7 billion Afghanis, he said. The militant group has been making rapid advances across the country as U.S. and NATO troops head home, with a final exit slated for Aug. 31. Over the last month they have gained control of at least eight of 14 customs posts along Afghanistan’s borders with Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, Tabe said. Import duties account for about half of Afghanistan’s total domestic revenues, which were estimated at about 216.5 billion Afghanis this year, Tabe said. The U.S. and other international donors also provide around 236 billion Afghanis annually to help the aid-dependent country finance its military expenses.”
NPR: The Taliban Say They've Changed. Experts Aren't Buying It And Fear For Afghanistan
“Nearly two decades after U.S. forces toppled a repressive Taliban regime, the militant religious movement is again winning territory on battlefields across Afghanistan, vying to fill a power vacuum left as America prepares to exit its longest war. The prospect of a Taliban takeover reminiscent of the movement's 1996 blitz on the capital, Kabul, has people both inside and outside Afghanistan worried about the future. While the Taliban have been making rapid gains — particularly since U.S.-led forces began a withdrawal in May — few experts see a complete takeover of the capital as imminent. However, the question remains: After 20 years in the political wilderness, how would the Taliban govern if they regained power? The short answer might be, not much differently from the last time. “I think everyone is trying to read some pretty sparse tea leaves here,” says Laurel Miller, the Asia program director for the International Crisis Group. When the Taliban last held power, in 2001, their treatment of women — who were denied education and employment and forced to wear the all-encompassing burqa — as well as minorities, such as Afghanistan's mostly Shiite Hazaras, earned the country pariah status in the international community.”
Pakistan
BBC News: Article 370: Why More Locals In Kashmir Are Becoming Militants
“Every time Bashir Ahmad Bhat's gaze falls on the blood stains on the walls, he is reminded of the night his brother, a policeman in Indian administered Kashmir, was murdered. It was June; Mr Bashir had been preparing to go to sleep when he heard the sound of gun shots coming from next door. Alarmed, he sprang out of bed to check. A heart-wrenching scene awaited him - his brother lay dead at the entrance of his home. His wife and daughter lay next to him, bloodied and struggling in pain. They died later. “Those bullets destroyed a garden full of flowers in a minute,” Mr Bashir said. “What was their fault? Nothing. The police say the family was shot by militants. Officers like Mr Bashir's brother, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, are often targeted in the Kashmir valley, which has long seen militancy against local security forces. “These are the people the other side calls police informers or collaborators,” said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of Delhi-based defence think tank, the Institute for Conflict Management. And their families, he added, “are always vulnerable and the first targets”. On 5 August, 2019, India revoked nearly all of Article 370 in the constitution, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of the autonomy it had been guaranteed.”
Lebanon
“Sirens sent residents in northern Israel running for shelter Wednesday after three rockets were launched from southern Lebanon, drawing rounds of cross-border Israeli artillery fire and rare overnight strikes, escalating a regional security situation seen as a test for Israel's new government. The relatively small-scale operation, in which two rockets landed in open fields near the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemona and another came down inside Lebanon, was carried out by Palestinian groups along Lebanon’s southern border, according to Israeli media. The munitions sparked blazes in both Lebanon and Israel, where extreme heat and strong winds recently have compounded the risk of wildfires. The incident unfolded on a day of national mourning in Lebanon to mark one year since a huge explosion obliterated Beirut’s port, a disaster that has come to symbolize the country’s crisis of corruption and negligence. Israel fired more than 100 shells into Lebanon, according to Israeli media reports. It also carried out its first airstrikes over the border in eight years, targeting the sites from where the rockets were fired, the military said early Thursday. The Palestinian groups have attempted similar cross-border attacks in recent months.”
Middle East
NPR: Osama Bin Laden Biography Goes Inside Al-Qaida Leader's Final Hideout
“As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches, a new biography traces Osama bin Laden's path from a shy, religious teenager to the leader of a global jihadist group dedicated to mass murder. Journalist Peter Bergen, who met the al-Qaida leader in 1997, says that a series of events kept pushing bin Laden “further and further down the path of radicalization.” “[Bin Laden] could have chosen a different path at several points in his life,” Bergen says. “But the introduction of American troops into Saudi Arabia [in 1992] turned his sort of latent anti-Americanism into a passionate hatred of the United States.” Bergen says bin Laden thought the Sept. 11 attacks, which he is credited with masterminding, would result in the U.S. withdrawing troops from Saudi Arabia and other places in the Middle East. “That, of course, was a delusion,” he adds. “It didn't work.” Bin Laden was killed in 2011 when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bergen's new book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, draws on materials recovered from the compound as well as on interviews with a dozen people in bin Laden's inner circle.”
Nigeria
All Africa: Nigeria: 87 Boko Haram Fighters, Families Surrender To Troops
“The Nigerian Army yesterday said that 87 more fighters of terrorist groups, Boko Haram and Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) and their families surrendered to troops in Borno State. The Nigerian Army said last week that 73 insurgents and their families including women and children surrendered to troops of 202 Battalion, who took them into custody in Ruwaza village in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State. A war update issued by Army Spokesman, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, stated that in continuation of the ongoing intensive clearance operations across the theatre of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), “more Boko Haram terrorists and elements of Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and their families, who have hitherto hibernated around the fringes of Sambisa forest have yielded to troops' heavy artillery and air bombardments and surrendered to troops at Forward Operational Base (FOB) Banki Junction/BOCOBS in Bama, Borno State on August 2, 2021”. It said the terrorists also surrendered several assorted weapons and incendiaries, comprising 19 male fighters, 19 adult females and 49 children from Njimia village and environs.”
“A series of violent attacks during weekend nighttime raids in Nigeria blamed on Fulani radicals has reportedly led to the deaths of about seven people, the destruction of nearly 300 houses and the displacement of many. However, a leading Fulani advocacy group has put the blame for the violence on local youths. Suspected Fulani militants attacked villages in Nigeria’s Miango district in the Plateau state during “unhindered and undistracted” attacks that began Saturday night into Sunday morning, according to a statement released Sunday by the Irigwe Development Association. According to the statement, the violence resulted in around 100 acres of farmland being destroyed, at least 250 houses burned and mass displacement. “We are calling on government and security agencies to come to our aid, as our people have been left homeless, their farms destroyed and loved ones killed,” IDA Secretary-General, Comrade Danjuma Dickson Auta, said in an interview with The Daily Post. He said these actions have “been a recurring decimal” as the many homes and farms have been destroyed by the “heartless people.” According to the United Kingdom-based aid agency Barnabas Fund, the attack occurred in a “predominantly Christian area.”
United Kingdom
“A terrorist who launched a knife attack after being released from prison told officials he no longer supported Isis and wanted to “become a better Muslim”, an inquest has heard. Three days before his rampage, Sudesh Amman claimed that terrorists were “pushing people away from Islam and causing hatred”. The 20-year-old stabbed two people on Streatham High Street before being shot dead by police on 2 February last year. He had been under police surveillance since his release from prison 10 days earlier, and was subject to different forms of monitoring and rehabilitation efforts. Amman was assigned two mentors as part of the Home Office’s Desistance and Disengagement Programme, because of his previous conviction for sharing Isis propaganda. On 30 January, he told the mentor for practical issues that he was interested in work and employment opportunities. A report by the mentor, known as Witness M because of an anonymity order, said Amman asked him about the afterlife and said he should “think about it”. “Amman said prison had taught him that talking to people about the good of Islam was the way forward,” it added. “He said he now realised that people who hurt other people through things like acts of terror were pushing people away from the faith and causing hatred.”
Germany
“German police have detained a Syrian man in Berlin suspected of firing a grenade into a crowd of civilians at a refugee camp near Damascus in 2014, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The man, identified as Mouafak Al D., according to German reporting custom, is accused of war crimes in Syria, fighting for a militia on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, the prosecutors said. The civilians at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus, were part of a crowd waiting for food aid when a man fired at them from an anti-tank weapon, killing seven and severely wounding three, including a six-year-old child, the authorities said. Mouafak Al D. is suspected of being a member of the Free Palestine Movement, an armed militia fighting on behalf of the Syrian government, the prosecutors said. The camp, once the largest in Syria for Palestinian refugees, was under siege by the government army and its allied militias from 2013 until 2018 when the army recaptured it from Islamist militants. Mouafak Al D. will appear on Wednesday before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice which will decide on his pre-trial detention, the prosecutor added. Germany has “universal jurisdiction” laws that allow it to prosecute people for crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.”
The National: Germany Blames Covid-19 Protests For Rising Extremism
“Germany will increase funding to tackle right-wing extremism, amid warnings that anti-lockdown protests have increased anti-Semitism in the country. Education Minister Anja Karliczek said conspiracy theories had gained popularity on the fringes of the Querdenker movement, a group of self-styled “lateral thinkers” who protested against Covid-19 restrictions. Coupled with wider polarisation, this meant that Jewish life in Germany was “as threatened as it has been for a long time”, she said. “The poison of anti-Semitism, the poison of nationalism and of far-right extremism continue to take hold in our country,” Ms Karliczek said. “We have to fight this poison with all our determination. This fight can only be won if we pull together as a society.” The Querdenker protests attracted an assortment of fringe figures including anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists and far-right groups. Some protests have descended into violence, while others were broken up for breaching Covid-19 restrictions. Hundreds took to the streets in Berlin last weekend despite a court-ordered ban. Germany’s domestic intelligence service placed some of the movement’s followers under observation over concerns of right-wing extremism.”
Canada
Vice: RCMP Arrested Toronto Man On A Terrorism Peace Bond
“A 30-year-old Toronto man was arrested by the RCMP on a terrorism peace bond in April and released on a number of conditions, VICE World News has learned. The arrest comes years after he was convicted for a string of crimes including robbing a hotel and making violent threats against staff while in jail, according to parole documents. As part of his release in May on the pending peace bond, Daniel Khoshnood has been ordered to abide by 16 conditions that prohibit him from communicating with two women including a British Columbia-based psychologist, accessing any social media platform, possessing any electronic communication device, and possessing or viewing “any violent extremist materials...or any listed Terrorist Entity materials.”
The court documents do not indicate a specific terrorist entity or activity, but state Khoshnood may “participate in or contribute to … any activity of a terrorist group…” The reasons for the fear of terrorism accusation against Khoshnood are currently subject to a publication ban. “As this is still in the court process, the RCMP is unable to provide specific details,” an RCMP spokesperson told VICE World News in an email. Khoshnood’s lawyer, Paul Scotland, told VICE World News in a phone call that “my client has instructed me to give no comment.”
Australia
“Counter-terrorism police have charged a 39-year-old man with preparation for foreign incursions, alleging he played a senior role in a Brisbane-based group that maintained a desire to travel to Syria to engage in hostile activities. The charges were brought as part of an investigation by the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team into the group. It will be alleged the Brisbane group maintained a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology. The 39-year-old man was arrested in mid-July when he arrived at the Sydney International Airport from Saudi Arabia, where he had been since 2019. He was arrested on a Queensland warrant by members of a counter-terrorism team in New South Wales, and underwent mandatory quarantine before being extradited to Queensland this week. He has been charged with preparations for incursions into foreign states for purpose of engaging in hostile activities, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail if convicted. Police will allege he was a “founding senior figure” in an organisation involved in providing financial aid to people who subsequently left Australia to participate in the Syrian civil war with the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – a militant group opposed to Syrian government forces.”
Technology
Washington Examiner: British Islamist Preacher Banned From Multiple Social Media Platforms
“British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been blocked from joining employment networking site LinkedIn, the latest decision among major social media platforms to ban him. A LinkedIn spokesperson said the account belonging to Choudary, who was convicted on terrorism charges in 2016 and once praised the Sept. 11 hijackers as Muslims “carrying out their Islamic responsibility and duty” with the attack, was taken down because the platform doesn't “allow any terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups on our platform.” “And we don’t allow any individuals who affiliate with such organizations or groups to promote their activities,” the company said in a statement. “We enforce those rules to help keep LinkedIn safe, trusted and professional. These rules apply to everyone on LinkedIn and if they are violated, we take action.” Choudary had already been blocked from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, with a spokesperson for the latter two saying his accounts violated its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policies. “Under these rules, we ban organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or engage in organized hate or violence,” the spokesperson said in a statement.”
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