Eye on Extremism

August 13, 2021

CNN: Taliban Captures Key City Of Kandahar, As It Pushes Towards Afghanistan's Capital

“The Taliban has taken control of the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, Afghan Member of Parliament Gul Ahmad Kamin told CNN on Friday, as the insurgent group continues its rapid advancement toward the capital Kabul. Kandahar, which lies in the south of the country, has been besieged by the Taliban for weeks, with many observers considering its fall as the beginning of the end for the country's US-backed government. In a statement Friday, the Taiban said they had taken control of the governor's office, police headquarters, as well as other key operational centers throughout the city. “Hundreds of weapons, vehicles and ammunition were seized,” the Taliban statement said. Kamin said he and many others had made their way to a military base close to the city's international airport and were awaiting a flight out. “Many (government) soldiers surrendered and the rest fled,” Kamin said. Kamin had earlier told CNN Taliban fighters had been able to break through the city's frontline and were engaging in sporadic confrontation with government forces. Kandahar, which lies on the junction of three major highways, is of particular strategic importance and was formerly a major hub for US military operations.”

Egypt Today: Egypt Puts Group Of Muslim Brotherhood On List Of Terrorist Entities For 5 Years

“The Egyptian authorities have put the banned group of the Muslim Brotherhood on the list of terrorist entities for a period of five years. The official gazette “Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya” published on August 11, 2021 a Cairo criminal court’s ruling of blacklisting the Muslim Brotherhood for a period of 5 years. The decision came into force on the following day, August 12. Meanwhile, the court also blacklisted 56 people belonging to the banned group for a period of five years. The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt and designated a terrorist group. Late Mohamed Morsi, who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guidance Bureau, had been president for one year before his regime got toppled over mass protests on July 3, 2013. In December 2019, Egypt’s House of Representatives approved a final bill presented by the government to amend some provisions of law no. 8 of 2015 organizing the lists of terrorist entities and terrorists. According to the act on the regulation of the lists of terrorist entities and persons issued in 2015, the inclusion of any group or person on these lists is automatically followed by the seizure of their funds and the issuance of travel bans. In case those designated as “terrorists” are abroad, they are placed on the country's watch list.”

United States

Council On Foreign Relations: How Has The Terrorism Threat Changed Twenty Years After 9/11?

“The al-Qaeda of today is nothing like it was on 9/11. Its founder and leader, Osama bin Laden, is long dead. With the notable exceptions of Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon turned terrorist and the movement’s current emir, and Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian army officer and al-Zawahiri’s most likely successor, every single senior al-Qaeda leader has been killed or captured. Seven of the movement’s top commanders have been eliminated since 2019. Today, al-Zawahiri himself is said to be in poor health. But the ideology and motivation espoused by al-Qaeda is, unfortunately, as strong as ever. For instance, there are now four times as many Salafi-jihadi terrorist groups designated by the U.S. State Department as foreign terrorist organizations than there were on 9/11. And the most recent report from the United Nations’ monitoring team [PDF] points to al-Qaeda’s unimpeded growth in Africa, entrenchment in Syria, and presence in at least fifteen Afghan provinces, as well as its continued close relations with the Taliban. A map showing al-Qaeda affiliates and estimated number of fighters, with the largest groups in Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.”

WOOD TV: Men Sentenced To Prison For Plans To Join ISIS

“A Michigan man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for trying to help his brother leave the country to join the Islamic State group has been sentenced to serve more than eight years in prison. His brother has been sentenced to serve six and a half years in prison. Mohamud Abdikadir Muse was sentenced to serve 98 months in prison for conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group the United States Attorney’s Office Western District of Michigan said in a Thursday release. He was arrested in January of 2019 at the Gerald R. ford International Airport when his younger brother, Muse Muse, was trying to fly to Mogadishu, Somalia in order to join the Islamic State. Muse Muse, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 78 months in prison. He was given a lighter sentence because Mohamud Abdikadir Muse was the first to embrace the Islamic State group’s ideology and helped radicalize Muse Muse, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Their cousin, Mohamed Haji, was also arrested for conspiracy and has pleaded guilty. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 22.”

Iran

Arab News: Analyst: Iran Running Program Of ‘Kamikaze Drones’

“Iran is developing a so-called “kamikaze drone” program in the wake of heightened maritime warfare, analysts have warned. Experts from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) have warned that the new exploding drone tactics are a “core element” of Tehran’s efforts to influence the region. The warning comes as the West reels from a drone strike on a tanker on a key Gulf shipping route on July 30, with Iran denying involvement. Security guard and British Army veteran Adrian Underwood was killed alongside the MT Mercer Street’s Romanian captain when it was hit by the explosive drone. In a separate incident soon after, the MV Asphalt Princess was boarded by armed men — suspected Iranian commandos — who fled when Western forces approached the vessel. Tehran has again denied involvement. CEP analyst Daniel Roth said: “The Iranian threat to shipping in the Gulf is substantial and borne out by numerous examples of Iranian attacks, hijackings, detentions and increasingly, drone strikes. “Iran considers the Gulf its private lake, which it deigns to share with its littoral Arab neighbors but volubly resents foreign powers exercising their right to freedom of navigation in international waters.”

Iraq

Reuters: Turkish Soldier Killed In Mortar Attack In Northern Iraq - Ministry

“Kurdish militants launched a mortar attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq on Thursday, wounding a Turkish soldier who later died in hospital, Turkey's Defence Ministry said. The statement said Turkish forces immediately retaliated against those carrying out the attack and three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were neutralised, a term commonly used to mean killed. The PKK launched an insurgency in southeast Turkey in 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. Turkey is currently carrying out operations targeting the militants in northern Iraq, where their main bases are located.”

Turkey

Al Monitor: New UN Report On Islamic State Gives Ankara Another Headache

“On July 15, a report submitted to the UN Security Council by the council's committee working on the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda documented the resilience of jihadi militant networks. The 22-page report looks at the activities of these networks in five different regions during the first six months of 2021. Turkey is only mentioned in the Iraq and Levant section, but its unique relations with foreign fighters raise concerns for domestic and international security. Foreign fighters not only help keep the idea of a universal holy war alive, but they are one of the reasons why militant jihadi movements have survived despite global efforts. Militant jihad is based on a network of career fighters who move from one war zone to another. Since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey’s proximity to the battle zones and desire to topple the Syrian regime meant that in the early years of the conflict Ankara turned a blind eye to foreigners traveling to Syria, and over time enabled logistics support to multiple networks. When asked about the July 15 Security Council report, a senior Turkish government official working for the security establishment told Al-Monitor, “It does not mean much. We did what we were required to do in alliance with Western countries.”

Afghanistan

NBC News: Potential Al Qaeda Resurgence In Afghanistan Worries U.S. Officials

“With the Taliban steamrolling across Afghanistan, U.S. defense officials are concerned that a Taliban takeover of the country will allow Al Qaeda to rebuild and consolidate, creating security concerns well outside Afghan borders. Nearly 20 years after it planned the Sept. 11 attacks from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda has a diminished presence in the country, which senior U.S. officials estimate at only 200 to 300 members. “They're really not a very large or what we would consider a capable contingent,” one of the officials said. But the security vacuum left by the withdrawal of U.S. military forces could create an opening for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to reorganize, the officials say. If the Taliban take over the government, intelligence about Al Qaeda is likely to become even scarcer. And while the U.S. will still maintain authority to strike Al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan, the lack of a robust U.S. presence on the ground will hamper the ability to identify potential targets, a senior defense official said. In an interview last month after he took over as head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said Al Qaeda is still a principal focus of the U.S. military in the region. “What we're here for is to prevent Al Qaeda and ISIS from being able to reconstitute in the ungoverned spaces, generally of eastern Afghanistan, and be able to plot attacks against our homeland,” McKenzie said in the capital, Kabul. “That threat is still here today.”

Bloomberg: Taliban Advance Tests Biden As World Watches

“Like many leaders before him, U.S. President Joe Biden has his back to the wall on Afghanistan. Biden has positioned himself as the champion of his country’s moral authority around the world. But the decision to follow through on former President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring U.S. troops back from their longest war — however popular domestically — has been followed by spreading violence. The dissonance between those two positions grows by the day. With most foreign troops having already left, and the remainder exiting by Aug. 31, the Taliban have been quick to fill the gap. President Ashraf Ghani and his U.S.-trained military are on the back foot as the militants race to capture provincial capitals and crucial revenue-earning custom posts. Tens of thousands of civilians are fleeing their advance. There are already reports the Taliban are asking for the names of women to be married off to fighters and closing schools for girls. The spiraling conflict and increasing risks to regional security are drawing criticism of the Biden administration from human rights groups and some politicians at home. The changing dynamics on the ground have also allowed the Taliban to make diplomatic advances far beyond what the group achieved before the U.S. invasion in 2001.”

Pakistan

Reuters: Pakistan Says Attack That Killed Chinese Was A Suicide Bombing

“A bus blast last month that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, was a suicide bombing by Islamist militants backed by the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday. The minister said an investigation showed there was a “nexus of Indian RAW and Afghan NDS” in the attack, referring to the two countries' intelligence agencies. The July 14 blast hit a bus carrying workers to a dam construction site in northern Pakistan. Two Pakistani soldiers were also among the dead. An Indian government official said the charge was baseless and said Pakistan has made similar accusations repeatedly in the past. The Afghan foreign ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. Qureshi, addressing a news conference in Islamabad together with the head of the investigation team, said Pakistan had data evidence to back up their determination that the intelligence agencies from the two neighbours were involved. Qureshi said that Pakistani Taliban militants - known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella movement of militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State - carried out the attack. “As per our investigation the Afghan soil was used for this incident... about its planning and its execution, we're seeing a clear nexus between NDS and RAW,” Qureshi said.”

Lebanon

The Jerusalem Post: As Lebanon Crumbles, Hezbollah Becomes Even More Emboldened

“It’s been a week since rocket-warning sirens alerted Israelis to the dangers of the collapse of Lebanon: a salvo of 20 rockets fired by an emboldened Hezbollah toward northern Israel. Rocket-warning sirens were activated in northern Israeli communities along the Lebanese and Syrian borders, including Ein Kuniya, Neveh Ativ, and Snir, near the northern border with Lebanon and Syria. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 10 rockets, with six falling in open areas near Mount Dov on the Lebanese border. The others fell inside Lebanon. The rocket fire was the sixth such event since May but by far the most serious and the first time that Hezbollah said that it had fired. The crumbling of the Lebanese state was seen in the IDF as a restraining factor against the Shi’ite terrorist group, but that assessment given to reporters less than a month before the rocket fire has now been shaken. In a speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against thinking that the group is too preoccupied with Lebanon’s internal crisis. It still has its arsenal of 130,000-150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, ready to fire when the order is given.”

Middle East

Foreign Affairs: Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success

“On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda carried out the deadliest foreign terrorist attack the United States had ever experienced. To Osama bin Laden and the other men who planned it, however, the assault was no mere act of terrorism. To them, it represented something far grander: the opening salvo of a campaign of revolutionary violence that would usher in a new historical era. Although bin Laden was inspired by religion, his aims were geopolitical. Al Qaeda’s mission was to undermine the contemporary world order of nation-states and re-create the historical umma, the worldwide community of Muslims that was once held together by a common political authority. Bin Laden believed that he could achieve that goal by delivering what he described as a “decisive blow” that would force the United States to withdraw its military forces from Muslim-majority states, thus allowing jihadis to fight autocratic regimes in those places on a level playing field. Bin Laden’s worldview and the thinking behind the 9/11 attack are laid bare in a trove of internal communications that were recovered in May 2011, when U.S. special operations forces killed bin Laden during a raid on the compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad where he had spent his final years hiding.”

Africa

All Africa: Kenya: Terror Suspects Wanted In Egypt, Somalia Arrested In Mombasa

“Officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) in Mombasa have arrested and arraigned three terror suspects, including two who are being sought by the Egyptian and Somali governments. The police allege that Mr Mohamed Shendy Elhosseiny, Mr Mustafa Abdi Saidi and Mr Mohamed Mohamed Abdullahi are suspected to be members of a terrorist group which has membership in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Egypt. According to an intelligence report, Mr Shendy and Mr Saidi are wanted in Egypt and Somalia over undisclosed offences. Mr Shendy is an Egyptian while the other two are Kenyans of Somali origin. The three were Thursday arraigned in Mombasa where the ATPU officers asked to be allowed to detain them for 15 days in order to complete investigating them. In an affidavit filed in court, Mr Geoffrey Omete from the ATPU said the three were arrested over their suspicious activities in Mombasa. Mr Shendy and Mr Abdi are said to have travelled to Mombasa on July 5 using a black Mazda Demio registration number KCQ 082P. The suspects then booked rooms at Tawakal Hotel in Mazeras using their passports and identity card respectively. According to the police report, the suspects were in the company of Samuel Wambugu, who is still at large.”

Technology

Wired: How The Far Right Exploded On Steam And Discord

“Since the online harassment campaign known as Gamergate, in which sections of the gaming world hounded female journalists with rape, bomb, and death threats, it’s been presumed that gaming culture has an extremism problem. Yet the specifics of this relationship have remained unclear. How widespread is the problem? How do extremists use games? And, of course, a point of morbid curiosity: What games do extremists play? New research published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a counter-extremism think tank, attempts to answer these questions. Investigating the online strategies of the far right, the ISD has found that several major gaming platforms play host to extremist activity—from racially abusive livestreams to open support for neo-Nazi terrorists. The ISD investigated four platforms: Steam, Discord, DLive, and Twitch. It analyzed 24 far-right chat servers on Discord, 45 public groups associated with the far right on Steam, 100 far-right channels on DLive, and 91 channels and 73 videos on Twitch. These spaces were publicly accessible and the ISD did not look at closed channels, such as private chats or groups requiring passwords. The authors speculate these would likely be home to more coordinated radical groups.”

Newsweek: Should We Celebrate Or Condemn Apple's New Child Protection Measures?

“Last week, Apple announced that it would deploy hashing technologies to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. In response, child-rights advocates cheered and privacy-rights advocates jeered. Both, however, are putting too much stock in Apple's announcement, which is neither cause for celebration nor denunciation. Each year, hundreds of millions of images and videos of child sexual abuse circulate online. The majority of children in these materials are prepubescent, and many of them are infants and toddlers. In addition, every day children are exposed to unsolicited sexual advances and sexual content online. We must do more to protect our children, both online and offline.”