“Seven years after the Islamic State horrified people around the world by
beheading hostages and using their deaths in propaganda videos, one former m

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


September 3, 2021 

 

**NOTE: CEP’s Eye On Extremism will be suspended on Monday, September 6 in
observance of Labor Day. It will resume Tuesday, September 7.**

 

The Washington Post: ISIS Militant Admits Involvement In Torture, Killings Of
American Hostages
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“Seven years after the Islamic State horrified people around the world by
beheading hostages and using their deaths in propaganda videos, one former
member has admitted to his involvement in the killings of four Americans.
Alexanda A. Kotey, 37, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Alexandria
to playing a role in the kidnappings and deaths of journalists James Foley and
Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. The three men
were beheaded on camera in videos posted online. The circumstances of Mueller’s
death remain unclear. All four traveled to Syria, their friends and family have
said, out of an intense desire to help — either by reporting on the war there
or giving aid to those displaced by the conflict.Kotey’s plea marks the first
time a member of the Islamic State has been held accountable in a U.S. court
for those killings. He faces a mandatory life sentence. In exchange for his
admission of guilt and promised cooperation, prosecutors agreed that after
Kotey serves 15 years in a U.S. prison, he may seek to serve the rest of his
sentence in the United Kingdom, where he was born. If that happens, Kotey also
agreed he would plead guilty in a United Kingdom prosecution and face a life
sentence there, and be returned to the United States if released by the U.K.”

 

CNN: Heavy Clashes Erupt Between Taliban And Anti-Taliban Group In
Afghanistan's Panjshir Province
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“Heavy clashes erupted Thursday night around Afghanistan's northern Panjshir
Valley between Taliban fighters and an anti-Taliban group, according to a
source within the group. Panjshir Valley, a mountainous, inaccessible region
north of Kabul, is the last major holdout against Taliban rule, and has a long
history of resisting the insurgent group. Sporadic fighting between the Taliban
and the National Resistance Front (NRF) has continued for two weeks now. The
Taliban have been massing forces in and around Panjshir province in recent
weeks, and said on Monday they had captured three districts in the valley. The
overnight clashes between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front of
Afghanistan (NRF) started late Thursday, and were very intense, said the NRF
source. “They (Taliban) are using their last power to get in, but clashes are
still ongoing,” the source added. Earlier on Thursday, Fahim Dashti, an NRF
spokesperson, said in an audio message that the Taliban lost 40 of their forces
in their ongoing attempts to enter Panjshir. Ali Nazary, another spokesperson
from the group, said Thursday that the Taliban had also lost a number of heavy
equipment and weaponry that had been destroyed. CNN has not independently
verified the Taliban casualties.”

 

United States

 

The Detroit News: FBI Agent In Whitmer Kidnap Case Arrested Following Domestic
Incident
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“The arrest of an FBI agent credited with helping thwart a plot to kidnap and
kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer complicates one of the most closely watched cases of
violent extremism that is becoming increasingly focused on allegations of
wrongdoing by investigators. FBI Special Agent Richard Trask, 39, of Kalamazoo,
was charged Monday with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, less than
murder following a domestic incident with his wife Sunday. He was released on a
$10,000 personal recognizance bond following an arraignment in 8th District
Court in Kalamazoo and faces a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
His arrest comes at a critical juncture in the criminal case against five men
charged in federal court with plotting to kidnap Whitmer. Defense lawyers last
week leveled a broad attack on the foundation of the high-profile case and
suggested a second FBI agent was trying to sabotage defense teams. Trask, 39,
has worked for the FBI since 2011 and served as the FBI's public face in the
Whitmer case, testifying in federal court about the investigation. He has
worked on cases involving espionage, terrorism and domestic extremism
investigations.”

 

Iraq

 

Kurdistan 24: Iraqi Forces Conduct Anti-ISIS Operation As Terrorist Attacks
Continue Ahead Of Election
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“The Iraqi military has conducted an operation to target suspected ISIS
members in rural Nineveh province amid a growing number of terrorist attacks
ahead of the national parliamentary elections planned for October 10. The
US-led coalition against ISIS supported the latest Iraqi military campaign,
local media cited security sources as saying. A joint force from the Iraqi
Counter Terrorism Service and the army struck the Atshan Mountains, about 20
kilometers west of Mosul, backed by coalition air support. The source explained
that the operation led to multiple ISIS casualties, though the numbers were not
immediately apparent, and the destruction of terrorist cell's hideout. The
campaign came amid a growing number of reported attacks by members of the
terrorist organization, which the Iraqi government declared in late 2017
territorially defeated. Early Thursday, close to 30 suspected ISIS fighters
killed at least one Iraqi soldier and kidnapped a civilian in an attack on a
village in the disputed Kirkuk province countryside, one local source told
Kurdistan 24. Following its territorial defeat in 2017 at the hands of the
Iraqi and Kurdish forces, ISIS remnants regularly launch attacks in territories
disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi
government due to what Kurdish officials have described as a “security vacuum.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Fox News: White House Says There Are 'Active' ISIS Threats In Afghanistan, As
'Closer To 100' Americans Remain
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“The White House said Thursday that there continue to be “active” threats from
ISIS-K in Afghanistan, and that officials are in “close touch” with the roughly
100 American citizens remaining in the country following the U.S. military
withdrawal. During a press briefing Thursday, press secretary Jen Psaki said
that the number of Americans still in Afghanistan following the full U.S. troop
withdrawal on Monday is “closer to 100.” “We are in close touch with the State
Department, our diplomatic officials, with all of these individuals and are
working in close coordination to discuss how they can leave the country, and if
they can leave the country,” Psaki said.  Psaki, touching on reports of
potential charter flights to aid those Americans, said that the United States
does not have personnel on the ground in Afghanistan, and confirmed that the
U.S. “does not control air space.”  “There are active, continue to be active,
ISIS-K threats,” Psaki said, adding that there is “concern” about these
potential charter flights and “where these flights go,” as ISIS has a “keen
interest” in aviation targets. President Biden acknowledged this week that
there are Americans who have been left behind, but claimed that his
administration has been warning those individuals “as far back as March.”

 

The Hill: Afghanistan Is Set To Become A Sanctuary For Extremists
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“Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have trumpeted assurances their
administrations received from the Taliban that al Qaeda and ISIS will not
attack America from Afghanistan. But the Taliban’s ideological beliefs align it
closely with Salafi-jihadi groups that use violence to advance their aim of
enforcing a fundamentalist understanding of Islam. These beliefs led the
Taliban to protect Osama bin Laden in 2001 — though the group may have
officially disagreed with his actions — and to defy the United States after the
9/11 attacks.  Twenty years later, the Taliban is savvier, but the core beliefs
of its members remain the same. The danger of these Salafi-jihadi beliefs is
that they do not stop at Afghanistan’s borders. The Taliban’s Islamic Emirate
is not the end of the project; rather, it is the start. The vision always has
been global, and the Taliban has played host willingly to those seeking to
replicate the Islamic Emirate’s success elsewhere in the Muslim world.
Thousands of foreign fighters are in Afghanistan, drawn to the decades-old
Salafi-jihadi sanctuary. A complex network of alliances, partnerships and
competitors runs through the country, a network the Taliban can influence but
cannot control.”

 

Yemen

 

Associated Press: Fighting In Yemen's Central Province Kills 28 In One Day
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“Fighting has flared up between Yemen's pro-government forces and Houthi
rebels in the oil-rich government stronghold of Marib province, with at least
28 fighters killed over the last 24 hours, security officials from both sides
and tribal leaders said on Thursday. Most of the fatalities were among the
Iran-backed rebels assaulting the city of Rahbah, said the officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
The rebels have accelerated their push to take Marib in recent months, while
escalating cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, which leads the military
coalition opposing them. Thousands of fighters — mostly Houthis — have died in
the offensive, with 12 government troops killed on Monday. Since then, fighting
has intensified in Rahbah, which had been under Houthi control for almost two
years before falling to government troops in July. Meanwhile, the Saudi-led
coalition has launched dozens of airstrikes on cities in Marib — including
Rahbah, Sirwah and Madghel — to back pro-government ground forces, according to
the Houthi media center. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis
seized Sanaa and much of the north, forcing the government of President Abed
Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee.”

 

Nigeria

 

Reuters: Almost 6,000 Boko Haram Fighters Have Surrendered, Nigerian Army Says
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“Close to 6,000 fighters from the Boko Haram Islamist insurgent group in
northeast Nigeria have surrendered in recent weeks, the Nigerian armed forces
said on Thursday, attributing the development to the military's
counter-insurgency efforts. Some 350,000 people have died in the conflict
between Boko Haram and the Nigerian army since it began 12 years ago, according
to a United Nations estimate, and the fighting has spilled over to neighbouring
Niger, Chad and Cameroon. “Within the last few weeks, more than 5,890
terrorists comprising foot soldiers and their commanders have surrendered with
their families to own troops in the North East Zone,” said Brigadier General
Bernard Onyeuko, spokesman for the armed forces. He said 565 of the surrendered
fighters had been handed over to the government of northeastern Borno State for
“further management after thorough profiling”, but gave no further details.
Boko Haram, which acquired global notoriety with the mass kidnapping of
schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014, has been in a state of flux due to
a conflict with a splinter group-turned-rival, the Islamic State's West Africa
Province (ISWAP).”

 

Somalia

 

Voice Of America: Somali Security Agency Blames Employee’s Disappearance On
Al-Shabab
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“Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Thursday that the
terrorist group al-Shabab had killed a female employee who was abducted in
Mogadishu in June. But close family members questioned the claim. Ikran Tahlil
Farah, 24, worked with the agency’s cybersecurity department. She was abducted
June 26 near her home in Mogadishu’s Abdulaziz district, which is close to NISA
headquarters. The agency posted a brief statement on its website Thursday
saying its investigation had determined that the young woman’s kidnappers
handed her over to al-Shabab militants, who later killed her. The agency did
not release details about when or where it believed Ikran was killed. Al-Shabab
has not publicly acknowledged any role in Ikran’s disappearance. The Islamist
extremist group previously has publicly executed people it accused of spying
for the Somali government and for Western countries, including the United
States. The security agency issued its statement several hours after VOA’s
Somali Service aired a radio program that focused on Ikran’s disappearance.
Colonel Abdullahi Ali Maow, a former Somali intelligence official who was a
guest on the program, speculated that the Islamist terrorist group was involved
in Ikran’s fate.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: Tanzania Says Gunman Who Killed Four People Last Month Was A Terrorist

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“Tanzanian police said on Thursday that a slain gunman who killed three police
officers and a private security guard on a rampage through a diplomatic quarter
of Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam last month was a terrorist. In the Aug.
25 attack, Hamza Mohammed shot police officers with a pistol at a city
intersection before taking their rifles and heading to the nearby French
embassy where he shot the security guard. Hamza was eventually shot dead. “Our
investigation has found that Hamza was a terrorist,” Camilius Wambura, Director
of Criminal Investigation (DCI), told reporters in the lake city of Mwanza. The
gunman had been accessing extremist content from social media pages depicting
terror acts by Islamist groups al Shabaab and ISIS, Wambura said. Al Shabaab is
an Islamist group that has for years been fighting to topple the government in
Somalia and seeking to establish its own rule based on its own strict
interpretation of Islam's sharia law. The gunman was also in communication
“with other people who live in countries with terrorism-related acts but mainly
he was learning through radical social media pages,” Wambura said.”

 

Financial Times: Africa Has Quietly Become The Epicentre Of The Islamist Threat
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“Just as Kabul was about to fall this month, Iyad ag Ghaly, the grizzled
Malian leader of al-Qaeda affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, took
to the airwaves. Congratulating the Taliban on the imminent expulsion of
foreign infidels, he foresaw victory too in the Sahel, a vast stretch of
semi-arid land that fringes the Sahara desert. Here, a mishmash of armed groups
loosely affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State have carried out
increasingly frequent and deadly attacks on military and civilian targets in an
expanding arc from Mali to Burkina Faso and Niger. Other Islamist groups,
including Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province, are active in
Nigeria and Chad. Ag Ghaly, who in 2012 helped impose sharia law in the ancient
city of Timbuktu after militants took over a France-sized slab of northern
Mali, celebrated President Emmanuel Macron’s decision this July to halve its
troop presence in the region. “We are winning,” he said. Thankfully, France’s
drawdown is not yet a US-style surrender. Its version of mission creep began in
2013 when France’s Operation Serval was instrumental in ending Islamist control
of northern Mali. Paris’s changing strategy stems from a sensible verdict that
the current one is not working.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Independent: Attorney General Asked To Review Sentence Of Neo-Nazi Terror
Offender Told To Read Literature
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“The attorney general has been asked to consider whether a neo-Nazi student
was given an “unduly lenient” sentence for a terror offence. Ben John was
handed a suspended prison sentence for possessing a terrorist document, meaning
he will not be jailed unless he breaks the conditions imposed by the court.
Judge Timothy Spencer QC ordered the 21-year-old to exchange extreme right-wing
material for literary classics at a sentencing hearing on Tuesday. “Have you
read Dickens? Austen? Start with Pride and Prejudice and Dickens' A Tale of Two
Cities. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Think about Hardy. Think about Trollope,”
the judge was reported to have said. “On 4 January you will tell me what you
have read and I will test you on it. I will test you and if I think you are
[lying to] me you will suffer.” Reports of the sentencing sparked fierce
debate, and comparisons with sentences given to other young people for the same
offence. The counter-extremist organisation Hope Not Hate sent a letter to the
attorney general on Wednesday calling for a review under the Unduly Lenient
Sentence Scheme.”

 

New Zealand

 

The Washington Post: ISIS-Inspired Extremist Killed After Stabbing Six In New
Zealand ‘Terrorist Attack,’ Authorities Say
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A knife-wielding extremist injured six people, several of them critically, at
an Auckland, New Zealand grocery store on Friday before being shot dead by
police, in what authorities are describing as an Islamic State-inspired
terrorist attack. The Sri Lankan national was a known security threat and under
“constant” police surveillance at the time of the attack, Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern told reporters. Law enforcement officials had followed the man
to the supermarket and were trailing him when he grabbed a knife from the
shelves and began attacking customers. He was shot and killed by police “within
the space of roughly 60 seconds of the attack starting,” Ardern said.

 

Latin America

 

Kharon: Paraguay Arrests Man In Tri-Border Region, As U.S. Sanctions Him And
His Network For Corruption
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“…Hizballah raises about USD 200 million per year through the TBA and at times
has transferred funds using Paraguayan financial institutions, according to the
Counter Extremism Project, a research and advocacy group.   A Paraguayan
intelligence document cited in a 2009 RAND Corporation report had said Hijazi,
identified as the biggest money launderer in the TBA, remitted USD 32 million
per month to Iquique, Chile. The figure represented four-fifths of the money
transfers going from the TBA to a Chilean free-trade zone. Hijazi’s clients’
funds were said to come from “an array of illegal activities” and he had
allegedly laundered money “through an impressive variety of schemes,” according
to the RAND report. In an example cited by the Treasury, Hijazi used a firm
called Espana Informatica S.A. to coordinate with U.S. and China-based
suppliers to import electronic equipment to Paraguay. He had worked with a
company based in Florida for shipments, for which he altered invoices and
submitted them to a Paraguayan bank for a wire-transfer payment back to the
U.S. firm, according to the Treasury. The altered invoices reduced the value of
the goods to avoid taxes and enabled Hijazi to launder the profits, the
Treasury said.”



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