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Eye on Extremism
November 2, 2021
The Washington Post: Blasts And Clashes At Military Hospital In Kabul Kill 20 People
“Two suicide blasts and gunfire erupted Tuesday at the main military hospital in the Afghan capital, in an attack that killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more, a doctor and a Taliban official said. The doctor at Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital, Habib Rahman, told The Washington Post at least 20 were killed and more than 37 wounded, but added he expected the toll to rise because the first explosion at the entrance also hit many people. A local Taliban commander said clashes broke out as gunmen moved inside the hospital where two blasts struck. Another doctor also said he heard gunfire. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The Taliban’s deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, told The Post that two suicide bombs targeted the hospital in central Kabul, but did not comment on reports of gunmen entering the building. Ambulance sirens rang out and smoke rose from near the large medical complex soon after the sound of the first explosion shook downtown Kabul. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Qari Saeed Khosty, confirmed there were casualties and said the Taliban had dispatched forces to the 400-bed facility, according to Afghan news agency Ariana. At least 15 people were killed and 34 wounded, Reuters reported.”
Reuters: Ethiopia Government Says Tigray Forces Killed 100 Youths In Kombolcha
“Ethiopia's government said on Monday rebellious Tigrayan forces had killed 100 youths in Kombolcha, one of two towns the rebel group said it captured over the weekend. “The terrorist group TPLF has summarily executed more than 100 youth residents of Kombolcha in areas it has infiltrated. The international community should not turn a blind eye to such atrocities,” the Government Communication Service said on Twitter. The statement did not include details and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately answer phone calls seeking comment. Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment on this allegation and other issues on Monday morning.”
United States
Associated Press: Ohio Man Pleads Guilty In Islamic State Training Case
“An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to a terrorism offense related to an attempt to fly overseas to train with an Islamic State-affiliated group. The government accused Naser Almadaoji, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen, of arranging with an Islamic State supporter in 2018 to move through Kazakhstan to Afghanistan, where he intended to train with a group called ISIS Wilayat Khorasan. The supporter was actually an FBI informant, and federal agents arrested Almadaoji on Oct. 24, 2018, at the Columbus airport before he departed. Almadaoji said he hoped to to set off a car bomb at a federal building, but needed training first, according to a document unsealed Monday. Almadaoji pleaded not guilty in 2018 to a federal charge of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Almadaoji pleaded guilty Friday before federal Judge Walter Rice to the same charge, which carries a possible punishment of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing was set for Jan. 31. A message was left with Almadaoji’s attorney seeking comment.”
“A U.S. Army veteran from Reseda was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for plotting to set off a bomb at a Long Beach political rally in a thwarted terrorist attack. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson rejected prosecutors’ request for a penalty of life in prison for Mark Steven Domingo, 28, who was convicted at his trial in August for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support to terrorists. Prosecutors told Wilson that Domingo wanted the aborted April 2019 bombing to avenge the killing of 51 people at mosques in New Zealand “and to stoke terror, chaos, and civil unrest that would weaken the United States and help ISIS and other Jihadist groups spread.” “His clear intent was to intimidate this nation and the world, and he sought to influence world events and the conduct of the United States government through that intimidation,” Assistant U.S. Attys. Reema M. El-Amamy and David T. Ryan told the judge in a sentencing memo. Starting around May 2017, they said, Domingo started sharing private Facebook messages “regarding his support for ISIS, hatred of Jews, and desire to commit mass-casualty attacks,” the prosecutors alleged. In March 2019, he wrote in an invite-only online chatroom about conducting a mass attack similar to the October 2017 fatal shooting of 59 people at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, they said.”
Syria
Al Monitor: Syrian Jihadi Group Cracks Down On Last Pocket Of Rivals In Idlib
“Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, is trying to seize the last pockets of opposing jihadist organizations in the Jabal al-Turkman area, east of Latakia province, and in the western part of Idlib. It launched a large-scale military operation against these groups on Oct. 25. “The battle is still going on,” an HTS military official, who declined to be named, told Al-Monitor. Since Oct. 25, he said, HTS has taken control of Tal al-Mashafa, Tal al-Abraj, Tal Abu Aref and Salour village. The military operation mainly targets the Jundallah group, he said, in addition to other jihadist groups and new recruits, including former Islamic State members. “We found coins, which [IS] self-declared caliphate issued, in the military barracks and positions they forcibly withdrew from,” he said. The jihadists are in strategic positions and showing strong resistance, setting booby traps and planting mines, the source said. But, he added, “Our military operations against Jundallah and its extremist allies claimed the lives of many of their members, including prominent leaders such as the general commander of Jundallah, Abu Khalil Azari, its communication officer Talhat Azari, as well as Anas Azari, Ammar Azari, Shueib Azari, and Abdel Azeem Azari.”
Iraq
Al Monitor: Iraq Arrests Alleged Islamic State Fighters After Deadly Attack
“Iraqi security forces have captured several Islamic State fighters, a spokesperson announced today. The six alleged IS members were detained in Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq’s western Anbar province. Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool tweeted that another “terrorist” was arrested in Baghdad. The operation followed a deadly IS attack in the north that killed two of the autonomous Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga soldiers Saturday night. The attack occurred in Pirde on the border of the Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a press statement. Iraqi forces largely defeated IS in 2017 with support from the US-backed coalition. The group has remained somewhat active since then with small-scale hit-and-run attacks in Sunni areas recently. Last week, IS killed 12 civilians in Diyala northeast of Baghdad. The Iraqi justice system has been criticized for its treatment of alleged IS members, including reports of unfair trials and torture.”
Afghanistan
Bloomberg: Taliban’s Supreme Leader Makes Rare Appearance After Infighting
“The Taliban’s spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada made his first public appearance since 2016 at a famous Islamic seminary over the weekend, praising the militant group for sweeping to power as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. Akhundzada hasn’t been seen in public since he became the supreme leader of the Taliban about five years ago. After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August, there was widespread speculation of his death amid infighting within the group. “May Allah reward the oppressed people of Afghanistan who fought the infidels and the oppressors for 20 years,” Akhundzada said in his address to a gathering at Darul Uloom Hakima, a religious school in Kandahar province. “Let’s pray for Allah that we successfully came out of this big test.” Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi confirmed the 10-minute audio recording and said Akhundzada was visiting the religious school on Saturday. The recording first emerged on several Taliban-linked social media accounts. Akhundzada’s first public appearance comes nearly two months after concerns of a power struggle within the Taliban. In early September, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s most public face who led peace talks with the U.S., was physically attacked by a leader of the U.S. terrorist-designated Haqqani Network over cabinet appointments.”
“As a military commander, Maulavi Mahdi never captured territory or killed Americans in battle. Yet the Taliban considers the 33-year-old ethnic Hazara a godsend. Last year, the militants made Mahdi a shadow district governor in his birthplace. Then they showcased a video of him on their website to glorify his credentials. On a recent trip to Kabul, he was housed in a large villa with a garden, which the Taliban typically reserves for its most senior leaders. Mahdi knows why. “I am a bridge between the Taliban and the Hazara community,” he said. Of all the history the Taliban has with other Afghan groups, none is more tortured than the one with the country’s Hazara minority. When they first rose to power in the mid-1990s, the hard-line Sunni militants massacred, kidnapped and uprooted thousands of Shiite Hazaras, declaring them infidels. They destroyed Hazara cultural heritage sites and extended their political and economic marginalization by different Afghan regimes. Tens of thousands of Hazaras have fled the country. How the Taliban treats Hazaras in its new regime will serve as an essential barometer to gauge the militants’ claim that they have changed and deserve international recognition and financial support. On one level, Mahdi’s elevation represents a change from the past — one based on strategic calculations to attract local support in minority communities and create the semblance of diversity within the militants’ ranks.”
Pakistan
The New York Times: After Violent Standoff, Pakistan Strikes Deal With Banned Islamist Group
“Pakistan averted a political showdown on Monday as officials reopened a key national highway that supporters of a militant Islamist group had occupied for days, following a secret pact between the government and the group. The agreement defused a crisis that had left the country reeling in recent days, the latest in a series of debilitating standoffs with Islamist hard-liners protesting perceived blasphemy. But it also illustrated the growing influence and power of such groups, including Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or T.L.P., which Pakistan banned as a terrorist organization in April, and the weak civilian government’s struggle to assert itself amid economic troubles and rising inflation. “Just because the government has reached an ‘agreement’ with the T.L.P., it does not mean that such public outcry against blasphemy will not raise its head again,” said Saad Rasool, a constitutional lawyer and newspaper columnist. After a violent, dayslong face-off with members of T.L.P. that left four police officers dead, the Pakistani government announced Sunday that it had entered into an agreement with the group, but did not disclose the terms publicly. Many of the group’s supporters remained on the national highway, hoping to pressure the government to follow through on the promises made in the agreement.”
Saudi Arabia
Asharq Al-Awsat: Saudi Arabia Executes Detainee Over Terrorism Links
“The Saudi Interior Ministry executed on Monday a detainee for his ties to a number of fugitives wanted on terrorism charges. Saudi national Makki bin Kazem Al Obeid was executed in al-Dammam city. He was an accomplice to one of the detainees held in the shooting of a security forces member. Obeid was also found guilty of theft, the possession of weapons, damaging public property and trafficking captagon pills and cannabis. After his arrest, Obeid was investigated, referred to the criminal court and found guilty of the charges against him that are punishable by the death penalty. The Interior Ministry stressed that it was keen on the Kingdom’s security and that it will not hesitate in deterring anyone who deigns to undermine its stability, citizens and residents.”
Middle East
Haaretz: The NGOs Israel Designated As Terror Groups Remain Legal In The West Bank
“The six Palestinian civil society organizations that Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared to be terrorist organizations a week and a half ago can still legally operate in the West Bank, where they are registered and are active. For an organization to be declared a “disallowed association” in the West Bank, the commander of the army’s Central Command must issue an order. But in response to a Haaretz query, Central Command replied that no such order was issued. This means the six nongovernmental groups in question remain legal the West Bank and are outlawed only in Israel, which implies that Israel cannot try their employees at military tribunals just for working there, among other things. Sources at the State Prosecutor’s Office have already conceded that they do not intend to file indictments against the organizations or their workers. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau, which designated the NGOs as terror organizations on October 22, was created in 2018 with the goal of coordinating activities against the financial infrastructure of terror groups. It acts under power of authorities vested in the Counter-Terrorism Law of 2016 and is headed by Paul Landes. The Defense Ministry said that the organizations act on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and that they served to finance it. It added that they received large sums from European countries and international organizations through a variety of fraudulent methods, which were then used to promote terrorism, recruit operatives and pay them salaries, and pay stipends to families of security prisoners and terrorists.”
Nigeria
Pulse Nigeria: Military Airstrikes Kill 37 Terrorists, Scores Killed In Artillery Bombardments
“Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja. Nwachukwu said the troops had on Saturday morning observed the movement of six Gun Trucks within Sambisa Forest general area, which were subsequently located at a settlement near Yuwe. He said that the trucks later moved to a remote location, where they were joined by other terrorist elements, in what seemed like a convergence for a meeting. According to him, more than 50 Boko Haram/ISWAP fighters were observed to have gathered at the meeting. “Having clearly identified the terrorists’ hideout, the Air Component of OPHK immediately dispatched two aircrafts to conduct air interdiction on the location. “The strikes, which were carried out under cover of darkness, were successful and devastating, as battle damage assessment corroborated by local sources revealed that over 37 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists were neutralized, while several of them reportedly suffered varying degrees of injury,” he said. Nwachukwu also disclosed that the combat air crew of the air component, located another set of four Gun Trucks about six Kilometers South West of Bama, as the aircraft retreated to base after the air interdiction. He said the air crew immediately relayed the coordinates of the location of the gun trucks to troops of the Land Component.”
Africa
Reuters: Armed Men Kill 10 Civilians In Northern Burkina Faso
“Ten people were killed in an attack in northern Burkina Faso on Monday morning, and four others were missing, a government source and a security source said. Unidentified armed men attacked the group of civilians as they were driving their carts to market in the town of Markoye, in Burkina Faso's Sahel reserve, the sources said. The area, which borders Mali and Niger, is overrun by Islamist militants who wage frequent attacks despite the presence of a regional counter-terrorism force and French troops. Burkina Faso on Monday marked the 61st anniversary of its army with a ceremony focused on the fight against terrorism. “We will get through it together, or not at all,” said President Roch Kabore in remarks to journalists. Islamist attacks have surged across Africa's Sahel region, killing thousands and driving millions from their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. More than 1.3 million Burkinabe have been displaced by the violence in the last two years, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Five police officers were killed on Sunday in another attack in the north of the country, and about 15 attackers were killed in the ensuing fight, the security ministry said. The state news agency also reported that two women and a baby were killed on Sunday when their cart hit an improvised land mine in the department of Ouindigui.”
Reuters: Uganda's Police Detain 48 Suspects Linked To Last Month's Bombings
“Uganda's police have arrested 48 suspects in connection with last month's deadly bombings blamed on an Islamist group linked to Islamic State, police said on Monday. An explosion at a restaurant in the capital on Oct. 23 killed one person and left at least three people injured, while a suicide bomber in a bus two days later injured a senior police officer. Securities agencies have “conducted several intelligence led operations, that led to the arrest of 48 suspects, highly linked to the acts of terror in the country”, police said in a statement. The detained suspects involved “single individuals, those operating in small cells that have been broken and others on various activities of terrorism”. Security personnel have blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic group allied with Islamic State, for both attacks. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the restaurant bombing and no group has claimed the bus attack. Originally a local rebel group, the ADF has operated in the dense forests in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo across the border with Uganda for more than three decades. The group began killing civilians in large numbers in 2014. It has publicly aligned itself with the Islamic State and Ugandan officials have blamed the group for a gun attack on a minister in June and a series of killings of officials that have included Muslim leaders and police officials.”
Europe
“A Belarusian court has sentenced a journalist and her husband to 15 days in jail for sharing “extremist” content on Facebook. Iryna Slavnikava, a representative of Belsat TV, along with husband Alyaksandr Loyko, were sentenced by a Minsk court on November 1, the Vyasna human rights center reported. Slavnikava, who is also the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, and her husband were detained late on October 29 as they were returning from Egypt. Polish-funded Belsat was declared “extremist” by the Belarusian authorities in July and had its website and all social-media accounts blocked. The television channel extensively covered the mass protests after last year's presidential election that strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed to have won in a landslide. Dozens of news websites have been blocked in Belarus and independent media shuttered as part of a sweeping crackdown on information in the wake of unprecedented protests triggered by the election the opposition and West say was rigged. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 28 journalists are currently behind bars, including two female journalists from Belsat, Katsyaryna Andreyeva, and Darya Chultsova, who were sentenced to two years in prison in February for their reporting of protests.”
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