Eye on Extremism

November 4, 2021 

 

Bloomberg: European Union To Train Mozambican Military To Fight Terrorism

 

“The European Union will train around 2,000 Mozambican naval and special forces to help fight an Islamic State-linked insurgency that’s left more than 3,400 people dead and halted Africa’s biggest private investment yet. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, is desperately trying to end a four-year insurgency in gas-rich northern province Cabo Delgado province, which threatens to derail its ambitions to become one of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporters. In April, TotalEnergies SE suspended work on its $20 billion LNG project due to an escalation of violence in the region. The two-year training mission that began Wednesday aims to create a quick-reaction force specialized in counter-terrorism, said Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar, the head of the EU mission in Mozambique. It will comply with international humanitarian law and human rights while protecting the population, he said. “We will train and equip the Mozambican quick-reaction force to protect civilians with the same European standards,” Force Commander Brigadier Nuno Pires Lemos said. The operation will also provide non-lethal equipment to the Mozambican army and is estimated to cost $15 million a year, Gaspar said.”

 

The New York Times: ISIS Poses A Growing Threat To New Taliban Government In Afghanistan

 

“Aref Mohammad’s war against the Islamic State ended earlier this fall when his unit of Taliban fighters was ambushed by the terrorist group in eastern Afghanistan. A bullet shattered his femur, leaving him disabled and barely able to walk, never mind fight. But for the Taliban movement he served under, now the government of Afghanistan, the war against the Islamic State was just beginning. “If we knew where they were from, we would pursue them and destroy them,” Mr. Mohammed, 19, said from his hospital bed in Jalalabad, the capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province where the Islamic State has maintained a presence since 2015. In the two months since the Taliban took control of the country, the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan — known as Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K — has stepped up attacks across the country, straining the new and untested government and raising alarm bells in the West about the potential resurgence of a group that could eventually pose an international threat. The attacks have been aimed mostly at Taliban units like Mr. Mohammad’s, and at Afghanistan’s Shiite minorities. Suicide bombings in Kabul, the capital, and in important cities including Kunduz in the north and Kandahar in the Taliban’s southern heartland have killed at least 90 people and wounding hundreds of others in the span of just several weeks.”

 

United States

 

Reuters: FBI Believes U.S. Faces Equal Threats From Domestic Extremists And Islamic State -Official

 

“U.S. law enforcement and security agencies believe domestic extremists, notably white supremacists, pose a violent threat in the United States similar to that of Islamic State militants, top U.S. security officials told Congress on Wednesday. Concern about racially motivated domestic extremists had prompted the FBI to elevate the threat to a level equal with that posed by the Islamist militants, said Timothy Langan, the assistant director who heads the counterintelligence division. Langan told a House Intelligence subcommittee the Federal Bureau of Investigation had detected a significant increase in the threat of violence from domestic extremists over the last 18 months. He said the bureau was conducting around 2,700 investigations related to domestic violent extremism, and there had been 18 lethal attacks targeting U.S. religious institutions in which 70 people had died in recent years. The FBI has engaged with tech companies regarding their role in fueling extremism, has successfully disrupted planned acts of violence and will continue to “try to close the gap” on its inability to legally decode encryptions on mobile phones. John Cohen, acting undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis in the Department of Homeland Security, told the subcommittee that racial superiority and “hatred of immigrants” were major threat concerns.”

 

Syria

 

Voice Of America: Islamic State Militants Stepping Up Attacks In Eastern, Central Syria

 

“According to local reports, militants linked to the Islamic State terror group have stepped up their attacks in eastern and central Syria in recent days. The local North Press Agency reports that at least two Syrian government soldiers were killed Monday in an attack carried out by suspected IS fighters near the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria. The militants reportedly targeted a checkpoint guarded by Syrian army soldiers from the 4th Division, concealing themselves behind a seized military vehicle. Local news reports say at least seven Syrian government soldiers and Iranian-backed militiamen were killed two days prior in two separate IS attacks in eastern Syria. IS militants continue to undertake massive attacks against their opponents in Syria and Iraq, despite losing nearly all of the land they once controlled. The group has been particularly active in Syria's Badia desert, which is controlled by government forces, Iranian- and Russian-backed militias in central Syria. Russia and Iran are two main supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. “The Badia is a very interesting area in Syria right now,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.”

 

Kurdistan 24: Kurdish-Led SDF Conducted 12 Operations Against ISIS In October

 

“The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out 12 operations against the Islamic State group in northeast Syria, the organization’s Coordination and Military Operations center said late on Tuesday. “With @Coalition, October saw 12 operations to root out terrorist cells – 51 were detained,” the center tweeted. “SDF and International Coalition work together across #NE_Syria to #DefeatDaesh,” the tweet added. The tweet also said that protecting the people of Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zor region “continues to be a priority of #SDF and #Int_Coalition.” The United States-led coalition supported these 12 operations.  On Wednesday, the official Twitter account of the coalition retweeted the SDF tweet and lauded their coordinated operations against ISIS. “These joint operations demonstrate our mutual commitment as partners to deny Daesh any presence & influence in NE Syria,” the tweet read. While ISIS lost the entirety of its former self-styled caliphate back in 2019, the group still operates networks of sleeper cells across northeast Syria. The SDF arrested 22 suspected ISIS members in the Deir al-Zor countryside in one of their US-backed operations in October.”

 

Iraq

 

The National: Iraq’s Sunnis Fear Sectarian Violence In Diyala Province

 

“Sunni residents and politicians accused Shiite militias of ethnic cleansing in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province after an ISIS attack on a Shiite village. On October 26, ISIS extremists murdered three men in an orchard at Al Rashad village outside the town of Muqdadiya. After the killings, ISIS waited and ambushed residents who went collect the dead. At least 14 people were killed and more than two dozen were wounded. In response to the killings, Shiites attacked Nahr Al Imam, a Sunni village, killing residents and burning orchards and houses. They accused Nahr Al Imam residents of harbouring members of ISIS. Since then, nearly 350 families from Nahr Al Imam and at least two other villages have abandoned their homes, according to the Ministry of Migration and Displacement. “Those criminals want to reignite sectarian [warfare] to retaliate and control the land, villages and houses through displacement,” Sunni politician Khamis Al Khanjar told a group of displaced families on Tuesday. “We must not allow them to do so,” said Mr Al Khanjar, who leads Azim Coalition, one of two Sunni political blocs that together won 49 seats in Iraq's 329 member parliament in last month's national elections.”

 

Afghanistan

 

AFP: Senior Taliban Commander Among Dead In Kabul Hospital Attack

 

“A Taliban military commander was killed when his men responded to a Daesh suicide bomb and gun attack on a hospital in the Afghan capital, officials said Wednesday. The Taliban spent 20 years waging an insurgency against the ousted US-backed government before seizing control of Kabul in August. Now they face the struggle of bringing stability to Afghanistan, which has been hit in recent weeks by a series of bloody assaults claimed by rivals, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K). At least 19 people were killed in Tuesday’s attack on Kabul’s main military hospital, according to a health ministry official who did not want to be named.

Hamdullah Mokhlis, a member of the hard-line Haqqani network and an officer in the Badri Corps special forces, is the most senior figure to have been killed since the Taliban seized Kabul. “When he got the information that Sardar Daud Khan Hospital was under attack, Maulvi Hamdullah (Mokhlis), the commander of the Kabul corps, immediately rushed to the scene,” the Taliban media official said. “We tried to stop him but he laughed. Later we found out that he was martyred in the face-to-face fight at the hospital,” he added. The attack began with a suicide bomber detonating his explosives near the facility’s entrance before gunmen broke into the hospital grounds.”

 

Daily Investor Hub: The Hunt: What Does The ISIS Attack On A Kabul Military Hospital Mean?

 

“ISIS has attacked a military hospital in Kabul, leaving dozens dead. On this week’s episode of “The Hunt with WTOP National Security Correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, says it means the Taliban needs help.”

 

Nigeria

 

Daily Post Nigeria: Boko Haram: Terrorists Abduct Travellers Along Ngamdu In Borno

 

“Terrorists suspected to be ISWAP group, on Tuesday evening, laid ambush along Maiduguri-Tamsu Kawu-Ngamdu-Damaturu road and abducted several passengers aboard 8 commercial and private vehicles. The incident took place near a bridge between Tamsu Kawu and Ndamdu town at about 3PM. It was gathered that most of the victims, who were taken to a nearby river, were released after reciting some verses of the Quaran, except three other persons suspected to be Christians. Tamsu Kawu, about 80km drive from Maiduguri, is located North-west, and had hitherto been razed, before the former Governor, Kashim Shettima spent millions of naira to reconstruct and resettle the people. DAILY POST spoke to one of the victims, a retired Director in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Borno State. Although he did not want his name mentioned, he confirmed the incident to DAILY POST. He said, “it was when I was interrogated and the terrorists learnt that I was a diabetic patient, coupled with my old age that saved me; the Commander of the terrorists told his members to allow me join those who were set free at about 7pm.”

 

Mali

 

The Times: British Soldiers In Mali Seize Isis Suspects

 

“British troops deployed to Mali on the world’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission have detained suspected Islamic State terrorists for the first time. During a 17-day operation to stop armed groups threatening the population, soldiers from the long-range reconnaissance group also seized a cache of weapons. Troops from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards spotted three suspected militants, who ditched equipment as they fled. One was detained after riding his motorbike into water. During a search, the soldiers seized two motorbikes, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, radios and combat clothing. Days later soldiers from the same regiment came across two armed men, and detained them after they tried to flee. The soldiers seized two AK47 rifles, ammunition, radios and other equipment.”

 

Newsweek: Authorities Fear For Safety Of Missing Woman Who Spent 4 Years As Al-Qaeda Hostage

 

“Malian authorities are concerned for the safety of a French woman who apparently returned to Mali after being held as a hostage by Al-Qaeda for four years in the West African country, the Associated Press reported. The woman reportedly re-entered the country through a land border in March, about five months after she was freed, despite her visa bid being denied. Sophie Petronin, 76, worked in Mali for years before her abduction in 2016. She decided to return in order to reconnect with her adopted daughter after she experienced issues transitioning back into life in Europe, French media reported. Her return troubled French and Malian authorities, who feared that she might encounter further danger back in the country where she was detained for years. An October 29 message to Malian police said that Petronin was traveling to the town of Sikasso, and authorities asked law enforcement to transport her back to Bamako, Mali's capital, if she was found, AP reported. “Sophie [Petronin] is wanted by the gendarmerie. And as it is an investigation, I do not want to talk about the reason for this search, but the judicial authorities have many questions to ask her,” said Amadou Sangho at the Ministry of Internal Security.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Washington Teenager Charged With Right-Wing Terror Attack Plan

 

“A teenager has been charged with planning an extreme right-wing terrorist attack. Luke Aaron Skelton, 18, from Washington, Sunderland, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Counter Terrorism Policing North East said it had charged him with preparing an act of terrorism. Mr Skelton was arrested as part of a pre-planned operation against “extreme right-wing terrorism”, police said.”

 

The Independent: More People May Die In Terrorist Attacks Unless Prisoners Are Managed Differently, Fishmongers’ Hall Coroner Finds

 

“More people could be killed in terror attacks if the way authorities manage extremist prisoners is not changed, a coroner has found. Judge Mark Lucraft QC said the 2019 Fishmongers’ Hall attack, where a released terror offender murdered two people at a rehabilitation event, raised “matters of concern” about procedures in jails, probation services and policing. “In my opinion, there are risks that future deaths could occur unless action is taken to address those matters,” said a report published on Wednesday. It contained 22 recommendations to authorities including the Ministry of Justice, National Probation Service and police, following evidence heard at the Fishmongers’ Hall inquests earlier this year. The report said officials must be more alert to potential dishonesty by released terrorists, and “false compliance” that can see people present as reformed characters while planning atrocities. Judge Lucraft questioned whether authorities should be empowered to search released terrorists on a “precautionary basis”, after hearing that police and probation officers did not feel able to conduct checks that could have found the terrorist’s knives and fake suicide vest. The Fishmongers’ Hall stabbing was the first of four consecutive attacks by convicted terror offenders in England.”

 

Germany

 

The National: German Mother Charged After Signing Up Her Teenage Son To ISIS

 

“A German woman whose son of 15 died fighting for ISIS in Syria has been charged with terrorist offences. The woman, identified only as Stefanie A by German prosecutors, travelled to Syria in 2016 with her son, then 13, to try to join up with her husband, who had joined ISIS the previous year. Unable to reach her husband in northern city Raqqa, she travelled via Turkey to north-western city Idlib, where she signed up with the Al Qaeda-linked Jund Al Aqsa group and allowed her son to receive weapons training and become a fighter for the extremist group, according to German federal prosecutors. The following year, she travelled to Raqqa with other members of the group and joined up with her husband in Raqqa. The family was bankrolled by ISIS and allowed their son to have religious and military training with ISIS. The child was used in combat operations and died at the age of 15, in a bomb attack in March 2018, according to German prosecutors. “Stefanie A then got in touch with her [older] son who was still living in Germany and asked him to be happy about the ‘martyrdom’ of his younger brother,” prosecutors said. She wore a suicide belt and carried a rifle while a member of ISIS. She and her husband remained loyal to the group and surrendered to Kurdish troops in Baghouz in February 2019. They were held at the Al Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria.”

 

Australia

 

ABC News Australia: Victorian Schoolboy With Islamic State 'Fixation' Charged With Terror Offences

 

“A Victorian schoolboy who had a “fixation” with the so-called Islamic State and allegedly threatened to hurt female students at his school has been charged with terror offences. The 14-year-old, who cannot be named, was arrested early last month. He was allegedly found with handwritten notes which referred to blowing up his school and shooting his teachers. He has been charged with two offences including being a member of a terrorist organisation and advocating terrorism. The boy was initially granted bail in a Children's Court, a decision which was upheld by the Supreme Court after prosecutors failed to convince a Supreme Court judge that he would be an unacceptable risk if he was released into the community. The Supreme Court heard the boy's former primary school principal was the first to raise the alarm in December last year after they became “perturbed” by his attempts to access Islamic State material online. The court was told that the boy had a “fixation” with IS and allegedly threatened to hurt female students, tried to find information about making a bomb and attempted make contact with a Syrian-based recruiter for the crumbling terror organisation. His behaviour sparked a terror investigation and prompted police to deploy an undercover officer.”

 

Europe

 

The Brussels Times: Military Barracks Searched In Operation Against Extreme-Right Terrorism

 

“As part of an operation to tackle extreme-right terrorism in Belgium, three military barracks and eight private homes of military personnel were searched on Wednesday morning. Nobody was arrested during the searches, however, computers and mobile phones were seized for investigation, the federal public prosecutor’s office confirmed. Further updates on the investigation are due later in the day. The barracks that were searched were those located in Florennes in the province Namur, Sint-Truiden in Limburg and Heverlee, in Vlaams-Brabant, according to reports from De Standaard. The operation comes in the wake of the case of Jürgen Conings, a former career soldier with extreme-right beliefs who went missing for a month earlier this year after stealing an arsenal of lethal weapons from a military barracks. A report published in July by Committee I, which reviews the activities and functioning of State Security, shows that Conings was granted access to military quarters despite being monitored by intelligence agencies because he was classified as a level 3 threat. The report, which highlighted “a failure in the flow of information and a lack of a clear policy on extremism” within the military secret service, also found that Conings was barely monitored by his own unit.”

 

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