“Even as they appeal to the world to release frozen humanitarian aid funds and
bank accounts, Taliban officials are taking new actions to restrict wom

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


January  3, 2022

  

The Washington Post: Taliban Cracks Down On More Rights While Demanding
Western Aid
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“Even as they appeal to the world to release frozen humanitarian aid funds and
bank accounts, Taliban officials are taking new actions to restrict women’s
freedoms and dismantle democratic institutions — defying the top two
international concerns that have kept most foreign aid at bay as a cold winter
looms for millions of destitute Afghans. Over the past week, the powerful
ministry for Islamic guidance has issued rules requiring women to fully cover
their heads if they ride in a public taxi and to be accompanied by a male
relative if they travel more than 45 miles. The instructions also require
cabdrivers to refuse to carry female passengers who do not comply and to stop
playing music while driving because it is “un-Islamic.” In the western city of
Herat, officials at the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the
Prevention of Vice ordered all clothing shops to remove the heads of display
mannequins, or face punishment. The officials said they are defined as
“statues,” which must not be worshipped under Islam. During the previous era of
Taliban rule, animal and human heads were obliterated from images. In the
political arena, Taliban spokesmen announced the shutdown of two national
election oversight commissions and two cabinet ministries.”

 

Reuters: Somalia's Al Shabaab Fighters Kill At Least 7 In Attack Near Capital
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“Fighters from Somalia's al Shabaab militant group attacked a town north of
the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, killing at least seven people as they
battled government security forces, a resident and police said. The attack
happened amid a political dispute between Somalia’s president and prime
minister which its international partners worry has distracted the government
from the fight against the insurgents. Police and residents in Balad, 30 km (18
miles) north of Mogadishu, said fighters from the al Qaeda-linked group
attacked and overran government forces guarding a bridge at a town entrance
early in the morning. “We were in a mosque praying when a heavy exchange of
gunfire took place at the bridge. Al Shabaab thus captured the town,
overrunning the soldiers at the bridge,” Hassan Nur, a shopkeeper in Balad, an
agricultural town that links Somalia's Middle Shabelle region to Lower
Shabelle, told Reuters by telephone. “There were few police forces in the town.
(The police) were missing. When the firing started people ran into their
houses. I counted five dead soldiers and two civilian women,” he said. Police
captain Farah Ali said the fighters stayed briefly in the town after the attack
but then left.”

 

United States

 

The Washington Post: Prosecutors Break Down Charges, Convictions For 725
Arrested So Far In Jan. 6 Attack On U.S. Capitol
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“Federal prosecutors in the District have charged more than 725 individuals
with various crimes in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, when
hundreds of rioters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. attorney’s
office said Friday. As the country nears the first anniversary of the storming
of the Capitol, the U.S. attorney’s office in the District, the largest office
of federal prosecutors in the nation, released a breakdown of the arrests and
convictions associated with the attack. Of those arrested, 225 people were
charged with assault or resisting arrest. More than 75 of those were charged
with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against police officers. The office
said 140 police officers, including Capitol officers and members of the D.C.
police department, were victimized during the attack. The office said about 10
individuals were charged with assaulting members of the media or destroying
their equipment. Some 640 people were charged with entering a restricted
federal building or its grounds. And another 75 were charged with entering a
restricted area with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors in the office have been
working with the FBI as well as prosecutors in various locations around the
nation. The office said the individuals arrested come from nearly all 50
states. One person, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt of California, was fatally shot
by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to breach a set of doors deep in the
Capitol during the riot.”

 

WTOP News: The Hunt: What To Expect From Domestic Terrorists In The US In 2022
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“In this week’s episode of “The Hunt, with WTOP National Security
Correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, Sr. Director of the
Counter Extremism Project, says Americans need to realize that domestic
terrorism doesn’t operate in a bubble.”

 

Syria

 

The Washington Post: Former Al-Qaeda Affiliate In Syria Seeks To Soften Its
Brand
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“The Islamist militants attacked the radio station for years, because it
played music, because it hired women, because its liberal values posed a
challenge to Syria’s zealous men with guns. Lately, though, the attacks on the
station have stopped, and its tormentor — a militant group once affiliated with
al-Qaeda called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — is trying to convince Syrians and the
world it is no longer as radical or repressive as it once was. The group, also
referred to as HTS, gained notoriety a decade ago as the most formidable
Islamist rebel formation trying to topple the government of President Bashar
al-Assad. The organization came to represent the dark forces metastasizing
during Syria’s civil war: a jihadist movement that drew extremist fighters from
around the world and sought to establish an Islamic state. Now the group says
its focus has shifted to providing services to millions of people in Syria’s
rebel-held Idlib province through a fledgling government. It severed ties with
al-Qaeda five years ago and says it is cracking down on other extremist groups.
The founder of HTS, a veteran jihadist once seemingly ubiquitous in military
fatigues, these days is photographed wearing suits. “That faction that used to
harass us is trying to show people that they are moderate,” said Abdullah
Klido, the chief executive of the radio station, called Radio Fresh.”

 

The National: UN Investigators Focus On ISIS Terror Camps In Hunt For $50m War
Chest
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“…Director of the Counter Extremism Project Hans-Jakob Schindler, who worked
in the UN Security Council unit that monitors ISIS and Al Qaeda, told The
National he believes the terror group's treasury structure still exists despite
having diminished. “During the existence of the ISIS's physical caliphate,
there was of course a whole administrative structure dealing with money coming
in and being spent by the organisation,” he said. “This structure had
overlapping responsibilities to ensure that money was not stolen from the
organisation. Despite this, some ISIS leaders had actually managed to get some
money out of the treasury for themselves.  “Therefore, it seems very likely
that ISIS maintains some organised central structure that deals with money even
now that the physical side of things is no longer existing. As pointed out by
the UN Security Council's monitoring team, the organisation continues to have
quite substantial assets and therefore it will need some organisational
framework to ensure that these assets are protected and managed.” Mr Schindler
said there are still financial flows into the camps containing ISIS fighters
and their families from supporters outside the camps that is then handed over
to the terror group. “This is of course not a massive amount of income for ISIS
but it is one of the financial streams that it still has,” he said.”

 

Iraq

 

AFP: Iraq: 20 Civilians Found Dead After Stand-Off With Suspected Terrorist
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“Iraqi security forces have launched an investigation into the deaths of 20
civilians during an operation to capture two terrorist suspects on Thursday.
The tragedy occurred in Rashayed village in the central province of Babylon,
just south of Baghdad, when special forces and intelligence officers prepared
to raid the home of one of the suspects, a security source told AFP. Security
forces “pursued two individuals accused of terrorism”, a security force
statement said. “After surrounding him he opened fire indiscriminately at the
forces.” State news agency INA reported that the mission was taken to arrest
“wanted people hiding in a house, the owner of which opened fire on the
security forces”. “Upon entering the house when the owner refused to surrender,
the unit found that all members of his family, numbering 20 civilians, had
died,” the agency reported. An intelligence source told AFP that the suspect
was a member of ISIS. Iraq proclaimed victory against ISIS in late 2017 after
reclaiming parts of northern and western regions seized by the extremist group
in 2014. A low-level ISIS insurgency, particularly in the north, continues to
disrupt efforts to restore stability to Iraq, which is scarred by years of
warfare and unrest.”

 

Kurdistan 24: Iraq Still Needs Coalition Air Support Against ISIS: Military
Spokesperson
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“Following the agreed conclusion of the US-led coalition's combat mission in
Iraq in December, the country still needs supporting coalition airstrikes to
combat ISIS, Iraqi military spokesperson Yehia Rasool said on Friday. The Iraqi
military needs support “especially in the air force, air defense, army aviation
and intelligence system fields,” Rasool told the Arabic-language publication
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Iraq also needs continued coalition airstrikes against ISIS
remnants on the border with Syria, he added. The Arabic publication also quoted
the commander of the Iraqi ground forces Lieutenant-General Qassem Muhammad
al-Muhammadi, who said that ISIS remnants pose the most serious threat in
Diyala province. He also said that most airstrikes against ISIS are carried out
by Iraqi Air Force F-16 jets. However, he pointed out that the coalition
monitors ISIS activity on the international border. The Iraqi Air Force
regularly targets ISIS remnants with its F-16s along with its Su-25 and L-159
attack planes. The coalition frequently highlights such strikes to showcase the
Iraqi Air Force's capabilities. “Tremendous progress achieved by Iraqi airpower
& ground forces has crippled Daesh (ISIS) ability to resurge,” tweeted the
official account of the coalition on Dec. 27 after Iraqi F-16s and L-159s
targeted suspected ISIS caves and hideouts in the Hamrin Mountain in Diyala
province.”

 

Turkey

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Turkey Apprehends 30 Suspected ISIS Terrorists
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“Turkey's security forces have arrested 30 suspected ISIS terrorists,
primarily foreigners, in different parts of the country as part of preemptive
operations to prevent possible terrorist attacks during the New Year
celebrations. The security units arrested 23 persons linked to ISIS in Ankara
during a joint security operation carried out by the intelligence and police
services, based on an arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution Office.
The detainees were involved with ISIS and linked to the conflict areas in Syria
and Iraq. At the same time, anti-terror forces in the southern Osmaniye
province arrested six people who had previously participated in ISIS armed
activities in Syria. The state said the gendarmerie's counter-terrorism teams
launched a security operation to reduce potential threats ahead of the New
Year. They confiscated electronic devices found at the suspects' residences. In
the northwestern province of Bolu, combat forces arrested several Iraqis after
receiving a report about the presence of persons linked to the terrorist
organization. Over the past two weeks, Turkey has intensified its campaigns
against suspects linked to ISIS. The authorities announced that they had
thwarted a plot to carry out a terrorist attack in Mersin and Adana on New
Year's Eve.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The New York Times: U.S. Military Focusing On ISIS Cell Behind Attack At Kabul
Airport
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“Four months after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed scores of people,
including 13 American service members, outside the airport in Kabul,
Afghanistan, U.S. and foreign intelligence officials have pieced together a
profile of the assailant. Military commanders say they are using that
information to focus on an Islamic State cell that they believe was involved in
the attack, including its leadership and foot soldiers. The cell members could
be among the first insurgents struck by armed MQ-9 Reaper drones flying
missions over Afghanistan from a base in the Persian Gulf. The United States
has not carried out any airstrikes in the country since the last American
troops left on Aug. 30. The attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate unfolded four
days earlier, during the frenzied final days of the largest noncombatant
evacuation ever conducted by the U.S. military. It was one of the deadliest
attacks of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. The Islamic State identified the
suicide bomber as Abdul Rahman Al-Logari. American officials say he was a
former engineering student who was one of several thousand militants freed from
at least two high-security prisons after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on
Aug. 15. The Taliban emptied the facilities indiscriminately, releasing not
only their own imprisoned members but also fighters from Islamic State
Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the group’s branch in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s
nemesis.”

 

Pakistan

 

Associated Press: Military: 4 Pakistani Soldiers, 2 Militants Killed In Raids
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“Pakistani security forces raided two militant hideouts in a former Taliban
stronghold near Afghanistan, triggering shootings that killed four soldiers and
two insurgents, the military said Friday. The first raid was carried our in the
Tank district in the northwest, killing two militants, the statement said. The
other strike was carried out in the North Waziristan district, capturing a
militant before four soldiers died in the fighting. The military said troops
seized a cache of weapons during both raids. The military provided no further
details about the slain soldiers and detained militants. North Waziristan
served as a militant stronghold for decades. The military carried out a
full-fledged offensive in the region after an army-run school was attacked in
December 2014 in the Peshawar city. The attack, claimed by Pakistani Taliban,
killed 147 people, mostly schoolchildren. The latest violence in the northwest
comes a day after a roadside bomb exploded outside a college in southwestern
city of Quetta, killing six people and wounding at least 13 others.”

 

Lebanon

 

The Jerusalem Post: Lebanon May Be Getting Tired Of Hezbollah - Analysis
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“First, it was Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and
the son-in-law of Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, who attacked the Shia
Islamist political party Hezbollah and said that there would be “political
consequences” for its actions against his party as it continues blocking the
Cabinet from meeting. Then Aoun made a similar statement, saying that
“unjustified, deliberate and systematic blockage which dismantles the state and
drives it to its demise must be ended.” The Cabinet has not met since October.
Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement is an ally of Hezbollah in the Lebanese
parliament and in 2016 he was elected the president due to its support after 29
months of stalemate. Hezbollah quickly reacted to the Aoun statement by
slamming Bassil – who has presidential aspirations when Aoun’s term ends next
year – and indicating that Bassil might be losing its support. Meanwhile, Aoun
on Thursday signed a presidential decree approving legislative elections for
May 15, 2022, two months later than the current parliament had wanted it to
take place. Experts are questioning whether the leaders of FPM are truly
reconsidering their ties with Hezbollah so close to the upcoming 2022
parliamentary elections, and what such recent statements say about the growing
resentment against Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

 

Middle East

 

The Jerusalem Post: IDF Thwarts Stabbing Attack At West Bank Bus Stop, Kills
Terrorist <[link removed]>

 

“The IDF thwarted a stabbing attack against civilians at a bus stop at the
Giti Avishar junction in the Samaria region of the West Bank, killing the
Palestinian terrorist. No civilians or soldiers were injured in the Friday
morning attack. The soldier who shot at the terrorist described the events of
the attack in a video that was sent out to the Israeli media. “A car stopped
near me,” he said. “A terrorist got out of the car wielding a knife, yelled
‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is great] and ran toward me. I shot in order to neutralize
him.” The IDF explained that the terrorist had run in the direction of a bus
stop where both soldiers and civilians were standing. The IDF later arrested
the man who had driven the attacker to the scene. He was not carrying weapons
and was taken in for questioning. Earlier this week, Defense Minister Benny
Gantz held a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an
effort to thwart a violent Palestinian uprising in the West Bank. The rare
meeting, which took place in Gantz’s Rosh Ha’ayin home, was the second one
between the two leaders. They had met in August in Ramallah. Last month
Palestinian terrorists killed 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and lightly wounded
two others.”

 

The Times Of Israel: Senior West Bank Hamas Official To Be Charged With
Incitement, Supporting Terror
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“Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef will be charged in the coming days in an
Israeli military court for incitement to terror and supporting a terror group,
Israel Police said in a statement on Sunday. Yousef, a senior figure in Hamas’s
West Bank division, is seen as a relative moderate in the terror group’s
apparatus. Since helping found the Hamas terror movement in the 1980s, Yousef
has been arrested numerous times and spent years in Israeli prisons, much of it
in administrative detention. Israeli forces arrested Yousef in mid-December,
one of dozens of Palestinians picked up in operations following a wave of
terror attacks. In the announcement on Sunday, police tied Yousef’s arrest to a
speech he gave following an attack by a Hamas member in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In mid-December, Hamas member Fadi Abu Shkhaydam opened fire on passersby near
the Old City’s Chain Gate, killing an Israeli civilian, Eli Kay, before being
shot dead. Yousef arrived at the Shkhaydam family’s mourning tent later to give
a fiery speech. “The suspect arrived at the mourning tent of the terrorist’s
family who carried out the shooting attack, where he praised the terrorist’s
actions and even conveyed the condolences of the Hamas movement to his family,”
Israel Police said in a statement.”

 

Nigeria

 

Reuters: Six Nigerian, Niger Troops Killed By Islamic State, Security Forces
Say
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“Six troops from Nigeria and Niger were killed by Islamic State West Africa
Province (ISWAP) militants during an operation this month, a joint military
force said on Thursday. ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram five years ago and
pledged allegiance to Islamic State, has been fighting troops from Benin,
Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger in the Lake Chad region. A Multinational
Joint Task Force (MTJF) comprising soldiers from Nigeria and Niger had targeted
Islamist insurgents near Lake Chad basin but met strong resistance and came
under fire from mortar attacks and improvised explosive devices, MTJF spokesman
Colonel Muhammad Dole said in a statement. Two officers and four other ranks
from both countries were killed and 16 wounded, Dole said, without providing an
exact date. Twenty-two militants were killed and 17 captured while gun trucks
and other weapons and ammunition were destroyed, he said. The region were the
attacks took place is part of Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, the centre of
the Islamist insurgency in which about 300,000 people have died and millions
left dependent on aid, according to the United Nations.”

 

Mali

 

Reuters: Suspected Militants Kill 8 Soldiers In Northern Mali, Army Says
<[link removed]>

 

“Eight soldiers were killed and seven others injured when their patrol was
ambushed by suspected militants in western Mali, the army said in a statement
on Thursday. The attack occurred late in the afternoon on Wednesday near the
town of Nara, around 30 km (19 miles) south of border with Mauritania. “A unit
in the Nara area was the target of a complex attack combining IEDs and heavy
weapons,” the statement said. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the
ambush. Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are battling an Islamist insurgency that
has flourished across Africa's Sahel region, killing thousands and displacing
millions despite a nine-year effort by international forces to defeat it.”

 

Africa

 

The New York Times: Why Did Uganda Send Troops Into Congo?
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“It has been a month since Uganda began air and artillery strikes in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, and then sent in its troops, in an operation
targeting a rebel group it accuses of carrying out a string of deadly attacks
in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces,
is considered the deadliest armed outfit in the region and was designated as a
terrorist organization this year by the United States. Uganda hopes the
assault, which is being conducted jointly with Congolese forces, will evict the
group from its bases in Congo. But among some civilians and observers, the
incursion has raised numerous concerns. Many cite Uganda’s conduct during a
previous intervention in Congo, from 1998-2003, when its forces were accused of
killing and torturing civilians, plundering natural resources, and destroying
villages. The latest mission, analysts say, could also compound regional
security tensions, particularly with neighboring Rwanda, and could lead to
reprisals against civilians, as has happened in the past. President Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda, who has a longstanding security relationship with the West,
could also use the incursion to improve his image abroad even as he cracks down
on dissent at home. The operation, some say, is an ill-fated attempt to bring a
military solution to the myriad political, social and economic problems facing
people in eastern Congo.”

 

The Defense Post: Eleven Troops Hurt, 29 ‘Terrorists’ Neutralized In Burkina:
Army
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“Eleven soldiers were wounded and 29 “terrorists” neutralized in a weekend
attack on security forces in Burkina Faso’s troubled northwest, the army said
on Sunday. Military and police units came under attack on Saturday in the area
of Gomboro “by armed individuals,” the army said. “The fighting caused injuries
to 11 soldiers who were treated. Their response and counter-offensive allowed
the neutralization of 29 terrorists and the recovery of a large amount of
combat material including weapons, vehicles, and communication equipment,” the
statement said. On December 23, an ambush by suspected jihadists targeting
civilians and the VDP, an official self-defense force, in the northern You
region left 41 people dead, including Ladji Yoro, considered a leader of the
VDP. That attack was the deadliest since the bloodshed in Inata in the
country’s north in mid-November, which claimed 57 lives including 53 police
officers. Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been facing regular and deadly jihadist
attacks, particularly in the northern and eastern regions, close to Mali and
Niger, countries also battling armed jihadist groups. These attacks, often
coupled with ambushes and attributed to jihadist movements affiliated with the
Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, have killed more than 2,000 people and forced
more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.”

 

Technology

 

The National: Facebook’s Toxic Legacy To Reach Court As Moderators Set Out
Litany Of Troubles
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“Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, a
think tank, believes the platform will remain “toxic until regulation is
introduced”. “The issue with Facebook is the combination of a hermetically
sealed platform that is not actually open to outside analysis or audits,
coupled with an absolute commercial drive to grow and to increase profits at
all costs, and it is situated within a whole unregulated industry with next to
no liability risks,” he told The National. “This combination is particularly
toxic as it ensures that only when problems become absolutely undeniable,
either, as was the case with the proliferation of the Christchurch attack video
or when an internal whistleblower reveals the issue to the public, they are
somewhat addressed but never in a manner that actually solves any of the issues
in a systemic and sustainable manner. “It has been in crisis mode for several
years; 2021 was not a crisis for Facebook since the problems are systemic
within the company as well as external due to lack of regulation and liability
risk. “The problems Facebook faced in 2021 are a reflection of this and,
therefore, the company will not be able to overcome these issues under the
current circumstances because this would require that it voluntarily changes
its core business model or voluntarily limits its profits.”

 

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