“Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they were behind aerial attacks in the United Arab
Emirates that killed three people on Monday, as intensifying fighting i

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


January 18, 2022

  

The Wall Street Journal: Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Claim Aerial Attacks On U.A.E.
Capital
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“Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they were behind aerial attacks in the United Arab
Emirates that killed three people on Monday, as intensifying fighting in a
7-year-old civil war spills out across the broader Middle East. The Houthis,
who are backed by Iran, said they had targeted Abu Dhabi with ballistic and
cruise missiles and a large number of drones in retaliation for a recent
escalation by the U.A.E. in Yemen, where Emirati-backed militants last week
dealt the Houthis an unexpected defeat in the oil-rich province of Shabwa. The
Emiratis have intensified their efforts recently in support of local militants
in Yemen in a Saudi-led coalition that had suffered defeats. Three people were
killed and six injured in explosions Monday that showed the Houthis are willing
to strike in the heart of a country seen as the region’s main hub for
international business. In response, the Saudi-led coalition carried out
airstrikes in San’a, the Houthi-held Yemeni capital, Saudi state media said.
Officials in Persian Gulf states said they were investigating the possibility
that the Houthis used both drones and cruise missiles to target the Emirati
capital. Regional officials briefed on the investigation said they have no
reason to doubt the Houthi claims of responsibility, but don’t know exactly
where the attack originated.”

 

The Washington Post: ‘Some People Just Don’t Like Us:’ In A Texas Synagogue,
11 Hours Of Terror
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“Rabbi Charlie had spoken just the previous Saturday about how hard it is now.
Life seemed overwhelming, he said in his last sermon before the man came into
the synagogue and changed everything. “We are living through a challenging
time,” Charles Cytron-Walker told members of Congregation Beth Israel in
Colleyville, Tex. “We don’t always know how to cope. . . . There’s a lot of
fear and there’s a lot of uncertainty.” But the Jewish people had been here
before, the rabbi said, and had always endured. “They’ve been enslaved and they
are watching plague after plague,” he said. “Imagine . . . watching the world
get turned upside down time and time again. It would have been amazing to
experience — and terrifying.” On Saturday, the call came into Colleyville
police at 10:41 a.m. Emergency at the synagogue. A man came into the sanctuary
during Sabbath services and took hostages. The terror was broadcast to
worshipers at the Reform Jewish synagogue in a suburb of 26,000 people,
northeast of Fort Worth, and to anyone else around the world live on Facebook.
And as the intruder lashed out at Jews and Israel and America, in Colleyville
and Dallas and Washington, the American machinery of counterterror switched
from Ready to Go. Police swarmed the area, cordoned off the neighborhood,
evacuated people from nearby homes, and set up a command center to coordinate
more than 200 law enforcement officers who arrived from nearby cities, from
around Texas, and, with startling speed, from Quantico, Va.”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: Officials Investigating Synagogue Attacker’s Link To 2010
Terror Case
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“The tabloids called her Lady Qaeda. A neuroscientist who was educated at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was accused of trying to kill
American soldiers and plotting to blow up the Statue of Liberty. Since then,
Aafia Siddiqui has spent almost 12 years in a federal prison in Texas. Now,
investigators are looking into whether her story may have motivated the British
attacker who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue on Saturday. Since
Ms. Siddiqui’s conviction in 2010 for “terroristic events” in Afghanistan, her
name has become a rallying cry among Islamists in her native Pakistan, and her
defiance in the face of arrest has made her a hero to jihadist militants
worldwide, experts said. “Her rejection of mainstream life makes her an
empowering example for the jihadi groups who exploit her victimhood,” said
Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies in Singapore. The F.B.I. said on Sunday that the attacker, Malik Faisal
Akram, spoke of Ms. Siddiqui’s case, which has been used as a pretext for
previous terrorist attacks and has also garnered renewed focus since American
forces withdrew from Afghanistan last summer. In October, hundreds of people
marched to the U.S. Consulate in the port city of Karachi to demand that the
Biden administration order her release.”

 

Syria

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Syrian Regime Forces Launch Anti-ISIS Campaign In Deir Ezzor
Desert
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“The Syrian army backed by pro-government factions, including the National
Defense Forces (NDF), kicked off a new combing operation in the southern
countryside of Deir Ezzor. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
(SOHR), the operation is meant to secure the area of al-Duwair, which is
located between the towns of al-Mayadin and al-Bukamal. In a report, the
London-based monitoring group said that Syrian government forces are searching
for “ISIS members who stepped up their activities in al-Badia [the Syrian
desert] since the beginning of January.” The new operation is backed by the
Russian Aerospace Forces, who have been targeting ISIS hideouts in the deserts
of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. A recent wave of Russian airstrikes, which targeted
the outskirts of the town of al-Resafa in the southern Raqqa countryside,
killed 11 terrorists and wounded at least 20 others. Recent attacks by ISIS
cells on Syrian regime forces in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor were
likely behind the decision to launch the operation. The new operation will
likely push ISIS cells out from the Deir Ezzor desert for some time only. A
more comprehensive operation is needed to fully neutralize the terrorist
group’s presence in the central region.”

 

Iraq

 

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Embassy, Civilian Targets Attacked In Iraq
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“Rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and men on motorcycles hurled
grenades at the offices of political rivals of Iran-backed militias,
threatening a new spiral of violence as Iraq moves to form a new government
following last year’s parliamentary election. A week after Iraqi militias hit
bases hosting U.S. forces, the attacks on Thursday and Friday marked a shift in
focus, with civilian targets coming under heavy fire. No one claimed
responsibility for the attacks. One of the rockets landed in an elementary
school inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified area of diplomatic
and government buildings in the city’s center, injuring a woman and a young
child, while air defenses at the U.S. Embassy shot down two other missiles,
Iraqi security forces said. Three separate attacks took aim at political
parties opposed to the influence of the country’s powerful militias.
Iranian-allied militias in the country are fighting to reassert their influence
in the country after suffering a setback in Iraq’s national election last year,
when they lost ground to other Shiite-led parties. Voters handed the largest
number of seats to a bloc led by Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric and
self-styled nationalist who has vowed to limit the power of the militias.”

 

Al Monitor: SDF Hands Over 50 Iraqi IS Suspects As Prison Concerns Mount
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“Fifty Iraqi men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and who had
been captured in northeastern Syria were handed over to the Iraqi authorities
Jan. 8 at the country’s northwestern border crossing of Rabia. As the
US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue growing closer
to the government in Damascus, and concerns fester about the potential for
jailbreaks from prison facilities housing thousands of Iraqis as well as
Syrians and others accused of involvement in IS in northeastern Syria, efforts
seem to be underway to bring back more individuals across the border. On Nov.
8, a major planned attack on the notorious Sinaa prison in the Ghweiran
neighborhood in the western part of the city of Hasakah was thwarted. The SDF
announced Dec. 25 that they had arrested the man they held to have been
responsible for the plan to attack the prison, calling him an “emir”
(“leader”), but without giving information on the place and date of the arrest.
Local sources concurred that he had been involved in the jailbreak operation,
but said he was not an emir and instead answered to others from Raqqa. They
claimed he had been arrested in an area of the Deir al-Zor desert near Abu
Khashab.”

 

Turkey

 

Daily Sabah: Turkish Security Forces Kill 44 Terrorists In Retaliatory Strikes
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“Turkey has eliminated 44 terrorists in anti-terror cross-border operations
since an attack last week, defense minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.
Responding to Anadolu Agency (AA) on the operations launched after three
Turkish soldiers were killed in an improvised explosive device blast, Akar
said: “After the treacherous attack, we launched punitive operations against
the detected targets” in the Operation Peace Spring area in northern Syria.
Three Turkish soldiers were killed when a bomb planted by terrorists went off
on Jan. 8 in the Akçakale district of the southeastern Şanlıurfa province near
Turkey's border with Syria. Though the Defense Ministry did not reveal which
terrorist organization carried out the attack, Akçakale lies near areas in
northern Syria where the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing, the YPG, is
present. The defense minister also underlined that Turkey expects all of its
partners to fulfill the responsibilities outlined in signed agreements. “We did
not leave the blood of our martyrs on the ground, we will not let them go. We
expect our partners in Syria to fulfill their responsibilities within the scope
of the agreements. We can say that attacks from beyond our borders, which we
consider to be planned, push our limits of tolerance and even exceed our
tolerance limits.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Wall Street Journal: Afghanistan’s Taliban Battle Rebellion By Ethnic
Minority Fighters
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“Afghanistan’s Taliban are battling a rebellion by ethnic minority fighters in
their own ranks in the country’s north, a sign that ties are fraying within the
alliance built by the Islamist group that seized control of the country in
August. Some Uzbeks who joined the Taliban, which is dominated by Pashtuns from
the country’s south and east, along with other Uzbeks, fought Taliban forces in
Faryab province this week. At least four people were killed and others wounded
in clashes Friday, local residents said. Inamullah Samangani, a spokesman for
the Taliban, said that it was supporters of democracy that use ethnic
divisions. “Now that they have nothing, the so-called democrats are struggling
to come up with which ethnic group Talib is good and which is bad,” Mr.
Samangani said, on Twitter. Ethnic divisions run deep in Afghanistan and have
been one of the main drivers of decades of war in the country. Uzbeks, Tajiks
and other groups tend to dominate in the north and traditionally have opposed
the Taliban, whose leadership is predominantly Pashtun. However, some members
of the northern ethnic groups also joined the Taliban and played an important
role in its conquest of the country last year.”

 

Pakistan

 

Associated Press: Pakistan Says Militant Attack On Army Post Kills Soldier
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“Militants attacked an army post Friday in Pakistan’s restive northwest,
bordering Afghanistan, triggering an intense shootout that killed a soldier,
the military said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to a military statement, the predawn attack took place in Bannu, a
district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It said troops returned fire, but it
was unclear if the attackers suffered any casualties. In their claim of
responsibility, posted on Twitter, the Pakistani Taliban did not provide
further details. Also Friday, Pakistani troops raided a militant hideout in the
northwestern Miran Shah town, killing a militant and arresting two suspects, a
separate military statement said. Although militants often target security post
and troops routinely carry out raids on militant hideouts, the latest violence
comes a day after the Pakistani Taliban confirmed the killing over the weekend
in Afghanistan of the group’s former spokesman. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,
or TTP as the Pakistani Taliban are known, vowed to avenge his killing. The
Pakistani Taliban are an umbrella group and a separate organization from the
Afghan Taliban. In November, Pakistan announced a month-long cease-fire with
the TTP.”

 

Yemen

 

Bloomberg: UAE To Ask U.S. To Restore Houthi Terrorism Label After Attack
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“The United Arab Emirates will ask the U.S. to put Yemen’s Iranian-backed
Houthis back on its list of terrorist organizations after a drone attack on the
Emirati capital killed three people, a person familiar with government thinking
said Monday. The UAE will work on building pressure through the UN Security
Council over the strike and the capture of an Emirati vessel off the coast of
Yemen earlier this month, the person said. It wasn’t immediately clear how
Washington would respond to such a request given increased frictions in
relations between the two allies over issues ranging from Iran to growing
Chinese influence in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. removed its terrorist
designation for the Houthi fighters a year ago as part of a push by the Biden
administration to end their war with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government that has
contributed to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. U.S. efforts to
broker a peace deal have faltered, however, with the Houthis reluctant to
embrace truce efforts.”

 

Middle East

 

AFP: Tunisia Sentences Nine Militants To Death Over Soldier’s Murder
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“A Tunisian court has sentenced to death nine militants accused of having
beheaded a soldier in 2016, a murder claimed by the Daesh group, media reported
Saturday. Tunisia hands death sentences to convicts mainly in trials related to
national security under a 2015 terror law, despite a moratorium on capital
punishment in place since 1991. Friday’s verdict concerns the murder of army
corporal Said Ghozlani in November 2016, in the Mount Mghila area near the
border with Algeria. He was found beheaded in his home in that region, which is
considered a hideout for militants. The Daesh group claimed responsibility for
killing the soldier. The Tunis court on Friday also sentenced to jail 15 people
accused of involvement in the murder, with terms ranging from 32 to 44 years in
prison. Tunisia saw a surge in radical Islamist activity following the ouster
of autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the 2011 revolution. Dozens
of members of the security forces have since been killed in militant attacks.
The security situation has greatly improved in recent years, but Tunisian
forces continue to track down suspected militants in the Mount Mghila and Mount
Chaami regions.”

 

Nigeria

 

Reuters: Gunmen Kill More Than 50 In Nigeria's Northwest, Residents Say
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“Dozens of gunmen on motorbikes ransacked a village and killed more than 50
people in the latest violence in northwest Nigeria, residents said on Sunday.
Gangs have been terrorising areas of the northwest in recent years, forcing
thousands to flee and gaining global notoriety through mass kidnappings at
schools for ransom. Local elder Abdullahi Karman Unashi told Reuters that the
men entered Dankade village in Kebbi state on Friday night and exchanged
gunfire with soldiers and policemen. Security forces were forced to retreat,
leaving the attackers to burn shops and grain silos and take cattle into the
early hours of Saturday, he said. “They killed two soldiers and one police
officer and 50 villagers. (They) kidnapped the community leader of Dankade and
many villagers, mostly women and children,” Karman said. Didzi Umar Bunu, son
of the abducted community leader, said the gunmen had returned early on Sunday
and torched more houses. “They have not called or made any ransom demand.
Dankade village is littered with dead bodies,” he said on the phone. Nafiu
Abubakar, police spokesperson for Kebbi, did not respond to calls and messages
to his phone.”

 

Somalia

 

CNN: Somali Government Spokesman Injured In 'Odious Terrorist Attack,' PM Says
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“A Somali government spokesman was injured on Sunday in an “odious terrorist
attack,” the country's Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble said. The Prime
Minister “strongly condemns the odious terrorist attack targeting Government
Spokesman, Mr Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu who sustained injuries today but is in
[a] stable condition,” the Somali Prime Minister said Sunday on Twitter. He
also wished Moalimu a “quick recovery.” State media outlet SNTV News reported
on Sunday that Moalimu was injured “in a cowardly terrorist suicide attack
[that] targeted his car,” in Waaberi, a district of the Banaadir region of
Somalia. Waaberi district is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the
capital city Mogadishu. While the state media report did not name a suspect or
organization responsible for the attack, Somalia has been racked by terrorism
from militant group Al-Shabaab -- an affiliate of al Qaeda -- in recent years.
In March 2021, Al-Shabaab claimed responsiblity for a car bomb blast that
killed at least 20 people in Mogadishu. Two years earlier, the group claimed a
truck bombing that killed 85 people outside the country's capital. The director
of communications of the Somali Presidency Abdirashid M. Hashi also tweeted
good wishes for Moalimu.”

 

Africa

 

The Defense Post: Burkina Attack Kills Around 10 Civilians: Security Source
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“At least 10 civilians have been killed in an attack blamed on jihadists in
northern Burkina Faso, an area in the grip of a six-year insurgency, security
sources said Sunday. “Unidentified armed individuals carried out an attack on
the village of Namssiguian in Bam province” on Saturday, a security source told
AFP, adding that the provisional death toll was around 10 dead civilians. A
local resident put the provisional death toll at nine and said that significant
damage had been caused to shops and businesses in the village, which had been
torched. “The terrorists stayed in the village for several hours, where they
looted and destroyed,” he said, adding that the assailants had “sabotaged the
telephone antennas beforehand, making all communication impossible.” The
security source warned that the toll could still rise as “families are still
awaiting news about family members.” Burkina Faso has been struggling with
jihadist attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic
State group began mounting cross-border raids from Mali. More than 2,000 people
have died, according to a toll compiled by AFP. The national emergency aid
agency says that 1.5 million people, nearly two-thirds of them children, were
internally displaced as of November 30.”

 

Newsweek: African Christians Face Deadly Violence In 2022
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“…The Counter Extremism Project recently highlighted political turmoil in
Somalia that has widened the door for al-Shabab while weakening the fight
against terrorism. According to a State Department report, “Al-Shabaab
continued to impose its own interpretation of Islamic practices and sharia on
other Muslims and non-Muslims, including executions as a penalty for alleged
apostasy in areas under its control.” African Christians are most certainly at
risk. On Jan. 6, The Christian Post reported that more than 400 million
Christians around the world live in countries that persecute churches—and that
persecution is only worsening. “Across Africa,” the report says, “from
sub-Saharan Africa to East Africa, there are at least a couple of dozen
terrorist organizations that have the ambition, from their point of view, to
install caliphates in their territories.” Even North Africa isn't without its
own unholy reputation for anti-Christian abuses. Algeria was noted as Open
Doors 24th worst persecutor in 2021, alongside Tunisia (26th) and Morocco
(27th). Christian converts are the primary targets of persecution, not only due
to family and extended family accusations and threats, but also because of
abuses imposed by local leaders and elders.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Manchester Arena Attack: Man Arrested Over Bombing Wanted In Drugs
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“A man arrested during the Manchester Arena bombing investigation is on the
run in Libya and wanted by police for his role in a drugs conspiracy. Zuhir
Nassrat, 23, was linked to two of the three chemicals used by the Abedi
brothers to make the bomb that killed 22 people in May 2017. He was arrested
but not charged in relation to the attack. He denied playing any part in what
happened. Salman and Hashem Abedi were responsible for the bombing. Three
trials at Manchester Crown Court, the last of which ended earlier, have
detailed the criminal activities of associates of the bombers. In the final
case, five men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply drugs, including cocaine,
from January 2017 until December 2020. Those convicted, all from south
Manchester, are: Brothers Mohammed and Ebrahim Sadigh, Illyas Abudaber, Hamza
Azouz, Hamam Alhamruni. The first four have appeared in the evidence at the
ongoing Manchester Arena Inquiry due to their links to the Abedi brothers or
other suspects. Sentencing will take place on a date to be fixed. Shamsudin
Khalifa, the only man to proceed to trial, was found not guilty earlier.  The
final trial heard business cards were printed and spread around Manchester
advertising named “drug lines”, comprising phone numbers where people could
order narcotics.”

 

The Independent: Two Teenagers Held In Manchester After ‘Act Of Terror’ At US
Synagogue
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“Two teenagers have been arrested in Manchester after a British man flew to
the US, bought a weapon and held people hostage in a 10-hour stand-off at a
synagogue. Malik Faisal Akram, originally from Blackburn in Lancashire, was
shot dead when the FBI entered the building in Texas on Saturday night. US
President Joe Biden branded the incident “an act of terror” and UK police are
working with authorities in America on the investigation. Greater Manchester
Police (GMP) announced that officers from Counter Terror Policing North West
had made two arrests in south Manchester on Sunday evening. They said the
teenagers, whose ages and genders they did not immediately confirm, remain in
custody for questioning. GMP said police forces in the region are liaising with
local communities to put in place any measures to provide further reassurance.
The four hostages held at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas were
unharmed. Akram’s family said they were “absolutely devastated” by what had
happened and “do not condone any of his actions”, according to a statement
which had been shared on the Blackburn Muslim Community Facebook page.”

 

Europe

 

AFP: Case Dropped Against Swiss Man Thought Linked To 2020 Jihadist Attack In
Vienna
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“Swiss prosecutors said Friday they had dropped their case against one of two
young Swiss men arrested in late 2020 for alleged links to a deadly shooting
rampage in Vienna. “In the proceedings against the older of the two accused,
the OAG issued a discontinuation order,” a spokeswoman from the Office of the
Attorney General told AFP in an email. On November 2, 2020, convicted Islamic
State sympathizer Kujtim Fejzulai killed four people in Vienna before being
shot dead by police. It was the first major attack in Austria in decades and
the first blamed on a jihadist. Two Swiss citizens who knew Fejzulai were
arrested in the northeastern Swiss town of Winterthur just a day after the
attack on suspicion they may have helped in its preparation. The two, who were
18 and 24 at the time, were already known by police and the targets of prior
criminal cases over terror-linked offenses. The eldest of the two was known to
have jihadist sympathies with an interest in attacks carried out by the Islamic
State group. In its discontinuation order, seen by AFP, the OAG acknowledged
that he had never credibly distanced himself from IS and is believed to have
been influenced by its violent ideology. But there was no evidence that he had
participated in any way in the Vienna attack or had prior knowledge of it.”

 

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