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Eye on Extremism
February 4, 2022
The New York Times: Raid Targeting ISIS Leader Came After Months Of Planning
“A risky predawn raid by U.S. Special Operations forces that resulted in the death of the Islamic State’s leader on Thursday was set in motion months ago with a tip that the top terrorist was hiding out on the top floor of a house in northwest Syria. In brief remarks at the White House, President Biden said the decision to send about two dozen helicopter-borne commandos to capture or kill the leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was made to minimize the risk of civilian harm. Military officials said attacking with a bomb or a missile would have been safer for the troops but could have endangered more than a dozen civilians in the house, including several children. “We made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid, at a much greater risk than our — to our own people, rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Mr. Biden said. “We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties.” Aides said Mr. Biden had approved the raid on Tuesday morning after months of military planning, including dozens of rehearsals and an exercise involving a tabletop model of the building. On Thursday, he called the operation a warning to all terrorist groups. “This operation is testament to America’s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide anywhere in the world,” he said.”
Associated Press: Twin Attacks In Pakistan Kill 7 Troops, 13 Separatists
"Twin attacks by separatists on Pakistani military posts in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province triggered intense firefights that lasted hours and killed seven soldiers and 13 assailants, Pakistan's interior minister and the military said Thursday. A recently formed separatist group, the Baluchistan Nationalist Army, had claimed responsibility for the attacks late Wednesday in a post on Twitter. In one of the attacks, four soldiers and nine militants were killed when the assailants raided a security camp in Baluchistan's remote Naushki district on Wednesday evening. The other attack, on a security post in the province’s Panjgur area, killed three soldiers and four militants, according to a statement released by the military.”
United States
“The Kansas woman accused of traveling to Syria in support of the Islamic State was ordered detained pending trial on Thursday following her arrest late last month. Allison Fluke-Ekren, described in charging documents as a mother and teacher-turned ISIS battalion leader, was last in the U.S. on or about January 8, 2011, government travel records show, before ultimately emerging in Syria in 2014. Once there, according to one of at least six government witnesses who say they interacted with the defendant, Ekren allegedly presented a plan of attack to a paid U.S. foreign government source. That plan, prosecutors say, was for Ekren and other members of the ISIS community in Syria to "dress like infidels" and attack an American college campus with a backpack full of explosives. The attack was ultimately put on hold, court documents explain. During an interaction with another government witness in Syria as described in court filings, Ekren is accused of presenting an attack whereby she could park a car full of explosives on the first floor of a parking garage and detonate the bomb with a cellphone trigger "Any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals," the described mother of young children allegedly told the government witness, was a "waste of resources."
The Jerusalem Post: US Should Brace For Retaliation After ISIS Chief Dies In Raid – Experts
“…Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and former coordinator of the ISIL, al-Qaida and Taliban Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council, told The Media Line, “This seems to have been a combination of an air operation and special ground forces, which significantly reduces the risk to kill civilians.” However, he added, “Every counter-terrorism operation always carries the risk of collateral damage. No intelligence information report is super-perfect.” And most likely, Schindler continued, “The civilians announced killed in the news may actually be Qurayshi’s family.” Qurayshi succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the previous leader of the organization who was also killed during a US military operation, in 2019.”
Syria
NBC News: U.S. Kills ISIS Leader, But Another Is Already Waiting In The Wings
“The death of the Islamic State leader in a raid by U.S. special forces on his Syrian hideout was a devastating blow to the resurgent terrorist group, but his replacement is already waiting in the wings, experts said Thursday. And while a successor to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi has yet to be revealed, he will most likely be another Iraqi steeped in both Islamic fanaticism and terror, they said. "So far we don’t know the name of who is waiting in the wings to replace him, but you can be sure that ISIS has already designated somebody," James Franklin Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and former special envoy on Syria, told NBC News. "The shelf-life of an ISIS leader of late is about three years, and so they are prepared for that eventuality." Dr. Daniel Milton, the director of research at the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, agreed. "I'm not aware of a specific individual, but ISIS has experienced a number of leadership hits so they are prepared to fill the latest vacancy," Milton said. Whoever ISIS picks will be somebody familiar with "Islamic jurisprudence" and battlefield experience, Milton added. "There will be a rapid succession," he said. But there may not be a public announcement, said Seth G. Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”
The New York Times: The Islamic State Has Shown That It Can Still Pull Off Military Operations.
“One week after Islamic State fighters attacked a prison in northeastern Syria, where they have held out despite a heavy assault by a Kurdish-led militia backed by the United States, the terrorist organization published its version of what had gone down. In its official magazine, it mocked how many times in its history its foes had declared the Islamic State to be defeated. Its surprise attack on the prison, it crowed, had made its enemies “shout in frustration: ‘They have returned again!’” That description was not entirely wrong. The battle for the prison, in the city of Hasaka, killed hundreds of people, drew in U.S. troops and offered a stark reminder that three years after the collapse of the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate, the group’s ability to sow chaotic violence persists, experts said. On Saturday, about 60 ISIS fighters still controlled part of the prison. In Iraq, ISIS recently killed 10 soldiers and an officer at an army post and beheaded a police officer on camera. In Syria, it has assassinated scores of local leaders, and it extorts businesses to finance its operations. In Afghanistan, the withdrawal of American forces in August has left it to battle the Taliban, with often disastrous consequences for the civilians caught in the middle.”
Reuters: Turkey Says Its Forces 'Neutralise' 43 YPG Militants In Northern Syria
“Turkish forces have "neutralised" 43 Kurdish militants in northern Syria in retaliation for a bombing in the town of al Bab that killed nine people, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday. The ministry said the militants had also opened fire on Turkish bases in al Bab and three others in the region, prompting the retaliation. Turkey uses the word "neutralised" to mean killed, wounded or captured. Turkey has launched three incursions into northern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers a terrorist organisation.”
“…Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and former coordinator of the ISIL, al-Qaida and Taliban Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council, told The Media Line, “This seems to have been a combination of an air operation and special ground forces, which significantly reduces the risk to kill civilians.” However, he added, “Every counter-terrorism operation always carries the risk of collateral damage. No intelligence information report is super-perfect.” And most likely, Schindler continued, “The civilians announced killed in the news may actually be Qurayshi’s family.” Qurayshi succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the previous leader of the organization who was also killed during a US military operation, in 2019. Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University in Herzliya, pointed out in an interview with The Media Line that Qurayshi was killed in the same area as his predecessor, in Idlib Governorate. Schindler expressed astonishment because Qurayshi “was actually in the place where he was most likely to be.” Meaning that he would have thought the ISIS leader would have been better hidden somewhere else.”
U.S. News & World Report: Can Biden Overcome Accusations Of Weakness With Isis Raid?
“…Biden’s own national security officials have warned, for example, that ISIS could reconstitute and attack the U.S. within a matter of months. “All in all, things are actually looking up for ISIS at the moment,” says Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project. “They were able to counter al-Qaida pressure in West Africa, integrate most of Boko Haram – by essentially destroying the competing faction in Boko Haram that remained independent – establish a new affiliate in Central Africa as well as increasing their activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.” “It would be risky to relax and take the death of al-Qureishi in combination with the slightly reduced number of terror attacks in Europe and the U.S. – mainly due to COVID restrictions reducing the soft target environment – as a sign that this is over or better. We are still very much in the middle of the fight here,” Schindler adds. Others see Thursday’s raid as a successful demonstration of the “over the horizon” operations that Biden used as a central justification for withdrawing from U.S. bases in Afghanistan and that have come under intense scrutiny among those who don’t see how drone strikes can replace a U.S. presence in that particular hotbed of violence.”
Al Jazeera: Profile: Who Was Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi?
“…In 2014, al-Qurayshi helped al-Baghdadi take control of the northern city of Mosul, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) think-tank. The think-tank said al-Qurayshi “quickly established himself among the insurgency’s senior ranks and was nicknamed the ‘Professor’ and the ‘Destroyer'”. He was well-respected among ISIL members as a “brutal policymaker” and was responsible for “eliminating those who opposed al-Baghdadi’s leadership”, it said. US officials described al-Qurayshi after his death as the “driving force” behind the 2014 genocide of minority Yazidis in northern Iraq, and said he oversaw a network of ISIL branches from Africa to Afghanistan.”
Iraq
AFP: Dead Is Chief Was Iraqi Ex-Officer Nicknamed 'Destroyer'
“…Serving in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, the late dictator toppled by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Qurashi joined the ranks of Al-Qaeda after Hussein was captured by US troops in 2003, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) think-tank. In 2004, he was detained by US forces at the infamous Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, where Baghdadi and host of future Islamic State figures met. After both men were freed, Qurashi remained at Baghdadi's side as he took the reins of the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda in 2010, then defected to create the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), later the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In 2014, Qurashi helped Baghdadi take control of the northern city of Mosul, the CEP said. The think-tank said Qurashi "quickly established himself among the insurgency's senior ranks and was nicknamed the 'Professor' and the 'Destroyer'". He was well respected among IS members as a "brutal policymaker" and was responsible for "eliminating those who opposed Baghdadi's leadership", it said. He is probably best known for playing "a major role in the jihadist campaign of liquidation of the Yazidi minority (of Iraq) through massacres, expulsion and sexual slavery," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a jihadism analyst at the Sciences Po university in Paris.”
Al Jazeera: Who Is The Shadowy Iraqi Militia That Attacked The UAE?
“As tensions between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran-backed Houthi rebels over the war in Yemen continue to rise, a little-known armed group in Iraq has come to the fore. Calling itself Awliyat al-Waad al-Haq, or the True Promise Brigades, the group claimed responsibility for a drone attack on the UAE on Wednesday, saying in a statement that it launched “four drones targeting vital facilities in Abu Dhabi” in retaliation for the Emirates’ policies in Iraq and Yemen. The UAE’s defence ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed three drones that penetrated the Gulf country’s airspace over unpopulated areas on Wednesday. The attack was the latest in a series of aerial assaults on the Gulf state over the past few weeks. The previous three attacks were all claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The UAE, which began fighting in Yemen as part of a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition in 2015, has not been a primary target of attacks by Houthis and other armed groups in recent years. Before Wednesday, the Iraqi militia’s only other claimed attack was in January 2021 when it said it had launched drones targeting the Yamama Palace in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.”
Lebanon
Al Jazeera: Dozens Escape Security Crackdown, Poverty In Lebanon To Join ISIL
“For Um Ibrahim, life has been sheer agony since her 19-year-old son, Ibrahim, disappeared a few months ago from their home in Tripoli in northern Lebanon. The teenager, who was studying at a vocational institute to become an electrician, left his home in the densely populated Al-Qubba neighbourhood on an early Thursday in October last year. When the family woke up, Ibrahim’s bed was empty, and he was nowhere to be found. “The night before, Ibrahim was chatting away with his siblings. Everything seemed normal,” wept his mother. When his phone would not pick up, the family reached out to Ibrahim’s closest friend – 20-year-old Osama – but he, too, did not respond to any calls or messages. Hours later, Ibrahim’s family was shocked to learn that Osama had also disappeared from his home. “That’s when my heart sank,” said Um Ibrahim. “I knew something was wrong.” Disappointed to find the authorities had no answers to her questions about Ibrahim’s whereabouts, the family continued to search. Three weeks later, Um Ibrahim’s phone rang."
Nigeria
“Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has warned that Boko Haram’s menace will be “a child’s play” if the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) is allowed to grow. He gave the warning when he appeared on the weekly briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the State House, Abuja, on Thursday, Daily Trust reports. Zulum, who asked the Nigerian Army to re-strategise and defeat ISWAP, said the group posed a threat to the entire nation. He said ISWAP is building up in Borno through exploiting its closeness to the Sahel President Muhammadu Buhari was urged to re-engage external mercenaries for additional support in the battle against terrorism. Zulum, while speaking on the successes achieved so far in the war against insurgency in the North East, said, “All that I have said now, would never have been feasible without the support of the government. But notwithstanding all the contributions of the federal government, we still have some challenges “ne, I said it before, a growing number of ISWAP in some parts of the state is a matter of great concern to everybody. In the shores of Lake Chad, again in southern Borno State. Luckily, I was told there was military deployment yesterday to southern Borno state to fight the insurgents in the Tudun Katarangwa area.”
Technology
Vox: Does Banning Extremists Online Work? It Depends.
“It’s been over a year since Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube banned an array of domestic extremist networks, including QAnon, boogaloo, and Oath Keepers, that had flourished on their platforms leading up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Around the same time, these companies also banned President Donald Trump, who was accused of amplifying these groups and their calls for violence. So did the “Great Deplatforming” work? There is growing evidence that deplatforming these groups did limit their presence and influence online, though it’s still hard to determine exactly how it has impacted their offline activities and membership. While extremist groups have dispersed to alternative platforms like Telegram, Parler, and Gab, they have had a harder time growing their online numbers at the same rate as when they were on the more mainstream social media apps, several researchers who study extremism told Recode. Although the overall effects of deplatforming are far-reaching and difficult to measure in full, several academic studies about the phenomenon over the past few years, as well as data compiled by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs for Recode, support some of these experts’ observations.”
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