Eye on Extremism

February 10, 2022

 

Associated Press: UN: Build On Islamic State Chief's Death To Thwart Recruits

 

“The U.N. counterterrorism chief said Wednesday it’s crucial to build on the momentum following last week’s death of the leader of the Islamic State extremist group and address the grievances that terrorist groups exploit to attract new followers. Undersecretary-General Vladimir Voronkov told the U.N. Security Council that the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was “perhaps the most significant in a series of blows” against the Islamic State’s leadership in recent months. But he warned that the group is known for its ability to regroup despite similar past losses, “maintaining and intensifying its activities in conflict-affected regions across the world.” Since the 9/11 attacks in the United States that spurred the U.N.’s counterterrorism activities, Voronkov said the United Nations has learned that combatting terrorism “is a long-term game and that there are no quick fixes.” “Military counterterrorism operations may be necessary,” he said, “but comprehensive measures with a strong focus on prevention are required to address the dynamics that fuel the appeal to terrorism.”

 

Bloomberg: U.K. Cuts Terror Threat One Level To ‘Substantial’

 

“The U.K.’s terrorism threat level has been reduced from severe to substantial. In a statement to Parliament, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) has reduced the UK national terrorism threat level from severe to substantial. This means that a terrorist attack in the UK is likely. “JTAC previously raised the UK national threat level from substantial to severe following two terrorist attacks in the UK in quick succession, in October and November 2021. “When the threat level is at severe it means an attack is highly likely. “JTAC judges that, despite these two attacks, the current nature and scale of the UK terrorist threat is consistent with the level of threat seen prior to the attacks.”

 

United States

 

Los Angeles Times: Alleged Member Of Extremist Group Indicted On Weapons Charge

 

“In the garage of a Murrieta house last fall, Matthew Chen opened a PowerPoint presentation on his computer for a group of men. A caption on the screen was a vulgar insult directed at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives. The first slide read, “Everything you are not supposed to know about suppressors.” The gathering was a meeting of the Cali Bois, a group associated with the “boogaloo” movement — a loose collection of extremists who espouse the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Chen also had with him that night silencers that dampen the sound guns make when fired. As the meeting concluded, he allegedly sold one of the devices to an undercover FBI agent posing as a group member for $400. A few months later, he sold the agent other accessories that convert handguns into fully automatic weapons, according to court records. Chen was arrested late last month and indicted on Feb. 4 in Los Angeles on charges of illegal firearm possession. Chen could not be reached for comment. He is currently free on a $120,000 bond. He is at least the seventh person with alleged ties to the boogaloo movement to be charged in California. In 2020, one of the men fatally shot a security guard outside a federal government building in Oakland and then killed a Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputy to avoid being captured, according to an affidavit written by an FBI special agent.”

 

Fox News: 'Lady Al Qaeda' Social Media Campaign Surged Before Texas Synagogue Attack: Report

 

“Researchers say they’ve uncovered a coordinated spike in Twitter activity sympathetic to the convicted terrorist “Lady Al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui leading up to the hostage crisis at Texas’ Congregation Beth Israel, where an Islamic extremist demanded her release from a U.S. prison. Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British national, flew to New York and made his way to Texas, buying a Taurus G2C pistol along the way before taking four hostages at the synagogue in Colleyville. Before the hostages escaped and law enforcement killed him, he demanded Siddiqui’s release from custody in Fort Worth, where she’s serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at Americans in Afghanistan. In the five months ahead of the synagogue attack, pro-Siddiqui tweets surged, according to new research released by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) and conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). They were attributed to both “bot-like activity and a network of influencers amplifying anti-Semitic content.” Twitter said Wednesday morning that it was investigating the information uncovered in the report.”

 

Syria

 

The New York Times: Violence Erupts At Syrian Camp For ISIS Families, Leaving A Child Dead

 

“At a detention camp in northeastern Syria where tens of thousands of family members of Islamic State fighters have been held for years, guards opened fire on residents this week after women and children attacked them with rocks and knives, according to a top security commander for the region. One child was killed in the shooting on Monday and several women and children were wounded, the commander, Newroz Ahmed, told The New York Times on Tuesday. It was the first time that guards in the sprawling Al Hol camp had fired on children, but only the latest episode of violence in a dangerous place that ISIS has increasingly infiltrated. “Al Hol is now out of control,” said Abdulkarim Omar, an official with the administration of the Kurdish-led breakaway region in northeastern Syria that encompasses the camp. The violence at Al Hol erupted at a time of escalating tensions in the region between the area’s dominant military power, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., and resurgent ISIS militants. The camp has been under heightened alert since an ISIS attack on a prison in the northeastern city of Hasaka, Syria, last month. Officials from the S.D.F., which is backed by the United States, have said that the ISIS plan was to free prisoners, then to move on to take control of Al Hol camp and other areas, hoping to gain a territorial toehold to try to re-establish their self-declared caliphate, which they lost three years ago.”

 

Voice Of America: Islamic State Out To Prove It's More Than Its Leader

 

“…Some analysts who study IS say while much of what the terror group is putting out on social media is about branding and trying to maintain its fearsome image, some of it is also a reflection of realities on the ground. “The organization is ticking along quite nicely, even in this period now,” Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the New York and Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP), told VOA. “Yes, you killed the leader. That's a big blow,” said Schindler, who spent three years overseeing the United Nations team that tracked IS, as well as rival terror group al-Qaida and also Afghanistan’s Taliban. “But the organization itself is not strategically weak … a network-based organization can always replace a leader.” Accounts from countries closely following the fortunes of IS would seem to back that up. Intelligence shared with the United Nations for a report released past Friday warned that despite some serious setbacks, IS “continues to operate as an entrenched rural insurgency in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, exploiting the porous border between the two countries, while maintaining operations in areas of low security pressure.” The U.N. report, compiled prior to al-Mawla’s death, also said IS commanded a fighting force in Iraq and Syria of as many as 10,000 followers and that the group maintained access to about $50 million in cash reserves.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The National: German Intelligence On Alert For Extremists Travelling To Afghanistan

 

“German security services are bracing themselves for the possibility of extremists in Europe travelling to Afghanistan to fight or train with Al Qaeda. Bruno Kahl, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, said the Taliban’s return to power had made Afghanistan a potential focal point for extremists around the world. In a speech in London, he also raised the concern that Afghan terrorist branch ISIS-K, an enemy of the Taliban which has carried out a series of atrocities in the country, could inspire attacks in Europe. The Taliban made assurances after returning to power that they would not give a safe haven to terrorists, as they did during their 1996-2001 rule that culminated in Al Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the US. But their talk of a more moderate Taliban rule has been undermined by killings of former western-backed security forces and the reintroduction of strict laws affecting women and girls. Mr Kahl said Al Qaeda remained closely linked to the Taliban and would be able to operate more freely in Afghanistan in future, and could seek to re-establish training camps in the country. He told a London School of Economics event that both Al Qaeda and ISIS-K had profited from the departure of international troops and the security services of the former Afghan government.”

 

Pakistan

 

Voice Of America: Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan Seen As 'Rude Awakening' For Pakistan

 

“Observers saw the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan last year as a strategic victory for neighboring Pakistan after years of frosty relations between Islamabad and the Western-backed government in Kabul that collapsed last August. Security concerns along the two nations' border have since complicated the picture. Many Pakistanis celebrated the Taliban's return to power, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, who declared that Afghans had broken the “shackles of slavery.” Some Pakistanis also welcomed a perceived blow to archrival India, which had close ties with the former Afghan government. In the weeks that followed, Pakistan launched a diplomatic effort urging the international community to engage with the Taliban, help ease Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis and prevent it from descending into chaos again. For the first time, Pakistan even allowed India to transport humanitarian aid to Kabul through Pakistani territory. In December, foreign ministers of the 56 nations belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, along with Taliban and U.S. delegates, gathered in Islamabad. The meeting focused on Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis. Despite such efforts, tensions have sometimes flared between Islamabad and Kabul, to the surprise of many in the region.”

 

Mali

 

Voice Of America: Mali, France Say Attack Kills At Least 20 Militants

 

“Mali's army has confirmed it took part in a joint attack last week with French and European forces that killed at least 20 Islamist militants. The attack in southern Mali went ahead despite rising tensions between Mali’s government and the country’s former colonial power. French and Estonian Takuba Task Force troops, along with soldiers from the Malian armed forces, killed “nearly 30 Islamists” in the Liptako region of Mali, near the borders with Niger and Burkina Faso, according to a statement from the French Army Ministry on Tuesday. The statement also says that equipment and fuel was seized, and that vehicles and “about 10 kilograms of explosives” were destroyed during the joint operation, which involved ground forces, drone surveillance and a Mirage 2000 fighter jet. The Malian army also released a statement Tuesday referencing several recent operations, including an operation with the Takuba Task Force in In Délimane, the same locality cited in the French Army Ministry statement. Colonel Souleymane Dembele, a spokesperson for the Malian army, confirmed by telephone that the operation cited in the French statement is the same operation cited by the Malian Army. Twenty terrorists were killed and several vehicles destroyed, according to the Malian statement, as well as several weapons recovered.”

 

Africa

 

France 24: Burkina Faso Army Chief Calls For 'New Impetus' To Combat Jihadi Terrorism

 

“Burkina Faso's new armed forces chief, who was appointed last week following a military coup, on Wednesday vowed to give a “new impetus” to a years-long struggle against jihadist insurgents. At a ceremony to mark his appointment, Colonel David Kabre said he was appealing to all units “to commit to a new undertaking with me – to give a new impetus in the fight against terrorism in our country. “My taking over command coincides with a badly degraded security situation marked by the resurgence of terrorist attacks in several parts of the country,” Kabre said. His top priority was to “restore territorial integrity”, he added. “I shall develop, along with the National Theatre Operations Command, precise mechanisms for planning, conducting and coordinating operations,” he said, adding: “Our actions will be reshaped towards the offensive.” Kabre, 54, who once served a two-year spell as minister of sport, was appointed on February 4 to replace General Gilbert Ouedraogo, 11 days after the landlocked Sahel country experienced its latest putsch. Ouedraogo had become deeply unpopular among troops for his handling of an insurgency which swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.”

 

Reuters: Five Rangers, Soldier Killed In Attack In Benin, Park Management Says

 

“Five rangers and a soldier were killed and 10 others wounded in an ambush by unnamed militants in a northern Benin park on Tuesday, the park's management said in a statement on Wednesday. “In the afternoon of Tuesday Feb. 8, a team of rangers was ambushed in W National Park in Benin, while carrying out a patrol at the northern limit of the Park where it intersects with Burkina Faso and Niger,” African Parks said. Tuesday's attack was the deadliest in a series of recent incidents blamed on militants in the north of the country, increasing fears about widening Islamist violence. African Parks, the South African non-profit group that manages the W National Park and the Pendjari National Park, said reinforcements from Benin's army and additional rangers have been deployed on the ground. Benin is among the West African coastal countries considered most vulnerable to a spillover of Islamist violence from the landlocked Sahel countries, where groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State exert influence over vast tracts of territory.”

 

France

 

Al Jazeera: Main Paris Attacks Suspect Abdeslam Says He ‘Didn’t Kill Anyone’

 

“Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in a rampage that killed 130 people in coordinated attacks across Paris in November 2015, has told a French court he has never killed or wounded anyone. Abdeslam, 32, said on Wednesday he supported the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) and that it was undeniable that he had been on the path to becoming a fighter. He did not say, however, whether he was involved in the coordinated gun and bomb attacks that were the deadliest in post-war France and sent shockwaves across Europe. “I wanted to say today that I didn’t kill anyone, and I didn’t hurt anyone. I didn’t even make a scratch,” Abdeslam told the court under questioning. “It’s important for me to say this, because, since the beginning of this case, people have not stopped slandering me.” French-Moroccan Abdeslam was believed to be the only surviving member of the commando team thought to have carried out the gun and bomb attacks on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and the national football stadium. He was alone among the 20 defendants to be directly accused of murder, attempted murder and hostage-taking. Investigators believed his explosive vest malfunctioned and that he fled the French capital in the hours after the attack.”

 

Europe

 

Associated Press: 3 Face Terror Charges For Arson Attack On Greek Church Group

 

“A Greek prosecutor on Wednesday brought terrorism charges against three people accused of participation in an arson attack by an extremist anarchist group against an Orthodox Christian religious society in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The suspects, two men aged 35 and a 20-year-old woman, all Greek citizens, were arrested Tuesday shortly after the attack with an incendiary device that damaged the entrance of the building but caused no injuries. All three were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, carrying out a terrorist act with use of explosives, as well as endangering life, damaging property and arson. A police statement said they allegedly belonged to a group named Organization Anarchist Action that had been involved in several similar attacks since 2016. It said a search of the suspects' homes revealed a handgun and ammunition, police and first aid services clothing and insignia, flammable chemicals, a handbook on making incendiary devices and stolen identity cards. Small extremist anarchist groups have proliferated in Greece in recent decades, typically using small incendiary devices to attack symbols of authority or wealth.”

 

Technology

 

The Independent: Facebook Launches UK Tool To Redirect Users Away From Extremist Searches

 

“Facebook and Instagram users in the UK who search for content related to organised hate or violent extremism will now be redirected to resources and support as part of a major counterspeech update. The social network has announced the expansion of its Redirect Initiative into the UK, as well as Pakistan which replaces the top search result on hate or extremism-based searches with a link to help and support on how to move away from hate and violence. According to Facebook, research has shown that challenging violent and extremist views with positive counterspeech is one of the most effective ways to combat such attitudes and uses empathy and alternative perspectives to respond to extremist views. The tool has already been launched in Australia, the US, Germany and Indonesia and is the latest move by Facebook parent firm Meta to attempt to improve online safety amid ongoing scrutiny on the sector from regulators and policymakers from around the world. The social media giant said the counterspeech process was most effective when the counterspeech comes from credible voices and so has partnered with charity Exit UK for the UK version of the tool.”

 

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