“Nigeria’s government is planning a coordinated military assault on militants
in the north that threaten to make the region ungovernable. Governors fr

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


February 25, 2022

 

Bloomberg: Nigeria Plans Coordinated Military Assault On Militants In North
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“Nigeria’s government is planning a coordinated military assault on militants
in the north that threaten to make the region ungovernable. Governors from the
region are in talks with Nigeria’s defense intelligence agencies to finalize
plans on the best approach to remove militants from the area, Kaduna state
Governor Nasir El-Rufai told reporters Thursday in a briefing in Abuja, the
nation’s capital. Methods being considered include simultaneous military and
ground operations, he said. An Islamist insurgency has destabilized
northeastern Nigeria for almost 13 years and has spread to the north-west,
which has also been dealing with armed gangs that have carried out kidnappings
and raids, and forced thousands of people to flee their homes. El-Rufai’s
announcement comes as the nation prepares to vote in presidential elections in
early 2023 and days after President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general who has
battled to meet his 2015-election pledge to tackle insecurity in Africa’s
most-populous country, labeled the bandits terrorists. El-Rufai, a member of
the ruling All Progressives Congress, said he expects the militants to be
contained soon. “We think that we are at a tipping point that we are going to
see the end of this,” he said.”

 

The New York Times: U.S. Carries Out First Airstrike In Somalia Since August
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“The United States conducted a drone strike against Al Shabab militants in
Somalia this week, the first such military action against the Qaeda affiliate
in East Africa since August, the military’s Africa Command said on Thursday.
The MQ-9 Reaper strike on Tuesday followed a Shabab attack on allied Somali
forces in Duduble, about 40 miles northwest of Mogadishu, the capital, the
command said in a statement. The command said it was still trying to determine
how many Shabab insurgents had been killed in the strike, but it said no
civilians were believed to have been harmed. When the Biden administration took
office in January 2021, it placed new limits on drone strikes outside active
war zones as it worked to develop a permanent policy. While the Trump
administration set broad rules for strikes in particular countries and
delegated authority to commanders in the field on when to carry them out,
proposals for strikes are now generally routed through the White House. But in
this case, as in four previous attacks since President Biden took office, White
House approval was not needed because the Africa Command has the authority to
conduct strikes in support of allied forces under what the military calls
collective self-defense.”

 

United States

 

Axios: Columbus Hate Crime Rates Among Highest In U.S.
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“Columbus residents reported hate crimes to police at the fourth-highest rate
per capita among large U.S. cities in 2021, Axios' Shawna Chen and Russell
Contreras report. Why it matters: Though already alarming, it's very possible
the figure is an undercount due to victims' hesitancy to report crimes,
especially Asian Americans. The big picture: Reports of hate crimes skyrocketed
in 2021 in 14 major metropolitan areas, a 46% increase from 2020, per a
preliminary analysis by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at
California State University, San Bernardino. Law enforcement agencies typically
define hate crimes as violent acts in which the perpetrators' actions are based
on a bias against the victim’s race, color, sexuality, religion or national
origin. Threat level: The increase is partially due to a record number of Asian
Americans nationwide reporting targeted crimes. The analysis reports an
increase of 339%, likely due to people blaming Asian Americans for the
coronavirus pandemic. Zoom in: Our city's hate crime reports increased 4% in
2021 to 114, up from 110 in 2020, with anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ crimes the
most reported. Zoom out: That overall increase is significantly lower than the
four other cities in the top five.”

 

Syria

 

The Washington Post: How The Islamic State Used Bullying And Bribes To Rebuild
In Syria
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“In the countryside around this market town, people prefer not to travel after
dark. Rumors abound that militants stalk the roads then. Three years after the
defeat of its self-declared caliphate, the Islamic State group is
reconstituting itself in the Syrian shadows, and few villagers want to test
their luck. “It’s not safe out there,” said Khalifa Salim al-Jeddal, 64, his
grave expression framed with deep wrinkles from years in the sun. “There are
places I know I can’t just get in my car and drive to. There are sleeper
cells.” A farmer from the nearby village of Jallo, Jeddal knows the risks more
than many. The militants tortured him when they ruled his village, he said. Now
they’re growing in confidence again, sometimes wearing military fatigues that
make them indistinguishable at a distance from the area’s U.S.-backed security
forces. Khalifa Salim al-Jeddal, center, a farmer, is seen at home in the
village of Jallo in northeastern Syria on Feb. 6, 2022. This is the Islamic
State in 2022. No longer holding territory, as the group did until 2019, but
lying low in small groups, operating with increasing sophistication and
exploiting the breathing spaced afforded by Syria’s fractured politics to
rebuild. They are also taking advantage of the local Kurdish-led
administration’s struggles to fully govern the broad swath of northeastern
Syria it has come to control since the fall of the caliphate, recruiting
informants from impoverished communities and intimidating individuals who work
with local government.”

 

Iraq

 

Forbes: Is Iraq Becoming A Launchpad For Militia Attacks On Regional Countries?

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“On Feb. 2, explosive-laden drones reportedly launched from Iraq targeted the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi. A shadowy Iraqi group called
Awliyat al-Waad al-Haq, the True Promise Brigades, claimed responsibility,
saying the attack was revenge for the UAE's policies in Yemen. Emirati air
defenses successfully intercepted the drones before they could cause any
casualties or damage. That wasn't the first reported militia drone attack from
Iraq against a regional country. A Jan. 23, 2021, drone attack against Saudi
Arabia was believed to have come from Iraq. An anonymous militia official told
the Associated Press that the drones used in the attack came “in parts from
Iran and were assembled in Iraq, and were launched from Iraq.” During clashes
between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last May, then-Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, “Iran sent an armed UAV (drone) into
Israel from Iraq or Syria.” In August 2018, Reuters reported that Iran supplied
its militia proxies in Iraq with short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) and
gave these groups the know-how to manufacture these missiles locally. The
missiles also had the range to threaten either Saudi Arabia or Israel if
deployed to western or southern Iraq.”

 

Nigeria

 

All Africa: Nigeria: Bandits Are More Daring Than Boko Haram - El-Rufai
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“Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State says armed bandits are more daring
than Boko Haram and their atrocities more devastating than those of the
Islamist insurgents. The bandits operate in the North-west and North-central
regions while the activities of Boko Haram insurgents are largely confined to
the North-east of Nigeria. Like the insurgents in the North-east, bandits have
killed, abducted or displaced tens of thousands of people in Kaduna, Zamfara,
Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger States over the last few years. Recent
statistics from Kaduna State Government said at least 343 persons died due to
banditry between July and September last year, while 830 people were kidnapped
within the period. The government said 69 bandits were killed by security
agencies, 210 citizens injured, 10 victims raped, and 101 persons rescued by
troops in the state within the same period. Also in Kaduna, 1,018 animals were
rustled, while there were 77 reports received relating to destruction of farms
across the state within the period. Mr El-Rufai compared the two groups behind
Nigeria's worst security challenges in many decades while briefing State House
correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday.”

 

Africa

 

AFP: Jihadists Kill Five Soldiers In Lake Chad Region
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“Five Chadian soldiers have been killed by jihadists in the Lake Chad region,
a vast marshland that has become a bolthole for Islamist rebels, President
Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said on Wednesday. “This latest loss, which can be
ascribed to a terrorist ambush by the Boko Haram sect, is a reminder of the
security challenges posed by the terrorism which we still face,” Deby said in a
posting on Facebook. The attack took place on Tuesday at Kaiga Kindjiria, about
150 kilometers (95 miles) north of the capital N’Djamena, he said. He gave no
further details of the incident, neither did local officials contacted by AFP.
“The blood spilt by our soldiers will not be in vain. We will win this war
against the madmen of Boko Haram,” Deby vowed. Chad has been fighting jihadists
from neighboring Nigeria for years. In official communications, the rebels are
invariably called Boko Haram, even though the historic group has splintered,
with the emergence of a pro-Islamic State faction. At least 26 Chadian troops
were killed last August in the Lake Chad region near the border with Cameroon.
Deby, a 37-year-old general, took power last April at the helm of a junta
following the death of his father, veteran president Idriss Deby Itno, from
injuries he sustained while fighting rebels in the north of the country.”

 

Deutsche Welle: Terror Threat Morphs In Mozambique
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“Mozambique's al-Shabab militia, whose name comes from the Arabic for youth
and which has no relation to Somalia's al-Shabab terrorist group, has been
carrying out brutal attacks in the nation's most northern province, Cabo
Delgado, since 2017. The Islamic militants have now taken control of entire
areas of Cabo Delgado and have expanded their operations inside and outside of
Mozambique, according to a new joint study by the Geneva-based Global
Initiative Against Transnational Crime and the Hanns Seidel Foundation in
Germany. This comes despite the deployment of troops from Rwanda and the
Southern African regional bloc, SADC, to help Mozambique's military fight the
armed uprising, Julian Rademeyer, one of the study's lead authors, told DW. The
study, “Insurgency, Illicit Markets and Corruption: The Cabo Delgado Conflict
and Its Regional Implications” was published on Thursday. In the past week
alone, extremists have attacked at least eight villages in Cabo Delgado,
completely burning down five of them on the border to Tanzania, the Catholic
Denis Hurley Peace Institute told Germany's Catholic news agency, KNA.
According to Rademeyer, the study's authors are “already seeing some of the
elements of al-Shabab scattering to other provinces and renewing attacks and
violence.”

 

Technology

 

BBC: OnlyFans Accused Of Conspiring To Blacklist Rivals
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“Legal documents, previously unreported, claim OnlyFans directed an
unidentified social media company to disable accounts of performers by placing
their content on a terrorism database. It is alleged that OnlyFans
representatives paid bribes to the firm's employees to facilitate the practice.
OnlyFans says it is aware of the legal claim and it has "no merit". UK website
OnlyFans - best known for hosting pornography - has grown hugely in recent
years. It lets users share video clips and photos with subscribers in return
for tips or a monthly fee. Performers often use social media accounts -
including Twitter and Instagram - to promote and link to adult websites showing
their explicit content. BBC News has learned that rival adult website FanCentro
has begun legal action in the US against OnlyFans' owner Leonid Radvinsky and
the company which receives OnlyFans' payments, Fenix Internet LLC.”

 

The Intercept: Facebook Allows Praise Of Neo-Nazi Ukrainian Battalion If It
Fights Russian Invasion
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“Facebook will temporarily allow its billions of users to praise the Azov
Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit previously banned from being
freely discussed under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations
policy, The Intercept has learned. The policy shift, made this week, is pegged
to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and preceding military escalations.
The Azov Battalion, which functions as an armed wing of the broader Ukrainian
white nationalist Azov movement, began as a volunteer anti-Russia militia
before formally joining the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014; the regiment is
known for its hardcore right-wing ultranationalism and the neo-Nazi ideology
pervasive among its members. Though it has in recent years downplayed its
neo-Nazi sympathies, the group’s affinities are not subtle: Azov soldiers march
and train wearing uniforms bearing icons of the Third Reich; its leadership has
reportedly courted American alt-right and neo-Nazi elements; and in 2010, the
battalion’s first commander and a former Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andriy
Biletsky, stated that Ukraine’s national purpose was to “lead the white races
of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].”

 

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