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Eye on Extremism
March 14, 2022
Reuters: New Islamic State Leader Is Brother Of Slain Caliph Baghdadi - Sources
“The new leader of Islamic State, whose appointment the group announced on Thursday, is the brother of slain former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to two Iraqi security officials and one Western security source. Islamic State named its new leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi in a recorded audio message distributed online. The announcement came weeks after the death last month of Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi, the man who in turn succeeded Baghdadi in 2019 and became the group's second so-called caliph. Both Baghdadi and Quraishi died by blowing themselves and family members up during U.S. raids on their hideouts in northern Syria. Islamic State, a successor to al Qaeda's notoriously bloodthirsty Iraq branch, has its roots in an Islamist insurgency against U.S. forces after they invaded Iraq and toppled Sunni Muslim dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. Islamic State in its current form emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighbouring Syria last decade and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Baghdadi declared an Islamic caliphate from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014 and proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims. Islamic State's brutal rule, during which it killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its narrow interpretation of Islam, came to an end in Mosul when Iraqi and international forces defeated the group there in 2017.”
The Washington Post: After Nuclear Talks Break Down, Iran Claims Ballistic Missile Attack In Iraq
“Iran claimed responsibility Sunday for a barrage of ballistic missiles that hit northern Iraq just after midnight, striking several kilometers from a U.S. compound and drawing sharp condemnation from the Iraqi and U.S. capitals. The semiofficial Fars news agency said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched “powerful missiles” in response to what it described as “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime,” an apparent reference to the killing of two of its members last week in Syria, which it has blamed on Israel. The attack marked a significant escalation in the proxy and political conflicts playing out on Iraqi soil as talks between Iran and the United States to resurrect a nuclear deal shattered by President Donald Trump now stall as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Landing at 1:30 a.m. local time, the strikes lit up the night sky and sent booms rolling through the Kurdish region’s capital, Irbil. Kurdish authorities said they counted 12 missiles that caused damage to buildings and cars, but no casualties. One landed several kilometers from a new and sprawling U.S. Consulate compound that remains under construction, officials said. Another landed close to the Kurdistan24 television news channel. A newsroom was damaged and a television studio carpeted in shattered glass, photographs showed.”
United States
CNN: Report Finds 'Significant Gaps' In DHS' Ability To Detect Violent Extremism In Its Ranks
“The Department of Homeland Security has uncovered “significant gaps” in its ability to detect potential domestic violent extremist threats within its ranks, citing unresolved issues of funding, training and consistency, according to a report released Friday. DHS officials have repeatedly pointed to domestic violent extremism as one of the most lethal and persistent terrorism-related threats to the United States. But the report found that DHS did not adequately track domestic violent extremism allegations and investigations among its own employees. The internal review, launched last year, identified four incidents involving people in the department supporting or participating in violent extremist activity. The number, however, may be higher, the report concluded. The four employee incidents were not identified in the report, but one involved a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of plotting a domestic terror attack, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to four counts of weapons and drug charges. Last April, in the wake of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called for the internal review, forming a working group to examine how to best “prevent, detect, and respond” to domestic violent extremism threats within DHS. Several issues with data collection may have led to underreporting of the extremist activity, the review found. The report looked at data between fiscal year 2019 and the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, which ended in June 2021.”
“Few people took the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions that swept the world in the spring of 2020 harder than the far-right extremist Adam Fox. The burden of being unable to work out at shuttered gyms offended Mr. Fox to his core, so he took to recording Facebook videos to rant about what he viewed as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s tyrannical regime. Ms. Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat, had mandated masks, canceled school and closed most commerce, and for militia movement members like Mr. Fox, she personified everything going so wrong in America. He suggested a citizen’s arrest. “We want her flex-cuffed on a table,” Mr. Fox, 38, said in a recording played in court. Mr. Fox and three fellow militia members are now on trial at the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan in connection with what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to kidnap Ms. Whitmer and blow up a bridge a few miles from her lakeside vacation cottage to delay the police response. The trial, which opened with jury selection on Tuesday and is expected to take up to six weeks, is an important and unusual domestic terrorism prosecution that will test the government’s ability to root out violent right-wing extremism on American soil, particularly in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.”
The New York Times: U.S. Official Ends Sentence Of Terrorist Who Was Tortured By C.I.A.
“A confessed courier for Al Qaeda whose tale of torture by the C.I.A. disgusted a U.S. military jury has completed his prison sentence, the Pentagon announced Friday. Now U.S. diplomats have to find a place for him to go. Majid Khan was sentenced to 26 years in prison in October, starting from when he first pleaded guilty to war crimes on Feb. 28, 2012, for delivering $50,000 from Pakistan to a Qaeda affiliate. The money was used in the 2003 bombing of a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed about a dozen people. But the military jury also declared his torture by the United States “a stain on the moral fiber of America” and urged the war court overseer to offer him clemency. On Friday, Jeffrey D. Wood, who serves as the convening authority for military commissions, did just that. He reduced the sentence to 10 years, meaning it ended on March 1. In doing so, Mr. Khan became the 20th of the 38 detainees currently held at Guantánamo Bay for whom the United States needs to arrange safe transfer to another country. His lawyer, J. Wells Dixon, urged the Biden administration to “transfer him promptly to a safe third country.” Mr. Khan, 42, is a Pakistani citizen who went to high school in suburban Maryland, but neither place appears to be a viable option. By law, no Guantánamo detainee can be taken to the United States.”
Syria
Barron’s: Islamic State Group New Chief's Priority? 'Staying Alive'
“The Islamic State group's new leader will have two key priorities, expert Hans-Jakob Schindler told AFP, to keep ties between its multiple subsidiaries -- and simply to stay alive. The jihadist group revealed the identity of its third chief since its inception on Thursday, confirming the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, more than a month after his demise, and naming Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as his successor. According to the White House and US defence officials, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi died when he detonated a bomb to avoid capture during a US raid that saw commandos swoop in by helicopter to an area in northwest Syria controlled by rival jihadists. His demise, during the night of February 2-3 in the town of Atme in Idlib province, was the biggest setback to IS since his own predecessor, the better-known Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed around 15 kilometres (nine miles) away during a 2019 US commando raid. Little is known about the new leader himself, but Schindler, senior director at Counter Extremism Project, and a former United Nations expert on jihadism, explained what the announcement means. “Baghdadi, as a caliph should be, was making statements all the time: the result was he died. Qurashi was the exact opposite, not public at all, not communicating except with very few individuals... (but) the result is he died,” he said.”
Iraq
Voice Of America: Islamic State Fighters In Iraq, Africa Line Up Behind New Leader
“The Islamic State group is moving to solidify support for its new leader, sharing photos on social media showing fighters uniting behind his rule. One set of photos obtained by JihadoScope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists, and shared with VOA on Friday, shows a small group of fighters in Kirkuk, Iraq, giving bay'ah, or pledging allegiance, to the new IS emir. A second set of photos shows a larger group of fighters purportedly from the group's West Africa affiliate raising their weapons to the sky as they surround the black IS flag, also pledging allegiance to the new leader. Additional pledges have come in from some of IS group's media divisions. It also appears IS has set up specific social media accounts and channels, on apps such as Telegram, to collect and distribute more photos of IS followers pledging to follow the new leader, JihadoScope told VOA. IS on Thursday issued an audio recording in which the group confirmed the death of its former leader and his top spokesman and introduced its new leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The statement, allegedly from the group's new spokesman, Abu Umar al-Muhajir, said Abu al-Hassan was handpicked by his predecessor and had been in command since early February.”
Afghanistan
The Wall Street Journal: Sanctioned Taliban Financier Holds Leadership Post At Afghan Central Bank
“Afghanistan’s Taliban government has appointed a man blacklisted by the U.S., the United Nations and the European Union to help lead the country’s central bank, according to people familiar with the matter. Ahmad Zia Agha, more commonly known in Afghanistan as Noor Ahmad Agha, is a senior Taliban military and financial leader sanctioned for allegedly managing funds intended for bombs and for distributing money to Taliban commanders and associates abroad. The U.S. has labeled him a specially designated global terrorist. He was appointed five months ago as the first deputy governor of the Da Afghanistan Bank. As the central bank’s No. 2 official, Mr. Agha is in control of the authority that oversees Afghanistan’s financial sector, including regulations to combat terror-finance and anti-money-laundering rules. His appointment is expected to fuel worries among many Western policy makers about providing the Taliban-run government access to foreign financing, including billions of dollars of funds at the World Bank and $7 billion in foreign currency reserves held in the U.S. U.S. officials have been in talks with representatives of Afghanistan’s central bank about meeting conditions for some of the reserve funds to be released through the central bank itself, according to U.S. and central bank officials. The U.S. wants guarantees the central bank is operating independently from the Taliban government, is led by technocrats, and its work is overseen by a third party.”
Yemen
Asharq Al-Awsat: Council Of Arab Interior Ministers Classifies Houthis As Terrorist Group
“The Council of Arab Interior Ministers has approved the classification of the Houthi group as a terrorist entity and its inclusion in the list of terrorist entities on the Arab list of perpetrators, masterminds, and financiers of terrorist acts. The Council's General Secretariat said in a statement that the classification of the Houthi militia as a terrorist entity, and its inclusion on the Arab blacklist, comes as a result of the violations against the Yemeni population, including killing, displacement, imprisonment, and torture. The Council also condemned the group's violations against neighboring countries and the international community, including repeated cross-border terrorist attacks targeting civilians and civil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They denounced the recent Houthi terrorist attack against a Saudi refinery. The Council reiterated its full solidarity with the Kingdom in the face of these terrorist attacks and its unconditional support in confronting terrorism and confronting external schemes. The statement noted that the terrorist attacks aimed to undermine Saudi security and stability. The statement explained that the inclusion of the Houthis in the Arab blacklist comes as a result of the efforts of the Arab police and security services, which realized the danger of these militias and the consequences of the spread of their actions and ideas.”
Saudi Arabia
Reuters: Saudi Arabia Executes 81 Men In One Day For Terrorism, Other Offences
“Saudi Arabia executed 81 men including seven Yemenis and one Syrian on Saturday, the interior ministry said, in the kingdom's biggest mass execution in decades. The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported there in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020. Offences ranged from joining militant groups to holding “deviant beliefs”, the ministry said in a statement. “These individuals, totalling 81, were convicted of various crimes including murdering innocent men, women and children,” the statement read. “Crimes committed by these individuals also include pledging allegiance to foreign terrorist organisations, such as ISIS (Islamic State), al-Qaeda and the Houthis,” it added. The ministry did not say how the executions were carried out. The men included 37 Saudi nationals who were found guilty in a single case for attempting to assassinate security officers and targeting police stations and convoys, the statement added. The mass execution is likely to bring back attention to Saudi Arabia's human rights record at a time when world powers have been focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of enforcing restrictive laws on political and religious expression, and criticised it for using the death penalty, including for defendants arrested when they were minors. “There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes,” Soraya Bauwens, deputy director of anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, said in a statement.”
Reuters: Yemen's Houthis Claim Drone Attack On Refinery In Saudi Capital
“Yemen's Houthi group claimed a drone attack on a refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday morning, which Saudi state media said did not affect petroleum supplies. The Iran-aligned Houthi movement targeted a Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) refinery in Riyadh using three Samad-3 drones, its military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Friday. Six Samad-1 drones were also fired at Aramco facilities in the Saudi cities of Jizan and Abha. The attack caused a small fire in Riyadh that was controlled and did not result in any injuries or casualties, Saudi state news agency SPA reported early on Friday, citing an energy ministry official. “The refinery's operations and supplies of petroleum and its derivatives were not affected,” the statement said. It did not specify where the attack originated from. The world's top oil exporter has faced frequent missile and drone assaults by Yemen's Houthis which have been battling a coalition led by Riyadh for seven years. “These repeated acts of sabotage and terrorism on vital installations and civilian structures ... do not just target the Kingdom but aim to undermine the security and stability of global energy supplies,” the energy ministry statement said. Sarea said the attacks were carried out in response to the coalition blocking the entry of fuel into Houthi territory, where ongoing fuel shortages are getting worse.”
Nigeria
All Africa: Nigeria: Troops Kill 125 Terrorists In 2 Weeks
“Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said 125 terrorists were killed while 174 Boko Haram terrorists/Islamic State West Africa Province terrorists surrendered in the last two weeks. The director of Defence Media Operations Major General Benard Onyeuko giving an update of Armed Forces of Nigeria operations from 24th February - 10th March, 2022, confirmed that troops were ambushed while responding to a distress call in Kebbi with undisclosed number of casualties recorded. Leadership had reported that 18 soldiers and policemen were killed, eight wounded while two were missing in action in the encounter and 18 rifles carted away in Kebbi State. Onyeuko who confirmed this, said the military, however, remobilised and severe action was being taken He said surrendered terrorists comprise 43 adult males, 58 females and 73 children from villages around Bama and Dikwa local government area of Borno State. He said troops of Operation Hadin Kai neutralized 10 terrorists, recovered four AA-guns, 2,000 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, 10 bicycles, one unexploded Improvised Explosive Device, one MOWAG APC, one truck mounted with 122 artillery gun, one machine gun, four AK 47 rifles, one 60mm motar tube with five bombs at Mandara Mountain in Gwoza local government area and Timbuktu triangle in Damboa local government area of Borno State.”
Somalia
All Africa: Somalia: At Least 200 Terrorists Killed In Somali Army Operation
“Somali sources reported that the county's army has launched a military operation on its borders and managed to kill at least 200 of al-Shabaab terrorists. Somali army also managed to thwart several terrorist explosions, Al-Ahram reported. Somalia has stepped up security operations against al-Shabab in the central and southern regions. However, the terrorist group still controls large swaths of rural areas where they ambushed military forces. Al-Shabaab is an armed terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda and has carried out many terrorist operations that have killed hundreds of people in Africa. The terrorist group has repeatedly attacked the country's government troops and African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and carried out several brutal operations in other parts of Africa. Somalia has been fighting against the al-Shabaab group since its founding in 2004.”
Mali
Reuters: France To Continue Aerial Support To Mali After Troop Withdrawal
“France will still give aerial military support to Malian troops battling an Islamist insurgency in the Sahel even after its counter-terrorism mission has withdrawn, but only where Russian fighters are not present, the force's commander said on Friday. Mali's former colonial power announced last month that it would pull out 2,400 troops first deployed to Mali almost a decade ago, after relations with the country's ruling military junta turned sour earlier this year. Tensions arose over the junta's decision to delay democratic elections in February, as well as its collaboration with private contractors belonging to Russia's Wagner group. rBut the commander of Operation Barkhane, General Laurent Michon, told a press briefing in neighbouring Burkina Faso that France would continue to offer aerial support in areas free of “Russian mercenaries”. “We will continue to help via air by training people on the ground who are capable of calling planes, of guiding them,” he said, adding that similar support would be offered to soldiers in Burkina Faso and Niger, which also shares a border with Mali. Mali's military spokesman did not respond to calls for comment. The country has been struggling to reign in insurgents with ties to al Qaeda since they seized its desert north in 2012, prompting France to send troops to push them back the following year.”
United Kingdom
“A terrorist who posted beheading videos on WhatsApp and footage which gave tips on how to make a car bomb is set to be freed from jail seven months early. The Parole Board has decided to recommend an early release for Mohammed Khilji, who was jailed for five years in June 2018 after sharing graphic beheading clips on WhatsApp. The then 19-year-old first came to the attention of police after he posted a video on YouTube in which he had digitally altered footage of a war video game to make it appear that the featured soldiers were Daesh fighters. Khilji had superimposed black ISIS flags on the 'Battlefield' video game and overlaid it with a terrorist battle song and a quote from a Daesh propaganda magazine. According to Counter Terrorism Policing, officers also found videos on his phone and computer, including one which featured footage of the Westminster terrorist attack in 2017, and concluded by offering advice on preparing a vehicle-borne bomb. The Parole Board said: 'After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was satisfied that Mr Khilji was suitable for release.’”
Germany
Vice: A ‘Right-Wing’ Back-To-Land Movement Called Anastasia Is Making Germans Nervous
“Grabow-bei-Blumenthal, in the East German state of Brandenburg, is a tiny village of about 300 people, hardly more than a few streets surrounded by farmland. Until recently, it had two possible attractions to outsiders: the old manor house, now a hotel, and the church, a half-timbered structure that dates from the late 16th century. But over the past few years, there’s been an unusual sight in the little town and the surrounding fields, one that has drawn reporters and TV crews from around Germany: young families dressed in what look like peasant clothes of a previous century, who farm using traditional methods and live according to what they see as ancient principles. It’s known as the Anastasia movement, a back-to-the-land group that originated in Russia in the late 1990s and has been slowly spreading through Eastern and Central Europe ever since, and has been described as a movement with antisemitic elements in their beliefs connected to the far-right, by some civil-society organizations. Grabow, where the group owns more than 200 acres of land, is the biggest settlement in Germany, but there are at least 17 throughout the country, from Bavaria in the south to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the north. The movement is decentralized, and its practices vary from settlement to settlement, which nevertheless share core values.”
Southeast Asia
ABC News: Indonesian Police Kill Suspected Militant Resisting Arrest
“Members of Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism police squad shot and killed a doctor resisting arrest who was allegedly connected to the banned Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, which has been blamed for a string of past bombings, police said Friday.The man, who was identified by his single name, Sunardi, 53, tried to ram the officers who blocked his pickup truck on Wednesday on a street in Central Java’s Sukoharjo district, leading two of the officers to jump into the truck's cargo bed, said National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan. The suspect ignored police warnings to stop the truck and kept driving at high speeds in a swerving pattern in an apparent attempt to throw the two officers from the truck. He hit a nearby vehicle and police opened fire at him, Ramadhan said. “What our officers have done is in accordance with the procedures and measures,” Ramadhan said. “The suspect caused a situation that threatened the lives of the officers and the public.” The slain suspect, who was on his way home from an Islamic boarding school in Sukoharjo, where he also operated a medical practice, was shot in the back and hip and rushed to a police hospital in the nearby city of Solo but died on the way, Ramadhan said. The two officers chasing the suspect were injured and hospitalized at the same facility.”
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