“The United States is poised to remove five extremist groups, all believed to
be defunct, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations, including





 


 


<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



Eye on Extremism


May 16, 2022

 

Associated Press: US Set To Remove 5 Groups From Foreign Terrorism Blacklist
<[link removed]>

 

“The United States is poised to remove five extremist groups, all believed to
be defunct, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations, including several
that once posed significant threats, killing hundreds if not thousands of
people across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Although the groups are
inactive, the decision is politically sensitive for the Biden administration
and the countries in which the organizations operated, and could draw criticism
from victims and their families still dealing with the losses of loved ones.
The organizations are the Basque separatist group ETA , the Japanese cult Aum
Shinrikyo, the radical Jewish group Kahane Kach and two Islamic groups that
have been active in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt. The U.S.
State Department notified Congress on Friday of the moves, which come at the
same time as an increasingly divisive but unrelated debate in Washington and
elsewhere about whether Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard should or can
be legally removed from the U.S. list as part of efforts to salvage the
languishing Iran nuclear deal. That designation, which was imposed by the Trump
administration, was not mentioned in Friday's notifications.”

 

USA Today: Buffalo Attack Highlights Most Lethal Domestic Threat: Racist,
Extremist Violence
<[link removed]>

 

“The details emerging from America’s latest mass shooting were as stunning as
they were familiar. A lone gunman, allegedly driven by long-simmering racial
animus, opened fire at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, with the apparent
purpose of taking Black lives. The 18-year-old, white suspect, dressed in body
armor and armed with a rifle, killed 10 and wounded three, police say. It is a
grim scenario that has rattled federal, state and local law enforcement
officials for years as racially motivated extremists have taken lives in
Charleston, South Carolina; El Paso, Texas; Pittsburgh; Charlottesville,
Virginia; and now Buffalo, New York.  FBI Director Christopher Wray, in
testimony last year before a Senate committee, offered perhaps the most
daunting assessment of an increasingly toxic threat, saying racially motivated
attackers represented the most deadly and “biggest chunk” of an estimated 2,000
open domestic terror investigations. Brian Levin, director of the Center for
the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino,
called the surge in hate crimes targeting Blacks, Asians, Jews and others as “a
fire season all year long.” An examination of hate crimes in major U.S. cities
tracked by Levin's group and set to be published this year found a nearly 39%
increase in such offenses from 2020 to 2021.”

 

United States

 

Associated Press: Buffalo Shooting: Sites Yank Videos Faster, But Not By Much
<[link removed]>

 

“Social platforms have learned to remove violent videos of extremist
shootings more quickly over the past few years. It's just not clear they're
moving quickly enough. Police say that when a white gunman killed 10 people and
wounded three others — most of them Black — in a “racially motivated violent
extremist” shooting in Buffalo Saturday, he livestreamed the attack to the
gaming platform Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. It didn’t stay there long; a
Twitch spokesperson said it removed the video in less than two minutes. That's
considerably faster than the 17 minutes Facebook needed to take down a similar
video streamed by a self-described white supremacist who killed 51 people in
two New Zealand mosques in 2019. But versions of the Buffalo shooting video
still quickly spread to other platforms, and they haven't always disappeared
quickly. In April, Twitter enacted a new policy on “perpetrators of violent
attacks” to remove accounts maintained by “individual perpetrators of
terrorist, violent extremist, or mass violent attacks,” along with tweets and
other material produced by perpetrators of such attacks. On Sunday, though,
clips of the video were still circulating on the platform.”

 

Reuters: Accused NY Subway Shooter Pleads Not Guilty To Terrorism, Weapons
Charges
<[link removed]>

 

“A man charged with last month's mass shooting in a New York subway, one of
the most violent attacks in the history of the city's transit system, pleaded
not guilty to terrorism and weapons charges in Brooklyn federal court on
Friday. Frank James, 62, is accused of carrying out an April 12 gunfire and
smoke bomb attack that injured 23 people. He entered his plea before U.S.
District Judge William Kuntz, dressed in khaki prison clothes. James' lawyer,
Mia Eisner-Grynberg from the Federal Defenders of New York, did not seek to
have her client released on bail, and declined to comment after the plea. Ten
people were shot in the attack, which unfolded as a Manhattan-bound N train was
pulling into the 36th Street station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood
during the morning commute. Thirteen others were injured in a frantic rush to
flee the train. No one was killed. The incident set off a round-the-clock
manhunt that culminated in James' arrest some 30 hours later. After his arrest,
Eisner-Grynberg said James saw his photograph in the news and then called the
New York Police Department's tipline to turn himself in.”

 

Syria

 

Al Jazeera: Syria: 10 Killed, 9 Wounded In Rocket Attack On Bus: State Media
<[link removed]>

 

“A rocket attack on a military bus has killed 10 soldiers and wounded nine
more in northwest Syria, the country’s state news agency SANA reported. The
death toll is the heaviest reported in pro-government ranks from a rebel attack
since a truce agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey in March 2020. The truce
has largely held despite sporadic attacks by both sides, including continued
Russian air raids. The bus was attacked in the west of Aleppo province on
Friday morning, the SANA news agency said. Attackers hit the bus with an
anti-tank missile, the agency reported. There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the attack, which was near the frontier with rebel-held
territory close to the Turkish border. Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham posted
a video on its Telegram channel on Friday showing a rocket hitting a bus, with
a caption declaring that the footage showed the moment a military bus belonging
to pro-Assad militias was destroyed west of Aleppo. The content of the video
could not be independently verified. The head of Lebanon’s heavily armed Shia
movement Hezbollah, which has intervened in Syria in support of President
Bashar al-Assad, offered his condolences for the dead in a televised address
later on Friday.”

 

Iraq

 

Kurdistan 24: Iraqi Airstrike Kills 3 ISIS Suspects In Anbar
<[link removed]>

 

“The Iraqi Air Force killed three suspected ISIS militants in an airstrike on
the country’s western Anbar province, the military’s Security Media Cell
announced on Thursday. The strike killed three suspected ISIS members hiding in
a tunnel believed to have served as a “hostel” for the group in Wadi Ashwa near
Kubaisah in Anbar Province, according to the Media Cell. The Iraqi military
regularly carries out airstrikes and operations against ISIS remnants in the
country. In recent airstrikes in Mosul and Kirkuk, the air force announced it
had killed at least 15 members of the group. In late April, Iraqi security
forces launched the second phase of an air-and-ground operation codenamed Solid
Will in the western part of the country, mainly in Anbar’s desert regions.
During that operation, the Iraqi forces destroyed a number of hideouts and
caves allegedly used by the group. On Friday, the US-led coalition’s official
Twitter account highlighted Iraqi airstrikes against ISIS, saying they are
demonstrative of the air force’s commitment to Iraq’s security and stability.”

 

Pakistan

 

Voice Of America: Suicide Blast, Gunmen Kill 8 People In Pakistan
<[link removed]>

 

“Pakistani officials said Sunday militant attacks in the country’s northwest
had killed at least eight people, including security force members, children
and members of the minority Sikh group. The deadliest attack occurred in North
Waziristan, a volatile district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing three
soldiers and three children, according to a military statement. It said the
children were aged between 4 and 11 years. The Pakistani district borders
Afghanistan and was a hub of terrorist groups until recently. “Intelligence
agencies are investigating to find out about suicide bomber and his handlers /
facilitators,” said the military’s media wing, the Inter Services Public
Relations. Separately, police and witnesses said unknown gunmen shot dead two
Sikh shopkeepers in a drive-by shooting in the provincial capital, Peshawar.
The assailants managed to flee after the shooting. There were no immediate
claims of responsibility for either attack. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
condemned the militant violence in a statement. The Islamic State group has
previously claimed attacks on the minority Sikh community. The outlawed
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban, routinely claims
attacks against security forces in the Waziristan district and elsewhere in the
country. Pakistani authorities say fugitive TTP leaders direct deadly raids
from their sanctuaries across the Afghan border.”

 

Lebanon

 

Associated Press: Hezbollah Weapons At Heart Of Lebanon's Elections Sunday
<[link removed]>

 

“It was a sea of yellow as thousands of men, women and children waving
Hezbollah flags and wearing the group's trademark yellow caps rallied in the
ancient eastern city of Baalbek in support of the heavily armed militant group.
One after another, many attendees vowed to vote Sunday for the Shiite Muslim
Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon's closely watched parliamentary elections,
rejecting any attempt to disarm the powerful group. Despite a devastating
economic collapse and multiple other crises gripping Lebanon — the culmination
of decades of corruption and mismanagement — the deeply divisive issue of
Hezbollah's weapons has been at the center of the vote for a new 128-member
parliament. Disarming the group has dominated political campaigns among almost
all of the group's opponents. Those include Western-backed mainstream political
groups and independents who played a role in nationwide protests since the
start of the economic meltdown in October 2019. “This is the biggest
misinformation campaign. Why? Because they are implementing America's policy
against the resistance weapons,” senior Hezbollah official Hussein Haj Hassan
told The Associated Press on Friday ahead of the rally in Baalbek.”

 

The Print: Will Sunday’s Elections Weaken Hezbollah’s Grip On Lebanon?
<[link removed]>

 

“David Daoud, the expert on Hezbollah of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)
stresses that the group’s influence within Lebanon is a critical factor that
would undermine chances of genuine economic and governmental reform and says,
“Through its continued possession of unregulated arms, Hezbollah dominates
Lebanon’s decisions of war and peace… Hezbollah is not the singular cause of
Lebanon’s dysfunction and economic collapse. The sources of that run much
deeper. But the group is both a symptom of those maladies intrinsic to the
Lebanese system as it is currently constituted and the primary impediment to
remedying them…However, what is clear is that Lebanon cannot begin to recover
until the group’s grip over the country is loosened.” Analysts point out that
it is not likely that Sunday’s voting will bring meaningful change, as the
numerous new candidates who are expected to get the “revenge vote” of the
desperate Lebanese people have failed to form a coalition, and besides, lack
the money and experience to defeat the existing parties. So, Lebanon may enter
a new long period of paralysis before the various factions agree on a new
power-sharing cabinet.”

 

Middle East

 

Reuters: Palestinian Militant Dies Of Wounds, Days After Clashes With Israeli
Troops
<[link removed]>

 

“A Palestinian gunmen, brother of a prominent militant in the occupied West
Bank, died in an Israeli hospital on Sunday, two days after being wounded in
clashes with Israeli forces. The Palestinian Health Ministry announced Daoud
Zubeidi's death, citing information from Israeli authorities, and armed groups
vowed revenge. He was the brother of Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the
Fatah party's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Jenin who
escaped with five other militants from a maximum security Israeli prison in
September. All were caught. Daoud Zubeidi, 43, was shot in Jenin on Friday in
exchanges of fire with Israeli troops and transferred to hospital in the
northern Israeli city of Haifa. An Israeli officer was also killed in clashes
in Jenin that day. “We swear to God, the response to the martydom of leader ...
Zubaidi will be painful, strong and unprecedented,” the Jenin Brigade, a group
within the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, said in
a statement. Jenin has been a frequent target of intensified Israeli arrest
raids following the killing, since March, of 18 people, including three police
officers and a security guard, in Arab attacks in Israel and the West Bank. The
Israeli operations have often sparked clashes and brought the number of
Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or armed civilians since the beginning of
the year to at least 43.”

 

Egypt

 

Associated Press: Islamic State Claims Attack That Killed 5 Troops In Egypt
<[link removed]>

 

“An Islamic State affiliate in Egypt on Saturday claimed responsibility for
an attack that killed at least five troops in the restive part of Sinai
Peninsula. The extremist group announced its claim of Wednesday’s attack in a
statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. The authenticity of the statement
could not be verified but it was released on Telegram, as similar claims have
been in the past. The attack involved a militant ambush against a border guard
checkpoint west of the Mediterranean city of Rafah, which borders the Gaza
Strip. The military said at least five troops, including an officer, were
killed in the attack. At least seven militants were also killed, it said. It
was the second militant attack in less than a week. Last Saturday, at least 11
troops were killed, in one of the deadliest attacks on Egyptian security forces
in recent years. The Islamic State group also claimed that attack, which took
place in the town of Qantara in the province of Ismailia, which stretches
eastwards from the Suez Canal. Egypt is battling an insurgency in Sinai that
intensified after the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist
president in 2013. The extremists have carried out scores of attacks, mainly
targeting security forces and Christians, but the pace has slowed in recent
years.”

 

Nigeria

 

All Africa: Nigeria: Coalition Against ISIS - NSA Monguno Leads Nigeria's
Delegation To Global Coalition To Defeat Isis In Morocco
<[link removed]>

 

“The National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retired) has
led Nigeria's delegation to the Ministerial Meeting of the Global Coalition to
Defeat ISIS, held in Marrakesh, Morocco. A statement by Zakari Usman, Head,
Strategic Communication, Office of the National Security Adviser said, “The
Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS is an 83-member alliance established in 2014 to
reduce the threat ISIS poses to international security in general and the
national security of member countries. “The 2022 meeting in Morocco was the
first to be convened in Africa and presented an opportunity for the Coalition,
led by the United States, to reaffirm the shared determination to continue the
fight against ISIS through both military and civilian-led efforts to sustain
pressure on ISIS remnants in Iraq and Syria and to counter its global networks,
especially in Africa where it has been undermining national security through
the proliferation of affiliates”, he said. In a Joint Communiqué issued by
Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS following the meeting in
Morocco, member countries affirmed that ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS in
Iraq and Syria remained a priority. “The Coalition acknowledged that, despite
significant setbacks suffered by ISIS' leadership in recent times, the group
continues to conduct attacks in Iraq and Syria and represents an ongoing
threat.”

 

Mali

 

AFP: Mali Withdraws From Regional Anti-Extremist Force
<[link removed]>

 

“Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting
extremists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group,
which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and Niger. “The government of
Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel,
including the joint force” fighting the extremists, it said in a statement. The
G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-extremist force launched in 2017. A
conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for February 2022 in
Bamako had been due to mark “the start of the Malian presidency of the G5”. But
nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting “has still not
taken place”, the statement said. Bamako “firmly rejects the argument of a G5
member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject
Mali's exercising the G5 Sahel presidency”, the statement said, without naming
the country. The Mali government said “the opposition of some G5 Sahel member
states to Mali's presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state outside the
region aiming desperately to isolate Mali”, without naming that country. Mali
has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic and diplomatic
sanctions from west African states to punish the military junta's bid to stay
in power for several more years, following coups in August 2020 and May 2021.”

 

The Counter Extremism Project depends on the generosity of its supporters. If
you value what we do, please consider making a donation.

DONATE NOW
<[link removed]>




Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>