“Over 500 civilians died in attacks carried out by armed forces and Islamist
groups in Mali from January to March this year, the United Nations said i





 


 


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Eye on Extremism


May 31, 2022

 

Reuters: Over 500 Killed In Mali Clashes As Military Junta Loses Grip
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“Over 500 civilians died in attacks carried out by armed forces and Islamist
groups in Mali from January to March this year, the United Nations said in a
report on Monday that detailed a rapid unravelling of an already desperate
security situation. The killings represented a 324% rise over the previous
quarter and highlighted the failure of Mali's military junta to limit human
rights abuses or stop groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State from carrying
out campaigns of violence. They come just as Mali cuts ties with former
colonial power France and as Wagner Group, a Russian private military
contractor, steps in to help defeat militants who have carried out attacks in
the centre and north for nearly a decade. Mali's military, which took power in
a 2020 coup, did not respond to requests for comment. Wagner Group could not be
reached. “Malian Armed Forces, supported on certain occasions by foreign
military elements, increased military operations to combat terrorism ... some
of which sometimes ended in serious allegations of violations of human rights,”
the U.N.'s Malian mission, known as MINUSMA, said in the report. Western powers
strongly opposed Wagner's intervention, warning that it could stoke violence in
Mali and neighbouring countries where communities face growing levels of
drought, malnutrition and poverty.”

 

Associated Press: Japan Terrorist Group Founder Freed After Serving Time
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“Fusako Shigenobu, who co-founded the terrorist group Japanese Red Army, was
released from prison Saturday after serving a 20-year sentence, and apologized
for hurting innocent people. “I feel strongly that I have finally come out
alive,” she said, welcomed by her daughter and a crowd of reporters and
supporters in Tokyo. “I have hurt innocent people I did not know by putting our
struggles first. Although those were different times, I would like to take this
opportunity to apologize deeply,” said Shigenobu, who wore a black hat and gray
suit. Shigenobu was convicted of masterminding the 1974 siege of the French
Embassy in the Hague, the Netherlands. She was arrested in 2000 in Osaka in
central Japan, where she had been in hiding. The Japanese Red Army, formed in
1971 and linked with Palestinian militants, took responsibility for several
attacks including the takeover of the U.S. Consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
in 1975. The group is also believed to have been behind a 1972 machine-gun and
grenade attack on the international airport near Tel Aviv, Israel that killed
28 people, including two terrorists, and injured dozens of people. Shigenobu
was not physically present in the attacks. A year after her arrest, she
declared the group dissolved. Japanese media reports said Shigenobu had
undergone surgery for cancer during her incarceration.”

 

United States

 

Los Angeles Times: Office Of Los Angeles Synagogue Is Targeted In Antisemitic
Attack
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“Officials with Ikar, a prominent Los Angeles synagogue, confirmed that their
office was targeted in an antisemitic attack. Swastikas were scratched onto the
office’s windows overnight Thursday or early Friday, according to a joint
statement by Melissa Balaban, Ethan Goldstine and Michelle Rosenthal, the
synagogue’s chief executive, board chair and board vice chair, respectively.
“Fortunately no one was present or physically harmed,” the statement says. “We
have alerted the relevant authorities and we are taking all measures to keep
our staff and community safe, including reviewing security footage to see if we
can get further insight into the attack, and revising our security protocols
for all locations where IKARites meet, work, and learn.” The synagogue’s
officials called the incident distressing but “unfortunately not surprising,”
noting an uptick in antisemitic acts in the last several years. “We also know
that this comes at a time when we are all bereft and outraged by the mass
shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Orange County, heartbroken as the war
continues to rage on in Ukraine, reeling from the numerous attacks on
reproductive rights, and still confronting the vagaries and relentlessness of a
pandemic,” the statement says. The apparent hate incident comes days after a
rented truck bearing antisemitic messages made its way down Santa Monica
Boulevard in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.”

 

Syria

 

Associated Press: Relatives Of Albanian ISIS Fighters To Be Repatriated From
Syria
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“Four Albanian women and nine children, all related to Albanians who joined
ISIS extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, are being repatriated from a
Syrian camp, a Kurdish official from northeast Syria said Friday. Abdul-Karim
Omar, an official who negotiates with countries on the return of their
citizens, tweeted that, “13 Albanians (4 women and 9 children) of the families
of ISIS organization were handed over to an official Albanian government
delegation.” For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or
via the app. He also posted a photo with Albania’s anti-terror department chief
Alban Dautaj. The Albanian government did not confirm the report, but an
official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the
repatriated Albanians were expected to land late Friday night. Twenty-five
other Albanian women and children whose husbands and fathers joined ISIS and
most often have been killed in the fighting have been brought back home in
three previous missions, the last one in July 2021. Authorities have not
specified the number of Albanians still in detention camps in Syria, only
saying they have been identified. Their relatives in Albania say 52 children
are still in Syria, including the 13 being repatriated Friday.”

 

Turkey

 

The Jerusalem Post: Erdogan-Controlled Judiciary Releases 29 Turkish Hezbollah
Terrorists <[link removed]>

 

“Turkey’s judiciary released 29 Turkish Hezbollah terrorists who were
incarcerated for their role in the murders of over 100 civilians in the
Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s,
according to a May report from anti-government secular newspaper Sözcü. The
story first broke in two articles. Turkey’s Hezbollah is a Kurdish-dominated
Sunni terrorist organization that seeks to set up an Islamic state in
southeastern Turkey based on the Iranian regime model but it is not linked with
the clerical regime in Tehran or Hezbollah in Lebanon. “The Turkish judiciary
system’s release of mass murderers who acted on behalf of Turkish Hezbollah
should be understood as part of the Turkish government's broader support for
jihad terrorist organizations. Hamas, for instance, counts Turkey as an ally,
Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, told The Jerusalem Post. Bulut, who would
likely face arrest if she returned to Turkey due to her critical journalism
about the country, termed the release of the Turkish Hezbollah terrorists as a
“scandal” because the AKP government [of Erdogan] does not see these people as
criminal. She added the Turkish Hezbollah terrorists were released before the
local elections in 2019 and this appears to be the first media coverage of
their freedom. Bulut said there is “no independent judiciary in Turkey.”

 

Hindustan Times: Islamic State’s New Chief Detained In Turkey: Reports
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“…Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at Counter Extremism Project, and a
former United Nations expert on jihadism, had recently said that the new ISIS
chief's will have two key priorities -- to keep ties between its multiple
subsidiaries and simply to stay alive, reported news agency AFP. “His function
is primarily to keep the network together, and serve as a focal point for the
varieties of local affiliates,” AFP quoted the expert as saying. “Operational
involvement is highly risky. It means you have to communicate with others, and
then it is just a matter of time; there was no phone in (the late Al-Qaeda
founder Osama) bin Laden's compound, and they still got him. Some reports
suggest that the detained man is Bashar Khattab Ghazal al Sumaidai, a.k.a Abu
Khattab al Iraqi, Born in 1975, Abu Khattab joined ISIS in 2013. Earlier, he
was a member of Ansar al Islam, an Al Qaeda affiliated Iraqi group, which is
now inactive. Sumaidai took the position of Islamic State’s chief judge in 2014
after the group seized Mosul and declared a Caliphate. He is also part of
ISIS's Delegate Committee responsible for the administration and leadership in
Iraq and Syria.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Foreign Policy: Al Qaeda Isn’t Dead Yet
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“The United States, under then-President Donald Trump, made a peace pact in
2020 with the Taliban under the pretense that they would break ties with al
Qaeda. It didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and now the group that
blew up the twin towers is enjoying Taliban hospitality while remaining the
dominant ideological and operational influence for jihadis from South Asia to
North Africa. U.S. officials, in both the Trump and Biden administrations, saw
the Islamic State rather than al Qaeda as the biggest threat to the American
homeland. Al Qaeda, it was argued, was a spent force, especially after the
forehead-tap elimination of leader Osama bin Laden in a raid by U.S. special
forces in Pakistan in 2011. The reality is that al Qaeda remains the driving
force of international terrorism, more than the locally focused Islamic State
has ever been, and continues to inspire terrorist groups from Syria and Somalia
to Mali and Mozambique. “Al Qaeda is ultimately the more dangerous enemy,” Bill
Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told
Congress. “Al Qaeda continues to maintain effective insurgencies in multiple
countries while using these bases to plot attacks against our homeland and our
allies,” he told the House Committee on Homeland Security this year.”

 

Arab News: Afghan Journalists Detail Threat From Taliban After UK Abandonment
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“A group of Afghan journalists has described the threats they face from the
Taliban after working with UK media for years, accusing the British government
of abandoning them during last year’s withdrawal. Eight journalists are
launching a legal challenge against the government after fighting since last
year’s withdrawal for support they feel they are owed after helping UK
interests in Afghanistan. After waiting months for support for relocation to
Britain, they allege that the government has only sent them the standard
response emails from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP)
program. The Foreign Affairs Committee this week issued a report on the British
withdrawal from Afghanistan, alleging that the chaos was worsened by the
Foreign Office not having a sufficient plan to support Afghans who aided
British efforts in the country through their roles in civic society. Workers
such as judges, journalists and activists were all abandoned when the rescue
operation stirred into action, it claimed. The members of the eight-person
journalistic group appear to belong to that section of Afghan society. They
told the Observer that they had worked with British media by producing programs
on work against the Taliban and efforts to rebuild Afghanistan’s
infrastructure.”

 

Middle East

 

AFP: Israel Should Consider 'Terror' Tag For Jewish Extremists: Minister
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“Israel should consider placing on its terrorism list two right-wing
extremist groups accused of violence towards Palestinians and who called for
the death of Arabs, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Monday. “I believe it is
time to examine defining groups like La Familia and Lehava as terror groups,
and I know the issue is being presented to security forces,” Gantz said during
a faction meeting of his Blue and White party. Thousands of flag-waving
Israelis on Sunday marched through Jerusalem's Old City during a nationalist
procession marking Israel's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem. Some marchers
chanted “death to Arabs”, as a number of Palestinians hurled projectiles from
the rooftops. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ordered police to show “zero
tolerance” towards Jewish extremists who planned to “incite” tensions, singling
out La Familia. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described Lehava and La Familia as
a “disgrace” who weren't “worthy of holding the Israeli flag”. La Familia is a
group of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem football club, notorious for their
anti-Arab racism and violence. Lehava is an extremist right-wing group that
fights against fraternisation between Jews and non-Jews which could lead to
intermarriage. It is affiliated with the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir
Kahana, whose Kach group is outlawed in Israel.”

 

UPI: EU Sanctions Al-Qaida-Linked Group, Two Leaders
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“…According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international
policy organization that aims to counter terrorism, Hurras al-Din formed in
late February 2018 in a merger of seven Syrian rebel factions with 10 more
joining in the following months. The EU accuses the militant group of being
involved in the planning of terrorist operations under the umbrella of al-Qaida
and has established training camps in Syria. The group also includes several
Europeans among its fighting ranks, it said. “Through propaganda activities,
the sanctioned group and individuals have also played a key role in promoting
al-Qaida's violent jihadist ideology and in inciting terrorist acts in support
of al-Qaida,” the council said. “Hurras al-Din and its two leaders, therefore,
pose a serious and continued threat to the EU and to regional and international
stability.” The United States under the previous administration of President
Donald Trump designated Hurras al-Din and al-Suri as Specially Designated
Terrorists in September 2019. The State Department's Rewards for Justice also
offered a $5 million reward for information on al-Suri. Since Septmeber 2016,
when the EU became able to impose automatic sanctions against those connected
to IS and al-Qaida, 10 individuals and three groups have been targeted.”

 

Egypt

 

The National: Egypt's Military Says 10 Militants Killed In North Sinai
<[link removed]>

 

“Egypt's military has said troops killed 10 militants in a raid on their
hideout in North Sinai and recovered weapons, ammunition and radio equipment.
Hand grenades, explosive belts, TNT explosive and rocket launchers were among
the items found at the hideout, which was located by military intelligence, the
army said in a post on its Facebook page. One of the men nearly escaped with an
injury, but was arrested before he could flee, the army said. He was carrying a
machine gun and two spare ammunition belts. The military will keep the bodies
of the militants until the necessary legal procedures are completed, the army
said. Egypt’s armed forces have recently ramped up anti-terror operations in
the politically volatile province of North Sinai. Militants have been
particularly active near the towns of Al Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, two Bedouin
locales that are less than 100 kilometres from Egypt’s border with the Gaza
Strip. The military reported three militant attacks in the Sinai peninsula in
the past month. An officer and 10 soldiers were killed and five others injured
in an attack on May 7. Another attack on May 11 killed five soldiers. Both
attacks were claimed by ISIS. Soldiers foiled the third attack, on a military
checkpoint near the town of Al Toloul in North Sinai, the military said on
Facebook on May 19.”

 

Nigeria

 

The Christian Post: Islamic State Kills 20 Nigerian Christians As Revenge For
US Airstrike
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“The Islamic State terror group has released a video showing the execution of
about 20 Christian civilians in Nigeria’s Borno State in revenge for the
killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in
February, according to reports. The video, published on an IS-linked news
outlet, shows a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while saying it
is revenge for the killing of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi,
an Iraqi Islamic terrorist and the second “caliph” of the Islamic State. The
video shows three groups of captives in civilian clothes, according to
Nigeria’s newspaper The Guardian. The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based
group that tracks the online activity of jihadist organizations, has confirmed
the video's authenticity. Weapons are being made available to militants in
Nigeria through war-torn Libya. And in the country’s Northeast region, the
terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, as the IS
group is known in Nigeria, have killed thousands and displaced millions in
recent years. In a separate attack last week, unidentified gunmen stormed a
Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr.
Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara from the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, and
two unidentified boys from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area
of Katsina state’s Kafur Local Government Area, Vatican News reported.”

 

Africa

 

AFP: More Than A Dozen Civilians Killed In DR Congo Massacre
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“More than 12 civilians were killed by members of a notorious rebel group in
the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday, the army and Red Cross said.
“We heard bullets at dawn in the village of Beu Manyama. When we arrived, it
was already too late because the enemy ADF had already killed more than a dozen
of our fellow citizens with machetes,” army spokesman Anthony Mualushayi told
AFP. Described by the so-called Islamic State as its local affiliate, the rebel
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have been accused of killing thousands of
civilians in DRC's troubled east. After the attack early Saturday, in the Beni
region in North Kivu province, soldiers pursued the attackers and “neutralized
seven ADF” and captured another, Mualushayi said. Local Red Cross head Philippe
Bonane put the civilian death toll at 21-24 and was supervising the transfer of
bodies to the morgue. The massacre comes after almost a month of relative calm
in Beni, where the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint
military operations against the ADF since late November. On Friday another Red
Cross representative said that soldiers in the neighboring Ituri province had
found 17 decapitated bodies, also believed to be victims of the ADF.”

 

Africanews: African Union Leaders Seek Joint Forces To Combat Terrorism
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“African leaders met Saturday to discuss efforts to fight a growing extremist
threat and push back against a recent run of military coups on the continent.
The summit on 'Terrorism and Unconstitutional Change' is organized by the
African Union and is being hosted in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea,
by its dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Delegates listened to addresses
at Saturday's opening ceremony was addressed by President Obiang, Angola's
president and by the chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki
Mahamat. After progress in promoting democracy, Africa has seen recent coups in
Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and military rule in Chad. A host of terror
groups operate across many countries, including the Islamic State group, Al
Qaida, Al Shabab and Boko Haram. Mahamat called on African nations to make
better use of their own troops in combating the terror threat facing Africa,
and so reduce any dependency on forces from other continents.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Independent: Young British Terror Offenders Being Inspired By US School
Shootings, Police Counterterror Lead Warns
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“Young terror offenders in the UK are being inspired by school shootings in
the US, with some wanting to commit mass murders themselves, counterterrorism
police have warned. The concerning trend has emerged alongside a steep increase
in prosecutions of teenagers with neo-Nazi leanings over the past five years.
Earlier this month, a boy who claimed to be acquiring guns to commit an
atrocity similar to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre was sentenced for
terror offences. The Darlington teenager, who is Britain’s youngest known
terror offender, was aged just 13 when he wrote online that he wanted “to do a
Columbine here”, while consuming neo-Nazi propaganda. Dean Haydon, the senior
national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the consumption of
material relating to school shootings had become a “trend” in terror cases. “If
people start consuming propaganda material in the terrorism and extremism
space, they just want to consume everything. If it’s violent they want to
consume it,” he told The Independent. “If you look at people like Anders
Breivik, Brenton Tarrant, the Buffalo shooter, they become icons in their own
right, and heroes in their own community, particularly the right-wing
community. “Others then seek to emulate it, they consume that material, and
you’ve got this copycat attack issue.”

 

The Independent: Graduate Jailed For Membership Of Banned Terror Group
National Action
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“A university graduate has been jailed for three years for being a member of
banned terror group National Action (NA). David Musins, 36, admitted his
involvement with the extreme right-wing organisation after it was proscribed by
the Government in December 2016. On Friday, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey
to three years in prison with a further year on extended licence. Judge Anthony
Leonard QC had rejected his plea for a suspended sentence, saying: “You had a
good education, you are a graduate and have held a responsible job as an
operations manager. That you left the group voluntarily is particularly
significant, but it cannot expunge your earlier behaviour, which is abhorrent.
“You accept you became involved with some very dangerous people over the
internet while you were a member of National Action. “That you left the group
voluntarily is particularly significant, but it cannot expunge your earlier
behaviour, which is abhorrent.” Earlier, prosecutor Tom Williams told how
Musins, from Muswell Hill, north London, had joined Iron March, a neo-Nazi web
forum, in January 2016. In an introductory message he wrote that he was in his
20s, that he was based in London, and studied history before becoming
interested in National Socialism. Mr Williams outlined the defendant’s
substantial involvement with NA and a number of high-profile individuals who
have since been convicted.”

 

Europe

 

Associated Press: 2 Kosovar Men Held In Detention On Terror Suspicions
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“A Kosovo court decided Monday to continue detaining two Albanian men who
allegedly joined extremist groups in Syria. The Pristina court decided in
separate cases in favor of prosecutors’ requests to leave the suspects in
detention for a month. A statement said one man, identified only as H.S., left
Kosovo in November 2015 “to join the terror organization ISIS.” He is charged
with joining and taking part in a foreign army or police, or paramilitary
units, something punishable by up to 15 years in prison. In another case, the
Pristina court also left in detention for one more month the suspect identified
as Y.B. on same terror offenses. He is accused of taking part in the war in
Syria fighting alongside the Abal al-Nustra and Dawala Islamya terror groups.
The statements did not say whether the men were among those repatriated early
Sunday from Syria. Four Albanian women and nine children, all related to
Albanians who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, were
repatriated on Sunday. They were joined by several Kosovar citizens. Dozens of
Kosovo citizens still remain in Syria, most of them widows of former fighters,
according to the authorities. In the last two years Kosovo has repatriated at
least 121 citizens, mostly women and children, from Syria.”

 

Voice Of America: Anticipated Foreign Fighter Flow To Ukraine Likely Just A
Trickle
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“For thousands of people around the world, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in
February served as a rallying cry, spurring many to look for ways to travel to
the front and help fight for Ukraine's freedom. New research finds that few of
them ever actually made their way to Ukraine, with fewer still joining the
fight on the front lines. While exact numbers of foreign fighters in the war in
Ukraine have been difficult to determine, the report issued by the New York and
Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP) concludes, “given the available
information, it is reasonable to deduce that only a fraction of those who
indicated an interest in traveling to Ukraine after February 2022 actually did
so.” “Their number ranges from merely several hundreds to a few thousands,” the
report states. “This is dwarfed by tens of thousands of Ukrainian volunteers
who joined units in Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force (TDF).” Researchers say
the reasons so few would-be foreign fighters ultimately took up arms are many,
but one stands out. Unlike the other conflicts that drew large numbers of
foreign fighters - Afghanistan in the 1980s and the Syrian civil war and the
rise of the Islamic State terror group - in the case of Ukraine, the government
took steps to organize and vet foreign recruits.”

 

Al Jazeera: Court In Ireland Finds Ex-Soldier Guilty Of ISIL Membership
<[link removed]>

 

“Three judges at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin have found former
soldier Lisa Smith guilty of joining the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in Syria.
Smith, 40, wept in the dock as Judge Tony Hunt on Monday read the panel’s
decision, which was delivered after a nine-week trial. The Muslim convert, who
wore a hijab to court, pleaded not guilty to membership of the armed group
between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019. Judge Hunt said the prosecution
had established beyond reasonable doubt that she travelled to Syria “with her
eyes open” and pledged allegiance to the group, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
She was acquitted of a separate charge of “financing terrorism” by sending 800
euros ($900) to aid medical treatment for a Syrian man in Turkey. Hunt said
there was reasonable doubt that she intended the money to be used for
humanitarian purposes rather than to fund “terrorism”. He granted her bail
until a sentencing hearing on July 11. During the trial, which began in
January, prosecutors detailed how Smith, who was a member of the Irish Defence
Forces from 2001 to 2011, travelled to ISIL-controlled territory in 2015 after
converting to Islam. In 2012, she went on pilgrimage to Mecca and expressed a
desire on an Islamic Facebook page to live under Islamic law and to die a
“martyr”. The court was told that she bought a one-way ticket from Dublin to
Turkey, crossed the border into Syria and lived in Raqqa.”

 

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