“Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces a myriad of security threats —
from Islamic State-linked militants in the north to separatist movements





 


 


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Eye on Extremism


June 7, 2022

 

Associated Press: Nigerian Civilians Bear Brunt Of Attacks By Armed Groups
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“Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces a myriad of security threats —
from Islamic State-linked militants in the north to separatist movements in the
south. Much of the violence is related to religious extremism, but some attacks
are fueled by conflicts over natural resources. What all have in common,
though, is that civilians are most often the victims. Armed groups are able to
carry out prolonged assaults in remote locations where help is often delayed by
an inadequate security presence. In many cases, accurate death tolls are never
compiled. A look at some of the attacks targeting Nigerian civilians in the
past five years: JUNE 5, 2022 — Gunmen attack a service at St. Francis Catholic
Church in Owo, located in Ondo state in southwestern Nigeria. A local state
legislator says at least 50 people were killed. APRIL 2022 — An armed gang
attacks four villages in a remote corner of Plateau state in northern Nigeria,
killing more than 100 people. MARCH 2022 — Gunmen attack a train near Nigeria’s
capital with explosives and gunfire, killing at least seven people. JANUARY
2022 — Dozens of civilians are killed in three days of bloodshed by armed
groups in northwest Zamfara state. DECEMBER 2021 — Gunmen open fire on a bus in
Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria, killing at least 23 passengers.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Saudi State Security Designates 13 Individuals, 3 Entities As
Terrorist
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“The Saudi State Security designated on Monday 13 individuals and three
entities as terrorist. A Lebanese national and two Iranians were blacklisted
for ties to Iran's Quds Force and the Iran-backed terrorist Hezbollah party in
Lebanon. Four people, including an Afghan and a Syrian national, and a company
were blacklisted for ties to ISIS. Two Syrians were found to have set up the
Qaterji company that sold fuel to ISIS and cooperating with other terrorist
groups, such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Six people were designated
for financing the terrorist Boko Haram group. They had set up a cell in the
United Arab Emirates that is affiliated with the group and funding its
terrorist activities in Nigeria. Two groups, the Saraya al-Ashtar and Saraya
al-Mokhtar, were designated terrorist. They are based in Bahrain and backed by
Iran. They receive financial, logistic and military support from the Iran
Guards. The State Security said the assets of the designated persons and
entities will be frozen and all direct and indirect activity with them will be
barred.”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: Proud Boys Charged With Sedition In Capitol Attack
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“Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other
members of the far-right group were indicted on Monday for seditious conspiracy
for their roles in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year, some of
the most serious criminal charges to be brought in the Justice Department’s
sprawling investigation of the assault. The sedition charges came in an amended
indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. The men
had already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March with
conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election,
which took place during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The new
indictment marked the second time a far-right group has been charged with
seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. In January, Stewart
Rhodes, the leader and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was
arrested and charged along with 10 others with the same crime. The charge of
seditious conspiracy — which can be difficult to prove and carries particular
legal weight as well as political overtones — requires prosecutors to show that
at least two people agreed to use force to overthrow government authority or
delay the execution of a U.S. law. It carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison.”

 

The Washington Post: Kansas Woman Accused Of Leading All-Female ISIS Brigade
Likely To Plead Guilty, Docket Entry Shows
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“A Kansas-born woman who led an all-female brigade for the Islamic State in
Syria is likely to plead guilty to federal charges Tuesday, according to a
court docket. Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, was charged with conspiring to provide
material support for terrorism in 2019 by federal prosecutors in the Eastern
District of Virginia and taken into U.S. custody in January. She is being held
at the Alexandria Detention Center, and the deadline for prosecutors to file an
indictment is next week. A brief entry in Fluke-Ekren’s criminal case on Monday
says a “plea agreement hearing” has been scheduled for Tuesday before U.S.
District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. It is not clear to what charges Fluke-Ekren
may plead guilty, and such agreements can collapse before they are finalized in
court. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. An
attorney for Fluke-Ekren did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The charges against Fluke-Ekren are unusual; women make up only a small
fraction of those charged by U.S. prosecutors with supporting the Islamic
State, and Fluke-Ekren was alleged to have held an unusually high position.
Witnesses described Fluke-Ekren as an Islamic State member with various
responsibilities, who was fluent in several languages and discussed ideas for a
mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil, according to court documents filed by
prosecutors.”

 

Associated Press: Court Upholds ‘Terrorism’ Sentencing Of Pipeline Saboteur
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“A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an eight-year prison sentence for
an environmental activist who tried to sabotage the construction of the Dakota
Access Pipeline. Jessica Reznicek pleaded guilty in June 2021 to a charge of
conspiracy to damage an energy facility for vandalizing construction sites on
the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline in 2016 and 2017. Iowa U.S. District
Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger included a terrorism-related enhancement in her
sentencing, finding that the crime was “calculated to influence or affect the
conduct of government.” Reznicek appealed that enhancement, arguing that she
was acting against a private company. But the appeals court found that “any
error was harmless” in Ebinger’s sentencing because the judge had noted she
would have imposed the eight-year sentence regardless of the terrorism
enhancement, the Des Moines Register reported. An attorney for Reznicek
declined to comment on the court’s decision. Ruby Montoya, another activist who
acted with Reznicek, has pleaded guilty to a charge in the incident. But she
has attempted to withdraw that plea, arguing she was unfairly pressured into
entering it.”

 

Middle East

 

i24 News: 2 Palestinian Terrorism Suspects Arrested In Tel Aviv
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“Several attacks were committed recently by Palestinians who entered Israel
illegally. Border Police and the Shin Bet internal security service have
arrested two Palestinians who entered Israel illegally and are suspected of
planning to engage in terrorist activities. The two Palestinians residing in
Nablus were apprehended in the south of Tel Aviv, during a joint operation by
the armed forces and the internal intelligence services carried out on Monday
morning. Both men were taken for questioning by the Shin Bet to clarify the
circumstances of their entry into Israel. Israeli forces have stepped up
counter-terrorism operations since the recent wave of attacks, several of which
were committed by Palestinians who entered Israel illegally. The ongoing
military incursions into Palestinian villages and cities in the West Bank is
dubbed “Break the Wave.” The Tel Aviv area was hit by two high-profile
terrorist attacks during the terrorism wave, including in the predominately
ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak on March 29 when four civilians were killed in
a shooting and on April 7 in central Tel Aviv on Dizengoff Street when a gunman
shot and killed three people and wounded six. Last week, Israeli forces
demolished the home of the Bnei Brak attacker, who died in a shootout with
police on the night of the terrorist attack that resulted in the death of a
police officer.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: M23 Rebels Kill Two Congo Soldiers As Fighting Resumes - Army
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“Two soldiers were killed in fighting against M23 militants in eastern Congo
on Monday, the army said - the latest violence in a long-standing conflict that
has escalated in recent weeks and caused a diplomatic rift with Rwanda. The
rebels shelled an army position in North Kivu, killing two soldiers and
injuring five. Congo accuses the neighbourung state of supporting the M23,
which Rwanda denies. That clash followed a raid on a village in neighbouring
Ituri province on Sunday by suspected Islamists from another rebel group that
killed at least 18 people, local sources said. Fighters believed to be from the
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed residents and burned down houses in
Otomabere, said a witness, a local chief and a local human rights group.
Congolese army spokesman Jules Ngongo confirmed the ADF attack without giving a
death toll, and said Congolese forces were in pursuit of the rebels. The ADF is
a Ugandan militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s and killed more than
1,300 people between January 2021 and January 2022, according to a United
Nations report.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Man 'Posted Terror Video' After Liverpool Hospital Bombing
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“An asylum seeker posted Islamic State (IS) propaganda on social media after
the bombing at a Liverpool hospital, a jury has heard. Ahmiri Ahmedi Azizi, 24,
from Sheffield, is said to have shared the footage the day after the attack.
The video encouraged terrorist attacks against the West, Manchester Crown Court
heard. Mr Azizi denies seven counts of disseminating terrorist material between
June and November 2021.

Emad Al Swealmeen died when a device exploded in a taxi outside Liverpool
Women's Hospital on 14 November. Prosecutor Denise Breen-Lawton said Mr Azizi,
who came to the UK from Iran, posted the video on Instagram. She told the court
that while people were “recoiling in horror” from the attack, Mr Azizi was
“sharing a public video encouraging others to commit violent attacks on the
West”. He posted “a terrorist propaganda video by Islamic State encouraging
attacks” and “instructing methods of attack with knives and rifles”, she said.
Later that month, he also watched a video on making a silencer for an automatic
rifle. Mr Azizi's Kurdish co-defendant, Mohammed Hussini, 19, also from Iran,
is charged with four counts of the same offence by sending videos via Telegram
between August and November 2021.”

 

The Spectator: Prevent And The Problem Of ‘Political Correctness’
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“Britain is reviewing its cornerstone anti-terror programme. As the name
implies, Prevent is a strategy designed to stop radicalisation before it
metastasises into killer intent. But how well is it working? There have been
accusations that Prevent is discriminatory. Groups such as Liberty and the
Muslim Council of Britain have criticised the anti-terror strategy for
targetting Muslims, arguing that it has caused hurt to Britain’s Islamic
communities. But there are also criticisms that, even on its own terms, the
Home Office programme isn’t working as well as it should. Dame Sara Khan, the
social cohesion tsar, last week warned that efforts to tackle Islamist
extremism are being hampered by ‘political correctness’. The fear of being
called a racist, she explained, is hampering our ability to avert deadly
extremism. Khan is of course right, as anyone who has followed Britain’s
numerous terror attacks will have heard. Remember the Manchester Arena bombing
and the security guard who spotted the Salman Abedi behaving suspiciously with
his rucksack? Kyle Lawler, then aged just 18, claimed that if he had confronted
Abedi, his career might have been ruined by an accusation of racism. This is
far from the only case.”

 

Europe

 

The National Interest: Why Holding Returned Isis Members Accountable Just Got
Even Harder
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“The case of a returned member of ISIS in Ireland is raising new questions
about what is required of the state in proving criminal intent in prosecuting
terrorism. A former soldier in the Irish Defence Forces has been cleared of the
charge of funding the Islamic State (ISIS) despite being found guilty of being
a member of the terrorist group. This raises a concern: if membership in the
Islamic State is not sufficient evidence of financial intent, then what more is
required to find individuals guilty of supporting terrorist groups that aim to
establish a caliphate. Irish national Lisa Smith converted to Islam in 2011 and
in 2015 traveled to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. Smith’s journey to
Syria, or hijra, as ISIS refers to it, followed the call made by ISIS leader
Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi. During her time in Syria, Smith married a Briton, Sajid
Aslam, and gave birth to a daughter in June 2017. However, as the collapse of
the Islamic State became a reality, the Irish convert made the decision to pack
her bags and return to Ireland with her daughter in December 2019. She was
arrested at Dublin Airport and charged with terrorism offenses. Smith pleaded
not guilty to two charges: being a member of ISIS between 2015 and 2019, and
financing terrorism. At the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, the prosecution
alleged Smith had “endeavoured to access ISIS-controlled territory and sought
out the means by which this could be done.”

 

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