“U.S. forces killed a senior terrorist leader in an airstrike in Syria on
Monday, according to military officials. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said











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Eye on Extremism


June 28, 2022



ABC News: US Forces Kill Senior Terrorist Leader In Syria
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“U.S. forces killed a senior terrorist leader in an airstrike in Syria on
Monday, according to military officials. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said
the target of the strike, Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, was a senior leader of an
al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group known as Hurras al-Din. The leader was
riding alone on a motorcycle in Idlib province at the time of the attack,
CENTCOM said. Violent groups like Hurras al-Din pose an ongoing threat to the
U.S. and its allies, according to the statement. “The removal of this senior
leader will disrupt Al Qaeda's ability to carry out attacks against U.S.
citizens our partners, and innocent civilians around the world,” the statement
said. An early review showed no sign of civilian casualties, according to the
U.S. military. The strike came 10 days after a rare ground raid by U.S. forces
in northwestern Syria captured a top ISIS leader.”



Reuters: Verdict Expected Wednesday In Trial Of Paris 2015 Attacks
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“The trial of suspects in the attack that killed 130 people across Paris in
2015 will come to an end on Wednesday when judges hand in their verdict, in
what victims said will be a relief after nearly 10 months of harrowing
hearings. In the deadliest attack ever seen in peacetime France, Islamist
gunmen struck the Bataclan music hall, six bars and restaurants and the
perimeter of the Stade de France sports stadium on the evening of Nov. 13,
2015. The hearings allowed victims to testify in detail about their ordeal and
their struggles in overcoming it, while families of those killed spoke of how
hard it was to move on. Some of the accused apologised or took responsibility
for their role in the attacks. "It has been a long 10 months but I think we can
be proud of what we achieved," said Arthur Denouveaux, a survivor of the
Bataclan attack, in which 90 died, and the president of Life for Paris, a
victims association.”



Syria



Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran-Backed Militia Arrests 30 Syrian Fighters
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“Iran-backed militias continue to arrest local fighters who refuse to
participate in combing operations in the Deir Ezzor countryside desert. The
militias arrested at least 28 Syrian members amid reports of apprehending
others who refused to comb the al-Bokamal desert down to al-Salihiyah and
al-Suwayyah. The sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)
indicated that ISIS escalated its raids in the desert this month, documenting
11 attacks in 20 days, between June 2 and June 22. The terrorists killed 42
regime soldiers and militiamen and injured 31 others. A civilian was also
killed in the attacks, with 14 others sustaining various injuries. On Saturday,
the Observatory reported that regime forces backed by Palestinian “Liwaa
al-Quds” militiamen and other militias combed areas in Jabal al-Bishri in
southeastern Raqqa, searching for ISIS hideouts. Moreover, regime forces and
their backed militias supported by helicopters raided abandoned houses used by
cattle herders in the area. It coincided with Russian and regime warplanes
flying over the Syrian desert to monitor and target the movements of ISIS cells
hidden in separate regions of the desert.”



Afghanistan



Voice Of America: Taliban’s Alleged Extrajudicial Killings In Afghan District
Worry UN, Rights Groups
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“Taliban authorities in Afghanistan are being accused of carrying out
extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses as they attempt to quell
an armed rebellion in a northern region. The United Nations and rights
watchdogs on Monday called reports of abuses in the turbulent Balkhab district
in northern Sar-e Pol province alarming and demanded that the ruling Islamist
group hold those responsible. The accusations stemmed from recent Taliban
military operations against loyalist-turned-rebel commander Mehdi Mujahid and
his fighters in Balkhab. Mujahid, an influential member of the Afghan ethnic
minority Hazara Shi’ite community, served until recently as the Taliban’s spy
chief for central Bamyan province. He was dismissed for unspecified reasons,
prompting him to break away from the Sunni-based Islamist rulers. “Amnesty
International is gravely concerned by reports of summary executions and harm to
civilians in Balkhab district of Sari-Pul province,” the global rights group
tweeted Monday. “As the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, the Taliban has a
primary responsibility to end the attacks against civilians and ensure justice
and accountability.”



Reuters: Taliban Calls For Release Of Frozen Funds After Deadly Earthquake
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“Afghanistan's Taliban administration on Saturday called on international
governments to roll back sanctions and lift a freeze on central bank assets
following the earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands
homeless. The 6.1-magnitude quake that struck the east of the country early on
Wednesday destroyed or damaged 10,000 homes and injured about 2,000 people,
straining the country's fragile health system and posing a major test for the
ruling Taliban. "The Islamic Emirate is asking the world to give the Afghans
their most basic right, which is their right to life and that is through
lifting the sanctions and unfreezing our assets and also giving assistance,"
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, foreign affairs ministry spokesman, told Reuters in an
interview. While humanitarian aid continues to flow to Afghanistan, funds
needed for longer-term development were halted when the Taliban seized control
of the country in August 2021 as foreign forces withdrew.”



Pakistan



Associated Press: Pakistani Army Says Shootout With Militants Killed 2 Troops
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“A shootout between Pakistani soldiers and militants in the country’s
northwest, near the border with Afghanistan, has killed two soldiers and seven
militants, the army said. According to a military statement, the exchange took
place on Sunday in Ghulam Khan, a border town in North Waziristan, a district
of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The area, along the Afghanistan border, is
a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups. The
military gave no further details. Lately, an increasing number of attacks on
Pakistani troops and the military’s raids on militant hideouts there have
raised concerns about the prospects of ongoing talks between the Islamabad
government and the Pakistani Taliban. The talks are hosted by the Taliban in
Afghanistan. The two sides agreed on a cease-fire in May that’s still holding.
The Afghan Taliban, who seized control of the country last August, have urged
both sides to give peace a chance. For years, North Waziristan and its
surroundings were a militant sanctuary, until a massive military operation in
2014. The army said it cleared the area but militants there are still able to
stage sporadic attacks. The outlawed Pakistani Taliban — Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan or TTP as the group is known — has claimed most of the attacks. The
TTP, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban, for years used Afghanistan’s
rugged border regions for hideouts and for staging cross-border attacks into
Pakistan.”



Gulf News: Role Of Provinces To Be Restored To Curb Extremism, Pakistan PM Says

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“Pakistan’s prime minister has said that the role of provincial governments
in the implementation of the National Action Plan would be restored to combat
terrorism. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said there had been a surge in terror
incidents in Pakistan during the last four years as the role of provinces in
implementing a comprehensive 20-point plan to counter extremism has remained
neglected. The prime minister made the remarks while presiding over a meeting
in Lahore to review the security situation across the country. “Our struggle
will go on until the elimination of terrorism. The government will never
compromise Pakistan’s security and defence,” the prime minister said. The
provinces were required to make legal, judicial, police and madrassas reforms,
ban hate literature, and ensure de-weaponization under the NAP but that did not
happen, the local media reported. The 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) for
countering terrorism and extremism was devised by NACTA (National Counter
Terrorism Authority) after the 2014 Army Public School Peshawar massacre in
which terrorists killed 142 people, among them 132 were children. The prime
minister’s concerns about the increase in terrorist attacks in the past few
years were based on a report by the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan
Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).”



Associated Press: Pakistani Court Sentences Militant Linked To Mumbai Attacks
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“Pakistan sentenced one of the militants linked to the 2008 terrorist attacks
in Mumbai, India to 15 years in prison for terror financing unrelated to the
assaults, according to court documents viewed by The Associated Press on
Monday. Sajid Majeed Mir, 43, was arrested in 2020 and sentenced in May,
according to the documents, but his detention and sentencing were never
disclosed by Pakistan. He was sought by the FBI in connection with the 2008
attacks on India’s financial hub that killed 166 people, including six
Americans. Under its Rewards for Justice program, the United States offered up
to $5 million for information on Mir’s alleged involvement in the attacks in
neighboring India. The court documents provided no details on Mir’s involvement
in terror financing. In November 2008, a group of 10 young attackers who
allegedly sailed from Karachi hijacked an Indian fishing boat, killed its
captain and took a rubber dinghy into Mumbai.”



Middle East



i24 News: Two Palestinians Killed During Anti-Terrorist Operation In West Bank
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“Two young Palestinians were killed by the Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) in
Ramallah in the West Bank on Monday night during an operation conducted to
arrest suspected terrorists. Israeli soldiers were also targeted by fire from a
vehicle in the city of Jenin, while carrying out anti-terrorist raids. No
casualties to the IDF were reported. Other violent incidents took place in
Bethlehem and Hebron, including stones being thrown at soldiers. As part of the
ongoing counterterrorism Operation Break the Wave, the IDF, the Shin Bet
internal security service, and Border Police forces overnight arrested 17
Palestinians suspected of terrorist activities in the West Bank and Jordan
Valley. Weapons were also seized during the raid. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli
forces arrested 11 people in the West Bank. The operation is conducted in
response to recent attacks on Israeli civilians.”



Nigeria



Daily Post Nigeria: Insecurity: Boko Haram Killed 33,127 In 10 Years – Experts
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“Experts have lamented the level of devastation and negative impact
insecurity has brought upon the country. In a latest study carried out by
Nextier, a leading think-tank in Nigeria, profiling the entire security
situation in the country, particularly on pastoral banditry, vandalism among
other forms of terrorism, observed that for over two decades, violent
insecurity surged in scale and sophistication, posing an unprecedented threat
to valued assets, including lives, investments, and the state’s territorial
integrity. The experts asserted that statistical mapping based on armed
conflict location and event data and Nextier violent conflict database reveals
that between January 1997 and March 2020, 2,203 incidents of hostility between
and among ethnic-based militia groups resulted in 16,328 fatalities. The report
also gleaned that for the same period, 1,473 incidents of pastoral banditry
killed no fewer than 9,971 persons (55 per cent from 2015). It also observed
that between 2000 and 2018, 19,896 cases of pipeline vandalisation and 320
cases of rupture were recorded in the Niger Delta, resulting in the loss of
2.45 metric tons of oil worth 125.4 billion naira and 375 fire outbreaks.”



France



RFI: Hearings At Paris Terror Trial Wrap Up With Final Statements From The
Accused
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“Thirteen of the 14 men being judged for their implication in the November
2015 terrorist attacks chose to address the court on Monday. They variously
expressed gratitude, contrition, sympathy for the survivors, the bereaved.
There were tears. Osama Krayem stayed silent to the end. This man, who risks
spending the next three decades in jail and who renounced on the trial last
November, saying it was all a sham, simply shook his head negatively when asked
by the court president if he had anything to add in his defence. All the others
spoke. Muhammad Usman, an Urdu speaker from Pakistan, thanked his lawyers in
one sentence of impeccable French and sat back down. Algerian Adel Haddadi
added regrets for the victims and hopes for the future to his thanks, but also
kept it short. The others more or less stuck to the lines which must have been
laid down in advance by their defence teams: be polite to the court, be
thankful and respectful of French justice, acknowledge the suffering of the
victims, condemn the attacks, don't talk too much. It was anything but an empty
exercise. The jaunty Hamza Attou set the tone by thanking the civil witnesses,
the families of the victims, for their unfailing friendship and support.”



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