“A dispute between Iraq and Turkey over a recent deadly attack in Iraq’s
northern Kurdish region escalated at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Securit











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Eye on Extremism


July 27, 2022



Associated Press: At UN, Iraq And Turkey Escalate Dispute Over Deadly Attack
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“A dispute between Iraq and Turkey over a recent deadly attack in Iraq’s
northern Kurdish region escalated at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security
Council on Tuesday. Iraq’s foreign minister demanded the withdrawal of all
Turkish troops from his country, while Turkey’s deputy ambassador said his
government will keep pursing fighters it considers terrorists who take refuge
in Iraq. The Iraqi government sought the meeting after the July 20 artillery
attack that killed nine Iraqi tourists and injured 33 other people. Its foreign
minister, Fuad Hussein, said the government has “proofs” that Turkish armed
forces were responsible. Turkey has denied it was behind the attack and blamed
fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which is considered a
terrorist organization by Ankara and the West. It has for decades waged an
insurgency against the government in Ankara and maintains hideouts in Iraq’s
mountainous north. At the start of the Security Council meeting, the U.N.
special envoy for Iraq had said Turkey and Iraq were ready for a joint
investigation into the artillery shelling at the Parkha resort in the Zakho
district of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said
Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, emphasized in a
conversation Monday “the importance of a transparent and thorough
investigation: independent or jointly.”



The Washington Post: Benghazi Attacker’s Punishment Was ‘Unreasonably Low,’
Court Finds
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“A Libyan militia leader involved in the deadly 2012 attack on a U.S.
compound in Libya was given an “unreasonably low” sentence, and his case must
be sent back to a lower court for a new punishment, a federal appeals court
ruled Tuesday. Ahmed Abu Khattala was found guilty in a 2017 trial in D.C.
federal court of engaging in terrorism, joining the Benghazi assault armed with
a semiautomatic weapon and putting lives in danger through destruction of U.S.
property. But jurors were not convinced he had any involvement in the murder of
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and the three other Americans who died in the
attack. He was acquitted on all but four out of 24 charges. Khattala appealed
his convictions, saying the evidence was flawed, the verdict inconsistent and
the prosecutor’s closing argument prejudicial. The panel of appellate judges
dismissed those claims, instead finding that Khattala — referred to in court
filings as Khatallah — was rightly found guilty and that his 22-year prison
sentence was “shockingly low and unsupportable.” The fact that Khattala, 51,
was acquitted of the most serious charges against him did not merit such a
departure from federal guidelines recommending 30 years to life, the unanimous
three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said.”



United States



The Washington Post: National Guard Member Sought Out Extremists, Planned
Attack On Police
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“A former National Guard member who admitted in pleading guilty to a weapons
charge that he sought out violent extremists and discussed a potential attack
on Virginia Beach police was sentenced Monday to four years and nine months in
prison. Francis P. Harker, 22, of Norfolk, pleaded guilty to possessing several
firearms while he was regularly using LSD and other drugs. He was sentenced
Monday based on that offense, but prosecutors said it was “just the tip of the
iceberg.” A backpack in Harker’s car trunk contained ingredients for molotov
cocktails, prosecutors said, and Harker “admitted to interacting online with
members of a group called ‘The Base,’ “ a violent white-supremacist and
anti-government group. A magistrate judge found in November that Harker
“traveled to Colorado to meet with the leader of a violent extremist group,”
but the group is not named in court records. Harker’s public defenders said he
was “vulnerable and isolated,” suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), depression and drug addiction, and was interested in white
supremacism for the shock value and not out of ideological conviction. They had
requested a sentence of three years in prison. “His drug use, along with his
untreated ADHD, caused Mr. Harker to delve deeper and deeper into a fringe
ideology and make increasingly warped decisions, culminating with the choices
leading to this prosecution,” his attorneys said in a sentencing brief.”



Afghanistan



Foreign Policy: The Taliban’s Neighbors Fear Afghanistan’s ‘Boiling Pot’ Of
Terrorism
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“The Taliban’s failure to make the leap from insurgency to governance is
coming under scrutiny this week as they meet with representatives of countries
that are growing increasingly concerned that after almost year in power, the
extremists have again transformed Afghanistan into a global terrorist haven.
The July 25-27 conference in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, follows the
latest report on Afghanistan by the United Nations Security Council, which
contains alarming details on the activities of terrorist groups, including al
Qaeda, now enjoying the Taliban’s protection in Afghanistan. The report
indicated that Afghanistan has essentially reverted to the state it was in
before Sept. 11, 2001, when it hosted Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda,
while the group planned the big terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Officially, the theme of the conference is “security and economic development,”
though sources among participants say the real focus will be on
counterterrorism. More than 20 countries and international organizations will
attend, including Iran, Pakistan, China, and the Central Asian states. The
United States, Russia, and India are also set to attend, as are U.N. delegates.”



Nigeria



Premium Times Nigeria: Terrorists Attack Presidential Guards In Abuja, Kill
Eight Soldiers
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“Gunmen on Friday attacked some officials of the 7 Guards Battalion of the
Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade. The incident, which took place late
Friday night around the Bwari Area Council of Abuja, left three soldiers
wounded and eight personnel killed. Two of the slain personnel were officers,
including a captain and lieutenant, while the remaining were soldiers.
According to a source within the army, the main aim of the terrorists is to
attack the Nigerian Law School in Bwari and they may have already camped in the
area. The Nigerian army has yet to officially react to the attack. Army
spokesperson Onyema Nwachukwu did not pick up or return calls to his phone. But
different intelligence sources had told PREMIUM TIMES that the government was
aware of plans by terrorists to attack some places in the capital and security
had been increased around the city. On Monday, the government officially shut
the Federal Government College, Kwali, in the Kwali Area Council of Abuja after
terrorists attacked a community near the school. The attack on the Guards
Brigade, whose duty is to protect the president, comes a few weeks after
terrorists launched a similar attack on a presidential convoy in Dutsinma,
Katsina State. On the same day, terrorists invaded the Kuje prison in Abuja and
freed hundreds of inmates, including Boko Haram suspects.”



Sahara Reporters: Explosion In Borno As Boko Haram’s Bomb Kills Eight Persons
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“Eight persons were on Monday killed after an Improvised Explosive Device
(IED) planted by the Boko Haram terrorists exploded in the North-East of the
Bama Local Government Area of Borno State. The men, said to be repentant Boko
Haram members, reportedly sneaked out of Bama to deal in scrap metals with some
terrorists in a market known as ‘Daula’ on the outskirts of Goniri village
before the incident happened. The former terrorists, who were among the 1,000
reintegrated into the community and resettled at Government Girls Secondary
School in Bama, received the scraps from some Boko Haram fighters hiding in
Sambisa forest without knowing that an IED abandoned during a military
offensive was among the items they were carrying. Zagazola Makama, a
counter-insurgency expert, reportedly got the information about the incident
from an intelligence officer. He added that the former terrorists constantly
dealt in exchanging scrap metal for food items like salt, seasoning, maize, and
some non-food items like petrol, medicine, and clothing. “After receiving the
items, they will stay in the outskirt of Bama town to dismantle them into
pieces known as Ajakuta, before bringing them into the town to sell to their
agents.”



Africa



AFP: ADF Rebels Kill Nine Civilians In Eastern DR Congo
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“Attacks believed to have been perpetrated by a notorious rebel group have
killed nine civilians in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local
sources said. Allied Democratic Forces rebels entered the village of Kayera
near the Ugandan border overnight Saturday to Sunday and killed six people,
including two children, local civil society leader Jacques Kisembo told AFP. A
father later died in hospital from his injuries, taking the toll to seven, he
added. “We don’t understand this situation: how did the ADF reach our village
while Congolese and Ugandan soldiers are present in the region?” he said. In
the neighboring village of Kyabohe, ADF members killed two civilians, village
chief Balibuka Bahemuka told AFP. Ugandan military reinforcements arrived and
Congolese soldiers were pursuing the rebels in the bush, he added. The
Democratic Republic of Congo launched a joint military operation with Uganda in
November 2021 to quash the ADF, one of dozens of armed groups that operate in
the volatile east of the country. The ADF, claimed by the Islamic State group
as its central African branch, is blamed for civilian massacres in Congo and
terrorist attacks in neighboring Uganda.”



Stars And Stripes: Security Threats In Africa Call For New Approach, Outgoing
AFRICOM Leader Says
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“The U.S. needs a revised approach to security in western Africa, as militant
groups make inroads and Russian-backed mercenaries proliferate, U.S. Africa
Command’s Gen. Stephen Townsend said Tuesday. Townsend, who has commanded
military efforts in Africa from his Stuttgart headquarters for the past three
years, said the tumult stretches from Mali to Nigeria and the broader Sahel. As
a result, countries are examining their paths forward in the region. “The
United States is also recalibrating our approach and striving to find a way to
be more effective in the future,” said Townsend, who is slated to retire in the
coming weeks after a 40-year military career. In Africa, numerous Islamic
militant groups are operating and the allegiances between them are often
shifting. A few years ago, the Nigeria-based terrorist group Boko Haram was
regarded as perhaps the most lethal in all of Africa but now is “hanging on,”
Townsend said. Meanwhile, ISIS West Africa appears to have become the dominant
force in the region, he said. Violence is accelerating faster in the Sahel than
in any other African region, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies said in a
report issued Tuesday. Violence in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger surged
by 140% since 2020, with militant Islamist groups in the Sahel accounting for
60% of violence against civilians in all of Africa.”



Germany



Associated Press: German Woman Jailed For Taking Son To Syria To Join IS
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“A German woman was convicted Tuesday of membership in the Islamic State
group and other offenses for traveling to Syria to join the organization with
her young son. She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. The Duesseldorf
state court said Verena M., whose full name wasn’t released in line with German
privacy rules, was convicted of membership in a foreign terrorist organization
and abduction of a minor, among other charges. The court found that the
defendant traveled to Syria in 2015 with her son, then aged 5, without the
knowledge of the child’s father. It found that she ran the household and
brought up her son in line with IS ideology while her new husband fought for
the group, and that the couple had two Kalashnikov rifles. The child was lucky
to emerge unscathed from two bombing attacks during their time with IS, judges
found. The defendant surrendered to Kurdish forces in 2019. She and her three
children — two more were born in Syria — were repatriated to Germany in October
last year. The case is one of several in Germany involving women who traveled
to IS-held terroritory. Last month, a German who took her young daughter to
Syria and allegedly took advantage of an enslaved Yazidi woman was given a
sentence of three years and three months.”



New Zealand



The Washington Post: The Proud Boys And The Base Are Now Illegal In New Zealand

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“New Zealand recently designated two U.S. far-right groups, the Proud Boys
and the Base, as terrorist organizations. This puts them in the same category
as groups such as the Islamic State and makes it a crime for any New Zealander
to support or join the group. In doing so, New Zealand joins a growing trend of
Western governments taking far-right violence more seriously. New Zealand’s
actions may seem small, but they overlap other actions that make it harder for
far-right groups to operate and fundraise around the globe. What does this
designation mean? Terrorist designation, also called proscription, is a policy
used by many countries to declare organizations as serious threats to security.
The United States, for example, has a list of 68 officially designated foreign
terrorist organizations, along with other lists of individual terrorists and
related entities. The New Zealand list, like those of other countries, makes it
a criminal act to belong or provide support to listed groups, even by donating
online. New Zealanders can face up to 14 years in prison for providing funding
to a terrorist entity. Why were these groups designated? Countries regularly
add and, less frequently, remove groups from their lists as they get more
information about threats. My research with Mirna El-Masri into six countries’
terrorist lists found that Islamist groups have been the most likely to be
designated in recent decades.”



Europe



Politico: Inside A Teenage Terrorist Network
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“When Lukas F. walks onto the site of an abandoned army barracks in the
summer of 2021 as part of his training to be a terrorist, he is 16 years old, a
slender boy with dark hair. The site is about 45 minutes from the center of
Potsdam, a city just southwest of Berlin, Germany. Once it was used by the
Wehrmacht, Germany’s regular armed forces during World War II; later by the
Soviets. There are lakes close by, popular with swimmers. A roar of thunder
echoes across the yard, a fireball flashes. First one bomb goes off, then a
second. Lukas F. films the explosions on his mobile phone. Months before, he
set up a group for young neo-Nazis from multiple countries who think they are
fighting a “race war.” In their online chat, Lukas F. — a pseudonym used to
protect his identity as a minor — describes these bombs as a test for the
group. Lukas F. is part of a network of young people from all over the world,
teenagers who exchange far-right ideas, Nazi propaganda and videos of attacks
and, in the process, egg one another on to the point where some of them come to
believe they must take up arms against the liberal order. There are dozens of
groups like this, linked in an international network stretching from the west
coast of the U.S., to Western Europe and the remotest corners of the Baltic
states. The groups give themselves martial names, inspired by the propaganda of
the National Socialists”



Central Asia



Radio Free Europe: Former Islamic State Fighter From Kazakhstan Warns Others
Against Jihadi Recruiters
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“Daniyar was among some 150 Kazakhs featured in an infamous propaganda video
that Islamic State (IS) released in 2013 bragging about the foreign recruits
who joined the Islamic terrorist group in Syria. Many of the men, women, and
children in the video are thought to have since been killed in fighting or by
the air raids in former IS-controlled territories in Syria and Iraq. Daniyar --
whose full name won’t be disclosed for privacy reasons -- survived the war and
returned to Kazakhstan to face charges of involvement in a terrorist
organization and its propaganda. Speaking at a prison in the Qaraghandy region
in central Kazakhstan, where he is serving a 10-year sentence, Daniyar told
RFE/RL he wants to share his story of grave “mistakes” and his disillusionment
with IS so that he can prevent others from falling victim to jihadi recruiters.
The 29-year-old Daniyar admits lying to his wife when he took her to Syria in
2013. He also acknowledges getting one month of IS military training but claims
he took part in IS military operations “only once.” Growing up in a small,
impoverished town in the province of Qaraghandy, Daniyar became interested in
Islam, attended mosque, and learned Arabic. In 2013, Daniyar and his friends
started watching jihadi videos online.”



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