Eye on Extremism
August 26, 2022
Reuters: Israel Indicts Islamic Jihad Leader Whose Arrest Triggered Gaza Violence
“Israel on Thursday indicted a senior leader of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad movement whose arrest led to a brief conflict in Gaza earlier this month and whose detention is likely to fuel tensions. The charges against Bassam Al-Saadi, who was arrested on Aug. 1 during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, include serving in an illegal organization and incitement, according to a statement from the Israeli military. Anticipating retaliation to Al-Saadi's arrest, Israel launched what it called pre-emptive strikes against his group in the Gaza Strip, where it is based, leading to three days of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rockets. He has been held in an Israeli military prison. Al-Saadi, according to the military, is an “influential senior official” in Islamic Jihad who it said worked on “core terrorist activities” that include receiving funds from Gaza. An Islamic Jihad spokesman, Dawood Shehab, said Israel was fabricating charges based on “misleading and unfounded accusations”. Shehab said the group would ask Egypt and the United Nations to intervene, and issued a veiled threat that it could respond with violence if Al-Saadi was not released. “Reaching a dead end would give us the full right to use other tracks and other options,” said Shehab.”
Associated Press: US Says Airstrikes In Syria Intended To Send Message To Iran
“The Pentagon says U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria this week were a message to Iran and Tehran-backed militias that targeted American troops this month and several other times over the past year. Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. airstrikes overnight on facilities used by militias backed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard demonstrated that “the United States will not hesitate to defend itself against Iranian and Iran-backed aggression when it occurs.” He said the U.S. decision to launch the strikes was based on both the nature of the militia attacks on Aug. 15 at the al-Tanf Garrison, where U.S. troops are based in the south, and the fact that, based on recovered drone parts, “we believe we have Iran dead to rights on attribution.” Hours after the U.S. strikes, two U.S. military locations in northeastern Syria near large oil and gas fields were hit with rocket fire.”
Afghanistan
Reuters: Taliban Say They've Not Found Body Of Al Qaeda Leader
“The Taliban have not found the body of Ayman al-Zawahiri and are continuing investigations, group spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Thursday, after the United States said they killed the al Qaeda leader in an airstrike in Kabul last month. The United States killed Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on a balcony at his hideout in July, U.S. officials said, in the biggest blow to al Qaeda since U.S. Navy SEALS shot dead Osama bin Laden more than a decade ago.”
Washington Examiner: Biden Administration Refuses To Identify Kabul Airport Bomber Who Killed 13 Americans
“One year after the deadly ISIS-K suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members at the Kabul airport, the Biden administration has not publicly identified the bomber — despite numerous reports and anonymous officials saying the attack was carried out by Abdul Rahman al Logari, who had been freed from prison at the abandoned Bagram Airfield in August 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. The attacker’s alleged identity is something of an open secret in national security circles and on Capitol Hill, but the Biden administration has continually refused to confirm that Logari was indeed the bomber who killed 13 U.S. troops and wounded 45 more. The Aug. 26, 2021, attack also killed nearly 200 Afghans and wounded dozens more as the United States led evacuation operations at the Hamid Karzai International Airport with the Taliban, including Haqqani Taliban faction forces, providing security outside the airport. Logari is said to have previously been held at Parwan Detention Facility, next to Bagram Air Base, but was subsequently released by the Taliban when they took over Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 following a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. The Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al Qaeda are deeply intertwined in Afghanistan.”
Reuters: Afghan Female Journalist Struggles For Women 'Heroes' From Exile
“It was when the Taliban came to arrest her and her brother in October that Fawzia Saidzada, an Afghan journalist and women's rights activist, finally decided it was time to flee. The 30-year-old managed to get out the next day after promising the Taliban she would inform on other journalists and activists - something she never did. Her brother was held for 15 days. "When the Taliban came to power, we decided to fight against the Taliban," said Saidzada, who is raising a 13-year-old son alone. "Our slogan was 'either freedom or death'." But the episode taught her she would have to carry on her struggle for the rights of girls and women from abroad. She arrived in Berlin six weeks ago along with her son, mother, two brothers and one of the brother's families. "Afghan women are heroes," she told Reuters TV. "Afghan women are courageous, they are fighters who have faced war in the past four decades but have not lost hope." Saidzada is one of thousands of Afghans who have settled in Germany since U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces that for decades propped up the government in Kabul.”
Lebanon
Arab News: Rights Groups Condemn Hezbollah Threats Against Lebanese Journalists
“Two leading international press freedom organizations have condemned recent Hezbollah threats against Lebanese journalists Mohamad Barakat and Dima Sadek. The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters without Borders (RSF), said writers in Lebanon should be allowed to express their opinions without their safety being threatened. Barakat, managing editor of the news website Asas Media, received threats in mid-August following an interview in which he criticized a recent speech by Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah. CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour, said: “Lebanese authorities must ensure that journalists in the country can voice their opinions and do their work freely, without fear of harassment or intimidation. “Authorities should ensure the safety of journalist Mohamad Barakat and employees of Al-Akhbar newspaper and make it clear that members of the press should not be targeted with threats.” After the Barakat interview, an anonymous Twitter account accused the journalist of inciting sedition, a post which was later reshared by the Hezbollah chief’s son Jawad Nasrallah. The tweet was followed by others describing Barakat as “garbage that needs to be cleaned” and calling to silence him, saying his mouth needed to be “slammed” shut.”
Nigeria
Premium Times Nigeria: Analysis: Can Nigeria Finance Its War Against Insurgents?
“Nigeria now spends more than it earns just to service its debt – a crisis that raises serious concerns about the government’s ability to finance public infrastructure, civil service salaries, education and healthcare. It also has dire implications for the protracted war against the Boko Haram insurgency. The finance ministry’s public revenue and expenditure performance report for January to April 2022, released last month, shows that the federal government’s retained revenue for that period was insufficient to service its debt. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the 118.9 per cent debt servicing-to-revenue ratio was the worst in the world. The causes of the revenue crisis are varied. They include the government’s dependence on oil exports since production boomed in the 1970s, external shocks such as COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, corruption and oil theft, and an economic structure that’s incompatible with its rapidly growing population. Policy choices such as the ongoing petroleum subsidy have exacerbated the situation. Nigeria has struggled to overcome the Boko Haram threat since it turned violent in 2011. Current conflict dynamics are even more worrying, with three active factions, significant external support, and an expansionist drive that has widened the geographical scope of the insurgency.”
Voice Of America: Cameroon, Nigeria Reopening Border Markets And Schools With Boko Haram Threat Diminished
“Governors from Cameroon and Nigeria plan to re-open markets and rebuild schools along their shared border after declaring the area free of Boko Haram militants. Babagana Umara Zulum, governor of Nigeria’s Borno state, said President Muhammadu Buhari instructed governors of border states affected by Boko Haram to work with neighboring countries to improve living conditions. He said governors from Cameroon and Nigeria will reopen border markets and rebuild schools in towns and villages where Boko Haram has been defeated. “We are doing everything possible to ensure that the Banki market is reestablished,” Babagana said. “The bringing of cattle from the Republic of Chad to Cameroon, to Nigeria had stopped. My humble self and the governor will go and reopen the cattle route from Gamboru-Ngala. It will improve the economy of Nigeria and improve the economy of Cameroon. By September, we shall be going to Chad and Niger to see how we can improve on our bilateral relationships.” Babagana spoke by a messaging app from Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria's Borno state on Thursday after meeting a delegation led by Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon's Far North Region.”
Germany
Associated Press: Germany: Man Tried For Grenade Attack On Civilians In Syria
“A man has gone on trial in Germany accused of firing a rocket-propelled grenade into a group of civilians in Syria eight years ago, killing at least seven people. The defendant, identified only as Mouafak Al D. for privacy reasons, appeared before a Berlin regional court on Thursday charged with war crimes, seven counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and three counts of dangerous bodily harm. Federal prosecutors say the 55-year-old Syrian fired an RPG at people lining up for food aid in the Yarmouk district of Damascus, which is home to a large population of Palestinian refugees. In addition to at least three deaths, the attack in 2014 wounded at least three people including a 6-year-old child. The suspect is alleged to have been a member of the Free Palestine Movement, and previously of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. Between July 2013 and April 2015, the groups exerted control of the Yarmouk refugee camp on behalf of the Syrian government. Prosecutors claim the defendant sought revenge for the killing of his nephew two days earlier during a gun battle involving members of the Free Syrian Army rebel group.”
Europe
Barron’s: Woman On Trial Over Rare 'Jihadist' Attack In Switzerland
“In a rare case of alleged Islamist “terrorism” in Switzerland, a woman will go on trial next week over a brutal knife attack on two shoppers at an upscale department store. The woman, who cannot be named, allegedly tried to slit the throats of two women shopping at the Manor store in Lugano, in Switzerland's southern, Italian-speaking Ticino region on November 24, 2020. The defendant, 28 at the time, is suspected of committing a “jihadist knife attack” and had “intended to kill her victims and to commit a terrorist act on behalf of IS” (the Islamic State group), the attorney general's office said earlier this year. When her trial opens at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, near Lugano, on Monday, she will face charges of attempted murder and violating laws against association with Al-Qaeda, IS and related groups. On the day of the attack, the woman is accused of having gone to Manor's kitchen supply division on the fifth floor, picked out a large bread knife, and approached a random woman standing nearby. Grabbing her from behind, the assailant plunged the knife at least 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) into her throat, missing her main carotid artery “by a few millimetres”, the indictment said.”
Australia
Daily Mail: Why An Islamic State Recruiter Who Sent Steamy Jailhouse Letters To Her Gay Lover Dubbed The 'Tiny Terrorist' Will Be Released Back Into Australia
“A terrorist-sympathising woman who tried to recruit extremists to join Islamic State and exchanged intense letters with her lover - Momena Shoma, known as the 'tiny terrorist' - will be released from jail this week. Hadashah Sa'Adat Khan tried to recruit an American teenager to join the terrorist organisation when she was 18. In June this year she was jailed for two-and-a-half years, but most of the sentence had already been served. A court in 2021 heard Khan exchanged steamy jailhouse letters with Shoma, who is known as the 'tiny terrorist', is serving decades in prison and even tried to stab another inmate. 'I love you to infinity and beyond, I think about you all the time,' the court heard she wrote in a letter to Shoma. The accused terror supporter also referred to Shoma's jail sentence when she allegedly wrote: 'I cried for you more than myself.' Shoma, 27, was jailed in 2019 for at least 31 years after she plunged a knife 3cm into her homestay host Roger Singaravelu's neck while he slept alongside his five-year-old daughter in Melbourne on February 9, 2018. Shoma, who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' - meaning 'God is great' - during the stabbing, later told officers she travelled to Australia with ambitions of attacking somebody in the name of ISIS.”
Southeast Asia
AFP: 'I Cannot Accept It': Bali Bomb Survivors Fume After Attacker's Term Cut
“Almost two decades after the Bali bombings left Thiolina Ferawati Marpaung with permanent eye injuries, news that one of the masterminds could be released early has caused fresh trauma. Indonesia's latest reduction to Umar Patek's prison sentence -- revealed last week by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and confirmed by AFP -- means the bomber could be released on parole before the island marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks in October. That is a galling prospect for survivors of the attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. “It is not that I don't respect other people's rights, but he has hurt the survivors and families with his evil and inhumane acts,” Marpaung told AFP by phone from Denpasar, the resort island's biggest city. The smell of smoke triggers vivid memories of the blasts that sent shards of broken glass tearing into her eyes, Marpaung said. Patek -- a member of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group who was captured in the same Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed -- should be kept locked up, she said. “Please let him serve what he deserves as a terror convict, not like a chicken thief whom we can easily forgive,” the 47-year-old said. But Indonesia says Patek is giving up his extremist beliefs after completing a deradicalisation programme.”
Technology
CBS News: Large Network Of Proud Boys Accounts Taken Down From Facebook, Instagram
“Facebook parent Meta says it has removed a network of accounts linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group it banned in 2018. Meta said on Thursday that it recently uncovered and removed about 480 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups linked to the Proud Boys. That brought the total number of Proud Boys assets it has removed to around 750 this year, it said. Although the group has been banned from Meta's platforms, the company said it has seen repeated attempts by its members at evading the ban. People behind the efforts are not identifying themselves as Proud Boys openly, creating front groups and using Facebook or Instagram to steer people to other, less moderated platforms, it said. Such tactics are commonly used by extremist groups and those spreading misinformation as they try to evade social media companies' crackdowns. While the Proud Boys and other extremist groups have at times found homes on smaller internet platforms that cater to right-wing audiences, none come close to the reach of Meta's properties, where they can recruit members more easily. The former leader of the Proud Boys and other members of the group were charged this summer with attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.”
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