Eye on Extremism
December 12, 2022
The New York Times: Man Accused In 2015 Terror Attacks In Mali Is Extradited To The U.S.
“A man accused of taking part in attacks in Mali in 2015 that killed dozens of people, including an American aid worker, was extradited to the United States to face multiple terrorism charges in federal court in Brooklyn, the authorities said on Saturday. The man, Fawaz Ould Ahmed Ould Ahemeid, 44, has already pleaded guilty to related offenses in Mali, where he was sentenced to death. He arrived in the United States on Friday and appeared on Saturday before a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn, where he pleaded not guilty. Mr. Ahemeid was ordered detained pending trial. The terms of the extradition, and what it means for his sentence in Mali, were not immediately clear. In an indictment unsealed on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged Mr. Ahemeid with the murder of the American aid worker, Anita Ashok Datar, as well as providing material support to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate in North Africa — and related crimes. Ms. Datar, a 41-year-old public health expert from Takoma Park, Md., was a guest at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, on Nov. 20, 2015, when two armed men attacked the hotel, killing 20 people. Prosecutors said Mr. Ahemeid masterminded the attack on behalf of the Al Qaeda affiliate and a local militant group, al-Murabitoun. According to the indictment, Mr. Ahemeid, a Mauritanian national, joined Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb around 2007.”
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Builds New Firewall To Stop Spread Of Militant Islamists
“The front lines in the war between the West and militant Islamists have shifted to Africa, from Somalia on the continent’s eastern tip to the West African Sahel, a semidesert strip south of the Sahara. In the Sahel, the U.S. and its allies are betting that Niger, the worst-off country in the world by a U.N. measure, offers the best hope of stopping the seemingly inexorable spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State. In the heart of the region, the nations of Mali and Burkina Faso are losing ground, roiled by militant attacks and military coups. In contrast, the elected civilian government in neighboring Niger is making slow headway against insurgents with the help of Western forces, U.S. and Nigerien officials said. Mali’s ruling junta has hired Kremlin-linked mercenaries to provide security, while Niger has shunned Russian intervention and welcomed U.S. and French forces. “We’ve invested a lot with the Nigeriens, and we’re seeing a payoff from that,” said Lt. Col. Chris Couch, commander of U.S. special-operations troops in West Africa. Niger, he said, is emerging as a cornerstone of regional security. The U.S. and its allies are helping Niger try to stop the advance of al Qaeda and Islamic State across West Africa. In a typical operation, U.S. Army Green Berets helped plan a recent Nigerien raid on Torodi, an al Qaeda stronghold straddling a well-used trade route between Burkina Faso and Niamey, Niger’s capital. French military helicopters delivered members of an elite, U.S.-trained Nigerien strike force to the village in the dark of night.”
United States
USA Today: White-Supremacist Messages On Call Of Duty, Fortnite; Hate-Crime Charges In Club Q Shooting
“New details and reporting have emerged about the motives behind the deadly shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ-friendly venue in Colorado Springs, the perpetrator of which was officially charged with hate crimes this week. Meanwhile, a study claims that exposure to white supremacist ideologies via online gaming doubled this year. And America's most notorious neo-Nazi troll returns triumphantly to Twitter. It's the week in extremism. The man accused of shooting up Club Q, an LGBTQ friendly bar in Colorado Springs was officially charged this week with 305 counts ranging from murder in the first degree to bias-motivated crimes. As I examined in this story last month, the attack, in which 5 people died and 17 were injured was shocking, but not surprising, to extremism experts, who have been waiting for an incident like this to happen, given the recent focus on the LGBTQ community from far-right extremist groups. The defendant's attorneys announced in court documents that the defendant identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, which led to confusion and speculation as to the motive for the attack NBC reported this week that the FBI has questioned the suspect's neighbors about two websites, one reportedly created by the shooter, that contained racist and antisemitic posts. The other website is the infamous hate site 8kun, formerly 8Chan, a haven for far-right extremist activity.”
Reuters: Buffalo Supermarket Shooter Seeks Plea Deal To Avoid Death Penalty
“The white man who admitted to shooting dead 10 Black people at a western New York grocery store in May would consider pleading guilty to federal charges if prosecutors do not pursue a death sentence, media outlets reported on Friday citing his attorneys. Lawyers for Payton Gendron, 19, moved to seek a plea agreement at a court hearing on Friday, less than two weeks after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism. An avowed white supremacist, he faces 27 federal hate crimes and firearms offenses related to the racist massacre at a Tops Friendly Markets store. Authorities said he targeted the supermarket because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. Gendron pleaded not guilty to the federal accusations in July. A conviction would make him eligible for the death penalty. Gendron, who is from Conklin, New York, faces life in prison without parole on those counts. "Just as Payton Gendron entered a plea of guilty to the indictment in county court, he is prepared to enter a plea of guilty in federal court in exchange of the same sentence, which is the sentence of life in prison, without parole,” defense attorney Sonya Zoghlin said, according to CNN.”
Syria
The New York Times: U.S. Commandos Kill Two Islamic State Officials In Syria
“U.S. Special Operations forces carried out a helicopter raid against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria early Sunday, killing two operatives, including one official who the military said was involved in plotting and enabling terrorist attacks. The Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees American troops in Syria, said in a statement on Sunday that the main target of the mission, an Islamic State Syria provincial official known by the nom de guerre Anas, was killed in the raid that took place at 2:57 a.m. in an undisclosed part of eastern Syria. American commandos had planned the mission for weeks, but bad weather had delayed the operation, U.S. officials said. Once the weather cleared, commandos flying in two helicopters sought to capture Anas at his compound, but in a brief ensuing firefight he and an associate were killed, the officials said. The fact that the Pentagon sent commandos to kill or capture Anas, rather than use a less risky drone operation, indicated his significance. No Americans were injured in the nearly three-hour operation, officials said. An initial assessment indicated no civilians were killed or injured, the military statement said. “ISIS continues to represent a threat to the security and stability of the region,” Col. Joseph Buccino, a Central Command spokesman, said in the statement. “The death of these ISIS officials will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out destabilizing attacks in the Middle East.”
Iraq
The National: Iraqi Forces Kill Six Militants In Anti-ISIS Operations
“Iraqi security forces killed at least six ISIS militants in the neighbouring northern provinces of Salaheddin and Kirkuk on Saturday, the military’s Security Media Cell said. All six deaths were confirmed in Salaheddin, where troops carried out an operation against the militants with support from local tribes, seizing weapons and equipment, the SMC said. It said two of the ISIS fighters were suicide bombers. A shepherd in the Tulul Al Baj area was also killed in the raid. The Iraqi Air Force also carried out strikes with F-16 jets on a cave in Kirkuk where ISIS terrorists were hiding, the SMC said, without giving details on the number of casualties there. The Iraqi army and paramilitaries that are part of the armed forces regularly carry out raids against ISIS, which still has sleeper cells in areas of northern and western Iraq that the terrorist group controlled from 2014 to 2017. Recorded ISIS attacks are now at their lowest level, said Joel Wing, a US analyst who has been tracking violence in Iraq since the formation of ISIS in 2013 as a group spanning Iraq and Syria. The group continues to carry out occasional attacks on civilians and troops, including a raid in January that killed 11 soldiers at an army headquarters in the eastern province of Diyala. Forces of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq known as the Peshmerga also carry out raids against ISIS, sometimes in collaboration with the federal forces.”
Afghanistan
Voice Of America: Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Clashes Kill 7, Injure 31
“Deadly border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan killed at least seven people and wounded more than 30 others Sunday. The Pakistani military said in a statement the skirmishes took place in the southwestern border town of Chaman, adjacent to the Afghan province of Kandahar. The attack killed six Pakistani civilians and injured 17 others, it said. But Akhtar Mohammad, a senior doctor at the main government hospital in Chaman, told VOA by phone they had received bodies of six civilians and 21 injured. He said that seven people among the injured were “in critical condition” and moved to a hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta. The military statement said Taliban border security forces had “opened unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons, including artillery/mortars” against Pakistani civilian areas. The statement said Pakistani troops staged a “befitting albeit measured response” against “the uncalled-for aggression but avoided targeting innocent civilians in the area.” Maulvi Ataullah Zaid, a spokesperson for the governor of Kandahar, told VOA by phone a Taliban border guard was killed and that 10 people, including three Afghan civilians, were wounded on the Afghanistan side. Sunday’s clashes erupted when Pakistani troops were trying to repair a portion of the border fence on their side, but Taliban forces objected to the effort and subsequent attempts to find a negotiated settlement to the standoff failed, local officials and residents reported.”
Reuters: Shootings, Explosion In Kabul Hotel Housing Foreigners - Taliban Sources
“Armed men opened fire on Monday inside a hotel in central Kabul that housed some foreigners, two Taliban sources told Reuters, in the latest violence in Afghanistan as it tries to stabilise after the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces. The firing was continuing in the hotel in the Shahr-e-Naw area and a fire broke out on one of the floors, the sources said, adding that they expect casualties. A video posted on Twitter by a journalist in Kabul showed smoke billowing out of a multi-storey building, with one lower floor on fire. The video could not be independently verified by Reuters. Residents of the area said the attack was carried out at a building where Chinese and other foreigners usually stay. The shooting continued after they heard a powerful explosion, they said. A spokesman of the Taliban-run Afghan administration, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed to Reuters of an attack in Kabul, but said they would not be able to provide more information at this stage.”
Pakistan
Voice Of America: Pakistan Kills 4 ISIS-K Intruders From Afghanistan
“Pakistan said Saturday its security forces had intercepted and killed four Islamic State operatives in a remote mountainous district near the Afghanistan border. The provincial counterterrorism department said the slain men were linked to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a regional affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, and had intruded into the mountainous North Waziristan border district from the Afghan side. Pakistani security forces, acting on intelligence information, conducted a “search operation” and an ensuing gunfight eventually killed the intruders, according to the statement. ISIS-K operates out of Afghanistan and plots attacks on both sides of the border. It has intensified regional terrorist activities since the Taliban took over of the conflict-torn country last year as the United States and NATO partners withdrew troops after nearly 20 years of war. Last week, two ISIS-K gunmen opened fire on Pakistan’s embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in an attempt to assassinate the head of the diplomatic mission. Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani escaped unhurt, but his Pakistani security guard was shot in the chest, according to officials in Islamabad. The Taliban claim their security forces in recent month have killed and captured dozens of ISIS-K members in Kabul and elsewhere in the country, significantly neutralizing the terror threat. But ISIS-K continues to plot high-profile bombings and gun attacks against the Taliban and members of the Afghan minority Shiite community, killing hundreds of people in the past year.”
Libya
Associated Press: Libyan Accused In Lockerbie Bombing Now In American Custody
“A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday. The arrest of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is a milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground. American authorities in December 2020 announced charges against Mas’ud, who was in Libyan custody at the time. Though he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the U.S. in connection with the attack, he would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution. The New York-bound Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Citizens from 21 different countries were killed. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad. The bombing laid bare the threat of international terrorism more than a decade before the Sept. 11 attacks. It produced global investigations and punishing sanctions while spurring demands for accountability from victims of those killed. The university’s current chancellor, Kent Syverud, said in a statement that the arrest was a significant development in the long process “to bring those responsible for this despicable act to justice.”
Nigeria
Associated Press: Violent Attacks Threaten Nigeria’s Upcoming 2023 Elections
“Violent attacks targeting Nigeria’s election commission offices are raising concerns about the security of the West African country’s upcoming elections in February. In the latest attack, assailants in southeastern Imo state set fire on Sunday to an office of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission. Nearly 50 of the commission’s offices already have been destroyed since Nigeria’s last election in 2019, according to local reports compiled by The Associated Press. Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation with more than 210 million people — is confronted by several security problems including an Islamic extremist insurgency linked to the Islamic State group in the northeast, rebels in the northwest, and secessionists in the southeast. The security threats are expected to be obstacles to peaceful elections on Feb. 25, say analysts. “It is going to be the election that is most challenged when it comes to security in Nigeria’s recent history,” Bulama Bukarti, a senior fellow with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told The Associated Press. “It is a high-stakes election: a make-or-mar election for Nigeria and its neighbors.” Electoral violence including protests challenging official results has often hit Nigeria’s elections. At least 800 people died in post-election violence after the 2011 polls. In the southeast, where most of the attacks on election infrastructure have occurred, violent separatists want to create an independent state of Biafra, more than 50 years after a rebellion failed to achieve a separate state.”
Daily Mail: 33 ISIS Wives Are Slaughtered By Terror Group Rivals Boko Haram To 'Avenge' A Commander Killed In Islamic State Attack
“Islamist militant group Boko Haram has reportedly slain at least 33 wives of Islamic State fighters in a bloody revenge attack as fighting between the rival groups continues to escalate. The massacre is thought to have been instigated earlier this week by top Boko Haram leader Ali Ngulde, who after ambushing a group of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters in northeastern Nigeria's Sambisa forest sent his troops to a nearby camp to execute their wives. It comes after Boko Haram commander Malam Aboubakar and more than a dozen other militants were killed by ISWAP fighters following failed negotiations, according to Zagazola Makama, a security analyst based in Lake Chad. ISWAP fighters were once part of Boko Haram but splintered off and quickly grew into a formidable rival of the Islamic militants by enticing other Boko Haram members into defecting while drumming up support in local civilian populations. Northeastern Nigeria is the epicentre of a jihadist insurgency launched by Boko Haram group in 2009. Boko Haram is one of the largest Islamic militant groups in Africa and seeks to topple the secular Nigerian government in favour of an Islamic regime with a strict adherence to Sharia law. More than 40,000 people have died and around two million have been displaced in the long-running conflict, which has spilled into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.”
Somalia
The Washington Post: U.S. Troops Are Back In Somalia And Scrambling To Help Its Special Forces
“The U.S. military is scrambling to make up for lost time in Somalia after President Biden this spring reversed his predecessor’s order to pull American soldiers out of the country and returned hundreds of them to the fight against one of al-Qaeda’s most powerful global affiliates. The decision by President Donald Trump in the final weeks of his administration to withdraw the troops helped the militant al-Shabab movement grow in strength and size, hampered U.S. ability to provide operational intelligence and air support to Somali troops and delayed the construction of military facilities such as a clinic and training sites, U.S. and Somali officials said. These officials described the costly and dangerous lengths to which U.S. forces went after the withdrawal order to keep supporting their Somali military partners: the Danab, or “Lightning,” special forces brigade. U.S. troops, for instance, would rotate through the country for three or four weeks at a time, then leave for two before returning, with such frequent movements exposing American personnel to greater risks, according to five U.S. service members. Despite the official U.S. pullout, the Danab force continued to carry out operations, said commanders from both countries, pointing to its battlefield progress after nearly a decade of U.S.-funded training. U.S. and Somali officials said Danab is slowly helping to change the image of a military often viewed by civilians as bandits in uniforms.”
Sahara Reporters: Terrorists Kill Somali Government Intelligence Commander, Bakaal Kooke In Explosion
“Somalia government intelligence commander, Bakaal Kooke, was on Thursday night killed in Southern Somalia after a bomb planted by Al-Shabaab militant group exploded. Kooke was a Somalia top intelligence official who had been at the forefront of the war on Al-Shabaab militants. Keydmedia reports that Kooke who till his death was intelligence chief for Gedo Region, died in a roadside blast that targeted his car on the outskirts of Luuq town in Gedo province located in Somalia-Kenya. Kooke was returning from Luuq and en route to Dolow within the region at the time of the attack. His driver and other NISA agents were also wounded in the overnight landmine explosion. The Al-Shabaab militant group in a statement posted on its affiliated media outlets has claimed responsibility for Kooke’s killing. It was reported that the Gedo region has been the flashpoint of the political crisis in the country during Farmajo's leadership.”
All Africa: Kenya: 6 Foreign Al-Shabaab Returnees Arrested In Kenya As Somalia Pursues Militants
“Police in Wajir and Garissa are holding six individuals suspected to be members of Somalia's Al-Shabaab militants. The developments came as Kenya heightened operations at the main border following an onslaught in Somalia on the militants. Police said the six were apprehended separately while attempting to flee into Kenya after encountering a hostile environment in the al-Shabaab training camps. The terror group recruits members from Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia by promising them relatively high pay, but they change their minds once they arrive at the training camps, causing them to flee into Kenya. Tanzanian banker Yusuf, 38, was arrested in November in Liboi, Garissa County, while three of his colleagues escaped. Other five Ethiopian nationals were apprehended at the border after escaping citing a hostile environment as the reason for their escape. Nur Osman Chawo, Suleiman Kadu Shale, Mohamed Abdulkadir Jibich, Ridwan Haji Abdulbasir, and Anwar Jamal Hajiwadow told police they were recruited and taken to Somalia for training before being enlisted to fight in various parts of Somalia. Police officers are now using the information obtained from the suspects to improve border patrols, particularly along the routes and areas that militants fleeing Somalia are likely to use to enter the country.”
United Kingdom
Daily Mail: Eyewitness: Jihadi Bride Shamima Begum Gave Rabble-Rousing Speeches Which 'Incited ISIS Suicide Bombers' After Joining Islamic State
“Jihadi bride Shamima Begum gave rabble-rousing speeches in praise of suicide bombers after joining Islamic State in Syria, according to a refugee the terror group took prisoner. The account from the Yazidi sex slave comes as London-born Begum renews her legal bid to return to the UK, claiming she was trafficked to the Middle East as a schoolgirl. But the refugee’s testimony suggests Begum was active in the terror group. The Home Office and security services continue to oppose her return on the basis that she is a security risk. Begum, now 23, was seen by the Yazidi victim and a friend giving talks on Islam inside the Al-Nur Mosque in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The woman, who lives under protection outside Syria and Iraq and refused to be named, said that in 2017 Begum gave talks encouraging others to take part in suicide attacks. Begum addressed an English-speaking audience while others spoke to German, French and Arabic groups. In an interview with independent film-maker Alan Duncan, the Yazidi victim – who was forced to become a sex slave for an Arab IS fighter – said she was made to attend the mosque. The witness said she saw Begum talking to an English-speaking group, preaching the same message, adding: ‘She was giving information about who wants to go for fighting and who wants do suicide attacks. She had a paper to record names.’ The woman said she and a friend who was also a Yazidi slave witnessed Begum deliver her ‘lessons’ over 40 days at the mosque.”
Germany
Vice: Inside The Far Right QAnon Plot To Overthrow The German Government
“German investigators sent shockwaves across the country, and the world, when they unmasked a suspected far-right terror network on Wednesday that includes a minor aristocrat, special forces soldiers, and a former lawmaker, who had drawn up plans to violently overthrow the German government. For anyone who has paid any attention to the rising far-right extremist problem in Germany in recent years, it came as no surprise when the prosecutors revealed that the members of the network they uncovered subscribed to the radical Reichsbürger or “Citizens of the Reich” movement, a decades-old sovereign citizen group that believes the modern German state is illegitimate. It may have come as a surprise, however, when prosecutors stated that the group was inspired by “QAnon ideology.” Despite QAnon’s U.S.-centric narrative focusing on former President Donald Trump, the conspiracy movement has now spread across the globe. German-speaking communities have become the largest non-American audience for QAnon, finding a ready audience in the Reichsbürger movement, which falsely believes that Germany is still an occupied country because, they claim, there was never a formalized peace treaty with Allied forces after World War 2 (there was). One reason QAnon was adopted so widely in Germany is that there is a strong overlap between QAnon’s conspiracy narratives and those shared by the Reichsbürger movement, including the belief that the pandemic was created by the “deep state” as part of a long-running conspiracy to control the population.”
WTOP: Ep. 362| German Authorities Disrupt Alleged Government Coup Plot
“More than two dozen people were arrested in a massive raid that spanned 130 locations across Germany. Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Sr. Director of the Counter Extremism Project explains what happened.”
The Counter Extremism Project depends on the generosity of its supporters. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation.
