“Enough was enough. For 13 years, extremists with al-Qaida’s East Africa
affiliate had controlled Mohamud Adow’s village in central Somalia, imposing
harsh ideology and arresting local teachers and traditional leaders. Then, word
came that Somali forces in a surprising national offensive had expelled the
fighters from nearby villages. A small group of residents sneaked out one night
in August to meet with Somali troop commanders and invited them into their
village of Rage-El. The 80-year-old Adow was among those taking up arms,
joining a local militia fighting alongside Somali forces in rural battles with
battered guns. “The people were living in agony,” said Adow, one of several
witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. In what is being called “total
war” by the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s that was elected in
May, Adow and others across the Horn of Africa nation are being encouraged to
stand up to the al-Shabab extremists who have long embedded in Somali society,
exploiting clan divisions and extorting millions of dollars a year from
businesses and farmers in their quest to impose an Islamic caliphate.”











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Eye on Extremism


January 17, 2023



Associated Press: ‘They Are On The Run’: Somalia Leads Fight Against Al-Shabab

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“Enough was enough. For 13 years, extremists with al-Qaida’s East Africa
affiliate had controlled Mohamud Adow’s village in central Somalia, imposing
harsh ideology and arresting local teachers and traditional leaders. Then, word
came that Somali forces in a surprising national offensive had expelled the
fighters from nearby villages. A small group of residents sneaked out one night
in August to meet with Somali troop commanders and invited them into their
village of Rage-El. The 80-year-old Adow was among those taking up arms,
joining a local militia fighting alongside Somali forces in rural battles with
battered guns. “The people were living in agony,” said Adow, one of several
witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. In what is being called “total
war” by the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s that was elected in
May, Adow and others across the Horn of Africa nation are being encouraged to
stand up to the al-Shabab extremists who have long embedded in Somali society,
exploiting clan divisions and extorting millions of dollars a year from
businesses and farmers in their quest to impose an Islamic caliphate.”



Reuters: Cleanup At Congo Church Begins After Blast Kills 14
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“The atmosphere at the Pentecostal church in the city of Kasindi in eastern
Congo was upbeat on Sunday as hundreds gathered for a series of baptisms. The
congregation swelled beyond capacity, forcing organisers to move the service
outside. Then, about 10 minutes in, a blast rocked the courtyard where
worshippers had gathered, three witnesses told Reuters on Monday. Dozens were
wounded with burns and cuts from flying debris. Fourteen died, army spokesman
Anthony Mwalushayi said on Monday. "We were listening to the preacher when we
heard a loud blast, it threw us to the ground," Aline Pauni told Reuters from
the bed of a nearby clinic where her burned feet were wrapped in bandages. The
attack was the latest against civilians by Islamist insurgents that roam
eastern Congo and have killed thousands of villagers since 2014. Islamic State
claimed responsibility on Sunday. The army blamed the Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF), a Ugandan militant group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in
2019. The militant group could not be reached for comment and did not claim
responsibility for the bombing.”



United States



Voice Of America: US Offers $10 Million Reward For Mastermind Of 2019 Nairobi
Terrorist Attack
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“The United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for
information leading to the arrest of the alleged leader of the 2019 attack on
Nairobi's Dusit D2 hotel complex. The attack in the Kenyan capital killed 21
people, including a U.S. citizen, and injured 30 others. Kennedy Macharia was
working at the complex on January 2019 when he heard gunshots. He and some of
his colleagues barricaded themselves inside their office until police found
them and led them out. However, two of his colleagues were shot and killed.
Macharia welcomed Thursday's U.S. announcement of a $10 million reward for
information leading to the arrest of Mohamoud Abdi Aden, the alleged mastermind
of the attack.”



Syria



Reuters: Dutch Authorities Arrest Alleged Syrian ISIS Security Chief
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“The Dutch national prosecutors office on Tuesday announced the arrest of a
37-year old Syrian refugee who is accused of committing war crimes as a
security official for Islamic State. Prosecutors said in a statement the man
sought asylum in the Netherlands in 2019. A special Dutch war crimes police
team received information that the suspect, who has not been identified, had a
leading role in the security service of ISIS from 2015 to 2018. He had the same
role previously in the Nusra Front, formerly al Qaeda’s wing in Syria, they
said. According to the Dutch authorities he worked in and around Yarmouk, in
the southern suburbs of Damascus, the location of a large Palestinian refugee
camp. The suspect will appear before a judge in The Hague on Friday. Under
Dutch law, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on
foreign soil can be prosecuted under universal jurisdiction if a suspect
resides in the Netherlands.”



Afghanistan



Reuters: Former Female Afghan MP Nabizada Shot Dead In Kabul
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“Mursal Nabizada, a former female member of Afghanistan's parliament, has
been killed by unknown gunmen at her home in Kabul, police said. Nabizada and
her guard were shot dead and her brother was injured in an attack on the
weekend, police said. The attack took place overnight on Saturday, the police
said in a statement issued later, adding that they were not informed until
around 7am on Sunday morning."The police and security forces very soon took
action and started investigation of the case," they said in the statement.
No-one has been arrested and the investigation is continuing, they added.
Nabizada had been a lawmaker until the Taliban took over as foreign forces
withdrew in 2021, when many politicians fled the country.”



Reuters: U.S. Calls For U.N. To Urge Taliban To Reverse Bans On Women
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“The United States on Friday pushed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a
resolution calling on the Taliban-led authorities in Afghanistan to reverse
bans on women working for aid groups or attending universities and high school,
diplomats said. The 15-member council met privately on Friday - at the request
of the United Arab Emirates and Japan - to discuss the decisions by the
Islamist Taliban-led administration, which seized power in Afghanistan in
August 2021. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told
the council that given the gravity of the situation it should unanimously adopt
a resolution to condemn the bans and call for an immediate reversal, said
diplomats. It was not immediately clear whether all members would back such a
formal move by the council. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no
vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.”



Middle East



Outlook: Israel-Palestine Tensions: Teen Killed In Israeli Raid In West Bank,
Hamas Captures Israeli Man
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“…Hamas released the video on the day that Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi was sworn in
as the new commander of Israel's military. In a statement accompanying the
footage, Hamas warned Halevi that he would “bear the burden” of his
predecessor's failure to free Israeli captives held in the Palestinian enclave.
The Hamas is a terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip. It frequently
harasses Israel with rockets and has fought devastating wars with Israel. It
has also carried out a number of suicide bombings. "The group’s ideology blends
Islamism and Palestinian nationalism and seeks the destruction of Israel and
the creation of an Islamic state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan
River... Hamas’s preferred methods include suicide bombings, rocket and mortar
attacks, shootings, and kidnappings," notes the think tank Counter Extremism
Project.”



Reuters: Hamas Releases Video It Says Is Of Israeli Man Captured In Gaza In
2014
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“Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas released a video on Monday showing
what they said was an Israeli citizen being held captive in the Gaza Strip. The
unverified images of the man are the first since his capture in 2014. The
undated video shows a man identified by Hamas as Israeli civilian, Avera
Mengistu, sitting in front of a blank wall and speaking for about 10 seconds,
asking Israel for help. Its release seemed to be an effort to pressure Israel
into making a prisoner swap. Mengistu, who according to his family suffers from
mental health issues, crossed into Gaza in 2014 and has been held in captivity
since. Mengistu's identity was not confirmed by Israel. But his brother Ilan
said the family, after eight and a half years of having no idea about his
emotional or physical wellbeing, believe it is him. "My mother is on the verge
of tears. She hasn't stopped watching the video," he told Reuters. "Her hope,
her great happiness will be seeing him home safe and sound." Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in response to the video's release:
"Israel is investing all its resources and efforts to bring its captured and
missing boys home." It did not comment on the video's authenticity.”



Somalia



Reuters: Al Shabaab Kills Seven Soldiers In Attack On Military Base
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“Islamist fighters from al Shabaab on Tuesday stormed a military base in a
part of central Somalia they were forced from last year, killing at least seven
soldiers, including the base commander, an officer said. Assailants from the al
Qaeda affiliate rammed the base in the village of Hawadley with a suicide car
bomb and then opened fire, Captain Aden Nur, a military officer in a nearby
town, told Reuters. "We repelled al Shaabab. We lost seven soldiers, including
our commander," Nur told Reuters. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the
attack in a statement, saying it had killed "many apostate soldiers and their
commander". The base is located about 60 km (35 miles) north of the capital
Mogadishu and was wrested from al Shabaab control in October last year by
government forces and allied clan militias.”



Mali



Associated Press: Violence Soars In Mali In The Year After Russians Arrive
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“Alou Diallo says he was drinking tea with his family one morning last month
when groups of “white soldiers” invaded his village in central Mali, setting
fire to houses and gunning down people suspected of being Islamic extremists.
He scrambled to safety in the bush, but his son was shot and wounded while
fleeing, then was finished off as he lay on the ground. “I watched my
16-year-old son die,” Diallo told The Associated Press in Mali’s capital,
Bamako, where he lives in a makeshift camp for displaced people. As he
recounted that awful Saturday in his village of Bamguel, the 47-year-old former
cattle breeder made no attempt to hide the anger toward the troops, which he
believed to be Russian mercenaries, who turned his world upside down. “I really
want peace to return and things to go back to normal,” he said. “Here in
Bamako, I live a life I didn’t choose.”



Associated Press: UN: Al-Qaida And Islamic State Driving Insecurity In Mali
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“Al-Qaida and Islamic State extremist groups are driving insecurity in
central Mali and continue to clash near populated areas in the northern Gao and
Menaka regions, the U.N. chief said in a new report circulated Monday.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the level and frequency of incidents
of violence remain exceptionally high,” with attacks by “violent extremist
groups” against civilians accounting for the majority of documented human
rights abuses. “The attacks carried out against civilians by terrorist groups,
the battle for influence among them and the violent activities conducted by
community militias remain a chilling daily reality, as do the attacks against
the Malian Defense and Security Forces and against MINUSMA,” the U.N.
peacekeeping force, he said. Guterres said in the report to the U.N. Security
Council that “going forward, military operations to combat the extremist groups
will continue to be a crucial component for the restoration of security.”



Africa



Reuters: Islamist Militants Kidnapped Around 50 Women In Burkina Faso
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“Islamist militants kidnapped around 50 women searching for food in Burkina
Faso's northern province of Soum, a hotbed of jihadist activity, on Jan. 12 and
13, the government said on Monday. The mass kidnapping is a first in the
insurgency that spread to Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2015 despite
costly international military efforts to contain it. While Westerners and
locals are occasionally captured, women had not previously been abducted in
such numbers. Mass kidnappings have been carried out in Nigeria by the separate
Boko Haram insurgency there. Armed men seized the women as they were picking
wild fruit outside the village of Liki, around 15 km (10 miles) from the town
of Aribinda, and then in another location in the same district. "Searching has
started with the aim of finding all these innocent victims safe and sound," the
government said in a statement.”



Aharq Al-Awsat: Algeria Allocates $400 Mln To Protect Oil Facilities Against
Terrorism
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“The Algerian government has launched a plan to protect the oil and gas
facilities against potential terrorist acts. The plan consists of hiring 22,000
guards and spending $400 million on the security systems in the infrastructure
of oil and gas. Chief Executive Officer at state-owned Sonatrach Group Toufik
Hakkar revealed on Monday some of the plan’s details during a meeting in
Algiers attended by officials from the Ministry of National Defense on the 10th
anniversary of a terrorist attack that targeted a gas facility. In 2013, a
militant group staged an attack on the Tiguentourine gas processing facility in
southern Algeria, killing dozens of people, including foreigners.”



United Kingdom



The National: UK To Toughen Anti-Protest Laws To Target Environmental Groups'
'Guerrilla Tactics'
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“…Prof Ian Acheson of the Counter Extremism Project has called on the UK to
use existing laws and set up special courts to expedite the arrest, prosecution
and punishment of people whose actions have a disproportionate effect on the
public. He said Just Stop Oil, which recently staged a wave of disruption that
included group members gluing themselves to art masterpieces and spray-painting
buildings, were “certainly a nuisance”. The group’s “distributed leadership”
struggles to mobilise national action, he said. And there is equal difficulty
in policing it, he added. “But perhaps there’s a dawning realisation that
defacing memorials and art or sitting in front of ambulances simply alienates
people and makes it harder to project a core message of environmental
responsibility,” he said. He told The National he worries that radicalised
individuals may feel the only way to keep their case alive “is through a high
profile act of violence”.”



BBC: Man Who Shared Explosives Recipe Guilty Of Terror Offences
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“A man who shared bomb-making instructions in a far-right group chat has been
convicted of terror offences. Elliot Brown, 25, from Bath, shared a video of
his Alexa speaker reading out a recipe for how to make the explosive substance
thermite. Brown denied wrongdoing but was convicted of collecting information
that could be of use to a terrorist. He was also convicted at Bristol Crown
Court earlier of the dissemination of a terrorist publication. On the first
count Brown was convicted on a majority verdict of 10 jurors to two, and on the
second charge by 11 jurors against one, following seven hours and 18 minutes of
deliberations. He is due to be sentenced at 10:00GMT on Monday at the same
court. The week-long trial heard how Brown, who had no previous convictions,
held "extremist views". He was a member of a far-right group chat, in which he
exchanged racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic messages with other
members. The group chat also contained photos related to the support of
neo-Nazism and white supremacy.”



The National: Far-Right Terrorism Rise In UK 'Masks Threat Of Islamist
Extremism'
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“Britain cannot afford to underestimate the threat Islamist terrorism
continues to pose to its security, an expert has warned, amid growing emphasis
on the rise of far-right ideology among prisoners. Dr Paul Stott, head of
security and extremism at Policy Exchange, said officials were shining a light
on the threat of far-right terrorism while playing down that of Islamist
terror, which he argued is greater. Dr Stott also warned of the possible
resurgence of ISIS and what he considers a lack of focus by the UK on the
Middle East. In the year to September 2022, there were 239 people in custody
for terrorism-related offences in Britain, Home Office figures showed. The
number of extreme right-wing prisoners hit its highest level on record while
the proportion classified as Islamists fell to its lowest. In an interview with
The National, Dr Stott cautioned against using the data to misjudge the make-up
of the UK’s terrorism landscape. He pointed to the same set of statistics which
showed 155 (65 per cent) were Islamist extremists while 66 (28 per cent) were
far-right extremists.”



France



RFI: French Islamic State Fighter And Wife On Trial In Paris For Terrorism
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“Frenchman Jonathan Geffroy is accused of terrorist offences in Syria, as are
his wife and mother. Geoffroy has provided valuable information for French
anti-terrorism investigators. Geffroy, 40, sits alone in the prisoner's box at
the Paris Special Criminal Court. His two co-accused - his wife, Latifa Chadli,
and his mother - are under judicial control and are free to sit in the open
court, on the seats just outside the glass-walled high security box. The
couple's now eight-year-old child is a civil plaintiff in the case, and is
represented by a victims' support organisation. Geffroy and Chadli, who arrived
in the Syrian war zone in early 2015 with their then 2-month-old child, were
arrested by members of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army in 2017, and
subsequently handed over to the French authorities.”



Technology



BBC: Taliban Start Buying Blue Ticks On Twitter
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“The Taliban have started using Twitter's paid-for verification feature,
meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. Previously, the blue tick
indicated "active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest" verified
by Twitter, and could not be purchased. But now, users can buy them through the
new Twitter Blue service. At least two Taliban officials and four prominent
supporters in Afghanistan are currently using the checkmarks. Hedayatullah
Hedayat, the head of the Taliban's department for "access to information", now
has the tick. His account has 187,000 followers and he regularly posts
information related to the Taliban administration. He had his paid-for blue
tick removed last month, according to local media, but it has now returned.”



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