“The United States carried out a strike in Somalia that killed approximately 30
al-Shabaab fighters, US Africa Command said in a statement Saturday. US forces
on Friday “conducted a collective self-defense strike” in support of Somalia
National Army forces who were “engaged in heavy fighting following a complex,
extended, intense attack by more than 100 al-Shabaab fighters,” the statement
said, referring to the terror group linked to al Qaeda. There were no US
military present on the ground when the airstrike occurred, a US defense
official said. The strike occurred about 260 kilometers northeast of the Somali
capital of Mogadishu, near Galcad. US Africa Command assessed that no civilians
were injured or killed due to the remote location. The US has provided ongoing
support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden approved a Pentagon
request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the
terrorist group in May 2022. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a
reversal of former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all US troops
from the country in 2020.”











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Eye on Extremism


January 23, 2023



CNN: US Strike Kills Approximately 30 Al-Shabaab Fighters In Somalia
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“The United States carried out a strike in Somalia that killed approximately
30 al-Shabaab fighters, US Africa Command said in a statement Saturday. US
forces on Friday “conducted a collective self-defense strike” in support of
Somalia National Army forces who were “engaged in heavy fighting following a
complex, extended, intense attack by more than 100 al-Shabaab fighters,” the
statement said, referring to the terror group linked to al Qaeda. There were no
US military present on the ground when the airstrike occurred, a US defense
official said. The strike occurred about 260 kilometers northeast of the Somali
capital of Mogadishu, near Galcad. US Africa Command assessed that no civilians
were injured or killed due to the remote location. The US has provided ongoing
support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden approved a Pentagon
request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the
terrorist group in May 2022. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a
reversal of former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all US troops
from the country in 2020.”



Associated Press: Burkina Faso Ends Ties With French Troops, Orders Departure
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“Burkina Faso’s junta government late Saturday ordered hundreds of French
troops to depart the West African country within a month, following in the path
of neighboring Mali, whose nation is also headed by a coup leader. National
broadcaster RTB made the announcement, citing the official Agence d’Information
du Burkina. The news agency said the decision had been made Wednesday to end
the presence of France’s military on Burkinabe soil. Protesters took to the
streets of the capital, Ouagadougou, last week to call for the ouster of the
French ambassador and the closure of a French military base north of the
capital. About 400 French special forces soliders are currently based there,
France 24 reported. The move by Burkina Faso’s regime comes five months after
France completed its withdrawal from Mali after nine years fighting Islamic
extremists alongside regional troops. Many of those are now based in Niger and
Chad instead.”



United States



Daily Kos: Power Substation Attacks Often Fit Into Neofascist Terrorism
Blueprint, But Sometimes They Don’t
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“…Researcher Joshua Fisher-Birch of the Counter Extremism Project told
KUOW/OPB that the some extremists were energized by the attacks in North
Carolina and those in the Northwest. “The recent substation attacks have been
spoken about in glowing terms by certain members of the extreme right,
particularly by neo-Nazi accelerationists and white supremacist
accelerationists who subscribe to this ideology where they want to push chaos,”
Fisher-Birch said.”



Syria



The Washington Post: Court Orders Canada To Repatriate Suspected ISIS
Affiliates Held In Syria
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“The Canadian government must work to bring home four Canadian men detained
in Syria, a judge has ruled, a victory for families who say Canada has violated
their relatives’ rights by leaving them in squalid prisons and camps there for
years. Justice Henry Brown of the federal court in Ottawa ordered the Canadian
government Friday to provide the men with emergency travel documents and to put
in a request to Kurdish authorities — who oversee the detention centers — to
repatriate them. The men are among tens of thousands of foreign nationals held
by Kurdish authorities for allegedly having ties to the Islamic State. They
continue to languish in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, more than three
years after U.S.-backed Kurdish forces declared military victory over the
extremist group. The prisons and camps where alleged former Islamic State
fighters, their wives and children have been held are overcrowded and
unsanitary, and plagued by violence and disease. Rights groups say the
conditions are life-threatening.”



Reuters: U.S. Military Says It Captured Two Islamic State Members In Syria
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“American forces have captured two Islamic State members during an air and
ground assault in eastern Syria, the U.S. military's Central Command said in a
statement released on Sunday. The raid happened on Saturday, according to Col.
Joe Buccino, a Central Command spokesperson, adding that one civilian received
"minor injuries" during the attack and was treated at a nearby medical facility
before being released back to his family. Few other details of the raid were
disclosed. Central Command alluded to the presence of "partner forces" -
language which in the past has been used to refer to the Syrian Democratic
Forces, the Syrian Kurdish armed group that helped the U.S. and its allies
defeat Islamic State. Central Command did not immediately return a message
seeking further information about the attack.”



Iran



Reuters: EU Says It Cannot Brand Iran's Guards As Terror Group Before Court
Ruling
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“The European Union cannot list Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist
entity until an EU court has determined that they are, the European Union's
foreign policy chief said on Monday. EU foreign ministers are however set to
add 37 names to the bloc's list of people and entities subject to sanctions
over human rights violations in Iran, two European diplomats told Reuters last
week. The European Parliament has called on the EU to list the Revolutionary
Guards as a terrorist entity, blaming it for the repression of domestic
protests and the supply of drones to Russia. "It is something that cannot be
decided without a court, a court decision first. You cannot say I consider you
a terrorist because I don't like you," Josep Borrell, the EU's high
representative for foreign affairs, told reporters as he arrived for a meeting
of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.”



Afghanistan



Voice Of America: Despite Taliban Ban, Secret Schools Educate Afghan Girls
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“Every morning, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kabul, Afghanistan,
girls secretly gather in a house to study, something that millions of girls
around the world do freely. As the global community marks International Day of
Education on Tuesday, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are forbidden
to attend school. Calling the restriction on learning and teaching as an attack
on human dignity, UNESCO has dedicated this year's observation to Afghan girls
and women. Shortly after regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban closed
most of the country’s secondary schools for girls, barring millions from
getting an education after sixth grade. Nearly 500 days later, the ban
persists, despite international calls for reversal. While most public and
private schools for girls in Afghanistan remain empty, underground schools are
spreading.”



PBS: UN Says Taliban Is Divided On Whether Or Not To Restore Women’s Rights
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“A delegation led by the highest-ranking woman at the United Nations urged
the Taliban during a four-day visit to Afghanistan that ended Friday to reverse
their crackdown on women and girls. Some Taliban officials were more open to
restoring women’s rights but others were clearly opposed, a U.N. spokesman
said. The U.N. team met with the Taliban in the capital of Kabul and the
southern city of Kandahar. It did not release the names of any of the Taliban
officials. The meetings focused on the restrictive measures the Taliban have
imposed on women and girls since they took power in August 2021, during the
final weeks of the U.S. and NATO forces’ pullout after 20 years of war. The
team, headed by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, found that some
Taliban officials “have been cooperative and they’ve received some signs of
progress,” said U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. “The key thing is to
reconcile the (Taliban) officials that they’ve met who’ve been more helpful
with those who have not.” Haq stressed that “there are many different points of
authority” among the Taliban and that the U.N. team will try to get them to
“work together to advance the goals that we want, which include most crucially,
bringing women and girls back to the full enjoyment of their rights.”



Pakistan



Associated Press: Bombing Derails Passenger Train In SW Pakistan, Injures 15
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“A bomb planted by suspected militants derailed a passenger train in a remote
area in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, injuring at least 15 people on board,
officials said. A separatist group later claimed responsibility. The train was
passing through the district of Bolan in Baluchistan province when the bomb
went off, according to a district administrator, Samiullah Agha. The explosion
was so powerful that it derailed eight train cars, Agha said. Rescuers
transported the injured to a nearby hospital, and engineers were repairing the
damaged rail tracks. Some of the more seriously injured were moved to a
military hospital in Quetta, the provincial capital in Baluchistan. Hours
later, the separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army, which was designated a
“terrorist” group by the United States in 2019, claimed responsibility for the
attack. Azad Baloch, a spokesman for the group, said their fighters targeted
security forces traveling by train to the garrison city of Rawalpindi in
eastern Punjab province.”



Egypt



The National: Cairo Court Sentences Six ISIS-Affiliated Militants To Death
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“A Cairo terrorism court on Sunday sentenced six men to death by hanging, and
another to life imprisonment, for their involvement in a terrorist cell
affiliated with the Egyptian branch of ISIS. Five of the men were referred to
the country’s Grand Mufti in November for approval of their executions, a
necessary legal procedure. Their sentencing was postponed to late December and
again to Sunday. Two were charged with forming a terrorist unit known as the
Heliopolis cell, an ISIS-affiliated local group that between 2014 and 2021
operated in Cairo, Giza and Luxor, court officials said. They were charged with
leading the organisation. State prosecutors accused them of forming it to
incite public disorder, compromise national security and endanger the Egyptian
people. The other men were accused of joining the group with full knowledge of
its intention to commit terrorist acts and incite disorder. State prosecutors
told state media that two of the men had served as leaders in the Sinai
Province branch of the ISIS, which continues to operate north of the Sinai
Peninsula. All of the defendants were convicted of funding terrorism through
their continued dealing with the Sinai group, which prosecutors said repeatedly
received weapons, funds and other supplies from the Heliopolis cell.”



Somalia



i24 News: Somalia, Al Qaeda-Linked Jihadists Say Over 100 Killed In ‘Intense
Attack’
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“The Somali government last year declared 'total war' against the Al
Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab extremist group. Somalia and Al Qaeda-linked jihadists
both claimed more than 100 people were killed on Friday in their deadliest
battle since the government launched a military offensive against the
extremists in August last year. Mogadishu said in a statement that more than
100 Al Shabaab fighters died after they attacked a Somali National Army base in
central Somalia that was recently retaken. The government said seven soldiers –
including an officer from the U.S.-trained Danab brigade – were killed in the
“intense attack” but urged that the military remained in control of the base. A
spokesman for the Al Shabaab jihadists, Sheikh Abu Musub, said the death toll
was over 150. Neither side’s claim could be independently verified, but a
resident of the Galcad region Abukar Uluso confirmed to AP News that there was
heavy gunfire.”



Associated Press: Extremists Storm Govt Office In Somalia’s Capital; 5 Dead
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“Al-Qaida-linked extremists stormed a regional government office in Somalia’s
capital Sunday, and five civilians were killed, the government said. The
founder of the Aamin ambulance service, Abdulkadir Adan, told The Associated
Press his team collected 16 wounded people from the scene. The al-Shabab
extremist group claimed responsibility for the assault on the Banadir Regional
Administration headquarters in Mogadishu. A staff member at the headquarters
said the attack began with a suicide bombing before gunmen entered and
exchanged fire with security guards. The staffer, Mustafa Abdulle, said most of
the workers were rescued by security forces. Al-Shabab often carries out
attacks in Mogadishu. The federal government last year declared “total war” on
the extremist group and has retaken a number of communities the fighters had
controlled in central and southern Somalia.”



Mali



North Africa Post: Mali Takes Delivery Of Military Hardware From Russia
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“Mali acquired Thursday military equipment including fighter jets and
helicopters from Russia to beef up the army in the fight against terrorists.
The delivery included one Soukhoï Su-25 attack aircraft, trainer jet Aero L-39
Albatros and several Mi-8 helicopters. Colonel Assimi Goïta, the leader of the
transition in the African country, and Igor Gromyko, the Russian ambassador to
Mali, were at the airport for the reception. Alou Boi Diarra, the Chief of
staff of the Malian army who was also at the ceremony said the equipment will
help the armed forces to extend the scope of action and strike quickly at
enemies who practice mainly surprise attacks and retreat before any riposte.
Mali has been struggling with insecurity since 2012, posed by terror groups and
bandits. The insecurity caused international displacement of populations and
thousands of victims. The Thursday delivery is the third under Goita who has
turned to Russia for military cooperation to curb terrorism. The country took
delivery of military equipment from Russia in March and August last year.”



United Kingdom



The National: British Teenager Admits Plotting Islamist Terrorist Attack
Against Police Officers
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“A British teenager accused of holding extremist beliefs pleaded guilty to
planning an Islamist terrorist attack, allegedly with the intention to target
police officers or military personnel. Prosecutors said Matthew King, 19,
carried out surveillance at police stations, railway stations, a magistrates
court and a British Army barracks. At a hearing at the Old Bailey in London on
Friday, King pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts. The teenager
stood in the dock to enter his plea wearing a grey shirt and sleeveless black
padded jacket. His lawyer, Hossein Zahir KC, said the defence had submitted a
basis of plea to the court. Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing until
April 14 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, which will include the issue
of the danger posed by the defendant. Addressing King, Judge Lucraft stressed
it was in his "best interests" to help those preparing the report. Speaking
quietly in the dock, King replied: "Understood." Authorities had been tipped
off about King through an anti-terrorist hotline and the Prevent
counter-terrorism programme after he posted a video on a WhatsApp group on
April 13 last year. In it was an image of a male holding a knife with the
words: "Those who said that there is no jihad and no battle. They are lying!”



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