Eye on Extremism
February 2, 2023
Reuters: Somalia's Neighbours To Launch New Operations Against Al Shabaab Militants
“Top leaders of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya on Wednesday agreed to begin ‘search and destroy’ operations to push al Shabaab militants out of neighbouring Somalia. The move follows an intensified offensive by Somalia's federal government against the al Qaeda-affiliated group over the past few months. It has taken back control of several towns and villages in central Somalia with the help of U.S. military, allied clan militias and forces belonging to Somali regional governments. ‘The time sensitive campaign will prevent any future infiltrating elements in the region,’ the communique said, without providing any details about the operation ‘The time sensitive campaign will prevent any future infiltrating elements in the region,’ the communique said, without providing any details about the operation.”
CNN: US Imposes Visa Restrictions On Taliban Members Involved In Repression Of Women And Girls
“The United States is imposing new visa restrictions on certain current and former Taliban members, non-state security group members and others who are believed to be involved in repressing the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes more than a month after the Taliban announced bans on women attending universities and working with non-governmental organizations. Blinken cited those decisions as contributing to the new visa bans and said the US condemns the actions in ‘the strongest of terms.’ ‘The Taliban’s most recent edicts ban women from universities and from working with NGOs, and further the Taliban’s previous measures that closed secondary schools to girls and limit the ability of women and girls to participate in the Afghan society and economy,’ Blinken said in a State Department statement.”
United States
United Press International: Ohio Man Gets 10 Years In Prison For Trying To Join ISIS
“A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a man in Ohio to a 10-year prison sentence for attempting to join the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq. Naser Almadaoji also will be subject to 15 years of supervised release following the prison sentence, the Justice Department confirmed in a statement. The 23-year-old is an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen and in 2021 pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. Almadaoji bought a plane ticket to Kazakhstan in 2018, but agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, before he could depart.”
ABC News: New York City Woman Charged With Financing Terrorist Groups In Syria Through Cryptocurrency
“A New York City woman has been charged with using cryptocurrency to provide financial support to terrorist groups in Syria, a rare prosecution involving virtual currency to fund terrorism. The 11-count indictment charged Victoria Jacobs, 43, who was known as Bakhrom Talipov, with providing support for an act of terrorism, money laundering and other crimes. Jacobs provided material support to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, and provided more than $5,000 to the terrorist training group Malhama Tactical, which fought with and provided special tactical and military training to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the indictment said. ‘This case marks the first time that terrorism financing is being prosecuted in New York State Court and is one of the rare cases worldwide where cryptocurrency is alleged to have financed terrorism,’ Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. Jacobs allegedly laundered $10,661 on behalf of Malhama Tactical by receiving cryptocurrency and Western Union and MoneyGram wires from supporters around the globe and sending the funds to Bitcoin wallets controlled by Malhama Tactical.”
Syria
Daily Mail: ISIS Bride Shamima Begum Claims She Was Interrogated By Jihadi John While Sitting In Pitch Black Darkness After Arriving In Syria Leaving Her 'So Scared She Couldn't Talk' - As She Insists She Believed Execution Videos Were Fake
“Shamima Begum today claimed she was interrogated by Jihadi John after arriving in Syria - as she unconvincingly denied ever watching videos of ISIS atrocities before joining the death cult. The jihadi bride said she met the fellow Londoner in ISIS's 'capital city' of Raqqa. Speaking on BBC podcast I'm Not A Monster, she described how she and the two friends she fled the UK with were taken on a bus that stopped in the middle of a field. 'An hour later five cars came and surrounded the bus. We were so scared we couldn't even talk... afterwards another car came and a man with a mask walked on the bus. He had a small gun on him. He sat across from me.’”
AFP: Jihadis Kill 11 Soldiers In Northwest Syria, Monitor Says
“Eleven Syrian soldiers were killed in the northwest part of the country during separate attacks carried out by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group — known as HTS — on Wednesday, a war monitor reported. ‘HTS fired shells and rockets at a Syrian military post, killing eight soldiers near Kafr Ruma in Idlib province,’ said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The monitor later reported that ‘three Syrian soldiers were killed by sniper fire’ near Kafr Nabl in the same province, adding that HTS jihadists also were responsible. HTS is headed by ex-members of Syria's former al-Qaida franchise. Syrian state media did not immediately report either attack.”
Iran
Reuters: Iran Blames Israel For Isfahan Drone Attack, Vows Revenge -ISNA
“Iran blamed Israel for a drone attack on a military factory near the central city of Isfahan, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Thursday, vowing revenge for what appeared to be the latest episode in a long-running covert war. The attack came amid tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear activity and its supply of arms - including long-range "suicide drones" - for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as months of anti-government demonstrations at home. In a letter to the U.N. chief, Iran's U.N. envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, said "primary investigation suggested Israel was responsible" for Saturday night's attack, which Tehran had said caused no casualties or serious damage. "Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent right to defend its national security and firmly respond to any threat or wrongdoing of the Zionist regime (Israel) wherever and whenever it deems necessary," Iravani said in the letter.”
Afghanistan
Associated Press: Taliban Asks Pakistan Not To Blame Them For Violence At Home
“Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign minister Wednesday asked Pakistani authorities to look for the reasons behind militant violence in their country instead of blaming Afghanistan. The comments from Amir Khan Muttaqi came two days after Pakistani officials said the attackers who orchestrated Monday’s suicide bombing that killed 101 people in northwest Pakistan staged the attack on Afghan soil. During a ceremony to inaugurate a drug addiction treatment center in the capital of Kabul on Wednesday, Muttaqi asked Pakistan’s government to launch a serious investigation into Monday’s mosque bombing in Peshawar. He insisted that Afghanistan was not a center for terrorism, saying if that was the case then attacks would have also taken place in other countries. “If anyone says that Afghanistan is the center for terrorism, they also say that terrorism has no border,” Muttaqi said. “If terrorism had emanated from Afghanistan, it would have also impacted China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan or Iran.”
Pakistan
WTOP News: The Hunt: Terror Attack In Pakistan Sends Ominous Global Signal
“On this week’s edition of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremist Project, sees an alarming growth in terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.”
MSN: Pakistan Police Officers Stage Protests Against Terrorism Following Peshawar Mosque Attack
“Pakistan's Elite Force of the Khyber Pashtunkhwa (KP) police staged rare protests Wednesday in several cities of the Peshawar province against growing terrorism in the area. The police force gathered in front of the Peshawar Press Club to protest on the issue. Social media videos showed groups of police officers raising slogans against rising terrorism in the region. A suicide bomber blew himself up in Peshawar's Police Lines mosque at about 1 pm during Zohr prayers. The death toll in the blast has risen to 100 as the rescue operation to retrieve bodies from the debris ended on Tuesday. At least 221 others are said to have been injured in the attack. All but three of those killed were police, making it the most casualties suffered by Pakistan's security forces in a single attack in recent history.”
Outlook India: Pakistan: 17 Suspects Arrested In Peshawar Blast Case, Pakistan Army Chief Vows Zero Telerance For Terror
“The Pakistani authorities arrested 17 suspects in relation to the suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A suicide bomber blew himself at a mosque in Peshawar's high-security Police Lines on Monday. At least 101 were killed in the bombing over 200 were injured. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has taken responsibility for the bombing. The TTP was until recently negotiating with the Pakistani government but it walked out of talks and declared an offensive against the Pakistani state. Amid the arrests, Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir vowed zero tolerance for terror groups and directed his generals to eliminate the threat of militancy in Pakistan.”
Middle East
Reuters: Israel Hits Gaza After Rocket Fire Despite U.S. Appeal For Calm
“The Israeli military said it struck in Gaza overnight on Thursday, hours after it intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza and following appeals from the United States for all sides to calm escalating violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank. There were no immediate reports of serious casualties. The military said its air strikes targeted rocket and weapon production sites used by Hamas, the Islamist group than runs the blockaded strip, in response to Wednesday's rocket launch. Powerful explosions shook buildings and lit up the night sky over Gaza as warning sirens sounded again in Israeli areas around the strip warning of more incoming rocket fire before dawn on Thursday. There was no claim of responsibility for Wednesday's rocket from Hamas or the smaller Iran-backed Islamic Jihad movement, which fired rockets at Israel last week.”
ABC News: Taliban Asks Pakistan Not To Blame Them For Violence At Home
“Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed foreign minister Wednesday asked Pakistani authorities to look for the reasons behind militant violence in their country instead of blaming Afghanistan. The comments from Amir Khan Muttaqi came two days after Pakistani officials said the attackers who orchestrated Monday's suicide bombing that killed 101 people in northwest Pakistan staged the attack on Afghan soil. During a ceremony to inaugurate a drug addiction treatment center in the capital of Kabul on Wednesday, Muttaqi asked Pakistan's government to launch a serious investigation into Monday’s mosque bombing in Peshawar. He insisted that Afghanistan was not a center for terrorism, saying if that was the case then attacks would have also taken place in other countries. ‘If anyone says that Afghanistan is the center for terrorism, they also say that terrorism has no border,’ Muttaqi said. ‘If terrorism had emanated from Afghanistan, it would have also impacted China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan or Iran.’”
The Times Of Israel: Terror Victim Succumbs To Injuries 8 Months After Independence Day Attack
“Eight months after he was seriously injured from an axe blow to his head during a terror attack on Independence Day, Shimon Maatuf, 75, died overnight Wednesday. Maatuf’s death brought to four the number of people killed in the May 5 rampage by two Palestinian terrorists in the central city of Elad as celebrations were held for the founding of the Jewish State. His death came days after a Palestinian gunman shot dead seven Israelis outside a synagogue in Jerusalem. Maatuf’s daughter Aviva Hallel told media her father’s health slowly ebbed due to an infections. She said he had ‘suffered for the past eight months’ and never recovered from the attack.”
Nigeria
Ripples Nigeria: MNJTF Kills 40 ISWAP/Boko Haram Terrorists In Lake Chad Basin
“In recent operations in the Lake Chad Basin, troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force, or MNJTF, killed dozens of terrorists and detained more than 40 more. This was announced in a statement released on Wednesday in N’Djamena, Chad, by Lt.-Col. Kamarudeen Adegoke, Chief of Military Public Information for MNJTF. During the clearing and stabilization operations that were carried out in the area from January 18 to 29, according to Adegoke, the forces also destroyed a number of terrorist camps. In addition, 87 militants from Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) turned themselves in at that time. Adegoke said that on January 22 and 23, in Sector 1, Cameroon, forces carried out ambush operations in the general area of Kolofata-Kirawa, apprehended one terrorist alive, and collected a sizable amount of various foodstuffs. He claimed that the Sector has been actively establishing dominance over its territory through land and sea operations, particularly in places like Tchika, Gore Kendi, and Kerena, among others.”
Africa
Daily Mail: Sudan FREES Terrorist Convicted Of Assassinating US Diplomat In 2008 Drive-By Shooting In The Country's Capital - US Says It Is 'Deeply Concerned' And Did Not Help Broker His Release
“Sudanese authorities have released a man convicted of killing a US diplomat in a 2008 drive-by shooting in the nation's capital, Khartoum. Abdel-Raouf Abu Zaid walked free on Monday after spending 15 years behind bars for the murder of John Granville, an official with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) who was working to implement a peace agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war in the country. While previous reports suggested Abu Zaid - who is designated a terrorist by the US - was released as a part of a deal brokered between the Trump administration and Sudan, the State Department refuted those claims Wednesday. Instead, local reports said Abu Zaid was freed because his family paid money to the family of a Sudanese driver who was killed in the attack on Granville. Under the Islamic Law Sudan follows, a convict can be pardoned if his victim's family is financially compensated.”
Europe
Reuters: Sweden To Tighten Terrorism Law Amid Tensions With Turkey Over NATO Bid
“Sweden said on Thursday it would tighten laws covering membership of terrorist organisations months after an agreement with Turkey on fighting terrorism aimed at overcoming its objections to Swedish NATO membership. The new law, which the government hopes will come into force in June, will give authorities much wider powers to detain and prosecute individuals who support terrorist organisations, either through financing or other means. "We are talking about extremely far-reaching criminalisation," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters. Until now it had been hard to prosecute people unless their actions could be coupled to a specific terrorist act, Strommer said. The new law would cover all forms of participation. Strommer said that the need for tighter laws had been highlighted by the attack in central Stockholm in 2017 in which a man mowed down pedestrians on a busy shopping street, killing five.”
BBC News: Vienna Murders: Four Guilty Of Helping Jihadist In Terror Attack
“Four men have been convicted of being accomplices to murder in a deadly terror attack by a lone jihadist gunman in the heart of Austria's capital in November 2020. Kujtim Fejzulai went on the rampage in Vienna's busy nightlife area known as the Bermuda Triangle, shooting dead four people and wounding 23 others. His nine minutes of terror finally ended when he was shot dead by police. The men on trial were accused of helping him before the attack. Two others aged 22 and 23 were found not guilty of being accomplices to murder but were convicted of lesser terror offences. The 20-year-old attacker, who had Austria and Macedonian nationality, had been radicalised in Austria and had served 18 months in jail for trying to join jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which said it was behind the murders.”
Southeast Asia
India Today: Scent Of Terror: Teacher-Turned-Terrorist Held With Perfume IED In J&K
“Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested a government school teacher-turned-terrorist and recovered a perfume IED from his possession. Police arrested Arif, a resident of Reasi district, while investigating the twin blasts that rocked the Narwal area of Jammu and injured nine people on January 21. According to the Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh, Arif has links to proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted inside a perfume bottle was recovered from his possession, he said. The Jammu and Kashmir police chief said this was the first time that such a type of a bomb was recovered in the Union Territory. ‘This is the first time we have recovered a perfume IED. We have not recovered any perfume IED before. The IED will blast if anyone tries to press or open it. Our special team will handle that IED.’”
Bloomberg: Teen Held After Planning ISIS Caliphate, Stabbing Attacks In Singapore
“A teen has been detained by Singapore authorities on suspicion of planning to set up an Islamic caliphate and undertake armed violence in support of ISIS. Muhammad Irfan Danyal bin Mohamad Nor, an 18-year-old student, was convinced the terrorist group was legitimate after consuming extensive ISIS propaganda online, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement Wednesday. He was arrested in December after authorities determined that he posed an ‘imminent security threat.’ Irfan allegedly planned to stab and kill ‘disbelievers’ in dark alleys, carry out a mass-casualty attack against a military base and build a homemade explosive to bomb a grave site he deemed ‘un-Islamic,’ the ministry said. The teen planted a self-made flag inspired by Al-Qaeda on Singapore’s Coney Island on the city-state’s National Day last August, and intended to declare it an ISIS province, according to the statement. He is also suspected of making plans to travel overseas to commit violence there once he saved up enough money.”
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