Eye on Extremism - February 22, 2016

Eye on Extremism February 22, 2016 New York Times: U.S. Scrambles To Contain Growing ISIS Threat In Libya “The Islamic State’s branch in Libya is deepening its reach across a wide area of Africa, attracting new recruits from countries like Senegal that had been largely immune to the jihadist propaganda — and forcing the African authorities and their Western allies to increase efforts to combat the fast-moving threat. The American airstrikes in northwestern Libya on Friday, which demolished an Islamic State training camp and were aimed at a top Tunisian operative, underscore the problem, Western officials said.” BBC: Syria Conflict: Homs And Damascus Bomb Blasts Kill 140 “Bomb blasts in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus have left at least 140 people dead, monitors and state media say. At least four blasts struck the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least 83 people, state media said. Earlier in Homs, 57 people, mainly civilians, were killed in a double car bombing, a monitoring group reported. So-called Islamic State (IS) said it carried out the attacks in both cities.” Reuters: Al Qaeda Militants Seize Southern Yemen Town, Kill Militia Leader: Residents “Dozens of al Qaeda militants took control of the southern Yemeni town of Ahwar on Saturday, residents said, consolidating the group's control over much of the region. The coastal city and surrounding district, in Abyan province, is home to more than 30,000 people and is an important geographic link between the major port city of Mukalla to the east and the smaller town of Zinjibar, both of which Al Qaeda seized months ago.” CNN: Missing Radioactive Material Found In Iraq “Al-Falahi's sigh of relief was over the discovery of some potentially deadly radioactive material that had been missing for months. ‘We found the missing radioactive material inside its case with no damages,’ he said. The incident was reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency in November. The item in question, an industrial radiography device about the size of a laptop, was found apparently undamaged Sunday near a patrol station in the southern Iraqi town of Zubayr.” Jerusalem Post: Three Attempted Stabbing Attacks Thwarted In West Bank “A Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by IDF soldiers after he attempted to stab them near Nablus in one of three attacks against security forces in the West Bank on Sunday morning. In Jerusalem, settlers held a rally outside the prime minister’s office during the weekly government meeting and called for an end to the rampant Palestinian terrorism on the streets of the country. ‘The government must wake up,’ Avi Ro’eh, head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria, said at the rally.” The Guardian: Apple’s FBI Battle Is Just The Beginning Of A Reality Check For The Tech Sector “Life for technology companies was once, as the Fast Show character used to say, brilliant. They could make products and offer services worldwide and, especially in the software field, they would make money hand over fist; look at businesses like Microsoft and Oracle in the 1990s. Oil spills, environmental damage, government regulation – that was something for other sectors.” RT: 5,000 ISIS Militants Trained In Syria & Iraq Walk Free In Europe – Europol “Between 3,000 and 5,000 so-called ‘foreign fighters’ – EU citizens trained in Islamic state terror camps - have returned to Europe and pose a “completely new challenge,” according the continent’s top police chief. ‘Europe is currently facing the highest terror threat in more than in a decade,’ Rob Wainwright, Europol’s director, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung daily, warning of the real possibility of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) or other terror groups attacks in Europe.” Associated Press: Turkey Insists Syrian Kurdish Militia Behind Ankara Attack “Turkey's prime minister has dismissed a Turkey-based Kurdish militant group's claim of responsibility for an attack in Ankara that killed 28 people, insisting it was carried out by a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, TAK, claimed the suicide car bomb attack on Friday, saying it was in retaliation for Turkish military operations against militants in southeast Turkey. The group is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.” The Guardian: Isis Claims Responsibility For Killing Of Hindu Priest In Bangladesh “Suspected Islamist militants have stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid. Police said the attack on Sunday was perpetrated by a local militant group, while Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement issued via social media. Bangladesh has experienced a wave of militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.” NPR: Taking On The Appeal Of ISIS, With Cartoons “One Muslim man in Minnesota is on his own personal mission to undermine ISIS. Mohamed Ahmed works as a gas station manager in Minneapolis. But he's dedicated much of his time to creating cartoons that explain Islam — and why ISIS is wrong. He's the creator and voice of a cartoon character he calls Average Mohamed. For the past four years Ahmed has been producing these online cartoons to try to counter the ISIS message.” Turkey Reuters: Turkey Calls For Unconditional U.S. Support Against Kurdish YPG “Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday called on the United States to give unconditional support in the fight against Syrian Kurdish militants, illustrating growing tension between Ankara and Washington over policy in northern Syria. Davutoglu also said Turkey would tighten security across the country, especially the capital, after a car laden with explosives was detonated near military buses in Ankara on Wednesday, killing 28 people.” AFP: Turkey Announces New Security Measures After Ankara Attack “Turkey is to introduce new national security measures, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday, in the wake of a suicide car bombing in Ankara that killed 28 people. ‘We are going for changes in the matter of security,’ Davutoglu said after a five-hour meeting in the capital with security chiefs, saying an anti-terror ‘action plan’ was being prepared.” Syria NPR: Dozens Killed In Blasts In 2 Syrian Cities; ISIS Claims Responsibility “The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for multiple bombings on Sunday, which left at least 140 people dead in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs. Syrian state media reported least 83 people were killed and at least 170 wounded in at least four blasts in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, according to the BBC. Earlier in Homs, two car bombs exploded in an area that's home to many Alawites, the minority sect of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombs killed 57 people. Syria's Foreign Ministry said at least 46 people died.” Reuters: Syrian Opposition Says Temporary Truce Possible, But Deal Seems Far Off “Syria's opposition on Saturday said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus's allies including Russia would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide. But there was no immediate sign that Moscow would drop its vow to continue its onslaught against those it views as ‘terrorists’ among the range of armed groups pitted against President Bashar al-Assad.” The Telegraph: US-Backed Militia Groups Now Fighting Each Other In Syria “If anywhere can show the consequences of American foreign policy under President Barack Obama, it may be the small town of Marea, north of Aleppo. In the course of the last five years, it has seen Assad regime tanks roll through from the south, firing shells through its houses. It has been repeatedly attacked from the east by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). On occasion it has been bombed from the air by the regime and shelled from the ground by Isil on the same day.” Afghanistan New York Times: Russia Pulls Back From Cooperating With U.S. On Afghanistan “For all the conflicts in the world in which Washington is at odds with Moscow, the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan has been one area where the Obama administration’s interests and Russia’s concerns coincide. Disputes over the wars in Ukraine and Syria had not stopped the governments from cooperating on counternarcotics and securing military supply lines. But after initial success on those fronts, Russia now seems to be disengaging with both the United States and the American-backed Afghan government.” Associated Press: Afghan Officials Hope To Reconnect Kabul Power Within Days “Afghan officials said Saturday they hope to fully restore electricity to the capital now that security forces have cleared insurgents from an area in the northern Baghlan province where cables from Uzbekistan were damaged during heavy fighting. Engineers had reconnected some cables and the work should be completed within five days, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, spokesman for the Afghanistan electricity directorate.” BBC: How IS Has Been Making Enemies In Afghanistan “You have probably heard about the rise of so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan. The militant group claims to be building a new province of what it calls ‘the Caliphate’ in the mountains in the east of the country. But it has made some serious tactical errors, says BBC Afghan Service reporter, Sayed Abdullah Nizami. I am from Kunar, one of the provinces where so-called Islamic State is strongest. I went to the local school and lots of my friends ended up as jihadi fighters, some have even joined IS.” Iraq AFP: Clashes In ISIS-Held Iraq’s Fallujah Halt After Residents Seized “Clashes between Iraqi tribesmen and the ISIS group in Fallujah have halted after the militants detained dozens of residents of the city west of Baghdad, officials said Sunday. Tribesmen in three areas of the city ‘withdrew from the clashes (with ISIS), fearing for the fate of the detainees’, an army lieutenant colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity. ‘The clashes stopped because of the imbalance of power and fear that the detainees would be executed,’ said Issa Sayir who was appointed by the Anbar governor to administer the Fallujah area.” Middle East WND: Dismantled ISIS Cell 'Planned To Use Biological Weapons' “The terrorist that busted on Thursday, is a “real commando” that planned terrorist attacks this Friday in Morocco, Director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), Abdelhak Khiame, said. The ten-member terror cell, whose members pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), was planning attacks against public institutions and civil and military figures, Khiame said at a press briefing at the BCIJ headquarters in Salé (Rabat twin city).” Arutz Sheva: Stabbing Attempt At Damascus Gate “An 18 year old Arab teenager attacked police officers outside the Damascus gate in Jerusalem just as Shabbat was coming to a close.  From initial reports the teen aroused police suspicion and they began to approached him. The teen seeing the police coming toward him took out a knife and attempted to stab them. The officers quickly overpowered the terrorist and arrested him. No injuries were incurred during the incident.”  Libya Reuters: Libya's National Oil Company Is Worried About More Attacks From ISIS “More attacks on Libya's oil facilities are likely unless a United Nations-backed unity government is approved, and militants hit one oilfield just last week, the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Monday. Mustafa Sanalla told Reuters that suspected Islamic State militants had staged their latest attack against Libya's oil infrastructure on late Thursday or Friday, setting fire to one production tank and damaging another at the Fida oil field.” Nigeria NAIJ: Boko Haram Suffers Heavy Casualties “The Nigerian troops have recorded huge success against the Boko Haram terrorists group in the ongoing operation to wipe out the sect from the Northeastern part of the country. This was contained in a statement issued on February 20 by the Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, acting director army public relations, a copy obtained by Naij.com. Usman said troops in intensified operations to clear the remnants of the terrorists killed many while some managed to escape with gunshots wounds. He said the terrorists logistics chain has been destroyed following a successful raids and ambushes.” Arabic Language Clips Terrorist Financing Assawt: Study: Algeria Is Relentless In Its Fight Against The Financing Of Terrorism Le Groupe d'action financière (GAFI), known in English as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), recently issued a new study which excludes Algeria from the blacklist of countries that fund terrorist organizations or are involved in money laundering. Additionally, both Angola and Panama have been taken off the blacklist. According to GAFI, a global financial organization which studies the movement of capital in and out of countries, "Algeria recorded tangible results in terms of upgrading its legal system to match the current trends, especially in view of the growing volume of activity of terrorist groups in numerous countries. These organizations rely heavily on revenues obtained from illegal operations. The funds obtained are subsequently invested in banks and international financial institutions in order to finance their activities globally." Addiyar: Salameh: Lebanon Meets The Requirements To Combat Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing The Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, announced that the GAFI Group, which is combating money laundering and terror financing, affirmed that Lebanon "has fulfilled all the conditions required, in terms of laws and practical measures, to combat money laundering, terror financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. There will be no further demands made on Lebanon in this regard." GAFI's statement was issued at the conclusion of its General Assembly meeting, which was held in Paris during February 15th-19th. Salameh stressed that "the declaration of a General Assembly comprising 199 countries facilitates Lebanon's banking and financial dealings with the outside world. It also makes it easier to deal with Lebanese banks, particularly for Lebanese expatriates and non-residents who wish to make money transfers to and from Lebanon." ISIS Alsumaria News: ISIS (In Iraq) Resorts To Forging The Local Currency To Deal With Its Worsening Financial Crisis Jabbar al-Maamouri, a leader in Iraq's "al-Hashd al-Shaabi" (the People's Mobilization) militia in Diyala province, claimed on Saturday that ISIS has intensified its efforts to forge the local currency in order to deal with its deteriorating financial situation. Al-Maamouri disclosed that ISIS was punishing shop owners who refused to accept and use the counterfeit banknotes. Al-Maamouri was quoted as saying that "members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi uncovered counterfeit 10,000-dinar banknotes during recent incursions, carried out over the past few weeks, into the vicinity of Ash-Sharqat, Sinniyah and two nearby villages." Almada: Coalition Raids Destroy Five (ISIS) Banks In Mosul… Growing Fears Of Impending Attack On Its Infrastructure Until Sunday, the international coalition had attacked five banks in Mosul. It is believed that some of them still contain ISIS's money and important documents related to its members and employees in the city. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdistan Democratic Party official in Mosul, said that "American warplanes had bombed since Friday night until yesterday roughly 20 sites in Mosul." He added that "one of the strikes targeted ISIS's weapons caches in Al-Karama industrial zone, killing four gunmen inside." In addition, ISIS's sites harboring militants were bombed in the districts of Rasheed, Yarmouk, the train station and Baghdad Garage. The Kurdish official claimed that "the air strikes targeted a bank which was used as a site for the disbursement of the salaries of ISIS militants." Muslim Brotherhood Moheet: Sources: 0.5 Million Egyptian Pounds The Value Of Properties Obtained From Disbanded Brotherhood (Societies) Sources within the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity revealed that Minister Dr. Ghada Wali has recently signed a decision to dissolve five banned Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated associations. She also ruled to change the boards of directors of 10 societies belonging to the Brotherhood in Egypt's various governorates. The sources indicated that these associations are part of the "9th group" of associations which faced the decision of disbandment by Egyptian authorities. The sources added: "The number of associations that have been disbanded by court orders amounts to 550 so far, in addition to the appointment of new boards of directors to 68 associations." The sources noted that the total value of assets seized from disbanded Brotherhood associations since the start of the process in 2015, totals 0.5 million pounds ($64,100). These funds have been transferred to the Ministry's Civil Society Organizations Supporting Fund. Albayan: Lists Of Brotherhood (Employees) In (Egypt's) State Institutions Ready Political and security circles in Egypt claimed that state institutions and security agencies have finalized the lists of all appointees in state agencies in the aftermath of the January 25th Revolution. This comes in an effort to expose those who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. Administrative actions are anticipated against all those connected to the group. The Egyptian Council of Ministers is expected to issue a decision whereby it will detail the ways of dealing with these Brotherhood-affiliated employees. It is noteworthy that most Egyptian state institutions have adopted decisions to exclude any person proved to be associated with the Brotherhood. This is especially true regarding the Ministry of Education where a growing number of complaints involve teachers having taught their pupils anti-state slogans. Alghad: Grievance By Former Brotherhood Guide Against The Decision To Prevent Him From Controlling His Assets Rejected An Egyptian court on Saturday rejected a complaint submitted by three prominent Muslim Brotherhood leaders: Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide, his wife Wafaa Ezzat, sister of Mahmoud Ezzat, the temporary leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Yusuf Mostafa Ibrahim Eissa Nada, a businessman and the Brotherhood's Commissioner for International Political Relations. The appeal, filed against a decision preventing them from utilizing their funds, was issued by Ezzat Khamis, Chairman of the Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee. The decision was handed down after all three were accused of joining a group established contrary to the law. Egypt 24: First Court Ruling To Invalidate The Decisions Of (Egypt's) Brotherhood Asset Freeze (Committee) Since Issuance Of The Terrorist Entities (Law)," Councilor Yehia Dakruri, Chairman of the Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court and Deputy Chairman of the State Council, issued a ruling to invalidate the decision by Muslim Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee to seize the funds of a citizen named Abu Zaid Abdel-Hamid, for allegedly belonging to the group. This is the first ruling of its kind to be issued in a case of property seizure following the enactment last year of the "Terrorist Entities" and "Counter-Terrorism" laws. Among other things, these laws were designed to define the nature and limits of the work of the Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee. The Administrative Court declared that the Ministry of Justice-affiliated committee seizes funds of citizens, due to their alleged membership in the terror group. However, the committee’s decisions violate the powers of the Criminal Chamber of the Cairo Court of Appeal. Dakruri stressed that the committee was set up to implement the rulings of the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters, but it enjoys administrative powers and not judicial authority. Free Pen: Economist: Ban On Depositing Funds In Banks Reflects The Goal Of The Muslim Brotherhood To Destroy The (Egyptian) Economy Dr. Rashad Abdah, an economist at Cairo University Faculty of Economics and Political Science, asserted that what was written on the Facebook page of Salafi preacher, Abu Ishaq Al Heweny, about the ban on depositing money in bank funds confirms the Muslim Brotherhood's desire to harm Egypt. He claimed that the Brotherhood's scheme this time seeks to destroy the Egyptian economy after having failed to do so politically. The expert claimed that in the economic sphere, the Brotherhood is taking steps aimed at replicating the January 25th Revolution's scenario. According to Abdah, the fatwa (Islamic edict) forbidding the deposit of money in banks contradicts the fatwas issued over the past years by senior scholars at Al-Azhar Institute and the Fatwa Council (Dar al-Ifta.). Alarabiya: Egypt Arrested A (Brotherhood-Affiliated) Terror Cell In Alexandria Security forces in Alexandria arrested a terror cell belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood's "Dawn Groups." The cell, consisting of 18 people, was implicated in criminal acts in Alexandria. Investigations by the National Security and Public Security services in Alexandria revealed that leaders and members of the Brotherhood had ordered the formation of terror cells under the name of "Dawn Groups." Brotherhood youth joined these groups, which enjoyed a steady supply of money and equipment by the Brotherhood. The cells were entrusted to carry out acts of hostility and sabotage targeting public sites, private and public transport services, and members of the police, armed forces and the Egyptian judiciary. Their ultimate goal was to generate a state of chaos and instability in the country.