Eye on Extremism - February 5, 2016

Eye on Extremism February 5, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Fox News: African Terror Group Al Shabaab Finds American Recruits To Aid Jihad Missions “‘In Minnesota, you have a very large Somali-American community, so Al Shabaab is attracted to potential recruits there,’ said David Ibsen, executive director of the U.S.-based Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit co-founded by former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. ‘They have the ethnic, national ties, and they can feed on first-generation or immigrant individuals, feelings maybe of aloofness or being disaffected or marginalized, and can entice them to come back to their home country to have a sense of belonging.  Quite frankly, have adventure.’ Americans in Al-Shabaab fill a variety of different positions, whether it's recruiting, leadership, commandos, suicide bombers.’ - David Ibsen, Counter Extremism Project. American recruits are mostly in Somalia and Kenya, fighting for the U.S.-designated terror group behind the September 2013 attack at the Westgate Shopping Center in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, where 67 people were killed and more than 175 wounded. The group also is suspected of causing an explosion aboard a passenger jet over Somalia Tuesday which killed one and forced an emergency landing.” New York Times: Obama Is Pressed To Open Military Front Against ISIS In Libya “President Obama is being pressed by some of his national security aides, including his top military advisers, to approve the use of American forces in Libya to open another front against the Islamic State. But Mr. Obama, wary of embarking on an intervention in another strife-torn country, has told his aides to redouble their efforts to help form a unity government in Libya at the same time the Pentagon refines its options. Those include airstrikes, commando raids or advising vetted Libyan militias on the ground, as Special Operations forces are doing now in eastern Syria.” The Guardian: Saudi Arabia Offers To Send Ground Troops To Syria To Fight Isis “Saudi Arabia has offered for the first time to send ground troops to Syria to fight Islamic State, its defence ministry said on Thursday. ‘The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against Isis) may agree to carry out in Syria,’ said military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri during an interview with al-Arabiya TV news. Saudi sources told the Guardian that thousands of special forces could be deployed, probably in coordination with Turkey.” Reuters: Syrian Rebel Commander Says Northern Aleppo Countryside 'Totally Encircled' “The commander of a U.S.-supported Syrian rebel group said on Friday the northern countryside of Aleppo province was completely encircled by Syrian government forces and its allies and heavy Russian bombardment continued. Syrian government troops and their allies broke through rebel defenses to reach two Shi'ite villages in northern Aleppo province on Wednesday, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to Aleppo city. The assault in northern Aleppo province, backed by hundreds of Russian air strikes there, has also prompted tens of thousands of people to flee toward the Turkish border and helped derail peace talks in Geneva.” ABNA: Iraqi Peshmerga Seize ISIS Specially Made Tank “Peshmerga Forces fighting the ISIS militants has captured a bizarre pick-up truck with tank-style treads. The picture was posted by Peshmerga, which shows the unusual vehicle, which appears to be a Toyota Hilux 4x4 converted to take tank-style tracks to drive over difficult terrain, was posted on a Facebook page supporting the Peshmerga.  The car maker's trucks, particularly Toyota Hilux pickups and Toyota Land Cruisers, have appeared in the terror group's propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, loaded with heavy weapons and packed full with terrorists.” Business Insider: One Of The World's Most Dangerous Al Qaeda-Linked Groups Is Having An Alarming Resurgence “In September of 2012, Somali and African Union troops moved against Kismayo, the last major city in the country still under the control of al Shabaab, Somalia's al Qaeda franchise. As the offensive approached, Shabaab beat a tactical retreat into the country's hinterlands, ending a period in which the jihadist group controlled substantial territory and represented the country's most powerful political and social force. It's been nearly three-and-a-half years since the African Union force hastened the end of al Shabaab 's state-building project. But the group made a canny strategic decision, contracting into defensible territory, consolidating its safe haven, and evolving into a deadly and resilient insurgency. Shabaab lost much of its land, but helped ensure its ability to kill on a massive scale for years to come.” Reuters: German Spy Agency Got 100 Tip-Offs About ISIS Fighters Among Refugees: Report “Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has received more than 100 tip-offs that there are Islamic State fighters among the refugees currently staying in Germany, Berliner Zeitung newspaper cited the agency's chief as saying. The newspaper said on Friday, without citing its sources, that BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen had recently mentioned this number at a discussion in the Interior Ministry with politicians who focus on domestic policy issues. But Maassen also said that among those tip-offs there were some cases of untruthful defamation, the newspaper said.” Associated Press: Berlin Police Arrest Two On Suspicion Of Planning Terror Attack, Having ISIS Ties “German police conducted raids and arrested two suspects on Thursday in an investigation of four Algerian men who are suspected of planning attacks in Germany and having ties to the Islamic State group. The arrests were made in Berlin and at a refugee home in the western town of Attendorn, Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich said. The arrests were based on existing warrants in other cases, and a woman who isn't under investigation in the current case also was detained on an unrelated warrant, he said. The other two suspects, one of whom was at a refugee home in the central city of Hannover, weren't arrested.” Toronto Star: Paris Attack Leader Said He Entered France With 90 Extremists “The Belgian who led the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris bragged that he slipped into France with a group of 90 extremists from Europe and the Middle East, according to testimony from the woman who tipped police to his location. She said the Islamic State group commander told her he had entered France without documents, among a group of 90 people that had scattered around the Paris region. She accused him of killing innocent people, which he denied, and challenged the deaths of Muslims that night. Those, she said, he described as ‘collateral damage.’ She asked him whether he had come in with Syrian refugees and he told her he came in a group without any documents. ‘There are Syrians, Iraqis, French, Germans, British. We came in a group of 90 and we’re a little bit everywhere around Paris.’” United States The Mirror: White Supremacists And Extremist Militias Are 'Greater Threat To US Than ISIS' “Far-right militias and racist organisations like the Ku Klux Klan are a greater threat to America than ISIS, it has been reported. While presidential candidates like Donald Trump are calling for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country, law enforcement agencies say racist, anti-government and religious fundamentalist groups are the ones they truly fear. Since 2002, militias have killed more people in the United States than jihadis have. Figures from Washington think tank New America, Islamists launched nine attacks that murdered 45, while the right-wing extremists struck 18 times, leaving 48 dead, reports Newsweek.” Turkey Sputnik: Cizre Crisis: Scores Of People Killed In Turkey's 'Anti-Terror' Operation “Ankara's so-called anti-terrorist operation in the Kurdish town of Cizre in southeastern Turkey has left at least 80 people dead and hundreds more wounded, RIA Novosti quoted Faysal Sariyildiz, a member of Turkey's Parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party as saying. He lamented the fact that many of those who had been wounded eventually died after they failed to flee the besieged town. ‘Over 80 Cizre residents were killed in the so-called anti-terror operation, which was launched on December 14, 2015. Hundreds of people were injured during the siege of Cizre. Some of them ultimately died because they could not be transported to the hospital due to the siege,’ he said.” Syria Reuters:  Iran's Zarif Says Any Syria Ceasefire Should Exclude Operations Against Nusra, ISIS “Any ceasefire in Syria should not include stopping military operations to combat terrorist groups, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. ‘Ceasefire, based on everybody's interpretation, does not include giving a breathing space to recognized terrorist organizations,’ he told an event in British parliament. ‘Having a ceasefire is different from letting up the fight against terrorism.’ He named the Nusra Front and Islamic State as such organizations.” Wall Street Journal: Syrians Flee Aleppo To Escape Damascus Offensive Against Rebels “Tens of thousands of Syrians were fleeing the province of Aleppo and heading north toward the Turkish border, trying to escape a regime offensive backed by Russian airstrikes after the latest international efforts to end the country’s conflict unraveled. Turkish officials said Thursday they were expecting a new wave of refugees, adding that people were finding it increasingly difficult to move safely to Turkey from the Aleppo area because of the airstrikes. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 60,000 to 70,000 Syrians were moving from camps for displaced people north of the city of Aleppo toward Turkey.” The Guardian: Syrian Rebels Losing Grip On Aleppo “Opposition forces in northern Syria say they are losing their grip on Aleppo as Russian bombardment and advances by pro-Assad militias come close to cutting their supply lines and besieging the city. After a week of the most intensive bombardment of the five-year war, forces loyal to the Syrian leader are in control of most of the countryside immediately to the north. Russian jets have pounded the area throughout the past week, as Syrian factions have gathered in Geneva for a faltering peace summit. The Russian defence ministry said on Thursday it had hit almost 900 targets in Syria in the previous three days.” Al Bawaba: Iranian Colonel, 12 Revolutionary Guard Fighters Killed In Battle For Aleppo “A senior official from the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard was killed along with 12 other fighters in the pro-government offensive in the strategic Syrian city of Aleppo, a security source told The Daily Star Thursday. Colonel Mohsen Qajaryan was killed during battles against rebel forces in northern Aleppo as Syria's army and its allied forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, managed to regain control Wednesday over two Shiite villages in Aleppo, which had been beseiged by rebels for three years. The source added that 23 other pro-government fighters were killed in the advance, which began Monday.” Ara News: Dozens Of Syrian Army Forces Killed In ISIS-Led Offensive In Aleppo “Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday launched an offensive on positions of the Syrian regime’s army in Aleppo province, killing and wounding dozens of soldiers. ISIS launched two car bomb attacks at Syrian army bases in the towns of Afsh and Tal Maksur in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, before firing dozens of mortar shells on the army positions. ‘At least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in the offensive on Thursday,’ local media activist Hussein al-Dahir told ARA News in Aleppo.” Ara News: Kurds Recapture Two Villages After Clashes With Al-Qaeda Near Aleppo “Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) reported Thursday new gains against the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo. Subsequent to clashes with Nusra militant fighters, the YPG advanced in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo and recaptured two villages in the Sherawa district of Afrin. The Kurdish units regained control of the villages of Al-Ziyara and Khrebka, forcing al-Qaeda-linked militants of Nusra Front to evacuate their strongholds there on Thursday evening.” Reuters: Syrian Army, Allies Seize Town In Southern Province Deraa: Al Manar, Monitor “Syrian government forces and allied fighters seized the town of Ataman near Deraa city on Friday, Hezbollah's Al Manar television and a Syrian monitoring group said, building on gains made last week in the southern province. The recapture from rebels of Ataman, around 3 km (2 miles) north of Deraa, came a day after dozens of air strikes believed to be carried out by Russian warplanes targeted the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.” Afghanistan Business Standard: 25 Taliban Militants Surrender, 17 Killed In Afghanistan “Amid ongoing militancy and government forces operations against armed militants in the northern Badakhshan and Kunduz provinces, over two dozen Taliban fighters have surrendered and 17 others have been killed over the past two days, officials said on Thursday. ‘A total of 25 Taliban fighters under Sheikh Jamal who were active in Tishkan district over the past couple of years laid down arms and resumed normal life over the past two days,’ Frotan said. Taliban militants who are active in parts of Badakhshan province are yet to make comment.” Iraq BBC: Iraq Divisions Undermine Battle Against IS “Territory that was lost in a day or two is taking many months to claw painfully back. If that process continues and the militants are defeated, the way Iraq fits together - if it does - will be decided by who pushes them out, and how the resulting vacuum is filled. The IS fighters were able to lodge so easily in the Sunni Arab heartlands because the people there had been largely alienated by the sectarian policies and practices of the Shia Arab-dominated Baghdad government under Nouri al-Maliki, who was finally prised out of the prime minister's office in August 2014. Precious little has been done since then to foster national reconciliation and make the Sunnis, a powerful minority under Saddam Hussein, feel they are full partners in a national project.” Middle East Times Of Israel: Guard Stabbed By 13-Year-Old Girls In Ramle Attack “A security guard, 25, was lightly wounded on Thursday morning when he was stabbed by two 13-year-old Israeli Arab girls in the central city of Ramle. Police said the attack appeared to be nationalistically motivated. Police said the two suspects, both minors said by police to be around 13 years old from Ramle’s Jawarish neighborhood, were arrested with knives in their possession. One was carrying a school backpack, a police spokesperson noted.” ABC: Number Of ISIS Fighters In Iraq And Syria Drops, Increases In Libya, US Official Says “The U.S. now estimates that the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria has decreased to between 19,000 and 25,000 resulting from battlefield deaths and a reduced flow of foreign fighters into Syria. Yet, as ISIS numbers have been reduced in Iraq and Syria, theyj have increased in Libya to 5,000 where ISIS has seen an increased flow of foreign fighters, U.S. officials said today. Previous U.S. estimates for Iraq and Syria in the past year have been that ISIS has remained constant at between 20,000 and 30,000, with a peak of 33,000, according to a Defense Department official. Thousands of ISIS fighters were killed by American airstrikes in Kobani more than a year ago, and despite battlefield losses in Bayji and Ramadi, U.S. intelligence continued to assess that the numbers of ISIS fighters had remained constant, the Defense Department official said.” Libya AFP: Fear Stalks Libya's Growing Jihadist Haven “Public beheadings and roving jihadist gangs are terrifying residents in the Islamic State group's Libyan stronghold of Sirte, in an ominous sign of the movement's growing international influence. Witnesses tell of amputations and executions in squares in Moamer Kadhafi's hometown on the Mediterranean coast, where women can no longer go out without a male guardian. ‘The situation is tragic. Civilian life has disappeared and the scenes we saw on television from Syria and Iraq now apply to people here,’ a Sirte municipal council official told AFP on condition of anonymity.” Nigeria All Africa: Chad - Boko Haram Mutliplies Attacks “At least 14 people died in triple suicide bomb attacks in Guité and Mitériné last weekend. The terrorist Boko Haram jihadists have multiplied suicide bomb attacks in the Lake Chad Basin countries since the beginning of 2016. Some 14 people died and 31 others were injured in Boko Haram triple bomb blasts in the localities of Guité and Mitériné, in Chad. In neighbouring Nigeria, Boko Haram jihadists killed over 85 people in bomb blasts and injured 55 others in the locality of Dalori near the Borno State capital, Maiduguri last Saturday, January 30, 2016.” NAIJ: Boko Haram Planning Fresh Attack In Maiduguri “Following its recent attack on Dalori village of Konduga local government area in Borno state, Boko Haram fighters are reportedly regrouping to launch another attack. According to Daily Post, the plot of a fresh attack was disclosed by the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno state, Ali Bukar Dalori. Dalori who was in Dalori village of Konduga local government on Thursday, February 4 to ascertain the extent of damage to the community in the last Boko Haram attack said the insurgents were regrouping at Yale village for a renewed attack.” Europe Times Of Malta: Man Arrested Smuggling Weapons From Libya “The police have arrested a man they caught with weapons strapped to his torso and back on his arrival on a cargo boat from Libya. The arrest was made on Wednesday evening when the police stopped a man as he was leaving the Malta Freeport on suspicion that he was carrying weapons. When he was searched, the police allegedly found a total of four weapons, known as pump guns, taped to his body, two at the front and two at the back. Sources close to the investigations said that the police probe began weeks ago when they intercepted a man carrying an unlicensed weapon. Further investigations led the police to a man who they believed worked on one of two cargo vessels that performed regular visits to and from Tripoli and Misurata, in Libya.” Asia India TV: Man With ISIS Connection Arrested In Delhi: Police “A 28-year-old man with suspected ISIS links was nabbed by Delhi Police from Kashmere Gate ISBT here, making it the fifth arrest in connection with the busting of a module of the dreaded terror outfit last month. ‘The accused, Ibrahim Sayyed, was arrested last night based on a tip-off from a central intelligence agency. Sayyed is a muezzin at Malad in Mumbai. He had come to Delhi to meet an associate,’ said Special Commisioner of Police (Special CP) Arvind Deep. Sayeed, who is believed to be self-radicalised, was acting as a financier and had given Rs 50,000 to the four persons who were arrested from Haridwar last month.”