Eye on Extremism - February 9, 2016

Eye on Extremism February 9, 2016 Reuters: U.S. Defense Intelligence Chief Predicts Increased ISIS Attacks “Islamic State is likely to step up ’the pace and lethality’ of its attacks in the months ahead as it seeks to fan the flames of international conflict, the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said on Monday. Speaking to a security conference, Marine Corps Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart linked his warning to the militant group's establishment of ‘emerging branches’ in Mali, Tunisia, Somalia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. He also said he would not be surprised if Islamic State, which has created a self-proclaimed Caliphate across swaths of Syria and Iraq, extended its operations from the Sinai Peninsula deeper into Egypt.” The Guardian: US To Deploy Hundreds Of Troops In Afghanistan To Thwart Taliban “Hundreds of additional US troops are slated to deploy to a volatile province in Afghanistan to bolster the local military against a resurgent Taliban, the Guardian has learned. By month’s end, a force described as battalion-strength, consisting of mostly army soldiers, will arrive in Helmand province where US and UK forces have struggled in battles for over a decade to drive out the Taliban. In keeping with Barack Obama’s formal declaration that the US is not engaged in combat, despite elite forces recently participating in an hours-long battle in Helmand, defense officials said the additional troops would not take part in combat. But they will help the existing Helmand force defend itself against Taliban attacks, officials said.” ABC: US Veteran Says He Is 'ISIS Soldier,' Calls Bin Laden 'Beautiful Man,' Officials Say “The FBI has arrested a former member of the Army on weapons charges after he allegedly expressed sympathy for ISIS, called Osama bin Laden ‘a beautiful man’ and said the murder of government agents was ‘a hundred percent obligation,’ according to court documents filed in a Washington state federal court. ‘I consider myself an ISIS soldier as much as the brothers over there,’ Daniel Seth Franey, who served six years in the Army, beginning in 2002, allegedly told an undercover FBI agent. Court documents say he claims to have ‘deserted’ military service, an assertion that the complaint says Department of Defense records back up. In April 2015, police were told that Franey had been expressing his support for ISIS and wanted to go overseas to ‘join the fight’ or kill Americans at home, the court documents claim.” Associated Press: Al-Qaida Militants Battle Each Other In Southern Yemen “Al-Qaida militants battled each other on Monday in a southern Yemeni city controlled by the group, in what appeared to be an internal power struggle that erupted after a senior militant was killed in a U.S. drone strike. The clashes broke out in the southern city of Zinjibar late Sunday, leaving at least seven militants dead and another nine wounded, according to Yemeni officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The rival factions are led by local commander known as Abu Anas al-Sanani and another known as Ossan Baliedy, the brother of Jalal Baliedy, the leader who was killed along with three others in a drone strike on Thursday.” Voice Of America: IS Runs Timber Smuggling Business In Afghanistan, Officials Say “Islamic State has started cutting down trees in some parts of eastern Afghanistan in a timber-smuggling operation to neighboring Pakistan, according to Afghan officials and tribal leaders. Locals in the Afghan province say the terror group has imported tree-cutting machines and has been cutting trees in the Achin, Naziyan and Dehbala districts of Nangahar province. According to local residents, timber-loaded trucks are sent to Pakistan daily. Some of the timber is sold in local markets in Afghanistan.” AINA: Iran-Backed Militia Seize Christian Neighborhoods In Baghdad “Iran-backed militias have seized homes, businesses and cultural sites, including churches belonging to Baghdad's Christian communities, forcing individuals to resettle and forfeit all their belongings, according to members of the Christian members of the Iraqi Parliament. The militias have targeted properties belonging to Christians, forcing individuals to leave the area, according to Christian community leaders, including representatives from the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac minorities, as well as the Chaldean Patriarch of Iraq who have condemned the attacks, calling them a form of ethnic cleansing aimed to rid Baghdad of its Christians. ‘Their claim is that the property of a non-Christian is halal, meaning it can be seized,’ Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sacco said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.” Jerusalem Post: 'ISIS Operatives In Sinai Are Receiving Medical Treatment At Hamas Hospitals In Gaza' “Islamic State terrorists in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula have received medical treatment in Gaza Strip hospitals, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, charged in an interview with online Arabic newspaper Elaph on Monday. ‘We have received authenticated reports that ISIS members in Sinai entered the Gaza Strip through tunnels in order to receive treatment at Hamas hospitals,’ Mordechai said. The ISIS operatives are admitted to Gaza from Sinai through the same tunnels used to smuggle explosives, weapons and other goods on the orders of Hamas's military wing, he added.” Haaretz: 11-Year-Old Wounded In Stabbing In Central Israel “An 11-year-old boy was moderately wounded in a stabbing in the city of Ramle in central Israel on Monday afternoon, police reported.  A suspect, a 17-year-old male resident of Ramle, was arrested shortly after. According to the police, the child told his mother that a man approached him on the street and asked him for a lighter in an Arabic accent. When the child replied that he doesn't have one, the man stabbed him twice in the back with a pair of scissors and fled.”  Los Angeles Times: Islamic State-Linked Fighters Seizing Oil-Rich Land In Libya “As Islamic State forces lose ground in Iraq and Syria, fighters loyal to the group have seized territory in oil-rich Libya, levying taxes at gunpoint and creating sanctuaries to launch possible attacks in North Africa and Europe, U.S. officials say. The Pentagon has sent special operations teams to gather intelligence and launched at least one airstrike. But the White House so far has resisted calls from some senior aides to escalate the U.S. military role in another Muslim country to counter the potential threat. Spy satellites and reconnaissance drones have shown the militants building fortifications around Surt, on the central Mediterranean coast and on training bases for foreign fighters farther inland, the officials said.” CNN: Intel Agencies Had Hints Of ISIS Plot Before Paris Attacks, Source Says “Intelligence obtained by Western security agencies before the November 13 Paris attacks indicated as many as 60 ISIS fighters had been deployed by the group to Europe to carry out attacks on five cities and had already reached European soil, a senior European counterterrorism source told CNN. The intelligence indicated the target cities included Paris, London, Berlin and a major population center in Belgium, according to the source. It also indicated Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the head of ISIS' external operations efforts, was the key figure behind the ambitious plan, the source said. There was no indication the plan was to attack the cities simultaneously. The source cautioned the threat stream was based on intelligence which was fragmentary and difficult to verify, and it was too vague to act on. In addition, there was no specific intelligence prior to the Paris attack on any moving parts of the plot.” United States Reuters: U.S. Military Seeks To Prepare Africa For Shifting Terror Threat “African forces began a U.S.-led counter-terrorism training program in Senegal on Monday amid what a U.S. commander said were rising signs of collaboration between Islamist militant groups across north Africa and the Sahel. The annual ‘Flintlock’ exercises started only weeks after an attack in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou left 30 people dead. The assault on a hotel used by foreigners raised concerns that militants were expanding from a stronghold in north Mali toward stable, Western allies like Senegal. Al Qaeda (AQIM) fighters claimed responsibility for the attack, one of increasingly bold regional strikes in the Sahel, a poor, arid zone between the Sahara Desert and Sudanian Savanna that is home to a number of roving militant groups.” Saudi Arabia International Business Times: Saudi Arabia Shoots Down Ballistic Missile Fired From Yemen, Targets Launch Pad “A Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen said Monday that the country shot down a ballistic missile launched toward it from Yemen and responded by targeting the launch platform in Yemen. The coalition said, in a statement cited by the Associated Press (AP), that the missile was intercepted at dawn on Monday by Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces. The missile was headed toward the southwestern region of Asir in Saudi Arabia, it added.” Associated Press: Daesh Claims Car Bomb Blast In Saudi Capital “An explosion damaged a car in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday, the Saudi Press Agency reported, an incident the Daesh terror group said was caused by a bomb one of its members had affixed to the vehicle.  A police spokesman said a citizen had reported that his car had been damaged by a blast on Monday while parked in front of his house in the city’s Al Azizia district, according to SPA. There were no injuries. Some nearby vehicles also were damaged.” Yemen Gulf Today: Yemen's Army Advances Towards Sanaa “After having tightened its grip over the Ghailama region, located in Mahali valley, the Yemeni army, assisted by the popular resistance, is advancing towards the capital, Sanaa, officers said on Monday. The Saudi Press Agency, SPA, quoted a statement from the state-run Yemen News Agency, as saying that according to a military source, the army and the popular resistance have thwarted a counter-attack by the Houthi militias in the Masoura region following fierce battles during which a rebel leader and a number of soldiers were killed.” Turkey Voice Of America: 25 Killed In Clashes In Turkey's Kurdish Southeast “At least nine civilians and 16 rebel fighters have been killed as security forces battle militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, the army and the region's main political party said on Monday. Violence has raged in the region since the collapse of peace talks last July aimed at ending a three-decade PKK insurgency. Some of the worst clashes have been in the town of Cizre and the Sur district of Diyarbakir, the region's biggest city, where security forces have imposed a 24-hour curfew.” Syria Associated Press: Investigators Identify Syria Site Of Possible Sarin Attack “The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has identified the Damascus suburb of Daraya as the site of a possible sarin gas attack last year, citing blood samples provided by the Syrian government. In a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Monday, the watchdog describes an incident on Feb. 15, 2015 near the Shrine of Sukayna where government soldiers reported a strange smell and began exhibiting symptoms consistent with sarin gas. The report marks the first time that OPCW investigators have identified the site of a possible attack involving the nerve agent in Syria.” Ara News: ISIS Claims Suicide Attack On Headquarters Of Kurdish-Arab Alliance In Hasakah “Radical group of the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that hit a security center for the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeastern province of Hasakah on Monday. An ISIS jihadi detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives at the main gate of the SDF security center in al-Hawl town in Hasakah countryside, a military source said. ‘Nine SDF members were killed and four more were injured during the terror attack,’ a spokesman for the SDF told ARA News in Hasakah.” Afghanistan Reuters: Suicide Bombers In Afghanistan Kill Nine, Wound 23 “Two suicide bombers targeting Afghan government and military employees killed at least nine people on Monday and wounded 23, officials said. Six civilians died and nine were injured in a blast outside a bakery shop in Yahyakhil district of Paktika province, an area near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, district governor Musa Khan Kharuti said. The suicide bomber apparently targeted police and government employees buying bread, a provincial police official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.” Iraq AFP: Iraq Deploying Thousands Of Troops To Retake Mosul “The Iraqi army is deploying thousands of soldiers to a northern base in preparation for operations to retake the Islamic State group's hub of Mosul, officials said on Monday. ‘Units from the Iraqi army have begun arriving to a military base near the Makhmur district to start launching initial military operations toward Mosul,’ a staff brigadier general told AFP on condition of anonymity. Makhmur lies around 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Mosul. ‘There are three brigades located in that base now,’ and their number will eventually reach 4,500 soldiers, said the officer, who is part of the security command tasked with retaking Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.” Middle East Business Insider: ISIS 'Is Not Sustainable' — Here's The Latest Sign The Group Is Losing “Despite a rash of global terrorist attacks either directed or inspired by ISIS, the terrorist organization is quickly finding itself caught on its back foot.  Between a series of battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria, a hardening of the international coalition against it, and airstrikes that have begun to directly target the militant group's main sources of finance, ISIS is quickly reaching a point of unexpected weakness, The Washington Post reports citing experts and analysts.  In January, the US military announced that ISIS had lost an estimated 40% of its territory that it once controlled in Iraq.” Jerusalem Post: Border Police Thwart Stabbing Attack At Damascus Gate In Jerusalem “A stabbing attack was thwarted near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday morning, near the site of a terror attack last week that claimed the life of Border Police officer Hadar Cohen. According to police, in Tuesday's incident, a Border Police unit saw a woman who roused their suspicions near Damascus Gate and approached the suspect. During the inspection, when the woman was asked to hand over her bag, she pulled out a knife and attempted to stab the officers. The officers responded quickly, and succeeded in gaining control of the suspect. Police described her as a 16-year-old Arab Jerusalem resident.” Jerusalem Post: 'Israeli Man Conspired To Help Jihadi Infiltrate Into Israel To Carry Out Terror Attacks' “A Israeli Arab man from Tel Sheva, 3 km. east of Beersheba, conspired with a Jordanian sheikh to establish a terrorist cell that would attack soldiers, according to an indictment issued on Monday. Muhammad Alasam, 22, is accused of a number of serious crimes, including conspiracy to assist the enemy in time of war. The case revolves around a series of connections Alasam allegedly made while he was studying Islamic Law at Yarmuk University in Irbid, Jordan. During his studies he met online with a popular lecturer preacher named Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Fahed Alhalusi and later joined a WhatsApp group where the sheikh would post his sermons, the indictment states.” Washington Free Beacon: Hamas Commander Executed For Informing Israel About Location Of Another Hamas Leader “A leading member of Hamas’ military establishment in the Gaza Strip was executed Sunday in Gaza for allegedly informing Israel about the location of the military leader of Hamas, Mohammed Deif, during the war with Israel in the summer of 2014. In announcing the execution of Mahmoud Eshtewi, Hamas said only that he was guilty of ‘offenses of conduct and ethics,’ which is assumed to mean collaboration with Israel. In a short Twitter message, Hamas said the execution was carried out after Eshtewi confessed. The verdict was handed down by ‘the military and religious judiciary,’ an entity hitherto unknown to Israeli observers. Eshtewi was himself a well-known Hamas commander and a member of a family that has been part of Hamas’ military organization since its inception. His execution marked the first time that the military wing of Hamas has publicly announced a death verdict against one of its own members.” France RT: ISIS Declares Rallies Of France’s National Front Are ‘Prime Targets’ “For the first time, the Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) has targeted France’s right-wing National Front (FN) party and its supporters in a statement on the pages of its French-language propaganda magazine. In the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the jihadists published a photo of an FN rally with the caption ‘prime targets.’ ‘The question is no longer whether France will be hit again by attacks like those of November… The only relevant question is the next target and the date,’ the text read, as cited by Le Figaro.” Russia ABC: Russians Arrest 7 In Alleged ISIS-Related Terror Plot “Russian security services have arrested seven people accused of plotting terror attacks on behalf of the Islamic State in major Russian cities, the country’s FSB intelligence agency said today. The arrests were made in the city of Ekaterinburg, located in the Urals region on the edge of Siberia, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation said in a written statement. The agency said the group was planning to carry out ‘high-profile attacks’ using improvised explosives on Moscow, St. Petersburg and in the area around Ekaterinburg. During searches of the group’s houses, agents found a bomb-making laboratory, including explosives and detonators, as well as guns and grenades, according to the statement. Officers also allegedly found banned extremist writings.” Wall Street Journal: Chechens Back Russians On The Ground In Syria Conflict “Special forces from Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Chechnya are on the ground in Syria, helping the Kremlin’s warplanes strike opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to an interview with prominent Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Russian state television, which aired Sunday evening. Mr. Kadyrov, a former militia commander, appeared on Russia’s Channel 1 ‘News of the Week’ program, saying Chechen forces are on the ground and have suffered casualties. The program showed well-equipped and heavily armed Chechen fighters in live shooting drills at a military training range outside of Mr. Kadyrov’s hometown of Tsenteroi. The Chechen leader didn’t give specifics about the number of Chechens operating in Syria.” Arabic Language Clips Counter-Terrorism Alyaoum24: The Moroccan Army Is At The Heart Of International Maneuvers To Counter Terrorism In Africa The Moroccan army is participating, along with the armies of 18 other countries, in special military maneuvers. The drills, which started on Monday, will last until February 29th. They are being held in Mauritania and Senegal with the aim of training the forces to deal with terrorist challenges and threats. The maneuvers are underway at a sensitive time for the Sahel region, which has faced repeated attacks by jihadists belonging to terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. This region has also witnessed efforts by other organizations, such as ISIS, to extend their influence in the region via Libya, through new jihadist alliances. These developments pose a real and imminent threat to such neighboring countries as Morocco and Algeria. In this regard, Abdelrahman El Makawi, an expert on security affairs, stressed that the participation of Morocco in this maneuver, which will take place in the desert region of Mauritania and Northern Senegal, sends a message to the jihadist Salafist groups in the Sahel region. It also falls within the military and security tactics for fighting terrorist groups in the region, particularly al-Qaeda. ISIS The New Arab: The Syrian Oil Game…Division Of Oil Fields Areas Between The Regime And ISIS The Syrian regime's forces, backed by Russian warplanes, have cut off oil supply routes linking the areas controlled by ISIS in northeastern Syria to the rural regions of Aleppo and Idlib. This has resulted in a rise in the price of a liter of diesel fuel, in the liberated areas of Aleppo and Idlib, from 170 pounds ($0.9) to 210 pounds ($1.1), according to engineer Mahrous Khatib from the western rural area of Idlib. Khatib predicted that the skyrocketing prices of oil derivatives will continue to rise even higher if the regime's momentum continues and its forces take control of the few remaining villages along the Raqqa - Aleppo Road. The Syrian forces yesterday took control of Hardatnin and entered the town of Ratyan. Muslim Brotherhood Elwatan News: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down Two Brotherhood Associations For Financing Terrorism The Muslim Brotherhood expressed its wrath towards the decisions issued by Saudi Arabia yesterday to close two new associations belonging to the group. They are accused of exploiting donations to finance terrorist operations, carried out by the "qualitative cells" of the group. The two societies are the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the Muslim World League. Ahmed Abdelaty, a young Brotherhood activist commented that "Saudi Arabia has recently pursued a hardline policy towards us and has shut down many of our societies. This is detrimental to the interests of the group worldwide after being undermined, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia." Elfagr: Ahmed Moussa: Human Rights Watch Is Operating In Favor Of The Muslim Brotherhood In Exchange For Large Sums Of Money Egyptian journalist Ahmed Moussa accused the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization of taking money for promoting the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood at the expense of the interests of the Egyptian state. Claiming that the Brotherhood pays "big money" to HRW, Moussa added, "Human Rights Watch is an organization which can be 'employed' (to promote your interests) in exchange for money. Terrorist Walid Sharabi is just one of the employees and inciters on behalf of Human Rights Watch." 24: Cairo Thwarts Brotherhood Scheme To Destroy State Institutions Egypt's Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar declared the thwarting of "the most serious" terrorist plot by the Brotherhood during the events marking the January 25th Revolution anniversary. The minister revealed that "the security services uncovered a terrorist plot which had been prepared abroad, and which Muslim Brotherhood operatives were about to carry out in Egypt. The scheme aimed to destroy state institutions and carry out assassinations during the January 25th Revolution celebrations. This was demonstrated clearly by the number of explosive devices that were dismantled adjacent to reputable schools and commercial centers as well as in other public gathering sites." The minister explained, "Our security services have succeeded in undermining the terrorist movement in Egypt and paralyzing the mobility of its operatives, by inflicting successive blows on the Brotherhood's Qualitative Committees and a number of other terrorist organizations, such as the "Soldiers of Egypt" (Ajnad Misr)." He also hailed the efforts made to dry up the financing of terrorist groups, thus limiting their ability to purchase weapons, explosives and other deadly materials used in terrorist operations.