Eye on Extremism - March 11, 2016

Eye on Extremism March 11, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Morning Consult: Anti-Terror Group Pressures Sony About PlayStation Network “An anti-terrorism group founded by former U.S. government officials has set its sights on the network that connects millions of friends and gamers — Sony Corp.’s video game console, the PlayStation 4. The group’s concern stems from multiple reports saying the PlayStation 4 network is being used to communicate and recruit among terrorist cells and plan attacks for the Islamic State terror group. The Counter Extremism Project, a New York-based nonprofit aimed at combating extremist ideologies and groups, is pressing Sony on the extent of terrorist communication on the PlayStation 4 network.” AFP: Coalition Bombs IS Chemical Sites After Snaring 'Emir' “The US-led coalition has carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, acting on information from a senior operative described as the extremists' top chemical expert. The successful "multiple" bombings came as a result of detailed intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, confirming Dawud's capture by US special forces in Iraq last month. The snaring of Dawud, who was transferred Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation, appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results as well as critical information for the future.” CBS News: Plans By ISIS To Attack U.S. May Have Been Disrupted “Plans by ISIS to attack the U.S. may have been disrupted by a significant intelligence coup. Late Wednesday, CBS News reported that an ISIS defector gave Britain's Sky News documents containing the names and addresses of ISIS terrorists. The documents are forms each foreign fighter had to fill out when entering ISIS controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. They are considered authentic by Germany's Interior Minister, who said his police obtained copies of their own.” Fox News: Report Details ISIS Atrocities Against Christians, Presses State For ‘Genocide’ Label “Bazi joined Middle Eastern Christian leaders and human rights advocates from the Knights of Columbus on Thursday as the group, along with In Defense of Christians (IDC), released a powerful and comprehensive report they say makes the case that the terror campaign against Christians and other minorities in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East can only be called one thing: genocide.” Reuters: Islamic State Greatly Expands Control In Libya: U.N. Report “Islamic State has greatly expanded its control over territory in Libya and the militants are claiming to be the key defense for the North African state against foreign military intervention, United Nations sanctions monitors said. In their annual report to the U.N. Security Council, which was released on Wednesday, the monitors also said Libya has become more attractive to foreign fighters who mainly arrive through Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey. The United States has carried out air strikes in Libya targeting Islamic State, also known as ISIL. A U.S. air strike in the eastern city of Derna in November killed Islamic State's previous leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil.” CNN: Leaked ISIS Documents Reveal Recruits' Blood Types, Obedience Levels “What's your first and last name? Your education and work experience? Do you have recommendations? And are you willing to be a suicide attacker or would you prefer to be a fighter for ISIS? Those were among the questions purportedly posed to would-be jihadis on what appears to be a kind of job application for the terror group. Germany's intelligence agency, a Syrian newspaper and other news organizations, including Britain's Sky News, obtained batches of leaked ISIS documents, which CNN could not authenticate and which seemingly could be replicated easily on many computers.” New York Times: Boko Haram And Mass Starvation “Boko Haram’s continuing raids of terror have turned a swath of territory in the Sahel region in northern Africa into a virtual wasteland, barren of crops and livestock, pocked by ghost villages lying in ruin. Add to this desolation an early ‘lean season’ — the precarious time between harvests when temperatures soar, rainfall is scant, and hunger, even in good years, is a threat to the area’s subsistence farmers and herdsmen — and the stage is set for starvation on a mass scale.” Reuters: Syria Air Strikes Target Islamic State In Ancient Palmyra “Russian warplanes were said to have launched heavy strikes on the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Thursday in what may be a prelude to a Syrian government bid to recapture the historic site lost to the jihadist group last May. Dozens of Islamic State fighters were killed or wounded in the strikes that followed similarly heavy air raids in the Palmyra area on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported. The attacks add to the pressure on a group that is losing ground to a separate, U.S.-backed campaign by Syrian militia in the northeast, and whose military commander was declared probably dead by U.S. officials on Tuesday.” Newsweek: ISIS Bombings In Iraq Kill 200 Civilians In Two Weeks: Human Rights Watch “More than 200 civilians in Iraq have been killed in bombings carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group in the past two weeks, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The killing of civilians constitutes crimes against humanity and could amount to war crimes, according to the New York–based human rights monitor. The most recent attack that ISIS claimed responsibility for took place on Sunday, when more than 60 people were killed and at least 70 were injured after a fuel tanker rigged with explosives was detonated near a checkpoint south of Baghdad.” United States Reuters: US General Warns About ISIS Resilience “The US-led fight against ISIS was ‘not quite yet at an inflection point’ because of the militant groups resilience and ability to adapt to losses, Vice Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Thursday. ‘I think the attributes we have to remember about ISIS are they are an incredibly flexible opponent. They are highly decentralized and incredibly resilient,’ said Selva. He was speaking a conference hosted by Credit Suisse and McAleese & Associates in Washington.” New York Daily News: Obama Urged To Declare ISIS Is Committing Genocide By Killing People Over Religion “Local pols and religious leaders called on the Obama administration Thursday to declare the Islamic State’s campaign against religious minorities “genocide.” Secretary of State John Kerry is slated to decide whether the U.S. will make that designation by the deadline of March 17. The European Parliament, the legislature of the European Union, has already taken that step. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week passed a resolution defining ISIS killings as genocide.” Syria Reuters: Key Powers Mulling Possibility Of Federal Division Of Syria “Major powers close to U.N.-brokered peace talks on Syria are discussing the possibility of a federal division of the war-torn country that would maintain its unity as a single state while granting broad autonomy to regional authorities, diplomats said. The resumption of Geneva peace talks is coinciding with the fifth anniversary of a conflict that began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad before descending into a multi-sided civil war that has drawn in foreign governments and allowed the growth of Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.” Iraq New York Times: Captured ISIS Chemical Weapons Manufacturer Transferred To Iraqi Custody “Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, an Islamic State fighter apparently responsible for manufacturing chemical weapons, was transferred to Iraqi custody Thursday after being held by U.S. forces for roughly a month.  Al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, was captured in U.S. special operations raid in February. The raid was carried out by the Expeditionary Targeting Force–a unit that was deployed to Iraq in recent months with specific orders to capture and kill high value Islamic State fighters throughout the region.” Associated Press: Iraq’s Military Falls Short On Logistics In Fight Against IS “Iraq’s military is once again trying to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from the vast Samarra desert, which stretches between newly recaptured territory in Anbar province and the IS-held northern city of Mosul. Yet, as operations move further away from the capital, government forces are increasingly plagued by logistical shortcomings. Iraq’s minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi on Wednesday toured Camp Speicher, a military base 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of the capital, Baghdad.”   Turkey Reuters: Turkey Detains 10 Suspected Islamic State Members In Raids “Turkish police detained 10 suspected members of Islamic State in raids in the mainly Kurdish city of Bingol in southeastern Turkey, and accused them of recruiting and preparing an attack, security sources said on Thursday. Islamic State, the militant organization which controls large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq, has been blamed by the Turkish authorities for carrying out four bomb attacks in the NATO member state since June. In the most recent on Jan. 12, a suicide bomber killed 12 German tourists visiting Istanbul's Sultanahmet historical area.” New York Times: Facing Migrant Crisis, E.U. Makes A Dubious Deal With Turkey “More and more, it seems that the European Union wants President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to replace Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi as the guardian of European shores against the flow of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. It was Colonel Qaddafi, the former Libyan strongman, who, before Europe and the United States helped to overthrow him, had an agreement with Italy to keep migrants from its shores. In 2010, visiting Silvio Berlusconi, then the Italian prime minister, Colonel Qaddafi demanded 5 billion euros, then about $6.6 billion, a year to continue to stem the tide.” Afghanistan The Guardian: Dozens Killed In Clashes Between Rival Taliban Factions In Afghanistan “Dozens of militants have been killed during clashes between rival Taliban factions in the latest outbreak of an insurrection against the group’s leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, which flared up last year when the movement’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was announced dead. Up to 100 fighters were killed in the Shindand district of Herat in western Afghanistan, officials told local media on Thursday, when followers of Mullah Mohammad Rasool clashed with Mansoor supporters.” Yemen Breitbart: Houthis Make Overtures To Saudi Arabia, Tell Iran To Stay Out Of Yemen “There are signs the Houthi insurgents in Yemen might be talking with Saudi Arabia about ending the year-long civil war, including an encouraging prisoner transfer and the Houthis asking their patrons in Iran to back away from the conflict. Reuters describes the prisoner swap as ‘a rare confidence-building measure,’ which arrived the day after Yemeni officials said a Houthi delegation was talking with Saudi Arabia about ending the war. The swap reportedly involved trading a Saudi lieutenant held prisoner by the Houthis for seven Yemeni prisoners. Another interesting development was a senior Houthi official using his Facebook page to tell Iran to back away from the conflict in Yemen.” Saudi Arabia Associated Press: Saudi Arabia Concludes 20-Nation Anti-Terror Military Drill “Heads of state from across the Muslim world gathered in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the conclusion of a nearly three-week-long counter-terrorism military exercise that included 20 participating countries. Saudi state television carried images of tanks firing missiles and helicopters circling overhead in what local media have called the largest exercise ever held in the Middle East in terms of the number of countries taking part. The military drills, dubbed ‘Northern Thunder’, took place in an area near Saudi Arabia's northeastern border with Iraq and Kuwait.” Middle East Associated Press: Israeli Forces Shut Palestinian Islamic Jihad Station “Israeli police say forces have shut down a media organization run by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group, as part of a crackdown to curb months of violence. Spokeswoman Luba Samri said the head of al-Youm TV station was detained in Friday's raid. She said the outlet called for attacks on Israelis. Israel has been struggling to contain near-daily Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces that have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans since September. Some 179 Palestinians died by Israeli fire in that time, the majority attackers Israel says.” Jerusalem Post: Police Target Hundreds Of Palestinian Laborers As Response To Terror Attacks As a response to Tuesday’s deadly Tel Aviv terrorist attack carried out by a resident of Kalkilya, Police and Border Police officers arrested hundreds of Palestinians illegally present in Israel. An Israel Police spokesman said Thursday that since Tuesday, when Bashar Massalha stabbed to death American tourist Taylor Force and wounded 11 others on the Jaffa promenade, they have arrested more than 250 Palestinians illegally within the Green Line, as well as 27 Israelis accused of employing or sheltering them.” Libya AFP: IS Expanding In Libya, Fueling Arms Race “The Islamic State group has significantly expanded its control over Libya, fueling demand by the country's warring parties for more arms to confront the threat, UN experts have told the Security Council. IS has successfully recruited young men from local tribes, offering them protection and benefits but it has also enlisted military officers from the former regime of Moamer Kadhafi, said the report by the panel of experts who report to a UN sanctions committee.” Reuters: Militants Attack Checkpoint Near Libya’s Misrata, Air Strikes Hit Sirte “ISIS militants attacked a checkpoint south of the Libyan city of Misrata on Wednesday, killing three security personnel, a military source said, after an air strike in Sirte killed three children and wounded their mother. Checkpoints south of Misrata are manned by brigades from the city. The Abu Grain checkpoint, about 140 km (85 miles) west of Sirte, was attacked in the late afternoon, hours after the air strikes, raising the possibility that it was a retaliatory move. There was no immediate confirmation from officials in Misrata, but forces from the city regularly carry out air strikes on Sirte.” Germany Associated Press: Germany: Files Listing Islamic State Fighters Are Authentic “Thousands of files have surfaced with personal data on members of the Islamic State group — documents that might help authorities track down and prosecute foreign fighters who returned home after joining the extremists, or identify those who recruited them in the first place. Germany's federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of the files and believe they are authentic.” France Reuters: France Says Time To Act On Libya, Will Push For EU Sanctions “France's foreign minister on Thursday said there was no time to waste in forming a Libyan government that would pave the way for action against Islamic State and he would push for sanctions against individuals at a European meeting next week. French officials have been warning for more than a year that the political void is creating favorable conditions for Islamist groups. Efforts to establish a U.N. backed unity government in the oil producing nation have been stalled by resistance from hardliners.”