Eye on Extremism - March 2, 2016

Eye on Extremism March 2, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Jerusalem Post: Broaden The Reach Of UN Sanctions “United Nations Security Council Resolution 2253, adopted unanimously in December, sends the unequivocal message that the world is aligned against the criminal brutality of Islamic State (IS) and intends to crack down, primarily on its financial and military capabilities. However, even as the international community takes aim at IS, UN sanctions appear powerless to respond effectively to IS’s most potent weapon: the ability to recruit, radicalize and incite to violence online. If the international community is serious about clamping down on the recruiting pipeline that sustains IS, it will need to take an unflinching look at its outdated sanctions regime, and broaden the impact of its embargoes.” CNN: First On CNN: U.S. Special Ops Team Captures First ISIS Operative “U.S. Special Operations forces have captured their first suspected ISIS operative in Northern Iraq as part of a highly secretive targeting team led by the Army's elite Delta Force, CNN has learned. The detainee is being interrogated by the U.S. and is expected to be turned over to Iraqi officials in the coming days, two U.S. officials confirmed. They provided details to CNN but asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, and they did not identify the location of the interrogation.” AFP: IS Suicide Bombers Penetrate Iraq Army HQ, Kill General “Four Islamic State group suicide bombers infiltrated an army headquarters west of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi general and five other soldiers, army and police officers said on Tuesday. The bombers attacked a regimental headquarters in the Haditha area of Anbar province late on Monday, killing Staff Brigadier General Ali Aboud, Lieutenant Colonel Farhan Ibrahim and four others, the sources said.” Associated Press: Terrorists Are A Part Of Daily Refugee Flow To Europe: US General “Terrorists, criminals and foreign fighters are part of the daily refugee flow into Europe, the top NATO commander in Europe told lawmakers, ‘masking the movement’ of these dangerous elements and heightening the potential for an attack. In testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said the Islamic State extremist group is ‘spreading like a cancer’ within this mix, ‘taking advantage of paths of least resistance, threatening European nations’ and the United States.” Jerusalem Post: Israel Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons During Ceasefire “Israel said on Tuesday that Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons against civilians since the start of a ceasefire aimed at preparing the way for an end to the five-year civil war. The truce, sponsored by Russia and the United States, began on Saturday and has been dogged by opposition charges of non-compliance by Damascus - something President Bashar Assad has denied. It does not apply to missions against jihadist rebels.” Reuters: Jordan Troops Hunt Militants At Syria Border “Jordanian security forces killed several Islamist militants during a manhunt on Tuesday that involved hundreds of troops in the northern city of Irbid, near the border with Syria, security officials said. A police officer was also killed during the operation. Riot police officers and special forces took part in the operation, which a security official described as one of the largest sweeps against sleeper cells of sympathizers of hard-line Islamist groups in recent years.” Voice Of America: Al-Qaida Recruitment In Syria May Jump “Rebel commanders and opposition activists are warning that jihadist recruitment of Syrian fighters is likely to jump in the coming months because of the collapse of some moderate militias and a shake-up of others in the wake of a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive in northern Syria. But it is not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State that will benefit the most, but al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, they warn.” Haaretz: Israeli Wounded In West Bank Stabbing Attack, Two Palestinian Suspects Shot Dead “An Israeli resident of the West Bank settlement of Eli was lightly wounded early on Wednesday in a stabbing attack. Two Palestinian suspects were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers after initially fleeing the scene. According to initial reports, the Palestinians infiltrated the settlement, located southeast of Ariel, and waited outside of a home with batons and a knife. The Israeli was said to have emerged from his house in an IDF uniform on his way to report for reserve duty when he was attacked.” New York Times: Iraq’s Biggest Dam Could Collapse At Any Time, Killing Thousands “Anyone who lives on or near the banks of the river — in other words, a major chunk of the Iraqi population. The United States Embassy estimates that hundreds of thousands of people who are “at highest risk from the projected floodwave probably would not survive its impact,” and that more than one million would swiftly find themselves without homes. The city of Mosul could be flooded by 45 feet of water in less than four hours, and ultimately as much as 70 feet; even far downstream in Baghdad, the river could rise 13 feet within a day of a dam collapse.” United States International Business Times: ISIS In Iraq: US Delta Force Commence Mosul Operations Against Last Islamic State Stronghold “The Islamic State group's existence in Iraq looks to be drawing to a close as Pentagon officials confirmed Monday that U.S.-led coalition forces had commenced operations aimed at driving the terror organization out of its last remaining stronghold in Mosul. Around 200 U.S. Delta Force troops, in coordination with the Iraqi military, are said to be conducting raids, seizing territory and plotting to rescue hostages and prisoners, according to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and other Pentagon sources.” Syria BBC News: Syria Conflict: Peace Talks Delayed To Let Truce 'Settle Down' “The UN's special envoy to Syria has said peace talks have been pushed back to 9 March to allow the cessation of hostilities to ‘settle down’. The previous round of peace talks last month collapsed after only two days. The latest truce has led to a marked reduction in violence, but both sides have complained of violations. President Bashar al-Assad insisted on an interview on Tuesday that the government ‘will do our part so that the whole thing works’.” Voice Of America: Russia Says Arms Coming Into Syria From Turkey “Russia's foreign minister says convoys entering war-torn Syria from neighboring Turkey have supplied rebel groups with weapons and is calling for the closure of the border. In Geneva on Tuesday, Sergei Lavrov told the U.N. Human Rights Council that ‘gangs have received arms across this border, including from humanitarian convoys.’ Russia, an ally of Syria's president, has had tense ties with Turkey in recent months.” Iraq Associated Press: IS Suicide Bombers Hit Iraq “Four suicide bombers disguised as soldiers struck an Iraqi military headquarters in the western town of Haditha on Tuesday, killing eight army officers, including a local commander, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Local councilman Khalid Salman said one of the bombers attacked the gate of the compound and the others struck after soldiers gathered to help the victims. He said eight soldiers were wounded in the attack.” AFP: Iraq Launches Major Anti-ISIS Operation North Of Baghdad “Thousands of Iraqi security personnel launched an operation on Tuesday aimed at retaking areas north of Baghdad from the ISIS militant group, officials said. Counter-terrorism forces, soldiers, police and allied paramilitaries are taking part in the operation, which is backed by artillery and both Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, the Joint Operations Command announced. An Iraqi army colonel said that more than 7,000 security personnel would take part in the operation, which the operations command said aims to retake areas west of the city of Samarra.” International Business Times: ISIS Militant Captured In Iraq; US To Hand Over Detainee To Iraqi, Kurdish Authorities After Interrogation “U.S. Special Operations forces have captured an Islamic State group operative in a recent raid in northern Iraq, reports said Tuesday. American defense authorities described the capture as a vital development in fighting the militant group also known as ISIS. U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force reportedly led the highly secretive team to capture the operative. U.S. authorities are interrogating the detained ISIS militant in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, according to the New York Times.”   Turkey Reuters: Turkey's Erdogan Offers To Help West Africa Fight Terrorism “Turkey stands ready to help fight the growing threat of terrorism in west Africa under a new strategic partnership that aims to boost trade and other ties with the continent, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. Addressing members of Ghana's parliament during a two-day visit to Accra, Erdogan said Turkey was well placed to help African countries combat terrorism, an allusion to its decades-long fight against Kurdish separatist rebels as well as other groups including Islamist militants.” AFP: Turkey Shells Islamic State Positions In Syria “Turkish artillery fired 50 to 60 shells from howitzers positioned in its southern Kilis region against IS targets in the north of Syria's Aleppo province, the private Dogan news agency reported. A fragile ceasefire has taken effect in Syria, but jihadists are excluded from it. It was the first attack in several weeks since Turkey, a member of the international coalition against the IS group, stuck jihadist positions in Syria. Turkish artillery have fired on IS targets in Syria and in Iraq after a deadly suicide attack in Istanbul's tourist hub of Sultanahmet in January.” Associated Press: Turkey Rolls Back Curfew In Mainly Kurdish Town “Turkey is rolling back a 24-hour curfew imposed on the mainly Kurdish town of Cizre nearly three weeks after declaring the successful conclusion of military operations there. The curfew was lifted at 5 a.m. on Wednesday allowing residents to return to their conflict-stricken neighborhoods for the first time since December 14. But it will remain in effect at night between 7:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. The town near the borders of Syria and Iraq, is one of a handful of mainly Kurdish districts where security forces conducted operations against militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.” Afghanistan Chicago Tribune: Afghanistan Police Officer Kills 4 Of His Colleagues; 11 Missing “An Afghan police officer shot dead four of his colleagues at a checkpoint on a remote stretch of a major southern highway, an official said Tuesday. Another 11 officers who were manning the checkpoint when the shooting happened Monday night were still missing, said Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Roghlewanai, police chief of Uruzgan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident in an email to media.” Wall Street Journal: Indian Consulate In Eastern Afghanistan Hit By Suicide Bomber, Gunmen “A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the Indian consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, officials said, striking close to the front gates of the compound. The attack was ongoing in the early afternoon, as Afghan forces fought to dislodge two gunmen from a nearby guesthouse. An Afghan health official said at least 12 people were wounded. It was unclear whether any were killed. The Indian mission in Afghanistan has suffered a string of attacks in recent years.” Middle East Wall Street Journal: Israel Ramps Up Fight Against Tunnelers With ‘The Obstacle’ “One morning early last month, Ahmed al Zahar picked up a scarf, left his mobile phone in the kitchen and headed out to help build a tunnel underneath the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel. Hours later, he was dead, after an underground passageway he was working on collapsed. A member of the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the secretive militant arm of the Islamist movement Hamas, Mr. Zahar is one of at least 10 operatives who have died since the middle of January trying to create an underground network that could move weapons and supplies in any conflict with Israel, a more technologically advanced foe.” Reuters: Hezbollah Sees New Struggle In Lebanon, Denounces Saudi Arabia “Hezbollah said on Tuesday that Lebanon had been pushed into a new phase of political conflict by Saudi Arabia but was not on the brink of civil war and its government of national unity should survive. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Iranian-backed group, also stepped up criticism of Saudi Arabia, accusing it of directing car bombings in Lebanon, an arena for sectarian-tinged Iranian-Saudi rivalry that is escalating across the Middle East.” Washington Post: Israeli Troops Relying On Waze App Blunder Into Palestinian Area; Clashes Follow “A gun battle broke out in a Palestinian neighborhood late Monday after Israeli forces tried to rescue two soldiers who had mistakenly entered the area because of an error on a satellite navigation app, Israeli authorities said Tuesday. The clashes in the Qalandiya refu­gee camp outside Jerusalem left at least one Palestinian dead and 10 injured, one seriously. At least 10 Israeli soldiers also were wounded during the hour-long operation.” Libya AFP: Life Returns To Libya City Streets After IS 'Shock' “For four days and nights, terrified residents of Sabratha huddled in their homes as Islamic State group fighters battled local militias after briefly overrunning the centre of the Libyan city. But life is slowly returning to normal in the city, famous for its magnificent Roman ruins, since security forces declared at the weekend that the jihadists had been fought off. ‘We were terrified. We were afraid for our children and families,’ resident Usama al-Jedi told AFP as he shopped for vegetables at a local market.” Europe BBC News: Dutch IS Militants In Syria's 'Deaths' Disputed “A monitoring group is disputing a report that so-called Islamic State (IS) has killed eight Dutch militants accused of trying to desert in Syria. Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group that reports on abuses in IS-held Raqqa province, said the men were killed in Maadan on Friday. They were held after clashes between Dutch and Iraqi jihadists, it added. But the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited its own sources as saying the RBSS report was not true.” Arabic Language Clips Financing Of Terrorism Sada El-Balad: Drying Up The Sources Of Terrorism At The Top Of The Arab Interior Ministers Council Agenda Tomorrow Maj. Gen. Marwan Mostafa, Director of the Arab Bureau for Security Information of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers, stressed that the 22rd session of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers is aimed at enhancing cooperation and coordination between the security agencies in various Arab countries. The event is being hosted by Tunisia on March 2nd and 3rd under the patronage of Tunisian President Mohammed Beji Caid Essebsi. Mostafa noted that at the top of the agenda of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers' meeting will be their joint efforts to dry up the sources of terrorist financing, which would uproot terrorism from the Arab world. Mostafa added that other key topics of discussion during this session will be reports about what has actually been implemented out of the Arab strategy for combating terrorism, the Arab security strategy, and the Arab strategy to combat the illegal use of drugs. ISIS Jawhara FM: Military Expert: ISIS In Sirte Found Social Support By Some Of The People There Arab military expert, Adel Abdelkafi, emphasized yesterday (Tuesday, March 1st, 2016) that the greatest presence of ISIS in Libya is currently in the city of Sirte. Exploiting the security vacuum, the terror group has recruited local and foreign militants numbering an estimated 3000. Abdelkafi asserted that ISIS's force in Sabratha does not exceed a few hundred gunmen. He explained that the problem in Sirte is that the local residents have granted the terror group a base of popular social support. The expert added that the jihadist organization in Sirte has been trying to find new funding sources after no longer being able to rob vehicles moving money to banks. Muslim Brotherhood Veto: The (Egyptian) Prosecution Asks Banks And CAO To Determine Brotherhood Sources Of Funding The Supreme State Security Prosecution, headed by Attorney General Tamer Al-Fergany, launched an investigation into alleged financial irregularities in disbanded Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated entities as well as 1365 individuals, including retired soccer legend Mohammed Abu Treika and businessman Safwan Thabet. The Prosecution sent a memo to the Central Auditing Organization (CAO) and several banks requesting information on the movements of funds by the owners of these entities, along with their sources of funding and involvement in funding the banned Brotherhood group. Almal News: East Delta (Company) Denies Receiving Letters On Seizure Of El Feki Funds (From The Brotherhood Committee)," East Delta Flour Mills Company (EDFM) stated it had received no official notification about what was being circulated by some news websites regarding the appropriation of assets owned by the company's chairman, Mohammed El Feqi. It should be noted that El-Feki belongs to Al-Wafd Party's Higher Committee, which refused at its meeting last Friday to suspend his membership or take any decision against him. This came after the Party received a letter from the Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee regarding the seizure of his money for his involvement in terrorist activities carried out by a Muslim Brotherhood cell. Al-Wafd Party's Higher Committee contended that the decision to seize El-Feki's funds is not new. The letter in this regard was sent to the Party months ago, but it took no action against him nor did it adopt a decision avowing that he was not guilty. The Party added that the decision to seize his funds was taken solely because he was a partner in a Brotherhood-affiliated currency exchange company. Alrai: Rental Contract For Brotherhood Office In Aqaba Forged Sources revealed that the rental contract of the Aqaba office of the Islamic Action Front Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, is "a fake". The landlord of the building where the office is located claimed that until a few months ago the office had been rented out to Jordan's Pharmacists' Association. Since they left, it has not been leased to any party, and that includes the Islamic Action Front Party. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood Group insists that it possesses a one-year contract signed on January 1st, 2016. The sources quoted a lawyer working for the unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood Group, who claimed that he had not seen or approved the contract for the office.