Eye on Extremism - March 22, 2016

Eye on Extremism March 22, 2016 BBC: Brussels Zaventem Airport And Metro Explosions 'Kill At Least 13' “Several explosions have struck Brussels airport and the metro system, causing at least 13 deaths, Belgian media say. Two blasts tore through the departures area of Zaventem airport shortly after 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT). An hour later, an explosion hit Maalbeek metro station, close to the EU institutions. The airport and whole metro system have been closed. The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris attacks, was captured in Brussels. The Belgian government has confirmed casualties at the airport but has given no numbers. The cause of the explosions is unknown. Belgium has now raised its terror threat to its highest level.” CNN: Second Attack On U.S. Firebase In Iraq “For the second time in three days, the first U.S. military firebase in Iraq has come under attack from ISIS. The base, known as Firebase Bell, came under small arms fire from a group of about 10 ISIS fighters who also attacked a nearby U.S./Iraqi installation at Makhmur in northern Iraq. No U.S. personnel were wounded, and at least two ISIS fighters were killed, according to Army Col. Steve Warren, the coalition spokesman. Warren said he didn't have an exact distance of how close the gunmen came to the U.S. security perimeter, saying only ‘a couple of hundred meters, I would assume.’ The remaining attackers ‘ran away in fear,’ Warren said.” Reuters: Syrian Government Refuses To Discuss Assad's Future “The fate of President Bashar al-Assad will play no part in talks to end the Syrian war, the head of the government's delegation said, leading the U.N. peace envoy to warn that lack of progress on the issue could threaten a fragile cessation of hostilities. Damascus delegate Bashar Ja'afari said Assad's future had ‘nothing to do’ with the negotiations, which entered their second week on Monday, insisting that counter-terrorism efforts remained the priority for the government. ‘The (terms of) reference of our talks do not give any indication whatsoever with regard to the issue of the President of the Syrian Arab Republic,’ he said when asked about the willingness of the government delegation to engage in serious talks on political transition. The fragility of the three-week-old cessation, which was backed by the United States and Russia, was highlighted on Monday when Moscow said it had recorded six violations in the last 24 hours.” Voice of America: Key Paris Attacks Accomplice Identified “Belgian authorities have identified a key accomplice of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, as new developments underscore the tangled and far-flung network behind the November 13 terrorist attacks and rising new threats. Investigators are searching for 24-year-old Belgian Najim Laachraoui, who went by an alias Soufiane Kayal, and is on the run.  A statement by Belgium’s federal prosecutors’ office said he went to Syria in 2013.  He was identified by his DNA during police searches in Belgium linked to the attacks. According to French and Belgian media, his DNA was also found on one or more of the explosive belts used by the suicide bombers during the attacks.” NPR: Amid Crackdown In Turkey, Dissatisfaction With President Erdogan Grows “Not long ago, Turkey was held up as a regional model: a Muslim-majority state with a thriving democracy and a market economy. These days, though, it's more often seen as a country where a ruling party with no serious opposition is drifting toward authoritarian rule. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led the Justice and Development Party (AKP in its Turkish acronym) to power in 2002, in a breakthrough victory for politicians gathered together from earlier, failed Islamist parties. The AKP has won every election since. For Turkish liberals like Sahin Alpay, the AKP's early days as pro-democracy reformers are now memories from another time. Alpay, a veteran newspaper columnist, remembers that first AKP platform fondly. It was, he says, ‘the most liberal political party program ever in the history of the Turkish Republic.’ These days, Erdogan remains popular with conservative and religious Turks, while his critics face a growing crackdown. The security forces are on the streets almost constantly, either responding to terrorist attacks or putting down protests. More than 1,000 academics were arrested for calling for peace with the Kurdish minority. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been periodically shut down or filtered.” Business Standard: 27 Boko Haram Militants Killed In Nigeria “At least 27 Boko Haram terrorists were confirmed dead in separate raids over the weekend by the military in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, a military spokesperson said on Monday. Nigerian Army spokesperson Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman told Xinhua that 19 Boko Haram terrorists were killed at Dalore camp in Borno on Sunday. The troops also rescued 67 hostages from the terrorists, the spokesperson said, noting that the freed hostages are undergoing screening at Internally Displaced Persons in Dikwa area of the state.” Al Jazeera: Afghanistan: Taliban Won't Talk Because It Is Winning “With an air of inevitability, efforts by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group - comprising Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States - to persuade the Taliban to engage in face-to-face peace negotiations have stalled. Diplomats with the group, know as the QCG, have expressed the hope that the Taliban's refusal to talk is a leverage tactic, and that Pakistan would be able to bully and cajole the insurgent movement's leaders resident in Pakistan into changing their decision not to participate. It certainly would be characteristic of Afghan politics if that were to happen. However, the existing situation in Afghanistan provides no incentive whatsoever for the Taliban to negotiate with the Kabul-based government.” NPR: The Delay In The FBI's Clash With Apple: What Does It Mean? “The FBI may have found a new way to crack into the locked iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters — a method that doesn't require Apple's help. This is a major new development in the increasingly heated debate between the tech giant and the government, which has argued that Apple should be compelled to write new special software that would override some security features. That was the only way, investigators previously had said, that they could crack the pass code for the phone without jeopardizing its contents.” United States U.S. News & World Report: Marine’s Death Reveals More Americans In Iraq Than Previously Thought “The death of a U.S. Marine in Iraq has shed light on a little-known Pentagon policy to bolster the number of troops deployed to the war against the Islamic State group while maintaining publicly it is keeping within acknowledged troop limits. Marine Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin was the second American combat casualty in Iraq for operations against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. He was killed when an enemy rocket struck his newly established U.S. firebase roughly 50 miles south of Mosul this weekend. Cardin was stationed in Iraq on a temporary deployment – a classification that would place him outside the 3,870-troop limit President Barack Obama has imposed on the total number of Americans deployed to the country, spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday from the coalition headquarters in Baghdad. Warren said he is not allowed to reveal how many American troops are in Iraq but confirmed the number of permanently stationed troops there is in compliance with the 3,870 cap. That number occasionally fluctuates as troops enter and exit the war zone and is routinely bolstered by troops or officials on temporary assignment, such as inspectors general, Warren said, or Marines like Cardin.” Syria Fox News: UN's Syria Relief Effort Internally Divided, Intimidated By Assad, Study Says “According to a spokesman for the U.N.’s World Food Program, U.N. agencies and Syrian Red Cross convoys reached 12 of 18 besieged areas and provided “life-saving support, including food and nutrition products, to over 150,000 people” out of nearly 500,000 in the most desperate areas. A spokesperson for UNICEF, the U.N.’s child relief agency, makes roughly similar claims. But other organizations, with closer ties to groups battling the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad say the U.N. relief effort is little more than a trickle, reaching at best 15 percent of those facing malnourishment, starvation and often-fatal lack of medical supplies due to the ‘surrender or starve’ policies of Assad. They continue to call the situation ‘extremely grave.’ Among the differences: figures compiled by the non-U.N. organizations list 46 clearly besieged areas, all but two of them squeezed by the Assad regime, rather than the U.N.’s 18, and containing at least 1.1 million people, and probably many more.” BBC: Syria Conflict: Russia Warns US Over Truce Violations Russia says it will unilaterally start using force against those violating the partial truce in Syria, if the US does not agree to joint rules by Tuesday. A Russian general said delays in agreeing the rules were ‘unacceptable’ and proposed holding an urgent meeting. However, the US rejected the call, saying Russia's concerns were already being handled in a constructive manner. The cessation of hostilities has significantly reduced the violence in Syria since it began on 27 February. Iraq The Jerusalem Post: Hezbollah Brigades Vows To Attack US Forces 'Defending ISIS' In Iraq “Hezbollah Brigades fighters in Iraq have threatened to attack the American soldiers stationed in the country, following the decision by the US army to send reinforcements to Iraq to support the international coalition in its fights against ISIS. In a statement released Sunday, the Iranian-backed organization active in Iraq and in the Syrian civil war, claimed: ‘the United States increasingly intervenes in Iraq's issues with its presence in the Iraqi joint operations command.’ While the US army says it is sending reinforcements to Iraq to help the international coalition vanquish ISIS, Hezbollah Brigades' statement claimed the opposite.” BBC: 'UK suicide bomber Abu Musa al-Britani' attack in Iraq – IS “A British suicide bomber has carried out an attack on Iraqi forces in Anbar province, in western Iraq, the so-called Islamic State group has claimed. A militant named as ‘Abu Musa al-Britani’ used a car bomb to target a convoy of Iraqi army and aligned Sunni forces, ‘killing nearly 30’, it said. However, Iraqi military disputed the claims, saying it believed only the bomber died in the attack. The group made the claim on its account on the messaging app Telegram.” Turkey Reuters: Erdogan Says Turkey Battling 'Terrorist Wave' After Istanbul Bombing “President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey would use all its military and intelligence might to battle ‘one of the biggest and bloodiest terrorist waves in its history’, after a suicide bomber killed three Israelis and an Iranian in Istanbul. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon described Turkey as ‘awash in terrorism’. Turkey's main opposition party blamed what it called the government's ‘adventure-seeking policies’ in the Middle East for turmoil washing across Syria's borders. Saturday's attack on Istiklal Street, a long pedestrian avenue lined with international stores and foreign consulates, was the fourth suicide bombing in Turkey this year. Two in Istanbul have been blamed on Islamic State, while the two others in the capital Ankara have been claimed by Kurdish militants.” Reuters: Pro-Kurdish Leader Urges Peace Talks With Turkey, Four Soldiers Killed “Turkey's Kurds on Monday marked the annual spring festival of Newroz with a call for the resumption of peace talks between the government and Kurdish militants, but four Turkish soldiers were killed in another rebel attack in the restive southeast region.The appeal from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) for peace talks also coincided with a pledge from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to use all the country's military and intelligence might to crush terrorism following a spate of suicide bombings, two claimed by Kurdish militants. Since last year's Newroz festival Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has seen a big upsurge in violence due to the collapse of a 2-1/2 year ceasefire in July between the Ankara government and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).” CBS News: Turkey Says 3 ISIS Suspects Planning "Sensational" Attack “Turkey's state-run news agency said Monday that police were searching for three suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants allegedly planning to carry out a ‘sensational’ act in the country that has already been rocked by six suicide bombings since the summer. The Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed security sources, said the three -- identified as Haci Ali Durmaz, Yunus Durmaz and Savas Yildiz -- are members of a local cell linked to ISIS and that all provincial police departments had been urged to capture them. The search comes two days after an ISIS suicide bomber killed himself, two Israeli-Americans, an Israeli and an Iranian on Istanbul's busiest pedestrian shopping street. Authorities on Sunday postponed a soccer game between Istanbul rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce over an unspecified terror threat. The Istanbul governor's office said it was canceled following ‘the assessment of serious intelligence.’” Afghanistan ABC News: US Commander In Afghanistan Apologizes For Hospital Attack “The new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has apologized to the people of Kunduz for the deadly attack on a hospital in the city last year that killed 42 people. U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson traveled Tuesday to the northern city to meet local leaders and relatives of those who died in the Oct. 3 attack. A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked the hospital run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders in what Nicholson called a ‘horrible tragedy.’ More than a dozen U.S. military personnel have been disciplined for mistakes that led to the sustained attack. A U.S military report on the hospital attack is expected to be released within days.” Yemen Gulf News: Yemen Peace Talks Could Resume In Kuwait This Month “A new round of UN-brokered Yemeni peace talks could be held by the end of this month in Kuwait, a government official said on Monday. The talks would be accompanied by a ceasefire, said the Yemeni official who requested anonymity. Yemen’s warring parties who met with UN envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad last week have agreed on ‘the principle of holding a new round of talks in late March in Kuwait,’ the official said. The UN envoy wrote on his Facebook page late on Sunday that he held ‘positive and constructive talks’ in rebel-held Sanaa with the Iran-backed Al Houthis and their allies - supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.” Middle East The Jerusalem Post: Israel Ups Security Level Along Egypt's Sinai Border “Fearing an Islamic State spillover, Israel has in recent months tightened security along its border with Egypt after an IS affiliate group's two-year campaign which has claimed the lives of hundreds of Egyptian police and soldiers. Along the restive Egyptian border in the northern Sinai Peninsula, IDF soldiers are seen every day patrolling across the 6,000-square kilometer desert terrain, which has for years been a haven for heavily armed militants. Israeli forces said the increased military presence along the Sinai border is in response to unprecedented attacks carried out by the IS-linked militant group since last year, as well as an intelligence assessment that an extremist attack on Israel is possible.” The Times of Israel: Poll: Palestinian Support For knife Attacks Waning “Palestinian support for knife attacks against Israelis in the West Bank has sharply fallen, while a majority have come to support a two-state solution, according to a Palestinian poll released Monday. While 57% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported knife attacks three months ago, that number has fallen to 44% today, according to the survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Support for knife attacks dropped in Gaza as well, but only minutely, from 85% three months ago to 82% today. Israel is in the midst of a six-month-long wave of attacks characterized mostly by knife assaults, though officials have noted the number of incidents has dropped since the fall, when Palestinians carried out near-daily attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank.” Reuters: Hezbollah Says Saudi Arabia, Turkey Obstructing Syria Peace Chances “Hezbollah accused Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Monday of obstructing efforts to reach a political solution in Syria, saying Riyadh did not want to see any progress at Geneva peace talks aimed at ending five years of conflict. Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia have for years been on opposing sides of Syria's civil war, but relations have worsened in recent months - mirroring the growing hostility between Riyadh and Tehran, the region's two rival powers. ‘What is disrupting any progress towards a political solution is firstly Saudi Arabia, and secondly Turkey,’ Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told Al Mayadeen television in an interview.” The Jerusalem Post: Courting Egypt, Hamas Removes All Signs Of Muslim Brotherhood From Gaza “In what appears to be an attempt to detach itself from its mother organization in Egypt, Hamas has removed all signs of the Muslim Brotherhood from the streets and mosques in Gaza. All the pictures and slogans related to the group have been taken down and removed from public view. The London-based Arab daily A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Monday that Hamas' Public Works Department started removing images of senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including the image of the movement's founder, Hassan al-Banna, and ousted Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi.” Libya Newsweek: What Is Behind The Rise Of ISIS In Libya? Libya’s Islamic State militant group (ISIS) is by now perceived widely as a major threat in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean. Yet, the specifics of how this high concentration of ISIS fighters in Libya became possible still haven’t been fully explored. Key to understanding ISIS’s Libyan branch is recognizing it as a combination of an increasing shift of allegiance to ISIS in Muammar el-Qaddafi’s former strongholds and a strong flow of jihadis from neighboring Tunisia. In fact, Libya’s ISIS is essentially a new structure, different from the old Libyan pro-Al-Qaeda jihadi network. The political chaos in Libya certainly has provided the opportunity for ISIS to flourish. But that was not possible without two major factors: The increasing willingness of Libyan regions that lost power in the post-revolutionary era to support ISIS and the availability of a steady stream of jihadis from neighboring Tunisia. Attacking and dissolving the threat of ISIS in Libya, and North Africa in general, requires targeting these two elements. This can happen with a policy of inclusion, implementing national reconciliation in Libya, and applying a strategic anti-terrorist approach in Tunisia, rather than simply focusing on security-based tactics.” Nigeria BBC: Nigeria Electoral Staff 'Killed And Kidnapped' In Rivers State “Nigeria's electoral commission says some of its staff were killed, injured and kidnapped during an election re-run on Saturday in Rivers state. An Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) spokesman blamed the violence on ‘armed thugs... allegedly acting on behalf of some politicians’. Voting was suspended in most areas of the oil-rich state, which has suffered from political unrest in the past. A re-run was ordered after legal disputes over elections in 2015. Elections in the state are seen as a battle for the control of Nigeria's largest oil wells. Voters were choosing seats for the state and national assemblies, but not the governor as the Supreme Court ruled his election last March should stand.” United Kingdom The Times of Israel: London On Alert For Up To 10 Terror Attacks At Once “British police and special forces are reportedly on standby to tackle up to 10 simultaneous terror attacks in London, including the possible use of weapons of mass destruction. Fearing an offensive in multiple locations by British terrorists returning from Syria, reminiscent of the attacks in Paris last summer, the UK National Crime Agency has focused on locating illegal firearms brought into the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported. An army counter-terrorism bomb disposal unit has also been preparing a team at Vauxhall Barracks in the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire to deal with a possible chemical or biological weapons attack. Meanwhile, additional regiments are on standby outside London. In the past few months security services conducted at least two large-scale counterterrorism exercises that saw teams from the elite SAS unit dash across London to deal with mock improvised bombs — including weapons of mass destruction. Last November’s British government Strategic Defense and Security Review noted that 10,000 troops could be deployed in response to a Paris-like attack in the UK. Earlier this month Britain’s most senior counterterrorism police officer warned of the risk of further ‘spectacular’ attacks by the Islamic State group as it trains its sights on ‘Western lifestyle’ targets.” Europe Washington Post: Two Explosions Detonated At Brussels Airport “More than a dozen people were killed and many others injured after apparently coordinated explosions rocked Brussels’ airport and a metro station Tuesday, raising fears that attackers carried out retaliatory strikes after the arrest of a key suspect in last year’s Paris massacres. Belgian’s prosecutor’s office described the airport blasts as part of a suicide attack — the latest apparent terrorist bloodshed to hit Europe and another sign that militant network remain about to strike despite widespread crackdowns and probes across the continent.” USA Today: Europe's Terror Enclaves Hidden In Plain Sight: David Andelman “For four months, the top minds and most lethal guns in the combined security forces of France and Belgium, not to mention the computer services of Interpol, have bent every resource toward unearthing one individual — the logistical mastermind of the Paris terrorist attacks that left 130 dead last November. One stark reality has been largely lost amid the ecstasy of success in capturing, alive, Europe’s single most wanted fugitive. How was this possible — that he could remain concealed so close to home for so long? And above all, what does that mean for the ability to uncover more such plots still being hatched in Europe or the United States? The first item for Abdeslam’s interrogators will be to determine just how wide his net might be. Sadly, most likely not all that wide, or deep. Small cells, operating autonomously, seem to be the rule. Any number of such cells may well be lurking out there — each operating independently with its own lethal mission. And per capita, there are more Belgian extremists — more than 400 — who’ve made their way to the battlefields of Syria and the ranks of Islamic State than from any other country, while France, Britain and Germany lead in terms of absolute number of ISIL recruits from European countries.” CNN: Belgium: Europe's Front Line In The War On Terror “Brussels: It's a quaint but bustling city, famed for its picture postcard squares, its chocolate and its beer. But it is rapidly becoming infamous, too, as a fertile recruiting ground for jihadi fighters. According to police, the carnage of the Paris attacks was plotted here, and it was in these streets that fugitive Salah Abdeslam hid out in an apartment after abandoning his mission, dumping his suicide belt in a Parisian street and calling friends for help, after apparently driving his co-conspirators to their deaths. Belgian officials have been unable to quell the flow of fighters traveling to ISIS territory, and -- perhaps more worryingly, authorities are terrified the fighters will bring another Paris-style attack -- back to Europe.” Technology Fortune: Tim Cook: 'We Will Not Shrink' In FBI Battle Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, kicked off his company’s product event on Monday by addressing an elephant in the room: Apple’s legal battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ‘Before we start today I would like to address something I know is on the minds of many people this morning,’ he said solemnly. ‘We need to decide as nation how much power the government should have over our data and over our privacy.’ The chief executive reiterated Apple’s commitment to fighting the U.S. Justice Department over helping the FBI access the data stored on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.” Arabic Language Clips Terrorist Financing Elaph: Algeria: $200 Billion Made By Drug Trafficking Networks Algerian Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Al-Tayeb Louh, stated that drug trafficking generates an annual income of $200 billion for the various smuggling networks. Part of the proceeds go toward financing terrorist groups around the world. According to the Algerian minister, smuggling networks "have been working to launder these huge amounts of money and exploit them for illegal activities across the globe, such as the financing of criminal activities and terrorism. These activities pose a threat to the security and safety of the world." Over the past ten years, Algeria has been calling, through various global platforms. to dry up the funding sources of terrorism. Al-Tayeb Louh stressed that the anti-drug struggle requires "constant and active efforts," based on national action-plans as well as "integrated regional and international strategies." He called for "creating security and economic solutions in the fight against this global phenomenon that threatens all peoples", because "it also requires genuine desire and cooperation by all international political players." ISIS Asharq Al-Awsat: The Observatory Of Azhar Warns: Chad Is The New Frontier Of ISIS To Extend Its Militants' Presence Into Africa Cairo-based al-Azhar Observatory warned that the ISIS terrorist organization aims, in the upcoming months, to expand into the African state of Chad to counterbalance its recent defeats in Syria and Iraq following the attacks by the US-led international coalition. In a fresh report, Al-Azhar stressed that the "organization has always sought to deploy its members in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region and Libya." Observers believe that Africa has reached a new phase of contending with extremist organizations, particularly ISIS, following the recent upsurge in activity by Boko Haram in Nigeria. This upsurge comes after its allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the changing of its name to "ISIS Nigeria." Muslim Brotherhood The Seventh Day: Salafi Preacher Blames Ansar Alsonna Group For Fundraising In Favor Of The Muslim Brotherhood Salafi scholar, Sheikh Mahmoud Abdel Razek Alridwany, lashed out in a sharp verbal attack on "Ansar Alsonna Almohamadia" group, describing it as having become a Muslim Brotherhood group. He stressed that when "Ansar Alsonna" was founded it advocated the Salafi approach, calling on all those joining it to repent. Alridwany noted that "the branches of Ansar Alsonna are a breeding ground for terrorist sleeper cells waiting for the precise moment to strike. There are more than 2,000 mosques in Egypt belonging to Ansar Alsonna, 90% of them belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Sururiyah (a revolutionary Salafi school)." He called on Egyptian officials, especially the Ministry of Awqaf, to eradicate the Ansar Alsonna group. He went on to say, "Ansar Alsonna cells are ready to blow up the country at any time and can carry out many (such attacks)." Alridwany emphasized that the Ansar Alsonna group raises funds through its mosques in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Ain: The (UAE) Supreme Federal (Court) To Hear The Testimony Of Defendants In The Case Of Financing (Brotherhood) Terrorism On April 11th The State Security Court of the UAE Federal Supreme Court heard witnesses' statements yesterday in the case of four defendants who allegedly provided money to two terrorist groups. The court set April 11th to hear the defendants' pleas. The Public Prosecutor filed charges against three Libyans and one US citizen of Libyan origin suspected of carrying out hostile actions against a friendly country, by providing funds for the Brotherhood-affiliated "Libyan February 17 Brigades" and "Libyan Dawn" Movement. The four are being charged with delivering these funds with the knowledge they will be used to finance terrorist operations.