Eye on Extremism - March 7, 2016

Eye on Extremism March 7, 2016 Associated Press: Suicide Truck Bombing By ISIS Kills At Least 61, Iraqi Officials Say “Iraqi officials said on Monday that the death toll from Sunday's suicide truck bombing south of Baghdad climbed to 61. Among the dead were 52 civilians, while the rest were members of the security forces, a police officer said. Another 95 people were injured in the attack that targeted a security checkpoint at one of the entrances to the city of Hillah. The officer said that eight other people were still missing. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.” Religion News Service: Pope Francis Calls Murdered Nuns In Yemen ‘Today’s Martyrs’ “Pope Francis said four nuns executed by gunmen in Yemen at a home where they cared for elderly and disabled residents are ‘today’s martyrs.’ His remarks on Sunday (March 6)  about the brutal killings in the increasingly lawless country on the Arabian Peninsula came a day after he decried the ‘diabolical violence’ that claimed the lives of a dozen others at the Catholic-run facility in the Red Sea port of Aden. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack on Friday, but the few remaining Christians and foreigners in Yemen have often been the targets of various Islamic factions in the country’s brutal civil war.” The Nation: Boko Haram Fighters Flock To Libya To Join ISIS War “Boko Haram fighters from the Northeast are moving in droves to the Libyan town of Sirte to team up with the Islamic State (ISIS) in its war in North Africa. No fewer than 1000 Boko Haram fighters have swelled the ISIS force in Libya which the United Nations (UN) and the Pentagon said has grown from 3000 to 6500 in just three months. The terror group has carried out audacious suicide attacks in Libya’s cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Zliten and Misrata, killing scores, and clashed with government aligned militias at crucial oil installations, the International Business Times reported yesterday.” Associated Press: Syria Rebels Battle IS For Control Of Iraq Crossing “Syrian insurgents were battling the Islamic State group for control of a key border post with Iraq on Saturday, a day after the U.S.-backed fighters seized control of the crossing, activists said. The Tanf crossing in southeastern Syria links the Homs province, including the IS-held ancient city of Palmyra, to Iraq’s Anbar province, where IS has a large presence. The extremist group uses border crossings to shift fighters and resources to different fronts as it seeks to defend and expand its self-styled Islamic caliphate.” Newsweek: Video Shows Dozens Of Fighters 'Deserting' ISIS In Syria “Dozens of Islamic State militant group (ISIS) fighters have defected from the group in Aleppo to join a rival Islamist group, according to amateur footage released on Sunday. The video shows a purported deserter holding up his ISIS identity card, while dozens of men walk along a dusty road in the background. He tells the person behind the camera why he and the men behind him decided to leave the group.” The Guardian: Taliban Refuse To Take Part In Afghanistan Peace Talks “The Taliban has said it will not take part in peace talks brokered by representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, casting doubt on efforts to revive negotiations. Ousted from power in a US-led military intervention in 2001, the group has been waging a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan’s western-backed government and re-establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime.” Nano News: Palestinian Tries To Stab Israeli Soldier In West Bank, Shot Dead: Army “Witnesses told the Palestinian Maan news agency that the Israeli soldiers fired more than 10 rounds at Qusay, who was carrying a knife and walking towards them. Israeli military forces have fatally shot a young Palestinian man and critically injured another after they allegedly sought to carry out separate stabbing attacks in the occupied West Bank. In the latest example on Friday, Al-Jazeera television aired footage showing two or three Israeli paramilitary police repeatedly shooting a Palestinian lying on the ground after, according to Israeli authorities, he stabbed two officers outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.” The Guardian: How Islamic State Is Training Child Killers In Doctrine Of Hate “A new generation of Isis recruits is being developed in the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’, indoctrinated with religious concepts from birth, and viewed by its fighters as better and purer than themselves, according to the first study of the exploitation and abuse of children as a means of securing the group’s future. Researchers for Quilliam, a London counter-extremism thinktank, have investigated the way Isis recruits children and indoctrinates and trains them for jihad.” CBS News: Bracing For What Could Be Iraq's Bloodiest Battle Yet “For months, the Iraqi military and its allies have been preparing and contemplating when to try and take back the country's second-largest city from ISIS. No date has been set for an offensive to retake Mosul, which sits about 250 miles north of Baghdad, on the edge of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. But Kurdish peshmerga soldiers, who have been the most effective force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in northern Iraq, are getting closer.” Wall Street Journal: Turkey Wages Uphill Battle To Stop Migrant Smugglers On Aegean Sea “The Turkish captain and his crew are at the front line of an international effort to stop the people smuggling and defuse the pressure on countries in Europe that say they are reaching, or have exceeded, their ability to take in more migrants from the east. A NATO fleet of five ships has been deployed to help overwhelmed coast guard officials like Capt. Yilmazarslan track and deter the smuggling boats, but the mission has been slowed by disagreement between Greece and Turkey over the specifics for the operation.” United States Fox News: US Sending Nuclear-Capable Bombers To Fight ISIS “The United States is sending nuclear-capable B-52 aircraft to drop bombs on the Islamic State terror group, defense officials confirmed to Fox News Friday. The B-52 Stratofortress will start its first bombing campaign against ISIS in April, the Air Force Times reports. It’s not clear how many B-52s or airmen will be involved. Officials say the aircraft will replace nuclear-capable B-1 Lancers hitting ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.” The Guardian: US-Led Airstrikes Hit Isis Targets In Syria And Iraq As Group Reports Civilian Deaths “The US and its allies struck 12 Islamic State targets in Iraq and two in Syria on Friday, the US military reported on Saturday as human rights group reports civilians killed in ceasefire violations. Two of the strikes in Iraq were near Ramadi, hitting two Islamic State tactical units and a tunnel. One of the strikes in Syria destroyed two Islamic State fighting positions near Palmyra, according to the Pentagon.” The Telegraph: US Planning To Strike Isil In Libya Based On 'Faulty Intelligence' “The United States is basing plans for military intervention in Libya on faulty intelligence, Western officials and country experts have told the Sunday Telegraph. American intelligence agencies assess that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has doubled in size in Libya, with between 5,000 and 6,500 fighters in the country. Privately, however, some US officials say they believe these estimates to be overblown. Independent experts have come to the same conclusion.” New York Times: Trial Of Veteran Accused Of Trying To Join ISIS May Hinge On Unsent Letter “The most conclusive piece of evidence against Tairod Pugh, a 48-year old U.S. Air Force veteran accused of trying to join the Islamic State, is the letter he addressed to his wife. In it, Mr. Pugh, wrote of his plan to become a martyr. ‘I will escort you into Paradise and when you see the home paid for by my blood and your tears you will know it was worth it,’ reads the letter, typed on his computer in January 2015. In it, he pledged to ‘use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State.’” Forbes: If U.S. Withdraws From Syria And Iraq, What Will Rebels And Regimes Do? “What would total U.S. withdrawal from Syria and Iraq look like? We would, first of all, stop funding the Baghdad government, which is oppressing Sunni civilians. We would stop funding Sunni rebels, who are allied with ISIS and al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria. We would stop arming Kurdish fighters, who are allied with Kurdish rebels in Turkey on the U.S. State Department’s terrorism list.” Syria The Guardian: Syrian Ceasefire With Russian Backing Key To Peace Talks, Say European Leaders “The Syrian ceasefire and its continued backing from Russia will help build a momentum behind peace talks in the war-torn country, European leaders have said.  The truce, which is broadly holding, began last weekend. The leaders of Russia, Germany, France, Italy and the UK held a conference call on Friday in which they agreed to use the ‘positive dynamic’ to restart peace talks, a spokesperson for David Cameron said.” Associated Press: Syria: Insurgent Shelling Of Aleppo Kills 13 Civilians “A rocket and mortar barrage struck a government-controlled neighborhood in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing 13 civilians and wounding 40, the government and an opposition group said. State-run news agency SANA said the attack by "terrorists" occurred in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, which has been subjected to insurgent shelling for days despite a shaky U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire that took effect Feb. 27.” Al Arabiya: Syrian Rebels Seize Iraq Border Crossing From ISIS “A border crossing with Iraq was seized by Syrian rebel fighters from ISIS militants on Friday. According to the Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the al-Tanf border crossing has been controlled by ISIS since May last year. Prior to that, it had been under the control of Syrian government forces and had been the last border crossing with Iraq that was under their control, according to Reuters news agency. ISIS, which controls a swathe of territory spreading from Iraq into central Syria, still controls the Bukamal Syria-Iraq border crossing near Deir al Zour.” Iraq Al Arabiya: US: ISIS ‘Losing’ As Campaign To Retake Mosul Begins “The chief of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition on Saturday announced plans to seize Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul from ISIS, which has been held by the militants since June 2014, describing the militant group as ‘losing.’ The operation’s current strategy is to cut the main road connecting Mosul to the ISIS-stronghold city of Raqqa in Syria, the coalition’s US special envoy Brett McGurk said at a press conference in the capital Baghdad.” Afghanistan Associated Press: Afghan President: IS Being Wiped Out In Afghanistan “Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that the Islamic State group has been defeated in the eastern parts of the country, where it had taken over some remote districts. Speaking at the opening of parliament, Ghani said Afghan forces had dislodged IS loyalists from regions of Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan. ‘Afghanistan will be their graveyard,’ he said in an address broadcast live on national television.” Middle East International Business Times: New ISIS Video Shows Execution Of Alleged Russian Spy, Threatens Attack On Vladimir Putin “The Islamic State group’s branch in the Northern Caucasus region of Russia released a video Saturday that showed the execution of an alleged Russian spy. The new ISIS video reportedly called on Russian Muslims to ‘kill apostates’ in the country and threatened to carry out an attack on President Vladimir Putin. In the video, which was released on social media, the group’s militants in Chechen — commonly referred to as Chechnya — urged Muslims in Russia to join ISIS’ fight against the West, claiming that ‘the Caliphate is already here,’ according to the Jerusalem Post.” Newsmax: How Airstrikes Are Cutting ISIS’S Revenue “After conquering eastern Syria, ISIS focused on building a central economic system to control its resources. Its economy includes revenue earned from oil and gas, levying taxes on trade movement, price fixing and fines collected from people violating laws. The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS based its strategy on two approaches. First, targeting the group leaders, headquarters and barracks. Second, cutting off the group’s funding channels and key resources.” Libya Reuters: Libyan Forces Target Islamic State In Sirte With Air Strikes “Libyan forces based in the city of Misrata have carried out air strikes against Islamic State militants in their stronghold of Sirte, a military source said on Sunday. As many as 18 people were killed in the strikes, including senior Islamic State members, said Jamal Zubia, foreign media spokesman for Libya's self-declared government in Tripoli. The claim could not immediately be confirmed with other officials. A resident in Sirte told Reuters that air strikes on Sunday had targeted districts in and around the city, and that at least one civilian had been killed.” New York Times: Clash At Military Barracks Near Tunisia-Libya Border Kills At Least 27 “At least 27 people were killed in a predawn firefight on Monday between attackers suspected of being Islamist militants and the Tunisian security forces at a military barracks near the border with Libya, Tunisian security officials said. The clashes at Ben Guerdane, 18 miles from the border, were the second in the district in a week and come at a time of growing concern that the war in Libya, where the Islamic State has aggressively expanded, is spilling into Tunisia.” United Kingdom India Today: 50 UK Children Under ISIS Rule In Syria And Iraq: Reports “At least 50 British children are living under Islamic State (ISIS) rule in war zones of Syria and Iraq and are in danger of becoming ‘future terrorists’, a London-based think tank said on Sunday. Researchers for Quilliam found in their study, to be presented in the British Parliament on Wednesday, that the children are at risk of being indoctrinated by ISIS to become suicide bombers or killers.” Europe The Daily Caller: ISIS Fighters Returning To Europe Get Away With Murder, Even When They Confess “Foreigners who return home after fighting for the Islamic State (ISIS) often get away with murder due to justice systems that haven’t caught up to a new reality. More than 30,000 foreign fighters have left their home countries to fight for ISIS. Many of them decide to return home at some point, despite the knowledge that they will almost certainly be detained and put on trial. A German court sentenced a 25-year-old ISIS deserter to four and a half years in prison Friday.” Arabic Language Clips Fight Against Terror And Its Financing Almo5tsr News: Saudi Parliamentarian Calls For Arab War Against The Militias Saudi Arabia's Shura Council Member, Mishal Al Salmi, urged Arab countries to rally against militias in their respective territories, stressing the need to combat extremism in all its forms. Al Salmi stated, on the sidelines of the 1st Conference for Speakers of Arab Parliaments in Egypt, "All Arab countries must fight against local militias that exist within their territories, regardless of their ideology and banners, because they pose a threat to Arab internal and national security." He added that confronting the wave of terrorism faced by the Arab countries will succeed only by drying up the financial sources of these organizations and by countering their extremist ideas with moderate Islamic thought. Sarmad: Interior Minister (Of Kuwait): Drying Up The Sources Of Terrorist Financing Is The Greatest Challenge Of Security Services Kuwait's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, stressed that the fight against terrorism and drying up its funding pose the biggest challenge to Arab security agencies. He noted that the difficult circumstances engulfing some countries have created insecurity and instability, which project upon all the Arab countries. Sheikh Khaled called for "working hard to cut the arteries of terrorism, drying up funding and protecting our children from this threat. The Kuwaiti minister emphasized that "intellectual security is the most powerful weapon in the face of terror, and the defeat of terror will come only after achieving victory in the intellectual battle." Counter Terrorism 3roba News: Abdel Ghaffar: (Egyptian) Interior (Ministry) Closed A Huge Number Of Social Media Pages Advocating Violence Against State Institutions Egypt's Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar announced that the State's security services recently succeeded in foiling terrorist plots in Egypt. He claimed that the state has experienced a decline in the number of terrorist operations. Abdel Ghaffar added that the Ministry has implemented a number of pre-emptive security strikes based on accurate information gleaned from investigations. The Egyptian Interior Minister noted that in the past few months the Directorate General for Information and Documentation has succeeded in shutting down a "huge number" of pages on the social media network. These pages were inciting readers to commit acts of hostility against state institutions, especially targeting police and army. The minister stressed that these pages were blocked after taking all required legal actions. ISIS Alarabiya: Morocco Arrests Gang That Committed Robberies To Finance Travels To ISIS (Camps) Morocco announced the arrest of a "criminal ring" comprising six extremists implicated in robbing jewelry shops in Dakhla, a city in the far south-west of Morocco. According to the anti-organized crime squad of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, the extremists committed robberies while masked and using 'cold' weapons. According to sources in Rabat, the ringleader held secret meetings in Dakhla to promote the extremist ideology of ISIS and justify the legitimacy of theft. In addition, the ringleader plotted to use the funds obtained from the thefts for the financing of those seeking to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq to gain combat field experience and then return to Morocco to carry out sabotage operations. Addiyar: Syrian Centre For Research & Studies Identifies 15 Funding Sources Of ISIS: 55% From Sale Of Stolen Petroleum And 30% From Robbery, Human Trafficking And Antiquities The Damascus Center for Research and Studies (Meded) has identified 15 funding sources behind ISIS, which has been named the world's richest terrorist organization in history. These sources feature the sale of smuggled oil and antiquities, donations, ransom payments to free abducted foreigners, rental income, taxes, Jizya and Zakat, fees and fines, in addition to outright theft and looting. Proceeds have also come from smuggling crops and drugs, money laundering, spoils of war, transport fees, human trafficking, sale of bodies and revenues from the sale of the terror group's online magazine "Dabiq." In the study, entitled "The funding sources of ISIS," authors claim that the sale of stolen oil accounts for roughly 55% of the terror organization's revenues. Oil is the number-one source of funding, followed by drug trafficking and money laundering (15% of all revenues), then taxes, fines and transport fees (12%), spoils of war and theft (10%), kidnapping and ransom (4%), donations (2%) and other miscellaneous sources account for 2% of ISIS's total financial sources. Muslim Brotherhood Shorouk News: Figures… Muslim Brotherhood Sources Reveal Financial Corruption In Its Turkey-Based Leadership Turkey-based Brotherhood sources disclosed that a probe has been opened into the allegedly corrupt conduct of the Muslim Brotherhood Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein and two other prominent leaders of the group's international arm, Mahmoud Elibiary and Mohammed el-Behairy. The three suspects are being investigated for their alleged involvement in the embezzlement of funds and donations originating from the Arab Gulf countries and earmarked for the group's members in Turkey. The sources noted that a donor from one of the Gulf countries had transferred $2 million to the group's leadership with the aim of aiding Brotherhood fugitives in Turkey. The sources claimed, however, that the group's leadership in Turkey used the money to purchase a 5-storey building in the Turkish city of Istanbul, at a cost of $1.2 million. Veto: Rabia Shalaby: (Brotherhood-Affiliated) Asem Abdulmajed Traded Loyalties Of Islamic Movements (For Money) Rabia Ali Shalaby, a dissident of the al-Gama'a al-Islamiya (the Islamic Group) movement, stated that the establishment of "Al-Fudul Party" by Asem Abdulmajed, a leading member of the Islamic Group, came in response to the Muslim Brotherhood's decision to stop spending money on him and other members of the Islamic Group. The Brotherhood customarily transferred 500 Egyptian pounds ($64) a month for each jailed member of the Islamic group, and 2000 pounds ($256) for each of the Brotherhood's own jailed members. The payments were discontinued four months ago. Shalaby added that Abdulmajed had tried to attract benefactors from Kuwait and other Gulf states, particularly Qatar, and is now seeking to raise funds from Saudi Arabia. Shalaby stressed that Abdulmajed switched loyalties between the Islamic movements for financial reasons, and this is why the Islamic Group in Egypt decided to oust him. The Seventh Day: Brotherhood Wikileaks: Mahmoud Hussein Hires 54 Employees For $400,000 A Month To Polish His Image "Brotherhood WikiLeaks" Group, which is affiliated with Mohammed Kamal, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office, unveiled new details about the financial embezzlement within the Brotherhood by Turkey-based Dr. Mahmoud Hussein, former Secretary General of the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Ikhwan Voice" Facebook page reported that Hussein and Mahmoud Elebiary employ a highly paid team whose only role is to glorify its two bosses. The team includes a Brotherhood reporter, for instance, who works exclusively for Hussein. This journalist gets a monthly salary that is enough to support 20 Muslim Brotherhood families. The same source added that these employees are paid from the coffers of the Brotherhood without any oversight or control. All in all, there are 54 such employees, located mostly in Istanbul and London. The expenditure on their salaries, flights and hotel bills amounts to $400,000 a month. Afrigatenews: Tobruk Endowments Forms A Committee To Remove The Brotherhood Books Abdul Salam Al-Sharif, Director of the Awqaf Office of the Libyan city of Tobruk, nominated Sheikh Jaballah Al-Rafadi to head a committee tasked with emptying all the city's mosques from the books of the Muslim Brotherhood and followers of Sayyid Qutb, the group's ideologue. On his part, Al-Rafadi named prominent local sheikhs to sit on the committee. It should be noted that many sheikhs and preachers in Tobruk's mosques have recently warned against the spread of radical ideologies in the city. Al-Council: Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi Accuses The Brotherhood In Yemen Of Buying The Poor President of Yemen, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, declared that the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Al-Islah), which is the Muslim Brotherhood Branch in Yemen, did not have the power to implement Ikhwanization (“the Brotherhoodization”) of Yemen. This power was augmented by the decision of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to allow them to participate in the elections for the first time. Hadi suggested that the rise of the Reform Party as a political force in Yemen has been linked to its ability to buy off voters with "political money." He was quoted as saying, "They have the money and the poor people of Yemen 'in their pocket'. Anyone who gives the poor between 5 riyals ($ 0.25) and 10 riyals ($ 0.50) will get their votes." Houthi Almashhad Alyemeni: Soldiers Accusing Houthi Leader Mubarak Almushn Of Pocketing Their Salaries Block (Dar) Salm Road In Sanaa On Friday, soldiers belonging to the 312th Brigade from the Sirwah District protested in Dar Salm, south of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The protesters, who blocked the main Dar Salm thoroughfare, accused Houthi leader Mubarak al-Mushn of cutting 10,000 riyals ($46.50) out of the salary of each soldier of the 312th Brigade. Houthi militiamen rushed to encircle the area, as eyewitnesses reported that the demonstration was "gigantic", attended by hundreds of the 312th Brigade's troops.