Eye on Extremism - May 6, 2016

Eye on Extremism May 6, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Morocco World News: ISIS Threat: Polisario Front Member Threatens Morocco, MINURSO “According to the Counter Extremism Project, Al-Sahrawi was born in Algeria and lived in the Front’s camps in Tindouf before joining the group’s army. He has worked as the senior spokesperson of the Sahara-based jihadist group Al-Mourabitoun for a number of years. In May 2015, he declared his terrorist group’s allegiance to ISIS, speaking with authority as a self-proclaimed ‘emir.’ ISIS has yet to carry out a successful attack in the Western Sahara or in any region of Morocco, as the government has been vigilantly dismantling terrorist cells since March of last year.” Mirror: Kenyan Police Foil Anthrax Attack By ISIS Linked Terror Group Aimed At Tourists “Kenyan police say they have foiled a ‘large-scale’ anthrax plot against westerners and locals, by terrorists linked to ISIS. Anti-terrorism officers arrested three people in connection to the plot due to take place on April 29, which authorities have compared to the 2013 Westgate Mall shooting that left 67 dead. Suspected mastermind Mohammed Abdi Ali - a medical intern at Wote Hospital in southeast Makueni County - and two accomplices have been arrested in connection the plot. Among the alleged accomplices are Ali’s wife Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, a medical student at Kampala International University in Uganda, and her associate and an alleged accomplice, Fatuma Mohammed Hanshi.” The New York Times: Airstrikes In Syria Kill More Than 30 In Refugee Camp “More than 30 people were killed Thursday when warplanes struck a tent camp for displaced Syrians in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, according to antigovernment activists and opposition groups. The attack took place shortly after insurgents launched an offensive against government forces in neighboring Aleppo Province just hours into what was supposed be to a new, 48-hour truce there. Video images from the Kamuna camp in Idlib showed smoke billowing from rows of tattered and blackened tents as well as a pickup truck packed with wounded people moaning and crying. Women and children appeared to be among the victims.” Reuters: Militants Stage Attacks Between Libyan Stronghold Of Sirte And Coastal Misrata “Islamic State militants staged attacks on Thursday between their Libyan stronghold of Sirte and the city of Misrata, killing five people, officials said. The jihadist group said it had taken control of several villages in the area following attacks on checkpoints, though reports that local security forces had retreated could not immediately be confirmed. Islamic State took advantage of Libya's security vacuum and political turmoil to establish itself in Sirte last year. It controls a strip of coast about 250 km (155 miles) long around the city, but it has struggled to hold ground elsewhere in the country. The West is hoping a U.N.-backed government that arrived in Tripoli at the end of March will be able to unite Libya's armed factions to take on Islamic State. But efforts to counter the group have so far depended on loose alliances of armed brigades that supported rival governments in Tripoli and the east.” Telegraph: Afghanistan Death Toll Rises Fourfold To 15,000 Since Departure Of US And British Combat Troops “The death toll in Afghanistan’s civil war has quadrupled since American and British combat troops left the country, with 15,000 people being killed last year, a new study disclosed on Thursday. Afghanistan suffered the biggest increase in fatalities of any war zone in the world in 2015, although Syria's conflict remained the bloodiest with 55,000 dead. Britain and the US withdrew most of their combat units from Afghanistan in 2013, handing over responsibility for security in almost all of the country to the new army and police force. In that year, the Taliban insurgency claimed 3,500 lives.” The Washington Post: Al-Qaida Withdrawing From 2 Cities East Of Yemen’s Aden Port “Al-Qaida militants in Yemen are pulling out of two coastal cities east of the key southern port of Aden following tribal-led negotiations, security officials and witnesses said on Thursday. The pullout from Zinjibar and Jaar is which is expected to take less than a week, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters while the witnesses did so out of safety concerns. The development comes after forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government last month drove out al-Qaida militants from what had been their stronghold further down the coast, the city of Mukalla, a year after they captured it.” The Jerusalem Post: Report: Saudi Arabia Busts ISIS Cell On The Outskirts Of Mecca “The Saudi security forces captured Thursday morning an ISIS cell on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca, Jawal Watani, a prominent Saudi news page on Twitter reported. According to the report, the Saudi police, in collaboration with the Kingdom's security forces, besieged Wadi Numan, a Mecca suburb, where a group of five ISIS fighters had been hiding. Saudi security forces deployed helicopters to back up forces on the ground, fearing that the terrorists, refusing to hand themselves over to the police, would throw bombs on them. During the operation, two ISIS fighters were killed by security forces, while two others committed suicide. According to Saudi sources, the cell busted was preparing to attack a base of the emergency forces, located five kilometers from where the ISIS fighters resided.” The Washington Post: Israel Discovers New Cross-Border Tunnel From Gaza Strip “The Israeli military said it uncovered a new tunnel Thursday stretching from southern Gaza Strip into Israel and built by Palestinian militants seeking to stage attacks in Israel, a discovery that comes amid an escalation in violence between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers. Also Thursday, the military announced that a joint operation last month with the Shin Bet security service led to the arrest of a ‘Hamas terror operative involved in the terror organizations tunnel network.’ It said the man was nabbed after crossing the border to carry out an attack and later provided detailed information about the elaborate Hamas tunnel network, the military said.” The Washington Post: How Turkey’s Erdogan Tightened His Grip On Power By Sidelining His Prime Minister “For some time, it was in vogue to liken the relationship between Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the country's powerful President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to that of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his swaggering boss, President Vladimir Putin. Like Medvedev, Davutoglu was said to be the pliant lieutenant of an authoritarian strongman, one whose cult of personality guaranteed both their political careers. But the analogy never really worked. Turkey, at least for now, has a more robust democratic system than Russia. Davutoglu's departure on Thursday from his post at the head of Turkey's government is a sign of clear differences between him and Erdogan over the direction of their country's politics. It's also possibly an indication of how Erdogan himself is growing impatient in his quest for more Putin-like powers.” The New York Times: In Syria, Russia Plays Bach Where ISIS Executed 25 “Russia has made its mark on Syria with the crash of bombs and the thud of artillery. On Thursday the Russians added gentler sounds: live classical music echoing through an ancient stone theater and into the eerie, empty desert. Extending its soft power into the Syrian conflict, Russia deployed a symphony orchestra led by one of its best-known conductors, Valery Gergiev, and the cellist Sergei P. Roldugin, an old and — according to the Panama Papers documents leaked last month — very wealthy friend of President Vladimir V. Putin. Their performance space was Palmyra, the city of ruins left by Roman and other ancient civilizations and ruined further by the depredations of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The contrast was intended to underscore what Russia sees as its underappreciated role in helping Syrian forces liberate Palmyra from zealots and fighting on the side of civilization against barbarism.” U.S. News & World Report: Losing Privacy And Security “The litigation between Apple and the FBI regarding access to the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone catalyzed a national debate about encryption. And Microsoft's just-filed lawsuit claiming a right for targets of law enforcement investigations to know that the government is seizing their communications helps demonstrate that the rift between the tech sector and government extends beyond encryption; the rift is significant, it is growing and it is alarming. While people can rightly debate how we got here, and can and do vigorously debate which ‘side’ has the better of the arguments, the fact that this rift exists at all is bad news for both privacy and national security.” United States Reuters: 'No Boots On The Ground' Has Its Limits As U.S. Navy SEAL Is Killed In Iraq “A pickup truck races toward a burning village in northern Iraq, slamming to a halt behind an armored convoy that forms the only barrier between U.S. forces and Islamic State. ‘We are fighting alongside our American brothers,’ says the Kurdish fighter filming the scene, shouting to be heard over the sound of gunfire and explosions on the outskirts of Tel Asqof. The clip, purportedly filmed on Tuesday during a fierce battle in which a U.S. Navy SEAL was killed, records the United States' deepening involvement in the nearly two-year-old war against the jihadist militants. Loath to become mired in another conflict overseas, the White House has insisted there will be no American ‘boots on the ground’ in Iraq, instead deploying hundreds of troops to ‘advise and assist’ local forces. But footage of the firefight shown to Reuters by the Kurdish forces who filmed it, along with the accounts of others who took part, show how easily that distinction can blur.” CBS News: Why Were Navy Seals On Front Line In ISIS Fight? “New video has emerged of the intense battle in Iraq that left a Navy SEAL dead on Tuesday. His team was called in when ISIS attacked U.S. allies and their American advisers north of Mosul. Only twenty minutes into the battle, U.S. forces knew they were in trouble and they called for back-up. Then things got worse. The Navy SEAL rescue team found themselves pinned down in an intense firefight with over 120 ISIS militants. Kurdish soldiers and their U.S. advisers were forced to take cover. The attack seemed to come from nowhere, and Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating IV was among those shot in the gun battle. Even the Blackhawk helicopters that were called in to evacuate Keating came under fire. ISIS launched the surprise attack at around 7:30 in the morning, near the village of Tel Asqof.” Syria Newsweek: Twin Bombings Strike Central Syria As Aleppo Ceasefire Begins “A twin bomb attack on Thursday struck a regime-controlled area of Homs in central Syria on the same day that a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo began. The blasts in a square in Mukharram al-Fawqani in Homs province killed at least 10 civilians and wounded at least 40 people, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syrian state television put the toll at six people killed and 28 wounded, citing a suicide bomb attack and a car bombing. The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has claimed previous suicide attacks in Homs but no group has yet claimed responsibility for Thursday’s twin bomb blasts.” Iraq Associated Press: Amid Political Crisis, Iraqi PM Calls For Focus On IS Fight “Iraq's prime minister on Thursday called on the Iraqi people to prioritize the battle against the Islamic State group amid a deepening political crisis in the country. Haider al-Abadi's remarks come after the Iraqi leader moved to replace the commander of a military division tasked with protecting the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, after hundreds of angry anti-government protesters broke into the parliament building on Saturday. Ahead of possible protests Friday, al-Abadi urged Iraqis to ‘respect the prestige of the state and not give infiltrators and terrorists the opportunity’ to carry out attacks. The storming of Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone was a major escalation of a political crisis that has simmered for months.” The Economist: The Ungovernable Country “It has been 13 years since the fall of Saddam, but many Iraqis are still struggling to get by. Successive governments, detached from the people, have produced little more than staggering levels of corruption and incompetence. Idle officials sit in air-conditioned offices even as the population lacks basic services. Progress seemed possible last year, when Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister, introduced a reform agenda, ostensibly backed by the entire parliament. But MPs’ swift reversion to bickering merely fuelled public outrage, which boiled over on April 30th, when hundreds of Iraqis stormed the Green Zone. Iraq’s war with IS costs millions of dollars each year, and illustrates how the country’s problems compound each other. ‘If the government was not so messed up, they would have kicked these guys out a year ago,’ says Kirk Sowell of Inside Iraqi Politics, a newsletter.” New York Times: Iraqi Kurds Build Washington Lobbying Machine To Fund War Against ISIS “The marble-floored atrium at the office of Dentons, a prominent law and lobbying firm, is a popular venue for the capital’s elite to gather for political fund-raisers and ritzy receptions for corporate clients. But the featured guest one recent evening was not a member of Congress or a company executive. It was Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the financially struggling region in northern Iraq that is desperately looking for ways to pay for its war effort against the Islamic State after its economy was decimated by the global drop in oil prices and a surge of refugees.” Turkey International Business Times: The Turkish Town In ISIS’ Crosshairs: Kilis Residents Struggle Under Rocket Attacks From Syria “Anwar Mohammed fled his homeland three years ago to escape the routine violence that ravaged his city of Azaz and pushed millions to flee northwestern Syria. He and his wife settled with their three young children just on the other side of the Turkish border, seeking quiet and safety in the town of Kilis, where Mohammed often works as a translator for foreign journalists. But in recent months, rockets from Syria have broken a calm in the Turkish town. Each day, residents rush indoors, praying for their safety as rockets fired by the Islamic State group in Syria rain down.” Afghanistan NPR: Why Afghanistan Is Once Again On The Brink “The crises facing the Afghan government are multiple. The Afghan economy is tanking. The national currency, the afghani, has lost 20 percent against the dollar in a year. Several hundred thousand Afghans, many of whom are young and middle-class, have left for Europe in search of jobs, education and security. The war with the Taliban is widening. Civilian casualties are on the rise. Large parts of the landscape are outside the government's control. Peace negotiations remain a distant dream. Corruption is rampant. As you drive around Kabul, evidence of how this general instability is affecting the lives of Afghans is everywhere.” Fox News: Taliban Expect To Gain Big From Banner Poppy Crop In Afghanistan, US General Says “A banner poppy crop in Helmand this year will add significant revenue to the Taliban's coffers, a senior U.S. military spokesman based in Afghanistan told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday, as hundreds of U.S. troops remain in the volatile southern Afghan province where the Taliban has made gains since the fall. ‘There is a concern that with this very good poppy crop that they had this year, it is going to result in the Taliban being able to turn that into money for their efforts,’ said Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, a spokesman for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Cleveland added that there has been a decrease in Taliban attacks of late because April is the peak harvest time in Afghanistan.” Saudi Arabia Business-Standard: Saudi Arabia Kills Two IS Terrorists In Mecca “Saudi Interior Ministry said on Thursday that it killed two Islamic State (IS) terrorists in a raid in Mecca. Another two IS members were arrested in a separate raid in Jeddah, Xinhua cited a report by local TV Al Akhbar. The Mecca raid took place after hours of police chase when the suspected terrorists took a shelter at a house usually rented by road travellers. The ministry announced last week the foiling of a terror attack that targeted an area in Asir region in the southwest of Saudi Arabia, in which the police killed two suspected terrorists and confiscated two cars as one of them was planted with explosives.” Middle East BBC: Israel Tank Fire Kills Gaza Woman Medics Say “Israeli tank fire has killed a Palestinian woman in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say, in some of the worst clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas militants since 2014. The woman was killed and another person was injured in the Khan Yunis area, southern Gaza, local medics said. Israel said it was responding to mortar rounds fired by Hamas fighters. The clashes came after Israel said it had discovered a new tunnel reaching into Israel from Gaza. Israeli army spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner said the tunnel was about 30 metres (100ft) below the surface.” Libya Newsweek: After ISIS, Normal Life Slowly Returns To The Streets Of A Libyan City “In April, fighters from the Shura Council—a coalition of Islamist militias linked to Al-Qaeda in the eastern Libyan city of Derna—and the Libyan military both claimed responsibility for the ousting of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) from their last bastions, ‘district 400’ and the al-Fatayeh mountains south of the city. The lives of residents who bore witness to executions, crucifixions and beheadings are now slowly returning to normal, locals say. An anti-ISIS activist in the city, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, says that residents informed of the ousting of the radical Islamist group traveled to district 400 to ensure that the news was true. ‘The people started moving and saw that ISIS had no more fighters there and it was completely empty,’ he says. ‘ISIS were camped in that area for nine months.’” Nigeria Bloomberg: Boko Haram: Nigerian Army Says It Kills 13 Boko Haram Militants In Hideout “Nigerian security forces killed 13 suspected Boko Haram fighters in a raid on a militant hideout in the country’s northeast Sambisa forest on Thursday. A day earlier, more than 400 hostages were rescued from the insurgents in three villages in Borno state, Lucky Irabor, the head of the region’s counter-insurgency operation, told reporters. More than a dozen rebels were killed in those operations, he said. While Boko Haram is in the seventh year of a violent campaign to impose its version of Islamic law in Nigeria, its capacity and hold on territory in the northeast has been pushed back by the military over the past year.” United Kingdom Huffington Post: The Muslim Council Of Britain Appoints Extremists To Investigate Extremism “How effective would a panel of racists be at investigating racism? What of EDL activists commissioned to investigate Islamophobia in the UK? Utterly preposterous, right? Well, The Muslim Council of Britain recently formed an investigative panel to look into the role of one of its affiliates in inciting violence against Ahmadi Muslims in the UK. And guess who is on the panel? Members with known ties to the affiliate under scrutiny. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has come under increasing pressure to clarify their ties with the hate group. To respond to the growing criticism, the MCB was forced to announce an investigative panel tasked to look into the Khatme Nabuwat group. The fact that they feel the need to appoint a panel even after such brazen calls for murder across the UK is incomprehensible.” The Guardian: Most UK Forces In Libya 'Would Be There For Protection' “British military staff drawing up plans for deployment in Libya are working on the basis that only a third of the UK troops would be engaged in training and the rest would be needed for force protection, according to a defence source. The proportion committed to protection would be much higher than other conflict zones such as Iraq and may reflect concern about the volatility of threats in Libya that range from militia groups to Islamic State. The British contingent would form part of an Italian-led Libyan international assistance mission estimated at about 5,000-6,000. The Italian government is awaiting a formal invitation from the newly formed government in Libya.” Express: Holiday Terror Alert: British Spies Bust ISIS Cell Planning Attacks On Costa Del Sol “Spanish police arrested four people on suspicion of spreading extremist pro-jihadist propaganda online and indoctrinating recruits. British spooks based in Gibraltar reportedly tracked down the gang after propaganda messages were found online. Police said the cell was trying to recruit radicals and persuade them to attack holiday resorts in Costa Del Sol - an area popular with British holidaymakers.  Armed police carried out a raid in Madrid and the Spanish towns of Pinto and Ciempozuelos on Tuesday. Police arrested three Moroccans and one Spaniard who are allegedly part of an organised cell spreading extremist material online. Video footage of their capture has also been released by the Spanish Guardia Civil.”