Eye on Extremism November 2, 2016

Eye on Extremism November 2, 2016 CBS News: Iraq's Military Has Pushed Inside Mosul's City Limits “Iraq’s military said Tuesday that its special forces have pushed inside the city limits of Mosul for the first time in two years. U.S. airstrikes and special forces are backing the Iraqis as they liberate Mosul from ISIS. The fight is expected to last weeks -- if not months. Iraq’s special forces fought their way into the outskirts of Mosul on Tuesday, taking its state television building despite resistance by Islamic State group fighters that is only likely to stiffen when combat reaches the inner city. It was the first time Iraqi troops have set foot in the city, Iraq’s second-largest, in more than two years. The advance was the start of what is likely to be a grueling and slow operation for the forces as they fend off booby traps and ambushes in difficult, house-to-house fighting expected to take weeks, if not months.” BBC: Mosul: The Ugly, Deadly Urban Warfare Facing Iraq's Elite Troops “The fight to retake the city of Mosul has barely begun, and militants loyal to so-called Islamic State (IS) have shown that they will not be leaving quietly. Snipers, car bombs and booby traps were awaiting the Iraqi elite counter-terrorism forces on Tuesday as they approached the city from the east. The men of the CTF, as the special forces are known in Iraq, appear casual - but make no mistake, they are ready. Many have scars from Ramadi or Falluja - or both. They have lost friends. Some are younger than you might expect for the fighting they have experienced. Many are also recently married - it is common practice before deploying for battle - and they are keen to show pictures of their new brides on their smart phones.” Fox News: ISIS Child Soldiers Are Latest Casualties Of Brutal Terrorist Army “Kirkuk authorities have captured dozens of ISIS child soldiers, he said. Those under 18 are held in an undisclosed children's correctional facility while they await trial, which typically comes between two and six months after their arrest. Muhammad stresses that the juveniles, held not in cells but in a large common room, tend to further radicalize one another. Their sentences vary, but minors usually get half of what an adult would for the same crime. Another official tells FoxNews.com that these child soldiers will probably spend six or seven years behind bars. There is no mention of the amnesty or rehabilitation programs that routinely drive the discourse of Western media and human rights groups when it comes to the issue of child soldiers. Given ISIS’ unprecedented use of kids to spy, kill and die for the cause, officials know they may never be able to afford leniency.” Time: Russian Warships In Mediterranean Prompt Fears Among Syrian Rebels “A fleet of eight Russian warships that entered the Mediterranean on October 26 is raising fears that Russia and the regime of president Bashar Assad could launch their most intense assault to date on parts of Syria held by rebels and other insurgents. Led by Russia’s only aircraft carrier the fleet departed the Barents Sea port of Severmorsk on October 15. The ships could reinforce the Russian military presence in Syria centered on a naval base in the coastal city of Tartus. Since entering the Syrian civil war 13 months ago, Russian air raids have bolstered the regime’s campaign against rebel groups. But for the exhausted residents of the rebel-held section of the city of Aleppo the prospect of a renewed Russian or regime attack on their half of the city simply represents more of the same after more than five years of revolt and civil war.” Voice Of America: US Warns Of Possible IS Attack In India “For the first time the U.S. government is publicly warning of the possibility of terrorist attacks in India carried out by the Islamic State group. A brief security message for U.S. citizens in India, issued Tuesday evening at the embassy in New Delhi, calls on Americans to ‘maintain a high level of vigilance and increase their security awareness,’ especially at religious sites, markets and festival venues. Previous security advisories issued by the embassy have mentioned Islamic extremist groups, such as Indian Mujahideen (IM) and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, but not Islamic State. The fresh security advisory could be related to recent IS arrests in India, said Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Lisa Curtis, noting last month's discovery of an Islamic State cell in Kerala that allegedly was plotting attacks during the Diwali holiday season, which began Sunday and runs through Thursday.” The Times Of Israel: Palestinian Woman Caught With Knife In Hebron, Says She Planned Attack “A woman was arrested Tuesday carrying two concealed knives near in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the woman, in her 30s, approached a checkpoint near the site, where her behavior raised the suspicions of the Border Police. When police searched her bag they found two knives hidden inside. They arrested the woman, who allegedly admitted that she planned to carry out a terror attack. She was transferred to security forces for questioning, police said. The shrine, revered as the final resting place of the Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, is also revered by Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.” New York Times: Can Turkey's Democracy Survive President Erdogan? “What is unnerving in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s march to authoritarianism is how dismally familiar it is: the coup that becomes a pretext for a massive roundup of real and imagined enemies; the claims to be the one man who can withstand the onslaught of foreign foes; the invocation of purported historical slights; the silencing of the news media. The world has seen this before in other countries. The pattern is tried and true; the tough question is how to break it. Over the weekend, Turkish authorities shut down 15 pro-Kurdish news outlets, including the only national Kurdish-language daily. An additional 10,000 civil servants joined the ranks of those who have been fired since a coup attempt in July. And on Monday, the editor in chief of Cumhuriyet, one of the few remaining opposition newspapers in Turkey, was detained along with at least a dozen other executives and journalists. And so it goes.” Reuters: UK Spy Chief Sees Growing Threat From Russian Cyber-Attacks, Espionage “Russia is pushing its foreign policy in increasingly aggressive ways including cyber-attacks and espionage, posing a growing threat to Britain and the rest of Europe, the head of Britain's internal intelligence agency MI5 has said. The Kremlin dismissed the allegations as untrue and challenged its critics to produce evidence. MI5 Director General Andrew Parker said Russia had been a covert threat for decades, but what differed now from the Cold War era was that there were more and more methods available for it to pursue its anti-Western agenda. ‘Russia increasingly seems to define itself by opposition to the West and seems to act accordingly,’ he told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.” New York Times: Orlando Gunman's Wife Breaks Silence: 'I Was Unaware' “Things finally seemed to be going better for Noor Salman and her husband, Omar Mateen. He had been accepted into a police training program and had showered her with jewelry to celebrate. He had given her permission to visit her family in California and handed her spending money for the trip. And he had stopped hitting her. So when Mr. Mateen told her that he would not be home for dinner the afternoon of June 11, she asked him not to go. It was Saturday — and she hoped it would be a family night. But he told her that he had to see a friend, kissing her and hugging their 3-year-old son as he left.” ABC News: Duterte Eyes Joint Operations With Malaysia Vs. Abu Sayyaf “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will discuss possible joint military and police operations with Malaysia to quell Abu Sayyaf militant kidnappings of sailors along the countries' sea border, saying that the brazen attacks have paralyzed trade and commerce. Addressing the "deteriorating peace and order" in those waters will top the agenda when Duterte meets Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and other top officials in Malaysia next week, Duterte told reporters late Tuesday. Duterte said the attacks embarrassed him because the Abu Sayyaf perpetrators are based in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, an impoverished, jungle-clad region where the militants hold their hostages for ransom.” United States Reuters: Wife Of Orlando Mass Murderer Denies Advance Knowledge Of Attack “The wife of the gunman who shot 49 people to death at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, knew he had been watching jihadist videos but was unaware he planned to commit mass murder, she said in a New York Times interview published on Tuesday. Noor Salman, in her first extensive public comments since the June 12 shooting rampage that ended with police killing her husband, Omar Mateen, also said he physically abused her during their five-year marriage, even while she was pregnant. U.S. investigators questioned Salman within days of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A law enforcement source at the time told Reuters that Salman knew of Mateen's plans for the attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.” Syria Reuters: Russia Says Resumption Of Syria Peace Talks Delayed Indefinitely “Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday a Western failure to rein in violent Islamists in Syria had indefinitely delayed the resumption of peace talks. Shoigu said that rebels backed by Western governments had been attacking civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo, despite a pause in Russian and Syrian air attacks. ‘As a result, the prospects for the start of a negotiation process and the return to peaceful life in Syria are postponed for an indefinite period,’ Shoigu said. Separately, a Kremlin spokesman said that a temporary pause in Russian and Syrian government air strikes on Aleppo was in force for now, but could not be extended if the rebels in the city did not halt their attacks. Insurgents launched an offensive last week against government-held western Aleppo, more than a month into an operation by the army to retake the city's rebel-held eastern districts, which it had already put under siege.” Newsweek: Syrian Rebels Push West Against Assad Forces In Aleppo “Last week, Jaysh al-Fateh (JAF), the opposition Islamist coalition, launched a large-scale military operation to break the regime’s siege on Aleppo, but their advance has slowed. They launched attacks on areas that have not witnessed combat before, including the Assad suburb (Dahiyat al-Assad) in western Aleppo. Having taken control of most of the suburb in less than 24 hours, JAF is closing in on the Military Academy, which is considered to be the key to Aleppo. JAF has already launched its offensive and implemented a plan to blockade the Military Academy. The academy is the main operations room for the regime’s forces in northern Syria and houses Russian and Iranian officers as well as pro-regime Shiite militias from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s Harakat al-Nujaba.” Reuters: Russia Extends Moratorium On Aleppo Air Strikes “Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it would extend a moratorium on air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo until 1900 on Nov. 4 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that a temporary pause in Russian and Syrian government air strikes on Aleppo was still in force, but could not be extended if the rebels in the city did not halt their attacks.” NPR: The Damascus Paradox: Everyday Life In A Country Torn By War “At Damascus University, Syria's oldest and largest institution of higher education, students casually stroll the sprawling campus. Female students sport salon-fresh locks or smart white headscarves. Skinny jeans are still in fashion. The sounds are of fountains and chirping birds, not of bombs. A naïve tourist could be forgiven for forgetting there is a brutal war tearing apart Aleppo, a city 200 miles to the north, or that armed opposition groups continue to have a foothold in the capital itself. But there are no tourists here. My NPR colleague Peter Kenyon and I were at the university for a government-approved conference this week, which offered a rare opportunity for foreign journalists to visit Damascus.” Iraq Reuters: Iraqi Troops Battle Islamic State Inside Mosul “Iraqi forces battled Islamic State fighters on the eastern edge of Mosul on Tuesday as the two-week campaign to recapture the jihadists' last main bastion in Iraq entered a new phase of urban warfare. Artillery and air strikes pounded the city, still home to 1.5 million people, and residents of the eastern neighborhood of al-Quds said the ultra-hardline Sunni militants had resorted to street fighting to try to hold the army back. Soldiers of the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CST) also entered the state television station in Mosul on Tuesday, the first capture of an important building in the Islamic State-held city since the start of the offensive about two weeks ago, the force commander, Lieutenant-General Talib Shaghati, said.” Turkey Reuters: Turkish Military Deploy Tanks, Military Vehicles To Iraqi Border Area: Sources “Turkey's military has begun deploying tanks and other armored vehicles to the town of Silopi near the Iraqi border, in a move the defense minister said on Tuesday was related to the fight against terrorism and developments across the border. Fikri Isik said Turkey had ‘no obligation’ to wait behind its borders and would do what was necessary if Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants took a foothold in northwest Iraq's Sinjar region, around 115 km (71 miles) south of Silopi. ‘We will not allow the threat to Turkey to increase,’ he told broadcaster A Haber in an interview. The army deployment, disclosed by military sources, came after President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey was aiming to reinforce its troops in Silopi.” Associated Press: Turkey Names Trustee After Elected Pro-Kurdish Mayor Jailed “Turkey has appointed a local administrator to replace the elected mayor of Turkey's largest mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, who was arrested over alleged links to Kurdish rebels. Gultan Kisanak - Diyarbakir's first female mayor - was arrested on Sunday along with co-mayor Firat Anli. They are accused of ‘membership’ of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and were placed in a maximum-security prison in western Turkey. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the government on Tuesday appointed a local Ankara district administrator to take over Kisanak's duties.” Associated Press: Turkey Rejects Torture Allegations By Rights Group “Turkey has denied allegations by a human rights group that police have tortured or abused detainees following the failed coup attempt. An Interior Ministry statement on Tuesday criticized a Human Rights Watch report detailing 13 alleged abuse cases since the July 15 coup attempt as ‘one-sided and baseless.’ The ministry said only two of the abuse claims included concrete information and argued they were misrepresented. The ministry rejected allegations that one detainee was hospitalized after being beaten, insisting that he lost his balance and fell down stairs because he had been fasting. The statement also noted that many suspects were detained after clashes with security forces and may have sustained wounds during the struggle. At least 270 people were killed and more than 2,000 people injured during the coup attempt.” Reuters: Turkey Rejects Europe's 'Red Line' On Press Freedom After Detentions “Turkey's prime minister said he had no regard for Europe's ‘red line’ on press freedom on Tuesday and warned Ankara would not be brought to heel with threats, rejecting criticism of the detention of senior journalists at an opposition newspaper. Police detained the editor and top staff of Cumhuriyet, a pillar of the country's secularist establishment, on Monday, on accusations that the newspaper's coverage had helped precipitate a failed military coup in July. The United States and European Union both voiced concern about the move in Turkey, a NATO ally which aspires to EU membership. European Parliament President Martin Schulz wrote on Twitter that the detentions marked the crossing of 'yet another red-line' against freedom of expression in the country.” Afghanistan Sputnik News: Afghan Soldiers Clash With Taliban Fighters In Urugzan Province “Many Afghan soldiers were allegedly died during the battles in Uruzgan province and around 41 additional soldiers have been allegedly captured by Taliban and they surrendered their weapons, however the ministry of defense has not confirmed these reports yet. The Afghan army is engaging in fierce battles with Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province, after the militants attacked key areas there, Dawlat Waziri, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday. ‘Problems exist, there are attacks by the enemy, but our forces are continuing their mission over there [Uruzgan],’ Waziri said, as quoted by the Tolo news.” Newsweek: Is This Really ISIS? Uncertainty Surrounds Attacks In Afghan Province Of Ghor “Operations against insurgents in Afghanistan’s central-western province of Ghor Province are reportedly being planned in the wake of the October 25 attack, in which militants shot dead dozens of civilians. The provincial governor’s spokesman blamed the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) for the killings, raising fears about its growing reach in Afghanistan. Ghor is far away from the areas in Afghanistan where ISIS (also known as IS-K, ISIS in the Khorasan, or ISKP, Islamic State Khorasan Province) has previously been reported to have a major presence. Details of the attack—including who was responsible and how many people were killed—remain unclear. Before blaming ISIS, it is important to recognize the existence of deep ethnic and tribal divisions in Ghor Province, which can erupt into violent conflicts.” Egypt The Times Of Israel: Egypt Foils Plot To Attack Ghana’s Israeli Soccer Coach “The Egypt Football Association uncovered a plan by extremist local fans to attack Ghana national soccer team’s Israeli coach Avram Grant during a November 13 FIFA World Cup qualifier match against Egypt. Angry fans sent messages to the Egyptian regulatory body, threatening to harm the Israeli coach during the match in Alexandria, Ghanaian media reported Sunday, citing Egyptian sources. According to the Egypt Football Association, fans plotted to harass and abuse Grant from the time he arrived at the airport until he left the country. They also demanded that Egyptian authorities block the 61-year-old coach, who also has Polish citizenship, from entering the country.” Reuters: Italian Prosecutor Holds Talks In Egypt Over Probe Into Student's Killing “Italian and Egyptian prosecutors discussed Egypt's investigation into the killing of an Italian student on Tuesday and called the talks ‘positive’, after months of rising tension as Rome complained about a lack of cooperation from Cairo. Giulio Regeni, who was doing postgraduate research into Egyptian trade unions, was last seen by his friends on Jan. 25. His body, showing signs of torture, was found in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of Cairo on Feb. 3. Amid accusations from rights groups that Egyptian security services appeared responsible for the 28-year-old Regeni's death, Italy complained that Egyptian authorities were not cooperating to find the perpetrators. In April, Rome withdrew its ambassador to Cairo for consultations.” Middle East The Times Of Israel: PA Forces Raided Home Of Palestinian Cop Before Attack, Father Says “Palestinian security Monday night raided the family home of a Palestinian police officer hours before he opened fire on IDF soldiers in the West Bank, according to testimony from the attacker’s father. Muhammad Turkman, 25, wounded three soldiers with an AK-47 assault rifle on Tuesday at the Focus checkpoint, near Ramallah. One soldier was seriously hurt in the attack — his condition was later upgraded to ‘moderate’ — while two others sustained light injuries from shrapnel, according to medical authorities. Hours earlier, security forces burst into his family’s home in the West Bank village of Qabatiya, near Jenin, and confiscated weapons, Turkman’s parents told the Palestinian news site Quds Net on Tuesday.” The Jerusalem Post: Special Report: Israel Unprepared For 'Dramatic Uptick' In Cyber Threats “Israel is woefully unprepared for the ‘dramatic uptick’ in cyber threats confronting it, according to State Comptroller Joseph Shapira. In a report released on Tuesday, Shapira explained that more and more of the country relies on electronic platforms, which are vulnerable to cyber attacks. He referred to the recent worldwide massive cyber hacks, and possibly to the cyber hacking interference in the US presidential election, to show the increasing volume and sophistication of the attacks. The comptroller said that other than certain critical infrastructure sectors, which are well-protected, much of the country is still heavily exposed to cyber attacks.” The Washington Post: The Military Trial That’s Tearing Israel Apart “One of the most divisive trials in Israeli history is taking place in a cramped military courtroom in a peeling mansion in the poor Arab section of Jaffa. It is the trial of a teenage Israeli sergeant, but in many ways it is about the soul of the Israeli army and the young men and women the Jewish state sends to protect its citizens and enforce its almost 50-year military occupation. On trial for manslaughter before a military tribunal is a pint-size recruit who sits in the courtroom beside his mother, who wraps her arms around his shoulders and sometimes cries. Such a public trial of a soldier charged in the killing of a Palestinian is almost unprecedented here. The last witnesses appeared this week.” Nigeria PBS Newshour: Women Fleeing Boko Haram Abused By Forces Meant To Protect Them, Report Finds “The Nigerian president has ordered police and state leaders to investigate claims that government officials and soldiers raped refugees fleeing the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. President Muhammadu Buhari called the allegations, detailed in a Human Rights Watch report released Monday, ‘distressing’ and said they would ‘not be taken lightly.’ ‘We will protect the lives and well-being of these most vulnerable of Nigeria’s citizens. And we will ensure they return safely to their homes,’ Buhari tweeted. The Human Rights Watch report documented stories from 43 women and girls in seven Nigerian camps who said they were were raped or sexually exploited by the guards and officials assigned to protect them.” Associated Press: 9 Killed In Car Bomb Blast At Checkpoint In Northern Nigeria “A car bomb targeting a military checkpoint on a road leading to Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri exploded Tuesday, killing all nine people in the vehicle, police and witnesses said. Those killed were the driver and passengers in the explosives-laden minivan, said police deputy superintendent Victor Isuku, blaming Boko Haram Islamic extremists. Army spokesman Col. Sani Kukesheka Usman put the number of dead at eight. He said the attackers wore ‘suicide vests’ in addition to the car bomb. Bus driver Garba Saje was driving behind the vehicle. ‘Suddenly, a loud bang sounded and all I could see was smoke,’ he said. ‘My legs are still shaking because I am in shock over the increased bombing attacks.’” United Kingdom NBC News: U.K. Police Warn About Flood Of Guns From Eastern Europe “Terrorists have tried to acquire guns from criminal gangs to carry out Paris-style atrocities in Britain, authorities warned Monday. A flow of illegal weapons through Eastern Europe has led to a record level of gun seizures in London and prompted concerns that extremists could arms themselves for a devastating coordinated attack. The terror threat level in Britain is officially set at ‘severe,’ meaning that an attack is considered highly likely. Officials say a dozen attack plots have been thwarted since 2013. Temporary barriers, surveillance cameras on all Tube subway trains and greater use of cellphone alerts were among the security measures recommended for London in a major report submitted Friday to the city's mayor. Lynne Owens, director general of Britain's National Crime Agency, said Monday that while automatic weapons remained hard to find in Britain, there had been increases in the availability of Baikal pistols and converted weapons from eastern Europe.” Germany Daily Mail: Angela Merkel Under More Pressure Over Refugee Policy As It Is Revealed Migrants Committed 142,500 Crimes In Germany During The First Six Months Of 2016 “Migrants in Germany have committed 142,500 crimes in just six months, police figures have revealed. This was the equivalent of 780 crimes a day - an increase of nearly 40 percent over 2015, according to data from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office It comes as German chancellor Angela Merkel remains under pressure over her open-door policy on immigration amid concerns over how to integrate 900,000 newcomers who arrived last year. A separate report from late last year by the Federal Criminal Office found that migrants registered as living in Germany committed more than 200,000 crimes over the whole of 2015 with two-thirds involving theft counterfeiting and financial crimes.  According to the Gatestone Institute, an international policy council, police in some parts of the country fear they are being stretched to the limit amid climbing crime figures.” France BBC: Calais Migrants: France's Hollande Vows No Return To Camp “No-one will be allowed back in the dismantled ‘Jungle’ camp at Calais, now that it has been cleared of thousands of migrants and refugees, says French President Francois Hollande. The final shelters were destroyed on Monday, after an operation to move some 7,000 people to centres elsewhere in France. Mr Hollande praised the operation as ‘dignified but firm and efficient’. Some 1,500 unaccompanied minors were staying at a temporary centre, he said. But they would be taken to dedicated reception centres, where their cases could be investigated individually by UK officials, he told French newspaper La Voix du Nord. Reports said they and another 300 women and children staying at another migrant reception centre in Calais would leave the town on Wednesday morning.” BBC: Halloween 'Jihadist' Arrested In Toulouse, France “Police in south-western France have arrested a man for celebrating Halloween by brandishing a fake rifle in the centre of Toulouse. Eyewitnesses told police that the 26-year-old roamed the streets dressed in black and khaki, and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ – ‘God is great’ in Arabic. When tackled by police, the man appeared not to understand what the problem was, local media say. ‘You can do anything on Halloween,’ he allegedly told officers. Despite the man's insistence that he had no ‘bad intentions’, he was held in custody for an extended period for threats with a firearm and glorifying terrorism, La Depeche newspaper reported.” RT: French Army Releases Night Video Of Its Artillery Pounding ISIS Positions In Iraq “The French Army has released a video of its howitzers firing on Islamic State positions in Iraq. Artillery is part of a taskforce backing Iraqi troops in their advance against the jihadists. The night footage posted on the official YouTube channel of the French Armed Forces shows Caesar howitzers as they ‘support Iraqi forces,’ a description says. Caesar is a French self-propelled 155mm artillery system installed on a 6X6 or a 10 chassis truck. In early September, France deployed over a hundred soldiers as part of its Wagram Task force to Iraq. The group is compiled out of various units including four Caesar artillery systems. The contingent is now engaged in aiding local forces in re-taking Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), AFP reports.” Technology The Guardian: Bomb-Detecting Spinach – The New Weapon Against Terrorist Plots “Name: Bomb-detecting spinach. Age: The cutting edge of military technology. Appearance: It looks like spinach. Hey, this sounds like an Eddie Izzard routine. Well, it isn’t. It’s the endpoint of an extensive biotechnology project at MIT that could potentially alter the course of the war on terror. Are you sure? What’s next, bees with machine guns? No, this involves research published in the respected science journal Nature Materials, detailing mankind’s quest to harness biological material as an enhanced environmental monitor, and there is no place for your tired whimsy here.” Terrorist Financing Veto: Former Jihadist Leader: Iran Is Financing Terrorist Groups “Former jihadist leader, Awad al-Hattab, asserted that those calling themselves "Islamist groups" have kept silent with regard to the missile launched towards Mecca and Al-Haram al-Sharif by the Houthi militias. He stressed that these groups did not issue any comment, fearing that Iran will cut off funding for them. Al-Hattab stated: "Most Islamist groups, even those calling themselves 'jihadist', obtain regular funding from Iran under various pretexts." He noted that "those {individuals} who are calling for jihad, either from the Egyptian Islamic Group or the Jihad Organization, have taken refuge in Iran and currently live there and receive {Iranian} financing. In addition, the {Muslim} Brotherhood group maintains close ties with Iran, as was indicated by the former leader and spokesman of the international organization Kamal Habib.” Muslim Brotherhood Veto: Jordan: Headquarters Of Unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood Group Seized “Jordanian authorities have started to strip the unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood group of its headquarters and transfer their offices to the authorized Muslim Brotherhood Association. The latter, led by Abdul Majid Dhneibat, the Muslim Brotherhood's Controller General, was formed at the beginning of this year. The evacuation of the offices began Sunday in the southern city of Aqaba. The same measure will be put into effect in the rest of the Kingdom's provinces. Sources said that the unlicensed group refused to vacate its headquarters and hand over the keys to security agents. This led security officers to break the locks, enter the offices and hand them over to the licensed group. The offices are now under the protection of security forces. A legal dispute exists between the licensed association and the unlicensed group surrounding ownership of real estate properties registered under the "Brotherhood" name. The dispute is over 12 real estate properties owned by the Brotherhood in the kingdom. Note that the new association of the Muslim Brotherhood holds an official license from the government of Jordan, which allows it to {exclusively} represent the Brotherhood in the kingdom. It also gives it the ownership rights to offices belonging to the Brotherhood.” Elbalad: Sudan Takes Strict Measures Against Muslim Brotherhood Members Accused Of Financing Terrorism “Sources within the Muslim Brotherhood disclosed that the Sudanese authorities have started taking strict measures against the organization's members residing in its territory. This comes after Egypt provided information indicating the involvement of many of them in acts of violence and the issuance of court rulings against some of them. This is in addition to their involvement in the financing of terrorist operations in Egypt. The sources added that some {Brotherhood} youth have relocated to Khartoum while others have moved to other Sudanese provinces to escape security forces until the situation calms down and the ongoing investigation campaign comes to a slowdown.” Egypt 24: Egypt: Postponement Of Hearing To Review Appeal By Player Abu Treika On Refusal To Cancel Seizure Of His Property “The First Circuit in {Egypt's} Court of Administrative, on Tuesday, postponed the review of an appeal submitted by ex-soccer player Mohammed Abu Treika. He demanded obliging the Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee to implement a {previous} ruling by Administrative Court which cancels the decision to seize his assets. The next session has been set for November 22nd. The postponement stems from the requirement to inform the adviser of the State Lawsuits Authority regarding the appeal. Mohammed Othman, Abu Treika's lawyer, stressed in a press statement that the Brotherhood Asset Committee has refrained from implementing the ruling under the pretext of preparing an appeal to the Urgent Matters Court. This appeal is designed to stop the execution of the ruling by State Council, which the Committee claims contradicts the law. The appeal by the Muslim Brotherhood Asset Committee urges the court to oblige it to continue the implementation of its decision and "{show} respect for the provisions of the Constitution.” Houthi Abarah Press: Houthis Arrest Safer Company Director Amid Financial Dispute “The Houthi authorities on Monday evening detained the acting director of Safer Oil Company, following a financial dispute, according to press reports. It was reported that Faisal al-Jabri, nicknamed "Abu Nayef", the so-called "Chief of Popular Committees in Safer Company," escorted by a few of his bodyguards on Monday evening, arrested Engineer Amin Zubara. The Houthi gunmen prevented him from leaving his company's building. He was held after refusing to hand over 10 million riyals (about $40,000) to the Houthi official.”