Eye on Extremism - November 25, 2016

Eye on Extremism November 25, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Newsweek: ISIS Expands Into The Sahel, Africa's Migration Hub “Standing in front of tens of fighters clad in headscarves and sunglasses and carrying AK-47s in an unknown location, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi reads in Arabic from a scrap of paper in a video posted online in late October. After more than a minute of Sahrawi talking, the video cuts to a shot of multiple gloved hands held in the middle of a circle in a gesture of solidarity. The speaker recites a pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), who is described in Arabic as “Commander of the Faithful” and the “Caliph of the Muslims.” Sahrawi has been a major player in the region’s recent violent history. He was born in Algeria according to jihadi policy group the Counter Extremism Project, though his surname suggests ties to Western Sahara —a contested region inhabited by the Sahrawi people, which is at the center of a wrangle between Morocco and the indigenous, Algerian-backed Polisario Front.” The New York Times: American Is Killed In First Casualty For U.S. Forces In Syria Combat “The United States military suffered its first combat death in Syria on Thursday when a service member was killed in the northern part of the country, an area where the Americans are helping to organize an offensive against the Islamic State. American warplanes have been bombing targets inside Syria to help tens of thousands of militia fighters try to oust the Islamic State from Raqqa, the group’s stronghold in the country. American forces are on the ground as well. More than 300 members of the United States Special Operations Forces are in Syria to help recruit, train and advise the Kurdish and Arab fighters who are trying to encircle the Islamic State in Raqqa, cut off its supplies and ultimately retake the city.” The Wall Street Journal: Iraq Commanders Weigh Tactical Shift in Mosul “Ahead of the battle to oust Islamic State from its Mosul stronghold, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sent a message to residents: Stay in your homes. Now, more than a month into the battle, Iraq’s top military commanders are lobbying Mr. Abadi to shift tactics, officials said, as the initial lightning advance toward Iraq’s second biggest city turns into a perilous urban slog, with gains measured in feet rather than miles. Commanders want the government to encourage residents of Mosul to flee through the handful of neighborhoods the military has already secured, they said, and thereby free the military to use heavy artillery and air power that could cause widespread harm in densely populated neighborhoods.” CNN: Iraq Bomb Kills At Least 80, Mostly Iranian Shi'ite Pilgrims; ISIS Claims Responsibility “At least 80 people were killed Thursday when a truck bomb exploded at a gas station in Iraq, the U.S. State Department said. Most of the victims were Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims, according to authorities in Iraq. ISIS, a Sunni terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online. ‘The flames of battles in Mosul will reach them in Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf,’ the ISIS statement reads. It also said Iranians were among those killed. The blast happened on a highway southeast of Baghdad between Babel and Al-Qadisiyyah, said Falah al Radhi, the head of the Babel security council.” Washington Post: ISIS: A Catastrophe For Sunnis “The Islamic State is being crushed, its fighters are in retreat and the caliphate it sought to build in the image of a bygone glory is crumbling. The biggest losers, however, are not the militants, who will fulfill their dreams of death or slink into the desert to regroup, but the millions of ordinary Sunnis whose lives have been ravaged by their murderous rampage. No religious or ethnic group was left unscathed by the Islamic State’s sweep through Iraq and Syria. Shiites, Kurds, Christians and the tiny Yazidi minority have all been victims of horrific atrocities, and they now are fighting and dying in the battles to defeat the militants.” Reuters: Australian IS Recruiter, Believed Killed In Iraq In April, 'Under Arrest': Media “An Australian citizen believed to be a top recruiter for Islamic State is under arrest, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing an unnamed U.S. military official, months after Australia said he had been killed in a U.S. air strike. Australia said in May that Neil Prakash, who was linked to several Australia-based attack plans, was killed in an air strike in Mosul, Iraq, on April 29. The New York Times said Prakash was wounded in the attack and arrested by a Middle East government ‘in the last few weeks’. The Australian Broadcasting Corp, citing Turkish and Australian officials, said he was arrested in Turkey.” Reuters: Turkey To Retaliate After Suspected Syrian Air Strike Kills Soldiers “Turkey said it would retaliate after three of its soldiers were killed in what the military said was a suspected Syrian air strike, the first such deaths at the hands of Syrian government forces since Ankara launched a cross-border incursion in August. The attack occurred at around 3:30 am on Thursday during a Turkish-backed Syrian rebel operation in northern Syria, the Turkish military said in a statement. It said 10 other soldiers were wounded in the air strike that it ‘assessed to have been carried out by Syrian regime forces’. It gave no details on the exact location. Seven more Turkish soldiers were wounded in a second attack in Syria later on Thursday and were evacuated to the Turkish border town of Kilis for medical treatment, the privately-owned Dogan news agency said. It was not clear who was responsible.” Haaretz: Israel Fires Spark War Of Words Between Arab, Jewish Lawmakers “As fires raged across parts of Israel for a third consecutive day, the blaze was quick to spread to the political sphere on Thursday. While some Jewish politicians were quick to label the fires acts of terrorism, criticizing Israel's Arab population, others called not to taint entire communities. Alluding to Israel's Arab community, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the hard-right Habayit Hayhudi party, wrote on Facebook that ‘only those who that doesn’t belong to is capable of burning it.’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Thursday said that ‘every fire that was the result of arson or incitement to arson is terror in every way and we’ll treat it as such,’ adding that ‘anyone who tries to burn parts of the State of Israel will be severely punished.” The New York Times: One by One, ISIS Social Media Experts Are Killed as Result of F.B.I. Program “American military, intelligence and law enforcement officials acknowledge that the Islamic State still retains a sophisticated social media arm that could still inspire attacks like those in San Bernardino, Calif., and in Orlando, Fla., and remains a potent foe suspected of maintaining clandestine cells in Europe. Initially the threat posed by the Legion was primarily seen as a problem for law enforcement officials. But as the threat worsened last year, and the F.B.I. stepped up the monitoring of terrorism suspects around the country, the bureau pressed the military to focus on the group, according to current and former American officials. While American and British forces conducted a series of drone strikes on members of the group, the F.B.I. sifted through thousands of the Legion’s followers on social media to figure out who had actually been inspired to take action. In the last two years, it has arrested nearly 100 people in cases involving the terrorist group.” Washington Post: Ohio College Student Who Plotted To Kill Military Employee, Police Officers For ISIS Is Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison “An Ohio college student who pleaded guilty to plotting an Islamic State-guided attack on a U.S. military employee and a police station was sentenced to two decades in prison, authorities said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors said Munir Abdulkader, 22, was directed to carry out an attack in the Cincinnati area by Junaid Hussain, a well-known figure in the Islamic State. According to the details outlined in court documents, Abdulkader had planned to record the military member’s death before attacking the police station. Hussain, also known as Abu Hussain al-Britani, was a hacker as well as a recruiter for the extremist group, and he was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria in August 2015. The Justice Department said that Abdulkader had communicated with Hussain months before the drone strike.” Reuters: Thwarted French Attack Was Slated For December 1 At Key Paris Sites “Suspects arrested last weekend in France under anti-terrorism measures had been planning to launch attacks on Dec. 1 at important and landmark sites in and around Paris, according to a source close to the inquiry. Police sources said that among the targets were France's counter-intelligence services hub in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, the grandiose police crime-investigation headquarters at the Quai des Orfevres, and the riverside high court building nearby. Also targeted by the would-be attackers were the Disneyland Paris theme park 32 kilometers (20 miles) east of the city and the Champs Elysees shopping strip.” CNN: U2 'Dragonlady' Pilots Spy On ISIS From The Edge Of Space “Getting dressed for a combat mission in a U2 ‘Dragonlady’ reconnaissance plane looks almost like the preparations for a space flight, the pilot in a yellow compression suit wearing a massive white helmet. The suits need to be cooled the entire time, otherwise the pilots would die of heat exhaustion in a matter of minutes, but they are necessary to protect the crew members as they fly surveillance missions over Iraq and Syria at more than 70,000 feet scoping out ISIS targets. The US Air Force gave CNN rare access to U2 crews flying out of a secret location in the Middle East. We can only identify the pilots by their rank, first name and their call sign.” International Business Times: Taliban Want 'Non-Military' Solution To Afghan Problem, Says Negotiator “The Taliban are reportedly looking for a ‘non-military’ solution to the Afghan problem, even as talks between them and Afghanistan show signs of resumption. The Taliban, whose top leadership may be in Pakistan and which may have had and still has Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) support, is currently conducting internal discussions on issues that are to be put forward when bilateral talks resume. There have been several incidents of violence linked to the Taliban — and often fatal — in Afghanistan ever since the Pakistan-brokered truce between the country and the Taliban broke down in May following the death of the extremist group's leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in May this year. This, among other things, has led to the Taliban being classified as one of the deadliest terror groups in the world, according to the Global Terrorism Index.” Reuters: EU Lawmakers Back Data-Sharing Deal On Security, Terrorism With U.S. “European Parliament lawmakers backed a data-sharing deal on Thursday with the United States for security and terrorism investigations which aims to safeguard data exchanged between national authorities. The deal follows allegations of mass U.S. spying in 2013 which strained trans-Atlantic relations and triggered privacy concerns over what enforcement agencies plan to do with the huge amount of data they amass. The green light from the parliament's committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs is expected to be followed by approval from the entire Parliament on Dec. 1. Justice and home affairs ministers in the 28 EU countries will approve the deal in the coming weeks, the final step before it comes into effect.” Syria Reuters: Aleppo Rebels Agree Aid Plan, Russia, Syria Yet To Approve: U.N. “Syrian rebels in besieged east Aleppo have agreed to a U.N. plan for aid delivery and medical evacuations, but the United Nations is awaiting a green light from Russia and the Syrian government, humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said on Thursday. With freezing winter conditions setting in, about 275,000 people are trapped in east Aleppo, where the last U.N. food rations were distributed on Nov. 13. Hundreds of trucks are ready in Turkey and government-controlled west Aleppo to bring food and medicines to the eastern sector, but the United Nations needs 72 hours once it has all approvals to prepare a ‘big, complex and dangerous operation’, Egeland said.” The Hill: Russia Tells U.S. To Get Out Of The Way In Syria “If the U.S. won't fight terrorists in Syria, it should stop getting in the way, said Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. Konashenkov was responding to the U.S. State Department's calls to other countries to deny port access to Russian oil tankers heading to Syria. ‘If Washington cannot or does not want to fight terrorists, it should not get in the way,’ Konashenkov said, according to sputniknews.com. Konashenkov said the position of the U.S. represents an attempt to hamper Russia's effort to ‘fight international terrorism in Syria’ and to ‘conceal the failures of the U.S. policy’ in the war-torn country. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday to the New York Times that countries in the region should not help Russian tanker ships carrying fuel to be used in airstrikes on civilians.” Reuters: U.N. Envoy Sees Continued U.S. Work To End Syria War “The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria on Thursday said U.S. President Barack Obama could well keep working until his last day in office to end the war in Syria, and Russia did not want to be held responsible for the demolition of eastern Aleppo. ‘I would never underestimate an outgoing U.S. president as a lame duck,’ Staffan de Mistura said in an interview published on Friday in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. ‘President Obama .... and Secretary of State John Kerry are very motivated to end the greatest humanitarian tragedy of this century that has played out during their time in office. It's about their legacy,’ de Mistura said. De Mistura on Tuesday had expressed concern that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could launch a ‘brutal’ new offensive to crush rebel-held eastern Aleppo before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.” Turkey Associated Press: Suspect In Turkey Car-Bombing Reported Dead After Shootout “A car bomb attack targeting a government building in southern Turkey killed at least two people and wounded 33 others Thursday, senior cabinet officials said. A suspect was later reported dead after a shootout with security forces. Minister of European Union Affairs Omer Celik said police opened fire on a light utility vehicle believed to be carrying the person responsible for the attack in the city of Adana when the driver refused to stop. ‘Ultimately, those who committed this heinous act will not get away with it,’ Celik said. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported Thursday night that police removed the suspect's body from the vehicle before dispatching a remote-controlled bomb disposal robot to defuse explosives still on board the vehicle.” Fox News: Turkey's Push For Syrian Town Complicates Anti-IS Fight “Turkey is pushing to capture the town of al-Bab, the last major Islamic State group stronghold in northern Syria. But are others welcoming the new advance in the war against the militants? Not quite. By seizing the city, Turkey would plant its firmest foothold yet in Syria. That is already causing frictions with other players in the country's war. Syrian President Bashar Assad's government opposes the Turkish incursion. His military's air defenses have threatened Turkish warplanes, and on Thursday, three Turkish troops were killed outside al-Bab in what the Turkish military said was a Syrian airstrike.” Afghanistan The Wall Street Journal: Watch Out For Terror’s First Incubators “The Nov. 12 suicide bombing at a NATO air base outside Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed four Americans, should remind President-elect Donald Trump of the need for a decisive victory in Afghanistan against jihadist extremism. Although Afghanistan was barely mentioned during the recent campaign, it is where the 9/11 attacks were planned and where the U.S. first went to war to eliminate global terrorism waged in the name of Islam. While Islamic State in the Middle East constitutes a compelling threat, Afghanistan, with Pakistan, remains the world’s most-active incubator of terrorism. It is also where the next administration must learn from the errors of the past.” Yemen Reuters: At Least Eight Security Forces Members Killed In Egypt's Sinai “At least eight members of Egypt's security forces were killed on Thursday in an attack on a checkpoint in the northern Sinai, a military spokesman said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The statement said the military killed three of the assailants. An Islamist insurgency in the rugged, thinly populated Sinai Peninsula has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule. There have been conflicting reports on what happened. The statement said that a car bomb and an explosive device lead to the death of eight military personal.” Reuters: Yemen's War-Damaged Hodeidah Port Struggles To Bring In Vital Supplies “With its dockside machinery destroyed in an air strike at the beginning of Yemen's 20-month-old war, the major Red Sea port of Hodeidah is struggling to unload food and fuel needed ever more urgently by a population riven with hunger and disease. Controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, Hodeidah was the entry point for what port officials say was 70 percent of the Yemen's food imports as well as humanitarian aid. Food deliveries have been cut by more than half, they say. Before the war, which has killed 10,000 people and displaced three million, the port bustled with workers, sailors and shipping agents trying to ensure smooth delivery of vital supplies to the impoverished country's 26 million people. Last week, dozens of workers gathered outside the office of the chairman of the port shouting to be allowed in to ask for work or financial support.” Egypt Associated Press: Egypt Bars TV Host From Travel After Airing Of Criticism “An Egyptian TV host who ran a video last month showing a tuk-tuk driver lamenting the country's economic woes has been barred from traveling, he said Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest move by authorities to curb freedoms. Airport officials stopped TV presenter Amr Ellissy from travelling to the United Arab Emirates without providing an explanation, he said, adding that he was ‘surprised,’ and would be appealing the move through legal channels. Ellissy is not seen as an opposition figure, but last month he interviewed a tuk-tuk driver who complained about shortages, and accused the government of lavishing funds on state functions while letting the poor suffer. The three-minute video was shared widely on the internet. Ellissy's network, Al-Hayat TV, later pulled the video from its websites.” BBC: Sinai Checkpoint Car Bomb Kills Eight Egyptian Soldiers “Eight Egyptian soldiers have been killed in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in the country's North Sinai region, an army spokesperson said. Three attackers were killed, and the remainder fled after the Thursday evening assault, he said. At least another 12 troops were injured in the ambush. Egypt has been fighting Islamic militants in the region for several years, but no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. An earlier report from Reuters news agency, citing security sources, said assailants fired two rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint near the city of El-Arish, before masked men opened fire. That report said three policemen had been killed. It is not yet clear if the conflicting reports refer to the same attack, or separate incidents.” Libya The Economist: A Western-Backed Deal To Salvage Libya Is Falling Apart “When Fayez al-Serraj returned to Libya in March the situation looked unusually hopeful. For two years, rival governments in the east and west of the country had fought over a disputed election. In December representatives from both sides of the country (but not their leaders) agreed to a UN-backed peace proposal. Powerful players in the war withheld their support, but they could be brought in later, said advocates. The deal, known as the Skhirat agreement after the Moroccan town in which it was signed, empowered Mr Serraj (pictured), then a relatively unknown politician, to form a government of national accord (GNA). His smooth arrival in Tripoli, the capital, in March seemed to herald a brighter future. It has not turned out that way. The new government, though ostensibly backed by some powerful militias, has failed to gain broad support.” Reuters: Libyan Forces Edge Forward Against Islamic State Holdouts In Sirte “Libyan forces resumed their advance on Thursday against Islamic State militants holding out in a few streets in their former stronghold of Sirte, saying they had captured 25 houses and a stash of arms. Backed by U.S. air strikes, the Libyan brigades have reduced the area held by the jihadists to a small patch of land near Sirte's Mediterranean seafront after a campaign of more than six months. Lately, they say, they have been advancing with more caution in the Ghiza Bahriya district to limit casualties among their own fighters and among any hostages and families still held there. Several groups of civilians have either escaped or been released in Sirte in recent weeks, including migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who were captured by Islamic State as they tried to make their way toward Europe.” Nigeria International Business Times: Cameroon Reopens Border Markets With Nigeria As Boko Haram Attacks Decrease “Cameroon has reopened its border with Nigeria and relaunched business activities with the neighbouring nation. The border was closed three years ago, as security deteriorated due to attacks carried out by Boko Haram terrorists. In January 2016, Cameroon closed most of its markets along the border with north-eastern Nigeria following the attacks. Although some argued it would undermine people's businesses, the authorities said the decision was made for security reasons. Attackers often disguised themselves as traders and detonated explosives in crowded places such as markets. Boko Haram has been carrying out attacks in northeastern Nigeria and neighbouring countries since 2009.” Germany International Business Times: What Is Happening To Migrants In Germany? Court Okays Second-Tier Asylum For Syrian Refugees “A German court said Wednesday authorities were allowed to grant Syrian asylum-seekers a version of protection that falls shy of full asylum. The court ruled that if the person was likely to face political persecution, arrest or torture upon returning to war-torn Syria, full asylum would be granted. The Higher Administrative Court in northern Germany’s Schleswig region confirmed the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) practice of issuing second-tier asylum for refugees coming from Syria. This decision goes against several rulings made by lower courts, which usually rule in favor of refugees.” France Voice Of America: French Police Seek Suspect After Attack On Retirement Home “Police in southern France were looking Thursday for an armed man who killed a woman at a retirement home for missionaries. The man was wearing a mask and carrying a sawed-off shotgun when he burst into the home in Montferrier-sur-Lez, near Montpellier, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa. News reports said about 60 residents were brought out to safety as police continued to search for the suspect. There were no indications that this was an act of terrorism. France is on heightened alert and has been under a state of emergency since a wave of Islamist attacks last year.” Europe BBC: Brussels And Paris Terror Suspect 'Was Given £3,000 In UK Park' “A suspect in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks was handed £3,000 during a secret meeting in Birmingham months before the killings, a jury has heard. Mohamed Abrini - the so-called ‘man in the hat’ - came to the UK in July 2015 and was given the money in a park, Kingston Crown Court heard. Zakaria Boufassil, 26, who is accused of handing over the cash, denies preparing for acts of terrorism. A second man, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, has pleaded guilty to the same offence. Abrini became known as ‘the man in the hat’ following his suspected involvement in the Brussels terror attack in March this year, which killed 32 people at an airport and metro station, the jury heard. Prosecuting, Max Hill QC told the court Abrini is also suspected of being connected to attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, which killed 130 people.” The Guardian: Far-Right Terrorism Threat Growing, Says Top Police Officer “A top counter-terrorism officer has said police fear the threat of far-right violence is growing and poses a similar danger to communities as other forms of extremism. The senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu, said: ‘Over the past 12 months, there have been indications that the threat from [the] extreme right wing could be increasing and we are alive to this.’ Basu said referrals to the anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent linked to the far right had increased over the last year. ‘Currently just under 10% of all Prevent referrals relate to the extreme right wing, and we have put programmes in place to support those at risk of being radicalised,’ he said.” The Wall Street Journal: European Parliament Calls For Suspension Of Talks On Turkey Joining The EU “The European Parliament overwhelmingly called for a temporary freeze in talks on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union on Thursday, citing what it said were deteriorating human rights and democratic standards under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’s rule. Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik swiftly slammed the nonbinding vote as politically motivated, criticizing the lawmakers as succumbing to xenophobia and failing to grasp the threats facing his country following a failed coup targeting Mr. Erdogan’s government. ‘We consider this resolution null and void,’ Mr. Celik said, though he tried to assuage concerns that the resolution signaled a break with the bloc. ‘This decision does not point to a crisis in Turkey-EU relations.’” BBC: Migrant Crisis: Riot In Bulgaria's Largest Refugee Centre “Some 1,500 migrants have clashed with police in Bulgaria's largest refugee centre, two days after the facility was sealed off following reports of an alleged infection outbreak. Officials said the claims were false. The Harmanli centre is home to 3,000 people, mostly Afghan refugees. Protesters threw stones at riot police, who used water cannon to disperse them. Some 13,000 migrants are still stranded in Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country. In an attempt to prevent illegal crossings, the country built a fence on its border with Turkey and reinforced its border controls.”