Eye on Extremism November 30, 2016

Eye on Extremism November 30, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Fox News: CEP Spokesperson Tara Maller Discusses The Attack Monday At The Ohio State University That Wounded 11 People And What Is Known About The Perpetrator With Host Shepard Smith. News.com.au/Associated Press: Ohio State University Attack: ‘I’m Tired Of My Fellow Muslims Being Killed’ “Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack calling Abdul Razak Ali Artan a ‘soldier of the Islamic State’ in a post by its Amaq News Agency. However the group regularly refers to people who carry out such attacks as soldiers and it remained unclear whether Artan had direct contact with IS, the BBC reported. The Counter Extremism Project said the attack appeared to inspired in part by the ideology of the late al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Despite his death, the CEP warned Awlaki continues to influence beyond the grave while his ‘most violence-inspiring lectures continue to be readily available online’. ‘CEP has repeatedly called on internet and social media companies to remove Awlaki content. It is time for these companies to stop enabling Awlaki’s violent recruitment propaganda.’” New York Times: Another Mass Grave Dug By ISIS In Iraq, And A Ghastly Ritual Renewed “The battle was over in Hamam al-Alil, Iraq, an old spa resort town that the country’s security forces had wrested from the Islamic State a few days ago, but one Iraqi soldier was still on a very personal mission. The soldier, Zaman Mijwal, was looking for his older brother, Munther, a former policeman he described as “a quiet man, a poor man,” who lived in a nearby village but hadn’t been heard from in weeks. Mr. Mijwal’s circuit had taken him to a stretch of road flanked by two dirt fields. He pointed to one side, where decaying, headless corpses were lying in heaps of trash on a barren plot of land that had once been a shooting range for the Iraqi Army.” The New York Times: Thousands Flee Parts Of Aleppo, Syria, As Assad’s Forces Gain Ground “The ferocious ground assault and aerial bombardment in eastern Aleppo has forced some 16,000 people to flee for their lives in the last few days, according to Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. ‘The parties to the conflict have shown time and again they are willing to take any action to secure military advantage even if it means killing, maiming or starving civilians into submission in the process,’ Mr. O’Brien warned on Tuesday, calling the siege of the city a ‘deeply alarming and chilling situation.’ On Monday, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured about a third of the territory in Aleppo that had been held by rebels.” The Washington Post: 20-Year-Old Says He Planned ISIS Terror Attacks In Virginia, North Carolina “Justin Sullivan plotted to kill hundreds of people in North Carolina and Virginia on behalf of the Islamic State and wanted a silencer for a gun. So he had one built from a flashlight and delivered to the Morganton, N.C., house he shared with his parents. When his parents asked what he planned to do with it, he tried to have them killed. The person he offered to pay to kill his parents and who sent him the silencer was an undercover FBI employee. Sullivan, 20, admitted his plot on Tuesday, pleading guilty in federal court in North Carolina to attempting to commit acts of terrorism. According to court documents, Sullivan began watching videos of Islamic State beheadings and other atrocities on his laptop in September 2014.” The Washington Post: Many Islamic State Recruits Who Have Returned To Europe Remain Committed To Militant Ideology, Report Says “Earlier this year, the case of Harry Sarfo made headlines around the world. The former Islamic State militant from Germany had returned to Europe, where he was arrested and started to collaborate with the authorities. He also gave interviews to numerous media outlets in which he portrayed himself as an innocent bystander. A Washington Post investigation, however, later found that Sarfo was much more involved in executions than he wanted to make the public and investigators believe. The revelations underlined questions about whether returnees can be trusted as informants on other militants, for instance.” Reuters: Formation Of New Houthi Government Does Not Help Yemen: U.N. Envoy “The formation of a new government by Yemen's armed Houthi movement and its political allies will hinder peace efforts in the country, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen said on Tuesday. The move, reported by the Houthi-run state news agency on Monday, has been seen as a blow to U.N.-backed efforts to end 20 months of war in Yemen. ‘The announcement by (the Houthi) Ansar Allah and the General People’s Congress on the formation of a new government in Sana’a represents a new and concerning obstacle to the peace process and does not serve the interests of the people of Yemen in these difficult times,’ Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.” Times Of Israel: Report: Israel Hits Syrian Military, Hezbollah Weapons Convoy “Israel struck a Syrian military target and a Hezbollah weapons convoy early Wednesday, Arabic-language media reported Wednesday morning. Israeli warplanes were said to have struck the military target in the Syrian capital of Damascus, while the raid on the weapons convoy occurred on the Damascus-Beirut highway, according to the reports. As with past claims of Israeli strikes, Israel did not immediately confirm or deny news of the purported attacks. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, a number of airstrikes in Syria or close to the border with Lebanon have been attributed to Israel.” The Telegraph: German Intelligence  Officer 'Arrested Over Islamist Plot' Raising Fears The Spy Agency Has Been Infiltrated “German intelligence officer has reportedly been arrested over a suspected Islamist plot to bomb the agency's headquarters in Cologne. The 51-year-old official was said to have made a "partial confession" to the plot, according to Der Spiegel. The suspect attempted to pass on "sensitive information about the BfV (Germany's domestic security agency), which could lead to a threat to the office", an official told the newspaper.” United States The New York Times: ‘Unintentional’ Human Error Led To Airstrikes On Syrian Troops, Pentagon Says “The Pentagon on Tuesday blamed ‘unintentional’ human mistakes for the American-led airstrikes in September that killed dozens of Syrian government troops. The attacks were conducted under the ‘good-faith belief’ that the targets were Islamic State militants, according to the official inquiry. The investigation, led by an Air Force general, concluded that the strikes did not violate the law of armed conflict or the rules for the American military. Danish, British and Australian forces also participated in the strikes. ‘In my opinion, these were a number of people all doing their best to do a good job,’ said Brig. Gen. Richard A. Coe, the officer who led the investigation.” Reuters: Pentagon Warns Against Impact Of Extending Temporary U.S. Funding Bill “U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter voiced opposition to extending a temporary government funding bill well into next year, saying it would negatively impact the military, including in the fight against Islamic State. Washington has been operating since Oct. 1 under a stopgap spending bill, known as a ‘continuing resolution,’ to keep most federal programs running. It expires on Dec. 9. House and Senate leaders are negotiating the end date for a new temporary funding bill. ‘The most problematic shortfalls DoD (Department of Defense) will face in a long-term CR (continuing resolution) are in the operations and munitions accounts that fund counterterrorism operations and assistance in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, among other priorities,’ Carter wrote in the letter to top Congressional leaders.” The Wall Street Journal: Police Probe Ohio State Attack As Possible Terrorism “Officials are investigating the vehicle-and-knife attack that left 11 injured at Ohio State University Monday as a possible act of terror, according to people familiar with the case. The suspect, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was killed by an Ohio State police officer on Monday soon after he allegedly jumped a curb in his car, rammed a group of pedestrians and then stabbed a number of individuals with a butcher knife in Columbus. He was an OSU student and legal U.S. resident from Somalia, according to people familiar with the investigation. A Facebook post by the suspect suggested he was angry over what he perceived as mistreatment of Muslims, but didn’t express loyalty to a specific group or ideology, these people said.” Syria Forbes: Syria's Thirty Years' War “A country devastated by a long and brutal internal war; sectarian clash on the surface, but geopolitical struggle in essence; several different conflicts combining into one great conflagration; foreign powers providing support to the fighting factions for years before entering the war in a more direct fashion: All of the above applies to the present-day Syria. It also applied to Germany during the great conflict that unfolded in 1618-1648 and went down into history as the Thirty Years’ War. Then, like now, various geopolitical rivalries and long-term contentious issues of the wider region found expression in a single country. As a result, numerous foreign players poured their resources into the ongoing war, while differences between factions within the suffering country itself remained irreconcilable. All of this made quick resolution of the conflict highly unlikely.” The Guardian: Russia Should Foot Syria Reconstruction Bill, European Leaders Say “European leaders, notably the French, are privately warning Vladimir Putin that if he permits Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to turn an expected capture of Aleppo into a military victory across most of the country, it will be up to Russia to foot the bill for reconstruction. ‘What Russia breaks is what Moscow will have to fix,’ said one western diplomat, adding that the EU in reality was the only player with the resources to restore the fabric and infrastructure of a country torn apart by a five-year-long civil war. Estimates of the cost of reconstructing Syria range from a World Bank projection of $180bn, made in April, to far larger sums. Russian reports have suggested Putin wants to internationalise a kind of Marshall plan for Syria, with responsibility shared between the EU, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China.” Iraq Reuters: Ransacked Homes And Little Hope For Returning Iraqi Christians “A strip of negatives lying in the rubble of a home in northern Iraq contains snapshots of life as it was before Islamic State overran the area two years ago and purged its Christian community. In some of the frames, a woman barbecues meat on a skewer surrounded by friends or family, perhaps celebrating a birthday or engagement. Others show a man scaling a ladder propped against the wall of a house under construction. Those images stand in contrast to the devastation that is now Qaraqosh - Iraq's biggest Christian settlement before militants took over in 2014 and issued an ultimatum to residents: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die.” Reuters: Water Cuts And Rising Food Prices Leave Mosul Facing Crisis “Fighting between Iraqi troops and Islamic State militants has cut water supplies across a large part of Mosul, where poorer families are already struggling to feed themselves, and a local official said the increasingly encircled city was in crisis. Water was cut to 650,000 people - or 40 percent of residents - when a pipeline was hit during fighting between the jihadists and U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces trying to crush them in their northern Iraq stronghold, a local official said. ‘We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe,’ said Hussam al-Abar, a member of Mosul's Nineveh provincial council, adding that 1.5 million people were still inside Mosul. He said the pipeline ran through a contested part of the city and could not be reached by repair teams.” Reuters: Exclusive: Jailed Islamic State Suspects Recall Path To Jihad In Iraq “When Kurdish forces began firing rockets at a suspected Islamic State hideout in northern Iraq, one of those inside, former bakery worker Walid Ismail, said he tried to persuade the others to surrender. Some wanted to hold hand grenades to their throats and pull the pins. In the end, a Tunisian militant among them detonated a suicide bomb, hoping to wipe out their attackers. Instead he killed five of the group and injured the rest. Ismail said the others were then killed by the Kurds and he only made it out by shouting that he had no bombs. An online video shows him looking terrified as he emerges from the house in the town of Bashiqa near Mosul with an injured hand, to be arrested by Kurdish peshmerga fighters.” Turkey BBC: Islamic State Conflict: Turkey Says Two Soldiers Missing In Syria “Turkish military officials say they have lost contact with two of their soldiers in northern Syria, where they are engaged in an offensive against so-called Islamic State. IS claimed via its news agency that its militants had captured two Turkish soldiers in al-Dana village near al-Bab in northern Syria. Turkey has not commented on the claim. The Turkish military is leading an offensive to clear IS and Kurdish forces from the strategic al-Bab town. Since launching a ground offensive against IS in September, Turkey has become an increasing target for the militants. Jihadist cells are believed to have carried out several bombings in the country over the past year.” Voice Of America: Dormitory Fire Kills 12 In Turkey “A fire at a school in southern Turkey has killed 12, including 11 teenage girls, and injured 22 others. The fire broke out in a girls dormitory late Tuesday in the southern province of Adana. The cause of the fire was unknown, and it was not clear how many of the injured were children. Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtas told the state-run Anadolu agency some of the injured students were affected by the smoke and some of them had been hurt trying to escape from the burning building. Turkish television showed flames rising from a multiple-story building and firefighters battling the blaze.” Afghanistan Voice Of America: Kabul Skeptical Of Afghan Taliban Vow To Protect New Infrastructure Projects “The Afghan Taliban, accused by the government of destroying millions of dollars’ worth of national improvements, vowed Tuesday to protect a new natural gas pipeline, a cooper mine, and upgrades to highways and railways. A Taliban statement released by the group's spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Taliban leadership does not oppose development projects that benefit the Afghan people and will work to guard projects from harm. ‘The Islamic Emirate [Taliban movement] not only supports all national projects, which are in the interest of the people and result in the development and prosperity of the nation, but are also committed to protecting them,’ according to the Taliban statement.” Radio Free Europe: Top Afghan Army General Killed In Helicopter Crash “A top general in the Afghan National Army has been killed, and at least seven other officials have been injured, in a military helicopter crash in Afghanistan's northwestern province of Badghis. A spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry told RFE/RL that General Mohayedin Ghori, the army corps commander for western Afghanistan, was killed when the helicopter attempted an emergency landing on November 29 in the Muri Chaq area of the Badghis Province's Bala Murghab district. The spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish, said the crash of the Russian-built Mi-17 helicopter was the result of a ‘technical malfunction’ and was not caused by militants or any hostile attack.” Yemen Daily Mail: Yemen President Accuses Rebels Of Dashing Peace Hopes “Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi on Tuesday accused Shiite rebels and their allies of dashing hopes for peace after they unveiled a new government in areas under their control. Hadi said Monday's formation by the Iran-backed rebels of a government of national salvation showed their determination to ‘spread chaos and destruction’ and ‘destroys any chance of dialogue and peace’. Speaking through a spokesman from Yemen's second city Aden, the seat of his beleaguered government, Hadi called on the international community to ‘condemn this move and hold the militia responsible for the collapse of peace efforts’.” Voice Of America: Refugees, Migrants From Horn Of Africa Flee To War-Torn Yemen “The U.N. refugee agency reports thousands of refugees from the Horn of Africa, desperate to escape difficult conditions at home, continue to make the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden to war-torn Yemen, despite the risks. At least 79 people have been reported dead or missing at sea this year. The U.N. refugee agency reports nearly 106,000 people, mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia, have risked their lives on the high seas to reach Yemen so far this year. This is 13,000 more than all of 2015. The UNHCR says many of them embark from coastal towns in Somalia and Djibouti and that they are ill-informed about the worsening conflict and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Yemen. The agency says it plans to launch a regional information campaign in December to try to prevent the refugees and migrants from attempting the treacherous crossing.” Egypt Associated Press: Egypt Passes New Law Clamping Down On Rights Groups “The Egyptian parliament on Tuesday approved a new law regulating non-governmental organizations that gives security agencies extensive power over the financing and activities of NGOs and rights groups. Rights organizations condemned the law as one of Egypt's most repressive ever on civil society, saying it would effectively shut down many such groups. Supporters of the bill called it a necessary regulation to protect the country's security, but critics said it was part of a widening crackdown on dissent under the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.” Libya The Guardian: Libyan General Khalifa Haftar Meets Russian Minister To Seek Help “Khalifa Hafter, the military commander of Libya’s eastern government, has met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and said he was seeking Moscow’s help in his fight against Islamic militants at home. Haftar, on his second visit to Moscow since the summer, requested military support from the Kremlin in September, according to Russian media. It was unclear on Tuesday if such help would be forthcoming. ‘Our relations are crucial, our goal today is to give life to these relations,’ the TASS news agency quoted Haftar as saying at the start of talks with Lavrov. ‘We hope we will eliminate terrorism with your help in the nearest future.’” United Kingdom ISIS Suspect In Paris-Brussels Network Says Britain Too Well-Protected To Attack “One of the key suspects in the Islamic State militant group’s Paris and Brussels attacks has said that Britain is too difficult to target because of its ‘developed secret service,’ a British court heard on Monday. Mohamed Abrini was spotted with Salah Abdeslam, the only living member of the Paris attacks cell, at a gas station in France after the attacks, and he was later captured wearing a bucket hat at Brussels airport before two suicide bomb blasts. Abrini visited the U.K. in July 2015 to allegedly acquire money to carry out extremist acts, but he told investigators that he spent his time visiting casinos and indulging his gambling addiction, rather than scouting for potential attack targets.” Germany Radio Free Europe: Germany Calls On Russia To Allow Relief Supplies Into Eastern Aleppo “German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to allow humanitarian relief supplies to reach civilians in rebel-held parts of eastern Aleppo in Syria. Steinmeier pressed Lavrov on the issue during a bilateral meeting in Minsk on November 29 that followed talks aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. A member of Steinmeier's delegation said ‘there was a clear call to the Russians to allow humanitarian supplies to reach the people in the eastern part of Aleppo who are facing terrible conditions.’” BBC: Germany Extremism: Intelligence Agency Employee Arrested Over Islamist Comments “An employee of the German intelligence agency (BfV) has been arrested after making Islamist statements and sharing agency material, German media report. A BfV spokesman did not confirm a report in Die Welt newspaper that the man was suspected of planning a bomb attack on the BfV's Cologne office, Reuters news agency said. ‘There is no evidence to date that there is a concrete danger,’ he added. The man is reported to be of Spanish origin and a convert to Islam. The BfV said the suspect, who now has German citizenship, had previously ‘behaved inconspicuously’. ‘The man is accused of making Islamist statements on the Internet using a false name and of revealing internal agency material in Internet chatrooms,’ the spokesman added.” Reuters: Germany's Merkel Opposes New Talks With Turkey On EU Accession: Bild “German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliamentary members of her conservative Christian Democrats on Tuesday that she opposed opening new negotiations with Turkey as part of its quest to join the European Union, the Bild newspaper reported. That means the discussions are effectively over, the newspaper reported in Wednesday editions, citing sources who participated in the party meeting. Merkel recommended spelling that out to voters who asked about the party's position on Turkey, the newspaper said. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said his country has not yet ‘closed the book’ on the EU after the European Parliament recommended freezing accession talks last week, but said Ankara had other options with other partners.” France Voice Of America: France Calls For UN Security Council Session On Aleppo “France has called for an immediate United Nations Security Council meeting on Aleppo. In a statement, French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said ‘More than ever, there is an urgent need for a cessation of hostilities and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance’ for residents of the besieged city. The United Nations says as many as 16,000 civilians have fled eastern Aleppo in recent days following Syrian government advances. Tuesday the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 civilians were killed in an airstrike in Bab al-Nairab, one of the eastern districts still held by rebel forces.” Europe The Washington Post: Migrant Boat Traffic From Libya To Europe Is Surging — And Turning Deadlier “Migrants heading to Italy from Libya in leaky boats and inflatable dinghies have broken an annual arrivals record, Italian authorities said this week, underscoring the rising popularity of an increasingly deadly journey that nowadays aims not for land, but for a frigid mid-sea rescue. The number of boat migrants reaching Italy from North Africa this year surpassed 171,000, topping the previous record of 170,100, set in 2014, the Italian Interior Ministry said Monday. But 2016 is also the most lethal year for those trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. So far, 4,690 people have died en route, compared with 3,771 deaths for all of last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency.” Newsweek: Belgian Federal Police Chief Braces For New ISIS Terror Attacks “Catherine De Bolle is waiting, and she is worried. Even before U.S. warnings of a ‘heightened risk of terrorist attacks’ in Europe during the holiday season, the head of Belgium’s Federal Police was bracing for a new wave of assaults in or around Brussels. The city’s immigrant Muslim neighborhoods were staging grounds for last November’s attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people and wounded nearly 500, as well as suicide bombings in March at Brussels Airport and a downtown metro station, which killed 32 and wounded 300 more. More than eight months after that last attack, Brussels authorities have girded the city with new security measures, starting with heavily armed soldiers guarding the airport—still under repair from the March attack—as well as European Union buildings and the embassies of NATO countries battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq.” Daily Mail: Growing Fears Of IS Use Of Weaponised Drones “The Mosul battle in Iraq has seen the Islamic State group increasingly resort to weaponised drones, which Western governments fear could lead to a new type of attack at home. France issued an internal note to its security forces last week warning that ‘this threat is to be taken into account nationwide’ and ordering any drone be treated as a ‘suspicious package’. The first record of a deadly IS drone attack was in October when two Iraqi Kurdish fighters were killed and two French special forces soldiers wounded. The device had been booby-trapped and did its damage on the ground when forces approached it after it landed.” Financing of Terrorism Alhadath News: Governor Of Central Bank Of Lebanon Stresses Importance Of Combating Terror Financing “Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh affirmed that "the issue of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing has gained increasing attention on the international, regional and local levels. This is because the issue affects economic and social sectors, especially the reputation of the banking and financial sector in numerous countries." He made these comments during the opening of the second session of the "Forum for Combating Electronic Crime," which was held at the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut. He explained that "Lebanon attaches utmost importance to the subject. Its public and private sectors participate in efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing due to its understanding of the negative consequences of these crimes on individuals, institutions and society as a whole, on the one hand, and the consequences of non-compliance with international standards, on the other hand.” ISIS Abarah Press: Satellite Internet Outside The Scope Of ISIS Censorship “ISIS, through its control over Deir al-Zour, is attempting to monitor Internet shops. This is done by issuance of decisions to control their work and obtain knowledge of their clients. However, the Internet used by businessmen remains outside the control of ISIS's monitoring devices. For example, merchants, money-changers, money transfer offices and businessmen use satellite Internet devices which help them in importing goods, transferring funds and connecting to foreign markets. It is worth mentioning that ISIS regards its funding sources and foreign image as two "untouchable" topics of discussion. Due to their importance, ISIS dedicates all its capabilities to them. Yet {paradoxically} obtaining funds, including through the collection of taxes, runs counter to campaigns launched against owners of Internet shops, intended to prevent their use in leaking the news {on what is happening in areas under ISIS control}.” Muslim Brotherhood Elghad News: Egypt: "Meet Hebeish El Qebleyah" Community Development Association Freed From Muslim Brotherhood's Domination “Mr. Gamal Nassar, Undersecretary of Solidarity and Social Affairs in the El Gharbiya Governorate, instructed Mrs. Taghrid Awara, Head of the Solidarity and Social Affairs Directorate, to urgently form a special committee, comprising representatives of regulatory and security authorities. The special committee is tasked with freeing the Community Development Association of the "Meet Hebeish El Qebleyah" village in the Tanta province from the grip of the Muslim Brotherhood, after uncovering administrative and financial violations within the association. Mr. Nassar stressed the necessity of establishing an interim board of directors to temporarily run the association and to dismiss all members of the current pro-Muslim Brotherhood board of directors, in accordance with the residents’ demands. The undersecretary also asked the association’s new management to provide diversified services to support families in need.” Elghad News: Egyptian Parliament Member Demands Allocating Seized Muslim Brotherhood Funds To Repair What The Group Ruined “Egyptian parliament member of the Defense and National Security Committee, Mr. Abdel Fattah Abdullah, demanded earmarking the Muslim Brotherhood’s seized funds to repair all movable or fixed assets and properties they have destroyed, ruined and burned. This demand is based on the rule: ”Whoever causes damage must pay compensation for that damage.” Mr. Abdullah added that his Committee has requested that the Public Funds Investigation Department and the Justice Ministry update it with regard to the procedures undertaken as far as the Muslim Brotherhood’s money is concerned. He added that this money will most probably be pumped into the State budget, yet it is better to earmark it for fixing the damages caused by the Islamist group. He also stated that there is still no official inventory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s assets since the listing process takes years.” Houthi Asrar7days: Sources: Houthi’s New Government Is A Composite Of Arms And Drug Dealers “Senior Yemeni sources revealed that the government, newly declared last Monday by the Houthi militia and its political allies, Yemen’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his loyalists, is a mixture of arms and drug- dealers. The sources added that Yemen's new Houthi government includes individuals with a criminal history, such as Fares Mana'a, who is said to be Yemen's most infamous arms dealer, along with other figures involved in drug trading and illegal smuggling. The sources also stated that the newly established Houthi government, which is not recognized internationally, consists of 42 ministers, making it one of the world’s largest governments.”