Eye on Extremism May 11, 2016

Eye on Extremism May 11, 2016 CNN: ISIS Claims Responsibility For Baghdad Bombing That Killed Dozens “At least 64 people were killed when a bomb went off at a market in Baghdad, according to Iraqi police. An additional 87 people were injured in the attack in the largely Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Pictures of the aftermath of the explosion showed hundreds gathered near a chaotic scene. Blood marked the street, cars had their windows blown out and nearly an entire sidewalk was left charred. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on social media, saying it was targeting Shiite militias. Police said the bomb was placed in a parked car.” The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Seeks Stronger Intelligence Ties With Belgium “Senior U.S. officials arrived in Belgium on Tuesday, intent on pushing their Belgian counterparts to intensify intelligence cooperation to deal with an unprecedented number of foreign fighters now flowing back into Europe. The U.S. officials said intelligence sharing in Europe needs to improve because small terror cells in Europe are able to carry out attacks quickly, without an extended period of planning. Lisa Monaco, the White House counter terrorism adviser, will meet Wednesday with Charles Michel, the Belgium prime minister. In a round table with reporters Tuesday, she said the flow of foreign fighters into Europe continues and the U.S. wants to help Europe find ways to better share intelligence to counter terror networks.” NPR: ISIS Trial May Offer A Window Into How The Extremist Group Recruits “In a Minneapolis federal courtroom, three Somali-Americans are on trial for allegedly plotting to join the Islamic State in a case that's expected to offer the most detailed public accounts yet of how the extremist group recruited nearly a dozen young men from the Twin Cities. Six Somali-Americans arrested in connection to the case have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to travel to Syria to join ISIS, making this the largest American investigation and trial related to ISIS since the terrorist group seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a state nearly two years ago.” RT: ISIS Buries Alive Dozens Of Defectors Who Fled Iraq Battlefield – Reports “Islamic State has reportedly buried dozens of its own militants alive, after the jihadists refused to fight and fled the battlefield in the face of the Iraqi government’s push to retake ground in northern province of Nineveh, which has been ruled by the terrorists since 2014. The overall number of militants who have been executed remains ambiguous. AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA) is reporting that 35 fighters were killed, while Iraqi News is reporting that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) buried 45 of its members alive on charges of fleeing the battlefield. The executions took place on the outskirts of Qayyarah, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) south of the militant-held city of Mosul, an anonymous provincial source told ABNA.” NBC: NJ Man Who Tried To Help Organize 'Small Army' For ISIS Gets 15 Years In Prison “A New Jersey man who tried to help organize a ‘small army’ of ISIS fighters in the Garden State and New York was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years behind bars.  Alaa Saadeh was part of a group of men who were trying to support the ISIS terror group, prosecutors said. Saadeh admitted he gave money and credit cards to other members of the group to try to help them travel to Syria. He and others in the group watched ISIS propaganda including beheadings and other killings by the terror group. His brother, Nader Saadeh, was among the group charged in the scheme. Saadeh pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS in Newark federal court before Judge Sarah Wigenton. In addition to the 15 year sentence Tuesday, Judge Susan Wife imposed lifetime supervised release for when Saadeh completes his sentence.” The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State ‘Kill Lists’ Grow In Length, Targeting Ordinary Americans “Islamic State has begun distributing increasingly long ‘kill lists’ of ordinary Americans purportedly encouraging its followers to target those individuals, vexing authorities who are at odds over whether the lists pose an actual threat or are merely scare tactics. A list distributed late last month contained the names of more than 2,000 New Yorkers, while another listed about 1,500 Texans. None of the people had known connections to government or to issues that the terror group cares about, according to counterterrorism officials. That development is sparking a debate among counterterrorism officials about whether the government should keep notifying all the individuals identified. While ISIS has distributed kill lists for more than a year—typically over Twitter and other social-media platforms—officials say such lists are increasing greatly in size and have moved from targeting dozens of military or government officials at a time to thousands of ordinary citizens.” CBS News: Elite U.S. Troops Help Save High-Profile Hostage From Taliban “A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year-long Taliban captivity in Afghanistan, officials said. Ali Hiader Gilani was found during the raid conducted near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office. Gilani, believed to be in his 30s, is the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani whose secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against Islamic militants. In Pakistan, the foreign ministry said the Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar told Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, in a telephone call of the development.” The Times of Israel: Two Elderly Women Hurt In Stabbing Attack In Jerusalem ‘Peace Forest’ “Two elderly women were stabbed and moderately injured in what police said was a terror attack at the Armon Hanatziv promenade in southern Jerusalem, police said Tuesday morning. Both women were rushed to a local hospital in moderate condition, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. Both women were rushed to a local hospital in moderate condition, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. An MDA spokesperson said the two were aged 82 and 86, and were fully conscious. Police had earlier listed their ages in the 70s. The two victims were in a group of five elderly Israelis who were on a walk together. One of the two is a Holocaust survivor.” The Washington Post: France Plans To Set Up ‘Anti-Jihadist Centers’ To Curb Youth Radicalization “By the end of 2017, each major region in France will feature an ‘anti-jihadist rehabilitation center,’ French Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced Monday afternoon. Specific details of the plan remain unclear, but the general emphasis of the French government’s so-called Action Plan Against Radicalization and Terrorism is to strengthen the ability of local authorities to catch young people before they become radicalized. Valls’s announcement is an indication that the French government identifies these instances as evidence of an internal, structural problem. Both of those attacks last year were perpetrated by young men under age 35 who were either French or Francophone European Union citizens.” United States CNN: Kerry: Russia's Political Solution In Syria May Not Be Workable “The United States, while working with Moscow on a ceasefire in Syria, understands that Russia's version of a political solution there ‘is not necessarily a workable equation,’ Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. ‘But,’ he told her, ‘we would not have gotten the initial ceasefire without Russia. And literally tens of thousands of lives were saved.’ The United States and Russia announced Monday that they would work towards reviving February's ceasefire agreement, which has since disintegrated significantly.” Syria Associated Press: Putin Says New Russian Weapons Turned Tide In Syria “Russia's new weapons have proven their worth in Syria, helping turn the tide of the war, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Speaking at a meeting with military officials, Putin said that Russian warplanes have flown more than 10,000 combat missions since the air campaign began on Sept. 30. He said they struck more than 30,000 targets, including 200 oil facilities, allowing the Syrian military to drive militants from 500 towns and villages. Russia has for the first time tested in combat its new air- and sea-launched cruise missiles to hit targets in Syria. Putin said the military performed a total of 115 launches of the long-range cruise missiles.” The Telegraph: Almost 700 Iranian Troops And Militia Fighters 'Killed In Syria' To Preserve Bashar Al-Assad “Almost 700 Iranian soldiers and militia fighters have been killed in Syria’s civil war, laying bare the scale and cost of Tehran’s intervention to preserve Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power. Officially, Iran maintains that only ‘military advisers’ have been deployed in Syria.  But the state media has reported numerous battlefield casualties, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disclosing last week that 13 of its fighters were killed near Aleppo. About 2,000 troops from the Quds Force - the special forces wing of the IRGC - are present in Syria, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). In addition, 13 Shia militias have been identified among the forces fighting for Assad’s regime. The IRGC provides these units with recruits, weapons, training and military planning. In total, at least 3,000 Iranian military personnel are believed to be in Syria.” Fox News: 'Life Is Horrible': Syria's Christians Fear Total Genocide “Only a handful of mostly sick or elderly Christians remain in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, and Syrian Christians fear the forces that have brought that city’s population of Gospel followers to the brink of extinction could do the same for the entire nation. An estimated dozen Christian families are still in the northern city, forced under threat of execution to convert, pay an ‘infidel’ tax or go into hiding. Forbidden from leaving, they also face death from attacks directed at ISIS by Damascus, Russia and the U.S.-led Western coalition.” ARA News: ISIS Seize Syrian Army Base In Homs “Subsequent to fierce clashes with Syrian army forces, militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Tuesday seized control of a military camp near T4 airbase from the pro-regime army forces in eastern Homs, central Syria, killing dozens of soldiers and wounding others, local sources reported. ISIS jihadis have targeted several positions of the regime’s army with heavy weapons.  Speaking to ARA News, media activist Nasser al-Ali, based in Palmyra of Homs province, said that ISIS militants launched on Tuesday morning a surprise attack on several strongholds for the regime’s army forces near the T4 airbase, killing dozens of pro-regime troops and wounding many others.” Iraq Time: ISIS Battle In Iraq Stalled By Ethnic And Religious Strife “Makhmour is one major front in the battle between ISIS and the forces arrayed against it in northern Iraq. The town is roughly sixty miles south of Mosul. Once Iraq’s second largest city home to 2.5 million people, Mosul fell to ISIS during the group’s dramatic sweep across the border from Syria in June 2014. Today, Makhmour is a focal point of a much anticipated, but long-delayed operation to reclaim Mosul. While the Iraqi army, Kurds, U.S. military, and other forces are nominally allied against ISIS, no agreement exists among the various sides for how to conduct an operation to retake Mosul, or how to restore order, rebuild and govern in the aftermath. The gridlock means that a major Iraqi city, with an estimated 600,000 people still living inside, is trapped for the foreseeable future under ISIS rule.” Turkey Associated Press: Turkey Accused Of Violating Rights Of Kurds, Syrians “Turkey came under scrutiny on Tuesday for alleged human rights violations committed by security forces against Kurds in the southeast and Syrian refugees trying to enter the country, with two organizations calling for investigations. Human Rights Watch claimed that Turkish border guards have in the past two months killed five Syrians who were trying to cross into Turkey, and called on the country to investigate the reported use of excessive force by soldiers. Separately, the U.N. human rights chief urged Turkey to allow investigators to probe allegations of violations committed by Turkish security forces in their campaign against Kurdish rebels. New York-based Human Rights Watch accused border guards of shooting and beating asylum-seekers and at least one smuggler. It said that five refugees — including a child — were killed and 14 others were wounded in March and April.” The Wall Street Journal: Turkey’s Elite Force Stages Raid Against Islamic State Fighters In Syria “Turkey’s special military force carried out an unusual weekend operation against Islamic State fighters in Syria as part of a deepening campaign against the extremist group, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. A small group of elite Turkish soldiers entered Syria on Saturday to help more effectively target Islamic State fighters who have been launching rocket attacks into Turkey for weeks, American officials said. Turkish officials declined to comment on the military operation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said all options were on the table for bringing the Islamic State rocket strikes to an end.” Afghanistan Reuters: Afghan Taliban Tighten Squeeze On Helmand Capital “Taliban insurgents killed at least 15 Afghan policemen when they overran two checkpoints in Helmand province in an attack on Tuesday that sharply increased pressure on the beleaguered provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, officials said. The attack on checkpoints in Gereshk, on the main highway through Helmand, a few kilometers to the north of the governor's compound in Lashkar Gah, and Nad Ali, to the west of the town, underlined the growing pressure on security forces clinging on in the southern province. ‘The situation is very critical near Lashkar Gah,’ said a senior provincial security official, adding that 15 policeman had been killed.” Voice Of America: IS Radio Broadcasts Re-Emerge In Afghanistan “After being knocked off the air by government airstrikes, so-called Islamic State group (IS) has restarted radio broadcasts into a restive area of Afghanistan. The radio channel, which broadcasts from a remote mobile transmitter in the mountains along the Pakistan border, has returned with new programming to its lineup.  It can now be heard in the Arabic and Punjabi languages besides its former programs in Pashto and Dari, the two official languages of Afghanistan.  The programs encourage people to join IS and air religious chanting. The IS-run FM station, ‘Voice of the Caliphate,’ started programming last year, terrorizing locals with threats and IS propaganda. In February, Afghan authorities said airstrikes, conducted with the support of the United States, destroyed the IS transmitting site along with its Internet communications and other facilities.” Yemen BBC: Yemen Conflict: Warring Parties 'Agree Prisoner Swap' “The warring parties in Yemen are reported to have agreed to carry out a major prisoner swap within 20 days. The deal between the government and the Houthi rebel movement is being seen as a breakthrough in weeks of peace talks that have achieved little until now. Sources from both sides at the talks in Kuwait told the AFP news agency that they would each hand over half of the prisoners they were holding. The rebel source said that hundreds of detainees would be involved.” The New York Times: As War Strangles Yemen, Many Fear the Grip Will Never Break “The familiar thud of shelling echoed off the mountains that cradle this besieged and ravaged city. For a few terrifying minutes, a warplane circled over neighborhoods and humming afternoon markets before dropping a bomb that momentarily silenced the guns. But the fighting never stops for long in Taiz, or across Yemen for that matter, a country that has endured 14 months of shattering civil war. Yemen’s government and its main opponents, the Houthi rebels, have been negotiating for weeks to end the conflict, under intense pressure from the United States and from other Western nations alarmed that Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is gaining recruits, weapons and money in the midst of the country’s collapse.” Egypt Associated Press: Egypt Temporarily Reopens Gaza Border Crossing “The militant Hamas group says Egypt has temporarily reopened its border with the Gaza Strip, the first time the border was opened in three months. The Rafah crossing is Gaza's main gateway to the outside world. The crossing this time is to operate on Wednesday and Thursday. Hamas, which rules Gaza, says 30,000 people have applied to travel for various reasons, including humanitarian cases. The group's Interior Ministry called on Egypt to extend the opening period to meet the demand. Egypt has kept the crossing largely sealed since 2013, when ties with Hamas worsened after the ouster of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.” Middle East The Jerusalem Post: 'Hamas Digging More Tunnels, Wants Next Round Of Fighting In Israeli Territory' “Hamas is continuing to dig attack tunnels and is closely following Israel's efforts to uncover such tunnels, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has gleaned from the interrogation of an operative from the group's military branch. The Shin Bet announced on Tuesday that it has arrested a minor who was enlisted into the ranks of Hamas prior to summer 2014's Operation Protective Edge and was active in the organization's efforts to dig tunnels that would infiltrate into Israeli territory. News of the arrest comes after the IDF uncovered two Hamas attack tunnels entering into Israeli territory in the past month. Another Hamas operative involved in the organization's tunnel enterprise was also recently arrested and shed light on the group's efforts to dig into Israel.” Time: Israel Patrols Its Southern Border As ISIS Lurks In The Sinai Peninsula “As Israelis patrol the border with Egypt, they know that a group linked to ISIS is fighting the Egyptian army and would love to launch new attacks on Israel. According to an Israeli army intelligence official, ISIS in Sinai has anti-tank missiles, explosive belts, rocket-propelled grenades and IEDs, and its fighters live among the local population and travel through Sinai in armored trucks. ISIS in Sinai are still in the early stages of development, and haven’t gained control of any major population centers, as they have in Syria, Iraq and Libya, but that could change. According to the intelligence official, there is evidence of ISIS trying to establish Sharia law in some areas. Estimates of their numbers range wildly, he said, from 500 fighters to 5,000.” The New York Times: Palestinian Teenager Is Convicted Of Attempted Murder In Stabbing Attack “An Israeli court on Tuesday convicted a Palestinian teenager of two counts of attempted murder for his role in a stabbing attack that critically injured an Israeli teenager and wounded an Israeli man in a Jewish area of East Jerusalem in October. The stabbings, which were part of a wave of violence that began that month but has subsided somewhat, shocked Israelis because of the ages of those involved: The teenager, Ahmad Manasra, and the victim, Naor Ben-Ezra, who lived in adjacent districts of East Jerusalem, were both 13 at the time. Ahmad had come with his cousin, Hassan Manasra, then 15, to Pisgat Zeev from the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina. The police released security footage showing them running through the streets of Pisgat Zeev, chasing residents and armed with knives.” United Kingdom The Telegraph: Afghan Terrorists Use Migrant Route To Plot Attacks On London, Police Fear, As Theresa May Orders Border Review “An Isil-linked terror cell exploited migrant routes in to Europe to plot terror attacks on the UK, police fear, as Theresa May ordered a shake-up of Britain’s coastal defences. The group photographed suspected targets in London, including hotels, restaurants and a health centre and may have planned to slip attackers in through Calais. The alleged plot was unearthed after two Afghan men and a Pakistani man were arrested in Italy on Tuesday. They had been granted refugee status in the country meaning they would have been able to take advantage of Europe’s open borders to move freely around the continent. They are part of a suspected five-man cell, of which at least one was in London in December potentially scouting targets.” Germany Time: Munich Stabbing Could Break Germany’s Run Of Luck In Avoiding Extremist Attacks “Not much is known about the man who stabbed several commuters, one of them fatally, at a train station in a suburb of Munich on Tuesday morning. German police say he was 27 years old, a German citizen and ‘expressed political motivations.’ Witnesses recalled him shouting the Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar – ‘God is great’ – as he slashed at people on the platform with a knife. With the suspect now in custody, it will soon become clear whether this was an act of homegrown Islamic extremism – and whether Germany’s streak of good fortune in countering such violence has finally come to an end. Until now, no Germans have ever been killed by a homegrown jihadist. Among the larger nations of Western Europe, this record is — or was — unique, and it seemed especially remarkable considering that Germany has the largest Muslim population in the European Union.” The Wall Street Journal: Germany Plans Modest Boost In Size Of Its Armed Forces “Germany will increase the size of its armed forces for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the country’s top defense official said on Tuesday, as Russian saber-rattling and terror fears prod Europe’s big, pacifist power to beef up its military. The move to add some 11,400 military and civilian personnel to the forces—on top of a current upper limit of 241,000—is unlikely to satisfy allies who have been calling on Germany and other Western European countries to boost military spending sharply. But it carries symbolic importance in Germany, which had been shrinking its armed forces since the early 1990s and where World War II left a deep legacy of pacifism.” Europe The Wall Street Journal: Two Afghan Men Held In Italy Over Terror And People Smuggling Links “Italian authorities said Tuesday they detained two men suspected of having links with terrorist organizations and facilitating illegal immigration. The two men, held in the southern Italian city of Bari, are Afghan nationals according to their documents, magistrates said on Tuesday. One of the men, Hakim Nasiri, is suspected of international terrorism and used to live in a refugee center in Bari, as he was waiting for the approval of his asylum request in Italy. The other suspect, Gulistan Ahmadzai, lived in another southern Italian town, near Foggia, and had already obtained refugee status. He is suspected of facilitating illegal immigration.” The Washington Post: Who Becomes A Terrorist, And Why? “After major terrorist attacks hit Brussels and Paris, Europe is still reeling. These atrocities prompted a heated dispute between two noted French scholars of political Islam, Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy, over why a handful of European Muslims become terrorists. Their disagreement isn’t just an intellectual squabble. It strikes to the heart of how the West understands violent Islamist extremism — and what the appropriate policy responses might be. Most of the assailants in the recent Brussels and Paris attacks were raised in either France or Belgium. As were those who carried out the January 2015 assault on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Why did these people turn against their own countrymen — and who or what is to blame?” Arabic Language Clips Combating Terrorism Financing Annahar: How Does The Private Sector Contribute To Halting The Financing Of Terrorism And Preventing Money Laundering? If military operations are of the utmost importance in the fight against the terrorism that has swept the region, the fight against the financing of terrorist groups is twice as important. This is especially true, since the scope of funding has exceeded all reasonable limits, with evidence that the Islamic State (IS) budget came to nearly $2 billion in 2015. So how can the private sector lend a hand in stopping the financing of terrorism and preventing money laundering? Cooperation between the authorities and the private sector plays an important role in combating the financing of terrorism, since it creates communication channels at the highest levels. It also maintains open channels between the specialized services involved in the fight against terrorism and representatives of the private sector. It is noteworthy that the private sector plays a key role in devising creative solutions for combating terrorism. ISIS Elfagr: Tunisian Steals 45,000 Dinars From ISIS In Libya," An informed source disclosed that a Tunisian leader in ISIS, nicknamed Abu Shujaa, fled the Libyan city of Sirte in possession of 45,000 dinars ($33,000) together with two other militants, from Libya and Tunisia. Abu Shujaa worked in ISIS's bureau called the "Muslims' House of Finance," which is based in the offices of the Trade and Development Bank. The "House of Finance" collects money from residents of the city, especially from merchants and breeders of sheep and camels. Abu Shujaa joined the terror organization in Sirte after escaping from Sabratah last year. Muslim Brotherhood Alwafd: Lawsuit On The Seizure Of Brotherhood Schools Forwarded To The Cairo Administrative Court The Administrative Court in Alexandria forwarded a lawsuit challenging the decision to take control of two schools belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and assign their management to the Egyptian Minister of Education to the First Circuit of the Cairo Court of Administrative Justice. The directors of the private "Future Schools" for boys and girls in Kafr El-Dawar have filed a lawsuit against the Minister of Education appealing the decision to enforce the seizure of the two schools. INPO News: Importers: (Egypt's) Free Zones Are Behind The Smuggling Of Weapons To The Brotherhood Head of the Importers' Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, Ahmed Shiha, demanded the abolition of Egypt's private free zones. He noted that these zones are destroying the economy and are being monopolized by stakeholders. Shiha also claimed that the free zones are being exploited for smuggling weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood. From Yemen: Hamid Al-Ahmar Announces A 50-Million Yemeni Riyal Reward For The Capture Of (Ousted President Ali) Saleh Hamid al-Ahmar, a leading member of al-Islah, Yemen's Islamist political party and arm of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood, as well as being a prominent tribal leader, announced a reward of 50 million riyals ($233,000) for anyone who captures ousted Yemeni President Ali Saleh. Sheikh al-Ahmar, who was one of the most prominent figures behind the popular revolution against Saleh, claimed that the ousted president was one of the founders of Al Qaeda (in Yemen) and that he continues to run a terror network through state funds.