Eye on Extremism February 10, 2017

Eye on Extremism February 10, 2017 Fox News: Pricey Super Bowl Ads Resurface On Youtube, Fronting ISIS Videos “Companies that paid up to $5 million for 30-second Super Bowl ads might be surprised to learn that those commercials are now running in front of ISIS recruiting videos –but they are. Ads for Snickers, Budweiser, Hyundai and others all ran at the beginning of terror-linked videos, including clips that contained sermons and “Nasheeds” -- chilling chants aimed at radicalizing a fresh crop of jihadists. YouTube’s automated systems for pairing ads with videos often creates such jarring juxtapositions, and, critics say, expose the Internet video-sharing platform’s inability to weed out objectionable content.” The Wall Street Journal: Thousands More Troops Needed In Afghanistan, Top U.S. Commander Tells Senate Panel “A few thousand more troops are needed to help end the stalemate in Afghanistan, according to a senior U.S. military commander who also told lawmakers that Russian meddling was complicating the counterterrorism fight. Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, didn’t provide the Senate Armed Services Committee with an exact number of additional forces. However, he said Thursday they could come from the U.S. or other countries in the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, where the war is now in its 16th year.” Reuters: New Syrian Jihadist Alliance Vows To Step Up Attacks Against Army “The head of a new alliance of Syrian Islamist factions, including a former affiliate of al Qaeda, has promised to escalate attacks against the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies with the goal of toppling President Bashar al-Assad. Hashem al-Sheikh, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was formed last month, also said in his first video speech that the new grouping sought to ‘liberate’ all of Syria's territory. ‘We assure our people that we will begin our project by reactivating our military action against the criminal regime and we will raid his barracks and positions and wage a new battle of liberation,’ he said.” Voice Of America: Islamic State Commander Killed By US-Afghan Airstrike “A top commander of the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State group, implicated for his role in multiple suicide attacks and other atrocities, has been killed in a counterterrorism airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials said Thursday. Qari Munib ‘was killed during a larger Afghan and U.S. counterterrorism operation focused on ... eastern Afghanistan,’ according to a Pentagon statement issued Thursday. Officials said the strike occurred February 1 in Nangarhar Province’s Achin district. The Pentagon and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office said Munib was the mastermind behind multiple suicide attacks in Kabul and ‘large-scale atrocities’ in Nangarhar’s Achin district, which borders Pakistan.” The Wall Street Journal: Errant Russian Strike Kills Turkish Soldiers In Syria “An errant Russian airstrike killed three Turkish soldiers fighting to capture the town of al-Bab from Islamic State, amid a complicated battle for control in northern Syria. The soldiers died when the airstrike hit a building held by Turkish forces, and 11 wounded soldiers were evacuated, according to Turkish and Russian military officials. Turkey has lost approximately four dozen soldiers since the start of its campaign in Syria in August. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences for the deaths in a call with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying the friendly fire incident was due to poor coordination, according to the Russian news agency RIA.” USA Today: Turkey Blocks 'Sensational' Plot, Seizes 24 Suicide Belts “Turkish authorities arrested four men and seized 24 suicide belts and 30 pounds of explosives Thursday in a raid they said smashed a ‘sensational’ terrorist plot. The crackdown came on the same day CIA Director Mike Pompeo arrived in Turkey for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish security officials. The terror suspects were taking orders from ‘some senior group members operating in conflict zones in Syria,’ according to a statement from the governor's office in Gaziantep province, which borders war-torn Syria. The state-run Anadolu News Agency said several detonating mechanisms and other weapons were also seized during the operation in the province bordering Syria.” Christian Science Monitor: The New ISIS Threat: Its Soldiers Are Going Home “For nearly three years, the 25-year-old has fought in Syria alongside the Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al Nusra, then the Islamic State (IS, or ISIS). After months on the frontlines, Mohammed has a new plan: return home to Jordan. “There are many of us who have become disillusioned with ISIS, who are injured, who are tired,” Mohammed, who is currently on the Syrian-Jordanian border awaiting entry, said through an encrypted messaging service. “Soon, the state will have to accept us.” As coalition and allied forces push through Mosul, Iraq, and close in on the Islamic State's capital of Raqqa, Syria, Arab states are bracing what some are calling a “disaster”: waves of ISIS fighters returning back home.” Reuters: New York Man Pleads Guilty To Attempted Support Of Islamic State “A New York City man admitted on Thursday that he had sought to provide support to Islamic State and tried to kill an FBI agent with a knife when authorities came to his home to execute a search warrant in 2015. Fareed Mumuni, 22, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to five counts, including charges that he conspired to provide material support to Islamic State and attempted to murder a federal officer. He was one of six young men in New York and New Jersey charged in a probe into what Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon called a ‘group of like-minded individuals who had pledged allegiance to ISIL,’ using another name for Islamic State.” Associated Press:Police: Palestinian Wounds 6 Israelis In Attack Near Market “A Palestinian opened fire and stabbed shoppers with a screwdriver near a busy open air market in central Israel on Thursday wounding at least six people, police said. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police confirmed it was a "terror attack" and the 18-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank was arrested soon after at the scene in Petah Tikva. Channel 10 TV reported that shoppers at the market buying groceries ahead of the Jewish Sabbath overwhelmed the attacker with their bare hands. Israel's ambulance service said a man and a woman in their 50s and a woman in her 30s were treated for bullet wounds to their lower bodies. A 40-year-old man was stabbed in his upper body, it said.” New York Times: Today In Mosul: Retaken Parts Of ISIS Stronghold Return To Life “The last time I was in Iraq, two months ago, I stood next to the highway out of the city of Mosul and watched ambulances screaming by, carrying dead and wounded soldiers. During my reporting in Mosul this week, the picture couldn’t have looked more different in the eastern half of the city, which was recently taken back by government forces. Even in places where soldiers were still partly on edge — like above, patrolling along the banks of the Tigris River near the front line with the Islamic State — I still was able to walk alongside them.” Deutsche Welle: German Police Raids Target Islamists Suspected Of Planning Terror Attack “Nearly 450 police and special commando units conducted pre-dawn raids on Thursday against suspects in the central city of Göttingen after collecting intelligence on plans for a terror attack. Police chief Uwe Lührig said that indications of a ‘potentially imminent terror attack’ had ‘solidified to such an extent in recent days,’ that authorities elected to mobilize against the prime suspects and their close associates. Two men deemed to pose a threat were taken into custody as part of the operation that targeted a dozen locations. The 27-year-old Algerian national and 23-year-old Nigerian national were long active in the radical Islamist scene in Göttingen and were under surveillance, police said. They were both born in Germany and lived with their parents.” New York Times: Islamic State Links To Philippine Militants 'Very Strong': Minister “The Philippines is certain of "very strong" links between Islamic State and home-grown militants and is concerned about regional repercussions from tension between China and the new U.S. administration, Manila's defense minister said on Thursday. Intelligence from various sources had shown Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines had been communicating with Islamic State, and funds were being transferred via mechanisms commonly used by Filipino workers in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told Reuters.” BBC: Paris To Put Up Glass Wall To Protect Eiffel Tower “The Eiffel Tower in Paris is to have a 2.5m-high (8ft) wall of reinforced glass built around it as protection against terror attacks, officials say. The Paris mayor's office says the wall will replace metal fences put up for the Euro 2016 football tournament. The project, if approved, is expected to cost about €20m (£17m; $21m) and work should start later this year. The French capital has been on high alert since attacks by jihadists in November 2015 left 130 people dead. Last July, 86 people were killed when a lorry ploughed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the southern city of Nice.” Daily Beast: ISIS's Drone Papers Revealed “Much has been made of the Islamic State drone threat ever since the group killed two Kurdish soldiers in October 2016 with a bomb hidden within one of its drones that Kurdish forces downed in Iraq. The Islamic State was able to achieve this feat through an act of deception, as the two Kurdish soldiers were killed by the bomb after they had taken the drone back to their base to inspect it. Since this type of attack had not been conducted before, the drone was an unassuming place for the Islamic State to hide an improvised explosive device. But that trick only works occasionally, and it likely has a limited shelf life. Creativity and innovation, however, don’t appear to be problems for the Islamic State. Several days ago, on January 24, 2017, the group’s media office for Ninawa province released a video entitled “The Knights of the Dawawin,” which highlighted a new Islamic State drone capability: dropping small bomb-like munitions on its enemies from the air.” New York Daily News: Georgia Man With Apparent White Supremecist Connections Arrested For Having Ricin “A Georgia man who has shown support for white supremacist groups is being investigated by the FBI after authorities say he drove himself to a hospital for exposure to ricin, a deadly toxin. William Christopher Gibbs, of Morganton, was jailed on reckless conduct and probation violation charges since taking himself to the hospital last Thursday and saying he had ricin on his hands. A search of his car tested positive for the substance, according to the Fannin County Sheriff's Office. "I think it was all contained inside his vehicle, just a small amount of something I think he had been experimenting with," Sheriff Dane Kirby told Fox5Atlanta.” United States The Hill: Bipartisan Senate Group Demands Briefing On Yemen Raid “A bipartisan group of senators is demanding a briefing on the controversial raid in Yemen that left one Navy SEAL dead. ‘We write today with serious concerns about U.S. policy in Yemen and to urgently request a classified briefing regarding our actions and objectives there,’ the senators wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and acting Director of National Intelligence Michael Dempsey. The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah). The four have been highly critical of U.S. policy in Yemen in the past, particularly U.S. support of the Saudi Arabia-led campaign in the civil war there between the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels.” Reuters: In Setback For Trump, Judges Reject Travel Ban “President Donald Trump suffered a legal blow on Thursday when a federal appeals court refused to reinstate his executive order temporarily banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the Trump administration failed to offer any evidence that national security concerns justified immediately restoring the ban, which he launched two weeks ago. Shortly after the court issued its 29-page ruling, Trump tweeted: ‘See You In Court, The Security Of Our Nation Is At Stake!’ He told reporters his administration ultimately would win the case and dismissed the ruling as ‘political.’” Newsweek: U.S. Commander: ISIS Hubs Raqqa And Mosul Will Be Recaptured Within 6 Months “America’s top commander leading the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq has estimated that Washington and allied forces will recapture its two remaining strongholds within six months, his spokesman said Wednesday. U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend said that within months the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, which ISIS captured in January 2014, and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which the group overran in June 2014, will fall. Townsend told the Associated Press that ‘within the next six months I think we will see both [the Mosul and Raqqa military offensives] conclude.’ His spokesperson Air Force Colonel John Dorrian confirmed his comments.” Syria Associated Press: Syria War Seethes Despite Cease-Fire “Syria's fronts are on fire despite a cease-fire reached in December between the rebels and the government. Though the two sides sat face-to-face in the Kazakh capital of Astana a month later, the government has pressed offensives against rebels around the capital, Damascus, and recently escalated its air campaigns in Homs and Idlib. The war's January toll - some 2,000 dead, about a third of them civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group - is the lowest it has been in four years.” Reuters: Several Killed In Bomb Attack In Syria's Homs City - State Tv “Several people were killed and scores were injured on Thursday when an explosive device was detonated in a busy residential district in the western Syrian city of Homs, state media said on Thursday. The blast, in a main square of the government-held Zahra district in the middle of the city, came a day after Syrian government jets bombed a rebel-held district of Homs, killing at least nine people, mostly civilians.” NPR: Former Detainee Describes Atrocities Inside Syrian Prison “A report released Feb. 6 by Amnesty International says the Syrian government committed mass murder in a prison outside Damascus. In the report, Amnesty International claims as many as 13,000 people were killed at the Saydnaya military prison — typically in mass hangings — from March 2011 until December 2015. The Syrian government has called Amnesty International's report ‘completely untrue’ and ‘baseless.’ Omar al-Shogre says he spent 10 months in the Saydnaya prison. He says he was arrested at age 17 and was held in various Syrian prisons for more than two years before he was sent to Saydnaya. NPR cannot independently verify his story, but he is featured in the Amnesty International report.” Turkey Reuters: Turkish-Led Rebels Attack IS Posts Inside Al-Bab City - Rebels “Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters resumed a major offensive inside the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab on Thursday, a day after they broke through IS defences in its remaining stronghold in Aleppo province. A rebel commander in the Euphrates Shield forces said fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), working with Turkish commanders, were moving forward from territory near the western gates of the city they had stormed on Wednesday. ‘The battles began a short while ago to complete what had been achieved yesterday,’ said a commander of a leading FSA group fighting in al-Bab, who requested anonymity.” NPR: Turkey's President Erdogan Pushes For Broader Powers “This spring, voters in Turkey are being asked if they want to transform their government, giving broader executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Opposition parties say the proposed constitutional changes would put Turkey on the road to one-man rule, but supporters say in these dangerous times, Turkey needs a strong leader to fend off enemies at home and abroad. The vote is expected in April, and the government is already in campaign mode, trumpeting its accomplishments and promising more if the referendum is approved. What might have been just another sleepy ribbon-cutting ceremony, a recent re-launch of a long-stalled Istanbul housing project, turned into a full-on rally. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a flag-waving crowd the answer to Turkey's problems is a ‘yes’ vote on a strong presidency.” Afghanistan Reuters: Shifting Afghan Frontlines Make Aid Work Harder, More Dangerous “When a convoy of Red Cross workers drove into remote northern Afghanistan on Wednesday with supplies for victims of snow storms, they were entering a region that had recently seen dangerous and unpredictable changes. Long under Taliban control, the corner of Jowzjan province had been infiltrated over the past year by rival Islamist militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State, according to local police officials. It was those militants who police suspect attacked the convoy, killing six Afghan aid workers. Two more are missing.” Reuters: Afghan Military Would Support More Foreign Troops, Official Says “The Afghan Defence Ministry welcomed on Friday suggestions by the commander of international forces in Afghanistan that more troops were needed to train Afghan security forces, who are battling to hold back a growing Taliban-led insurgency. General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Thursday he did not have enough troops to adequately advise Afghan forces on the ground. Nicholson told lawmakers the NATO-led force in Afghanistan had enough troops to carry out counterterrorism missions but had ‘a shortfall of a few thousand’ for its major role of advising Afghan security forces.” Yemen NPR: Yemen Requests Review Of Deadly U.S. Military Raid “By most accounts, a U.S. military raid in Yemen a couple weeks ago did not go as planned. The operation was greenlighted by President Trump soon after his inauguration. And what was supposed to happen was this. A team of Navy SEALs and their allies were to sneak into a compound on a moonless night hoping to steal intelligence and perhaps capture or kill leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Here's Tamara Wittes, a Middle East expert with the Brookings Institution. They expected to find quite a bit of information about the organization - its financing, its activities, its membership - that they could use to combat the group in other ways in the coming months and years.” Egypt Voice Of America: Rights Groups Fear Egypt's Sissi Will Intensify Crackdown On Dissent “Egyptian officials are buoyed by media reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering designating as a terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement Egypt's general-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been urging Washington to proscribe for the past three years. They say it is the first fruit in improving relations between Washington and Cairo, and that they hope the Trump administration will ease rights-related conditions introduced under former president Barack Obama on the $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid Egypt receives each year.” The New York Times: Widening Crackdown, Egypt Shutters Group That Treats Torture Victims “The Egyptian police on Thursday shut down the offices of an organization that treats victims of torture and violence in the latest escalation of a harsh government crackdown against human rights defenders and civil liberties groups. The organization, Al Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, is one of several groups to have their offices closed, their assets frozen or travel bans imposed on their leaders in the past year. Prominent lawyers, journalists and others considered a threat to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have also been singled out.” Middle East Reuters: Islamic State-Linked Group Claims Rocket Attack On Israeli Resort “An Islamic State-affiliated group claimed responsibility for firing rockets on Thursday towards Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat from Egypt's Sinai peninsula, an attack that Israel said caused no damage or casualties. The Sinai Province group said it fired ‘a number of Grad rockets against gatherings of Zionist occupiers’ in Eilat. In an apparently unrelated incident several hours after the rockets were fired, two Palestinians were killed along Gaza's border with Egypt when a tunnel beneath the frontier was bombed, Gaza's Health Ministry said, blaming Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no information about an Israeli strike. Israel's military said that of the rockets launched from the Sinai towards Eilat one landed harmlessly in an open area and the others were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system.” Libya Reuters: Eastern Forces Strike Base In Central Libya As Rival Groups Clash In Tripoli “Eastern Libyan forces attacked an air base in the central region of Jufra on Thursday, killing at least two people according to a force spokesman and a medical source, hours after factional fighting flared in the capital Tripoli. A U.N.-engineered Government of National Accord (GNA) that was installed in Tripoli last year has struggled to assert its authority over various armed groups in the capital alone, let alone elsewhere in sprawling, oil-producing Libya. The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) has clashed with rival brigades in the Jufra area in recent weeks, accusing them of trying to attack Mediterranean coastal oil ports that the LNA took control of last September.” United Kingdom International Business Times: British Woman Kimberley Taylor Has Joined Ranks Of Kurdish Fighters Against Isis In Syria “Kimberley Taylor is believed to be the first British woman to be on the front line fighting against the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. Sent to the Rojava autonomous region in northern Syria to write an article in March, she decided to remain and join the fight against Isis alongside the Kurdish Women's Protection Unit (YPJ) , the Guardian reported. The 27-year old woman, who comes from Blackburn, speaks fluent Kurdish, after learning the language as well as regional politics, weaponry and battlefield tactics at the YPJ's military academy for 11 months.” BBC: Man Arrested In Norwich Over 'Terrorism Fundraising' “A man has been arrested on suspicion of fund-raising for terrorism and encouraging support for a banned terror group. The 31-year-old was arrested in Norfolk by Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers shortly after 06:00 GMT on Thursday. He was being held for questioning at a police station in central London. The Met said searches were being carried out at two addresses in Norfolk and one in north London. The arrest relates to suspected activities overseas, police said.” Europe Newsweek: How Russia Became The Middle East’s New Power Broker “After three decades on the sidelines, Russia is once again a major player in the region. In the last six months alone, the country has altered the course of the Syrian civil war and taken control of the peace process, forged a close relationship with Turkey’s strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and has been courting traditional U.S. allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even Israel. And over the past two years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has received the leaders of Middle Eastern states 25 times—five more than former U.S. President Barack Obama, according to a Newsweek analysis of presidential meetings.” Reuters: European Police Vow To Coordinate More In Race Against Islamist Threat “European police officials have agreed to boost coordination and expand counterterrorism efforts to fight a growing network of Islamist militants, Europe's police agency and German authorities said on Thursday. Nearly 100 police chiefs from European Union member countries, Norway and Switzerland agreed to boost cooperation during a two-day meeting in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a statement by Europol and the German hosts. ‘Europe is facing the most serious terrorist threat for over 10 years,’ Europol Director Rob Wainwright said. ‘The increasing transnational nature of terrorist groups and their activities demand ever closer collaboration between relevant law enforcement authorities across Europe.’”