CEP: Eye on Extremism May 31, 2022

Eye on Extremism May 31, 2022   Reuters: Over 500 Killed In Mali Clashes As Military Junta Loses Grip   “Over 500 civilians died in attacks carried out by armed forces and Islamist groups in Mali from January to March this year, the United Nations said in a report on Monday that detailed a rapid unravelling of an already desperate security situation. The killings represented a 324% rise over the previous quarter and highlighted the failure of Mali's military junta to limit human rights abuses or stop groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State from carrying out campaigns of violence. They come just as Mali cuts ties with former colonial power France and as Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor, steps in to help defeat militants who have carried out attacks in the centre and north for nearly a decade. Mali's military, which took power in a 2020 coup, did not respond to requests for comment. Wagner Group could not be reached. “Malian Armed Forces, supported on certain occasions by foreign military elements, increased military operations to combat terrorism ... some of which sometimes ended in serious allegations of violations of human rights,” the U.N.'s Malian mission, known as MINUSMA, said in the report. Western powers strongly opposed Wagner's intervention, warning that it could stoke violence in Mali and neighbouring countries where communities face growing levels of drought, malnutrition and poverty.”   Associated Press: Japan Terrorist Group Founder Freed After Serving Time   “Fusako Shigenobu, who co-founded the terrorist group Japanese Red Army, was released from prison Saturday after serving a 20-year sentence, and apologized for hurting innocent people. “I feel strongly that I have finally come out alive,” she said, welcomed by her daughter and a crowd of reporters and supporters in Tokyo. “I have hurt innocent people I did not know by putting our struggles first. Although those were different times, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize deeply,” said Shigenobu, who wore a black hat and gray suit. Shigenobu was convicted of masterminding the 1974 siege of the French Embassy in the Hague, the Netherlands. She was arrested in 2000 in Osaka in central Japan, where she had been in hiding. The Japanese Red Army, formed in 1971 and linked with Palestinian militants, took responsibility for several attacks including the takeover of the U.S. Consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1975. The group is also believed to have been behind a 1972 machine-gun and grenade attack on the international airport near Tel Aviv, Israel that killed 28 people, including two terrorists, and injured dozens of people. Shigenobu was not physically present in the attacks. A year after her arrest, she declared the group dissolved. Japanese media reports said Shigenobu had undergone surgery for cancer during her incarceration.”   United States   Los Angeles Times: Office Of Los Angeles Synagogue Is Targeted In Antisemitic Attack   “Officials with Ikar, a prominent Los Angeles synagogue, confirmed that their office was targeted in an antisemitic attack. Swastikas were scratched onto the office’s windows overnight Thursday or early Friday, according to a joint statement by Melissa Balaban, Ethan Goldstine and Michelle Rosenthal, the synagogue’s chief executive, board chair and board vice chair, respectively. “Fortunately no one was present or physically harmed,” the statement says. “We have alerted the relevant authorities and we are taking all measures to keep our staff and community safe, including reviewing security footage to see if we can get further insight into the attack, and revising our security protocols for all locations where IKARites meet, work, and learn.” The synagogue’s officials called the incident distressing but “unfortunately not surprising,” noting an uptick in antisemitic acts in the last several years. “We also know that this comes at a time when we are all bereft and outraged by the mass shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Orange County, heartbroken as the war continues to rage on in Ukraine, reeling from the numerous attacks on reproductive rights, and still confronting the vagaries and relentlessness of a pandemic,” the statement says. The apparent hate incident comes days after a rented truck bearing antisemitic messages made its way down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.”   Syria   Associated Press: Relatives Of Albanian ISIS Fighters To Be Repatriated From Syria   “Four Albanian women and nine children, all related to Albanians who joined ISIS extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, are being repatriated from a Syrian camp, a Kurdish official from northeast Syria said Friday. Abdul-Karim Omar, an official who negotiates with countries on the return of their citizens, tweeted that, “13 Albanians (4 women and 9 children) of the families of ISIS organization were handed over to an official Albanian government delegation.” For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. He also posted a photo with Albania’s anti-terror department chief Alban Dautaj. The Albanian government did not confirm the report, but an official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the repatriated Albanians were expected to land late Friday night. Twenty-five other Albanian women and children whose husbands and fathers joined ISIS and most often have been killed in the fighting have been brought back home in three previous missions, the last one in July 2021. Authorities have not specified the number of Albanians still in detention camps in Syria, only saying they have been identified. Their relatives in Albania say 52 children are still in Syria, including the 13 being repatriated Friday.”   Turkey   The Jerusalem Post: Erdogan-Controlled Judiciary Releases 29 Turkish Hezbollah Terrorists   “Turkey’s judiciary released 29 Turkish Hezbollah terrorists who were incarcerated for their role in the murders of over 100 civilians in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, according to a May report from anti-government secular newspaper Sözcü. The story first broke in two articles. Turkey’s Hezbollah is a Kurdish-dominated Sunni terrorist organization that seeks to set up an Islamic state in southeastern Turkey based on the Iranian regime model but it is not linked with the clerical regime in Tehran or Hezbollah in Lebanon. “The Turkish judiciary system’s release of mass murderers who acted on behalf of Turkish Hezbollah should be understood as part of the Turkish government's broader support for jihad terrorist organizations. Hamas, for instance, counts Turkey as an ally, Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, told The Jerusalem Post. Bulut, who would likely face arrest if she returned to Turkey due to her critical journalism about the country, termed the release of the Turkish Hezbollah terrorists as a “scandal” because the AKP government [of Erdogan] does not see these people as criminal. She added the Turkish Hezbollah terrorists were released before the local elections in 2019 and this appears to be the first media coverage of their freedom. Bulut said there is “no independent judiciary in Turkey.”   Hindustan Times: Islamic State’s New Chief Detained In Turkey: Reports   “…Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at Counter Extremism Project, and a former United Nations expert on jihadism, had recently said that the new ISIS chief's will have two key priorities -- to keep ties between its multiple subsidiaries and simply to stay alive, reported news agency AFP. “His function is primarily to keep the network together, and serve as a focal point for the varieties of local affiliates,” AFP quoted the expert as saying. “Operational involvement is highly risky. It means you have to communicate with others, and then it is just a matter of time; there was no phone in (the late Al-Qaeda founder Osama) bin Laden's compound, and they still got him. Some reports suggest that the detained man is Bashar Khattab Ghazal al Sumaidai, a.k.a Abu Khattab al Iraqi, Born in 1975, Abu Khattab joined ISIS in 2013. Earlier, he was a member of Ansar al Islam, an Al Qaeda affiliated Iraqi group, which is now inactive. Sumaidai took the position of Islamic State’s chief judge in 2014 after the group seized Mosul and declared a Caliphate. He is also part of ISIS's Delegate Committee responsible for the administration and leadership in Iraq and Syria.”   Afghanistan   Foreign Policy: Al Qaeda Isn’t Dead Yet   “The United States, under then-President Donald Trump, made a peace pact in 2020 with the Taliban under the pretense that they would break ties with al Qaeda. It didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and now the group that blew up the twin towers is enjoying Taliban hospitality while remaining the dominant ideological and operational influence for jihadis from South Asia to North Africa. U.S. officials, in both the Trump and Biden administrations, saw the Islamic State rather than al Qaeda as the biggest threat to the American homeland. Al Qaeda, it was argued, was a spent force, especially after the forehead-tap elimination of leader Osama bin Laden in a raid by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. The reality is that al Qaeda remains the driving force of international terrorism, more than the locally focused Islamic State has ever been, and continues to inspire terrorist groups from Syria and Somalia to Mali and Mozambique. “Al Qaeda is ultimately the more dangerous enemy,” Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Congress. “Al Qaeda continues to maintain effective insurgencies in multiple countries while using these bases to plot attacks against our homeland and our allies,” he told the House Committee on Homeland Security this year.”   Arab News: Afghan Journalists Detail Threat From Taliban After UK Abandonment   “A group of Afghan journalists has described the threats they face from the Taliban after working with UK media for years, accusing the British government of abandoning them during last year’s withdrawal. Eight journalists are launching a legal challenge against the government after fighting since last year’s withdrawal for support they feel they are owed after helping UK interests in Afghanistan. After waiting months for support for relocation to Britain, they allege that the government has only sent them the standard response emails from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) program. The Foreign Affairs Committee this week issued a report on the British withdrawal from Afghanistan, alleging that the chaos was worsened by the Foreign Office not having a sufficient plan to support Afghans who aided British efforts in the country through their roles in civic society. Workers such as judges, journalists and activists were all abandoned when the rescue operation stirred into action, it claimed. The members of the eight-person journalistic group appear to belong to that section of Afghan society. They told the Observer that they had worked with British media by producing programs on work against the Taliban and efforts to rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure.”   Middle East   AFP: Israel Should Consider 'Terror' Tag For Jewish Extremists: Minister   “Israel should consider placing on its terrorism list two right-wing extremist groups accused of violence towards Palestinians and who called for the death of Arabs, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Monday. “I believe it is time to examine defining groups like La Familia and Lehava as terror groups, and I know the issue is being presented to security forces,” Gantz said during a faction meeting of his Blue and White party. Thousands of flag-waving Israelis on Sunday marched through Jerusalem's Old City during a nationalist procession marking Israel's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem. Some marchers chanted “death to Arabs”, as a number of Palestinians hurled projectiles from the rooftops. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ordered police to show “zero tolerance” towards Jewish extremists who planned to “incite” tensions, singling out La Familia. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described Lehava and La Familia as a “disgrace” who weren't “worthy of holding the Israeli flag”. La Familia is a group of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem football club, notorious for their anti-Arab racism and violence. Lehava is an extremist right-wing group that fights against fraternisation between Jews and non-Jews which could lead to intermarriage. It is affiliated with the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir Kahana, whose Kach group is outlawed in Israel.”   UPI: EU Sanctions Al-Qaida-Linked Group, Two Leaders   “…According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international policy organization that aims to counter terrorism, Hurras al-Din formed in late February 2018 in a merger of seven Syrian rebel factions with 10 more joining in the following months. The EU accuses the militant group of being involved in the planning of terrorist operations under the umbrella of al-Qaida and has established training camps in Syria. The group also includes several Europeans among its fighting ranks, it said. “Through propaganda activities, the sanctioned group and individuals have also played a key role in promoting al-Qaida's violent jihadist ideology and in inciting terrorist acts in support of al-Qaida,” the council said. “Hurras al-Din and its two leaders, therefore, pose a serious and continued threat to the EU and to regional and international stability.” The United States under the previous administration of President Donald Trump designated Hurras al-Din and al-Suri as Specially Designated Terrorists in September 2019. The State Department's Rewards for Justice also offered a $5 million reward for information on al-Suri. Since Septmeber 2016, when the EU became able to impose automatic sanctions against those connected to IS and al-Qaida, 10 individuals and three groups have been targeted.”   Egypt   The National: Egypt's Military Says 10 Militants Killed In North Sinai   “Egypt's military has said troops killed 10 militants in a raid on their hideout in North Sinai and recovered weapons, ammunition and radio equipment. Hand grenades, explosive belts, TNT explosive and rocket launchers were among the items found at the hideout, which was located by military intelligence, the army said in a post on its Facebook page. One of the men nearly escaped with an injury, but was arrested before he could flee, the army said. He was carrying a machine gun and two spare ammunition belts. The military will keep the bodies of the militants until the necessary legal procedures are completed, the army said. Egypt’s armed forces have recently ramped up anti-terror operations in the politically volatile province of North Sinai. Militants have been particularly active near the towns of Al Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, two Bedouin locales that are less than 100 kilometres from Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip. The military reported three militant attacks in the Sinai peninsula in the past month. An officer and 10 soldiers were killed and five others injured in an attack on May 7. Another attack on May 11 killed five soldiers. Both attacks were claimed by ISIS. Soldiers foiled the third attack, on a military checkpoint near the town of Al Toloul in North Sinai, the military said on Facebook on May 19.”   Nigeria   The Christian Post: Islamic State Kills 20 Nigerian Christians As Revenge For US Airstrike   “The Islamic State terror group has released a video showing the execution of about 20 Christian civilians in Nigeria’s Borno State in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in February, according to reports. The video, published on an IS-linked news outlet, shows a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while saying it is revenge for the killing of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi Islamic terrorist and the second “caliph” of the Islamic State. The video shows three groups of captives in civilian clothes, according to Nigeria’s newspaper The Guardian. The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based group that tracks the online activity of jihadist organizations, has confirmed the video's authenticity. Weapons are being made available to militants in Nigeria through war-torn Libya. And in the country’s Northeast region, the terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, as the IS group is known in Nigeria, have killed thousands and displaced millions in recent years. In a separate attack last week, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara from the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, and two unidentified boys from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of Katsina state’s Kafur Local Government Area, Vatican News reported.”   Africa   AFP: More Than A Dozen Civilians Killed In DR Congo Massacre   “More than 12 civilians were killed by members of a notorious rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday, the army and Red Cross said. “We heard bullets at dawn in the village of Beu Manyama. When we arrived, it was already too late because the enemy ADF had already killed more than a dozen of our fellow citizens with machetes,” army spokesman Anthony Mualushayi told AFP. Described by the so-called Islamic State as its local affiliate, the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have been accused of killing thousands of civilians in DRC's troubled east. After the attack early Saturday, in the Beni region in North Kivu province, soldiers pursued the attackers and “neutralized seven ADF” and captured another, Mualushayi said. Local Red Cross head Philippe Bonane put the civilian death toll at 21-24 and was supervising the transfer of bodies to the morgue. The massacre comes after almost a month of relative calm in Beni, where the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint military operations against the ADF since late November. On Friday another Red Cross representative said that soldiers in the neighboring Ituri province had found 17 decapitated bodies, also believed to be victims of the ADF.”   Africanews: African Union Leaders Seek Joint Forces To Combat Terrorism   “African leaders met Saturday to discuss efforts to fight a growing extremist threat and push back against a recent run of military coups on the continent. The summit on 'Terrorism and Unconstitutional Change' is organized by the African Union and is being hosted in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, by its dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Delegates listened to addresses at Saturday's opening ceremony was addressed by President Obiang, Angola's president and by the chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat. After progress in promoting democracy, Africa has seen recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and military rule in Chad. A host of terror groups operate across many countries, including the Islamic State group, Al Qaida, Al Shabab and Boko Haram. Mahamat called on African nations to make better use of their own troops in combating the terror threat facing Africa, and so reduce any dependency on forces from other continents.”   United Kingdom   The Independent: Young British Terror Offenders Being Inspired By US School Shootings, Police Counterterror Lead Warns   “Young terror offenders in the UK are being inspired by school shootings in the US, with some wanting to commit mass murders themselves, counterterrorism police have warned. The concerning trend has emerged alongside a steep increase in prosecutions of teenagers with neo-Nazi leanings over the past five years. Earlier this month, a boy who claimed to be acquiring guns to commit an atrocity similar to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre was sentenced for terror offences. The Darlington teenager, who is Britain’s youngest known terror offender, was aged just 13 when he wrote online that he wanted “to do a Columbine here”, while consuming neo-Nazi propaganda. Dean Haydon, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the consumption of material relating to school shootings had become a “trend” in terror cases. “If people start consuming propaganda material in the terrorism and extremism space, they just want to consume everything. If it’s violent they want to consume it,” he told The Independent. “If you look at people like Anders Breivik, Brenton Tarrant, the Buffalo shooter, they become icons in their own right, and heroes in their own community, particularly the right-wing community. “Others then seek to emulate it, they consume that material, and you’ve got this copycat attack issue.”   The Independent: Graduate Jailed For Membership Of Banned Terror Group National Action   “A university graduate has been jailed for three years for being a member of banned terror group National Action (NA). David Musins, 36, admitted his involvement with the extreme right-wing organisation after it was proscribed by the Government in December 2016. On Friday, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years in prison with a further year on extended licence. Judge Anthony Leonard QC had rejected his plea for a suspended sentence, saying: “You had a good education, you are a graduate and have held a responsible job as an operations manager. That you left the group voluntarily is particularly significant, but it cannot expunge your earlier behaviour, which is abhorrent. “You accept you became involved with some very dangerous people over the internet while you were a member of National Action. “That you left the group voluntarily is particularly significant, but it cannot expunge your earlier behaviour, which is abhorrent.” Earlier, prosecutor Tom Williams told how Musins, from Muswell Hill, north London, had joined Iron March, a neo-Nazi web forum, in January 2016. In an introductory message he wrote that he was in his 20s, that he was based in London, and studied history before becoming interested in National Socialism. Mr Williams outlined the defendant’s substantial involvement with NA and a number of high-profile individuals who have since been convicted.”   Europe   Associated Press: 2 Kosovar Men Held In Detention On Terror Suspicions   “A Kosovo court decided Monday to continue detaining two Albanian men who allegedly joined extremist groups in Syria. The Pristina court decided in separate cases in favor of prosecutors’ requests to leave the suspects in detention for a month. A statement said one man, identified only as H.S., left Kosovo in November 2015 “to join the terror organization ISIS.” He is charged with joining and taking part in a foreign army or police, or paramilitary units, something punishable by up to 15 years in prison. In another case, the Pristina court also left in detention for one more month the suspect identified as Y.B. on same terror offenses. He is accused of taking part in the war in Syria fighting alongside the Abal al-Nustra and Dawala Islamya terror groups. The statements did not say whether the men were among those repatriated early Sunday from Syria. Four Albanian women and nine children, all related to Albanians who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, were repatriated on Sunday. They were joined by several Kosovar citizens. Dozens of Kosovo citizens still remain in Syria, most of them widows of former fighters, according to the authorities. In the last two years Kosovo has repatriated at least 121 citizens, mostly women and children, from Syria.”   Voice Of America: Anticipated Foreign Fighter Flow To Ukraine Likely Just A Trickle   “For thousands of people around the world, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February served as a rallying cry, spurring many to look for ways to travel to the front and help fight for Ukraine's freedom. New research finds that few of them ever actually made their way to Ukraine, with fewer still joining the fight on the front lines. While exact numbers of foreign fighters in the war in Ukraine have been difficult to determine, the report issued by the New York and Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP) concludes, “given the available information, it is reasonable to deduce that only a fraction of those who indicated an interest in traveling to Ukraine after February 2022 actually did so.” “Their number ranges from merely several hundreds to a few thousands,” the report states. “This is dwarfed by tens of thousands of Ukrainian volunteers who joined units in Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force (TDF).” Researchers say the reasons so few would-be foreign fighters ultimately took up arms are many, but one stands out. Unlike the other conflicts that drew large numbers of foreign fighters - Afghanistan in the 1980s and the Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State terror group - in the case of Ukraine, the government took steps to organize and vet foreign recruits.”   Al Jazeera: Court In Ireland Finds Ex-Soldier Guilty Of ISIL Membership   “Three judges at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin have found former soldier Lisa Smith guilty of joining the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in Syria. Smith, 40, wept in the dock as Judge Tony Hunt on Monday read the panel’s decision, which was delivered after a nine-week trial. The Muslim convert, who wore a hijab to court, pleaded not guilty to membership of the armed group between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019. Judge Hunt said the prosecution had established beyond reasonable doubt that she travelled to Syria “with her eyes open” and pledged allegiance to the group, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. She was acquitted of a separate charge of “financing terrorism” by sending 800 euros ($900) to aid medical treatment for a Syrian man in Turkey. Hunt said there was reasonable doubt that she intended the money to be used for humanitarian purposes rather than to fund “terrorism”. He granted her bail until a sentencing hearing on July 11. During the trial, which began in January, prosecutors detailed how Smith, who was a member of the Irish Defence Forces from 2001 to 2011, travelled to ISIL-controlled territory in 2015 after converting to Islam. In 2012, she went on pilgrimage to Mecca and expressed a desire on an Islamic Facebook page to live under Islamic law and to die a “martyr”. The court was told that she bought a one-way ticket from Dublin to Turkey, crossed the border into Syria and lived in Raqqa.”   The Counter Extremism Project depends on the generosity of its supporters. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation. DONATE NOW