Eye on Extremism - April 29, 2016

Eye on Extremism April 29, 2016 The New York Times: Divided Aleppo Plunges Back Into War As Hospital Is Destroyed “Syria’s divided city of Aleppo plunged back into the kind of all-out war not seen in months on Thursday, witnesses and health workers said, as they reeled from government airstrikes that demolished a hospital in the insurgent-held side and from retaliatory mortar assaults by rebels on the government-held side. At least 27 people, including three children and six staff members, were reported killed in the strike on the hospital, which turned it into a smoking pile of rubble on Wednesday night, and 20 were reported killed in airstrikes on Thursday. At least 14 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the mortar attacks on government-controlled areas, said officials at a hospital where casualties were streaming in throughout the day on Thursday. The deadly destruction in Aleppo punctuated a drastic escalation in fighting over the past week that has shattered a partial truce in a war that has consumed Syria for more than five years.” Reuters: U.S. Military Softens Claims On Drop In Islamic State's Foreign Fighters “The U.S. military on Thursday retreated from a top general's claim this week that the number of foreign fighters joining Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has plummeted by as much as 90 percent. Air Force Major General Peter Gersten, deputy commander for operations and intelligence in the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State, told reporters on Tuesday that the number of foreign fighters joining the group had fallen to 200 a month from between 1,500 and 2,000. U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the coalition, told Reuters that the official estimate is higher than the one Gersten offered, although he did not provide a precise figure.” International Business Times: ISIS Leader, Security Official, Killed In Lebanese Army Raid “Two senior Islamic State group fighters, including a leader of the extremist organization, were killed in Lebanon Thursday, as the country’s army carried out an operation targeting one of the militant group’s ‘key posts’ on the nation’s northeastern border. A third man was arrested. Nayef Shaalan, who also was called Abu Fouz, was the leader of the extremist group aka either ISIL or ISIS in the border town of Arsal, long a stronghold of the militant group. During clashes with the Lebanese army on the outskirts of Arsal, Shaalan and his ‘Syrian escort’ Ahmad Mroueh were killed, while ISIS’ regional security official, a Syrian national named Moustafa Mousalli, was detained, the army said in a statement.” Deutsche Welle: Italy Arrests Terrorism Suspects Accused Of Planning Attacks On Holy Year Pilgrimage “Four suspected ‘Islamic State’ (IS) sympathizers were detained by Italian police during a ‘vast anti-terrorism operation’ in northern Italy on Thursday, according to authorities. Investigators intercepted an IS communication which ordered one of the suspects, a Moroccan-born man, to carry out attacks in Italy ‘with particular attention to the city of Rome,’ Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters. The communication specifically focused on the Holy Year pilgrimage which is currently underway. ‘This is a new profile, because it was not a generic indication, but an indication given to a specific person who was invited to act within the territory of the Italian state,’ Romanelli said. Those arrested ‘had very bad intentions,’ Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told the Mattino 5 news program.” Associated Press: Us Beefs Up Surveillance Over Islamic State In Libya “The U.S. has moved surveillance drones into the skies over Libya to gather intelligence and get a better picture of what's going on in case additional military strikes against Islamic State militants are authorized. The top U.S. military officer told a Senate committee on Thursday that the Pentagon has shifted assets to Libya, based on recommendations from the U.S. commander for Africa. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the decision was made more than a month ago to increase resources for U.S. Africa Command.” Washington Post: In Iraq, The Mosul Offensive Is Off To A Slow And Shaky Start “From a sandbagged hilltop outpost here, you can see the front line of the Islamic State in the muddy brown houses of Al-Nasr, a village on the next ridgeline, about a mile-and-a-half west. The Iraqi army was supposed to have captured this target a month ago. But the offensive was repelled. The battle for Mosul, about 35 miles north, must begin with the seizure of such Islamic State positions along the Tigris River. But the Iraqi army isn’t ready yet to take a small, well-fortified village such as Al-Nasr. So it’s hard to imagine that Mosul itself could be cleared by the end of the year, as the Obama administration has hoped.” ABC NY: ISIS-Related Group Releases Seemingly Random Hit List With New Yorkers “The FBI is notifying unsuspecting targets after the release of an ISIS hit list that includes thousands of New Yorkers. The list targets government employees with the State Department and Homeland Security, but there are also many average residents on the list who are now being informed that terror group has its eye on them. Experts speculate it could be just another scare campaign and that there are no immediate threats, but still, the names and even some personal information was posted online in the last several days by an ISIS-related hacking group called the Caliphate Cyber United, also known as the Caliphate Cyber Army.” The Times of Israel: 2 Palestinian Women Try To Stab Soldier In West Bank, One Is Shot “Israeli troops thwarted an attempted knife attack by two Palestinian woman against a female soldier at a military checkpoint on a West Bank road on Thursday evening. The two women approached the checkpoint and tried to stab the soldier. One of the women was shot by troops at the scene and the other was apprehended without incident, according to reports. The would-be attacker who was shot sustained serious injuries. The incident occurred at a checkpoint near Beit Horon on Route 443, one of two main highways connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.” MarketWatch: The Countries Where ISIS Recruiting Is Most Effective Might Surprise You “There are plenty of reasons to visit Finland: The sunlit evening skiing, the saunas, the gorgeous views of the Northern Lights, the food scene, etc. Here’s one that isn’t on that list: Finland’s Muslim population is the most likely to join ISIS, according to a recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Max Galka of the Metrocosm blog crunched the data and came up with this map showing where ISIS recruitment appears to be most effective. In general, the rates are the highest in the developed western countries, with Finland topping the list.” The Washington Post: German Police Warn Of A ‘Climate Of Fear’ And More Right-Wing Extremist Violence “In a bleak assessment, Germany's Federal Police warned on Thursday that the country should be prepared for more politically motivated violence committed by right-wing extremists in the coming months. ‘Apart from physical harm, one has to reckon with murders,’ authorities concluded in a statement. The report came amid allegations that police authorities had failed to confront the country's growing right-wing extremism problem. Neo-Nazis and their supporters had already created a ‘climate of fear,’ according to the report, which said that pro-refugee volunteers, politicians as well as journalists were likely targets of violence. The influx of refugees into Germany has massively decreased in recent months, following a deal struck with Turkey to accommodate more asylum seekers outside the European Union.” United States CNN: Biden Makes Surprise Trip To Iraq “Vice President Joe Biden landed in Iraq Thursday for an unannounced trip. While in Iraq, Biden will meet with political leaders and is ‘focused on encouraging Iraqi national unity and continued momentum in the fight against ISIL," according to a White House statement, using a different term for ISIS. ‘The Vice President will also be discussing steps the international community can take to promote Iraq's economic stability and further regional cooperation,’ the statement continued. ‘He will also have an opportunity to thank US diplomatic and military personnel for their tremendous service.’” The Daily Beast: U.S. Special Ops Kill 40 ISIS Operatives Responsible For Attacks From Paris To Egypt “As the self-proclaimed Islamic State trumpets its global terrorist campaign, U.S. special operations forces have quietly killed more than three dozen key ISIS operatives blamed for plotting deadly attacks in Europe and beyond. Defense officials tell The Daily Beast that U.S. special operators have killed 40 ‘external operations leaders, planners, and facilitators’ blamed for instigating, plotting, or funding ISIS’s attacks from Brussels and Paris to Egypt and Africa. That’s less than half the overall number of ISIS targets that special operators have taken off the battlefield, one official explained, including top leaders like purported ISIS second-in-command Haji Imam, killed in March.” Syria The Guardian: Syria’s Peace Talks Begin To Look Like A Cover For More War “Bombs hitting hospitals, doctors and rescue workers killed, civilians starving, scores of dead and injured every day – the raw, bleeding statistics of Syria’s unending war are making a nonsense of an already fragile truce and destroying the slim hopes that peace talks can even carry on. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, is a consummate diplomat, but this week he has struggled to mask a sense of rising panic – appealing to the US and Russia to come together to stave off what his humanitarian coordinator warned on Thursday would be a new ‘catastrophe’ if violence did not stop.” Huffington Post: ISIS’s Revenues Include Sales Of Oil To The Al-Assad Regime “For months now disaffected Syrian, ISIS defectors we have been interviewing in our ISIS Defectors Interview Project have been telling us that one of the many reasons that they became disenchanted with ISIS was that their leaders were directly negotiating and selling oil to their enemy, Bashar al-Assad—oil that was then used in barrel bombs that rained back down on the Sunnis uprising against the Assad regime. This week the Wall Street Journal reported on some of the thousands of documents extracted in the May 2015 U.S. Special Forces raid against Abu Sayyaf, one of ISIS’s oil emirs (known by his nom de guerre) —confirming that indeed these defectors were telling the truth.” Iraq U.S. News & World Report: Coalition In-Fighting Threatens The War Against ISIS In Iraq “It was just another skirmish in an historically violent part of Iraq that, aside from the few dozen fighters who died, would not normally raise concerns far beyond the township's borders. But the recent confrontation in the northern Iraqi city of Tuz Khurmatu signals a significantly larger problem facing a central government in Baghdad already on shaky footing as it tries to hold together a political and military coalition it desperately needs to defeat the Islamic State group threat. Hostilities broke out over the weekend between two groups considered critical components of the ground war.” The New York Times: With Iraq Mired In Turmoil, Some Call For Partitioning The Country “With tens of thousands of protesters marching in the streets of Baghdad to demand changes in government, Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, appeared before Parliament this week hoping to speed the process by introducing a slate of new ministers. He was greeted by lawmakers who tossed water bottles at him, banged on tables and chanted for his ouster. But, like so much else in the Iraqi government, the effort fell short, with only a handful of new ministers installed and several major ministries, including oil, foreign and finance, remaining in limbo. A new session of Parliament on Thursday was canceled. Almost two years after the Islamic State swept through northern Iraq, forcing the Obama administration to re-engage in a conflict it had celebrated as complete, Iraq’s political system is barely functioning, as the chaotic scenes in Parliament this week demonstrated.” Turkey Reuters: Fifteen People Held Over Suicide Bomb In Turkey: Interior Minister “Turkish police have detained 15 people over a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Bursa where a woman injured eight bystanders as she blew herself up near the city's main mosque, Turkish media said on Thursday. The TRT and CNN Turk television stations quoted Interior Minister Efkan Ala as giving the total and saying evidence pointed to a link with a militant group, but gave no details. The attack on Wednesday was the fifth suicide bombing in a major urban center in Turkey this year. ‘Fifteen people have been detained in connection with the Bursa attack. There are strong indications that it is related to a group,’ the broadcasters quoted Ala as saying.” Afghanistan Voice of America: Afghanistan Outraged About Taliban's Pakistan Visit “Afghanistan has criticized Pakistan for allowing a Taliban delegation to visit the neighboring country, saying ‘a terrorist organization’ should not have been been allowed to undertake such activities. The objection came a day after the Islamist insurgency confirmed a three-member Taliban delegation traveled to Islamabad from its Qatar-based political office for talks with Pakistani officials on ‘border-related issues’ and ‘problems’ facing Afghan refugees in the country. While addressing a news conference in Kabul on Thursday,  presidential spokesman Shah Huseen Murtazawe,demanded Pakistan deal with the government in Afghanistan on these and other bilateral issues.” Yemen Reuters: Car Bomb Outside Security Chief's Home In Yemen's Aden: Sources “A suicide car bomb exploded outside the home of the security chief of Yemen's Aden, Shelal Ali Shayyeh, on Thursday, residents said, wounding at least two people. Guards fired at the attacker and the car he was driving exploded, residents said. The attack ends a period of relative calm in the city, the temporary base of Yemen's internationally recognized government, and follows gains made by Yemeni and Emirati forces against al Qaeda militants in towns on the south coast.” Middle East The Jerusalem Post: Hamas: 'There Will Be An Explosion' Unless Israel Lifts Gaza Blockade “Hamas threatened on Thursday that unless Israel lifts its blockade on the Gaza Strip, ‘there will be an explosion,’ Channel 2 reported. The report cited a statement issued by the spokesman of the Palestinian terrorist movement's military wing at an event that presented a model of the Israeli bus that exploded in a bombing in Jerusalem claimed by claimed by Hamas last week. Hamas deputy leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also spoke at the event and charged that the latest Hamas-claimed terrorist attack proved that the organization had not given up the ‘resistance option’ against Israel.” Libya Reuters: Libyan Government Urges Factions To Hold Off Attacking Islamic State In Sirte “Libya's U.N.-backed unity government called on Thursday on military factions to hold off from any campaign against the Islamic State-controlled city of Sirte until a unified military command structure is created. The statement came amid signs that factions from both eastern and western Libya could be gearing up for an advance on Sirte, although such operations have repeatedly been announced in recent months without taking place. Islamic State has held Sirte since 2015, taking advantage of a conflict between loose alliance.” United Kingdom BBC: Three Charged In UK Terror Inquiry “Two men and a woman from Birmingham have been charged with terror offences as part of a UK probe launched after the Paris and Brussels attacks. Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Zakaria Boufassil are both charged with funding terrorism on or before 7 July 2015. Mr Ahmed and Soumaya Boufassil are separately charged with preparation of acts of terrorism between January 2015 and this month. The three, from Small Heath, are due before magistrates in London on Friday. West Midlands Police said they were among five people arrested in Birmingham on 14 April and at Gatwick Airport the next day.” Fox News: ISIS Reveals How Jihadi John Evaded Security En Route From UK To Syria “ISIS executioner Jihadi John easily dodged British authorities, riding in the back of a truck to exit the UK before boarding a flight in Belgium -- despite being on a terror watch list -- according to a chilling account by a jihadist who traveled with him through six countries before reaching Syria.  ISIS' English-language magazine Dabiq details how the London-raised Jihadi John -- whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi -- and his unnamed terror associate eluded security forces on their way to Syria, where they would train to kill in the summer of 2012. The two-page article, released Jan. 19 in Issue 13 of the magazine, eulogizes the 27-year-old Emwazi, who was killed in a drone strike last year. The Kuwaiti-born terrorist was responsible for the beheadings of American and British hostages -- including U.S. journalist James Foley -- that were videotaped and posted online by the terror network.”  France Bloomberg: Paris-Attack Families May Face 5-Year Wait For Justice “After a frantic manhunt and a rapid extradition from Belgium, Salah Abdeslam was helicoptered Wednesday into solitary confinement at a high-security jail outside the French capital. But legal experts say families of the victims of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks will now have to wait years before the only surviving suspect goes on trial. ‘Even in a simple case of armed robbery in a bakery it takes a year to get a verdict,’ according to Pascal Jakowlew-Poisson, from the law-enforcement trade union Alternative Police CFDT. Given the complexity of this case, five years could elapse before those responsible for the attacks that left 130 dead in Paris are brought to justice, he said.” Europe BBC: Russia: Terrorism Is The Fault Of The West “A conference often has an official theme or issue that features in all the panel discussions and debates. At this year's Moscow International Security Conference, the official theme is fighting terrorism. But there is an unofficial theme, too - blaming the West. A string of Russian military figures and experts have accused the US and Nato of causing global insecurity and waging an ‘information war’ against Moscow. ‘Terrorism has become the number one problem for all of us,’ said Russia's Defence Minister, Sergey Shoygu. He promptly went on to accuse the US and Nato of ‘building up military infrastructure close to Russia's borders and carrying out dangerous plans for missile defence’.” CNN: Austria Passes Tough New Asylum Laws As Attitudes To Migrants Harden “Austria has passed controversial new laws restricting the right of asylum that would allow authorities to turn away most migrants at the border if a state of emergency is invoked. The laws, among the toughest European responses to the migrant crisis, come as the country prepares to build further fences along its borders, and amid public anger over a shocking child rape case involving an Iraqi migrant. The legislation, passed Wednesday, allows Austria's government to declare a state of emergency over migration if it deems the country lacks the capacity to receive, house and integrate the number of people who want to enter, said Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck.” Technology The Guardian: FBI Confirms It Won't Tell Apple How It Hacked San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone “When the FBI bought a hacking tool to break into an iPhone, it wasn’t sure what exactly it got for its $1.3m. On Wednesday, the FBI confirmed it wouldn’t tell Apple about the security flaw it exploited to break inside the iPhone 5C of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook in part, because the bureau says it didn’t buy the rights to the technical details of the hacking tool. The unusual declaration likely will raise only more curiosity about the FBI’s last-minute abandonment of its high-stakes court battle with Apple, America’s most valuable company. The day before the two were schedule to face off in court over whether the government could force Apple to unlock the phone, the government announced it had purchased a special hacking method and no longer needed Apple’s help.”