Eye on the extremism - ISIS suspect reveals plans to open up route from Syria to U.S. through Mexico
Eye on Extremism
April 25, 2016
Counter Extremism Project
The New York Times: ISIS Targeted By Cyberattacks In A New U.S. Line Of Combat
“The United States has opened a new line of combat against the Islamic State, directing the military’s six-year-old Cyber Command for the first time to mount computer-network attacks that are now being used alongside more traditional weapons. The effort reflects President Obama’s desire to bring many of the secret American cyberweapons that have been aimed elsewhere, notably at Iran, into the fight against the Islamic State — which has proved effective in using modern communications and encryption to recruit and carry out operations.”
Wall Street Journal: Two British Men Sentenced To Life For Terrorism Plot
“Since the arrests of Messrs. Hassane and Majeed, the pursuit of Syria-linked terror suspects by the U.K. police and intelligence services has intensified to the point where arrests now average almost one a day, according to senior commanders. Of the 350 British foreign fighters to have returned to the U.K., at least 70 are considered ‘potentially extremely dangerous,’ said Mark Simmonds, the chief operating officer of the Counter-Extremism Project and a former senior government official. Separately, detectives in the city of Birmingham investigating possible U.K. links to the Paris and Brussels attacks said they had been given more time to question three suspects arrested last Thursday and Friday.”
CNN: Obama Expected To Announce An Additional 250 Special Operations Forces To Syria
“President Barack Obama is expected to announce Monday an additional 250 special operations forces will be sent to Syria in the coming weeks, according to two U.S. officials. The expected announcement will come while the President visits Germany. The troops will be expanding the ongoing U.S. effort to bring more Syrian Arab fighters into units the U.S. supports in northern Syria that have largely been manned by the Kurds, one of the officials said. One of the officials emphasized the plan calls for the additional U.S. forces to ‘advise and assist’ forces in the area whom the U.S. hopes may eventually grow strong enough to take back territory around Raqqa, Syria, where ISIS is based. These troops are not expected to engage in combat operations or to participate in target-to-kill teams but will be armed to defend themselves, one official said.”
The Washington Post: A Syrian Rebel’s Slaying In Turkey Points To The Long, Lethal Reach Of ISIS
“On a drizzly afternoon this month, they gathered in the tree-lined cemetery here to bid farewell to a charismatic rebel and outspoken enemy of the Islamic State. An apparent Islamic State militant followed the 36-year-old into an alley in the Turkish city of Gaziantep and fired a round into his head. He was the fourth prominent Syrian critic of the Islamic State to be assassinated in the past six months in southern Turkey, far beyond the militants’ stronghold in Syria. After rising to prominence as leader of a rebel brigade and then as a television host, Shurqat eventually fled to southern Turkey for safety. But even in exile, he couldn’t escape his radical Islamist foes back home. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for his killing, an attack that further demonstrates how the group can still strike beyond its center of gravity despite suffering mounting losses on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria.”
Reuters: Yemeni, UAE Troops Seize Qaeda-Held Seaport City: Residents
“Yemeni and Emirati soldiers seized Yemen's seaport of Mukalla from al Qaeda fighters on Sunday, depriving the group of the seaport that enabled it to amass a fortune amid the country's civil war. Around 2,000 Yemeni and Emirati troops advanced into Mukalla, local officials and residents said, taking control of its maritime port and airport and setting up checkpoints throughout the southern coastal city. There was little fighting after a mostly Gulf Arab alliance and Yemeni forces mobilised their forces at Mukalla's suburbs, and the militants may have chosen to leave peacefully.”
Fox News: ISIS Suspect Reveals Plans To Open Up Route From Syria To U.S. Through Mexico
“One of the American men accused in Minnesota of trying to join the Islamic State group wanted to open up routes from Syria to the U.S. through Mexico, prosecutors said. Guled Ali Omar told the ISIS members about the route so that it could be used to send members to America to carry out terrorist attacks, prosecutors alleged in a document filed this week. The document, filed Wednesday, is one of many filed in recent weeks as prosecutors and defense attorneys argue about which evidence should be allowed at the men's trial, which starts May 9.”
Voice Of America: Cost Of War And Peace In Iraq
“Humanitarian agencies are warning the fight to free Mosul from Islamic State control could have a huge impact on the civilian population caught in the crossfire. ‘If you have the high levels of destruction that we saw in Ramadi, there’s going to be a massive humanitarian impact,’ Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, told VOA. Between 300,000 to 1.2 million people could be displaced by the fighting, Grande said. Iraq is ‘one of the largest, most volatile humanitarian crisis in the world,’ Grande said. In the past year, 1 million people have been displaced, bringing the total to 3.5 million. That number is expected to rise as the campaign against Islamic State intensifies.”
Premium Times: Two Million Nigerians Still Displaced By Boko Haram Insurgency
“A total of 1,934,765 displaced persons, IDPs, are currently living in formal camps, host communities and satellite camps in liberated communities as a result of insurgency in North Eastern States of Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa states. This was disclosed by the Yola Camp Coordinator , Saad Bello, who, on behalf of the Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, took the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, round the facilities at Malkohi IDP Camp in Yola, Adamawa State at the weekend. He said there were 32 formal camps in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States with a total of 189,783 IDPs. Borno has 19 camps with 150, 858 IDPs; Yobe has 9 camps with 31, 988 IDPs and Adamawa 4 camps with 6, 937 IDPs.”
New York Times: An Amateur Vs. ISIS: A Car Salesman Investigates And Ends Up In Prison
“By his own account, Toby Lopez was a supremely ordinary guy. He sold Toyotas and lived with his mother in a tidy rancher here with a cherry tree out front. He was proud that he could connect with customers — anyone from a Superior Court judge to, as he put it, “Redneck Bill from down on the farm.” What passed for excitement was the time his young niece won a beauty contest and he chauffeured her in a red Corvette in a local parade. Then a high school friend was killed in Afghanistan, and the Islamic State began beheading American journalists. Horrified, Mr. Lopez heard on CNN one day in the fall of 2014 that the Islamic State was active on Twitter, and he went online to see what he could find.”
Defense One: Meet The Small Iraqi Town That Breeds Jihadis
“No matter where you turn when covering ISIL’s two years of terror in Iraq and Syria, one name repeatedly crops up: Tal Afar. The town, with an estimated 200,000 residents when ISIL (a.k.a. the Islamic State), captured it two years ago, is perched on the dusty plains of northern Iraq, just shy of the Syrian border. Its native sons are thought to have taken a lead role in massacring Yazidis in nearby Sinjar during the summer of 2014. When ISIL seized the Mosul Dam for 12 days that August, a water engineer who’d previously managed Tal Afar’s drainage system was put in charge of it.”
United States
Fox News: Obama Rules Out Sending US Ground Troops To Syria
“President Obama ruled out Sunday sending U.S. ground troops to Syria, saying that military efforts alone aren’t going to solve the conflict. ‘It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain, to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime,’ he said in an interview with the BBC. Obama said he didn’t think the Islamic State would be eradicated in his last nine months in office, but he still believes the territory that the terror group controls can shrink. Obama called the conflict a ‘heart-breaking situation of enormous complexity.’ Obama told the BBC the U.S.-led coalition will continue its air campaign against ISIS and target key areas like Raqqa to try and ‘lockdown particular areas where the terror group can import foreign fighters into Europe.’”
The New York Times: Obama Calls Meeting With European Leaders Over Shared Challenges
“President Obama will meet with Western European leaders on Sunday and Monday amid a growing sense in his administration that Europe is faltering in the face of multiple challenges, undercutting the trans-Atlantic alliance at a critical time. Even as Mr. Obama has tried to focus United States foreign policy more on Asia and China’s rising power, administration aides say they have watched with concern as European unity has come under increased strain at a time of increased Russian aggression, slow economic growth, a virulent terrorism threat, and a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and beyond.”
Syria
Associated Press: At Least 26 Killed As Fighting Rages In Syria's Aleppo
“Air strikes and shelling pounded Aleppo for a third straight day on Sunday, killing two young siblings and at least 24 others in Syria's largest city and former commercial capital. The northern city has been bitterly contested between insurgents and government forces since 2012. Opposition groups control the eastern part of the city but have come under intense strain as the government has choked off all routes to the area except a narrow and perilous passage to the northwest. At least 10 people were killed by rebel shelling on government-held areas in the city, according to activists and Syria's state news agency, SANA. Rockets struck schools and residential areas, SANA reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two young siblings were among the dead. Air strikes on the opposition side of the city killed 16, including a mother and her daughter, the Observatory said.”
Reuters: Kurdish Forces To Keep Areas Taken From Syrian Government Forces Truce
“Kurdish security forces will keep territory taken from pro-government forces during a rare three-day outbreak of violence in a city in northeastern Syria, a truce announced by Kurdish authorities on Sunday indicated. The fighting in Qamishli, near the Turkish border, disturbed a largely peaceful coexistence there between the Kurds' Asayish internal security forces that control most of the city and pro-government forces holding the airport and part of its centre. During the fighting that broke out last Wednesday and was halted late Friday afternoon, Asayish forces seized the main prison and several government-controlled positions in the city. The truce, which seemed to be holding on Sunday, headed off possibly wider fighting between the pro-government forces and the Kurds, whose YPG militia is an important ally in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State on other fronts in Syria.”
Iraq
The Washington Post: Fighting Erupts In Iraq, And The Islamic State Isn’t Part Of It
“Kurdish troops and Iraqi Shiite forces exchanged mortar and machine-gun fire Sunday in a flare-up that killed at least 12 people and raised concerns about the state’s ability to control an array of armed militia groups as areas are freed from the Islamic State. The fighting broke out in Tuz Khurmatu, an ethnically and religiously mixed tinderbox town that is 120 miles north of Baghdad. Both sides blamed each other for the conflagration. The Islamic State was pushed out of the surrounding area in 2014, but the armed groups here have since jostled for control and influence. Keeping militias under state control, and preventing them from turning on one another, is a major test for the Iraqi government as it slowly claws back territory from the Islamist militants.”
Associated Press: Clashes Erupt Between Kurdish, Shiite Fighters In Iraqi Town
“Heavy clashes erupted Sunday between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite paramilitary troops inside a contested town north of Baghdad, a spokesman said. A quarrel between two neighbors, a Kurd and a Shiite Turkoman, evolved into a military confrontation between the peshmerga forces and Shiite fighters who share the town of Tuz Khormato, said Karim al-Nouri, the spokesman for Iraq's paramilitary forces — which are made up mainly of Shiite militias. Al-Nouri accused the Kurds of using tanks and shelling homes belong to Turkoman residents, saying senior officials were in talks to end the conflict. He said the clashes resulted in causalities, but didn't give a specific number.”
Turkey
Reuters: One Dead, 26 Wounded As Rockets Hit Turkish Town Near Syrian Border
“Rockets pounded the Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border on Sunday, a Reuters witness reported, killing one person and injuring 26, a day after the government promised to protect the area from repeated attacks by Islamic State militants. Two rockets struck houses in a poor neighbourhood near the town centre in the morning. Sixteen people were injured and Turkish soldiers near the border returned fire into Syria, security sources said. Later in the day, one person was killed and 10 more injured when two more rockets crashed into a mosque, Hurriyet Daily News reported. The mosque was 100 metres from the governor's office, where Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan was holding talks at the time.”
AFP: Turkey Kills Almost 900 ISIS Members In Syria Raids
“Turkey has killed almost 900 alleged ISIS members since January through artillery fire and air raids, the state-run Anatolia news agency said Monday, citing military sources. The country, a member of a US-led coalition fighting ISIS, has killed 492 "terrorists" since January 9 in air raids, while another 370 were killed in artillery strikes which also destroyed arms depots, the agency said. These figures could not be independently verified. Turkey, which has been hit by attacks blamed on jihadists, including two deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul that targeted foreign tourists, began to carry out air strikes against the group in Syria last summer.”
Afghanistan
Telegraph: Afghanistan In 'Worst Humanitarian Crisis' Since 2001 Following Nato Drawdown
“Afghanistan has plunged into its worst humanitarian crisis since the start of operations in 2001 after American and British forces pulled out 18 months ago, the outgoing head of the international Red Cross has said. The drawdown of Nato troops including the British and Americans has seen an upsurge in fighting, with the Taliban now able to bring the war to major cities for the first time, Jean-Nicolas Marti told The Telegraph. Last year saw the number of war wounded evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross grow by 30 per cent on the year before. This year’s figure is already on course to outstrip that, even before the summer ‘fighting season’ starts. The number of civilian casualties overall was also the highest since 2001.”
Yemen
The Washington Post: War In Yemen Takes A Major Turn With Offensive Against Al-Qaeda
“Signaling a major shift in Yemen’s grinding civil war, Saudi-backed forces Sunday appeared to mount a large-scale offensive to drive militants aligned with al-Qaeda out of their strongholds in the country’s south. The coordinated attacks on strongholds held by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, would be a first for the coalition dominated by Saudi Arabia, which began launching airstrikes and then ground attacks last year against Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. Saudi Arabia views the Houthis as proxies of its primary regional rival, Shiite Iran, and has refrained from targeting AQAP. Under cover of airstrikes by the coalition, fighters aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government pushed toward the city of Mukalla and surrounding areas. Mukalla has become AQAP’s de facto capital.”
Middle East
Haaretz: Youngest Female Palestinian Jailed By Israel Released Two-And-A-Half Months After Arrest
“A 12-year-old Palestinian girl convicted of attempting to stab an Israeli was released from prison on Sunday and returned to her family, two-and-a-half months after becoming the youngest female Palestinian ever incarcerated by Israel. D. was convicted in a plea bargain in February of attempted voluntary manslaughter and illegal possession of a knife by a military court. According to the indictment, she set out to stab a Jew, but was apprehended at the entrance to the settlement of Karmei Tzur, where a knife was found in her possession.”
Libya
Reuters: Militants, Guards Clash Near Libya's Brega Port, Oil Commander Wounded
“Islamic State militants clashed with a Libyan force guarding oil ports near Brega terminal on Saturday, killing one guard and wounding four including Ibrahim Jathran, leader of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), a spokesman and medical sources said. Islamic State has a base in the Libyan city of Sirte and has launched frequent attacks against oil facilities and ports, including major export terminals that are closed but controlled by Jathran's PFG brigades. The PFG is one semi-official armed group that is backing a new unity government in Libya, where two rival administrations and their loose alliances of former rebels have been battling for control after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.”
Nigeria
Bloomberg: Nigeria Intercepts Suspected Boko Haram Bomber In Borno State
“The Nigerian army said it intercepted a suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber in Ummarari in the country’s north-eastern Borno state. The man died on Saturday morning when he detonated explosives strapped to his body after being stopped, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, acting director of public relations for the Nigerian army, said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. The army is questioning four Boko Haram leaders, including a radio technician, who were arrested on Friday in Borno, according to a separate statement.”
United Kingdom
Newsweek: Britain Not Ruling Out Sending Troops To Libya
“British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday that he could not rule out sending troops to Libya if requested to do so by the Libyan government, but that any deployment would need to be approved by Parliament. Western powers are backing a new Libyan unity government, hoping it will seek foreign support to confront Islamic State militants, deal with migrant flows from Libya to Europe and restore oil production to shore up Libya's economy. Hammond said he did not think it was likely that Libya would invite foreign military intervention, but highlighted the risk that an Islamic State militant group stronghold in the country could pose to mainland Europe.”
“Government minister in charge of tackling extremism has been accused of ‘complacency’ after claiming the UK is ‘adequately prepared’ to combat the threat of terrorists exploiting porous borders. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon denied that a review of security at borders was necessary and ruled out an increase in Border Force numbers insisting that ‘we meet the challenges we currently face’. The news came after Eurosceptic justice minister Dominic Raab suggested Britain could turn away ten times more extremists and criminals of the UK left the European Union.”
BBC: UK 'Anti-IS Fighters' Freed In Iraq
“Two Britons and an Irishman have been freed in Iraq after being held on their way home from fighting against so-called Islamic State (IS), the Foreign Office has said. Jac Holmes from Bournemouth, Joe Ackerman from Halifax and Irish citizen Joshua Molloy had been detained in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. IS controls large swathes of territory in Syria and north and west Iraq. Mr Holmes's mother met Kurdish officials on Friday to help secure his release. The three men were held for more than a week in a prison in the Kurdish city, Erbil.”
Australia
Reuters: Police Charge Australian Teenager With Planning ANZAC Terror Attack
“Australian police have arrested and charged a teenager with a terrorism offense related to planning an attack at Monday's commemorations of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli during World War One. The 16-year-old boy was arrested near his Sydney home on Sunday and will appear before a children's court on Monday, police said. The offense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. ANZAC Day, April 25, is a major annual holiday in Australia and New Zealand marking the date of the first Gallipoli landings in 1915, in which large numbers of Australian and New Zealand troops fought and died. Dawn services and military parades are held around the country, with the largest drawing crowds of tens of thousands in Sydney and Melbourne.”
Arabic Language Clips
ISIS
ISIS in the Libyan city of Sirte launched a campaign of random raids in which it captured all residents rumored to own real estate in the city. Eyewitnesses in Sirte said that on Friday and Saturday ISIS gunmen launched a massive campaign of raids and arrested property-owners, while its militants did not provide reasons to justify these arrests. It is noteworthy that in a similar manner ISIS recently took merchants and businessmen captive and confiscated money and properties owned by residents.
Al-Alam: Stunning Facts... Germany Funds ISIS Whose Wealth Comes To $1 Billion
A German security report revealed that the treasury of the ISIS terrorist organization comprises nearly $1 billion. It indicated that ISIS has amassed its wealth from "taxes and compulsory fees imposed in areas under its control (in Syria and Iraq), as well as oil profits, smuggling of antiquities and ransom money." The report, prepared by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA), claimed that "convoys" of financial aid from Germany are being provided by affluent families and friends of jihadist groups. It stressed that such assistance "plays an important role." The German report added that "in addition to these funds, Germany is a source of aid in the form of medicine, clothing, vehicles and protective vests. Germany is also a source of donations through social media websites."
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that the Egyptian government was able to persuade the tribal leaders in Sinai to cooperate with Egypt's army against ISIS. Now, tribal chiefs are awaiting implementation of the ambitious economic plan that will provide jobs for the people of Sinai as a substitute for the monetary enticements offered to them by ISIS. In addition, the Saudi aid of $1.5 billion, which was said to be dedicated to the development of North Sinai, comes specifically to achieve this goal in the hope of purging Sinai from terrorist organizations and restoring foreign tourism, which used to be an important source of hard currency.
Muslim Brotherhood
The Egyptian Supreme State Security Prosecution on Saturday remanded businessman Hassan Malek in custody for the eighth time. His detention was extended for 45 more days pending investigations conducted into charges of joining and financing the Muslim Brotherhood. He is also being charged with conspiring to harm the Egyptian economy through currency exchange companies owned by him, as well as financing anti-regime demonstrations.
Alhyat Almasrya: Eradication Of All School Maps Printed During The Rule Of The Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt's Minister of Education, Dr. El Helali el Sherbini, stated that the Ministry's committees of expert advisers are currently conducting a full review of the maps appearing in the curricula of all public and private schools. The committees' task is to ascertain the accuracy of the information contained in these maps after having found maps, printed during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, which featured false and misleading information. This misinformation contained, for instance, the inclusion of the towns of Halayeb and Shalateen within the borders of Sudan, not of Egypt. The Egyptian minister asserted, in a report sent to several Members of Parliament following urgent petitions, including those made by representatives of Halayib and Shalateen, that all of these maps have now been destroyed. El Sherbini also disclosed that it was decided to inform the committee tasked with seizing funds of Brotherhood schools about the obliteration of these maps, so as to deduct the costs of this action from the budgets of these schools.
Egyptian parliamentarian Mostafa Bakry noted he does not rule out the possibility that Dr. Ayman Nour, founder and chairman of the Ghad El-Thawra Party, transferred huge sums of money to several activists to support the demonstrations on April 25th. Bakry claimed that Nour holds enormous assets obtained from questionable sources. The Egyptian parliamentarian stressed that Ayman Nour plays an instrumental role as a Muslim Brotherhood pawn, so it is only natural to presume he was secretly transferring funds to such groups. He went on to say, "There are people who travel to Turkey and meet with Ayman Nour, including dubious figures who played and still play a role in inciting (against the Egyptian regime)."
Moheet: Economist: Brotherhood Smuggles $40 Million A Day Out Of (Egypt)
Egyptian economist Soliman Fouad claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood smuggles abroad nearly $40 million per day from the Egyptian market. The expert, in an interview on the LTC TV channel, called on security and regulatory agencies to intensify their campaigns to detain smugglers of hard currency out of the country. He noted that Turkey and Qatar are not behind the current crisis of skyrocketing dollar rates. He affirmed that 10 businessmen own 75% of the Egyptian currency exchange market and that 14 foreign currency exchange companies affiliated with the Brotherhood are manipulating the dollar rates.
An Egyptian judicial source revealed a new violation of the law by ousted Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zend; i.e., aiding the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in the annulment of decisions to seize their properties. The source said that al-Zend had violated the law by appointing Ezzat Khamis as a technical consultant in the ministry despite his reaching retirement age in July 2015. Granting judicial capacity to a judge who reached retirement age represents a loophole and a breach of the law by the minister. This loophole was exploited by the Brotherhood and eventually led to the dismissal of Khamis. The judicial source provided more details: "The reason for firing Ezzat Khamis from the Brotherhood Asset Freeze Committee represents the State Commissioners Authority's acceptance of a lawsuit filed by Muslim Brotherhood leaders whose funds were seized. It also signifies the annulment of the asset-seizures explained by several arguments, including the fact that the Committee Chairman is no longer considered a judge after retirement."
Hezbollah
In his first response to the entering into effect of the US law imposing sanctions on Hezbollah, the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, stressed that "banks must not carry out large-size operations which can be of benefit to Hezbollah." He noted that banks are accountable for their decisions. Salameh asked the banks to close the accounts of anyone included in the US sanctions and to refrain from opening new accounts for them. In any case, the banks must notify the Special Investigation Commission at the Central Bank of Lebanon and await its response. US President Barack Obama signed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act, and now Lebanese banks must comply with it.
Houthi
Filkhbr: The Houthis Loot Yemeni Funds After Realizing The End Of Their Coup Looms
A senior Yemeni source requesting anonymity revealed that the Houthi militia had confiscated taxes paid by private telecom operators in the country. These taxes are estimated at roughly 100 billion riyals (equivalent to some $400 million) which were supposed to be deposited in the Central Bank. On his part, Yemeni economic analyst Hussein al-Bakri ruled out the possibility that such a vast amount of money will be used militarily. He said, "Preventing the provision of the telecommunications companies' taxes for 2015 by the Houthi and ex-President Saleh's militias is a serious move, indicating that the (Houthi) group has begun to accumulate resources to secure its financial future. This means that the leadership of the militia realizes it is in the final chapter of its coup."
The Counter Extremism Project