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Showing posts from February 26, 2017

Women and Jihad: Converts and Casualties of Violent Extremism

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Next in our series, we take an in-depth look at the diverse ways in which women are affected by radicalization – as victims, perpetrators and peacemakers – while experts call for a gender shift in the way governments deal with women’s growing role in global terrorism. Last year, on the first weekend in September, a car was found with its hazard lights flashing near Notre Dame Cathedral in the center of Paris. The Peugeot 607, which had no number plate, contained six full gas cylinders and several documents written in Arabic. A few days later, three women aged 19, 23 and 39 were arrested in a small town 18 miles (29km) southeast of Paris. Police say  all three were radicalized  by Islamic extremists and were known to anti-terrorism investigators. Officers later produced a letter they say was written by one of the women that pledged allegiance to ISIS. The letter said the planned attack on Notre Dame was revenge for an airstrike that had killed the group’s deputy leader. Three days

Shining Path founder Guzman faces second life sentence in Peru

LIMA: Prosecutors in Peru asked a federal judge on Tuesday to hand down a life sentence to Abimael Guzman, the founder of the Maoist-inspired rebel group the Shining Path, for allegedly ordering a bombing in Lima that killed 25 people in 1992. Guzman is already serving a life sentence for having led the Shining Path's attempt to overthrow the state. The 1992 car-bomb attack on Tarata Street in the upscale district of Miraflores was part of the Shining Path's bid to take its militancy to the capital from rural Peru and helped build support for a crackdown on suspected rebels by former President Alberto Fujimori. At the start of a public trial on the bombing on Tuesday, Guzman, now gray-haired and bearded at 82, spoke to the court only to request medical care, a sharp contrast to his shouted praise for communism at a trial more than a decade ago, when he was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison. Guzman's attorney Alfredo Crespo said that lower-ranki

Brother of terrorist walks length of France in anti-extremism campaign

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Abdelghani Merah, the elder brother of Mohamed Merah who murdered seven people in southwestern France in 2012, walks along the country's major N7 road on February 16, 2017 as part of a personal campaign to combat extremism. Philippe Desmazes / AFP Photo NICE // The brother of one of France’s most notorious terrorists is walking almost the length of the country as part of a personal campaign to combat indoctrination, extremism and hatred. Inspired by "the march of the Beurs", a celebrated anti-racism trek in 1983, and by his own love of France, Abdelghani Merah will have covered more than 1,200 kilometres in nearly six weeks by the time he reaches Paris on March 19. With a bottle of water by his side and a duvet in his back pack – and coping with a disabled arm – the 40-year-old marches between 25 and 40 exhausting kilometres a day and has occasionally had to sleep in the open since leaving Marseilles on February 8. "I remain totally determined,&

Pakistan: Recent Attacks Expose Limits of Counterterrorism

spate of bombings signal a renewed threat of militancy in Pakistan, with groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State demonstrating the ability to strike nationwide. During the week of February 13, Pakistan suffered a series of terrorist attacks in all four of its provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a breakaway faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed the majority of the attacks, followed by TTP and the Islamic State (IS), which claimed the February 16 attack on a Sufi shrine in Sehwan that killed 90 people. Multiple assaults perpetrated by different militant groups have raised concerns about the heightened presence and capabilities of terrorist groups in Pakistan. IS, JuA and TTP have all demonstrated the ability to conduct gun and IED assaults, as well as large-scale suicide bomb attacks against both government and civilian targets. Nevertheless, only JuA has managed to conduct attacks in every province of Pakistan,

S-E Asia: An ‘alternative jihad’ for Xinjiang’s Uighurs?

South-east Asia is witnessing evolving security risks from Chinese Uighurs’ involvement in militant activities in the region. Although this is a relatively new phenomenon, it has transnational security implications for the region. Since 2013, South-east Asia has emerged as a major transit route for an influx of illegal Uighur immigrants fleeing from China’s restive Xinjiang province in a bid to reach Turkey, which is home to a large Uighur diaspora community. The first phase of the movement of Uighurs into Southeast Asia took place in 2009 — in the aftermath of the inter-ethnic clashes between local Uighur and Han Chinese communities that left 197 dead and 1,700 injured. The phenomenon of Uighur militancy in South-east Asia can be said to be an outcome of a combination of long-standing inter-ethnic tensions between local Uighur and Han communities in Xinjiang, and the tightening of border controls and security measures in Central Asia, which has forced the Uighurs to seek alternat

Red Cross says chemical weapons used in Mosul area

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Iraqi families walk down a road as they flee Mosul on March 3, 2017, during an offensive by security forces to retake the western parts of the city from ISIL fighters. Aris Messinis / AFP / AP BAGHDAD // ISIL has used chlorine gas in attacks in west Mosul, Iraqi police said on Friday. The Red Cross reported treating seven civilians for exposure to toxic chemical agents. Brig Gen Wathaq Al Hamdani, the Nineveh provincial police chief, said ISIL targeted Al Jazair district in western Mosul with "Katyusha launchers with missiles carrying chlorine gas" at least twice in recent days. Five civilians were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for asphyxiation, he said.  The Red Cross said it had seven patients at its Rozhawa hospital near Mosul who appeared to have been exposed to a toxic chemical agent.  "During the past two days, the hospital has admitted five children and two women showing clinical symptoms consistent with an exposure to a blistering ch

Kosovo Looks to ISIS Wives in Order to Fight Extremism

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Most Kosovar men who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS are accompanied by their wives. For our series “Women and Jihad,” we talk to counterterrorism experts who believe these women could be the key to challenging violent extremism. “Wherever he goes, I follow. I will always be with my husband.” This is the mind-set of Kosovar women who join their militant husbands in Syria or Iraq, according to Kujtim Bytyqi, one of the government’s senior security policy analysts and head of Kosovo’s strategy to counter violent extremism. The police say that more than 300 Kosovars have traveled to fight for the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) – the  highest number per capita  in Europe – and the majority of fighters do not go alone: Bytyqi says half of the Kosovar citizens currently in Syria or Iraq are women or children. Very little is known about the wives from Kosovo who travel to ISIS-held territory. But through the work of the government and NGOs, a picture is slowly emerging of a

No peace talks as long as NPA rebels ‘full of hate,’ says Duterte

The government cannot resume peace talks with communist rebels while their hearts are full of hate, President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday night. Duterte his decision to scrap peace negotiations last month was partly based on an attack by the New People’s Army (NPA) on three soldiers. which happened even before the rebels terminated their unilateral ceasefire. The soldiers had 76 gunshot wounds, which Duterte said showed the communist rebels’ level of hatred. That was why he got so angry. “How can you do that to a Filipino?” he said. “You know, that indicates hatred. If they are like that, you are full of hate. Then we cannot talk about peace.” One bullet should be enough to bring down your enemy, he said. Duterte made his statements to reporters after his visit to the wake in Cagayan de Oro of two slain soldiers. The soldiers, who belonged to the 58th Infantry Battalion of the 4th Infantry Divsion were killed in combat with communist rebels in Misamis Oriental earlier in

Colombia Approves First Amnesty Requests from Terrorists Under FARC Deal

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The Colombian government announced Wednesday that it had approved for an amnesty and rehabilitation program four members of the Marxist terror organization FARC, the beginning of the implementation of a peace deal expected to allow 4,500 terrorists to reintegrate into society. The peace deal between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), while  winning Santos a Nobel Peace Prize , proved unpopular enough among Colombians to  lose a popular referendum vote  in October 2016. The government chose to override the referendum and impose the peace deal as constitutional legislation last year. The office of the nation’s prosecutor general  announced on Wednesday  that it had begun processing applications from FARC terrorists who had handed over their weapons to the government and sought to be processed and reintegrated into Colombian society. The office added that it had received 98 applications for amnesty between February