Violence and Security

Final Effort to Oust IS from Northeastern Syria Faces Pushback

December 10, 2018

Syrian Kurdish Special Forces and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are facing strong pushback from Islamic State (IS) fighters in northeastern Syria, one of the few remaining holdout areas from the territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
IS Continues Jihadist Activities in Libya

December 10, 2018

Islamic State (IS) cells are active in Libya, with members of the caliphate group suspected in a combined killing-kidnapping incident in a town in the central part of the country, only weeks after Libyan security forces apprehended a local IS operative in the same town.
Pakistan Frees Founder of Taliban

December 10, 2018

Pakistan state authorities have released one of the founding members of the Taliban, the Islamist militant group committed to making Afghanistan a sharia state.
Violence in South Africa Hints at Creeping Islamist Extremism

December 10, 2018

Security experts and police officials in South Africa are warning about the growth of Islamist extremism by Sunni-affiliated al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) groups linked to a spate of attacks against mainly Shiite mosques and to Islamist propaganda materials aiming at social mobilization by playing on the country's high levels of economic inequality.
France Will Repatriate Children of French IS Jihadists in Syria, Iraq

December 10, 2018

The French Foreign Ministry announced that children of French nationals who fought with the Islamic State (IS) in the Syria-Iraq theater will be repatriated to France, citing the best interests of the children as the priority in a case-by-case approach to the repatriation policy that currently excludes foreign fighters and wives of combatants.
Taliban Uses Violence to Undermine Afghan Elections

December 10, 2018

Afghanistan’s government moved forward in holding national elections, despite violent attacks in the pre-election period and intimidation and episodic violence during the elections by the Taliban and other Islamist groups committed to implementation of sharia law across the Southwest Asian country.
Brits Release Radical Preacher Supportive of IS

December 10, 2018

The British government has released radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, who was convicted under the UK’s Terrorism Act for his radicalization and recruitment for IS and associated extremist groups, under stringent supervisory parole restrictions.
US Clamps Down on IS Finance Networks

December 10, 2018

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) continued its clampdown on Islamic State (IS) financing networks identified as providers of “financial, material, or technical support” to the Islamist group, imposing sanctions on a money-exchange company based in Iraq only weeks after OFAC sanctions on a company based in the Caribbean.
Threat from Salafist Islamists Grows in Germany

December 10, 2018

German security and political officials are focusing on policing, intelligence, and education to address what is viewed as a growing threat to the country’s democratic politics in the form of continued growth of Germany’s Salafist population.
US Airstrike Against Al-Shabaab Reveals Staying Power

December 07, 2018

A US airstrike in Somalia that killed 60 al-Shabaab fighters reveals the staying power of the jihadi group, which has sustained its multi-year war to install sharia law in the East African state and has developed a cross-border operational network whose growing terrorist and ideological activities are destabilizing Africa.