Violence and Security

Justice Department Indicts US-Bosnian Citizen as Terrorist Supporter of IS

December 27, 2021

The US Department of Justice announced the indictment of a US-Bosnian dual citizen in a Kentucky federal court for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, based on evidence that the individual traveled to Turkey and Syria to train and fight with IS and that he endorsed the goal of an IS conquest of the United States.
Islamist Extremists Use COVID as Opportunity for Expansion in African Sahel

December 15, 2021

Islamist extremists groups are using the COVID pandemic to expand operations across Africa’s Sahel region, intensifying violent attacks during a period when the region’s already weak states are directing most economic resources towards pandemic management and away from counter-terrorism security needs.
Blasphemy Allegations Generate Anti-Hindu Violence in Bangladesh

December 10, 2021

An increase of targeted violence against Bangladesh’s Hindu minority’s private and communal properties by majority-Muslim mobs enflamed by allegations of Hindu blasphemy against Islam underscore the expansion of extremist Islamist ideology in the south Asian country, and signal broader regional trends whereby Islamist militants use blasphemy to pressure governments into sectarian policies that reject rule of law and religious pluralism in favor of sharia legislation and norms.
Women & Girls Experience Sharp Increase in Abuse Under Taliban’s Islamic Emirate

December 08, 2021

According to new findings released by global human rights watchdog Amnesty International, women and girls across Afghanistan are reporting a sharp increase in physical and sexual abuse since the Taliban established an Islamic Emirate, with cases of rape, beatings emotional and physical torture, and forced child marriage on the rise.
Latest Mob Atrocity Underscores Expanding Influence of Islamist Extremists in Pakistan

December 07, 2021

A vigilante mob lynched and burned alive a Sri Lankan factory manager in eastern Pakistan after he was accused of blasphemy against Islam, in an atrocity that follows weeks of violent social protests led by the country’s largest radical Sunni Islamist group and in the latest act of extra-judicial violence indicating the South Asian country’s increasing control by Islamist extremists.
UNITAD Confirms IS Committed War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, & Used Chemical Weapons

December 07, 2021

The UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh (UNITAD) reported to the UN Security Council the discovery of comprehensive evidence that Da’esh (IS) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in carrying out the jihadists’ war in Iraq and Syria, and also reported compelling evidence that the Islamist terror group used chemical weapons in their war to establish and expand the caliphate territories.
ICC Gives Leniency to Jihadi Doing Time for War Crime

December 01, 2021

The Malian jihadi who headed al Qaeda’s local “virtue and vice committee” and who was convicted in 2016 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes for destroying World Heritage sites in Timbuktu has won a reduced jail sentence from an ICC review panel, following the perpetrator’s claims that he will cooperate with the ICC to raise public awareness about the destruction of religious and cultural heritage as a war crime.
Pentagon Report Warns of Sustainability of IS Threat

December 01, 2021

The U.S. Pentagon’s latest report on anti-IS operations warns of the durability of IS capacity and the sustainability of the jihadi group’s threat in former caliphate territories is Syria and Iraq, given the adaptation of IS forces, coupled with Syrian and Iraqi state fragility, economic pressures, and pandemic complications.
Al-Shabaab Continues Jihad in Somalia with Attack on School

November 30, 2021

The al-Qaeda affiliated Somali extremist group al-Shabaab continued its jihadist campaign to make the geopolitically important Horn of Africa country into an Islamic state, with the latest attack in the form of a multiple-casualty suicide bombing on a school in the capital city, an attack that the Islamist extremist leadership claimed was aimed at a UN peacekeeping convoy.
Islamic Jihad Threatens Attacks on Tel Aviv

November 30, 2021

The Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist extremist group, has threatened to attack Tel Aviv as retaliation for any future Israeli targeting of the jihadi group’s leaders and for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.