Violence and Security

New Year’s Eve Machete Attack in NY Times Square Reveals Islamist Connections

January 03, 2023

US federal and New York (NY) state inquiries underway into the machete attack against police officers in NY’s Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration has revealed the assailant’s sympathies for radical Islamist ideology, based on his handwritten diary detailing his desire to join the Taliban in order to die as a jihadist martyr, with the attack indicating the seriousness of NY law enforcement concerns about an Islamic State aligned video encouraging line wolf attacks.
Benin’s Uptick in Jihadi Violence Points to Spreading Islamist Extremist Threat in West Africa

January 03, 2023

The sharp uptick in intimidation and violence in the Africa country of Benin by jihadist groups affiliated with IS and Al-Qaeda points to the spreading threat of Islamist extremism across West Africa’s Sahel region, from inland countries to the coastal countries that affect both Africa’s economies and international trade and commerce, and state security responses focused on detentions and military activities are causing human rights violations that, according to some experts on conflict prevention, may worsen social grievances that are contritions to jihadist recruitment.
Resurgent IS Remains Security Threat for 2023

December 28, 2022

International security experts warn that the Islamic State’s (IS) loss of core caliphate territory in Iraq and Syria has not eliminated the global threat posed by the Islamist extremist group on 2023, given the operational strength and geographic scope of IS branches and affiliates worldwide and especially in light of the clear and present danger that Turkey’s invasion of northern and eastern Syria will enable a tens of thousands of IS militants and sympathizers to go free from prisons currently guarded by pro-West Kurdish forces.
Lethal Attack on Iraqi Police Reflects Durable IS

December 26, 2022

IS militants posted news on their Telegram social media channel of their lethal attack on Iraqi police officers in Kirkuk, an oil-rich, major city north of Baghdad, with the explosive attack and gunfire against Iraqi security forces signaling the durability and resilience of the Islamist extremist group's threat in their former caliphate territories.
Turkey's Invasion of Syria Benefits Islamist Extremists

December 26, 2022

Turkey argues that its invasion of northern Syria aims to eradicate Kurdish enemies of Ankara, but according to Arabnews, the most significant winners are Islamist extremists affiliated with a reconstituting IS, since Turkey's attacks on the US-affiliated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will weaken their bulwark against IS radicals.
Pakistan Faces Hostage Negotiation Crisis with Islamist Militants

December 19, 2022

Islamists militants from the Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) have taken hostages in their seizure of a highly-fortified, state counter-terrorism center in the northwestern region of the country bordering Afghanistan, and negotiations are underway with between the militants and state authorities regarding hostage release and the Islamists’ safe passage to Afghanistan, in a crisis underscoring both the TTP’s ongoing war to make Pakistan a sharia state and the robustness of Taliban Islamism as a regional disruptor in geopolitically volatile South Asia.
Somalia's Al-Shabaab's Mideast Roots & African Expansion Underscores Transnational Features of Radical Islamism

December 19, 2022

The origins of the Somalia-based militant Islamist group al-Shabaab, which has proven a durable threat in pursuing its war for a Greater Somalia governed by sharia law, lie in Mideast Salafist groups with links to al-Qaeda, and, taken together with the expansion of al-Shabaab's jihadist operations to Kenya and Uganda, the organization's trajectory underscores the transnational features and threat profile of radical Islamism.
Women & Girls Are Multiply Victimized by Boko Haram Jihad in Nigeria

December 14, 2022

Nigerian women and girls are the victims of rape, kidnapping, and enslavement by the Boko Haram Islamists waging a jihad in the oil-rich African country, but the discovery by Reuters investigative reporting of a massive systemic, largely clandestine program of forced abortions imposed by the Nigerian government on those women and girls impregnated by Boko Haram fighters is yet another traumatic consequence of the Islamists’ war to control Nigeria.
Iran Resorts to Public Executions to Preserve Islamic Regime Facing Nationwide Protests

December 14, 2022

Iran’s security authorities are resorting to public executions as an intimidation tactic aiming to quell countrywide demonstrations against the repression of the Shiite Islamist regime which has been rocked by three months of protests and scores of arrests and policy brutality, catalyzed by the September death of a Kurdish-Iranian woman held in custody by the clerical regime’s draconian morality police.
China Oppression of Uighurs Generates Jihadist Blowback & Islamist Radicalization

December 07, 2022

The Chinese Communist regime’s massive oppression and state violence against the country’s Uighur Muslim population is producing serious blowback in terms of emboldened Islamist ideology and and jihadist violence across Central Asia, led by the strategic shift by the Uighurs’ Turkistan Islamic party (TIP), with a rebranding of the TIP as a national liberation movement for East Turkistan that rejects Chinese sovereignty and an operational move inter-Islamist collaboration with al-Qaeda and IS.