Violence and Security

Remaining IS Forces Target Christians in Northeast Syria

July 17, 2019

Islamic State (IS) forces perpetrated a suicide-bombing attack near a church in a Christian-majority town in northeast Syria, indicating the Islamist group’s sustained jihadist objectives against Christian communities.
Trauma Remains Challenge for Children Freed from IS Captivity

July 17, 2019

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), rehabilitation from psychological and physical trauma suffered by ethnic and religious minority children and infants liberated from Islamic State (IS) captivity in Iraq remains a long-term challenge.
Shiite Extremist Group Protests in Nigerian Capital

July 17, 2019

The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), the Shiite extremist analog to the Boko Haram Sunni extremist group, both of which are warring to make Nigeria a sharia state, is leading demonstrations in the capital city of Abuja to demand the release of their religious leader, detained on charges of plotting to assassinate a senior Nigerian military official.
Taliban Attacks Target Key Af-Pak Transit Corridor

July 10, 2019

The Taliban carried out two high-casualty attacks against an Afghan state facility and a mosque in the strategic town of Ghazni, crucial for consolidating the Islamist extremism group’s control over domestic transit routes connecting the Afghanistan-Pakistan operations corridor.
Dutch Trial of IS Fighter May Become Model for Other Countries

July 10, 2019

The trial in the Netherlands of a repatriated Dutch national who fought for the Islamic State (IS) may become a model legal mechanism for prosecution of the estimated 5,000 European citizens who, as fighters for the caliphate, may be tried for war crimes under universal jurisdiction.
Indonesia Faces Complex Islamist Extremist Ecosystem

July 10, 2019

Indonesian security authorities’ recent arrest of an al-Qaeda-affiliated leader with a domestic organizational network underscores the expanding, complex ecosystem of extremists using economic, political, and military mechanisms to penetrate the world’s most populous Muslim-majority society.
Indian Agencies Report Arrests of IS Sympathizers

July 10, 2019

India’s state security agencies report 155 arrests of individuals through mid-2019 on charges of supporting the Islamic State (IS) or related terrorist organizations, with cyber activities constituting a particularly serious platform for online recruitment and radicalization in the geopolitically-crucial South Asian country.
IS Attacks Military Base in Niger

July 10, 2019

Islamic State (IS) operatives carried out a lethal attack on a military base in Niger on the country’s border with Mali in a show of force that reflects the expanding scope and capacity of jihadism across West Africa and the Sahel region of the IS umbrella group known as Islamic State West Africa Province.
Sri Lanka Takes Action to Curb Saudi Wahhabism Influence

July 10, 2019

In the wake of the high-casualty Easter 2019 bombings perpetrated by Islamist militants in Sri Lanka, government officials are taking steps to crack down on the influx of funding by Saudi Arabia to schools and activities that disseminate the Wahhabist Kingdom’s extremist Islamic ideology.
Islamist Extremism Spreads to South Africa

July 03, 2019

South Africa’s government is grappling with preventive action to halt the contagion of Islamist extremism from the African Continent’s southeastern corridor.