Eye on Extremism: August 12, 2025
Top Stories
Al-Monitor: Pentagon: Al-Qaeda remnants seek influence in Syria’s new government
Al-Qaeda’s notorious offshoot in Syria, Hurras al-Din, announced its formal dissolution in January after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. But nearly two years after US airstrikes killed al-Qaeda’s veteran top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Kabul, the Pentagon’s main intelligence agency assessed that some of the jihadist group’s remaining adherents continue to find refuge under a new government led Ahmed al-Sharaa, who formerly led their once top rival, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“[T]he DIA assessed that some al-Qaeda aligned groups continued to operate with some degree of autonomy under the auspices of HTS, which enables former [Hurras al-Din] elements freedom of movement,” US Defense Intelligence Agency officials told a Pentagon inspector general in June, according to a recently released report.
Fox News: White House responds to surge in Christian persecution crisis across sub-Saharan Africa
The White House, faced with an ongoing and growing tsunami of murderous attacks by Islamic State-allied groups against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, is now working closely with the State Department to find ways to stop the killing. Last week, the White House told Fox News Digital, "The Trump administration condemns in the strongest terms this horrific violence against Christians," after the U.N. reported 49 Christians were butchered with machetes on July 27 in and around a church in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while Catholic worshipers were praying for peace. Authorities say the killers were Islamist militants from the Allied Democratic Forces, also known as Islamic State DRC.
Analysis
This chapter explores whether Wagner/Africa Corps could and should be designated as a terrorist group. So far only the United Kingdom has proscribed Wagner/Africa Corps while the debate in the United States and Europe is still on-going. This chapter looks at the substantive and procedural criteria that have to be met, the sanctions that will be imposed and at the broader implications of designating proxy actors.
Jerusalem Post: Rising antisemitism: Dangerous return to dark times
In just recent days, disturbing reports have surfaced from the West, exposing an escalation in brazen and violent antisemitic attacks. Take Nassau County, New York, where a woman was arrested for tearing down an Israeli flag, a simple symbol turned into a target of hatred. Meanwhile, in White Plains, New York, red spray-painted graffiti reading “F*** Israel” greeted residents on their very own sidewalks. Passengers on flights are greeted with food packets with handwritten words of “Jew Hatred.”
Grey Dynamics: Southeast Asia Terrorism: Calm Before (or After) the Storm?
We assess that counterterrorism efforts in Southeast Asia—particularly in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia—are effective in reducing the overall terrorism threat. While regional dynamics remain fragile, with multiple terrorist attacks over the last years, the overall trend is downward. That said, with the dissolution of the physical presence of multiple armed groups, much terrorist activity has moved online. Online radicalisation remains a prime vector for extremist recruitment, targeting primarily young people. Additionally, this adds to the threat posed by terrorist splinter cells and lone wolf actors. They can operate without organisational hierarchies, which are notoriously difficult to track.
The African Union is uniquely positioned to lead coordinated responses that disrupt criminal networks, strengthen border security and cut arms flows. The Sahel region faces complex security crises driven by violent extremism, farmer-herder conflicts and banditry. Extremism is the major driver of violence. According to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, the Sahel accounts for 51% of global terrorism-related deaths.
United States
New York Times: Harvard and White House Move Toward Potential Landmark Settlement
But under the framework coming together, Harvard would agree to spend $500 million on vocational and educational programs and research, three of the people said. That figure, currently penciled in to be paid out over years, would meet a demand from President Trump that Harvard spend more than double what Columbia University agreed last month to pay. It would also satisfy Harvard’s wish that it not pay the government directly, as Columbia is doing. Harvard would also make commitments to continue its efforts to combat antisemitism on campus, two of the people said.
A woman was arrested on Friday in Brooklyn, New York, for allegedly threatening a public high school over the “Zionist” students that attend it. Iman Abdul, 27, was arrested by police on Friday on charges of making a terroristic threat, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated harassment, and making a threat of mass harm, according to a New York Police Department spokesperson. The charges stemmed from an alleged post on Instagram by Abdul on Thursday in which she made a “terroristic threat” against the Leon Goldstein High School for the Sciences, located in Manhattan Beach, according to police.
Pakistani officials on Tuesday welcomed a move by the U.S. State Department to designate a Pakistani separatist group as a foreign terrorist organization. The designation of the Balochistan Liberation Army and its fighting wing, the Majeed Brigade, blamed for deadly attacks in Balochistan province, coincides with a visit to the U.S. by Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.
CBS News: California woman who led white supremacist terror group pleads guilty to several charges
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that a California woman who led a transnational white supremacist terror group has pleaded guilty to a sweeping list of charges, including soliciting both hate crimes and the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Dallas Humber, 35, of Elk Grove, is the leader of the Terrorgram Collective. She faces up to 30 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 5.
Canada
Jerusalem Post: Montreal police arrest suspect in brutal attack on Jewish father
A suspect in the Friday beating of a Jewish father in a Montreal park was arrested on Monday, the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) announced in a press release. The 24-year old man was arrested for the incident that began when the suspect sprayed the contents of his water bottle at a Jewish man who was with his children at Dickie-Moore Park. The SPVM said that when the victim approached the suspect, the attacker pushed the father to the ground, then kneed him and punched him several times in the face. A video of the incident posted online by community activist Mayer Feig also showed the attacker flinging the victim's kippa into a fountain.
Germany
Heise: BND dilemma: intelligence service cannot use AI translators
The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is struggling with the problem of processing the daily volume of foreign-language information efficiently and promptly. Due to internal regulations and security concerns, the use of commercially available, AI-supported translation programs such as ChatGPT & Co. is ruled out, writes Bild. The reason: the servers and operators of many such services are located abroad, meaning that the spy agency would risk leaking classified information.
TAZ: Neo-Nazi attack in Berlin: Young journalists beaten and kicked
The Berlin police are investigating twelve neo-Nazis between the ages of 17 and 46 who attacked two young journalists with punches and kicks at Ostkreuz station in Friedrichshain late on Sunday evening, as the two victims confirmed to taz. The perpetrators had previously arrived by regional train from Bautzen in Saxony, where they had taken part in a right-wing extremist march against Christopher Street Day (CSD). Some of the people pictured can be attributed to the neo-Nazi groups "Deutsche Jugend Voran" (DJV), "Berliner Jugend" and "Deutsche Patrioten Voran". In the past, they have repeatedly appeared at events organized by these groups in Berlin and Brandenburg.
United Kingdom
Two men have been arrested over the alleged attempted murder of an off-duty police officer in Northern Ireland. Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot several times by masked attackers near a leisure centre in Omagh, Co Tyrone, in 2023. Mr Caldwell, who suffered life-changing injuries in the attack, was with his young son and other children, who were seen running for cover.
Turkey
Nordic Monitor: Turkey was a conduit for jihadists to join ISIS in Syria, FBI told US court
An affidavit filed in US federal court details how an American man exploited Turkey’s position as a key transit hub for jihadist fighters to attempt to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria, confirming legally what has been known all along by Turkey observers. Filed in the Northern District of Florida, the affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accused 38-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman, a US citizen born in Washington, D.C., of plotting his travel to ISIS-held territory by disguising his true destination from his family, booking a one-way ticket from Orlando to Alexandria, Egypt, via Istanbul.
Israel
Hamas has been inflating the toll of Palestinians it says have died of malnutrition, and most of those verified to have died had preexisting medical conditions, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) asserted on Tuesday. COGAT said Israeli security officials and medical experts had conducted a review of Hamas’s starvation claims in Gaza and found that the terror group has conducted “an orchestrated campaign as part of a broader effort to discredit the State of Israel and achieve political gains.”
An Israeli military spokesperson asserted on Monday that the prominent Al Jazeera journalist it killed a day earlier was an active Hamas member who received a salary from the terror group, as the international outcry mounted over the Gaza City strike that also took the lives of five other reporters. “Prior to the strike, we obtained current intelligence indicating that [Anas] al-Sharif was an active Hamas military wing operative at the time of his elimination. In addition, he received a salary from the Hamas terror group and terrorist supporters, Al-Jazeera, at the same time,” IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on X.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will only pursue a deal with Hamas going forward that includes the release of all remaining hostages, with US President Donald Trump saying he agrees with the premier’s assessment that Hamas will not agree to a deal under the current circumstances, according to reports Monday. “The prime minister would be willing to hold negotiations [for a deal] under conditions that we set for ending the war — and only if all the hostages were to be returned. Until then, we will not participate whatsoever in negotiations,” Channel 12 news quoted unnamed sources close to the premier as saying.
Gaza Strip
The lives of the remaining living hostages in Gaza are under an immediate threat due to physical and mental torture carried out by their Hamas captors, a grim report released by the Health Ministry found on Tuesday. The report, based on the condition of 12 former hostages freed earlier in 2025 as part of a ceasefire and hostage release deal carried out between January 19-February 7, paints a horrifying image of systematic starvation, severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies, the ingestion of contaminated water, and physical injuries, as well as skin diseases and respiratory illnesses, left untreated.
Lebanon
Ahead of the UN Security Council discussion on extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) taking place later this month, Israel and the United States have informed Council members that they oppose an automatic renewal of the mandate and are demanding a reassessment of the force’s necessity. A diplomat familiar with the talks told The Jerusalem Post that this comes “in light of its prolonged failure to prevent Hezbollah’s infiltration into southern Lebanon, and to enforce the Lebanese government’s sovereignty in the area.”
Iran
Iran International: Iraq, Lebanon to host Iran’s new security chief in first foreign trip
Iran’s newly appointed Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani will travel to Iraq and Lebanon this week in his first foreign trip since taking the post, with a bilateral security deal with Baghdad and high-level talks in Beirut on the agenda. Larijani, who also serves as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s personal representative to the council, said he would sign a “bilateral security agreement” with Iraq and meet “various currents” in the country.
Iraq
Kurdistan24: Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces Arrest 11 ISIS Militants in Nationwide Operations
The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces announced on Tuesday that its forces have captured 11 ISIS militants in a series of coordinated operations across several provinces, alongside the destruction of tunnels, hideouts, and fortified caves used by the group.
Burkina Faso
Agence France-Presse: Burkina Jails 13 People For Life Over Terror Acts
Burkina Faso has sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment for "acts of terrorism", including a 2018 attack against the French embassy, and given lesser jail terms to more than 60 others, according to an official statement seen Tuesday. The west African nation has been battling jihadist violence for around a decade that the junta which came to power in a coup in September 2022 has struggled to contain.
Niger
DW News: Soldiers' families face neglect of Sahel leaders
The fight against terrorism in the Sahel continues to cost lives. Their military governments appear to cover this up. DW spoke to families in Niger who learned of the deaths of their loved ones — only via social media. It has been almost two years since Saratou learned of the death of her son, a young soldier fighting in the Nigerien army. But her pain remains to this day.
Indonesia
Former leaders of the now-disbanded terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Indonesia are taking new steps to distance themselves from the group’s radical past. A new initiative, called Rumah Wasathiyah or “House of Moderation”, aims to guide former JI members away from extremism. Efforts are also underway to help Islamic boarding schools previously linked to JI transition toward more mainstream religious teachings. CNA's Saifulbahri Ismail reports.
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