Eye on Extremism: August 14, 2025
Top Stories
The Yemeni National Resistance, the main military faction fighting against the Houthis, seized 750 tons of weapons smuggled to the terror group by Iran, including chemical weapons, Sky News Arabia reported on Monday. The operation revealed that both Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah were involved in the weapons smuggling, using shipping routes from Africa and Asia towards the Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. The report added that, along with conventional weapons, chemical weapons were also smuggled to the Houthis during the operation, citing interrogations of the crew.
New York Times: Top Iranian Official Visits Lebanon as Hezbollah Bucks Calls to Disarm
A top Iranian security official met with Lebanese leaders on Wednesday as pressure mounted for its most powerful regional ally, Hezbollah, to disarm. Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s top security body, was the most senior Iranian official to visit Beirut since the Lebanese government last week endorsed a U.S.-backed road map to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. Hezbollah has rejected the plan, which followed weeks of shuttle diplomacy by Washington aimed at implementing a cease-fire deal signed last year with Israel that ended Lebanon’s deadliest conflict in decades.
CEP Mentions
NBC News: Far-right populists top polls in Germany, France and Britain for the first time
For the first time in modern history, far-right and populist parties are simultaneously topping the polls in Europe’s three main economies of Germany, France and Britain. […] More recent societal stressors such as the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine have further increased the allure of populism, according to Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international group. But populist parties in Europe have also harnessed social media more powerfully than their more centrist opponents, he said.
Analysis
ICCT: Exploring Youth Radicalisation within the Almajiri System in Northern Nigeria
Boko Haram’s emergence in Northern Nigeria is closely tied to systemic vulnerabilities within the Almajiri system, a traditional Islamic educational framework mainly for boys. Founded by Mohammed Yusuf, an Almajiri graduate himself, the terror group exploited socio-cultural fractures, leveraging identity-based grievances, economic deprivation, and governance failures to recruit marginalised Almajirai. While the Almajiri system itself does not inherently radicalise individuals, it produces a large, unemployed youth demographic with a strong collective identity, creating fertile ground for extremist exploitation.
Times of Israel: How the movement to resettle Gaza entered the mainstream in the wake of October 7
The Disengagement from Gaza would become a severe and indelible trauma for the settler movement and the broader religious Zionist community in Israel, constituting a retreat from what was until then seen as the inevitable march toward the religious goal of the full redemption of the Land of Israel. It was in this crucible that the ideology of many of the political leaders of today’s settler movement was forged — an event that created a steely determination among many of those politicians to shape the future of the country and its policies toward the West Bank and Gaza according to their vision.
On 1 June 2025, two men broke into a military facility outside of Seattle, Washington, and attempted to steal thousands of dollars of equipment. After tracing the case to a nearby home, law enforcement officers quickly discovered more than $20,000 in cash, a collection of Nazi paraphernalia, and a stockpile of weapons. Authorities arrested the two suspects—both reportedly military veterans—and charged them with robbery, assault, and theft of government property. Reports would later indicate that the duo operated a tactical equipment and training company called “Sovereign Solutions,” noting that the brand’s “SS” logo appeared to mirror a symbol popular among neo-Nazis.
Time: Returning to Iraq to Bury My Brothers
On July 9, the Iraqi government released a list of twenty-two people whose remains had been identified nearly 11 years after ISIS militants carried out genocide against the Yazidi community, a religious minority in Northern Iraq. Over the course of two weeks, ISIS invaded Sinjar, including my once peaceful village of Kocho, sewing fear and chaos, before killing nearly every Yazidi man in my village and taking women and children into captivity.
United States
US ambassador hits back at growing denunciation of Israel’s Gaza policies, rejects reports of high death tolls around aid sites, denies Netanyahu deliberately prolonging the war.
An anti-Israel radical who allegedly placed homemade explosive devices in the Boston Common is a member of a new extremist group that has pledged support for Hamas, according to a police report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Haiti
The prominent Donald Trump supporter and private security executive Erik Prince says he plans to keep his forces in Haiti for 10 years under an arrangement that will eventually give his firm a role in the country's tax-collection system. In an interview with Reuters, Prince said his company, Vectus Global, had reached a 10-year agreement with the Haitian government to fight the country's criminal gangs and set up a tax collection system. After the security situation is stabilized, the firm would be involved in designing and implementing a program to tax goods imported across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, he said.
Germany
Deutsche Welle: 1,300 Syrians return home since fall of Assad
Some 1,337 Syrians living in Germany have gone back to Syria through voluntary official programs since President Bashar Assad was deposed in December last year, the German Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. The data was collected until the end of July. Research by public broadcaster ARD found that the total number of Syrians who had returned, including those not going through official means, was closer to 4,000. More than 1 million Syrians, many of whom fled their homeland during the bloody civil war, live in Germany.
ARD: AfD report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution leaked
The report by the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution was leaked prematurely on an online platform. According to rbb information, the document is authentic. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has collected 622 pieces of evidence for its assessment: primarily statements made by leading members at press conferences, party conferences, meetings, in discussion groups or on social media. In the opinion of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, they prove "blatant violations of protected interests of the free democratic basic order". The authority is convinced that the AfD Brandenburg has "continued and recently significantly intensified" its anti-constitutional efforts since being classified as a "suspected extremist case" in 2020. It is not decisive whether it attempts to achieve its goals through violence. In the opinion of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it is also permissible to criticize the government and the "prevailing conditions - the so-called system or regime".
Israel
Jerusalem Post: Mossad chief David Barnea visits Doha, meets Qatari PM for hostage talks
Mossad chief David Barnea traveled to Doha, Qatar, to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Thursday. This comes after Hamas gave a green light to the possibility of resuming negotiations. Israel has not ruled out the possibility of sending a delegation for talks on a potential deal, but has made it clear that no decision has been made yet. While mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to formulate a framework that would include the release of all hostages and an end to the war, the possibility of negotiating a partial deal – involving the release of only 10 hostages – has not been ruled out.
Times of Israel: IDF downs latest Houthi ballistic missile; no sirens sound
A ballistic missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen at Israel early Thursday morning was intercepted by air defenses, the Israel Defense Forces said. The missile, which was detected shortly after 4 a.m., did not set off any warning sirens in Israel. The military said no alerts were activated “according to protocol,” as the projectile was downed far from the country’s borders.
New York Times: With Arson and Land Grabs, Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Hit Record High
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Settlers carried out more than 750 attacks on Palestinians and their property during the first half of this year, an average of nearly 130 assaults a month, according to records compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Gaza Strip
Jerusalem Post: Hamas mulls possible resumption of hostage negotiations
Hamas has begun preliminary discussions on the possibility of resuming stalled hostage negotiations, a senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, said in Cairo on Wednesday, ahead of meetings scheduled to start on Thursday. These talks, he noted, would focus on “ways to stop the war in the Strip, allow the entry of aid, and end the suffering of the people in Gaza.” A Hamas leadership delegation, headed by Khalil al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials. Despite the visit, an Israeli official said that so far, there has been no new message from the terrorist organization regarding the prospect of an agreement.
The Economist: The world’s hardest makeover: Hamas
It was born as the Islamic Resistance Movement. It is more usually known by its Arabic acronym, Hamas. But talks taking place in Cairo could determine whether the Palestinian militants drop the middle word, abandon their 22-month war in Gaza against Israel and reinvent themselves as a political party.
Jerusalem Post: Hamas blacklisted by UN for systemic sexual crimes on Oct. 7, puts Israel on notice
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres blacklisted Hamas on the annual conflict-related sexual violence report on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry announced. Guterres also called on Israel to give the UN “unfettered access” to investigate the alleged detainee violations, release those arbitrarily detained, and ensure that they are released in a dignified way. He also urged Israel to investigate and prosecute all the allegations.
Syria
Reuters: War crimes likely committed by both sides in Syria sectarian violence, UN commission says
War crimes were likely committed by members of interim government forces as well as by fighters loyal to Syria's former rulers during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria's coastal areas that culminated in a series of March massacres, a U.N. team of investigators found in a report on Thursday. Some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were reported killed during the violence that primarily targeted Alawi communities, and reports of violations continue, according to a report by the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry. "The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing," said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Commission, in a statement released alongside the report.
Pakistan
Reuters: Pakistani militants kill six policemen in eight targeted attacks
Militants in Pakistan's northwest carried out eight overnight gun and grenade attacks targeting the police, killing six officers, an official said on Thursday. The attacks targeted police stations, checkpoints and patrols across seven districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Mohammad Ali Babakhel said, as the nation of 240 million people celebrated its 78th independence day. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani Islamist militant group with links to the Afghan Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Afghanistan
Reuters: Taliban use force to divert international aid, US watchdog says
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers divert international aid by force and other means, block minority communities from receiving aid and may collude with U.N. officials to seek kickbacks, a U.S. watchdog said on Tuesday. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said its findings were based on input from nearly 90 current and former U.S. officials, U.N. officials and others. The sources included Afghans in Afghanistan, the report said. "In Afghanistan, SIGAR found that the Taliban use every means at their disposal, including force, to ensure that aid goes where they want it to go, as opposed to where donors intend," the report said.
Hasht-e Subh Daily: UN: Women in Afghanistan Face Violence in Pursuit of Education
The United Nations has stated that women and girls in Afghanistan face harassment and violence when attempting to access education or employment. In a post on X on Wednesday, August 13, the organization said that since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have barred girls above the sixth grade from attending school.
NPR: Four years after Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, life for many has worsened
It's been four since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power. Life for certain groups has deteriorated significantly.
The Taliban will shower Kabul with flowers from helicopters to mark the fourth anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan, an official said Thursday. The Taliban seized control of the country on August 15, 2021, weeks before the U.S. and NATO withdrew their forces after a costly, two-decade war.
Nigeria
Reuters: Nigeria's defence chief defends military conduct amid scrutiny
Nigeria's defence chief has defended operations against insurgents and criminal gangs that have caused civilian casualties, saying the military is doing what it can to prevent loss of life. Nigeria's military has increasingly used airstrikes against the growing threat of militias in the north and central regions. It has admitted to mistakenly targeting civilians while pursuing armed gangs in the northwest, where there is widespread insecurity, and has promised to investigate such cases. Defence Chief of Staff General Christopher Musa also called for a review of international laws, arguing that they restrict state forces while leaving non-state actors "who kill at will" unchecked.
Somalia
Garowe Online: Somalia Executes Three More al-Shabaab Members After Conviction for Deadly Attacks
Three more members of al-Shabaab were executed on Thursday following their conviction by the military court, which linked their activities to the violent Islamic militants, who have caused havoc in the Horn of Africa nation. According to court documents, the three militants were found guilty of carrying out assassinations and explosions in the capital, Mogadishu, leading to the death of several people, including resilient military officers.
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 through a new initiative. The programme – called Rumah Wasathiyah, or House of Moderation – aims to guide former JI members away from extremism.
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