Eye on Extremism: June 4, 2025
Top Stories
ABC News: 2 Chinese nationals charged with smuggling 'potential agroterrorism' fungus into US: DOJ
Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called "Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon," the Justice Department said Tuesday. Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said. "The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party," a DOJ press release said. "It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America -- through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport -- so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked," according to the press release.
Times of Israel: Rockets fired from Syria for first time in a year; Israel holds Sharaa responsible
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Jerusalem would mount a “full response” against the regime of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa after two rockets were fired from Syria at the Golan Heights for the first time in over a year, minutes before a Houthi missile triggered sirens across central Israel. No injuries were reported from either attack. The IDF said it had responded to the attack from Syria with artillery fire on the source of the rockets, some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel. The IDF also carried out a series of airstrikes throughout southern Syria that it said targeted weapons belonging to the regime. “The Syrian regime is responsible for what is happening in Syria and will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory,” the IDF said in a statement.
CEP Mentions
Cicero: Europe underestimates the new terror
Germany is becoming less safe – and not just in perception. Our security situation has noticeably worsened: a sobering insight that hardly anyone in politics disputes anymore… The “European Trend Report on Terrorism” was presented in the Potsdamer Platz conference room. Numerous security experts, analysts, and risk managers listened intently to the presentations of Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of Counter Extremism Project…
Analysis
Times of Israel: With attacks in Washington and Colorado, the global intifada lands in America
After a shooter murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, last month, local Jews described the killings as shocking, but not surprising. “It was just a matter of time,” Jim Rose, a Jewish resident of the area, said at the scene of the killings, standing next to bouquets and handwritten notes left for the victims. The attack still felt like a turning point, though — the first time since the start of the war that a member of the anti-Israel movement in the US that has long demanded a “global intifada” carried out an act of deadly, deliberate violence. That feeling was solidified on Sunday with the firebomb attack on pro-hostage protesters in Boulder, Colorado, less than two weeks after the Washington shootings.
Jerusalem Post: Tensions rise in southern Syria: What’s next for Syria-Israel relations?
Syria’s new government is now in a complex spot. Since the overthrow of the Assad regime on December 8, the new government of Syria has attempted to get along with Israel. It has been clear that it is not a threat to Israel. It has also cracked down on Palestinian terrorist groups, detaining members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and getting other groups to leave. The Assad regime was an ally of Iran and Hezbollah. It enabled weapons smuggling to Hezbollah. The new government prevents smuggling. The new government is also a partner of Turkey and Qatar. Israel increasingly views Ankara as a potential challenge in Syria. US President Donald Trump met with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara’a, in May. Trump then appointed a new envoy, Tom Barrack, to reop
New York Times: Denouncing Antisemitism, Trump Also Fans Its Flames
In the Oval Office one day last week, President Trump renewed his no-holds-barred attack on the nation’s oldest university. “They’re totally antisemitic at Harvard,” he declared. Just 10 hours later, he posted an image of himself striding down a street with the caption, “He’s on a mission from God and nothing can stop what is coming.” Shown in the shadows, watching with approval, was a cartoon figure commonly seen as an antisemitic symbol. The appearance of the figure, the alt-right mascot Pepe the Frog, was the latest example of Mr. Trump’s extensive history of amplifying white supremacist figures and symbols, even as he now presents himself as a champion for Jewish students oppressed by what he says is a wave of hatred on American college campuses.
United States
Reuters: US to scale down its military bases in Syria, envoy says
The United States will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight and U.S. policies will shift in the country "because none of them worked" over the last century, the new U.S. special envoy has said. Thomas Barrack, who President Donald Trump named special envoy last month shortly after he unexpectedly lifted U.S. sanctions on Syria, made the comments in an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV late on Monday. The U.S. military has about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, mostly in the northeast. They are working with local forces to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.Since rebels ousted Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad in December, the United States and other countries are re-engaging with Damascus under new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Jewish Democratic senators are fearing for their safety after a rash of ultra-violent antisemitic attacks in the past month. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst, said her synagogue, Temple Beth-El has faced increased threats. “They are antisemitic to their core, and it's domestic terrorism, and it needs to treated appropriately,” she told The Independent.
As members of the Boulder community reeled from a firebombing attack that injured 12 people demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages, residents prepared to come together for a vigil Wednesday. Mohamed Sabry Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman, an Egyptian man who federal authorities say has been living in the U.S. illegally, didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
ABC News: Video appears to show Boulder suspect speaking to camera while driving before attack
A video posted on social media appears to show Boulder, Colorado, terrorism suspect Mohamed Soliman speaking to the camera while driving before the attack. The individual is seen in the video wearing a hat and shirt that match videos ABC News has obtained from the scene of the attack. The video, which was posted by a pro-Hamas Telegram group, was filmed in Denver while heading north, ABC News' Visual Verification team has confirmed.
Law enforcement discovered a cache of weaponry and armor, including a machine gun and grenade launchers, along with Nazi paraphernalia during a raid of a home in Washington state, authorities said Tuesday. Derek Sanders, the elected sheriff of Thurston County, said in a Facebook post that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division asked his office for assistance Monday as an FBI special weapons and tactics team executed a search warrant in Lacey, near the state capitol of Olympia, “as a result of a violent robbery and theft of military weaponry/armor.”
A “Jew-hater” who protested against Israel on Columbia University’s campus and contemplated setting a student on fire allegedly had a direct link to Hamas’ deadly al-Qassam Brigades militant group, The Post can reveal. Tarek Bazrouk — awaiting trial after being indicted on three federal hate crimes against Jewish people — was “a member of a chat group that received regular updates from Abu Obeida,” the official spokesperson for the brigades, according to allegations in federal documents.
Jewish Insider: Rep. Randy Fine: To stop antisemitic attacks, declare CAIR a terrorist group
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), the newest Jewish Republican member of Congress, argued on Monday, following an antisemitic attack on a group marching in support of the hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colo., that the federal government should take aggressive action against groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations whose executive director said he was “happy to see” the Oct. 7 terror attack.
NBC 5 Chicago: Agro-terrorism a growing threat after 2 Chinese nationals charged
Weaponizing farm fields from Illinois and across the U.S. tonight is "a growing threat" demanding law enforcement attention, according to terrorism experts. This week, rare charges have been filed against two Chinese nationals, accused of smuggling fungus into the Midwest with the aim of infecting farmland.Farm fields were to become the new battlefields targeted by the suspects in the case, according to federal law enforcement officials who say the couple smuggled a noxious fungus into the U.S. intending to use it as a "potential agroterrorism weapon."
KUTV: Provo man charged with terrorism after threatening to blow up Missionary Training Center
A man was charged after he allegedly threatened to blow up the Missionary Training Center. Anthony Hamilton Beardall, 49, was charged on Tuesday with threat of terrorism, a second-degree felony, and electronic communication harassment, a class B misdemeanor.
New York Times: What to Know About the Attack on a March for Hostages Held in Gaza
Six family members of the man charged with burning marchers who were calling for the releases of hostages in Gaza were arrested by immigration officials on Tuesday as the Trump administration responded to the attack in Colorado that has rattled Jews across the country.
WMTW: Egyptian with alleged ties to terrorist organization arrested in Maine
Border Patrol agents in Maine say they arrested a person near Pittsfield who has connections with a known terrorist organization and was in the United States illegally. Agents assigned to the Rangeley Station say they came in contact with the person, who is an Egyptian national, on May 30. When agents spoke with the person and checked records, they determined they had entered the country on a B-1/B-2 visa that had expired in 2018. Agents say they also found the connection to the terrorist organization, but did not say what that organization is.
Amu: Migration and counterterrorism top meeting of US and Qatari officials, other envoys in Doha
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mary Bischoping met with Mohammad bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, along with representatives from several other countries, to discuss shared concerns related to Afghanistan, including counterterrorism, narcotics trafficking, irregular migration and the release of American detainees, according to a statement by US embassy for Afghanistan.
KESQ: Community outraged after hate group flyers found in parking lot
Residents are shocked and disturbed after discovering flyers from a known hate group put up across a shopping center parking lot in Rancho Mirage on the corner of Bob Hope and Gerald Ford. The flyers appear to be from Patriot Front, an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group.
The village of Lockland won’t provide a school resource officer to Lockland schools next year after district leaders criticized officers’ handling of a neo-Nazi demonstration in February. School officials say the move is one of several actions taken by the village in retaliation for the school board’s request for “an independent, third-party investigation” into the Lockland and Evendale police departments. During the Feb. 7 demonstration, an officer from Evendale led a U-Haul carrying neo-Nazi demonstrators near the school parking lot during the end of the school day.
Peru
The Peruvian Congress has forcefully demanded its government to back Morocco’s complete sovereignty over the Sahara, while exposing the dangerous terrorist connections and criminal operations of the Polisario Front – a puppet organization manipulated by the Algerian regime. In a motion adopted by an overwhelming majority on Monday, the Peruvian legislative body commanded the executive branch to “adopt a position of support to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over the Western Sahara,” as stated in the text presented by Congresswoman Carmen Patricia Juarez Gallegos, First Vice-President of the Congress.
France
European Conservative: Islamists Recruit At-Risk Children From French Emergency Shelters
Amid a rise in militant Muslim fundamentalism, French facilities for vulnerable children appear to be deliberately targeted by Islamist recruiters, who see them as perfect candidates for radicalisation. This concern comes after reports highlighting other numerous shortcomings of the child welfare services: children are abused, addicted to drugs, or involved in prostitution rings. The government report on the Muslim Brotherhood’s entryism highlighted the interest that Islamic fundamentalists have in the education sector: young people, who are easily moulded, are indeed a prime target for recruitment. This is particularly true when it comes to vulnerable children and teenagers without a family structure, such as those who end up in public care facilities for minors.
AFP: Thirteen on trial in France over 'racist' stunt targeting singer Aya Nakamura
Thirteen people went on trial in Paris on Wednesday over a "racist" insult targeting Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, who faced criticism from the far right and harassment over her performance at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The defendants, linked to extreme-right group Les Natifs (the Natives), are on trial for unveiling a banner in March 2024 that read: "No way, Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market" -- a reference to Mali's capital, where the singer was born.
Germany
ARD: Number of anti-Semitic incidents rises sharply again
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany rose drastically again in 2024. The Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 8,627 incidents last year - an increase of almost 77% compared to the previous year. statistically, this means that almost 24 anti-Semitic incidents occurred every day, compared to around 13 per day in 2023. "For Jews, anti-Semitism in Germany remains a phenomenon that shapes everyday life," the report states. The significant increase compared to the previous year was particularly noticeable in highly politicized contexts. In 2024, antisemitism was particularly prevalent at gatherings, through antisemitic stickers in public spaces and at universities, with anti-Israeli activism accounting for most of the documented incidents with a clear political and ideological background. A total of 5,857 cases could be assigned accordingly.
Times of Israel: Germany says anti-Israel and pro-Russia hackers are its biggest cybercrime threats
Cybercrime in Germany rose to a record level last year, driven by hacker attacks from pro-Russian and anti-Israeli groups, the BKA Federal Crime Office reported on Tuesday, as the government said it would boost countermeasures to combat it. “Cybercrime is an increasing threat to our security,” said German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. “It is getting more aggressive, but our counter-strategies are also becoming more professional.” Some 131,391 cases of cybercrime took place in Germany last year, and a further 201,877 cases were committed from abroad or an unknown location, a BKA report said. The actors behind the hacker attacks on German targets were primarily either pro-Russian or anti-Israeli, said the BKA, adding targets were mostly public and federal institutions.
Reuters: Syrian man handed life sentence in Germany for war crimes
A German court sentenced a Syrian man to life in prison on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes it said he had committed as a leading member of a Hezbollah-backed militia during Syria's civil war. he Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart found the 33-year-old man guilty of leading a militia that carried out brutal attacks on Sunni Muslim civilians in his home town of Busra al-Sham in southern Syria. It did not name the man. In 2013 the militia beat three people with Kalashnikovs and handed them over to the military intelligence of Syria's then-president Bashar al-Assad, which tortured them and kept them in appalling conditions, the court found. In a 2014 raid, the group also forced a 40-year-old man and his family from their home. The man was tortured and later found on the street unable to walk due to his injuries, the court verdict said.
The Netherlands
Reuters: Dutch government collapses after far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday, most likely ushering in a snap election, after anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders quit the right-wing coalition, accusing other parties of failing to back his tougher immigration policies. But Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent, accused the political maverick of irresponsibility, and the other coalition parties denied failing to support Wilders, saying they had been awaiting proposals from his PVV party's own migration minister.
United Kingdom
Reuters: Six go on trial over London arson attack blamed on Russia's Wagner group
Six men went on trial on Wednesday over an arson attack which prosecutors say was carried out on behalf of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group against a business in London that shipped goods to Ukraine. Four of the group are accused of aggravated arson on the Ukrainian-linked premises on an industrial estate in east London last March. Two others face charges of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts.
Times of Israel: BBC defends Gaza coverage after White House criticism it takes ‘the word of Hamas’
The BBC on Wednesday defended its reporting of an incident in which Hamas authorities claimed Palestinians were killed near a Gaza aid center, after the White House accused the broadcaster of taking “the word” of the terror group.
BBC: MI5 lied deliberately, BBC tells court
MI5 lied "deliberately and repeatedly" as it tried to defend its handling of a neo-Nazi agent who abused women, the BBC has told a panel of High Court judges. The corporation argued the threshold for contempt of court proceedings against MI5 and three individual officers had been met.
Afghanistan
Amu: Taliban leader declares obedience to his orders ‘obligatory’ in Eid message
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada used his annual Eid al-Adha message to reassert his absolute authority, declaring that obedience to his orders is “obligatory and essential” for all. In the message, released Wednesday by Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, Akhundzada also called on Taliban members to remain united in pursuit of what he termed the implementation of “Sharia law” and the consolidation of the “Islamic system.”
Amu: Security rightens around Taliban power center in Kandahar amid drone activity: Sources
Security has been significantly tightened around the Mandigak Palace in Kandahar, the de facto seat of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, following reports of increased unmanned aerial surveillance in the area, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including one within Akhundzada’s office.
Amu: Taliban morality enforcers granted sweeping powers under new law: Sources
The Taliban’s religious enforcers, known as mohtasibs, have seen an unprecedented expansion of authority over the past 10 months, according to multiple local sources, following the formal enactment of the Taliban’s “Law on Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” also called morality law. Implemented last year, the law codifies a wide range of restrictions, particularly affecting women and media. It empowers the Taliban’s morality enforcers to detain individuals for up to three days and has declared the voices of women to be “awrah,” or forbidden to be publicly heard. The law also prohibits the broadcasting of images of living beings — a measure that has led to the suspension or alteration of programming at dozens of visual media outlets across more than 15 provinces.
Iran
Financial Times: How Iran is preparing for Israeli or US strikes
Iran has been seeking to bolster its air defences as the military prepares for the possibility of an Israeli or US strike against Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure if negotiations over its enrichment programme break down. Many of Iran’s most-advanced surface-to-air missiles and radars — including its long-range Russian-made S-300 systems — were destroyed or damaged by Israeli air strikes in October and April 2024. This, coupled with successful Israeli strikes on Iranian proxies such as Lebanese militants Hizbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, has led to the perception that Iran is at its most vulnerable to air attack in decades. However, experts say many elements of Iran’s air defences remain intact or appear to have been repaired in recent months.
Reuters: Iran's Khamenei dismisses US nuclear proposal, vows to keep enriching uranium
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100%" against the country's interests, rejecting a central U.S. demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which has mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Israel
BBC: Israel launches strikes on weapons in Syria
Israel said it had launched strikes on weapons belonging to Syria, hours after reports that two projectiles had been fired from Syria into Israel on Tuesday. The Israeli strikes on southern Syria caused "significant human and material losses", Syria's foreign ministry said, adding that Israel was "trying to destabilise the region". Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he held Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the projectiles launched into Israel. Despite recent indirect talks to ease tensions between the two countries, Israel has stepped up attacks on targets in Syria since Sharaa led a rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024. "Violent explosions shook southern Syria, notably the town of Quneitra and the Daraa region, following Israeli aerial strikes," said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
Times of Israel: Palestinian arrested for plotting terror attack on behalf of Iranian agent
Police and Shin Bet agents arrested a Palestinian man on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in central Israel at the behest of an Iranian handler, a police spokesman said Tuesday. The suspect, a man in his 30s residing in East Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood, had been in contact online with an Iranian agent who asked him to carry out various “missions” against the State of Israel. The agent reportedly asked his recruit to stage a terror attack in central Israel, but the suspect was arrested before he could set the plan into motion. The suspect also received thousands of shekels for hanging signs against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu around Jerusalem, burning IDF uniforms, and gathering information about well-known sites in the capital, including the Western Wall and Mahane Yehuda Market.
Reuters: US-backed Gaza aid group halts distribution, UN to vote on ceasefire demand
The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation did not give out any aid on Wednesday as it pressed Israel to boost civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its distribution sites, after dozens of Palestinians seeking aid were killed this week. The GHF said it has asked the Israeli military to "guide foot traffic in a way that minimizes confusion or escalation risks" near military positions; develop clearer guidance for civilians; and enhance training to support civilian safety.
Times of Israel: IDF reservist killed, another seriously wounded in Gaza City fighting
A reservist was killed and four soldiers were wounded in separate incidents fighting against the Hamas terror group in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, the Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday.
The IDF struck several Hamas terror targets in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, the military announced on Wednesday. The military said that the Nahal Brigade, under the command of the IDF's 162nd Division, had struck several pieces of terror infrastructure in northern Gaza.
Times of Israel: Houthi missile triggers sirens in wide swaths of Israel, is intercepted by IDF
Israeli air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched at the country by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Monday night, the military said, in what has become an almost daily occurrence. The missile set off sirens shortly before 9 p.m. across central Israel, the Jerusalem area, several West Bank settlements, and some areas in southern Israel, sending millions to bomb shelters.
Lebanon
Naharnet: Qassem tells Araghchi Hezbollah to seek stability and liberation
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the presence of Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, Hezbollah said in a statement, without specifying where the meeting was held. Araghchi had started an official visit to Lebanon on Tuesday and met with President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Naharnet: Geagea accuses Hezbollah of obstructing Palestinian camps disarmament
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Wednesday the Hezbollah-led camp of trying to delay Palestinian disarmament and called for a government timetable for removing all illegal Lebanese arms. "The Hezbollah-led camp is pressuring Lebanese officials to delay the disarmament of Palestinian camps and inciting some Palestinian factions to oppose the disarmament," Geagea said in a statement.
Naharnet: Report: US understands need for ongoing Aoun-Hezbollah talks
A Lebanese MP who has close ties to U.S. officials has recently held meetings in Washington in coordination with President Joseph Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri, during which he “explained the risks from pressuring Lebanon to disarm the resistance and the domestic problems that may result from that,” a media report said.
Syria
Turkey is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defences, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters. Turkey has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since rebels - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.
Naharnet: Syria condemns escalation after overnight Israeli strikes on country's south
Israel hit southern Syria with a series of strikes overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, a rights NGO said, as Israel said it had targeted weapons belonging to Syrian authorities following the launch of projectiles. "Violent explosions shook southern Syria, notably the town of Quneitra and the Daraa region, following Israeli aerial strikes" that caused no casualties, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, with Israel blaming the Damascus government for the two projectiles launched onto its territory from Syria.
Iran International: Iran-backed militants may be behind Israel-Syria flare-up – Reuters
Armed groups linked to Iran may have played a role in rising tensions between Syria and Israel, Reuters reported on Wednesday, after Israel launched airstrikes in response to what it said were two projectiles fired from the Syrian territory.
Yemen
Yemen Online: Yemen’s Houthis "warn" companies to leave Israel
The Houthis yesterday renewed their warning to all firms investing in Israel, urging them to leave immediately or risk bearing full responsibility for any potential losses. Mahdi Al-Mashat, president of the Supreme Political Council — the highest governing authority in the Houthi-led administration in Sanaa — called on all companies investing in Israel to take the Yemeni warning seriously and to withdraw quickly, stressing that the environment is no longer safe. His remarks were reported by Houthi-run media.
The National: UN demands Yemen's Houthis release aid workers held for year
The UN on Wednesday issued a new call for Yemen’s Houthi rebels to release dozens of aid workers a year after their arrest by the group. The Iran-backed rebels, who control much of Yemen, detained 13 UN staff members, and more than 50 employees of aid groups last June. Between January 23-25 this year, the Houthis carried out another wave of arrests, detaining an additional eight UN staff members.
Pakistan
Associated Press: Pakistani troops kill 14 militants in raid in northwest region near Afghanistan
Pakistan’s security forces raided a militant hideout and killed 14 insurgents during a shootout in the country’s northwest, the military said Wednesday. The overnight raid was conducted on the reported presence of Pakistani Taliban belonging to an Indian proxy in North Waziristan, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said in a statement.
Indonesia
The Standard: Indonesian jailed for Bali bombing starts coffee business
An Indonesian convicted in the deadly 2002 Bali nightclub bombings has launched his own coffee business after being released on parole, and has said he will use some of the earnings to help survivors of the attacks. Umar Patek, a member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, was jailed for 20 years in 2012 after he was found guilty of making bombs that ripped through two Bali nightclubs, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians. He was released on parole in 2022 and has apologised to the victims. Patek's release sparked anger in Australia and Indonesia.
Mali
Africa News: Army foils attack in Timbuktu, a day after jihadist assault killed 30 soldiers
The Malian army said it had foiled an attack on a military camp in Timbuktu on Monday morning. Local officials and eyewitnesses said a car bomb exploded in the city centre, followed by gunfire. The Malian Armed Forces reported 13 deaths, all among the assailants. "The terrorists were quickly defeated by the swiftness of the soldiers' reaction", the army said in a statement on Monday afternoon. They said they had seized weaponry and vehicles, and that the situation was under control. Jihadist group Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, has claimed responsibility for the attack, its second in two days.
Nigeria
Reuters: Nigeria's defence chief proposes fencing borders to curb insecurity
Nigeria's defence chief on Tuesday called for the country's borders with its four neighbours to be completely fenced to curb the entrance of armed groups amid escalating insecurity. Nigeria's military has been strained by widespread security issues, particularly a 16-year insurgency in the northeast led by Islamist militant group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province. Security forces and civilians have been attacked and killed and tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
Uganda
Reuters: Two suspected Uganda rebels killed in Kampala blast, officials say
An explosion killed two suspected rebels including a female suicide bomber near a Roman Catholic shrine in Uganda's capital Kampala on Tuesday morning, but no other people were reported hurt, authorities said. he Daily Monitor and New Vision newspapers reported that the blast near the Munyonyo Martyrs' Shrine in the south of the city had killed at least two people as Ugandans assembled to celebrate Martyrs' Day, which commemorates Christians who were killed for their faith in the 19th century. The two assailants were thought to be linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Congo-based rebel group allied to Islamic State (IS) which claimed responsibility for multiple bombings in 2021, Ugandan army spokesman Chris Magezi told Reuters.
Technology
Cybernews: Terrorist groups are using AI to radicalize children, Europol warns
Terrorist organizations and radical extremist groups are using newly developed tactics to recruit young people online. Europol set out on a Referral Action Day (RAD) supported by 16 countries, which observed more than 2,000 links to jihadist and right-wing extremist propaganda targeting young people. The RAD was put into action just weeks after Europol mobilized its latest operational task force to dismantle violence-as-a-service operations enticing young people into organized crime.
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