Reuters: Somalia Has Year To Eliminate Al Shabaab Militants - President

“Somalia has one year to expel the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group from the country, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Tuesday, with the deadline for remaining African Union peacekeepers to leave looming next December. Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab has been waging a brutal insurgency against the Somali government since 2006 in a bid to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. Mohamud, serving his second term as president, said in August he wanted to eliminate it by early next year. "The end game is Dec 2024 when all the ATMIS (the African Union peacekeeping) forces have to leave the country," Mohamud told an audience at London's Royal United Services Institute. The focus was on eliminating "the residual" al Shabaab, he said. That task had been made more difficult by recent deadly flooding, he said, although the floods have also made it harder for the militants to spread landmines. Mohamud's recent drive against al Shabaab began in August last year, with the military rallying behind clan-based militias in central Somalia. That rare collaboration helped produce the most significant territorial gains against the militants since the mid-2010s, but al Shabaab has continued to stage deadly attacks against military and civilian targets.”

Reuters: US Reviewing Possible 'Terrorist' Designations For Houthis

“The United States is reviewing "potential terrorist designations" for Yemen's Houthi rebel group in response to its seizure of a cargo ship, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday. Kirby's comment was significant because one of the Biden administration's first acts after taking office in January 2021 was revoking terrorist designations of the Houthis over fears the sanctions they carried could worsen Yemen's humanitarian crisis. The Iran-backed Houthis, who have been sending drones and long-range missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas, seized the Galaxy Leader cargo ship on Sunday in the southern Red Sea, describing it as Israeli-owned. Kirby called the Houthis' seizure of the vessel a "flagrant violation of international law" in which "Iran is complicit." "In light of this, we have begun a review of potential terrorist designations and we will be considering other options as well with our allies and partners as well," Kirby said at a White House press briefing. He called for the immediate release of the ship and its international crew. The Bahamas-flagged car carrier is chartered by Japan's Nippon Yusen. It is owned by a firm registered under Isle of Man-headquartered Ray Car Carriers, which is a unit of Tel Aviv-incorporated Ray Shipping, according to LSEG data.”

CEP Mentions

Outlook India: Israel-Hamas Deal For Release Of Hostages And Ceasefire In Gaza Imminent: Report

“…"The group’s ideology blends Islamism and Palestinian nationalism and seeks the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River...Hamas views the entirety of the land of Mandate Palestine—excluding the 80 per cent of Palestine that became modern-day Jordan—as an Islamic birthright that has been usurped. To that end, Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and has dedicated itself to violently seeking Israel’s destruction," says think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP) about Hamas.”

Iraq

Reuters: U.S. Forces Carry Out Series Of Strikes Against Iran-Backed Militia In Iraq

“The United States carried out two series of strikes in Iraq against Iranian-backed militants, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, in the first publicly reported U.S. responses in Iraq to dozens of recent attacks against troops in the region. Until this week, the United States had been reluctant to retaliate in Iraq because of the delicate political situation there. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has limited control over the Iranian-backed militias, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition. The strike on Tuesday evening targeted two facilities in Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement. "The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups," the statement said. The strike by fighter aircraft targeted and destroyed a Kataeb Hezbollah operations center and a Kataeb Hezbollah Command and Control node near Al Anbar and Jurf al Saqr, south of Baghdad, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iraq's Kataeb Hezbollah militia is a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran. The official said there were Kataeb Hezbollah personnel present, but an assessment was ongoing about casualties. About 24 hours earlier, U.S. forces were attacked at an air base west of Baghdad and a U.S. military AC-130 aircraft responded in self-defense, killing a number of Iranian-backed militants, U.S. officials said.”

Reuters: Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Militia Says 5 Killed By US Strikes

“Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia said five of its members were killed in its stronghold of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad, in U.S. strikes that Washington said were in response to attacks by Iran-aligned militias against its forces in the region. The U.S. carried out two series of strikes in Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday, its first publicly reported responses on Iraqi territory to dozens of recent attacks and a sign of escalation in the regional conflict tied to the Israel-Hamas war. The attacks began on Oct. 17 and have been linked by Iraqi militia groups to U.S. support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza following attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel. The strike by fighter aircraft targeted and destroyed a Kataib Hezbollah operations centre and a command and control node near Al Anbar and Jurf Al-Sakhar, a U.S. defence official said. An Iraqi military official said at least three members of Kataib Hezbollah had been killed and seven wounded in the overnight U.S. strikes. Kataib Hezbollah is part of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, a group of many mainly Shi'ite Muslim armed groups that was formed in 2014 to fight Islamic State and subsequently recognised as an official security agency by Iraq's government. Until this week, the United States had been reluctant to retaliate in Iraq because of the delicate political situation in Baghdad, where they have sought closer cooperation, including on financial issues, while seeking to limit Iran's influence.”

Middle East

The New York Times: Political Pressures On Biden Helped Drive ‘Secret Cell’ Of Aides In Hostage Talks

“Israel’s acceptance of the terms of a hostage deal with Hamas late on Tuesday reflected the intense pressure brought by the Biden administration to reach an agreement that would free some of those held by the armed group and produce potential longer-term opportunities to de-escalate the conflict. The initial approval of the deal by the Israeli cabinet came after a “secret cell” of top aides to President Biden worked furiously over the past several weeks on a web of negotiations involving Qatar, Egypt and Israel, an effort hampered by communications outages in Gaza and a series of last-minute disputes that derailed the talks. White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the five weeks of sensitive negotiations that had led to a deal, said the agreement would include the release of three Americans: two women and a toddler. The officials said they would continue to push for the release of all U.S. hostages.”

Associated Press: Truce Deal Set To Free Hostages In Swap, Raising Hopes Of Halting Worst Mideast Violence In Decades

“Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for a four-day halt to the devastating war in Gaza, accompanied by the release of dozens of hostages held by the militant group in return for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, mediators said Wednesday. The truce marks the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel ignited a war that has devastated vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and raised fears of a wider conflict across the Middle East. The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating with Hamas, announced the deal without saying when it would go into effect. Fifty hostages will be released in stages, in exchange for what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners. Both sides will release women and children first, and the supply of humanitarian aid flowing into the besieged territory will be ramped up. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would resume the war after the truce and keep fighting “until we achieve all our goals,” including the defeat of Hamas and the return of all hostages. Residents in Gaza City said the fighting there had intensified overnight into Wednesday, with gunfire, heavy artillery and airstrikes in central neighborhoods.“They are mad. Apparently they want to advance before the truce,” said Nasser al-Sheikh, who is sheltering with relatives in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.”

Reuters: Pope Says Israel-Hamas Conflict Has Gone Beyond War To ‘Terrorism'

“Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza and said the conflict had gone beyond war to become "terrorism". Speaking in unscripted remarks at his general audience in St. Peter's Square shortly after the meetings in his residence, Francis said he heard directly how "both sides are suffering" in the conflict. "This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism," he said. He asked for prayers so that both sides would "not go ahead with passions, which, in the end, kill everyone". A group of Palestinians in the crowd at the audience held up pictures of bodies wrapped in white cloth and a placard saying "the Nakba continues". Nakba is the Arab word for catastrophe and refers to the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in the 1948 war that surrounded Israel's founding. Both groups of relatives will hold separate news conferences later on Wednesday. The meetings and the pope's comments came hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days to allow in aid and release at least 50 hostages captured by militants in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.”

Africa

Associated Press: Latest Peace Talks Between Ethiopia’s Government And Oromo Militants Break Up Without An Agreement

“The latest round of peace talks between Ethiopia’s federal government and a militant group waging a long-running conflict in the country’s Oromia region have broken up in Tanzania without an agreement, both sides said Tuesday. The Oromo Liberation Army says it is fighting for greater determination for the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, who have long claimed being marginalized. The insurgency stretches back to the 1970s but has escalated in recent years, killing thousands and rendering lawless vast swathes of Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. The OLA has been listed as a terrorist group in Ethiopia, and the government has accused it of carrying out mass killings against ethnic minorities. A previous round of talks between the OLA and Ethiopian officials in Tanzania earlier this year also failed. Redwan Hussein, the prime minister’s national security advisor, blamed the “intransigence” of the OLA for the latest failure. “The obstructive approach and unrealistic demands of the other party are the principal reasons why these talks could not succeed,” Redwan wrote on X, formerly Twitter. An OLA statement accused Ethiopia’s government of trying to co-opt its leadership “rather than beginning to address fundamental problems that underlie the country’s seemingly insurmountable security and political challenges.””

Technology

The Guardian: Rightwing Personalities Use X To Bring Antisemitic Theories To Light In US

“The racist and antisemitic “great replacement” theory is encroaching out of the far right and more visibly into mainstream US politics in the wake of its platforming by major figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, in a move experts believe shows the growing extremeness of rightwing politics in the US. High-profile users of Twitter/X including rightwing personality Carlson and the platform’s proprietor Musk, are helping to mainstream extremist narratives that are increasingly prevalent on the site, experts and advocates say. Despite Musk’s aggressive responses to organizations that criticize X for promoting extremism, white nationalists and other extremists last week took to the platform to celebrate the role of Musk, his platform and star attractions including Carlson for “shifting the Overton Window” on antisemitism. The “great replacement” is a racist conspiracy narrative that falsely asserts there is an active, ongoing and covert effort to replace white populations in current white-majority countries. In many versions – such as those rehearsed in the manifestos of mass shooters in Christchurch, New Zealand; El Paso, Texas; and Buffalo, New York – the purported replacement is being coordinated by Jewish people.”