Eye on Extremism: September 30, 2026
Top Stories
New York Times: After Two Decades, U.S. Forces Leave Iraq to an Uncertain Future
U.S. forces formally withdrew from Iraq on Wednesday, ending a two-decade military presence that stoked years of devastating bloodshed, and leaves behind a battered nation struggling to unshackle itself from its two most powerful, and now warring, allies.
JNS: Next UN leader must clean up antisemitism, world Jewish communities tell global body
The Argentinian, Australian, Canadian, French, German, British and American Jewish communities, known as the J7-Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, asked United Nations member states to take combating Jew-hatred into account when they chose the next U.N. secretary-general.
Analysis
Arab News: Analysis: Houthi and Al-Shabab ties raise alarm over widening threat to Red Sea shipping
Purported arms sales, military training and growing contacts between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab are raising alarm over a partnership that could strengthen both groups and widen the threat to international shipping.
The IDF said on Tuesday that it had “struck in northern Gaza and eliminated the terrorist Izz al-Din Bik, commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade in the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
United States
IranWire: US Offers $15 Million Reward for Information on Three IRGC Officials
The State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” program announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, that the requested information must lead to the disruption of the IRGC’s financial mechanisms. The notice also highlighted the possibility of relocation to a safe haven for individuals providing actionable intelligence.
Times of Israel: Ex-Biden aide: US pressure on Israel harmed talks with Hamas to release hostages
Former US president Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser argues in his new book that public pressure on Israel from the previous administration proved counterproductive, as it led Hamas to harden its positions in negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
New Haven Register: ‘I could kill more’: What a federal memo says about West Haven man’s ISIS plans
A West Haven sentenced to seven years for supporting and attempting to join the ISIS terrorist organization in Syria believed he could kill more people overseas than in the U.S, according to the sentencing memorandum.
JNS: US Jewish leaders slam new Mamdani plan to fight Jew-hatred
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is drawing widespread criticism from Jewish leaders and Israeli officials for a new City Hall “whole-of-government” plan to tackle Jew-hatred. The UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council-NY, American Jewish Committee New York and New York Board of Rabbis stated jointly that “any effort to confront antisemitism in New York City must fully address the realities Jewish New Yorkers face today.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani debuted a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat antisemitism and hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City, moving to assuage concerns from critics who see his steadfast denunciations of Israel as antisemitic.
Louis Geri, 42, of Vineland, N.J., was sentenced to 70 months—more than five years and eight months—in federal prison for threatening to detonate more than 100 homemade bombs at a Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington regularly attended by U.S. officials and Supreme Court justices.
Nashville Post: Court proceeds with Jewish center lawsuit against neo-Nazi group
A federal court is moving forward with a Nashville Jewish center’s legal complaint against a neo-Nazi group. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee last week denied a motion to dismiss the Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2025 lawsuit filed on behalf of the Gordon Jewish Community Center against the neo-Nazi group Goyim Defense League, its founder Jon Minadeo and other leaders.
River Bender: Godfrey Man Sentenced After Pleading Guilty in Jersey County Hate Crime Case
A Godfrey resident pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime in a Jersey County case involving racially-charged threats, white supremacist motorcycle club affiliation and more. Troy D. Hacker, 39, of Godfrey, pleaded guilty to a Class 4 felony count of hate crime in Jersey County court on Sept. 16, 2026. Per his guilty plea, a Class A misdemeanor count of aggravated assault on public property was dismissed.
A Niles man who pleaded guilty to defacing multiple signs and property at Northwestern University in Evanston with swastikas and other Nazi hate symbols in January has been sentenced to seven years in prison, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
CBS: Swastikas, racial slur found at Yardley Country Club in Pennsylvania: “It shocked us”
Police are investigating vandalism at Yardley Country Club after two swastikas and a racial slur were carved into the golf course over the weekend, just yards from Abrams Hebrew Academy.
JNS: Florida man whose Nazi flag was confiscated at Kia Center event sues city of Orlando
A Florida man whose Nazi flag was confiscated by staff at the Kia Center in Orlando, Fla., during an Aug. 29 combat-sports event has sued the city, alleging that the city-owned venue violated his First Amendment rights by allowing some political expression while suppressing his.
Tallahassee Democrat: Florida OKs terror designations for CAIR, antifa, Muslim Brotherhood
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), antifa and the Muslim Brotherhood will be labeled domestic terrorist organizations under a new state law, after Florida leaders OK'd the designations at their Sept. 29 meeting.
Canada
A public demonstration by the white nationalist group Second Sons of Canada on land near the Kamloops residential school site over the weekend sent shockwaves across the country. For people who study the group and others like it, it was not surprising.
Europe
DPA: Neo-Nazi hate music network raided in sweeping searches across Europe
Police carried out searches in Germany and several other European countries on Wednesday in connection with the distribution of neo-Nazi music. Authorities in the north-eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern said raids were launched across the country, as well as in Estonia, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Expats: Czech police join raids over alleged extremist music network
Czech police searched a property in Čelákovice, northeast of Prague, on Wednesday as part of a German investigation into a suspected right-wing extremist group accused of producing and selling music with Nazi, antisemitic and racist content.
France
Courthouse News: Paris court examines high-profile terrorism appeal linked to Islamic State
On Tuesday afternoon in the Specially Composed Assize Court in Paris, where golden floral moldings cover the ceiling and chandeliers illuminate a pastel mural, the room fell silent as videos of torture inflicted by the Islamic State, known as IS, played on five flatscreen TVs.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, her National Rally party and its allies closed ranks Tuesday behind her running mate in next year’s presidential election, Jordan Bardella, in the face of media accusations that he made antisemitic remarks as a young party member.
Hungary
A Hungarian appeals court on Wednesday reduced the sentence of a German anti-fascist activist from eight to seven years in prison for taking part in assaults against participants of a far-right rally in Budapest in February 2023.
Italy
Reuters: Italy’s main opposition PD boycotts antisemitism bill vote amid split on left
Italy's Democratic Party did not take part in a parliamentary committee vote on Wednesday on a highly contested bill against antisemitism, highlighting divisions on the left over a law seen as potentially curbing criticism of Israel.
United Kingdom
BBC: One of the five men arrested near RAF Fairford called 999 himself
One of five men arrested near RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sunday morning had dialled 999 himself, the BBC understands. The suspect called the police at 00:45 BST, almost an hour before a farmer also dialled 999 after seeing men in balaclavas. The five were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and later terrorism offences after three vans were spotted, sparking a major security incident around the Gloucestershire base which the US military operates.
Reuters: Antisemitism at UK universities is increasing, security charity says
Antisemitism at British universities is on the rise, with incidents up nearly 80% from before the October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel, a report by a charity which provides security advice to Britain's Jewish community said on Wednesday.
Independent: Farage blasted for false claims about RAF Fairford terror arrests
Nigel Farage has drawn criticism for falsely suggesting that the five men arrested on suspicion of terror offences near RAF Fairford were Iranian. The Reform UK leader suggested that the incident at RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire, could be linked to the small boats crossings in a post on Sunday, hours after five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and terrorism after three vans were found near the airbase which is used by the US.
A BBC article that included a claim that a trend for bare nails was linked to “white supremacist standards of beauty” has been permanently removed from its website, after editors concluded it did not meet the corporation’s editorial standards.
Middle East
Reuters: Israeli officials say diverted flydubai incident may be attempted ‘terror attack’
The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv is believed to have stabbed the captain in a possible attempted "terror attack" on Wednesday, forcing the plane to divert to Saudi Arabia where it landed safely, three Israeli officials said.
While other Israeli passengers fought the attacker near the cockpit, he was trying to get two additional pilots to move. The aircraft was diving, he said. The men who could fly it had frozen. “I had to shake them to get them to move to the front and take control of the plane, because it was diving.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement to the public on Wednesday afternoon following the suspected hijacking incident involving a flydubai plane meant to land in Tel Aviv earlier in the day, confirming that one of the pilots had carried out a stabbing attack.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s defense ministry says its forces have killed more than 40 fighters it described as insurgents who crossed into the country from neighboring Pakistan, and captured dozens more over three days amid repeated clashes along the tense border.
Afghanistan International: AFF, Taliban Forces Clash In Badakhshan’s Zebak District
Daoud Naji, head of the Afghanistan Freedom Front’s political committee, said Taliban forces repeatedly targeted the group’s positions in Zebak district of Badakhshan with heavy weapons on Wednesday morning. Naji said the attacks were met with return fire from Afghanistan Freedom Front commandos.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has announced that since the Taliban takeover in 2021, around 300 journalists and media workers have been arrested or imprisoned on charges of failing to comply with the group’s strict media guidelines.
Amu TV: Taliban leader formalizes clerics’ oversight role, requires ‘jihadi mindset’
A new regulation approved by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada requires members of provincial ulema councils to have a “jihadi mindset” while formally giving the councils authority to monitor provincial officials, promote support for the Taliban’s system and shape religious and ideological messaging.
The Islamabad International Conference on Afghanistan said Pashtuns, who make up 42% of the population, hold power, while the remaining 58%, including Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Turkmens, are excluded.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad group have agreed to form an unlikely electoral coalition with a former top Fatah official who has close ties to the United Arab Emirates, Israel’s closest ally in the Middle East, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press.
Reuters: Israeli settlers attack West Bank village, blocking family’s return home
More than 100 Israeli settlers have attacked a village in the occupied West Bank, preventing a Palestinian family from returning home and clashing with troops, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday condemned the massive overnight attack and riot by Jewish extremists in the West Bank, calling for the perpetrators to be persecuted “to the fullest extent of the law,” while downplaying the attack as being perpetrated by a “small number” of people.
Iran
Time: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Pens Open Letter to American Voters
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has penned an open letter to Americans, calling on U.S. civilians to “wrest control back from corrupt politicians.” The letter, published Tuesday, comes weeks before the U.S. midterm elections in November. Addressed to “the honorable people of the United States of America,” the letter accuses the Trump Administration of lying to the American public about the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, which has just entered its eighth month, and calls on them to enact change through their votes.
There are military confrontations in the Strait of Hormuz every 24 hours, and the IRGC targets ships, but the United States has not responded for some time, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards spokesman said.
Iraq
Reuters: Joy mixed with fear as US forces quit Iraq leaving potential security vacuum
Iraqis celebrated the departure of US forces after more than two decades of war on Wednesday, though many were worried that a security vacuum could increase the power of Iran-backed militia or provide an opening for the return of Islamic State. The withdrawal of the final troops, mainly from an airbase in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, ended the biggest US war of the century, which brought widespread devastation and chaos from which Iraq has yet to fully emerge.
AFP: Iran-backed Iraq factions say ‘not bound by any timeline or agreement’ on arms
Iraqi armed factions backed by Tehran said Wednesday that they were "not bound by any timeline or agreement" to surrender their weapons to the state, as the government seeks to disarm them under mounting U.S. pressure.
Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement on Tuesday condemning the recent violent riots that broke out in the West Bank overnight, and called for the rioters to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Lebanon
Naharnet: Hezbollah, FPM try to contain fallout after war of words
It appears that the political leaderships of Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement have intervened to “contain the fallout and prevent a deeper rift,” following the latest war of words between the two parties, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.
Naharnet: Hezbollah denies any link to cell dismantled in Syria
Hezbollah denied on Wednesday any connection to a cell that Syrian authorities said they had dismantled in the country's south and which they accused of being affiliated with the Lebanese group.
Syria
Syria’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) claimed to have arrested a three-person Hezbollah cell planning an attack, in a Tuesday post on X/Twitter.
Nigeria
Guardian: ECOWAS warns West Africa faces growing cross-border security threats
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has warned that the region is facing increasingly complex security threats that transcend national borders, calling for stronger regional cooperation and collective action.
Somalia
Somali pirates killed five crew members of the hijacked MT Honour 25 petroleum products tanker before it was rescued by security forces, the information ministry of Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland said on Tuesday.
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