Islamic State attack on army recruits in Yemen kills 54

Attacks in Yemeni port city of Aden kill at least 45 men waiting to join army

SANAA, Yemen — Suicide bombers targeting prospective army recruits killed at least 45 and injured many in the restive southern Yemeni city of Aden in two assaults, highlighting the obstacles to ongoing peace talks in Kuwait. The first attacker targeted applicants gathered outside the home of a military commander, Brig. Gen. Abdullah al-Subaihi, killing at least 25, according to witnesses and Yemeni officials. “There were a group of applicants standing outside the gate of Subaihi’s house carrying folders and filling out application forms when a terrorist stormed into the crowd blowing himself up and killing and injuring dozens,” said Nabil Hassan Saleh, local journalist who arrived at the scene just minutes after the explosion. The second attack unfolded 10 minutes later outside an army base that also served as a recruitment center, killing at least 20, witnesses and officials said. The base is less than a mile from the commander’s house. Witnesses said a bomb was planted in front of the gate, but other reports suggested that a suicide bomber detonated an car laden with explosives. “We heard the second explosion only minutes after the first explosion happened,” said Bassam al-Qadi, 28, a human rights activist. “There were lots of bodies lying on the ground in both locations.” Ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals, he added. Many were in critical condition, hospital officials said. In a statement on social media, a local organization pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militant group asserted responsibility for both attacks. For nearly two years, the Arabian Peninsula nation has been torn apart by a civil war that pits a Saudi- and U.S.-backed government against Shiite rebels aligned with the forces of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The rebels and Saleh are in control of the capital, Sanaa, as well as large expanses of the north. Both sides are currently engaged in peace talks in Kuwait. The government largely controls Aden, but other parts of the south are under the domination of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s Yemen branch. Monday’s blasts underscore the tenuous situation in southern Yemen, particularly in Aden, a strategic port on the Arabian Sea and a key global oil shipping lane. Only a few months ago, the government — backed by airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition — seized the city from the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. Since then, Aden has been devastated by suicide bombings and assassinations, largely targeting government security forces. Monday’s attacks were the third in about a month. Last month, a car bomb targeted the house of the head of security in Aden, injuring one person. Another car bomb exploded three weeks ago, killing four and injuring at least eight in the Mansoura enclave of Aden.

Suicide bomber in Yemen kills at least 48 soldiers, officials there say

SANAA, Yemen — A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a military base in the southern city of Aden on Saturday, killing at least 48 soldiers and injuring dozens more, Yemeni officials said. It was the latest assault on forces loyal to a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led military campaign to restore Yemen’s exiled government to power. The assault unfolded shortly after 4 p.m. as soldiers waited at the gate of the Solaban military base to collect their salaries in the port city, witnesses said. They had not been paid since September. “A suicidal bomber sneaked in among the soldiers who were standing in line and blew himself up,” Mansour Saleh, a local journalist, said in a telephone interview. “This is not the first time this base was attacked.” The bombing came days after Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi returned to Aden after spending months outside Yemen, mostly in Saudi Arabia. The Health Ministry said that the bombing killed 48 soldiers and that 36 were reported wounded, but the number of fatalities could rise, officials said . No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion immediately fell on al-Qaeda’s powerful Yemen branch as well as the Islamic State. Both groups are widely believed to have cells inside Aden and have claimed to have staged previous attacks on soldiers and officials in Aden, including one targeting Solaban a few months ago that killed more than a dozen people. In August, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a mustering area for army recruits, killing at least 54 people, one of the worst suicide attacks to strike the country. In May, suicide bombers in Aden killed at least 45 army recruits lined up to enlist. The conflict pits Hadi’s forces against an alliance of northern rebels known as the Houthis and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. In early 2015, shortly after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, Hadi fled and eventually based his government in Aden. A regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and supported by Washington, intervened in the conflict but has failed to push the rebels from the capital despite a steady barrage of airstrikes. The Sunni Muslim kingdom and its partners are wary of the Shiite Houthis and their suspected ties to Iran’s theocracy. The conflict has worsened a humanitarian crisis afflicting the country, the Middle East’s poorest. The United Nations estimates that at least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, many of them civilians.

It turns out many ISIS recruits don’t know much about Islam

A recent trove of documents linked to the Islamic State reveals an increasingly pronounced phenomenon: Many of the young recruits to the extremist organization don't know much about Islam.  The materials were obtained by a Syrian opposition website and shared with the AP. The news agency suggests that the Islamic State "preys on this religious ignorance" of its foreign recruits, "allowing extremists to impose a brand of Islam constructed to suit its goal of maximum territorial expansion and carnage as soon as recruits come under its sway."     The evidence surrounding the Islamic State's foreign recruits, though, increasingly shows that parsing religious dogma won't help getting to grips with the security threat. Take this one anecdote from the AP's story:  The flimsy, confused ideology of Islamic State recruits and their proxies who remain in or return to the West makes it particularly difficult to track or ward off radicalization.

Yemen bombing shows reach of al-Qaeda branch

SANAA, YEMEN — With its suicide attack that killed at least 90 people and injured scores Monday, al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch has expanded far outside its sphere of influence in the south, proving it can penetrate even the most sensitive military targets in the capital. The assault on troops during a parade rehearsal in the heart of Sanaa narrowly missed killing the defense minister and represented Yemen’s most devastating terrorist attack in years. It occurred as militants linked to al-Qaeda defend newly seized territory in the south and confront head-on this Middle Eastern nation’s U.S.-backed government in an intensifying guerrilla conflict. The Obama administration considers al-Qaeda’s Yemen franchise a key threat to the United States. The branch, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has been implicated in a 2009 attempt to bomb an airplane flying to Detroit; a 2010 plot to send parcel bombs to Chicago via cargo planes; and a foiled scheme to send a suicide bomber on a U.S.-bound plane last month. The United States has dramatically escalated a campaign of airstrikes in Yemen this year, with as many as 21 missile attacks on al-Qaeda elements since January. U.S. Special Operations teams have expanded their role in advising and providing intelligence to the Yemeni military as it launches assaults on militant positions in the south. In some ways, Monday’s attack was reminiscent of the violent outbursts in Pakistan that accompanied Islamabad’s alignment with the United States against terrorist groups. President Obama alluded to that parallel in remarks he made in Chicago, where he was attending a NATO summit. Yemen “is attracting a lot of folks that previously might have been in the FATA before we started putting pressure on them there,” Obama said, referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan, where al-Qaeda was based. “We’re going to continue to work with the Yemeni government to try to identify AQAP leadership and operations and try to thwart them.” The assailant in Monday’s attack was a soldier participating in a military parade rehearsal in Sanaa’s al-Sabeen Square, security officials said. He blew himself up about 10 a.m. as the troops were listening to the national anthem, minutes before the defense minister was to deliver a speech. The minister and top military commanders are thought to have escaped injury. Most of those killed were soldiers. In a statement sent to the Reuters news agency, AQAP asserted responsibility, saying the attack was revenge for what it called the U.S. war on its followers in southern Yemen. AQAP said it sought to assassinate the defense minister and other top commanders at the parade rehearsal. The group also warned of more attacks. “We will take revenge, God willing, and the flames of war will reach you everywhere, and what happened is but the start of a jihad project in defense of honor and sanctities,” said the statement, which was addressed to Yemeni military commanders. U.S. intelligence officials said that they consider AQAP’s assertion of responsibility credible but that analysts at the CIA and other agencies were still reviewing information about the attack. The bombing could reflect a geographical shift in AQAP’s strategy. For months, Sanaa was largely spared from the violence ravaging other parts of Yemen, with the group targeting military and security officials in the south. Radical Islamists have taken over large patches of territory in that part of the country. In recent weeks, Yemeni forces have launched a major offensive against the militants with the help of U.S. trainers, advisers and drone strikes. Monday’s attack shows that AQAP’s “reach is more pervasive and extensive than people have previously imagined,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. “If you can pierce the security that most protects the country, that speaks volumes about its existing capabilities and trajectory. It says the group is growing stronger, not weaker.” The entrances to Sanaa and virtually every main road within the city are monitored by troops stationed at checkpoints. Monday’s attack raised fears that more AQAP operatives may have infiltrated Yemen’s military, which is divided by political tensions arising from the country’s populist revolt last year. Such infiltration, combined with AQAP’s increasing use of suicide bombers, mirrors tactics used by al-Qaeda in other nations, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and, more recently, Syria. Yemen, the region’s poorest nation, is beset by multiple woes, including rising malnutrition rates and a dire water shortage. At al-Sabeen Square on Monday, blood and pieces of uniforms covered the road where the soldiers were standing in formation when attack occurred. “It all happened so quickly,” said Maj. Khaled al-Haimi, a traffic police officer. “We were standing at the end of Sabeen Road when we heard the explosion and saw the soldiers flying in the air.” Speaking from his hospital bed, injured soldier Majed al-Haj, 22, said, “The explosion happened in the middle of the brigade. We were standing at the end and were injured by the shrapnel. The ones that were in the middle and in the front were killed.” The military parade was scheduled for Tuesday to commemorate Yemen’s national day, the anniversary of the date in 1990 when North Yemen and South Yemen were unified into one country. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who replaced longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, was expected to attend. Since taking office, Hadi has publicly vowed to eradicate the al-Qaeda insurgency. But he is also struggling to contain fighting between loyalists and longtime opponents of Saleh. After the attack, Hadi vowed to keep fighting AQAP. The militants “wanted to turn the joy of our people with the unity day into sorrow,” he said in a speech to the nation. “The war on terrorism will continue until it is uprooted and defeated completely, whatever the sacrifices are.” But Obama signaled that such attacks would not serve as provocation for an even wider U.S. role in the Yemeni conflict. The administration has insisted that it is only advising Yemeni forces and would not be drawn into what amounts to a civil war. “I think one of the things that we’ve learned from the Afghanistan experience is for us to stay focused on the counterterrorism issue, to work with the government, to not overextend ourselves,” Obama said. Raghavan reported from Nairobi. Staff writer Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report. **More world news coverage:** \- Pakistani schools targeted by militants \- Strauss-Kahn again accused of rape \- Banerjee personifies populist politics in India \- Read more headlines from around the world

In Yemen, tribal militias in a fierce battle with al-Qaeda wing

Jaar, Yemen — Abdul Latif al-Sayid knows a lot about the al-Qaeda militants lurking in this tense southern town. He knows their tribes, knows their tactics. He knows because he used to be one of them. That’s why they are trying to kill him. So Sayid, the leader of a tribal militia fighting the Islamist extremists, moves from house to house every few days to throw off their informants. He travels only with trusted bodyguards and sleeps with a Kalashnikov rifle by his side. “Now, the war against al-Qaeda is more dangerous than before,” said Sayid, a thin and bearded 31-year-old who has survived six attempts on his life, including an ambush over the weekend that killed one of his fighters. A U.S.-backed offensive this summer by Yemen’s military and tribal forces eviscerated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s branch in Yemen, in swaths of the country’s south. But a shadowy conflict has followed, punctuated by suicide attacks, car bombings and assassinations in this strategic corner of the world near crucial oil shipping lanes. It is a conflict fueled by tribal rivalries and spies, more intense than previous battles, on a landscape that the United States and its allies consider as important a front line as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nearly every week, violence erupts in Jaar and other parts of southern Yemen, including the port city of Aden, targeting military and security complexes, high-profile generals and government ministers. Sayid’s struggle reflects the jihadists’ determination to remain a force in this region and the limitations of Yemen’s new government and the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy. A rare visit by a Western journalist to Jaar, once the militants’ main base and their laboratory to experiment with fundamentalist Islamist rule, revealed how deeply entrenched they remain in the city. Militant cells are actively working to undermine Yemen’s weak government, even as U.S. and Yemeni officials declare progress in the fight against AQAP, as the al-Qaeda affiliate is known. AQAP operatives killed in U.S. drone attacks are quickly replaced. In Jaar, the militants have declared war against the United States, generating sympathy and recruits from a population that has long opposed U.S. policies in the Middle East. “They no longer fight face to face,” Sayid said at an empty cement factory in the mountains outside Jaar. “They attack and they vanish, and it’s difficult to track their locations. It’s now a guerrilla conflict, just like what happened in Iraq.” Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is largely absent in Jaar, consumed by political turmoil and insecurity in the capital, Sanaa. No police or security forces patrol Jaar. Instead, the government has, in effect, outsourced the fight against AQAP. Maintaining law and order is in the hands of the Popular Resistance Committees, an assembly of ill-equipped tribesmen led by Sayid. They are now the militants’ greatest foes. “Al-Qaeda will use any means to kill them,” said Ahmed al-Maisari, a former governor of Abyan province, which includes Jaar. “And Abdul Latif is their number-one target.” More than a year ago, the Islamist militants swept through Abyan. They took advantage of the political chaos unfolding in the wake of a populist revolt, an extension of the Arab Spring uprisings, which eventually ended the 33-year autocratic rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh this year. The militants called themselves Ansar al-Sharia, or supporters of sharia, or Islamic law, but they operated under the umbrella of AQAP. They swiftly took over Zinjibar, the provincial capital, as well as Jaar and other towns, as Yemen’s security units fled or were transferred to Sanaa to preserve Saleh’s power. A sign at the entrance to the tall, brown-brick courthouse, which also served as the police station and jail under the militants, still reads: “The Islamic Emirate of Waqar.” It’s the name the extremists gave to Jaar. And it was a clear indicator of their desire to create a place that foreign jihadists would use as a launchpad for attacks against the United States and its allies. AQAP has targeted the United States several times since 2009, including an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner and a plot to send parcel bombs on flights to the United States. Saleh’s reign was dominated by northerners, who largely ignored Jaar and other towns in the south. Lawlessness ruled Jaar, whose population grew to deeply resent the government. The militants came to this city of 100,000 in March 2011 and quickly restored order. They set up sharia courts and issued harsh punishments, including chopping off thieves’ hands, in the name of a righteous Islam. Many residents here approved. “When al-Qaeda was here, it was good,” said Anwar Ali Sallam, 30, an employee in the electricity bureau. “There were no robberies. People treated each other in a decent way. No one would try to make problems.” The militants provided food to the poor, as well as free water and electricity. Many al-Qaeda fighters married into local families. And they used religion to gain support in this conservative Muslim region, where women wear black head-to-toe abayas. The militants woke up residents at dawn to pray and ordered shops closed during mosque prayers. “They talked about religion in a friendly way until people felt comfortable with them,” said Mohammed Muhsin Mohammed, 21, an unemployed laborer and avid soccer player. But the militants, who included fighters from other Arab countries and Somalia, also issued many unpopular decrees, banning Arabic music, dance videos and any semblance of Western culture. They ordered Mohammed and other soccer players to wear long pants instead of shorts, which they defined as inappropriate for a Muslim. Whenever a player scored a goal, his teammates and spectators were not allowed to shout in joy. Instead, they had to yell “Allahu Akbar” — God is great. To lure recruits, the jihadists would declare through loudspeakers that they were fighting the United States and its allies, particularly Saudi Arabia. “They would yell, ‘America is controlled by the Jews,’ and that Saleh’s regime was a puppet of America,” Sallam recalled. Sayid, too, was increasingly fed up with Saleh’s government. So the devout father of two who produced honey for a living joined the militants. “I thought Ansar al-Sharia would improve our lives,” he said. But he soon became disillusioned with the group’s brutality. Within months of leaving their imprint on Jaar, the militants began targeting anyone they suspected of being against them — and those who questioned their authority. One of Sayid’s cousins was accused of being a spy and executed in Jaar’s main soccer field. That’s when Sayid defected and started to recruit other tribesmen to turn against the militants. In August 2011, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a group of AQAP fighters attacked Sayid at his house. The firefight lasted the entire day, he said, and killed three of his lieutenants. But Sayid escaped the scene and fled Jaar. Outside town, he and his fighters attacked AQAP supply lines and set up ambushes. Soon, other tribesmen joined him. “Many locals wanted to fight al-Qaeda but were too afraid,” said Mahjoub Numqi, one of Sayid’s top lieutenants. Sayid “broke that barrier of fear.” Yemen’s military and security forces were unable to dislodge the militants for months. But after Hadi took office in February, he ordered a major offensive, aided by U.S. trainers, advisers and intelligence, as well as airstrikes. Sayid and his fighters joined the assault. In June, they attacked Jaar from the north as Yemeni military forces came from the west and south, driving the jihadists out of town. But since then, the militants have been striking back, targeting police stations and other government and military buildings. They killed the top military commander in southern Yemen later in June and launched an assault on the headquarters of the intelligence services in Aden last month, killing 20 soldiers and security guards. In Jaar, the militants have focused on Sayid and his fighters — and they have no shortage of help from sympathetic tribes. “Al-Qaeda stayed in Jaar for more than a year,” Sayid said. “It planted generations of supporters.” Last month, a man carrying a bomb in a thermos entered Sayid’s family home in Jaar and detonated it during a funeral service for one of his men. The explosion killed two of Sayid’s brothers and 46 of his fighters and injured scores. Two pieces of shrapnel pierced Sayid’s back and neck. Two days later, a suicide bomber tried to kill him again, raising concerns within his fold that AQAP had infiltrated the Popular Resistance Committees. Sayid went into hiding. Today, fear pervades the landscape. Graffiti still announce the jihadists’ rule. Few women venture outside. And lawlessness appears to be seeping back in. The Popular Resistance Committees have arrested several car thieves and other robbers. But the sense of neglect by the new government is causing many to wonder whether life was better under the militants. “Many people in Jaar want al-Qaeda to come back,” said Sallam, the electricity bureau employee. Sayid’s fighters patrol the streets atop motorcycles, their Kalashnikovs hanging from their shoulders, or stand guard at checkpoints. They have no illusions about the risks. “Anyone can jump into a crowd and cry ‘Allahu Akbar’ and blow himself up,” Numqi said. In Zinjibar and other towns, buildings are shattered or pocked with holes from gunfire and mortar rounds. Streets are empty. Although some of the thousands of residents who fled the conflict have returned, many more have not. Meanwhile, the fighters with the Popular Resistance Committees are facing numerous hurdles. Though they now receive a small monthly stipend from the government, Sayid said he has only one vehicle, and no medium-size weapons to combat AQAP. He has written to Hadi seeking more weapons and assistance, Sayid said. But with Hadi locked in a struggle for power with Saleh’s family and loyalists in the military and government, Sayid said he doesn’t expect much. Abdulmajeed al-Salahi, an Abyan government official, gave another reason. Even though the government, he said, depends on Sayid’s fighters to battle AQAP, it does not want to create a well-armed militia that could pose a threat in the future. But for Sayid, “it’s a life-or-death situation now. Whether the government supports us or not, we can’t let go. We will fight until we die.” Ali Almujahed in Sanaa contributed to this story.

When U.S. drones kill civilians, Yemen’s government tries to conceal it

A rickety Toyota truck packed with 14 people rumbled down a desert road from the town of Radda, which al-Qaeda militants once controlled. Suddenly a missile hurtled from the sky and flipped the vehicle over. Chaos. Flames. Corpses. Then, a second missile struck. Within seconds, 11 of the passengers were dead, including a woman and her 7-year-old daughter. A 12-year-old boy also perished that day, and another man later died from his wounds. The Yemeni government initially said that those killed were al-Qaeda militants and that its Soviet-era jets had carried out the Sept. 2 attack. But tribal leaders and Yemeni officials would later say that it was an American assault and that all the victims were civilians who lived in a village near Radda, in central Yemen. U.S. officials last week acknowledged for the first time that it was an American strike. “Their bodies were burning,” recalled Sultan Ahmed Mohammed, 27, who was riding on the hood of the truck and flew headfirst into a sandy expanse. “How could this happen? None of us were al-Qaeda.” More than three months later, the incident offers a window into the Yemeni government’s efforts to conceal Washington’s mistakes and the unintended consequences of civilian deaths in American air assaults. In this case, the deaths have bolstered the popularity of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s Yemen affiliate, which has tried to stage attacks on U.S. soil several times. Furious tribesmen tried to take the bodies to the gates of the presidential residence, forcing the government into the rare position of withdrawing its assertion that militants had been killed. The apparent target, Yemeni officials and tribal leaders said, was a senior regional al-Qaeda leader, Abdelrauf al-   Dahab, who was thought to be in a car traveling on the same road. U.S. airstrikes have killed numerous civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world, and those governments have spoken against the attacks. But in Yemen, the weak government has often tried to hide civilian casualties from the public, fearing repercussions in a nation where hostility toward U.S. policies is widespread. It continues to insist in local media reports that its own aging jets attacked the truck. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has kept silent publicly, neither confirming nor denying any involvement, a standard practice with most U.S. airstrikes in its clandestine counterterrorism fight in this strategic Middle Eastern country. In response to questions, U.S. officials in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said it was a Defense Department aircraft, either a drone or a fixed-wing warplane, that fired on the truck. The Pentagon declined to comment on the incident, as did senior U.S. officials in Yemen and senior counterterrorism officials in Washington. Since the attack, militants in the tribal areas surrounding Radda have gained more recruits and supporters in their war against the Yemeni government and its key backer, the United States. The two survivors and relatives of six victims, interviewed separately and speaking to a Western journalist about the incident for the first time, expressed willingness to support or even fight alongside AQAP, as the al-Qaeda group is known. “Our entire village is angry at the government and the Americans,” Mohammed said. “If the Americans are responsible, I would have no choice but to sympathize with al-Qaeda because al-Qaeda is fighting America.” Public outrage is also growing as calls for accountability, transparency and compensation go unanswered amid allegations by human rights activists and lawmakers that the government is trying to cover up the attack to protect its relationship with Washington. Even senior Yemeni officials said they fear that the backlash could undermine their authority. “If we are ignored and neglected, I would try to take my revenge. I would even hijack an army pickup, drive it back to my village and hold the soldiers in it hostages,” said Nasser Mabkhoot Mohammed al-Sabooly, the truck’s driver, 45, who suffered burns and bruises. “I would fight along al-Qaeda’s side against whoever was behind this attack.” After Osama bin Laden’s death last year, Yemen emerged as a key battlefield in the Obama administration’s war on Islamist militancy. AQAP members are among those on a clandestine “kill list” created by the administration to hunt down terrorism suspects. It is a lethal campaign, mostly fueled by unmanned drones, but it also includes fixed-wing aircraft and cruise missiles fired from the sea. This year, there have been at least 38 U.S. airstrikes in Yemen, according to the Long War Journal, a nonprofit Web site that tracks American drone attacks. That is significantly more than in any year since 2009, when President Obama is thought to have ordered the first drone strike. The Radda attack was one of the deadliest since a U.S. cruise missile strike in December 2009 killed dozens of civilians, including women and children, in the mountainous region of al-   Majala in southern Yemen. After that attack, many tribesmen in that area became radicalized and joined AQAP. “The people are against the indiscriminate use of the drones,” said Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubaker al-Qirbi. “They want better management of drones. And, more important, they want to have some transparency as far as what’s going on — from everybody.” The concern over civilian casualties has grown louder since the spring, when the White House broadened its definition of militants who can be targeted in Yemen to include those who may not be well-known. “We don’t attack in populated areas,” said an Obama administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing the U.S. airstrikes here. “We don’t go after people in dwellings where we don’t know who everyone is. We work very hard to minimize the collateral damage. “Having said all that, like any programs managed and operated by human beings, mistakes happen. We are not perfect.” The rise in U.S. attacks came as AQAP and other extremists seized large swaths of southern Yemen last year, taking advantage of the political chaos of the country’s populist Arab Spring revolution. Before that, AQAP orchestrated failed attempts to send parcel bombs on cargo planes to Chicago in 2010 and to bomb a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner the previous year. In January, AQAP-linked militants briefly seized Radda, placing them only 100 miles south of the capital, Sanaa. But they left after the government, agreeing to their demands, released several extremists from prison. By the summer, the radicals had also been pushed from towns in southern Yemen after a U.S.-backed military offensive initiated by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who took office early this year after the country’s autocratic leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, stepped down after 33 years in power. But today, extremists linked to al-Qaeda are still in and around Radda, as well as in other parts of Yemen, staging attacks on government and military officials. In recent months, villagers in Sabool, about 10 miles from Radda, said they have heard U.S. drones fly over the area as many as three or four times a day. Some described them as “little white planes.” “It burns my blood every time I see or hear the airplanes,” said Ali Ali Ahmed Mukhbil, 40, a farmer. “All they have accomplished is destruction and fear among the people.” On that September morning, his brother Masood stepped into the Toyota truck in Sabool. It was filled with villagers heading to Radda to sell khat, a leafy narcotic chewed by most Yemeni males. After they sold their produce, they headed back in the afternoon. Nasser Ahmed Abdurabu Rubaih, a 26-year-old khat farmer, was working in the valley when he heard the explosions. He ran to the site and, like others, threw sand into the burning vehicle to douse the flames. As he sifted through the charred bodies on the road, he recognized his brother, Abdullah, from his clothes. “I lost my mind,” Rubaih recalled. Mukhbil’s brother Masood also was dead. Some witnesses said that they saw three planes in the sky, two black and one white, and that the black ones were Yemeni jets. But both missiles struck the moving vehicle directly, and the terrain surrounding the truck was not scorched — hallmarks of a precision strike from a sophisticated American aircraft. “If you say it wasn’t a U.S. drone, nobody will believe you,” said Abdel-Karim al-Iryani, a former Yemeni prime minister who is a senior adviser to Hadi. “A Yemeni pilot to be able to hit a specific vehicle that’s moving? Impossible.” The Yemeni government publicly apologized for the attack and sent 101 guns to tribal leaders in the area as a symbolic gesture, which in Yemeni culture is an admission of guilt. But a government inquiry into the strike appears to be stalled, human rights activists and lawmakers said. For the past three months, lawmakers have unsuccessfully demanded that senior government officials reveal who was responsible for the attack. Yemen’s defense and interior ministries, Hadi’s office, and the attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Washington played a crucial role in ousting Saleh and installing Hadi, a former defense minister. The United States also provides hundreds of millions of dollars to the military and security forces in counterterrorism assistance. U.S. officials regard Hadi as an even stauncher counterterrorism ally than Saleh. “The government is trying to kill the case,” said Abdul Rahman Berman, the executive director of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, or HOOD, a local human rights group. “The government wants to protect its relations with the U.S.” After the 2009 strike in al-   Majala, the Yemeni government took responsibility for the assault. “We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” Saleh told Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was then the head of U.S. Central Command, according to a U.S. Embassy e-mail leaked by the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks. Three weeks after the Radda attack, Hadi visited Washington and praised the accuracy of U.S. drone strikes in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, as well as publicly. “They pinpoint the target and have zero margin of error, if you know what target you’re aiming at,” he told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The day after the attack, tribesmen affiliated with al-   Qaeda blocked the roads around Radda and stormed government buildings. They set up a large tent and held a gathering to denounce the government and the United States. Fliers handed out around town read: “See what the government has done? That’s why we are fighting. . . . They are the agents of America and the enemy of Islam. . . . They fight whoever says ‘Allah is my God,’ according to America’s instructions.” At the funeral, some mourners chanted “America is a killer,” said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, a human rights activist who attended. A few days later, at a gathering, relatives of the victims urged Yemeni officials to be careful about the intelligence they provided to the Americans. “Do not rush to kill innocent people,” declared Mohammed Mukhbil al-Sabooly, a village elder, in testimony that was videotaped. “If such attacks continue, they will make us completely lose our trust in the existence of a state.” On extremist Web sites and Facebook pages, grisly pictures of the attack’s aftermath, with bodies tossed like rag dolls on the road, have been posted, coupled with condemnations of the government and the United States. In Sabool and Radda, youths have vowed to join al-Qaeda to fight the United States. “The drone war is failing,” Berman said. “If the Americans kill 10, al-Qaeda will recruit 100.” AQAP sent emissaries to Sabool to offer compensation to the victims’ relatives, seeking to fill the void left by the government, which has provided no compensation to the survivors and the families of those killed. Some relatives have joined AQAP since the attack, said Hamoud Mohamed al-Ammari, the security chief of Radda. Others are considering. “If there’s no compensation from the government, we will accept the compensation from al-Qaeda,” Rubaih said. “If I am sure the Americans are the ones who killed my brother, I will join al-Qaeda and fight against America.”

The antidote to Mideast violence

As Arab leaders gather for discussions at Camp David this week, the Obama administration is quietly debating a revision of its strategy against the Islamic State to reflect a U.S. assessment that the terrorist group poses a global threat. Given the swirling vortex of challenges and threats in the Middle East, U.S. officials hope the meetings will bring a common front against extremism in the region, in both its radical Shiite and Sunni versions. But one top U.S. official involved in the coalition against Islamic State worries about limited resources: “You can fight ISIS, or you can fight in Yemen, but not both.” With Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states concentrating on Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen, the fight against the Islamic State has been less visible over the past month. But support for the Sunni “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria keeps expanding. The United States now counts about a half-dozen affiliates of the Islamic State, and the group’s distinctive black-and-white flag has been waved, at least furtively, in as many as 70 countries — making the group a rival to al-Qaeda in its scope and potential threat. But how should the U.S.-led coalition combat the Islamic State — without further glorifying its cause in the minds of young recruits? I can offer some provocative ideas from recent conversations with leading counterterrorism strategists. Combating the Islamic State is a problem of “psychology, not theology,” argues Arie W. Kruglanski, a psychologist whose work is cited by Muslim strategic- communications experts in the United Arab Emirates. They agree with French scholar Olivier Roy that anti-jihadist messages from sheiks and imams won’t work. While religion may “license” the violent behavior of Islamic State recruits, it’s not their motivation. They’re driven by an extreme form of the romantic, reckless aggression that occurs among adolescents everywhere. Young jihadists are motivated by core “life questions” about meaning and belonging, by unresolved aggression toward authority figures, by attention-seeking and exhibitionism, more than by ideology, argues a UAE-based analyst who has been analyzing radicalization for more than a decade. He cautions that wise counterterrorism policies should block the “receptors” that lead to aggression, by promoting tolerance and a sense of closure to crises. Trying to talk jihadists down from the ledge is a waste of energy; by then, it’s probably too late. The Islamic State “represents one of the world’s most powerful brands,” the analyst wrote privately last November. “In stoking grievances and emotions with narratives linked to Muslim suffering and humiliation, it pits young heroes against corrupt, oppressive, unjust governments.” Pressuring Muslims to step up and counter the jihadist appeal (an idea that has been in vogue recently in the West) may backfire, the strategist warns. “Putting the onus on Muslim communities to fight may be a poisoned chalice.” It makes mainstream Muslims the issue, not the extremists. The most potent weapon against the “viral” jihadist narrative on Arab social media may be an alternative that celebrates freedom, argues Nadia Oweidat, a Jordanian-born analyst with the New America Foundation. In researching Arab social media, she notes an explosion of Facebook and YouTube sites that express this theme of personal freedom. These are the ideas that emerged in the “Arab Spring” of 2011 rather than today’s louder, darker, more intolerant, jihadist images. Oweidat showed me dozens of social media sites that carry these liberating messages. There’s a YouTube talk show called “The Black Ducks,” where Egyptian atheist Ismail Mohamed has gathered dozens of episodes expressing diverse beliefs. An online forum called “Civilized Dialogue” has more than 2 million participants. Ahlam Mosteghanemi, a free-thinking Algerian novelist, has more than 7 million “likes” on Facebook, far more than the Muslim Brotherhood, which has about 76,000. Another sign that liberal ideas are alive in the Middle East (but drowned out by the jihadists) comes in the latest Arab Youth Survey by the public relations firm ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller. It’s based on interviews with 3,500 men and women, ages 18 to 24, in 16 Arab countries. Seventy-three percent said they were concerned about the rise of the Islamic State; 67 percent agreed that “our best days are ahead of us.” But skepticism about Western democracy is growing, too. Just 15 percent cited “lack of democracy” as the biggest obstacle. The discussions at Camp David will focus on the military battlefronts against extremism in the Middle East. But I hope the leaders will think about the framework for tolerant and open societies, as championed by the UAE. That’s the real antidote to violence. _Read more fromDavid Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more about this topic:** Jackson Diehl: Tunisia’s democratic road map The Post’s View: Shake-up in the House of Saud The Post’s View: A shift on the ground in Syria

The Islamic State likes America’s ‘dumb’ gun laws, defector says

"Dumb." That's how the Islamic State views America's lax gun laws, according to one former recruit who traveled to Syria to join the group.   In contrast, an attack in San Bernardino, Calif., in December 2015 and another in Orlando in June 2016 — two attacks both claimed by the Islamic State that killed a total of 63 people — were conducted by people with little link to organized crime. These people had not been to the Middle East to fight, and their links to the Islamic State were weak, at best. In both of these shootings, the firearms used were bought legally. Complicating matters, however, is another tend. In recent months, experts have noticed an increase of seemingly ad hoc methods for Islamic State-directed or inspired violence. A deadly attack in Nice that used a large box truck as a weapon shows how crudely inventive the Islamic State could be without legally or illegally acquired firearms. "I think both ISIS and al-Qaeda are opportunists and will use whatever weapon is either available or most useful in the circumstances," Bruce Hoffman, director of Georgetown University's Security Studies Program, explained in an email. "Legally bought guns or refrigerator trucks — whichever gets the job done."

Suspected al-Qaeda militants kill 14 in attack in Yemen port city of Aden

ADEN, Yemen — Suspected al-Qaeda fighters attacked the intelligence services headquarters in the center of this southern port city Saturday, killing at least 14 Yemeni soldiers and security guards, Yemeni security officials said. The morning attack highlighted the continuing ability of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s Yemen affiliate, to strike high- profile military and security targets even after being pushed out of several southern towns this summer by a U.S.-backed Yemeni army offensive. The well-planned operation in Aden, launched on the last day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, began when the extremists detonated a car bomb next to the intelligence headquarters, according to the Defense Ministry. They then attacked the building with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, shattering windows and setting it on fire, before fleeing, the ministry said on its Web site. The death toll is expected to rise, as many bodies were still buried under the rubble, the ministry added. At least seven other soldiers and security guards were injured. Saturday’s assault appeared to be the latest in a string of deadly attacks orchestrated by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, since May, when the militant group targeted a military parade rehearsal in the capital, Sanaa, killing at least 90 people. Since then, members of the group have attacked a police academy in Sanaa, assassinated a senior commander in southern Yemen and tried to kill the leader of a pro-government citizen’s force that is fighting to defeat it. The Obama administration considers AQAP — which has tried to stage attacks on U.S. territory several times since 2009 — al-Qaeda’s most ambitious affiliate and a significant threat to the United States and its allies, particularly neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter. This year, the administration has escalated a campaign of drone strikes across southern Yemen in an effort to weaken the group. Last year, the militants seized advantage of Yemen’s political turmoil and took control of several towns in Abyan province, adjacent to Aden, including the provincial capital of Zinjibar. After President Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down from power in February, the new government launched a major offensive against the militants with the help of the United States, driving them into the mountains and villages under the protection of sympathetic tribes. In a separate development late Saturday, a Yemeni southern secessionist leader told the Reuters news service that he had been released from captivity, three days after gunmen took him hostage when he arrived in Aden on Wednesday. Ahmed Abdullah al-Hassani had traveled from Britain, where he lived in exile, to meet with other leaders of the south’s secessionist movement, which has long complained about discrimination and inequalities in sharing of resources by Yemen’s northern rulers. North Yemen and South Yemen were unified in 1990 but have had a tense relationship since then, including engaging in a brief civil war in 1994 that was won by the north. **More world news coverage:** \- In Egypt’s Sinai, violence poses new challenge \- Japan’s Noda pays price for tax hike \- In Yemen’s Change Square, the revolution continues \- Read more headlines from around the world

Foreign jihadists aren’t as big a threat to the West as you might think

The following guest post is written by Thomas Hegghammer (@hegghammer), a political scientist and historian at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. His article, “Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists’ Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting,” appeared in the February 2013 issue of the _American Political Science Review _and is available here through Oct. 31.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University ***** Earlier this week, gunmen attacked an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 65 people and injuring 200. The Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the attacks, calling them retribution for Kenyan military operations in Somalia. According to some reports, the attack team included Western nationals. Meanwhile, hundreds of other Western jihadists remain busy fighting Bashar al-Assad’s army in Syria. Although these events seem unrelated, they raise an interesting question: Why do some Western jihadists attack at home while others fight abroad? Moreover, if jihadists are so keen to attack the West, why do some of them leave, given that they are already “behind enemy lines”? And how worried should we be about the prospect of foreign fighters returning to perpetrate terrorist attacks? My article tries to answer these questions by looking at where Western jihadists have chosen to fight over the years and why. I rely on open-source data, including a new dataset on jihadi plots in the West from 1990-2010 and data on foreign fighter flows. My five main findings are:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University For policymakers, the main takeaway from the article is that foreign fighters as a group pose somewhat less of a terrorist threat to the West than is often assumed. The widespread view of foreign fighters as very dangerous stems from their documented role in several serious terrorist plots in the past decade. However, this reasoning considers only the small subset of foreign fighters who returned to attack, disregarding the majority who were never heard from again. A related, but equally flawed assumption is that all foreign fighters leave for training, as part of a cunning strategy to “come back and hit us harder.” The fact that some foreign fighters trained and returned does not mean that all foreign fighters departed with that intention. As it turns out, not even those who _did_ train and return say they planned it from the start. It follows from this that a government approach which treats all foreign fighters as domestic-terrorists-in-the-making risks wasting resources, because so few foreign fighters, statistically speaking, will go on to attack in the West.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University A first step toward a more efficient counterterrorism strategy is to differentiate between outgoing and homecoming foreign fighters and focus resources on the latter. Some countries might consider going a little lighter on outgoing foreign fighters. The U.S. government today spends considerable resources investigating, prosecuting, and incarcerating Muslims who merely attempt to join conflict zones like Somalia. While there should clearly be sanctions in place to deter foreign fighting, the deterrence effort could be better calibrated to the documented threat. By contrast, Islamists returning from conflict zones or neighboring countries should be watched very carefully. This is hardly news to Western intelligence services, but the fact that the last two major attacks in the West, the Boston bombings and the Woolwich murder of a British soldier, involved unsupervised returnees – from Dagestan and Kenya/Somalia respectively – suggests an even greater effort is needed.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University A second step is to distinguish between subsets of foreign fighters according to the rate by which they “produce” domestic attackers. This issue is not addressed in my article and will require new research and analysis. We do not yet know why some foreign fighters and not others move on to domestic operations. Nor do we know why some destinations produce more domestic attackers than others. The Afghanistan-Pakistan region, for example, has produced tens of foreign-turned-domestic fighters, while Somalia has hardly produced any. Understanding these “determinants of differential returnee production” will be key to managing the future threat from the foreign fighters in Syria, a challenge that is not to be taken lightly. Just two years into the war, there may be over 500 Western Muslims fighting in Syria, more than in any previous Islamist foreign fighter destination, including the Afghan jihad in the 1980s. Most of these individuals are unlikely to pose a threat, but some will, so we should start thinking soon about who they are and when we might expect them. The most important indicator to watch is probably the declared strategic intent of jihadi organizations in Syria. If a group such as Jabhat al-Nusra should decide to systematically target the West, then the foreign fighter threat from Syria would increase substantially, as did the threat from Afghanistan when al-Qaida “went global” in the 1990s.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University In the meantime, we can take comfort in the finding that most jihadis choose foreign fighting because they do not want to be terrorists. [Note: This is a slightly modified version of a post that appeared with a different title on The Monkey Cage last summer.]    *[WSU]: Wayne State University

FBI still hasn’t determined if the Chattanooga attack was terrorism

More than five months after attacks on two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn. left four Marines and a sailor dead, federal investigators still have not determined whether the attack was terrorism — and it’s financially costing the families of those who died, as Purple Heart awards hang in the balance. The July 16 attack killed Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40; Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35; Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist; Lance Cpl. Squire D. “Skip” Wells, 21; and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26. Other service members and a Chattanooga police officer also were wounded by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who was born in Kuwait. The attack was carried out at the Chattanooga Naval Reserve Center and a recruiting station a few miles away. As noted previously on Checkpoint, Abdulazeez called Muslims who waged jihad in earlier generations “the best human beings that ever lived” other than the prophets, on his blog. He also downloaded recordings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who recruited for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until he was killed in a 2011 airstrike, according to a NBC News report.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _[Heroism in the Chattanooga Naval Reserve Center: ‘He went back to save others‘]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico But there still is no assessment of whether the incident qualifies as international terrorism. Sharry Dedman-Beard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Tennessee, said the investigation is ongoing and declined additional comment. The issue is particularly sensitive in light of a similar attack this week in San Bernadino, Calif., that killed 14 people and wounded 21 more. It was carried out by a married couple, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik. Malik, 27, was a Pakistani woman who entered the United States on a so-called “fiance visa.” She pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group on Facebook prior to the attack, a U.S. law enforcement official said on Friday.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The law enforcement official compared the San Bernadino case to the Chattanooga attack, noting that it took days for the FBI to sort out what happened and some questions still remain. The Chattanooga shooting, occurring at military facilities, however, raised the possibility of Purple Heart medals being awarded to the families of the troops killed there and the survivors who were wounded. Under current criteria, however, the Chattanooga victims will not be eligible unless the government determines that Abdulazeez was in contact with a foreign terrorist organization beforehand _and_ was “inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization.”    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Military officials have proactively prepared Purple Heart nomination packages for the troops involved, said Maj. Rob Dolan, a Marine Corps spokesman in Quantico, Va. But the awards are still in limbo while the investigation remains open. “Determination of eligibility still rests on the completion of the FBI investigation,” Dolan said. _[Why Purple Hearts are in question following the Chattanooga attack]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The financial benefits of the Purple Heart can include the payment of hostile-fire pay for those killed or wounded in an attack, and special compensation for troops whose disability is attributed to an injury for which they were awarded the medal. The issue has come up before. Earlier this year, then-Army Secretary John McHugh ordered the Purple Heart and associated benefits be awarded to the families of 13 people who were killed and more than 30 who were wounded in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex. The lack of Purple Hearts in that case had become a political issue, and required Congress to pass legislation that expanded eligibility by redefining an attack by a “foreign terrorist organization” to include an incident in which an attacker was in communication with a foreign terrorist organization or motivated by it, McHugh said in announcing the awards in July.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Shortly after the Chattanooga attack, a resolution was introduced in the House by Rep. Charles Fleischmann (R.-Tenn.) to say that the service members wounded and killed meet the criteria for the Purple Heart and that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus should do so. It now has 86 co-sponsors and bipartisan support.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Al-Qaeda says Trump has ignited ‘the flame of jihad’ with Yemen raid

IRBIL, Iraq — President Trump is “foolish” and has ignited the “flame of jihad” with a raid in Yemen in which civilians were killed, al-Qaeda said Friday in its first official comments on the new U.S. administration. That the raid came only days after Trump’s vow to eradicate Islamist terrorism in his inauguration speech makes it “clear for us that the threat was not directed to the Islamic militants only, but to all the Muslims, men, women and even children,” al-Qaeda’s al-Nafeer bulletin said, accusing the Trump administration of intentionally killing women and children. U.S. Central Command, or Centcom, has not specified how many civilians were killed in the raid last Saturday, in which a Navy SEAL also died. Among those reported dead was the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric with al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen who was killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike. Civilian casualties provide easy fodder for extremist propaganda, and Trump’s comments indicating that he will heavily bomb Islamic State militants who have caused nervousness for some in the region. In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where about 750,000 civilians remain in areas under Islamic State control, the United States has so far used strict rules of engagement. But Trump’s executive order   on defeating the Islamic State said a plan should recommended changes to U.S. rules of engagement and other “policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of international law.” Analysts have also expressed fears that policies such as Trump’s travel ban on seven majority-Muslim countries could fan international extremism and stoke anti-American sentiment, causing more danger to the United States, rather than protecting it. On online forums and social media, Islamist militants have hailed the ban as proof that the United States is at war with Islam. Aaso Ameen Shwan contributed to this report.

Militants stage complex attack on Yemen’s Defense Ministry, killing at least 52

SANAA, Yemen — Militants carried out a multi-stage attack on Yemen’s Defense Ministry early Thursday and clashed with government forces in the fortified compound throughout the day, leaving at least 52 people dead and scores injured, the government said. The assault was the most ambitious in the capital, Sanaa, since May 2012, when al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula  (AQAP), a local offshoot of the global terrorist network, targeted a military parade  with a suicide bombing that killed more than 90 soldiers. Although many observers here said they suspected AQAP was behind the latest violence, it remained unclear late Thursday exactly who was responsible or why the assault occurred. Yemen’s Supreme Security Committee said in a statement that at least 167 people were injured in Thursday’s attack, which began just after 9 a.m. when a car bomb exploded outside the Defense Ministry’s western gate, shattering windows in nearby building and shaking panes across the city. The blast was followed shortly afterward by another and then by the arrival of a number of gunmen — some dressed in military uniforms, according to witnesses — who stormed a military hospital in the complex and opened fire on doctors, nurses, patients and others inside. State news media reported that the victims included two German doctors, two Vietnamese doctors, two Filipino nurses, an Indian nurse and a Yemeni female doctor. “The target was the hospital because it’s for Ministry of Defense leaders,” said Mahmoud Shahra, an adviser in the prime minister’s office. “The first [bomb] was a truck, and the second was an ambulance.” Defense Minister Mohamed Nasser Ahmed, who has been the subject of several assassination attempts in the past, was in Washington for talks with his American counterparts Thursday when the violence erupted in Sanaa. The Yemeni army sealed off the ministry compound, where the militants remained holed up, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation. Sporadic, sometimes heavy gunfire could be heard throughout the day, despite several false reports that the battle was over. The sound of machine guns could be heard well into the night. The assault came amid high political tension and a deteriorating security situation in Yemen. The National Dialogue Conference, which was meant to help the country navigate the post-Arab Spring transition, has stalled, while a restive southern secessionist movement grows impatient and fighting between Houthi rebels and their opponents rages in the country’s north. Just last month, assailants on a motorcycle gunned downed Abdulkareem Jadban, a Houthi member of parliament and a dialogue member, in downtown Sanaa. “This operation was definitely a terrorist operation. This was a challenge to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and an attempt to ruin the national dialogue,” said Muhsin Khosroof, a retired colonel who formerly worked at the Defense Ministry complex. Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Yemen over the years, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and a 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. The Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda merged in 2009 to form AQAP, which has been particularly active following the 2011 revolution that ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In recent months, AQAP has struck Yemeni army outposts in Shebwa and Hadramout provinces, in coordinated attacks resembling the one that occurred Thursday in Sanaa. Among those confirmed dead Thursday was Abduljaleel Noman, a prominent judge and a member of the National Dialogue Conference, his wife and a relative of Hadi’s. Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, confirmed that the two slain Germans were employees of the semi-governmental GIZ aid organization, along with a Yemeni colleague. “The German government harshly condemns this cowardly attack,” he told reporters in Berlin. Marie Harf, a U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman, denounced the assault, as well. “We stand with Yemen against this violence and remain firmly committed to supporting the Yemeni people as they seek to conclude the national dialogue and move forward peacefully with Yemen’s historic democratic transition,” she said. Despite the tense atmosphere in Sanaa, people started to return to their daily routines as early as midday. On a street near the ministry strewn with broken glass from windows blown out by the explosions, residents seemed surprised by the attack but not alarmed. “For four hours, there was fighting,” said Ibrahim, a young man who lives nearby. “But don’t worry. It’s Yemen.”

Islamic State’s ambitions and allure grow as territory shrinks

Massacres attributed to the Islamic State have struck on four continents this year, reflecting how the appeal of the group’s ideology is growing even as the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria has receded, according to experts. The slaughter of civilians in three large attacks in the past week alone — in Istanbul on Tuesday, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Friday, and in Baghdad on Sunday — suggests that militant actions beyond the caliphate’s borders are taking place more frequently and not necessarily with any overt direction from some caliphate headquarters. Even more alarmingly, a growing number of attacks, starting with those in Paris and Brussels, were conducted by gangs of assailants instead of by an individual gunman. “What’s striking to me about the Istanbul and Dhaka attacks is that both weren’t done by lone wolves at all,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA counterterrorism official and analyst of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State who is at the Brookings Institution. “These were done by teams of terrorists working with a very thought-through attack plan. I call them ‘wolf pack’ attacks. They are rapidly becoming the Islamic State’s signature.” In the latest incidents in the Middle East, the Associated Press reports that an explosion has gone off outside one of Islam’s holiest sites in Medina, Saudi Arabia, the same day that two suicide bombers struck in the Saudi cities of Qatif and Jiddah. Only the bombers were killed in those two incidents, AP reported. The Jiddah attack occurred near the U.S. Consulate. Last week, to mark the two-year anniversary of its self-   declared caliphate, the Islamic State created a chart showing its influence, stretching from the moderate control it claims in the Philippines to a “covert” presence in France, with 15 other countries in between. Even countries not on the list are fearful. In India, the government says dozens of Indian Muslims are being monitored after they have undergone some kind of training with the Islamic State, but Indian officials acknowledge the actual number may be much higher. While the core of the caliphate in Iraq and Syria has been pummeled by coalition airstrikes and by armies and militias fighting them on the ground, Islamic State soldiers have spread throughout the Middle East and far afield. Attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and several European capitals, and the lone-wolf attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino, show the Islamic State’s potency as an ideology. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Islamic State is “vicious and adaptive” in what he called a “global terrorism campaign.” “It’s very much losing territory, but at the same time, expanding its global presence,” he said. U.S. intelligence officials say battlefield setbacks in Iraq and Syria appear to have driven the Islamic State’s leaders to speed up their timeline for attacks abroad. Many intelligence officials and terrorism experts think that recent terrorist strikes in Paris, Brussels, Turkey and Bangladesh are a reflection of that strategy. “We judge that [the Islamic State] will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda,” CIA Director John Brennan said in testimony before the Senate last month. While the Islamic State had been primarily focused on building and defending its caliphate, the group has long expressed ambitions for attacking targets outside the Middle East. The jihadists’ English-language magazine, Dabiq, regularly includes discussions of plans to conquer Rome and other cities of symbolic importance, in addition to capturing all lands that were once part of the Islamic empires of history. In Dhaka, foreign customers at the Holey Artisan Bakery who were from “Crusader countries” were singled out for death. A “news bulletin” radio broadcast that the Islamic State disseminates on social media recently provided a rapid-fire listing of attacks conducted by its fighters, which it characterizes as the “forces of the caliphate.” The group’s aspirations date back to its earliest days, when it was called al-Qaeda in Iraq and led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. “We perform jihad here while our eyes are upon al-Quds [Jerusalem]. We fight here, while our goal is Rome,” Zarqawi famously said, in a line frequently cited by the Islamic State’s leadership. The group’s highly regimented structure includes a unit dedicated to facilitating attacks on foreign soil, U.S. and European officials say. Former Islamic State fighters now in custody have told investigators that the unit, called EMNI or AMNI, has been active in Europe for more than a year. One jailed French recruit named Nicholas Moreau recalled meeting some of the EMNI operatives in Syria and described them as part of the “secret service for the exterior of the Islamic State,” according to notes of the interview obtained by The Washington Post. “The external mission is to send people all over the world to do violence, to kill or recruit young people, or to obtain cameras, or chemicals for weapons,” Moreau said, according to a translation of the French investigators’ notes. He identified as an EMNI operative the Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the reported field commander of November’s terrorist strike in Paris, and said at least four others had traveled to northern Europe to make preparations. It is not clear whether the four have been identified and arrested. “They are dangerous and know the background about weapons,” Moreau was quoted as saying. “I think they are in Europe. I do not know where they are exactly.” Secretary of State John F. Kerry has frequently said that attacks, whether conducted by or inspired by the Islamic State, are a sign of the group’s desperation as the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria is chipped away. Nevertheless, the group apparently remains rooted enough that it recently issued its own caliphate dinar currency, embossed with the words Islamic State. But increasingly, it’s the idea of the Islamic State, rather than the group’s control of any territory, that has taken on greater significance. “As Dhaka and Istanbul demonstrate, the idea is being translated into a tactic that is much more dangerous than inspiring a single individual to go out and carry out an attack,” Riedel said. “As horrific as Orlando was, had it been four guys in the bar, think how much more complicated it would have been. “It’s making the challenge of defeating it more and more urgent, as well as more and more difficult.” Souad Mekhennet in Frankfurt, Germany, and Rama Lakshmi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

After Orlando, Obama continues to be in denial about terrorism

After the Islamic State began releasing videos of American citizens being beheaded, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett reportedly told President Obama that Americans were worried that they would soon bring this violence here to the United States. Obama was unfazed. “They’re not coming here to chop our heads off,” the president promised. Now a terrorist pledging allegiance to the Islamic State has murdered 49 Americans in Orlando. What inspired him? CNN reports that “analysis of Mateen’s electronic devices showed searches for jihadist propaganda, including . . . ISIS beheading videos.” Obama dismissed Omar Mateen as a “homegrown” terrorist who had announced his allegiance to the Islamic State “at the last minute” and declared that “there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed by ISIL.” That distinction (if it turns out to be true) is irrelevant. Last month, the Islamic State commander responsible for external attack plotting, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, gave a speech calling on supporters to carry out killings in the United States during the holy month of Ramadan. “The smallest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the largest action by us, and more effective and more damaging to them,” he said. Mateen answered al-Adnani’s call, Orlando is awash in blood, and the Islamic State claimed credit for the attack and declared Mateen “one of the soldiers of the caliphate.” He was an Islamic State terrorist. This was an Islamic State attack. And Obama’s stubborn refusal to see this is part of a larger pattern of downplaying or dismissing terrorist dangers. According to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who spent hours interviewing Obama about his foreign policy doctrine, the president “has never believed that terrorism poses a threat to America commensurate with the fear it generates” and “frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs do.” That’s right, our commander in chief sees the mass shooting of 49 people in Orlando as akin to a slip in the tub. In his 2016 State of the Union address, Obama blithely dismissed the Islamic State as “fighters on the back of pickup trucks” who he said, in typical strawman fashion, “do not threaten our national existence.” In a 2015 BBC interview, he said , “If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100.” In other words, no big deal. After his anti-Islamic State strategy came under withering criticism following the Brussels terror attacks in March, Obama said “my top priority is to defeat ISIL.” But he has admitted elsewhere that is untrue. Obama has openly declared that climate change is a much higher priority for him than terrorism because “ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. Climate change is a potential existential threat to the entire world if we don’t do something about it.” Indeed, Goldberg writes, Obama “gets frustrated that terrorism keeps swamping his larger agenda” and “his advisers are fighting a constant rearguard action to keep Obama from placing terrorism in what he considers its ‘proper’ perspective, out of concern that he will seem insensitive to the fears of the American people.” The “proper” perspective. No wonder the president keeps getting the terrorist threat wrong. No wonder, just before the Islamic State took over large swaths of Iraq, Obama said stopping them was not “something that we have to wade into” because they did not pose “a direct threat to us.” No wonder, the day before the Islamic State carried out its massacre Paris, Obama boasted “we have contained them.” No wonder, the day before the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre, Obama assured[cnn.com] Americans they were safe from a Paris-style attack, declaring “The American people should feel confident that, you know, we are going to be able to defend ourselves and make sure that, you know, we have a good holiday and go about our lives.” Well, 49 Americans in Orlando were busy going about their lives when an Islamic State terrorist murdered them in cold blood. As my American Enterprise Institute colleague Danielle Pletka points out, “contrary to the favored trope — we win by living our lives — the short answer is that we’re not winning.” The truth is that for Obama, winning the battle against terrorism is not really his “top priority” but a distraction from his top priorities. He did not come to office to be a war president. He came to office to end George W. Bush’s wars, and “turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” But, as we just saw in Orlando, the page has refused to turn. The tide of war is not receding, as Obama promised. The wave of terror is growing stronger and is now reaching our shores. And to the commander in chief, that’s no more worrisome than a car accident. _Read more fromMarc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more on this topic:** Marc A. Thiessen: Obama’s stubborn, willful complacency on terror Marc A. Thiessen: Thanks to Obama, the terrorist cancer is growing Eugene Robinson: Obama’s brave admission about terrorism

Islamic State, losing fighters and territory, increasingly turns to child bombers

BEIRUT — The boy burst into tears as police apprehended him after he was spotted nervously pacing up and down a street in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. When they cut open the Barcelona soccer shirt he was wearing, they found a suicide belt. He was just 15, according to local officials. Footage broadcast Monday on Kurdish television stations showed the dramatic moments as security forces gingerly stripped him of his explosives-laden belt. Tragedy was averted Sunday evening, but numerous young bombers have carried out attacks in recent months, as the Islamic State militant group has enlisted children in suicide missions. The same evening that police foiled the Kirkuk attack, a suicide bomber of about the same age struck outside a Shiite mosque in the city, killing six people, security forces said. The devastating bombing at a wedding in southeastern Turkey that killed at least 50 people late Saturday was also initially thought to have been carried out by a child. In March, a suicide bomber who appeared to be no older than 15 or 16 struck at a youth soccer match in the southern Iraqi village of Asriya, killing 43 people, many of them children. Although the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, does not reveal the age of its operatives as it heralds its bombing campaigns, the faces of many look years away from adulthood. Analysts say it is one of the consequences of the Islamic State’s campaign of indoctrination. The United States estimates that U.S. and coalition jets have killed 45,000 Islamic State militants since an air campaign began two years ago. The “cubs of the caliphate,” as the Islamic State labels its child fighters, are being used to fill the gap. “This is a product of ISIS’s investment in children,” said Hassan Hassan, co- author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror” and resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “The second generation of ISIS is already happening. When they need them, they can call on them.” In its early days, the Islamic State — an outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq and formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — held family-fair-style events in Syria, complete with games and ice-cream-eating competitions. As it gained territory, it opened training camps and schools. Textbooks found in areas formerly controlled by the Islamic State offer a glimpse of the hard-line version of Islam it teaches. Young Yazidi boys who were kidnapped en masse along with their mothers and sisters as Islamic State militants captured the Iraqi town of Sinjar two years ago have been forced to undergo military training, according to those who have escaped. “If people join bringing their children, it’s preferable to ISIS,” Hassan said. “Their brains are like a whiteboard they can write on.” The group’s methods echo those of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which also used child suicide bombers, whom it called the “Birds of Paradise.” The Taliban also has used child bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan to gain access to sensitive targets without arousing suspicions. In Iraq, freedom of movement can be restrictive for young men of fighting age — especially anyone traveling from restive areas near Islamic State territory. “It’s easier for children to infiltrate,” said Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, a commander with the Kirkuk police. He said the boy who was detained in Kirkuk may have been drugged. “He was scared and crying and wasn’t acting normally,” Qadir said, adding that he appeared dazed. He is being interrogated and said he traveled to Kirkuk from the Islamic State-held city of Mosul but is “not 100 percent” fine mentally, Qadir said. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially said that the bomber at a wedding in the city of Gazientep on Saturday was 12 to 14 years old. However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday that authorities were still trying to identify the bomber and did not know whether he was “a child or a grown- up,” the Associated Press reported. Earlier statements apparently had been a “guess” based on witness testimony. In any case, the Islamic State appears to be increasingly using young recruits for its most brutal missions. In the Iraqi province of Diyala earlier this year, a mother told authorities that the Islamic State had recruited her 21-year-old and 14-year-old sons and that they were planning a suicide attack. The police distributed their pictures to checkpoints in the area, but the youngest still managed to blow himself up outside a coffee shop. “Who would suspect a child?” Kirkuk Gov. Najmiddin Karim said. “Sadly, they are brainwashed.” The Islamic State has lost almost half the territory it once controlled in Iraq and about 20 percent in Syria, according to U.S. estimates. But the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition has drawn criticism, with some saying that its scope is too narrow and that defeating the group militarily is not enough. Hassan said thousands of children are growing up without an education amid the violence, making them ripe for recruitment by the Islamic State unless social and economic issues are addressed. “That needs to be done to ensure that there’s no second iteration of ISIS, there’s no comeback,” he said. “Ignoring it is a huge mistake.” Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed to this report.

What the massacre in Kenya reveals about America’s counterterrorism strategy

LAST WEEK four gunmen from the Islamist militant group al-Shabab stormed Garissa University College in Kenya, about 100 miles from the Somali border. In what reports detail as a highly coordinated attack, the assailants gunned down some 147 people, 142 of whom were students. The gunmen, who had explosives strapped to them, began killing indiscriminately, but as the 15-hour siege went on, they separated students by religion, murdering Christians. This terrorist attack was Kenya’s worst since the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was bombed by al-Qaeda, killing 213, in 1998. No words can capture the horror of such a tragedy. Once again, the world is witness to the ruthless cutting down of those who represent any country’s brightest hope: students pursuing an education. Like Boko Haram’s kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls nearly a year ago in Nigeria and the Taliban’s slaughter of 132 schoolchildren in Pakistan, the attack in Garissa is a gruesome reminder that children and young adults are all too often the victims of violent extremism — and that those who sacrifice to earn an education are particularly anathema to the intolerant. Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group, claims to be targeting Kenya in retaliation for its 2011 military incursion into Somalia. In 2013, the group carried out an attack at a popular shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 63 and wounding more than 175. With the ascendancy of the Islamic State in the Middle East and the rising notoriety of Boko Haram in West Africa, al-Shabab may have been overshadowed in the media, but the group remains the biggest security threat to the East Africa region. Amina Mohamed, Kenya’s foreign minister, in a conversation with us justifiably called her nation “a frontline state in the war against terror.” The United States has helped Kenya and other neighboring states in the fight against al-Shabab, launching a number of drone strikes that have killed al- Shabab leaders, including Ahmed Abdi Godane, the movement’s top commander, last year. On Monday, Kenyan air forces also launched strikes against al- Shabab bases in Somalia. But al-Shabab continues to carry out deadly assaults inside Somalia and beyond. The Garissa massacre again highlights the limitations of President Obama’s light-footprint counterterrorism model in weak states such as Somalia and Yemen. Such places need more help with governance and development; missile strikes and small Special Operations advisory teams alone will not deliver security. **Read more on this issue:** Karen Attiah: Squeezing Somalia may backfire The Post’s View: The International Criminal Court on shaky ground David Ignatius: Killing top terrorists is not enough

It’s going to be a long fight

U.S. leadership of the war on terrorism has entered its second phase. Dealing with Islamic State forces in Iraq is just another leg of the fight. Deciding to expand U.S. bombing to Syria with the goal of destroying the terrorist group’s leadership and about two-thirds of its fighters will take years. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a warning for those who thought a quick dose of U.S. firepower could do the trick. At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) asked what would be required “to destroy them [the Islamic State] within 90 days.” “It’s not possible, Senator,” Dempsey replied. “We could destroy a lot of equipment; we could drive them underground, if you will. But as I said, they will only be defeated or destroyed once they’re rejected by the populations in which they hide.” The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were the Pearl Harbor of this war on terrorism, and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda was only the beginning. Bin Laden showed other terrorist leaders how to gain attention, along with recruits and financial support: Challenge the world’s major superpower. His goal in bringing down the World Trade Center, hitting the Pentagon and killing thousands of Americans was to force the Bush administration’s withdrawal from the Middle East, where his real targets were Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the secular leaders in Egypt, Libya and Iraq. Bin Laden was wrong about the United States. The country rallied around Bush, and core al-Qaeda — which was never large — saw its operations disrupted, senior leaders captured or killed, and its financial support squeezed. Yet, even bin Laden’s death has not ended al-Qaeda’s threat to the United States. Offshoots have appeared in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, North Africa and Syria — primarily where Sunni or other groups felt mistreated by their own governments. All required U.S. attention. Extensive intelligence activities at home and abroad, helped by some luck, have allowed the country to escape another major terrorist attack — aside from the bombing last year at the Boston Marathon. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, has emerged as a major threat, thanks to his brutality, public relations skills, and military successes in Iraq and Syria. He topped it all with horrendous beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker. Those acts showed that Baghdadi had learned from bin Laden — but in a simpler, bloody way — how he could get the attention of Americans and the world. Now what? Such a terrorist group “will only be defeated when moderate Arab and Muslim populations in the region reject it,” Dempsey told the Senate panel Tuesday. “And therefore, the way forward seems to me to run clearly through a coalition of Arab and Muslim partners and not through the ownership of the United States in this issue.” The plan is to get the new Baghdad government to reach out to Sunni areas where the Islamic State, according to Dempsey, has either “coerced or co-opted or driven away” about 48 to 54 Sunni tribes. U.S. military teams have assessed that 26 of 50 Iraqi army brigades “are capable of partnering” with U.S. air support. Getting forces on the offensive in the west and north of Iraq, while the Kurds, with U.S. support, press from the north to the south, “I think will place [the Islamic State] in an untenable position,” Dempsey said. Syria is much harder. First, there is no central party to work with there. The Syrian moderate military units that the United States hopes to develop need “a chain of command responsive to some Syrian political structure, not responsive to us,” Dempsey said. “These can’t be simply surrogates and proxies; they have to be tied, linked to some political structure that ultimately could assist in the governing of Syria when finally the Assad regime is either overthrown or, through the negotiation, is changed.” Another problem is that the U.S. plan envisions training just 5,000 fighters a year, in small groups that go through in eight-week cycles. The first three to five months, however, will be devoted to setting up training facilities primarily in Saudi Arabia, then recruiting mostly among refugees outside Syria. “We think we’ll be recruiting mostly from displaced populations, and therefore it won’t be as though they’re giving up the security of their families to come and train with us,” Dempsey said. This fighting force’s task is to go after Islamic State targets in Syria, aided by U.S.-directed air power. “The number that our military planners were considering was about 12,000,” Dempsey said at the hearing. The U.S.-trained Syrians would not be the only forces on the ground, according to Dempsey. “If you’re asking me how does the opposition in Syria finally prevail against [the Islamic State], I think it’s going to require the assistance of, in particular, Jordanians and probably some of the Syrian Kurds, and probably the Turks.” President Obama and top administration officials need to prepare the country for this next phase. This will not be quick, though the number of Americans on the ground will not be great. Clearly, however, it is a work in progress with no guaranteed end in sight.

Hooria Mashhour: The United States’ bloody messes in Yemen

_Hooria Mashhour is Yemen’s minister for human rights._ December 12 was supposed to be a day of celebration for the al-Ameri family. A young bride traveled to her wedding with her relatives in Bayda province, Yemen. But in a few dark seconds their celebrations were eviscerated. A U.S. drone fired at the wedding procession, destroying five vehicles and most of their occupants. Not even the bride’s car, ornately decorated in flowers for the occasion, was spared from the carnage. Senior Yemeni officials later admitted that the strike was a “mistake”. Some mistake: Though the bride survived, the strike is said to have killed at least 14 civilians and injured 22 others, over a third of them seriously. This marks the largest death toll by a drone strike in Yemen since the drone war’s inception. It is also the largest death toll by U.S. strike since December 2009, when a U.S. cruise missile killed 41 civilians in al-Majala, including 14 women and 21 children. In the wake of the killing, a wave of outrage has swept the country. The Yemeni government rushed to meet community elders, seeking to negotiate a quiet settlement for the killing of the bride’s loved ones. But the bereaved villagers rejected the overtures and instead demanded that Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, stop U.S. drones before they would sit at any negotiating table. On its side, rather than forthrightly address its role in these grim events, the U.S. government has issued no admission of responsibility, nor any apology. It has left the Yemeni government to clean up another bloody mess. Only recently,we had cause to hope for better. In November, Yemeni civil engineer Faisal bin Ali Jaber traveled over 7,000 miles to the U.S. in search of answers. He met congressmen, senators, and even some White House officials to tell them how U.S. missiles incinerated his nephew and brother-in-law at his son’s wedding last year. In that strike,the U.S. killed two potential allies – one an imam who regularly preached against al-Qaeda; the other one of the town’s few policemen. Jaber received heartfelt condolences from many lawmakers. Yet no official was prepared to explain why his relatives were killed, or why the U.S. administration would not acknowledge its mistake. This is not the first time a U.S. drone has killed civilians in Bayda. On Sept. 2, 2012, a U.S. plane hit a village shuttle near Radda. The vehicle was full of villagers carrying their day’s shopping. As usual, the initial press coverage labelled the dead as “al-Qaeda militants,” but when the relatives threatened to deliver the bodies to the president’s gates, the Yemeni government was forced to concede that all 12 of those people killed were civilians. Among the victims, a pregnant woman and three children were laid to rest. The use of drones in Yemen might appear a simple, quick-fix option for President Obama. But as Nabeel Khoury, former U.S. deputy chief of mission to Yemen, recently wrote, “Drone strikes take out a few bad guys to be sure, but they also kill a large number of innocent civilians. Given Yemen’s tribal structure, the U.S. generates roughly forty to sixty new enemies for every AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] operative killed by drones.” Let me be clear: I, like the vast majority of my countrymen, reject terrorism. All of us were repulsed by recent footage of a gruesome attack on a Yemeni defense ministry hospital. We agree that our fight against extremist groups cannot be won without a variety of efforts, including robust law enforcement. But more often than not, U.S. drone strikes leave families bereaved and villages terrified. Drones tear at the fabric of Yemeni society. Wronged and angry men are just the sort extreme groups like AQAP find easiest to recruit. Our president may reassure the United States of his support for drone strikes but the reality is that no leader can legitimately approve the extrajudicial killing of his own citizens. Moreover, he does so in the face of Yemeni consensus. This August, Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference — which President Obama has praised — decided by a 90 percent majority that the use of drones in Yemen should be criminalised. Yemeni legislators are aware that the drone war is deeply unpopular. Since the Dec,. 12 strike, our parliament has unanimously voted to ban drone flights in Yemeni airspace, declaring them a “grave breach” of the country’s sovereignty. For a country so often divided, this unanimity from Yemen’s most representative bodies testifies to the strength of opinion against drones. But their calls have thus far met only with more bombings from the skies. How can the people of Yemen build trust in their fledgling democracy when our collective will is ignored by democracy’s greatest exponent? **Read more about this topic:** The Post’s View: Pulling the U.S. drone war out of the shadows Kurt Volker: What the U.S. risks by relying on drones

The Islamic State’s trap for Europe

_The writer is a counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War._ Last week, President Obama said that the Islamic State is “ contained ” in Iraq and Syria, but the group’s attacks in Paris soon afterward showed that it poses a greater threat to the West than ever. The Islamic State is executing a global strategy to defend its territory in Iraq and Syria, foster affiliates in other Muslim-majority areas, and encourage and direct terrorist attacks in the wider world. It has exported its brutality and military methods to groups in Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Now it is using tactical skills acquired on Middle Eastern battlefields to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash that will generate even more recruits within Western societies. The United States and its allies must respond quickly to this threat. The Islamic State’s strategy is to polarize Western society — to “destroy the grayzone,” as it says in its publications. The group hopes frequent, devastating attacks in its name will provoke overreactions by European governments against innocent Muslims, thereby alienating and radicalizing Muslim communities throughout the continent. The atrocities in Paris are only the most recent instances of this accelerating campaign. Since January, European citizens fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have provided online and material support to lethal operations in Paris, Copenhagen and near Lyon, France, as well as attempted attacks in London, Barcelona and near Brussels. Islamic State fighters are likely responsible for destroying the Russian airliner over the Sinai. These attacks are not random, nor are they aimed primarily at affecting Western policy in the Middle East. They are, rather, part of a militarily capable organization’s campaign to mobilize extremist actors already in Europe and to recruit new ones. The strategy is explicit. The Islamic State explained after the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine that such attacks “compel the Crusaders to actively destroy the grayzone themselves. . . . Muslims in the West will quickly find themselves between one of two choices, they either apostatize . . . or they [emigrate] to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution from the Crusader governments and citizens.” The group calculates that a small number of attackers can profoundly shift the way that European society views its 44 million Muslim members and, as a result, the way European Muslims view themselves. Through this provocation, it seeks to set conditions for an apocalyptic war with the West. Unfortunately, elements of European society are reacting as the Islamic State desires. Far-right parties have gained strength in many European countries. France’s National Front is expected to dominate local elections in northern France this winter; on Saturday, Marine Le Pen, its leader, declared “those who maintain links with Islamism” to be “France’s enemies.” The Danish People’s Party gained 21 percent of the vote in national elections in June on a nationalist, anti-Islamic platform. The anti-foreigner Sweden Democrats is steadily growing in popularity. The Paris attacks will surely prompt an anti-Muslim backlash, as demonstrated by protesters who brought a banner saying “Expel the Islamists” to a vigil in Lille, France. The Islamic State does not have to invent tales of Western hatred: It can simply publish photos of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who recently proclaimed, “The less Islam, the better.” Arsonists conducted scores of attacks on asylum seekers and shelters in Germany this year, while extremists have targeted Muslim citizens in France. The continuing influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa creates a perfect environment for the Islamic State’s campaign. None of these anti-Islam activities justifies the horrors that the Islamic State has committed, nor have they caused those atrocities; Europe could be as welcoming as any could wish, and still the Islamic State would send fighters and recruit disaffected locals. But backlashes against Muslims who have no part in the Islamic State’s ideologies or actions make the situation much worse. Europe must avoid the trap that the Islamic State is setting by focusing its responses to the Paris attacks and other outrages against the perpetrators and their supporters. Most urgently, however, Europe and the United States must accept the reality that protracted sectarian warfare in the Middle East is a clear and present danger to their safety and security at home. The wars in Syria and Iraq are mobilizing radicals from across the world. They are arenas in which terrorists can acquire the skills of warfare to bring directly into the West. Our complacency about those conflicts must end. We must also avoid the temptation to back dictators such as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in hopes that they can defeat an enemy to which they have given rise and contain a conflict that they themselves have driven. The Paris attacks must become calls to action to end the wars that are tearing the Middle East apart and flooding the world with desperate refugees. They are yet more proof that we cannot live in peace at home while millions of people are engulfed in war. **Read more:** John McLaughlin: How the Islamic State could win Rosa Brooks: It’s had some military success, but the Islamic State is no existential threat Ebrahim Moosa: My madrassa classmate hated politics. Then he joined the Islamic State. Anne Applebaum: Europe’s multi-layered hypocrisy on refugees Martin Schulz: Don’t blame Europe for the refugee crisis

ISIS is on the decline in the Middle East, but its influence in Pakistan is rising

Leghari, who had been in contact with extremists online for a year, was actually in the Pakistani city of Lahore. In April, security forces stormed her hideout there, killing one of her two accomplices — whom she had also married — and recovering two suicide vests and hand grenades. Leghari had planned to detonate herself at a crowded church two days later, on Easter Sunday. It was the latest example of the Islamic State's growing reach in Pakistan, where the group is finding willing recruits through its efforts online even as its territory is shrinking in Iraq and Syria. Even young Pakistani women and educated youth from liberal families have proven susceptible to the lure of the Islamic State's brand of extremism.  Security experts say that number is relatively low, especially when compared to the recruitment levels of more established terror groups like al-Qaeda or the Taliban. But they agree the threat to Pakistan is real and rising. "Clearly you can no longer say that the IS is not a problem," said Moeed Yusuf, an analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, a U.S. government-backed conflict resolution organization.       Since then, the Islamic State has claimed several attacks in Pakistan, either carried out by its Khorasan chapter or by existing militant factions. The group has made extensive use of such allies, who hold similar sectarian ideologies. Rather than sending its own fighters or planning attacks directly from Syria, the Islamic State recruits online, while also tapping into well-established local networks, bringing disaffected rivals (like Taliban commanders) into the fold or reinvigorating militant groups degraded by Pakistan's crackdown. In return, the local militants earn attention by linking up with an internationally known organization, and down the line, may even receive operational support. "These local groups want to make a big impact," says Muhammad Amir Rana, a Islamabad-based security analyst. "This is good for Daesh as well because they have a partner without spending resources." The Islamic State also shares its ruthless outlook with local organizations. "The groups operating in Pakistan have a brutal tendency to begin with, and the IS is an extremely brutal organization,” said Ihsan Ghani, the head of Pakistan’s National Counterterrorism Authority, to The Post.

The Islamic State’s latest shock tactic: Showing children on suicide missions

The boy appears to be no older than 12. He hugs his father, climbs into an armored vehicle packed with explosives, then kisses his father’s hand before departing on a mission that ends in a fireball on the horizon. That attack in Aleppo last month was one of at least 89 cases over the past year in which the Islamic State employed children or teenagers in suicide missions, according to new research that indicates the terrorist group is sending youths to their deaths in greater and greater numbers. The father-son sequence was memorialized in propaganda photos released last month by the Islamic State, adding to an expanding collection of online eulogies that provides insight into how the organization uses children in both combat operations and mass-casualty attacks on civilians in Iraq and Syria. “The Islamic State is mobilizing children and youth at an increasing and unprecedented rate,” according to a report to be published Friday by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A copy was provided to The Washington Post.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The study describes the Islamic State’s use of children in suicide attacks as part of a broader strategy to cultivate a generation of school-age militants indoctrinated in the group’s ideology and completely inured to its extreme brand of violence. Since its emergence as a dominant force in Syria, the Islamic State has frequently cast children in roles designed to shock outsiders. A video released last month showed a child in an Islamic State headband pressing the button on a remote control, detonating a bomb strapped to a car containing three accused spies. But the new study is the first comprehensive catalog of cases in which the Islamic State used children in missions where they were expected to die. Roughly 60 percent of the victims were categorized as “adolescent,” meaning ages 12 to 16. None were older than 18, and some were as young as 8 or 9, according to researchers at Georgia State University involved in the project. At least 11 children or adolescents were killed in Islamic State operations in January, compared with six in the same month a year ago, according to the report, titled “Depictions of Children and Youth in the Islamic State’s ‘Martyrdom’ Propaganda.” The use of children in combat has often been a sign of desperation, as was the case in Nazi Germany in the closing months of World War II. But researchers said that the Islamic State is not being forced to rely on underage fighters because of dwindling adult ranks. Instead, they said that the group seems to employ children for reasons including their propaganda impact and ability to evade detection, as well as a system of values that regards even young lives as subordinate to the cause of reestablishing a “caliphate.” “It is striking that children are being integrated into the ISIS war machine not as substitutes but as soldiers and suicide attackers fighting alongside adult [militants],” said Charlie Winter, a senior research associate at Georgia State and co-author of the report, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. Winter said that the practice could intensify if the Islamic State loses territory and fighters. “We know that there are a lot more [children] being recruited than eulogized,” Winter said. “As the military situation becomes more difficult for ISIS in the months and years to come, we’ll see more instances of youths being used on the battlefield.” The vast majority of the children and teenagers used in suicide missions were from Iraq or Syria, where the Islamic State controls an area the size of West Virginia, according to the report. But others came from the Middle East and North Africa, and at least four were from Western nations, with two from Britain and one each from France and Australia. *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The list of underage fighters killed between January 2015 and 2016 was assembled by examining Islamic State propaganda releases that generally did not disclose victims’ real names or ages. Instead, researchers categorized the youths as adolescent or pre-adolescent based on physical characteristics or other clues. Of the 89 cases cited in the report, 36 underage fighters were killed after carrying out operations in which they drove vehicles packed with explosives. Eighteen took part in teams that carried out Kamikaze-style assaults on enemy positions, firing weapons and then detonating suicide belts. Only two cases involved suicide attacks on civilian targets. Other terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, have tended to conceal their use of children in suicide attacks because of public scorn for the tactic, said Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State and a co-author of the report. The Islamic State, by contrast, “is absolutely advertising it and making it routine,” Bloom said, citing not only the group’s use of children in attacks but widespread evidence that children routinely attend public beheadings and screenings of propaganda videos showing other children being employed in suicide missions. “It’s about changing what is considered right and wrong and making children almost immune to the horrific nature of what they’re seeing,” Bloom said. “It hardens these children and makes them more ready and psychologically available for things they’ll do in the future.” The researchers did not include the images and videos they examined in their published report, citing privacy issues and a desire to be sensitive to families of the victims. But the study, which was funded through a grant program backed by the Pentagon, refers to images that have been widely circulated online. Among them are the slide-show-like sequence of the father and his son in Aleppo, as well as an image of a child “wearing his baseball cap back-to-front, sitting atop what appears to be a fairground ride” before he was eulogized as a “martyr” by the Islamic State’s media wing in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital. The toll has grown since the report was completed. Winter said that five new eulogies for youths were released by the Islamic State on Thursday. **Read more:**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Islamic State faces new trouble in Fallujah as Sunni tribesmen revolt    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico U.S. airstrikes target suspected Islamic State base in Libya    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Islamic State strikes back in Syria after losing ground    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

ISIS-inspired attacker’s bid to bomb Indonesian church fizzles out — literally

The attacker did manage to swing his ax at the church's 60-year-old priest, slightly injuring his hand. Congregants were able to subdue the attacker until police arrived. Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country. Almost all of its roughly 250 million people are moderate Sunni Muslims, though there is a significant Christian minority. Compared with other large Muslim countries, militancy is relatively rare in Indonesia, though extremist groups have carried out minor attacks, including of churches. The biggest attack in the country occurred in 2002 when terrorists bombed nightclubs on the island of Bali, killing 202, including 88 Australians. Since then, the government has sustained a massive crackdown on militant cells. But the incident at the church in Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city, marks the second Islamic State-inspired attack in the country this year. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has called on supporters worldwide to carry out attacks at home, rather than join the militant group in Syria, Iraq and Libya, where it holds territory. On Jan. 14, four men attacked the business district of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, with guns and explosives, killing four. The Islamic State asserted responsibility.  Responding to growing anxiety that the militant group could gain a foothold in Indonesia, as it appears to have in Bangladesh, for instance, the government recently tightened anti-terrorism laws that were passed after the Bali bombings.  A witness quoted in the Jakarta Post made the attacker sound like a relative novice. "He was fidgety the whole time," said the churchgoer, identified only as Vero. "He also could not follow our ritual." As the sermon began, Vero said, the man took cables out of his backpack and connected them to something she suspected was the detonator. He only managed to injure himself, as the bomb more or less burst into flames. The crowd rushed out, panicked, but alive.

Suicide bomber kills at least 52 soldiers and police in Yemeni port city

SANAA, Yemen — A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman detonated himself Sunday outside a military base in the southern port city of Aden, killing at least 52 soldiers and policemen waiting to collect their salaries, officials said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement. The carnage comes a week after a nearby bombing by the extremist group killed more than 50 soldiers. Sunday’s attack, which officials said injured 40, bore the hallmarks of other assaults by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Both groups have been carrying out bombings and assassinations with regular frequency, seizing advantage of the chaos from nearly two years of conflict that has fractured the country. “We expect the death toll to rise,” said Ramzi Alfadhli, a spokesman for the Yemeni special forces in Aden. Hundreds of soldiers and policemen, he said, had arrived about 5 a.m. to line up to collect their salaries in front of the residence of a special forces commander, about 500 feet from the Solaban military base, the site of last week’s bombing. About 1,200 were let in after guards frisked them for weapons, and the rest were told to return Monday. But many soldiers and police officers remained outside, refusing to disperse in the hopes they would get paid, Alfadhli said. About 8 a.m., he said, the bomber walked into the group, wearing a cast on his leg and another on his arm. He was disguised in a traffic police uniform, Alfadhli said, and walked with the help of crutches. “The explosives were placed under the casts, and once he was inside the crowd, he blew himself up,” Alfadhli said. The war pits Shiite rebels known as Houthis against the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was driven out of the capital, Sanaa, last year. Since then, a regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been trying to restore Hadi to power. Aden, where Hadi initially fled, is the de facto capital of his exiled government, but his administration has struggled to control the city where underground militant cells flourish. Hadi has spent many of the past months in Saudi Arabia, though he is now believed to be in Aden.

2,000 miles from Syria, ISIS is trying to lure recruits in Somalia

NAIROBI — Two thousand miles from Syria, the Islamic State is trying to expand its territory by establishing a branch in what its fighters call the “little emirate”: the war-torn country of Somalia. Winning ground there won’t be easy. Al-Shabab, a Somali group linked to al- Qaeda, has a long-standing presence in the country at Africa’s eastern edge and has threatened those who join the Islamic State with death. But that hasn’t stopped a trickle of fighters — likely a few dozen — from switching sides, raising concerns among U.S. officials, who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars of aid in a new Somali government and a regional military campaign against Islamist extremists. Somalia holds potentially huge rewards for the extremist group: It is a marginally governed nation with the continent’s longest coastline and borders three U.S. allies — Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. “Looking at Somalia, ISIL is trying to insert itself and then may threaten to move into Kenya,” Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s undersecretary for arms control and international security, said at a roundtable in Johannesburg this month. ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State. The Islamic State has already expanded its footprint well beyond Syria and Iraq, with militants in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria and other countries pledging allegiance to the extremists and their “caliphate.” While the Islamic State’s presence in Somalia appears to be small, its bid for followers there shows its ambitions. A months-long Islamic State recruiting campaign in Somalia has already paid some dividends. In October, an influential Muslim cleric, Abdiqadir Mumin, announced that he had joined the group and was bringing at least 20 of his followers with him. Over the past two months, a U.S. citizen and a person with U.S. permanent resident status were apprehended in Somalia after apparently leaving al-Shabab for the Islamic State. So far, the group has not sent fighters or resources into Somalia. But the Islamic State’s image appears to have grown among militants. “Right now, it’s the best propaganda machine going,” said Matt Bryden, a Somalia expert and director of Sahan Research, a Nairobi-based think tank. Al-Shabab began its insurgency after Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006. In 2012, the group declared allegiance to al-Qaeda, gaining access to a range of technical experts and theological advisers. With al-Qaeda’s help, al-Shabab appeared to expand its ambitions. In 2013, a group of its gunmen attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi, killing 63 people. In April of this year, al-Shabab sent fighters to Garissa University in northeast Kenya, where they killed 148 people. But even as al-Shabab conducted spectacular attacks, it lost much of the territory it once administered in Somalia as African Union forces pushed back its fighters and a U.S. drone campaign targeted its top figures, killing two consecutive al-Shabab leaders in 2008 and 2014. The United States and other Western nations have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to an embattled Somali government that took power in 2012 and has tried to rebuild public institutions. Several armed groups in North Africa and South Asia have declared allegiance to the Islamic State since it announced the creation of a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. But their connections with the central Islamic State organization vary. In Nigeria, for example, Boko Haram has received negligible assistance from the Islamic State since it pledged allegiance to the group in March, intelligence experts say. In Afghanistan, the Islamic State has emerged as an alternative for fighters disaffected with the Taliban. They initially appeared to have few contacts with the caliphate in the Mideast, experts say. But this month, Gen. John Campbell, the U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, said Islamic State fighters from Iraq and Syria were arriving in Nangahar province, where the Afghan branch of the group is most active. Earlier this year, the Islamic State set its sights on Somalia. It released a series of videos that aimed to win recruits, particularly from within al- Shabab. The videos feature heavily armed men who appear to be of Somali ethnicity. One of the videos is titled “From the Land of Ash-Sham to the Mujahideen of Somalia.” (Sham is an old name for the Levant.) The video features a bearded young man who appears to be Somali listing the successes of the Islamic State. “Establishing a caliphate in Somalia will not only benefit you, but it will benefit the Muslims in Somalia and in East Africa,” he says in English. A U.S. intelligence official said that fighters attracted to the Islamic State “probably look to the group as an inspiration to fight for a cause that goes beyond local issues, and we believe that’s the case in Somalia.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. So far, Mumin is the most significant of the Islamic State’s recruits in Somalia. A cleric with an international following, he was seen as one of al-Shabab’s most significant religious figures and a leader in his native Puntland province, which is considered to be outside of al-Shabab’s heartland. “He had more heft than other sheiks with al-Shabab in terms of being a properly trained imam,” said Cedric Barnes, the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. A radical Kenyan cleric named Hussein Hassan, once aligned with al-Shabab, has also recorded an audio message suggesting that al-Shabab join the Islamic State. But much about the presence of the Islamic State in Somalia is unknown. Several Somali media outlets have reported that a man known only as Duliadueyne, who helped orchestrate the Garissa University attack and has strong ties to northeastern Kenya, switched sides to the Islamic State in the fall. Experts say that would be significant, but it has not been confirmed. “It would give ISIS entry to Kenya without lifting a finger,” Bryden said. Underscoring the risk, Kenya’s police chief told the Associated Press on Thursday that about 200 al-Shabab fighers had joined the Islamic State and that the group was operating near Kenya’s border. There are still broader questions about what an Islamic State group in Somalia would even mean. Would former al-Shabab fighters change their tactics or ambitions after joining, or would the new group merely be a means of waging war on rival clans or jihadist groups? It is very likely, experts say, that whatever form the Islamic State takes in Somalia, it will have far more local ambitions than its Syrian counterpart. “They don’t really have enough of a presence or much to offer local Somalis,” said Alexander Hitchens, a researcher at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London. “A lot depends on whether ISIS is able to reward these defections. It has encouraged them, but this is where we need to wait and see,” Bryden said. Even before the Islamic State recruitment campaign began this year, there had been fractures within al-Shabab. In particular, the group’s foreign recruits, especially those from Kenya and the United States, have been viewed as likely spies. In addition, tensions between clans have diminished al-Shabab’s support in much of the country, making the group’s members even more vulnerable to the Islamic State’s recruitment drive. Al-Shabab’s leadership has warned its members that joining the Islamic State would represent “Bid’ah,” or misguidance, which would be punished by death. Senior al-Qaeda members are also infuriated by the Islamic State effort in Somalia. Speaking in an audio message in September about the push to recruit al-Shabab members, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s leader, said the Islamic State’s caliphate wasn’t built based on the “prophetic method.” Then he offered his condolences over the death of al-Shabab’s most recent leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike about a year earlier — a somewhat desperate show of solidarity with a partner now tempted by rival entreaties. **Read more** The hidden hand behind the Islamic State? Saddam Hussein’s A new Islamic State radio station spreads panic in eastern Afghanistan Obama commits U.S. to intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa

Why ‘decapitation’ strikes have killed terrorist leaders, but not al-Qaeda

In separate strikes last week on veteran al-Qaeda leaders, the United States demonstrated again the extent to which it has perfected an almost eerie capability to find the world’s most wanted terrorism suspects in some of the world’s most chaotic environments and deliver lethal blows from above. But the continued spread of al-Qaeda’s ideology and the emergence of brutal new offshoots, including the Islamic State, have underscored the limitations of a U.S. strategy that remains largely reliant on “decapitation” strikes. U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that Nasir al-Wuhayshi, leader of al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, was killed last week by a missile fired from a CIA drone. The announcement came one day after U.S. military officials said that a former al-Qaeda operative in Libya appeared to have been killed in a bombing Saturday by U.S. fighter jets. Obama administration officials touted the potential impact of the operations. White House spokesman Ned Price said that Wuhayshi’s death “removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups.” How much closer, however, remains unclear. Many officials and experts in the U.S. counterterrorism community now see the destruction of al-Qaeda and its progeny as a more distant goal than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Islamist terrorist groups have taken advantage of political turmoil in the Middle East to make gains in recruitment, territory and influence. The locations of the latest U.S. strikes, Yemen and Libya, are countries where the collapse of central governments has enabled radical Islamist elements to flourish. Even with no presence or partners on the ground in those places, the United States has managed to maintain its lethal reach. But in a measure of how the expectations that follow such operations have shifted, U.S. officials and experts said the strikes may prove to be as advantageous to ascendant groups such as the Islamic State as they are damaging to al-Qaeda. “The decapitation campaign of AQ senior leadership has left the group with diminishing capabilities to drive the global terrorist movement and to threaten the West as they once did,” said Juan Zarate, a former senior counterterrorism adviser to President George W. Bush. But the latest U.S. operations “have little relevance to what ISIS is building and growing in the heart of the Middle East,” Zarate said, using an alternative term for the Islamic State, “and may actually strengthen their hand in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Libya.” The targets last week were members of a dwindling generation of militants with links to al-Qaeda’s founders. Wuhayshi once served as a senior aide to Osama bin Laden and escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006 to form an al-Qaeda franchise that eventually eclipsed its parent organization as a threat to the United States. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been linked to plots including the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane in 2009 and the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris this year. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, targeted in Libya, was a former member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the network’s North African affiliate, but formed a breakaway group in 2012. The following year, he staged a bloody siege of a gas complex in eastern Algeria that killed 40 people, including three Americans. Both men were seen as drivers of their respective terrorist groups’ anti-Western agendas, and Wuhayshi had been designated al-Qaeda’s second in command, meaning he would have led the global network if Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor, were captured or killed. The attacks extend a remarkable U.S. record against high-   value al-Qaeda targets, a run that extends back to the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq in 2006 and includes the deaths of bin Laden and Anwar al- Awlaki — a U.S. citizen who became a senior operative for AQAP — in 2011. All were seen as potentially staggering blows to terrorist organizations that nevertheless managed to regroup — although al-Qaeda’s core in Pakistan remains significantly weakened. Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and terrorism expert at the Brookings Institution, said Islamist groups have been able to turn to a new generation of leaders, many of whom rose through their organizations’ ranks without surfacing on U.S. target lists. “Look at Baghdadi,” Riedel said, referring to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has seized territory across Iraq and Syria and declared itself a caliphate. “Nobody knew who Baghdadi was two or three years ago. But clearly people on the inside in Iraq knew.” U.S. officials said Wuhayshi’s subordinates in AQAP — including his apparent successor, Qassim al-Raimi — are seen as committed to al-Qaeda and unlikely to shift the organization’s course or pursue an affiliation with the Islamic State. But in interviews Tuesday, Yemeni citizens in the district where Wuhayshi was killed said there have been growing indications of Islamic State activity in the region, and they voiced concern that the group, also known as Daesh, might now be emboldened. “There’s more concern now about Daesh,” said Salem al-Hamoomi, a radio journalist in Mukalla, a city in southern Yemen near where Wuhayshi was killed. “People fear its ideology, and people fear the group is here.” Seth Jones, a terrorism analyst at the Rand Corp., said that Wuhayshi’s death should “be viewed in the context of the struggle between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State over the leadership of the broader Salafi-Jihadi movement.” Even before the AQAP leader’s demise, Jones said, the Islamic State had “co-opted a few small, local jihadist networks in Yemen.” The Obama administration’s dependence on drone surveillance and airstrikes against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups reflects, in part, a reluctance to be drawn more directly into Middle East conflicts. But the policy has also been driven by developments that derailed administration attempts to build a new counterterrorism strategy around providing support to regional partners. The collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen this year forced the CIA and the U.S. military to pull out dozens of officers who had worked closely with Yemeni security agencies on counterterrorism operations. The Yemeni government was effectively deposed by Shiite rebels known as Houthis who are antagonistic toward the United States as well as the largely Sunni membership of al-Qaeda. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that AQAP’s efforts to take advantage of the turmoil and fend off advances by the Houthis may have made its leadership more vulnerable to U.S. intelligence-gathering. “The disintegration of Yemen has just been utterly catastrophic in terms of letting al-Qaeda out of the box,” Schiff said. “There’s no question our intelligence has suffered. But there are residual intelligence capabilities that are still potent.”

U.S. military scrambles to explain why it posted a 10-year-old video to show its Yemen raid was a success

The U.S. military released a compendium of jihadi video Friday that it said showed “the sort of intelligence information” Navy SEALs seized in a deadly Jan. 29 raid in Yemen. There was just one problem: The clip included 10-year-old footage. The video was released to the media midday as U.S. military officials said it was obtained in the search of a compound operated by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a terrorist group that has previously planned attacks in Western nations. “The videos released today are samples of a series of detailed, do-it-yourself lessons intended for aspiring terrorist bomb-makers and included an exhortation to use those techniques to attack the West,” U.S. Central Command officials said in a news release. “The full-length videos, from which these clips were extracted, were taken from a computer seized by U.S. Special Operations service members during the raid.”  “I didn’t want it to appear like we were passing out old-as-new information,” Thomas said. “We’re not trying to get into a political discussion or influence anyone’s thinking. We’re just trying to [do] due diligence and help explain the kind of data we exploit at sites like this.” Other information gathered in the raid is classified, but missions like it typically focus on expanding the U.S. military’s knowledge base about a terrorist organization. A Navy SEAL, Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, 36, was mortally wounded in a firefight and three other SEALs also were hit by gunfire. The unit called for support, and U.S. aircraft opened fire from the air, likely killing both militants and civilians, U.S. officials said. Among the dead is said to be Nawar al-Awlaki, the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who joined al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and was later killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike.  Central Command said the video it released was a sampling of “detailed, do-it-yourself lessons intended for aspiring terrorist bomb-makers and included an exhortation to use those techniques to attack the West.” The full videos were taken from a computer seized by the SEALs during the raid. The videos were released after questions about the raid’s planning — the first of the Trump administration — were raised in the media. U.S. military officials have denied that the mission was compromised. White House press secretary Sean Spicer provided an unusually detailed timeline of how the mission was approved in a news conference Thursday, saying the operation had been under consideration for months and discussed at the White House before Trump took over. Former officials who worked for former president Barack Obama disputed his account afterward. The Pentagon proposed carrying out raids against AQAP in Yemen, they said, but never discussed the specific mission carried out Jan. 29.

The Islamic State attracts young idealists

Regarding the Oct. 31 front-page article “Fighters are still flocking to Syria”: What is so perplexing about why people join the Islamic State? If you take the Islamic State recruit’s perspective, it’s not so complicated. Young people are unfailingly idealistic. History is littered with atrocious, idealistic causes. The Islamic State gives idealism a home, plus it is unappreciated, making it irresistible. Also enticing for the teenager, the Islamic State is defiant. The Islamic State provides an identity. The Islamic State fighter is young, has outlaw status and is powerful. The Islamic State immediately gratifies needs: no fussy school or training camps like old-fashioned al-Qaeda. No stodgy adult rules and over-analyzed plans; hungry people demand action — the Islamic State delivers. Most disturbing, forbidden acts are realized and admired. The recruit gets a powerful gun to wave around and can blow things up. Given sufficient desperation, wrath and a travel visa, young people join up. ****Reed Mankin,** Austin **

A deadly U.S. raid in Yemen reveals strength of al-Qaeda affiliate

CAIRO — A U.S. commando raid in Yemen that set off a fierce firefight revealed the growing strength of an al-Qaeda affiliate that has targeted both the United States and Europe in recent years. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, as the branch is known, had collected enough intelligence to anticipate the raid last weekend, Yemeni officials and analysts said. The militants also had the firepower to counterattack from their bastion, which was surrounded by land mines and other traps. By the end of the raid, a Navy SEAL was dead and three other American troops were wounded. Yemeni officials said that as many as 30 civilians, including 10 women and children, were also killed. Among them was the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni American al-Qaeda leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. The Pentagon initially said it could not confirm reports of civilian casualties, but it acknowledged Wednesday that civilians were “likely killed” in the raid, which took place in remote Bayda province. The raid and civilian casualties have triggered widespread anger across Yemen toward Washington, adding to tensions over President Trump’s travel ban on citizens of Yemen and six other majority-Muslim countries. Yemenis have posted photos on social media of children purportedly killed in the attack. In the capital, Sanaa, where anti-American slogans are scrawled on billboards and walls across the city, the raid appeared to unify Yemenis, a rare occurrence these days in the fractured country. “What happened caused more anger and hatred toward America,” said Bassam Mahmoud, 40, a government employee. “America has no right to carry out any military action in our country. This a serious violation for our country’s sovereignty and is totally unacceptable.” On Thursday, the watchdog group Amnesty International called for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to launch an investigation into the civilian deaths, and, if appropriate, “prosecute those responsible.” The raid was the first counterterrorism operation greenlighted by Trump, and he hailed it as a success. But regional analysts say it could help AQAP gain sympathy and support from local populations. “The use of U.S. troops and the high number of civilian casualties . . . are deeply inflammatory,” April Longley Alley, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, wrote on its website this week, “and breed anti- American resentment across the Yemeni political spectrum that works to the advantage of AQAP.” The militant group, which U.S. officials consider al-Qaeda’s most dangerous branch, seized large swaths of southern Yemen after the 2011 Arab Spring revolts that toppled longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. Now, with Yemen gripped by a two-year-old civil war, AQAP has expanded its reach even more, gaining territory and recruits and deepening its influence and networks among local tribes. Al-Qaeda in Yemen “is stronger than it has ever been,” the International Crisis Group said, adding that the militants are “thriving in an environment of state collapse, growing sectarianism, shifting alliances, security vacuums and a burgeoning war economy.” AQAP was behind some of the most audacious assaults against the West in recent years, including a failed attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. It also asserted responsibility for the deadly 2015 shootings at the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Also of concern is an emerging Islamic State affiliate that has staged numerous suicide bombings against Yemeni military and government officials in the south, especially in the port city of Aden. Together, the groups “emerged arguably as the biggest winners of the failed political transition and civil war that followed,” the report said. The ill-fated raid was an indicator of how much the political fallout from the Arab revolts has weakened U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Yemen. As the nation slid toward civil war, Washington scaled back on counterterrorism training, intelligence-gathering and advising of Yemeni forces. The conflict pits an alliance of northern rebels known as Houthis and Saleh loyalists against forces nominally loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is leading a government in exile. The United States, along with a regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia, is seeking to restore Hadi to power. Today, a small contingent of U.S. Special Operations forces is helping Hadi’s government and regional units combat AQAP and the Islamic State. U.S. counterterrorism efforts during the Obama administration mostly involved drone strikes targeting the radical groups. Many AQAP leaders and operatives were killed, but the overall strategy did little to neutralize the radical groups. Analysts say it is unclear what broader strategy the Trump administration will employ, but that it appears he might also heavily rely on drones and special operations. “Yet drone attacks have shown limited effectiveness and a propensity to backfire politically when they cause high civilian casualties,” Alley said, adding that the strikes have “failed” to stop AQAP’s “rapid growth — in large part because the opportunities provided by the war outstrip its losses.” AQAP has forged alliances with influential Sunni groups and tribes, often with cash payments. It earns revenue from smuggling goods into Yemen, where an air, sea and land blockade is being enforced by the Saudi-led coalition. In particular, the militants are covertly embedded into local community and within militias battling the Houthis and their allies. To prevent alienating people, the group has stopped enforcing its rigid Islamic codes in some areas, wrote Michael Horton, a Yemen analyst, in last month’s issue of CTC Sentinel, a magazine published by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy. Horton, who described AQAP as “better funded and armed than at any point in its history,” said the group is bolstering its intelligence and counterintelligence cells, while creating a network of informants and sympathizers, even in areas were the group no longer rules. In Bayda, where the U.S. raid unfolded, AQAP exploited tribal rivalries, “leveraging its access to arms, funds, and the military acumen of some of its ranking members in exchange for safe havens,” according to Horton. But many of the tribesmen were probably supporting AQAP because of its fight against the Houthis and Saleh loyalists and not because it has targeted the West. In fact, the United States is providing weapons, intelligence and other support to those fighting the Houthis and Saleh. But even U.S. allies condemned the raid, which left as many as 13 militants dead, including an AQAP leader named Abdulra’oof Aldahab. “Killing outside the law and killing civilians is a condemned act and supports terrorism,” Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi, the foreign minister in Hadi’s government, said in a recent tweet. Ali Al-Mujahed in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report.

Southeast Asia could be a haven for displaced Islamic State fighters

The Islamic State hasn’t had much success in recruiting militants among the vast Muslim populations in Southeast Asia. But what happens when the caliphate’s capitals in Syria and Iraq are destroyed, and hundreds of foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines try to go home? Experts here in Australia see the counterterrorism challenge as a regional problem, rather than simply an affliction of the Middle East and North Africa. They fear that a potentially dangerous new phase may lie ahead, as the jihadists look for new sanctuaries. Governments in Southeast Asia have been working quietly with the United States, some for more than a decade, to monitor and try to disrupt radical Islamist groups, and they’ve had considerable success. The United States helped train an Indonesian police unit known as Detachment 88, which has largely destroyed Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qaeda affiliate responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people. But the prisons, slums and youth gangs of Southeast Asia provide an ecosystem where terrorism could fester anew, experts say. Islamic State operatives in Syria have tried to reach out to these potential jihadists, as in the bombing in January in Jakarta that killed eight people, for which the Islamic State claimed credit. Most Southeast Asian Muslims reject such violence, but to plot mass-casualty attacks, it takes only a tiny fringe. “We have more activity among jihadi groups than at any time in the last 10 years,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, in a speech in April in Australia. The would-be catalysts for violence are the jihadists who traveled from Southeast Asia to Syria and Iraq. Experts estimate that this foreign-fighter network includes as many as 500 to 600 Indonesians, 110 Australians, about 100 Malaysians and a small number of Filipinos. This Southeast Asian contingent is far larger than the number who traveled to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001. And in Iraq and Syria, the volunteers have fought and killed. “We haven’t yet seen the worst” in Southeast Asia, said Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, a foreign policy think tank in Sydney that arranged my visit to Australia. Experts worry about three risk factors that could expand the currently small terrorist network in Southeast Asia: declaration of an Islamic State affiliate in the lawless jungles of the southern Philippines, recruitment of new Islamic State volunteers in the Malaysian army and a jihadist push by released prisoners in Indonesia. Islamic State fighters from Southeast Asia proposed a Philippines caliphate in a video that was released in June. This region could be a haven for jihadists; a Muslim revolt against the Catholic-dominated government has been simmering there for a century. “Kill the disbelievers where you find them and do not have mercy on them,” Abu Abdul Rahman al-Filipini urged in the video, which was recorded in Raqqa and translated by SITE Intelligence Group . In Malaysia, the army has been a worrying source of recruits. The country’s defense minister told parliament last year that at least 70 former members of the military volunteered for the Islamic State. Malaysian authorities long wary of Western help have been working closely with the United States and Australia since last year to contain such jihadist activities. In Indonesia, police have campaigned aggressively against jihadists, killing or imprisoning many leaders. But as in Iraq and Syria, the prisons have been a breeding ground for extremism. Based on her research in Jakarta, Jones argued in a recent study: “The prison system — where plots are hatched, travel arranged and [Islamic State] supporters recruited — needs urgent attention.” Experts worry that as many as 200 former jihadists are due to be released from Indonesian prisons soon. For nearly 15 years, the United States has been quietly funding counterterrorism efforts in Southeast Asia. A study published last year by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point noted that the United States had provided $441 million in security assistance to the Philippines, mostly for its military, and $262 million to Indonesia, mostly for its police. Police efforts appear to be a better bet: Terrorist attacks increased in the Philippines by 13-fold between 2002 and 2013; attacks declined 26 percent over that period in Indonesia. The Islamic State may lose its caliphate in Syria and Iraq. But there could be a boomerang effect — a bigger jihadist threat in countries to which the fleeing fighters return. _Read more fromDavid Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more on this issue:** Kathleen Parker: Understanding the Islamic State Fareed Zakaria: Today’s new terrorists were radical before they were religious Charles Krauthammer: Interpreting the Islamic State’s jihadi logic

In Yemen, U.S. airstrikes breed anger, and sympathy for al-Qaeda

Aden, Yemen — Across the vast, rugged terrain of southern Yemen, an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing sympathy for al-Qaeda- linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States. After recent U.S. missile strikes, mostly from unmanned aircraft, the Yemeni government and the United States have reported that the attacks killed only suspected al-Qaeda members. But civilians have also died in the attacks, said tribal leaders, victims’ relatives and human rights activists. “These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side,’ ” said businessman Salim al-Barakani, adding that his two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March. Since January, as many as 21 missile attacks have targeted suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen, reflecting a sharp shift in a secret war carried out by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command that had focused on Pakistan. But as in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where U.S. drone strikes have significantly weakened al-Qaeda’s capabilities, an unintended consequence of the attacks has been a marked radicalization of the local population. The evidence of radicalization emerged in more than 20 interviews with tribal leaders, victims’ relatives, human rights activists and officials from four provinces in southern Yemen where U.S. strikes have targeted suspected militants. They described a strong shift in sentiment toward militants affiliated with the transnational network’s most active wing, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. “The drone strikes have not helped either the United States or Yemen,” said Sultan al-Barakani, who was a top adviser to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. “Yemen is paying a heavy price, losing its sons. But the Americans are not paying the same price.” In 2009, when President Obama was first known to have authorized a missile strike on Yemen, U.S. officials said there were no more than 300 core AQAP members. That number has grown in recent years to 700 or more, Yemeni officials and tribal leaders say. In addition, hundreds of tribesmen have joined AQAP in the fight against the U.S.-backed Yemeni government. As AQAP’s numbers and capabilities have grown, so has its reach and determination. That was reflected in a suicide bombing last week in the capital, Sanaa, that killed more than 100 people, mostly Yemeni soldiers. On their Web sites, on their Facebook pages and in their videos, militants who had been focused on their fight against the Yemeni government now portray the war in the south as a jihad against the United States, which could attract more recruits and financing from across the Muslim world. Yemeni tribal Web sites are filled with al-Qaeda propaganda, including some that brag about killing Americans. “Every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas,” said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group. “The drones are killing al-Qaeda leaders, but they are also turning them into heroes.” Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, has publicly defended the use of drone strikes, arguing that their precision allows the United States to limit civilian casualties and lessen risks for U.S. military personnel. The decision to fire a missile from a drone, he said, is taken with “extraordinary care and thoughtfulness.” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the administration’s counterterrorism strategy in Yemen is “guided by the view that we must do what is necessary to disrupt AQAP plots against U.S. interests” and to help the Yemeni government build up its capabilities to fight AQAP. “While AQAP has grown in strength over the last year, many of its supporters are tribal militants or part-time supporters who collaborate with AQAP for self-serving, personal interests rather than affinity with al-Qaeda’s global ideology,” Vietor said. “The portion of hard-core, committed AQAP members is relatively small.” The dramatic escalation in drone strikes in Yemen followed foiled plots by AQAP to bomb a U.S. airliner headed to Detroit in 2009 and to send parcel bombs via cargo planes to Chicago the following year. In April, Saudi intelligence agents helped foil an AQAP plot to plant a suicide bomber on a U.S.-bound plane. On May 6, a U.S. drone strike killed Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaeda leader who was on the FBI’s most-wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, an attack that killed 17 American sailors. The drone strike in Shabwa province also killed a second man, whom U.S. and Yemeni officials described as another al-Qaeda militant. But according to his relatives, the man was a 19-year-old named Nasser Salim who was tending to his farm when Quso arrived in his vehicle. Quso knew Salim’s family and was greeting him when the missiles landed. “He was torn to pieces,” said Salim’s uncle, Abu Baker Aidaroos, 30, a Yemeni soldier. “He was not part of al-Qaeda. But by America’s standards, just because he knew Fahd al-Quso, he deserved to die with him.” Out of anger, Aidaroos said, he left his unit in Abyan province, the nexus of the fight against the militants. Today, instead of fighting al-Qaeda, he sympathizes with the group — not out of support for its ideology, he insists, but out of hatred for the United States. The U.S. strikes, tribal leaders and Yemeni officials say, are also angering powerful tribes that could prevent AQAP from gaining strength. The group has seized control of large swaths of southern Yemen in the past year, while the government has had to counter growing perceptions that it is no more than an American puppet. “There is more hostility against America because the attacks have not stopped al-Qaeda, but rather they have expanded, and the tribes feel this is a violation of the country’s sovereignty,” said Anssaf Ali Mayo, Aden head of al-Islah, Yemen’s most influential Islamist party, which is now part of the coalition government. “There is a psychological acceptance of al-Qaeda because of the U.S. strikes.” Quso and Salim are from the Awlak tribe, one of the most influential in southern Yemen. So was Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni American preacher who was thought to be a senior AQAP leader and was killed in September by a U.S. strike. The following month, another U.S. strike killed Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, also an American citizen, generating outrage across Yemen. Awlak tribesmen are businessmen, lawmakers and politicians. But the strikes have pushed more of them to join the militants or to provide AQAP with safe haven in their areas, said tribal leaders and Yemeni officials. “The Americans are targeting the sons of the Awlak,” Aidaroos said. “I would fight even the devil to exact revenge for my nephew.” In early March, U.S. missiles struck in Bayda province, 100 miles south of Sanaa, killing at least 30 suspected militants, according to Yemeni security officials. But in interviews, human rights activists and victims’ relatives said many of the dead were civilians, not fighters. Villagers were too afraid to go to the area. Al-Qaeda militants took advantage and offered to bury the villagers’ relatives. “That made people even more grateful and appreciative of al-Qaeda,” said Barakani, the businessman. “Afterwards, al-Qaeda told the people, ‘We will take revenge on your behalf.’ ” In asserting responsibility for last week’s bombing in Sanaa, Ansar al-Sharia — the name by which AQAP goes in southern Yemen — declared that the attack was revenge for what it called the U.S. war on its followers. The previous week, al-Qaeda’s supreme leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a video portraying Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who took office in February and vowed to fight AQAP, as an “agent” of the United States. In some cases, U.S. strikes have forced civilians to flee their homes and have destroyed homes and farmland. Balweed Muhammed Nasser Awad, 57, said he and his family fled the city of Jaar last summer after his son, a fisherman, was killed in a U.S. strike targeting suspected al-Qaeda militants. Today, they live in a classroom in an Aden school, along with hundreds of other refugees from the conflict. “Ansar al-Sharia had nothing to do with my son’s death. He was killed by the Americans,” Awad said. “He had nothing to do with terrorism. Why him?” No Yemeni has forgotten the U.S. cruise missile strike in the remote tribal region of al-Majala on Dec. 17, 2009 — the Obama administration’s first known missile strike inside Yemen. The attack killed dozens, including 14 women and 21 children, and whipped up rage at the United States. Today, the area is a haven for militants, said Abdelaziz Muhammed Hamza, head of the Revolutionary Council in Abyan province, a group that is fighting AQAP. “All the residents of the area have joined al-Qaeda,” he said. **More world news coverage:** \- U.S. denies N. Korea spy operation \- Corruption turns Russians radical \- Iran says virus has infected computers nationwide \- Read more headlines from around the world

What’s making Saudi Arabia uneasy these days? Just about everything.

A reliable barometer of Saudi Arabia’s political comfort level is how quickly the country responds to difficult news. When the ruling monarchy feels secure, the wait can be long for an official statement or the Saudi spin on events. On Wednesday, however, Saudi officials were unusually fast with details after a fire engulfed a diesel pipeline owned by the state-run oil giant Aramco. The message: It was caused by a leak and not from terrorist sabotage. Still, the subtext also was clear. Saudi Arabia is on edge these days. On Monday, gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack on Saudi Arabia’s minority Shiite community, which has staged stop-and-start protests for years seeking greater rights. The next day, two security agents were killed in shootouts with suspects. The attack, claimed Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Mansour al-Turki, was masterminded by a Saudi militant who spent time with ``terrorists’’ outside the kingdom. Saudi media went farther. Reports said suspect was in Iraq and Syria – raising suggestions of a link to the Islamic State. The militants may share some of the ultraconservative views of Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi brand of Islam, but consider the kingdom’s rulers as disgraced by their close ties to the West. More than 20 suspects are in custody in connection with the Shiite attack, including two policemen. Three other alleged plotters were killed in the nationwide manhunt, which continued Friday. A statement from 50 prominent Saudi religious and political figures earlier this week said a “malicious, Satanic ideology” guided the attackers. The Interior Minister called it a ``deviant” departure from Islam. If it seems somewhat familiar, there’s a reason. Saudi authorities launched massive crackdowns on al-Qaeda and other groups as part of political damage control after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. The vast majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi born, as was al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Part of the inner circle overseeing the Saudi anti-terrorism sweeps at the time, then-Riyadh governor Prince Salman, is now the heir to the throne, which is held by his 90-year-old half-brother, King Abdullah. The current Saudi unease reaches even farther afield. In many ways, it’s a crash course in the wider bloodshed and brinksmanship in Syria, Iraq and beyond. The various sides and interests – the jihadis, the West and its allies, Iran and its proxies – all cross paths in some ways with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has denounced the Islamic State and Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliates, led by the Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front. But some private Saudi groups – and those in other Gulf countries – are believed to be a source of steady private funding to factions such as Nusra. Publicly, Saudi officials condemn such grassroots aid. But there is little serious effort to stop it. There are few things higher on Saudi Arabia’s priority list than bringing down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has held off a more than three-year uprising started at the height of the Arab Spring. Clearing out Assad – a key Iranian ally - would give Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led states a chance to expand their influence. While, at the same time, it would be a satisfying swipe at Shiite power Iran, the main regional rival of Saudi Arabia. Here’s where it gets a bit tangled. Iran is a major opponent of the Islamic State, which considers Shiite Islam a heretical offshoot. (The differences go back to the leadership succession in the decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.) In Iraq, Iran’s allied Shiite militias have joined the battle against the Islamic State. U.S. officials are not objecting too strongly at having the Iranian-backed fighters in the mix as Washington gropes for effective strategies to roll back the Islamic State. President Obama has even made a rare outreach to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a letter concerning shared opposition to the Islamic State. All this is hard for Saudi Arabia to swallow. Saudi leaders – stalwart U.S. allies – have always counted on Washington’s cold war with Iran as one of the great constants in regional affairs. Saudi Arabia also felt that way about the durability of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. The Arab Spring uprisings shook the Saudi establishment to the core. Through their eyes, the lesson was that an alliance with Washington was no guarantee of survival. Even the American oil market is no longer a given. Surging U.S. oil and gas production has rattled the OPEC old guard. So Saudi Arabia is looking around for backup plans. It appears willing to let oil prices slip in attempts to win back U.S. market share. Meanwhile, Saudi security chiefs are now leading discussions with other Gulf states and Egypt for a possible combined military force – a sort of Mideast version of NATO – to intervene around the region against extremists and - equally important - as a show of force to Iran.

Amid rising German fears, experts warn of a new attacker profile in Europe: ‘Underage terrorists’

Over the weekend, Germany's attention was focused on a 12-year-old boy with Iraqi parents who had allegedly planned a nail bomb attack at a German Christmas market. He may have received instructions from the Islamic State, according to media reports that cited unnamed intelligence sources. The story of Germany's perhaps youngest terror suspect will likely disappear out of the public focus amid the carnage a truck crash caused on a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, leaving 12 people dead. But more than neighboring countries, the largest European nation has recently witnessed the emergence of a worrisome new type of militant attacker, according to experts: “underage terrorists.” In February, 15-year-old Safia S. stabbed a police officer in an attack allegedly inspired by the Islamic State. And in July a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked several passengers on a train in Bavaria after pledging allegiance to the group. Last week's apparent attempted nail bomb attack in Ludwigshafen could easily have caused injuries or deaths. Experts argue that the three cases are evidence of a shifting profile of attacker. “Originally, ISIL focused mostly on young adults aged between 17 and 23 for the simple reason that they are unlikely to be government spies,” said Daniel Koehler, the director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies, using a different term for the Islamic State. “But since the organization has taken heavy losses on the ground in Syria and Iraq and is losing territory, it has more and more changed its propaganda to trigger lone actor attacks by practically anyone willing to do it.” Koehler and others argue that intelligence services need to expand their focus on all age groups, making it more difficult to prevent future attacks. “ISIL has turned terrorist recruitment and radicalization effectively into a mass product,” Koehler said. The Islamic State uses songs, videos and even games to spread its propaganda message on the Internet. “The main narratives presented in ISIL’s propaganda is a very condensed but nevertheless highly emotional and effective way to connect to various different biographical backgrounds and age groups,” Koehler said.   In total, 3,300 members nationally have played at the club since the project was established last year. Open to girls and boys ages 10 to 17, it has attracted participants from across the British capital and has about 300 members. Some of the younger residents struggle with feelings of isolation and loneliness, and have questions about their identity, their supervisors said. Muad Hussein, a 13-year-old player of Somali heritage, explained that he preferred to focus on winning matches, rather than discuss radicalization. “It doesn’t matter what religion or ethnicity someone has. Here, we are all one tough family,” he said. The club offers a safe haven that is free of charge, volunteers said. Soccer sessions are complemented by discussions about fairness and democratic values. Participation in the project, however, has proven more difficult with girls. “Sometimes, the girls left training and guys came up to them asking: ‘What are you doing there?’ ” volunteer coach Simon Agboola said. “Some families were not okay with them playing soccer.” Including parents in counter-radicalization programs designed for children remains a main obstacle, organizers acknowledged. Following the failed nail bomb attacks in Germany, authorities are now also exploring whether the boy's parents were aware of his alleged plans and whether they might have contributed to a possible radicalization. Amid growing concerns over children being targeted by the Islamic State, German de-radicalization expert Daniel Koehler has put a particular emphasis on family counseling. “Family and friends are the ones picking up a radicalization or more broadly a change into a negative direction first.” “They are our first line of defense and they are the ones best suited to intervene at an early stage,” he said. The difficulty, however, is to convince parents of 12-year old children that their sons of boys may be targeted by the Islamic State in the first place.

Deadly attacks in Jakarta, a Gitmo milestone, expanding the ISIS fight and the A-10 avoids the chopping block

**DEADLY ATTACKS IN JAKARTA.** The Islamic State has claimed yet another fatal terror attack, this time in the Indonesian capital, where suicide bombers targeted a Starbucks and a traffic police post, as well as waged a gun attack. Two were killed in the scuffle, along with five attackers who died.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The attack is a sign that ISIS is trying to expand the territory in which it can leave its mark. It is the deepest into Asia that any ISIS terror attack has yet reached. The attackers who have been identified appear to be from Southeast Asia, and Indonesian officials say the attack was a deliberate attempt to mimic the far more deadly ISIS terror attacks in Paris in November.  **GITMO MILESTONE** It’s only a matter of time until the Guantanamo Bay prisoner count drops down below 100, now that a dozen Yemenis are expected to be released. But will that change the debate about whether or not it’s time to close the facility?    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Not since 2002 have there been fewer than 100 prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. But this time, the milestone comes as the president is trying to push a resistant and fiercely divided Congress to shutter the detention camp, although the administration has still not delivered a plan to make that happen.  **EXPANDING ISIS FIGHT** The offensive against the Islamic State is expanding, with 500 members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division heading to Iraq and Kuwait next month, and new elite Special Operations forces already on the ground in Iraq, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Wednesday.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico At this point, all eyes are on Mosul, an ISIS stronghold in Iraq that the U.S.-led coalition wants to take. The United States is heading the operation, but at arm’s length, with Iraqi forces leading the fight, recapture and hopefully rehabilitation of Mosul afterward. ISIS’s informal capital in Raqqa, Syria, is also on the list of prime targets to secure – but there too, the plan is that Middle East forces lead the push into the city.  **A-10 OFF THE CHOPPING BLOCK** After years of squabbling with Congress, the Air Force has scrapped plans to retire the A-10 “Warthog” indefinitely, according to a report in Defense One. The announcement will be made official next month when the Defense Department sends Congress its budget request. The Air Force had wanted to retire the hefty but effective ground-attack plane in order to make way and free up funds for developing the F-35 – but the rise of ISIS and instability in the Middle East has increased the demand for more aircraft that is battlefield ready now.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

In Islamic State video, Paris attackers vowed to strike West

A new Islamic State video features the perpetrators of last year’s Paris attacks, highlighting the men’s jihadist credentials as it shows them carrying out hostage executions and speaking of plans to strike the West. The sleekly produced video, which mixes news footage with gruesome on-air beheadings, adds to an evolving picture of how the Nov. 13 attacks were planned and how they fit into the Islamic State’s strategy for exporting its extremist campaign. The video features nine militants the Islamic State says were responsible for the coordinated assaults, which killed 130 diners and concert-goers in the French capital, showing them training or handling prisoners in Islamic State territory. Among them is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the attacks who, like other attackers, grew up in Europe before becoming radicalized and traveling to fight with the Islamic state in Syria. Abaaoud died during a standoff with French police several days after the attacks. “By Allah, as long as you continue to direct airstrikes against us, and as long as you continue to declare war and fight the Muslims, we will not stop fighting you in every part of the world, regardless of whether you are on a tourism trip or a work trip or are fast asleep in your homes,” Abaaoud said. “So expect more,” he said. “Expect a mujahid to show up to kill you.” Abaaoud and the other militants are identified using a nom de guerre. While U.S. and European officials already believed the plans were at least partly planned in Syria, the video reinforces the perpetrators’ battlefield experience. By showing that the attackers came to Paris hardened by fighting and executions in Syria, the video further sets those attacks apart from other violence inspired by the Islamic State, such as the mass attack in San Bernardino, Calif., in December. The couple responsible for the San Bernardino attacks appears to have drawn inspiration from the Islamic State but did not have any experience training or fighting with the group. Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the video is significant because it confirms the belief that the attacks were carried out by militants close to the core of Islamic State operations, rather than supporters on the organization’s periphery. Goldenberg said that conclusion should also be “reassuring” to officials in the West. “Centrally planned is a good thing, because it again seems to show that to pull off these major attacks you do need” a high level of involvement from the organization itself. And a threat emanated from the group’s base in Iraq and Syria, compared to threats from home-grown radicals in the West, are “easier to stop,” he said. Most of Abaaoud’s fellow militants wear military fatigues and speak in an unidentified desert location in the 17-minute video, which SITE said was distributed via Twitter and Telegram,. One of them, Bilal Hadfi, a 20-year-old French national also known to have traveled to Syria from Europe. Hadfi addresses the camera as he stands behind a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit who, like other captives, is identified only as an “apostate.” He then beheads the man. Several other hostages are beheaded on camera. One is shot in the head. According to the group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a watchdog organization, one of the men executed in the video was from al-Taqba, a town near Raqqa. The group said the man, known as Hamouda al-Qasaab, ran a currency exchange store and was arrested after running afoul of the Islamic State. It’s not clear why the Islamic State is releasing the video more than two months after the Paris attacks, but it represent an attempt to perpetuate the propaganda impact of the Nov. attacks, which galvanized European leaders and triggered fear across the West. Another militant, identified as Abu Qital al-Faransi, spoke in the video of striking “in the heart of Paris.” It’s unclear whether he was referring to specific plans to attack Paris in November or something more general. He also urged Muslims in France to strike out against those around them. “Take action,” he said. “Wake up before it’s too late and they begin slaughtering you.” The video concludes by showing images of British Prime Minister David Cameron and says that those who stand with “infidels” will be targeted for our swords and will fall in humiliation.”

Despite U.S. airstrikes, a Somali militia is rising again

CAIRO — Somalia’s al-Shabab movement is emerging as one of the most loyal — and lethal — al-Qaeda affiliates, even as the Islamic State expands its reach into the region, according to Western and Somali analysts. The Somali militants have shown signs of a resurgence, staging deadly attacks and assassinations in recent months, despite the billions of dollars being spent by the United States to fight them. That has prompted the Islamic State to try to woo them away from al-Qaeda, as U.S. and other Western intelligence officials grow increasingly alarmed. The concern is so great that U.S. warplanes and drones attacked an al-Shabab training camp Saturday, killing more than 150 fighters, according to the Pentagon. It was the deadliest U.S. strike on the militant group — whose name in Arabic means “the youth” — since it emerged a decade ago with the goal of turning Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state. “Al-Qaeda understands the potential of this self-financing and experienced insurgency in the strategic Horn of Africa,” said Abdirashid Hashi, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. “And ISIS, of course, understands this potential and hence its overtures for co-option or stage a hostile takeover. Al-Qaeda is probably working hard to protect its jewel from ISIS.” ISIS is another name for the Islamic State. Less than two years ago, al-Shabab was a crippled movement. U.S.-backed African Union forces had driven the militia out of Mogadishu and other areas. Its leader, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, widely known as Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a U.S. airstrike a year after he masterminded an attack on a posh Nairobi mall that killed scores. His death was hailed by U.S. officials as a major operational and symbolic blow to the militia; many thought it would result in the group’s fragmentation and eventually lead to its demise. Instead, it regrouped under a new leader, Ahmad Umar, and transformed itself into a lethal guerrilla insurgency. Its fighters have raided parts of the countryside, setting up roadblocks and controlling the population. They have expanded their recruitment and presence in Kenya and other neighboring countries. In Somalia, they have been aided by incessant political infighting, poorly trained and equipped national security forces, and a weak central government that has not been able to fill the void. Thinly stretched African Union peacekeepers, known by the acronym AMISOM and funded by U.S. and other Western governments, seldom pursue the militia into rural areas, focusing instead on cities and towns. That has allowed the militants to stage spectacular attacks from their rural strongholds. Al-Shabab has also attacked restaurants, beachfront bars and other soft targets while dispatching assassination squads to eliminate government officials. “Al-Shabab dominate in the countryside in the newly liberated areas, where neither AMISOM nor the Somali army so far have been successful in establishing security for the locals,” said Stig Jarle Hansen, a Norwegian researcher who authored a book on the group. “In these areas, they can tax and even use forced recruitment.” Since January, the militia has killed scores of people, including Kenyan soldiers attached to AMISOM at their base and guests at a Mogadishu hotel. It also asserted responsibility for a bomb planted on a jetliner that ripped a hole through the fuselage, forcing the plane to land in Mogadishu, and for a bomb that detonated in a laptop on Monday at the airport in the central Somali town of Beledweyne. While U.S. officials described Saturday’s airstrikes as a major success that apparently killed more militants than all previously known U.S. operations in Somalia combined, some analysts expressed caution. The presence of such a large number of fighters at one camp is “a worrying indicator of the group’s continued relevance and its power to attract, notwithstanding the setbacks it has suffered in recent years,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. “If anything, despite the killing of several of its leaders and battlefield reverses the group has suffered, its hard-line ‘core’ has become even more radicalized and, indeed, have seen their ambitions grow,” he added. Saturday’s airstrikes marked an escalation and a sharp tactical shift for U.S. military operations in Somalia. Over the past decade, the Pentagon had cast a surveillance blanket over Somalia to gather intelligence on al-Shabab, but it rarely opened fire. Before this month, there had been only about a dozen recorded U.S. drone strikes in Somalia since 2003. Each had targeted individual al-Shabab leaders whom U.S. forces had long been hunting. Last weekend’s attack, by contrast, was aimed squarely at a gathering of low-level fighters in an attempt to inflict mass casualties. Officials at the Pentagon said they feared the fighters at the training camp, about 120 miles north of Mogadishu, were preparing to mount a major attack on A.U. troops and also represented a threat to the handful of U.S. military advisers in Somalia. “We do believe there was a direct threat,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday, while declining to provide details about intelligence assessments. “And we believe that this strike has been successful in reducing that threat.” Al-Shabab has demonstrated a growing ability to launch ambitious, large-scale attacks against A.U. forces in recent months. In January, for instance, the group’s fighters overran an A.U. base in el-Adde, Somalia, and killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers. In September, al-Shabab fighters killed about 50 Ugandan troops at another A.U. base in Somalia, and in June, the group killed 70 Burundians belonging to the same force at yet another such encampment. Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the U.S. military’s Africa Command, said U.S. officials were worried that the al-Shabab camp targeted in Saturday’s airstrike was preparing for a similar attack on A.U. troops. “The camps are transitory, so they pop up and they move and they’re at different places throughout Somalia at different times,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing Tuesday. “It is a concern because the last three times they did something similar to this, they had an ability to conduct a devastating attack on the [A.U.] forces,” he said. There are more than 20,000 A.U. troops in Somalia, drawn primarily from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia. Their primary funder is the United States, which foots a large part of the bill for training and equipping the international force. Given the resurgence and success of al-Shabab’s attacks, however, U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned that their African partners might lose resolve for the fight. Rodriguez told the Senate panel that regional powers remain “committed to the mission” but that “because of the existing tactics that al-Shabab has taken, they need to start making adjustments, too, and that’s what we’re working with them on.” As it has grown again, al-Shabab has drawn the attention of the Islamic State. In videos and on social media, Islamic State leaders have urged the militia to abandon al-Qaeda and join their fold, part of an ongoing contest for influence between the two most influential militant groups. Last year, Nigeria’s Boko Haram militia pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. That was considered a setback for al-Qaeda’s central branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has increasingly relied on local and regional affiliates — in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and other areas — to spread its radical philosophies and target the West and its allies. But al-Shabab’s senior leaders have shown little inclination to break away from al-Qaeda. Godane and other top leaders trained and fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Their agenda is also more nationalistic and regional, unlike the Islamic State’s global ambitions. Al-Qaeda is believed to have provided financing, training and logistical support to al-Shabab. And while there have been some defections to the Islamic State, the militia has shown no visible signs of fragmenting or weakening. “Because of al-Qaeda’s weakness, al-Shabab have been more important,” Hansen said. “They actually presented a victory for al-Qaeda in the face of the Islamic State.” Whitlock reported from Washington. **Read more:** Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Pentagon won’t disclose damage from massive bomb strike in Afghanistan

TEL AVIV — Defense Secretary  Jim Mattis said Thursday that the Pentagon would not discuss the amount of damage wrought by a 22,000-pound bomb dropped on an Islamic State cave complex in eastern Afghanistan last week. Speaking to a group of reporters traveling with him here,  Mattis said the decision was based in part on the ill-advised practice of using the number of enemy soldiers killed, known as body counts, as a metric for success during the Vietnam War. “For many years we have not been calculating the results of warfare by simply quantifying the amount of enemy killed,” Mattis said. “We all know the source of the corrosive effect during the Vietnam War and it stayed with us all these years.” “Frankly, digging into tunnels to count dead bodies is probably not a good use of our troops time,” he added. On April 13, a U.S. Special Operations C-130 cargo aircraft dropped the massive bomb, called a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, on a cluster of Islamic State-held caves in Afghanistan’s Nangahar province.   Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Friday that the bomb was “the right weapon against the right target” and that it “achieved its intended purpose” of eliminating the cave complex and allowing U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces to continue pushing into the valley. In the following days, however, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan declined to say exactly what effect the bomb had, and media reports indicated that there was still fighting around the blast site. Afghan officials, however, said the weapon killed between 36 and 100 Islamic State fighters and a number of high-ranking commanders. The U.S. military regularly reports on the results of its airstrikes in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, and often cites the number of fighters killed or the type of equipment destroyed in its news releases. In Afghanistan, despite the heavy use of U.S. air support to back the fledgling Afghan military, individual strikes are rarely reported.

Sectarianism after the Saudi mosque bombings

Just seven days after one of the deadliest bombings Saudi Arabia has witnessed in years, yet another explosion at a Shiite mosque in the country’s Eastern Province killed at least four people. On May 29, an attacker detonated his car full of explosives in front of the al-Anoud Mosque in Dammam City.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico On May 22, Saleh al-Qashami, a Saudi citizen, blew himself up in the Shiite Imam Ali mosque in the village of Qadeeh in the Qatif oasis, a predominantly Shiite area. It was the deadliest attack on Saudi Shiites ever, killing 21 people and severely wounding dozens of others. Moreover, the attack took place during Friday prayers, implying that the attacker did not consider the worshipers Muslims. While anti-Shiite voices across the region were quick to blame Iran or Hezbollah, the Islamic State quickly claimed that a “soldier of the caliphate” had carried out the May 22 attack.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The official statement was signed by Islamic State-Najd Province, implying that the Islamic State now has an official branch in Saudi Arabia’s central Najd Province. The group declared the start of a campaign to rid the Arabian Peninsula of “all the polytheists.” Within hours, the Islamic State-Najd Province also claimed the May 29 attack in Dammam, adding that it was another step in its campaign to “purify” Saudi Arabia from the rejectionists.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The bombings have raised a number of important questions regarding the ability of Saudi Arabia to protect its citizens, the reach of the Islamic State in Saudi Arabia, the future of Sunni-Shiite relations and the double-edged sword of state-sponsored anti-Shiism in the country. These were the second and third attacks on Saudi Shiites claimed by the Islamic State. During the first, in November 2014, a Saudi gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mourning house, or _hussainiyya_ , in the al-Ahsa oasis, the other main area of Shiite population in the country. While the attacker and several dozen co- conspirators were quickly arrested and many across the country showed their sympathy and attended the funeral, there were few tangible changes. The advisory Shura Council debated a bill criminalizing sectarian hate speech in the months after the attack but no action was taken.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Although the late King Abdullah began cautiously reaching out to the Shiites when he took the throne in 2005, King Salman has made few such overtures since coming to power in January. Salman instead started a war in neighboring Yemen against the Houthi rebels and the forces aligned with former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. At home, the new king has reached out to conservative forces from across the Sunni spectrum, including clerics who had been critical of Abdullah and Saudi foreign policy, in particular its anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign. At the start of the bombing campaign in Yemen, the most important Sunni clerics, such as Salman al-Awda, praised the new leadership and the war against the Houthis, with some going as far as calling the campaign a just, religious war. The war has been presented as an effort to counter Iran – the Saudis are thoroughly convinced that the Houthis are Iranian proxies – and by default counter Shiite movements, although the Zaydi Shiites in Yemen are different from Iran’s Twelver Shiites and many Zaydi religious practices and beliefs are close to the Sunnis. The increased anti-Shiite rhetoric since the start of the war has had a negative impact on the Shiites in Saudi Arabia and sectarian relations. Not many Saudis have spoken out against the war, seemingly out of fear of persecution, criticism of the government can lead to several years in jail. However, many Saudis, in particular many Shiites and Southerners, have appeared to be against the war. For example, a planned anti-war demonstration in the eastern town of Awwamiyya was canceled after activists were allegedly told they would all be shot if they demonstrated. The impact of the war has been even worse in southern Saudi Arabia, particularly Najran Province, an area historically settled by Ismailis, who the Wahhabi clerics term “rejectionists” and who have also faced sectarian discrimination. Though the Ismailis are better integrated into state institutions, including the armed forces, the war on their doorsteps and the shelling of Najran from across the border coupled with the anti-Shiite rhetoric of the war, is likely unsettling.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The bombing in Qatif reignited the debate about the problem of the Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia’s religious politics. Al-Ahsa, where the November 2014 attack took place, is a mixed Sunni and Shiite area, but Qatif and the surrounding villages are mainly Shiite with a long history of oppositional politics. Since February 2011, a protest movement inspired by the Arab uprisings and the protests in neighbouring Bahrain has challenged the notion that Saudi Arabia was exempt from the Arab uprisings. Initially focusing on the release of political prisoners, national democratic reforms and human rights, the protest movement faced increasing repression, leading parts of the movement to turn toward militancy. Saudi security forces, which also suffered casualties in frequent shootouts, shot more than 25, mainly young, Shiite men. The figurehead of the protest movement, the cleric Nimr al- Nimr, was arrested in the summer of 2012 and sentenced to death, a verdict that could be executed at any time.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The protest movement has slowed since 2014, mainly due to repression, activist fatigue and lack of support from other parts of the country and pro-government Shiite factions. However, the funeral for the victims of the May 22 attack turned into a massive rally with hundreds of thousands of participants. Official Saudi media gave full coverage to the funeral, emphasizing calls for an end to sectarian violence – seemingly in a bid to prevent the appropriation of the funeral by opposition media channels. Saudi newspapers reported the funeral on their front pages, stating that half a million had attended and reprinting King Salman’s statement that he was “heartbroken,” and his promises to hunt down those responsible.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico At the same time, however, many Shiites, and particularly those close to the victims, feel betrayed and let down by the state and are fearful of more attacks. They are surprised that more was not done since the al-Ahsa attack to prevent similar bloodshed. Unlike al-Ahsa, Qatif and the surrounding areas have been full of checkpoints since 2011 to prevent the militarization of and hunt down those involved in the Shiite protest movement, known locally as _al- hirak_ (the movement). Dammam, a city built during at the start of oil exploration in the mid-20th century, is a mainly Sunni city with a significant Shiite minority. Therefore, the Shia mosque in Dammam was even easier to reach than the mosque in Qatif. Sunni hard-liners had for decades demanded the closure of Shiite mosques in mixed Sunni-Shiite cities such as Dammam and Khobar. The state at times followed through and closed several Shiite mosques in Khobar over the last years.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The leader of Khat al-Imam, a pro-Iranian social movement that had been active in the Eastern Province since the 1980s, Abd al-Karim al-Hubayl, and other senior Saudi Shiite clerics have called for the establishment of popular protection committees to prevent future attacks. A newly established Twitter account is circulating pictures of men in orange vests from the committees stopping and checking cars and monitoring people at the entrances of mosques, as well as female patrols in the streets. The Shiite clerics argue that if the state could not protect the Shiites, they should take matters into their own hands. That these committees share a name – al-Hashd al-Shaabi – the militias recently established in Iraq to counter the Islamic State, was not lost on locals and outside observers. The committees’ actions constitute a direct threat to state’s monopoly of violence. Pro-Saudi Twitter accounts have been quick to denounce these committees as the beginning militarization of the Qatifis, using the hashtag “No to the Shiite Committees in Qatif,” replacing _shaabi_ (popular) with _shii_ (Shiite).    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Fear among the Shiite population is understandable given the Islamic State – Najd Province’s declaration and the recent attacks. The Islamic State and similar organizations aim to cause a rise in Shiite militancy and increase distrust between the Shiites on the one hand and the state and the rest of Saudi society on the other hand. In many ways, the Shiites are a soft target for the Islamic State, easier to target than foreigners holed up in their fortified compounds, and less controversial amongst mainstream Saudi society than attacks on Sunni Saudi soldiers and policemen. The Islamic State can feed on decades of anti-Shiite incitement in Saudi schools, Islamic universities and the media. Indeed, many of the militants that join the uprisings in Syria and the insurgency in Iraq are driven by a desire to counter Iranian and Shiite influence, foreign policy goals that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are also working towards. Saudi Arabia may have to choose between using anti-Shiism as a political tool at home and abroad and the very real threat that extremists taking anti-Shiism too seriously will bring the fight back home – with unpredictable consequences for the stability of Saudi Arabia and the wider region. If the new Saudi king wanted, he could enact a number of laws to curb sectarianism and reaffirm that the Shiites are citizens of Saudi Arabia not just “other Saudis” or secondary citizens. He could, for example, issue a law criminalizing sectarian hate speech as neighboring Kuwait has done. There were calls to close the Saudi offices of one particularly inflammatory sectarian TV channel, Wesal, but it remained active. Several Saudi Twitter accounts, including of some clerics, seemed sympathetic to the Qudaih attacker or spread conspiracy theories of the event.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico King Salman could also abolish judicial discrimination against Shiites (which currently require two Shiite witnesses to counter claims by one Sunni witness), strengthen Shiite status law courts and appoint a Shiite cleric to the Council of Senior Ulema, the highest religious body in the country. He could also appoint Shiite ministers (no Shiite has ever reached ministerial rank in the history of the country), ambassadors (there has been only one Shiite ambassador, and that was to Iran) or local governors in the Eastern Province. He could also revise the textbooks on _tawhid_ , which all Saudi students including Shiites and Ismailis must study and which denounces Shiites as rejectionists. He could also release political prisoners, jailed for demanding political reform and human rights. He could also start recruiting Shiites into the Ministry of Interior, the army and the National Guard, institutions from which they are largely barred.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico All of these measures might be unpopular with some Saudis, particularly anti-Shiite clerics; however, without implementing some changes the “problem” of the Shiites in Saudi Arabia will not be resolved. Surely these attacks could serve as good an opportunity as any to reverse some of the sectarian policies that have driven many young Saudis into jihad abroad and at home in the first place. _Toby Matthiesen_ _is a research fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of “_ _The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism_ _,” which outlines the history of political movements among the Shiites of Saudi Arabia and their relationship with the Saudi state._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

The Trump team’s list of 78 ‘underreported’ terrorist attacks is a mess

It's a bit of a mess. Dozens of typos, odd inclusions and odd exclusions are the norm in this apparently hastily assembled list. Also: Since it's a bit dense, we thought it worth breaking down the finer points and highlighting the most notable items. Below are our annotations. To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text.    MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA September, 2014 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Abdul Numan Haider  TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA September, 2014 TARGET: One French citizen beheaded ATTACKER: Jund al-Khilafah in Algeria  QUEBEC, CANADA October, 2014 TARGET: One soldier killed and one wounded in vehicle attack ATTACKER: Martin Couture-Rouleau  OTTAWA, CANADA October, 2014 TARGET: One soldier killed at war memorial; two wounded in shootings at Parliament building ATTACKER: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau  NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA October, 2014 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: US person  RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA November, 2014 TARGET: One Danish citizen wounded in shooting ATTACKERS: Three Saudi Arabia-based ISIL members  ABU DHABI, UAE DATE: December 2014 TARGET: One American killed in knife attack ATTACKER: Dalal al-Hashimi  SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA December, 2014 TARGET: Two Australians killed in hostage taking and shooting ATTACKER: Man Haron Monis  TOURS, FRANCE December, 2014 TARGET: Three police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Bertrand Nzohabonayo  PARIS, FRANCE January, 2015 TARGET: One police officer and four hostages killed in shooting at a kosher supermarket ATTACKER: Amedy Coulibaly  TRIPOLI, LIBYA January, 2015 TARGET: Ten killed, including one US citizen, and five wounded in bombing and shooting at a hotel frequented by westerners ATTACKERS: As many as five ISIL-Libya members  RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA January, 2015 TARGET: Two US citizens wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Saudi Arabia-based ISIL supporter  NICE, FRANCE February, 2015 TARGET: Two French soldiers wounded in knife attack outside a Jewish community center ATTACKER: Moussa Coulibaly  COPENHAGEN, DENMARK February, 2015 TARGET: One civilian killed in shooting at a free-speech rally and one security guard killed outside the city’s main synagogue ATTACKER: Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein  TUNIS, TUNISIA March, 2015 TARGET: 21 tourists killed, including 16 westerners, and 55 wounded in shooting at the Bardo Museum ATTACKERS: Two ISIL-aligned extremists  KARACHI, PAKISTAN April, 2015 TARGET: One US citizen wounded in knife attack ATTACKERS: Pakistan-based ISIL supporters  PARIS, FRANCE April, 2015 TARGET: Catholic churches targeted; one civilian killed in shooting, possibly during an attempted carjacking ATTACKER: Sid Ahmed Ghlam  ZVORNIK, BOSNIA April, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed and two wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Nerdin Ibric  GARLAND, TX, USA May, 2015 TARGET: One security guard wounded in shooting at the Prophet Muhammad cartoon event ATTACKERS: Two US persons  BOSTON, MA, USA June, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; one police officer attacked with knife ATTACKER: US person  EL GORA (AL JURAH), EGYPT June, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; camp used by Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) troops attacked in shooting and bombing attack ATTACKERS: Unknown number of ISIL-Sinai members  LUXOR, EGYPT June, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed by suicide bomb near the Temple of Karnak ATTACKER: Unidentified  SOUSSE, TUNISIA June, 2015 TARGET: 38 killed and 39 wounded in shooting at a beach frequented by westerners ATTACKERS: Seifeddine Rezgui and another unidentified attacker  LYON, FRANCE June, 2015 TARGET: One civilian killed in beheading and explosion at a chemical plant ATTACKER: Yasin Salhi  CAIRO, EGYPT July, 2015 TARGET: One killed and nine wounded in VBIED attack at Italian Consulate ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL operatives  CAIRO, EGYPT July, 2015 TARGET: One Croatian national kidnapped; beheaded on August 12 at an unknown location ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operative  PARIS, FRANCE August, 2015 TARGET: Two civilians and one US soldier wounded with firearms and knife on a passenger train ATTACKER: Ayoub el-Khazzani  EL GORA, EGYPT September, 2015 TARGET: Four US and two MFO troops wounded in IED attack ATTACKER: Unidentified  DHAKA, BANGLADESH September, 2015 TARGET: One Italian civilian killed in shooting ATTACKER: Unidentified  COPENHAGEN, DENMARK September, 2015 TARGET: One police officer wounded in knife attack ATTAKER: Palestinian national  EL GORA, EGYPT October, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; airfield used by MFO attacked with rockets ATTAKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operatives  PARRAMATTA, AUSTRALIA October, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed in shooting ATTAKER: Farhad Jabar  RANGPUR, BANGLADESH October, 2015 TARGET: One Japanese civilian killed in shooting ATTAKER: Unidentified  HASANAH, EGYPT October, 2015 TARGET: 224 killed in downing of a Russian airliner ATTAKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operatives  MERCED, CA, US November, 2015 TARGET: Four wounded in knife attack on a college campus ATTAKER: US person  PARIS, FRANCE November, 2015 TARGET: At least 129 killed and approximately 400 wounded in series of shootings and IED attacks ATTAKERS: Brahim Abdelslam, Saleh Abdeslam, Ismail Mostefai, Bilal Hadfi, Samy Amimour, Chakib Ahrouh, Foued Mohamed Aggad, and Abdelhamid Abaaoud  DINAJPUR, BANGLADESH November, 2015 TARGET: One Italian citizen wounded in shooting ATTAKER: Unidentified  RAJLOVAC, BOSNIA December, 2015 TARGET: Two Bosnian soldiers killed in shooting ATTAKER: Enes Omeragic  SAN BERNADINO, CA, US December, 2015 TARGET: 14 killed and 21 wounded in coordinated firearms attack ATTAKERS: Two US persons  LONDON, ENGLAND, UK December, 2015 TARGET: Three wounded in knife attack at an underground rail station ATTAKER: Muhyadin Mire  DERBENT, RUSSIA December, 2015 TARGET: One killed and 11 wounded in shooting at UN World Heritage site ATTAKER: Unidentified ISIL-Caucasus operative  CAIRO, EGYPT January, 2016 TARGET: Two wounded in drive-by shooting outside a hotel frequented by tourists ATTAKERS: Unidentified ISIL operatives  PARIS, FRANCE January, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; attacker killed after attempted knife attack on Paris police station ATTAKER: Tarek Belgacem  PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA January, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in shooting ATTAKER: US person  HURGHADA, EGYPT January, 2016 TARGET: One German and one Danish national wounded in knife attack at a tourist resort ATTAKER: Unidentified  MARSEILLES, FRANCE January, 2016 TARGET: One Jewish teacher wounded in machete attack ATTAKER: 15 year-old Ethnic Kurd from Turkey  ISTANBUL, TURKEY January, 2016 TARGET: 12 German tourists killed and 15 wounded in suicide bombing ATTAKER: Nabil Fadli  JAKARTA, INDONESIA January, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians killed and more than 20 wounded in coordinated bombing and firearms attacks near a police station and a Starbucks ATTAKERS: Dian Joni Kurnaiadi, Muhammad Ali, Arif Sunakim, and Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron  COLUMBUS, OH, US February, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians wounded in machete attack at a restaurant ATTAKER: US person  HANOVER, GERMANY February, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in knife attack ATTAKER: Safia Schmitter  ISTANBUL, TURKEY March, 2016 TARGET: Four killed and 36 wounded in suicide bombing in the tourist district ATTAKER: Mehmet Ozturk  BRUSSELS, BELGIUM March, 2016 TARGET: At least 31 killed and 270 wounded in coordinated bombings at Zaventem Airport and on a subway train ATTAKERS: Khalid el-Bakraoui, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, Najim Laachraoui, Mohammed Abrini, and Osama Krayem  ESSEN, GERMANY April, 2016 TARGET: Three wounded in bombing at Sikh temple ATTAKERS: Three identified minors  ORLANDO, FL, US June, 2016 TARGET: 49 killed and 53 wounded in shooting at a nightclub ATTAKER: US person  MAGNANVILLE, FRANCE June, 2016 TARGET: One police officer and one civilian killed in knife attack ATTAKER: Larossi Abballa  KABUL, AFGHANISTAN June, 2016 TARGET: 14 killed in suicide attack on a bus carrying Canadian Embassy guards ATTAKER: ISIL-Khorasan operative  ISTANBUL, TURKEY June, 2016 TARGET: 45 killed and approximately 240 wounded at Ataturk International Airport ATTACKERS: Rakhim Bulgarov, Vadim Osmanov, and an unidentified ISIL operative  DHAKA, BANGLADESH July, 2016 TARGET: 22 killed, including one American and 50 wounded after hours-long siege using machetes and firearms at holy Artisan Bakery ATTACKERS: Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam Paye, and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal  NICE, FRANCE July, 2016 TARGET: 84 civilians killed and 308 wounded by an individual who drove a truck into a crowd ATTACKER: Mohamed Bouhlel  WURZBURG, GERMANY July, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians wounded in axe attack on a train ATTACKER: Riaz Khan Ahmadzai  ANSBACH, GERMANY July, 2016 TARGET: At least 15 wounded in suicide bombing at a music festival ATTACKER: Mohammad Daleel  NORMANDY, FRANCE July, 2016 TARGET: One priest killed in knife attack ATTACKERS: Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean  CHALEROI, BELGIUM August, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in machete attack ATTACKER: Khaled Babouri  QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA August, 2016 TARGET: Two killed and one wounded in knife attack at a hostel frequented by Westerners ATTACKER: Smail Ayad  COPENHAGEN, DENMAKR September, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers and a civilian wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Mesa Hodzic  PARIS, FRANCE September, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in raid after VBIED failed to detonate at Notre Dame Cathedral ATTACKERS: Sarah Hervouet, Ines Madani, and Amel Sakaou  SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA September, 2016 TARGET: One civilian wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Ihsas Khan  ST. CLOUD, MN, US September, 2016 TARGET: 10 wounded in knife attack in a mall ATTACKER: Dahir Ahmed Adan  NEW YORK, NY; SEASIDE PARK AND ELIZABETH, NJ, US September, 2016 TARGET: 31 wounded in bombing in New York City; several explosive devices found in New York and New Jersey; one exploded without casualty at race in New Jersey; one police officer wounded in shootout ATTACKER: Ahmad Khan Rahami  BRUSSELS, BELGIUM October, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in stabbing ATTACKER: Belgian national  KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT TARGET: No casualties; vehicle carrying three US soldiers hit by a truck ATTACKER: Ibrahim Sulayman  MALMO, SWEDEN October, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; mosque and community center attacked with Molotov cocktail ATTACKER: Syrian national  HAMBURG, GERMANY October, 2016 TARGET: One killed in knife attack ATTACKER: Unknown  MANILA, PHILIPPINES November, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; failed IED attempt near US Embassy ATTACKERS: Philippine nationals aligned with the Maute group  COLUMBUS, OH, US November, 2016 TARGET: 14 wounded by individuals who drove a vehicle into a group of pedestrians and attacked them with a knife ATTACKER: US person  N'DJAMENA, CHAD November, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; attacker arrested after opening fire at entrance of US Embassy ATTACKER: Chadian national  KARAK, JORDAN December, 2016 TARGET: 10 killed and 28 wounded in shooting at a tourist site ATTACKERS: Several gunmen  BERLIN, GERMANY December, 2016 TARGET: 12 killed and 48 wounded by individual who drove truck into a crowded market ATTACKER: Anis Amri

The world is full of horror. So how can we hang on to hope?

As a kid, the 24 hours leading up to Christmas were always the longest day of my life. Time fought to stand still, grudgingly giving way to the movement of the clock’s hands. I wanted the day out of the way in time for the great vigil — an event I never stayed awake long enough to observe: the surreptitious delivery of presents by a visitor in the night. Now, Advent, that four-week waiting period for Christmas, has assumed its rightful time and place in my adult life. Advent comes with instructions that are often hard to follow: Slow down, be quiet and meditate on the real reason for the season; prepare for what’s to come. Try doing that this tumultuous year. Advent, which ends today, got started on Nov. 27 at my St. Mary’s Episcopal Church with a ceremonial lighting of “Hope,” the first of four candles on the Advent wreath. In Advent Week One, 14 police officers and 41 militants were killed in clashes in western Uganda, 30 civilians were killed in attacks by militants in Congo, 250,000 civilians were stuck in rebel-held positions in Syria, 2,000 families were displaced in the Philippines due to clashes between government forces and Islamist militants, seven soldiers and three insurgents died in attacks on an Indian army post, Afghan security forces killed 16 Taliban militants, and more than 45 people died from artillery bombardments in Aleppo. On Dec. 4, for Advent Week Two, we lit the “Peace” candle. In the six days that followed, at least 20 people were killed in a suspected Russian airstrike in Syria, three people, including two reporters, were shot dead outside a restaurant in Finland, 31 people were killed in clashes in Congo, six Pakistani nationals fishing in the Red Sea were killed after a Saudi airstrike, the war death toll in the Donbas region of Ukraine stood at 9,758 according to a U.N. report, 57 were killed and 177 wounded in twin suicide attacks in northern Nigeria, a suicide bomber killed at least 50 soldiers in Aden, Yemen, and two suicide bombings killed 38 in Istanbul. In Advent Week Three, which began Dec. 11, St. Mary’s lit the candle of “Joy.” In that week of joy, a suicide bomber killed 29 and injured 50 in an attack at Somalia’s biggest port in Mogadishu , a bombing in a Coptic Orthodox Christian church in Cairo killed 25 and injured 49, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte admitted to “personally” killing suspected criminals, 12 troops were killed in an attack on a border post in Burkina Faso, and 13 people were killed and 56 wounded in a car bomb attack on a bus in central Turkey. For Week Four, which began on Sunday, we lit the “Love” candle. On that day, a suicide bomber killed at least 52 soldiers outside a military camp in southern Yemen, 12 people were killed and dozens injured when a truck rammed a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, and Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated in Ankara. As those horrors were unfolding around the world, here at home, Advent candle lights competed with darkness cast by unrepentant 22-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof, who was found guilty of shooting to death nine black parishioners in an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, S.C., and Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who crashed his car into pedestrians and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife at Ohio State University. During that span, some of us may have found gifts of hope, moments of peace, and experienced times of joy and love. But this season also brings deep feelings of anticipation brought on by the coming of a new president. For many of his 62,979,879 voters, Donald Trump brings deliverance. He will, they hope and expect, set their world right. The bulk of the 65,844,954 Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton most likely view Trump’s arrival with dread: a living threat and promise of bad things to come. The nation is still racked with division as a result of the election campaign. In communities like my own, resignation and resentment are at odds with the holiday spirit. Which gets me to Santa Claus. ’Twas so simple back then. He came, dropped off nice stuff, and blew town before anybody knew better. This real-life adult stuff is harder. It’s hard to celebrate the promise of Christmas, knowing the existence of evil. Only the profoundly wicked shoots and kills people at a Bible study, rams a truck into Christmas shoppers, and suicide-bombs innocent men, women and children. We speak of joy, peace and love, in the midst of an evil that brings suffering and revels in ending human life. Yet we tell ourselves, because we are told to believe, that “no one is so evil as to be beyond redemption.” So, the clock’s hands advance toward Christmas, and we hold fast to its eternal message of healing love. **_kingc@washpost.com_ ** **** __

Airstrike kills more than 100, injures hundreds at Yemen funeral

SANAA, Yemen — An airstrike by a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more at a funeral Saturday, according to Health Ministry officials and medical groups. With the death toll expected to rise, it was one of the deadliest single assaults in the 20-month-old civil conflict that has fractured the Middle East’s poorest country. Witnesses said at least three airstrikes hit the Grand Hall, one of the biggest arenas in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as mourners gathered inside to attend a funeral for the father of a top rebel Houthi official. In attendance were senior political and military officials aligned with the Houthis and hundreds of civilians, according to witnesses. As explosions rocked the hall at around 3:30 p.m., chaos ensued as people tried to rush toward the exits. Many jumped through a large opening in a wall that had crumbled, said Mohammed Ahmed al-Sunaidar, an Interior Ministry employee. He was just arriving at the hall and ran inside to help survivors. “We carried many bodies,” Sunaidar said. “But we couldn’t carry the bodies that were completely burned. There were body parts scattered all over the place.” Most of those who died, he added, were in the hall’s left wing, which was struck by one of the missiles. Tameem al-Shami, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 104 people were killed and more than 550 were injured, many of them critically. Some news reports said the death toll had reached at least 155. The United Nations on Saturday “unequivocally condemned” the attack, adding that the death toll was 140, with more than 525 injured. It called for an investigation, saying it was “shocked and outraged by today’s airstrikes,” according to a statement by Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen. A White House National Security Council spokesman announced in a statement that the United States would initiate an immediate review of “our already significant reduced support” to the Saudi-led forces. “We are deeply disturbed by reports of today’s airstrike on a funeral hall in Yemen, which, if confirmed, would continue the troubling series of attacks striking Yemeni civilians,” said council spokesman Ned Price. “U.S. security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check.” The medical charity Doctors Without Borders reported that more than 400 people injured by the airstrikes were receiving treatment at six hospitals they are affiliated with in the capital. Health Ministry officials called on citizens to donate blood and urged all off-duty doctors to leave their homes and help treat the injured in the hospitals. “There are still many bodies that are at the scene until this moment,” Sunaidar said. “That’s because the bodies are completely burned and cannot be identified.” The funeral was being held for the father of Interior Minister Galal al- Rowaishan, who was appointed by the Houthi-led administration and is a key ally of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The former president was ousted in the aftermath of Yemen’s populist revolt, part of the Arab Spring uprisings of five years ago but later aligned himself with the Houthis and remains powerful. Yemen’s conflict pits an alliance between the Shiite Houthi rebels and Saleh’s loyalists against President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia, the United States and their allies. In February 2015, the Houthis seized Sanaa and forced Hadi southwardto the port city of Aden. That prompted Saudi Arabia to enter the war and attempt to restore Hadi to power. The Sunni Muslim monarchy has long been concerned about the Houthis and their links to its main regional rival, Iran’s Shiite theocracy. As many as 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the United Nations. Millions more are suffering from hunger, illness and displacement as the nation is in the throes of a humanitarian disaster . Human rights groups have accused the Saudi-led coalition of human rights violations, which Riyadh has denied. The Houthis also have been accused of abuses, such as recruiting child soldiers and forced disappearances of its opponents. The Obama administration is facing growing criticism for supporting Saudi Arabia’s air campaign. Some lawmakers and human rights groups are charging that the United States bears some responsibility for the mounting casualties. Raghavan reported from Cairo. Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.

The Orlando attack could transform the picture of post-9/11 terrorism in America

In the grim statistics of terrorism in America, the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning appears to represent the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. It may also mark the doubling of the number of people killed in America by a terrorist motivated by Islamist ideology in the years since September 2001.   The New America database on deaths due to terrorism in the United States gathers information about violent extremist activity and separates incidents into several groups — including those motivated by jihadist ideology, such as that of al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, and those driven by non-jihadist ideologies, such as right-wing and left-wing beliefs. In recent years, domestic terrorism motivated by right-wing hate groups had been behind most deaths. But that changed with the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., last December. The shootings in Orlando would alter the picture further, according to the New America. Before Sunday’s shooting, the data showed, 45 people had been killed in the United States from terrorist incidents linked to violent jihadism since September 11, 2001, while 48 deaths had been linked to incidents of right-wing terrorism. Including Sunday morning’s attack, here are the cumulative deaths caused by Islamist attacks and right-wing attacks over the past 13 years: The addition of 50 fatalities — more than three times as many deaths as the next-deadliest terrorist attack, the one in San Bernardino in December — changes these figures substantially, as the tally below from New America shows. It is possible, however, that the attack in Orlando could represent both a hate crime against gay Americans — like those committed by right-wing extremists in other cases — as well as a terrorist attack motivated by jihadist ideology. President Obama today described the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando as an "act of terror" and an "act of hate." It's unknown the degree to which the shooter deliberately targeted gay people for slaughter. New America's figures can change fairly quickly, since the total number of deaths due to terrorism in the United States is small and each attack can involve a large number of fatalities. Before the shooting in San Bernardino, right-wing extremists had killed nearly twice as many people in the United States as Islamist extremists had – 48 vs. 26. But the 14 deaths in the San Bernardino shootings, which New America ultimately classified as jihadist terrorism, transformed that tally.

Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt

MINYA, Egypt — The Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on a bus loaded with Coptic Christians near the southern city of Minya that officials said killed 29 people. “A security team of caliphate soldiers set up an ambush for dozens of Christians as they headed to the church of St. Samuel,” the militant group said Saturday through Amaq, its media arm. The bus passengers were shot to death on their way to volunteer at a monastery. Twenty-five others were wounded. Friday’s attack, on the eve of the Muslim holy period of Ramadan, led Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to launch airstrikes on what officials said were militant training camps in the northeastern Libyan city of Derna. Sissi, a former general, said the gunmen had trained and planned the attack in Libyan camps, although Islamic State has not controlled Derna for two years. In a Saturday phone call, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that officials found “information and evidence that terrorist elements involved in the Minya incident trained in these camps,” a statement said. The military strikes did little to reassure Coptic Christians in Minya, a city on the banks of the Nile about 140 miles south of Cairo where about 40 percent of the population is Christian. “This is not an isolated incident; it’s an evolution of a problem,” said Bishop Anba Makarios, the leader of Coptic Christians in Minya. “It is difficult to target Copts in churches because they have security and cameras. And in their homes, they live next to Muslims. So the new method is a way to get them alone: They pick a desert road in the heart of the mountain with no checkpoints or rest stops or anything on it so they can target only Copts.” More than a hundred Christians have been killed in the Minya area in the past year, Makarios said. A year ago this month, an elderly Christian woman was stripped by an angry Muslim mob who believed her son was having an affair with a Muslim woman. The following July, another Christian was stabbed to death by a mob. Makarios said the state needs to crack down on Muslim religious edicts, or fatwas, that incite violence against Christians. “They should also focus on intelligence work to prevent these things from happening. The security apparatuses’ job is not just to investigate after the crime is committed but also to preemptively stop it from happening.” ** — Los Angeles Times  **

What the Islamic State learned from the U.S. about fighting a war

We’re caught in a revenge cycle with a death cult, and it’s redefining modern warfare. The horrific murder of journalist James Foley is case in point. Once, hitting targets of opportunity or instituting a propaganda campaign were peripheral to massed armies killing each other in trenches and cities and jungles. To win, one country crushed another’s will to fight by destroying the widest possible number of targets: fleets, soldiers, cities. No more. After a century and a half of industrial anonymous bloodshed, the individual is key. The Islamic State attacked America when it killed Foley, without a bomb or mass slaughter. Since Sept. 11, we’ve been at war not with Pakistan or Afghanistan, but with specific terrorist leaders and materiel experts. They have reciprocated, attacking either symbolic targets or those soldiers that pose the greatest threat. That the United States has adopted this strategy is not news. Long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan taught us that detaining or killing every bottom-rung trigger-puller just made the insurgency worse. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was caught in such a round-up in 2004. We now use drones or small special operations teams to hit financiers or suppliers or bomb-makers. President Obama expanded the use of Predator strikes in Yemen and Pakistan. He authorized SEAL and Delta Force raids in Libya and Somalia. The hunt for Osama bin Laden was prominent but not unusual; similar smaller operations are undertaken daily. If the strike is successful, it makes the news for one cycle. If not, we hear little. In either case, the resources expended are minimized, but so is the public’s knowledge of the actions taken on our behalf. Here’s what’s new. The enemies we’re fighting – al-Qaeda affiliates, the Taliban, the Islamic State – have learned to be equally selective in reverse. In 2007, at the height of the surge in Iraq, IED-disarming bomb technicians were seven times more likely to be killed in combat than average soldiers. As the surge progressed, and even as the death rate stabilized or even decreased overall, it doubled for bomb techs. Similar ratios played out during the surge in Afghanistan. This can’t be explained by contrasting the relevant danger in any particular job; plenty of soldiers walk and drive in minefields. Rather, an increasing percentage of IEDs were designed not for mass casualties, but rather to give the trigger-man maximum control over who he killed. And killing bomb techs eliminated specialists **   **    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Other high-value targets within the U.S. military saw a similar increase in their casualty rate. The “green on blue” attacks in Afghanistan (shootings by local soldiers on their supposed NATO allies) allowed insurgents to target individuals, like Major General Harold Greene, the highest ranking officer killed in the war. In Jake Tapper’s book “The Outpost,” the story of the counter-insurgency campaign in Nuristan province, only one remote-controlled IED ever appears, and it is used specifically to assassinate Captain Rob Yllescas, killed because he was so adept at befriending the local elders. And now, with the videotaped beheading of James Foley, we can see the entire process in gruesome miniature. Iraq is imploding. The United States launches airstrikes, targeting columns of Islamic State troops, but also specific leaders within the organization. The Islamic State strikes back against the most prominent target available to them, James Foley. They kill James and call on his brother John, an officer in the Air Force, to stop the bombing, threatening that another journalist, Steve Sotloff, will be killed. We have intelligence on the executioner, a “Beatle” from Britain now identified as Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, and we will surely now target him. War is reverting to a perversion of classical single combat. Foley was a tragic unwilling participant, executed for the crime of being American. But even for the champions that volunteer, the burden we as a country ask each soldier to bear, always large, is growing heavier. No more myth of fighting dehumanized “enemy combatants.” We send our forces to kill specific men with faces and families and names known to them, if not to us.

Al-Qaeda makes ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, U.N. envoy warns

UNITED NATIONS — A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made “alarming” advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week. “The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda,” Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post. “Despite all counterterrorism efforts, al-Qaeda in Yemen has not retreated.” Members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group’s Yemen branch is known, have been “intensifying their attacks” against government targets since the election last month of Yemen’s new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Benomar told the council. Hadi, the former vice president, replaced Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in power in a transition brokered by Arab leaders and supported by the United States. On inauguration day, Feb. 25, al-Qaeda struck a presidential palace in the provincial capital of Mukalla, killing 26 officers. More recently, Benomar said, al-Qaeda has launched a series of attacks on military bases in the south, killing more than 180 soldiers and capturing heavy weapons. Dozens of soldiers, he added, were reportedly paraded through the town square of Jaar, which has been held by al-Qaeda for several months. The gloomy account underscored the challenges of confronting an enemy that has shown resilience since the United States succeeded last year in killing its leader, Osama bin Laden, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who was a skilled propagandist and who had a key role in external operations for the Yemen affiliate, according to U.S. officials. The report also highlighted al- Qaeda’s effort to plant roots in Yemen, forming alliances with local tribal leaders while providing basic services to communities. “This recent campaign launched by al-Qaeda poses a new challenge to the new government,” Benomar said. “It continues to control strategic territory in the south and evolve as a major threat. The group is also increasing their social leverage by ensuring security, administering justice and providing basic social services in the local communities under their control.” Benomar said that Yemen’s new president has made a “clear commitment” to combat al-Qaeda but that “many Yemenis doubt how progress on this front could be achieved with a fractured army with multiple loyalties.” On Saturday, the military launched airstrikes that killed 18 militants linked to al-Qaeda in central Yemen and wounded nine in the south, according to the Associated Press. In response to Benomar’s briefing, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, conceded that the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Yemen “is real,” allowing the terrorist organization “to seize territory in southern Yemen.” But “we believe the unfolding transition process in Yemen will undercut popular support for” al-Qaeda, the official said. U.S. intelligence officials say that al-Qaeda’s power has been diminished in the aftermath of bin Laden’s death. James R. Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in a prepared statement in January that al-Qaeda’s leadership structure will grow increasingly decentralized over the coming two to three years, with the Pakistani-based leadership “diminishing in operational importance.” Clapper’s statement noted that regional affiliates, including the one based in Yemen, will continue to pose a serious threat to U.S. interests, even with Awlaki dead. “AQAP remains the most likely to attempt transnational attacks,” Clapper said. “His death probably reduces, at least temporarily, AQAP’s ability to plan transnational attacks, but many of those responsible for implementing plots, including bombmakers, financiers, and facilitators, remain and could advance plots.” Benomar said that the political “transition remains on track” in Yemen and that “each milestone set out in the agreement has been achieved within the allotted time frame.” Yet he added: “To judge progress of the transition merely by the fulfillment of the markers in the agreement, however, would be simplistic and misleading. Rather, long-term viability of the transition must be viewed against the many and profound challenges Yemen continues to face on the security, political and economic fronts.” Yemen remains among the poorest countries in the world, registering the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world after Afghanistan. Half a million children, according to Benomar, are likely to die or endure life-long symptoms from chronic malnutrition, and more than 3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. The United States has been engaged in a low-intensity conflict against al-Qaeda in Yemen ever since militants mounted their October 2000 attack against the USS Cole in the port of Aden. It also has served as an early testing ground for the U.S. government’s use of drone aircraft to kill al-Qaeda members. Last year, the CIA set up a drone base in the region, which was used in the killing of Awlaki. Al-Qaeda’s ranks in Yemen have grown in recent months, with fresh recruits arriving from Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East, according to Richard Barrett, the head of the U.N. panel that monitors the group’s global activities. He said it also has “corralled” other Yemeni groups under an organization, Ansar al-Sharia, which means supporters of sharia, or Islamic law. Barrett said the movement has benefited from the political turmoil over the past year, which concentrated attention on Saleh’s gradual weakening and departure. While the movement has demonstrated an impressive capacity to “mount these quite spectacular attacks,” Barrett said it is unlikely al-Qaeda’s local allies will embrace global jihad. “There is not the ideological cement to bind them come what may,” he said. **More national security coverage:** \- Intelligence analysts: Assad firmly in control \- Moscow protesters press election demands \- Rockets hit southern Israel as airstrikes kill 14 militants in Gaza \- Read more headlines from around the world

Pentagon transfers 5 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo Bay to UAE

The Pentagon transferred five Yemeni detainees who had been held for more than a decade at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials announced Sunday. The men, all of whom were once suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, arrived in the UAE on Saturday, officials said. Adil Said al-Busayss, 42, Khalid Abd al-Qadasi, 46, Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Rahizi, 36, Sulaiman al-Nahdi, 40, and Fahmi al-Sani, 38, were captured in 2001 by Pakistani and Afghan forces and eventually turned over to the United States. Because of the conflict in Yemen and congressional prohibitions on sending Yemenis back to their native country, the Obama administration has cemented agreements with other governments to accept the detainees. Earlier this year, the United States transferred four Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay to Oman and a fifth to Estonia. Late last year, the administration moved three Yemeni prisoners to Kazakhstan. The Yemenis make up the single largest national group at the military detention facility. Sixty-four Yemenis remain at the prison, with 39 of them approved for release. A total of 107 detainees remain at the facility, including 48 cleared for repatriation or resettlement in a third country. President Obama has made closing the prison a priority, saying that militants use it as a recruiting tool and that it has harmed the image of the United States. After receiving criticism for not moving quickly enough to resettle detainees, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has signed off on 15 transfers since taking the top job at the Pentagon. Nine of those have taken place since September. “The administration is showing that if it wants to close Guantanamo, it can, and it can do it the right way by releasing people and stop holding them without charge,” said Andrea Prasow, who follows detainee issues for Human Rights Watch. “I assume the message came down pretty clearly from the president to the secretary of defense that the time is now.” The administration hopes to reduce the Guantanamo inmate population to below 100 by the end of the year as it races to complete a plan to close the prison and win the backing of Congress. However, administration officials and Democrats in Congress have hinted recently that the president could unilaterally close the prison, believing it to be detrimental to national security. **Read more:** Does Guantanamo Bay have a cancer problem? Three military lawyers are dead. Moroccan detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than 13 years is repatriated Why the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay is probably doomed

Yemen’s new president sworn in as car bomb kills at least 25

NAIROBI — Hours after Yemen’s new president was sworn in, formally ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule, a car bomb exploded outside a presidential compound in southern Yemen, killing at least 25 people, security officials said Saturday. The attack underscored the challenges facing the country’s new leader, former vice president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who in a televised inauguration speech vowed to fight al-Qaeda and restore security to this impoverished Middle East nation. Earlier in the day, Saleh returned to Yemen after a three-week-long trip to the United States, where he received medical treatment for injuries suffered in an assassination attempt last year. Yemeni officials said Saleh, the fourth Arab leader ousted in the revolts of the past year, did not return to the presidential palace but to a personal residence. But many Yemenis fear that he will remain influential behind the scenes, and his return heightened those concerns. No group asserted responsibility for Saturday’s attack, which took place in the city of Mukalla in Hadramout province. But Yemeni security officials said it bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials consider one of the biggest threats to the United States. The Associated Press quoted a witness as saying that a pickup truck approached the gate of the presidential compound and exploded as soldiers were coming out, suggesting that it was a suicide attack. The explosion was followed by heavy gunfire from the surviving soldiers. Southern Yemen has long been a cauldron of animosity toward Yemen’s weak central government. Radical Islamists linked to al-Qaeda have taken over large swaths of territory, taking advantage of the political turmoil over the past year, as a populist uprising sought the end of Saleh’s rule. Southern secessionists are angry that Hadi’s new unity government has not addressed their grievances. In his speech, Hadi vowed to return thousands of Yemenis displaced by conflict to their homes. “One of the most prominent tasks is the continuation of war against al-Qaeda as a religious and national duty, and to bring back displaced people to their villages and towns,” he said. On Tuesday, Yemenis came out in large numbers to vote for Hadi, who ran uncontested in an election intended to give him popular legitimacy and signal an end to Saleh’s rule. Election officials on Friday said that 6.6 million Yemenis voted for Hadi out of a total of 10.2 million registered voters. Independent youth activists, who spearheaded Yemen’s revolution, have denounced the vote, which was backed by the United States and Europe, as a sham that keeps much of Saleh’s regime intact. Hadi was Saleh’s handpicked successor and served as his second in command for more than 17 years. The vote was a condition of a U.S.-backed power transfer deal, crafted by Yemen’s Persian Gulf neighbors, that sought to head off political chaos that could strengthen the presence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group has been involved in several attacks on American territory since 2009, including an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. Hadi urged Yemen’s political parties and other centers of power to follow a democratic path to end the nation’s crisis. “Expected changes don’t come by mere wishes and hopes but through democratic dialogue, and through a serious and correct approach to the key issues that racked the country,” he said.

Stakes in Syria much higher for Putin than Obama

The United States and Russia are on slippery slopes with increasing their military involvement in the Syrian civil war and pursuit of Islamic State fighters in reaction to separate terrorist provocations. Despite last week’s horrific San Bernadino shootings, the stakes at home for Russian President Vladimir Putin are much higher than they are for President Obama, and the prospects for Moscow eventually getting more deeply involved in the ground war fighting are therefore much greater. “The militants in Syria pose a particularly high threat for Russia” because “many of them are citizens of Russia” or from former Soviet republics, Putin told his Federal Assembly on Thursday in what was his equivalent of the annual State of the Union address in the United States. “We know what aggression of international terrorism is,” Putin said, referring back to attacks and suicide bombings in the mid-1990s that involved Islamic extremists and “took thousands of lives. . . . This evil is still out there.” In October, Putin put the number of Russian and former Soviet republic fighters who had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State at “an estimated 5,000 to 7,000.” He added at that time, “We certainly cannot allow them to use the experience they are getting in Syria on home soil.” During his Nov. 26 joint news conference with French President François Hollande, Putin returned to the direct threat to Russia. He described Russian nationals in Syria as “international terrorists” and justified Russian military actions in northwest Syria as “working in this quadrant to prevent the possible return of the people to Russia’s territory to commit crimes.” Putin further explained: “This is why it has been decided to launch a military operation there based on an official request from the legitimate Syrian authorities. Our military personnel are fighting in Syria for Russia, for the security of Russian citizens.” Russia has faced internal threats before from Islamic radicals who are part of the overall Muslim population that make up between 10 percent and 15 percent of Russia’s 140 million people. In response to Russia initiating bombings in Syria in September, the Islamic State issued a series of videos threatening a response, including one Nov. 12 that said there would be attacks in Russia “very soon.” On Nov. 17, the Islamic State took credit for the bomb that blew up the Russian airliner Oct. 31 over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. That forced Putin, who had earlier withheld judgment on the cause of the crash that killed 244 Russian men, women and children, to respond by saying, “We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them.” At the same time, he ordered missile attacks in Syria and sent more Russian aircraft and protective ground troops there. Russia’s intelligence agency, the FSB, announced a $50 million reward for help in discovering the perpetrators. The Islamic State has continued its anti-Russian campaign. On Wednesday, one day before Putin’s state of the nation speech, the Islamic State released a video that allegedly showed the beheading of a Russian from Chechnya who, on the video, claimed to have spied on behalf of Russian intelligence in Syria. The bearded individual, who said he was 23-year-old Magomed Khasiev from Gronzy, claimed he worked undercover in Syria and Iraq for the FSB collecting information on Russians who had joined to fight for the Islamic State. Washington and Moscow have a mutual interest in destroying the Islamic State leadership and overcoming their appeal to Islamist militants who may attack Russian or U.S. citizens anywhere in the world. Both have responded to recent Islamic State terrorist acts outside Syria by sending in modest special forces units. Iran’s Fars New Agency reported Sunday that more than 60 Russian marines had arrived in Syria’s Homs province to advise and assist Syrian army units fighting near Palmyra. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last Tuesday announced a “specialized expeditionary targeting force” would be going after Islamic State leaders in Iraq and Syria. These minimal force increases and stepping up of Russian and U.S. coalition air attacks do not solve the basic internal problems in Syria and Iraq that feed the Islamic State’s attraction. “There is no meaningful official reporting on the progress in creating effective Iraqi government forces, the strengths and weaknesses of the Iraqi Army to date, the success or failure of efforts to create Arab Sunni forces, and the strengths and weaknesses of Iraqi Kurdish forces,” Anthony H. Cordesman, the strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an essay released Thursday. He added that there also was no “credible plan or mix of U.S., Arab, and Turkish efforts or . . . a meaningful rebel force in Syria to deal with ISIS — or the Assad forces.” That’s been the dilemma for the administration the past three years, developing local forces in Iraq and Syria. As Obama put it Sunday, “The strategy that we are using now — airstrikes, Special Forces and working with local forces who are fighting to regain control of their own country — that is how we’ll achieve a more sustainable victory.” The question is whether Russia and/or the United States can avoid what Obama described as being “drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria.” He correctly said the Islamic State leaders “know they can’t defeat us on the battlefield. . . . But they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops, draining our resources and using our presence to draw new recruits.”

Obama vs. the generals

Pity poor Gen. Lloyd Austin, top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. Rarely has a U.S. general given his commander in chief better military advice, only to see it repeatedly rejected. In 2010, Gen. Austin advised President Obama against withdrawing all U.S. forces from Iraq, recommending that the president instead leave 24,000 U.S. troops (down from 45,000) to secure the military gains made in the surge and prevent a terrorist resurgence. Had Obama listened to Austin’s counsel, the rise of the Islamic State could have been stopped. But Obama rejected Austin’s advice and enthusiastically withdrew all U.S. all forces from the country, boasting that he was finally bringing an end to “the long war in Iraq.” Now the “long war in Iraq” is back. And because Obama has not learned from his past mistakes, it is likely to get even longer. Last week, Obama announced a strategy to re-defeat the terrorists in Iraq. But instead of listening to his commanders this time around, Obama once again rejected the advice of . . . you guessed it . . . Gen. Lloyd Austin. The Post reports that, when asked for his recommendation for the best way to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Austin told the president that “his best military advice was to send a modest contingent of American troops, principally Special Operations forces, to advise and assist Iraqi army units in fighting the militants.” Obama was having none of it. Austin’s recommendation, The Post reports, “was cast aside in favor of options that did not involve U.S. ground forces in a front-line role.” Indeed, in his address to the nation, Obama insisted that “American forces will not have a combat mission — we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” He declared the effort against the Islamic State “different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” and modeled instead on the air campaigns he has waged against al-Qaeda affiliates such as the one in Yemen. There’s one problem with that: The air campaign in Yemen is not working. Just this weekend al-Qaeda infiltrated forces into Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and Yemeni officials say that al-Qaeda’s strength in Yemen is growing. And as American Enterprise Institute counterterrorism expert Katherine Zimmerman points out, al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate was behind a “terror threat that closed more than 20 U.S. diplomatic posts in North Africa and the Middle East in August 2013.” If, four years from now, the Islamic State is still strong enough to force the closure of 20 U.S. embassies and consulates, then Obama’s strategy to “degrade and destroy” the group will have failed. The Islamic State cannot be defeated from the air alone. This does not mean a re-invasion of Iraq. But as Fred and Kimberly Kagan — two key thinkers behind the successful 2007 surge in Iraq — point out in a new paper, defeating the Islamic State “will require as many as 25,000 ground troops in Iraq and Syria.” The vast majority of those troops would play a supporting role for several thousand U.S. Special Forces troops and special mission units — who would be deployed in small groups embedded with Sunni tribes (like the Sons of Iraq, who fought alongside us during the surge) as well as Kurdish pesh merga forces and Iraqi military units. An air-only counterterrorism effort will fail because the Islamic State is not, as Obama claimed in his address, “a terrorist organization, pure and simple.” The group governs a swath of territory the size of the United Kingdom. It rules cities. It collects taxes. It controls natural resources and is bringing in $3 million a day in oil revenue. It has a conventional army — one that has won battles against other conventional armies. As Obama’s own defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, has put it, “They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess, they are tremendously well-funded. This is beyond anything that we’ve seen. So we must prepare for everything.” Everything, apparently, except ground combat. Obama seems more concerned with distinguishing what he is doing in Iraq from what the George W. Bush administration did than he is with following a war strategy that will defeat the enemy. Until a few days ago, both Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry publicly denied that we were even at war with the Islamic State — as if calling this something other than war would make it any less of a war. Yes, we are at war with the Islamic State. And if we are to “destroy” it (as Obama promised), then the president needs to start listening to his military commanders. If he keeps ignoring their advice, he may be in for a long, hard slog — or something far worse. _Read more fromMarc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ ****

He left the Army in 2013. Three years later, feds say, he was plotting to help ISIS.

Robert Hester’s time in the Army was short and tumultuous. He joined in 2012 and faced one disciplinary issue after another, court documents say. By 2013, after a general discharge, he was back home in Missouri, well below the government’s radar. He resurfaced three years later a different man. He had converted to Islam and changed his name, at least on the social-media platform where he posted antigovernment messages. And, investigators believe, he had a new desire to murder his former military comrades and civilians on behalf of the Islamic State. The U.S. Army veteran was charged last week with trying to support the Islamic State as part of what he thought was a coordinated attack against civilian targets and military installations, authorities say. Agents swooped in during a meeting with a man Hester believed was an Islamic State contact, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri. But the man was actually an undercover FBI agent who had been building a case against the 25-year-0ld father of two. Hester joins a growing list of more than 100 people in the United States arrested in connection with the Islamic State. But he’s one of just a handful with a military connection. The United States designated the Islamic State a terrorist organization in 2014 and marshaled resources to fight the group at home and abroad. One target: people radicalized online to carry out homegrown, lone-wolf terrorist attacks.  Court documents don’t detail how investigators believe Hester was radicalized. He was born and raised in Missouri, and he enlisted in the Army in 2012, receiving weapons training and learning small-unit combat tactics. He “was cited for numerous violations of U.S. Army regulations” and received a general discharge in 2013, the affidavit says. In 2016, confidential sources alerted authorities about Hester’s posts on social media under the alias “Rabbani Junaid Muhammad,” and FBI agents launched an investigation, the affidavit says. On his profile, he described himself as “Zionist Jew Pig Redneck Hunting Super Assassin,” according to court documents. Two of his profile pictures were of the Black Flag of Tawhid, which has regularly been featured in Islamic State propaganda videos. On July 4, he posted that “Isis [was] created by U.S. And Israeli government,” the affidavit says. A true Muslim would never commit a suicide bombing during Ramadan.” A month later, he wrote “Burn in hell FBI” and alerted his followers that an encrypted messaging application was “no longer safe,” court documents say. In September, under another alias, he wrote “Brothers in AmurdiKKKa we need to get something going here all those rednecks have their little militias why shouldn’t we do the same.” That same month he began to refer to a group he wanted to start called “The Lion Guard.” “It started as a cartoon my children watch but i would like to take in a new direction a group of lions to guard the ummah,” he wrote, referring to the Arabic word meaning the entire Muslim community, the court documents say. “We need people to come together though to make things happen.” Underscoring his point was another post from that day — of a loaded gun. Two days later, Hester was arrested during an incident involving an actual gun. Hester and his wife were arguing in the parking lot of a Missouri grocery store when Hester threw a folded pocket knife through a plate-glass window. When employees confronted him he “placed his hand into the diaper bag he was carrying and yelled that he would “f—— do it.” Responding police officers recovered a gun in the diaper bag that resembled the one in a picture on Hester’s social-media page. He spent 10 days in jail and was released on bail, court documents say. To get out, he agreed to wear an electronic monitor around his ankle so authorities could track him. Authorities say he continued to make attack plans as his case wound its way through court. Around that time, investigators say, Hester became friends with an FBI agent posing as an Islamic State supporter. It didn’t take long for Hester to open up to his new friend, who introduced the veteran to another man purportedly connected to the Islamic State, investigators said. Over the next few months, they talked plans — where to hit, which types of attacks would have the most impact, court documents say. Hester told the agents he could train others on “everything I was taught in the Army … everything about weapons” and “how they move.” Sometimes, Hester brought his children to the meetings. During a meeting in late January, one of the agents posing as an Islamic State supporter gave Hester a list of things that could be used to make bombs: 9-volt batteries, duct tape, copper wire and roofing nails, according to court documents. He told the veteran to bring the items to a future meeting, saying their plan was “going to bring them to their knees, and then they gonna know to fear Allah.” Hester replied: “I can’t wait. I can’t wait.” During a subsequent meeting, Hester handed over the bag of bomb supplies and the undercover agent showed him two handguns and an AK-47 that would be used in the attack. They had guns, the agent said, but they needed more ammunition. Hester said he didn’t have money for bullets but could buy some in a couple weeks when he got his tax return. They cemented their plans throughout February. As far as Hester knew, the attack would take place on Presidents’ Day. “We need to hit hard where it counts i was thinking oil production and federal places,” Hester wrote, according to the court documents. Their last meetings were late last week. Hester brought boxes of roofing nails — shrapnel for the bombs — and told the agent Friday that it felt “good to help strike at the true terrorist.” He was arrested a short time later.

U.S. service member killed in Yemen raid marks first combat death of Trump administration

A U.S. Special Operations service member died of injuries suffered during a weekend raid against al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, the military said Sunday. Three other American troops, members of a Navy SEAL unit, were wounded in the operation on Saturday against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The militant organization has remained a potent threat amid an extended civil war in Yemen. The incident marks the first time a member of the U.S. military has died in combat since President Trump took office a little more than a week ago. The ground operation, which had been planned for months, was authorized by Trump, according to U.S. officials familiar with the mission. Trump has pledged to wage a more aggressive campaign against terrorist groups.  “Americans are saddened this morning with news that a life of a heroic service member has been taken in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism,” Trump said in the statement. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an incident whose details have not been made public, said the slain service member was killed in a firefight with militants. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, 14 militants were killed during the operation. The raid, which officials said took place in a remote desert area of Yemen’s Shabwa governorate, aimed to obtain intelligence information, including computer material, that was thought to be linked to planning for external attacks. The official could not confirm whether U.S. allies had participated in the raid. In recent months, U.S. Special Operations forces have partnered with troops from the United Arab Emirates to help target al-Qaeda militants in Yemen.  Among this killed was an AQAP leader named Abdulra’oof Aldahab and two of his relatives. In total, 13 militants were killed, said the official. The operation also killed 15 women and children, said the official, including the 8-year-old daughter of the late radical-Yemeni American cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki who was killed in 2011 in a U.S. drone strike. U.S. officials, after initially indicating that they could not confirm reports of civilian casualties, said they were now assessing the claims. U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter aircraft provided cover for the raid force, dropping an unknown amount of munitions in support of the operation. According to a report from the SITE Intelligence Group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula denied that any militants were killed, but confirmed the death of Awlaki’s daughter The group said that the operation took place in al-Bayda governorate, which borders Shabwa, according to SITE; the Yemeni official also said it took place in al-Bayda. Last week, U.S. drone strikes hit militants in al-Bayda, killing five over the course of three days, according to the Pentagon. The militant group also reported it had shot down an American attack helicopter. U.S. officials said that an Osprey, a tilt-rotor military aircraft, went down in a “crash landing” at a staging area near the site of the operation but said the mishap was not believed to have been caused by militant fire. The disabled Osprey was then intentionally destroyed. Two service members were injured in that landing. The Osprey had been sent to recover the forces wounded in the operation.

Three attacks deepen fears about Islamic State’s global reach

The attacks appeared to have no connection in terms of tactic or target. The beheading and failed attempt to blow up a chemical plant in France bore no operational resemblance to the suicide bombing of a mosque in Kuwait or the armed assault on a tourist-packed beach in Tunisia. Even so, the outbreak of violence Friday was seen by counterterrorism officials and experts as part of an emerging pattern — each inspired by, if not directly attributable to, the Islamic State, all somehow fitting into that terrorist group’s chaotic and violent agenda. U.S. officials and experts said the nearly simultaneous eruptions of violence on three continents are likely to intensify anxieties about the Islamic State’s expanding reach. The group is still seen as primarily focused on its regional ambitions in Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State has maintained its grip on large tracts of territory despite recent military setbacks. U.S. officials have said that the organization seems far less driven to launch elaborate, overseas terrorist plots than al-Qaeda and its affiliates. But the Islamic State is also increasingly seen as the center of an expanding movement whose disparate elements range from the ranks of stray followers drawn by the group’s brand of extreme brutality to formal franchises in Libya and other countries where security has deteriorated. “It’s become more diffuse geographically and dispersed ideologically,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. In some ways, Hoffman said, the amorphous nature of that network may make it more difficult to contain than al-Qaeda, which has often exerted an almost corporate-style control of regional franchises and terrorist plots. U.S. officials said Friday that it was too early to determine whether the attacks were coordinated by the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL. “While we’re still working to determine whether the attacks were coordinated or directed by ISIL, they bear the hallmarks that have defined ISIL’s violent ideology,” a U.S. official said. The suspect in France reportedly told authorities of his ties to the Islamic State, and a decapitated corpse has become one of the group’s grisly signatures. The organization claimed responsibility for the attack in Tunisia, where at least 39 people were killed. Tunisia has been previously targeted in similar attacks by the Islamic State, which has drawn hundreds of recruits from that country. The mosque bombing in Kuwait was quickly claimed by an Islamic State affiliate. U.S. officials and counterterrorism experts noted that all three incidents took place just days after a spokesman for the Islamic State urged followers to launch attacks during the month-long Muslim holiday Ramadan, and that the terrorist group may be seeking to mark the anniversary of its declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. “With the three attacks, you basically have three different agendas at work at the same time,” said Will McCants, an expert on militant Islamism at the Brookings Institution. “But what’s holding them together are people who are favorably disposed to the broader agenda of the Islamic State.” A North African intelligence official said the geographically dispersed violence is also a signal to al-Qaeda, its rival for influence among jihadists. “The message is: We can reach anywhere,” the official said. Given the volume of fighters flowing into and out of Syria, as well as the proliferation of Islamic State propaganda online, “treating this as a counter- radicalization problem on an individual basis is . . . just going to exhaust us,” Hoffman said. “Until the organization is weakened, I don’t think its appeal will be diminished.” The Islamic State has since its inception threatened to hit Western targets, but its most recent incitements have been more direct and urgent. The group’s principal spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, released a recorded statement this past week calling for attacks by followers beyond Syria during the Islamic holy month. “You all must rush to it and be keen on waging invasion in this eminent month, and commit martyrdom in it,” the message said, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist postings online. The group asserted responsibility in May for a thwarted attack in Garland, Tex., on an event where cartoonists were drawing the prophet Muhammad. The targets of Friday’s attacks reflect the broad range of the Islamic State’s goals. Tunisia has been a particular focal point for the group, in part because the country has made more progress toward democratic political overhauls than other nations in the Middle East and North Africa swept up in the Arab Spring. Tunisia has also seen more than 3,000 of its citizens travel to Syria to fight in that country’s civil war, many of them joining the ranks of the Islamic State. Tunisia’s democratic overhauls are “bad news for extremists, and therefore I think it is no accident that Tunisia would be a special focus,” said Paul Pillar, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an assault in March on a prominent museum in Tunis where more than 20 people, many of them Western tourists, were killed. The attack on the American-owned chemical plant in France would fit the Islamic State’s aim of striking Western targets in retaliation for airstrikes by the United States and its allies, as well as sowing anxiety and preoccupying European security services. The suicide bombing in Kuwait appeared to be part of a broader campaign by the Islamic State to ignite sectarian conflict with followers of the rival sect of Shiite Islam. The attack looked to have been carried out by an Islamic State affiliate known as the Najd Province, a group that has sought to establish a stronghold on the Arabian Peninsula where al-Qaeda’s most potent franchise is based. Islamic State fighters celebrated the attacks in social media boasts on Friday. One posting on Twitter was addressed to “Christians planning their summer vacations in Tunisia,” and said, “we can’t accept u in our land while your jets keep killing our Muslim brothers.” But even as U.S. intelligence analysts sought to assess the Islamic State’s role in the three attacks, the group’s carnage in Syria and Iraq continued. Reports from Kobane, Syria, indicated that the Islamic State had killed at least 146 civilians, more than double the death toll in Kuwait, France and Tunisia. Souad Mekhennet in London and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia

On Oct. 15, Nimr al-Nimr, a Saudi Arabian Shiite cleric, was sentenced to death by the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh. Since 2011, Nimr has become the figurehead of a protest movement centered in eastern Saudi Arabia that has been largely denied coverage by mainstream media. The sentencing has implications far beyond Nimr’s personal fate. The Saudi crackdown is important because it has set a precedent for how the kingdom deals with political dissent and not just because it is another example of Saudi anti-Shiism. The timing of the sentence is puzzling. Saudi decision-making works in myriad ways. Some observers feel that Nimr’s death sentence is intended to show the Sunni population that alongside a number of long prison sentences issued against Sunnis who had supported Islamic State militants or al-Qaeda, the government is also being tough on Shiites. But this sectarian logic only further entrenches divisions and hostilities that have fueled the rise of extremist Islamic groups and the regional sectarian war. The Saudi-sponsored doctrinal and strategic anti-Shiism has recently backfired at home, too. On Nov. 3, one day before Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Shiite Muslim calendar, Sunni militants opened fire on a crowd leaving a Shiite prayer hall in the al-Ahsa oasis in eastern Saudi Arabia. Several Shiites were killed, including a number of minors, and scores wounded. While the Shiites in Saudi Arabia experience institutional and religious discrimination, the state’s security forces had hitherto protected them against attacks by Sunni militants. Al-Qaeda and its various offshoots had for years planned attacks on Shiites in the Eastern Province, aiming to increase sectarian tensions in the kingdom and possibly provoke armed retaliation from the Shiites. Several such plots, including one believed to have been targeting senior Shiite cleric Hassan al-Saffar, were foiled in the past. All official organs of the state, including the official clergy, were quick to denounce the Nov. 3 attack, and within a few days the security forces had hunted down the perpetrators, killing several of them while suffering casualties themselves. This was seen as a sign that the state would not tolerate sectarian violence within its borders. Many Sunnis also declared their support for Sunni-Shiite coexistence in al-Ahsa on social media and attended the funeral for those killed during the attack. However, the Saudi state and the religious establishment have for decades fueled sectarian animosities across the region. Saudi recruits for al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group are often motivated by a desire to contain Shiism and stem Iranian influence in the region – strategic objectives that Saudi media perpetuates ad infinitum. Anti-Shiite (and anti-Christian and anti-Jewish) incitement is spread across the region by Saudi-based television channels. It was encouraging that immediately after the attacks the long-standing Saudi Minister of Information Abdel Aziz Khoja announced the closure of perhaps the worst of those TV stations, Wisal. But in a sign that factions within the Saudi regime are divided over how to deal with the Shiites and with Sunni extremism in the kingdom, the minister was dismissed the next day, and Wisal, which retains some popularity in Saudi Arabia and the wider region, is still up and running. Nimr’s political role is rooted in a long tradition of Shiite activism, which goes back to the foundation of the Saudi kingdom, and which has led to the establishment of Shiite Islamist movements since the 1970s. He hails from a prominent family from Awamiya, a relatively poor Shiite village surrounded by date farms outside of Qatif, the largest Shiite city in Saudi Arabia. Awamiya has a long history of resistance to the Saudi monarchy. Indeed, Nimr’s grandfather led an armed revolt in 1929-1930 against Saudi tax collectors and Wahhabi missionaries, who were sent to the Eastern Province after the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz bin Saud, conquered it in 1913. Awamiya was also one of the centers of the Shiite uprising in 1979 that was inspired by the Iranian Revolution. Nimr became politicized during these events and joined the Shirazi movement, which had started the uprising. The Shirazi movement was a transnational Shiite political organization led by the Iraqi-Iranian cleric Muhammad Mahdi al-Shirazi, but the bulk of its supporters were Shiite Muslims from the Persian Gulf states (mainly Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia). Nimr enrolled in the movement’s religious school (hawza) in Iran and then became a teacher in the movement’s hawza in Sayyida Zeinab, the suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus that became a key transnational hub for Shiite pilgrims, students and activists. By the early 1990s, the Saudi members of the Shirazi movement negotiated a political settlement with the Saudi government and accepted a general amnesty offered by then-King Fahd in return for the halt of their oppositional activities. A number of opposition activists, however, and particularly a group of religious clerics led by Nimr, opposed the amnesty agreement because they thought that the Saudi state was not  fundamentally altering the subaltern status of the Shiites. And while Nimr returned to Saudi Arabia together with the other activists after 1993, his rejection of the 1993 agreement came to define his rivalry with the more accommodationist group in the Shirazi movement, represented by al-Saffar. Nimr nonetheless remained a rather marginal figure throughout the 2000s, as King Abdullah tried to reach out to the Shiites and included some in the representative institutions of the Saudi state. But as regional sectarian tensions and the Saudi-Iranian rivalry intensified, and with renewed Shiite protests in the Eastern Province in 2009, many young Saudi Shiites came to admire Nimr’s fiery sermons because of his direct criticism of the state’s anti-democratic and anti-Shiite foundations. In one of his most famous sermons, he seemed to argue that the Shiites might one day secede if they could not realize their political demands within the borders of the Saudi state. Shortly afterward, Nimr went into hiding to avoid arrest and only reemerged in 2011 as the uprisings in neighboring Bahrain and in the Saudi Eastern Province gained pace.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Nimr was the only Saudi Shiite cleric to unanimously support both the protests in Bahrain and the protests that had erupted across the Eastern Province. His former colleagues in the Shirazi movement, such as al-Saffar, were much more cautious and at times even urged the youth to stay at home to not further inflame the situation (all forms of public protest are banned in Saudi Arabia). Therefore, Nimr became the main figurehead of the protest movement centered on Awamiya and Qatif. But given the harsh repression leashed out against the demonstrators (more than 20 young men have been killed by security forces in the Eastern Province since 2011) and the lack of support from other regions of Saudi Arabia, the protests eventually fizzled out. Though, in July 2012, police shot Nimr in the leg and arrested him, sparking renewed mass protests. Since 2013, however, the protests have again become smaller, and it is therefore a surprise to many that the Saudi judiciary would now issue a death sentence against Nimr, a move that has reinvigorated the protest movement and further inflamed sectarian tensions in the region and beyond. While the sentence can be rejected by King Abdullah, or commuted into a lengthy prison sentence, it is not certain that this will happen. Human rights organizations point out that the evidence that led to this judgment is mainly based on Nimr’s sermons, and he therefore has to be considered a prisoner of conscience. Nimr supported the right of the people to choose their own government and called for the downfall of the Saudi ruling family. In a highly unusual move for a Shiite cleric, he also supported the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And while Nimr repeatedly called upon the local youth to be ready to die as martyrs, he urged them not to “return bullets with bullets” but to instead use peaceful means such as demonstrations and civil disobedience instead. The verdict also mentions Nimr’s association with “wanted terrorists,” a reference to a list of 23 men who are wanted for their roles in the protests since 2011 and for allegedly attacking security forces. Several of those men have been killed in the last two years in shootouts that activists say resemble government-approved assassinations. His death sentence is just one of a number of extremely harsh sentences against people involved in the protest movement. Several other Saudi Shiites were also sentenced to death, among them a nephew of Nimr, who was 17 years old at the time of his arrest.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico While Nimr had already been an iconic figure for Shiite Muslims in the Gulf, and protests in solidarity with him had repeatedly been held in Bahrain, after the last verdict he has become a household name among Shiites across the world. If he is executed, the Gulf Shiites will have a martyr that symbolizes their struggle against oppression, and some of his supporters will want revenge. Indeed, Shiite hardliners, from Lebanese Hezbollah to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have said that Saudi Arabia would cross a red line if Nimr is executed, and most major Ayatollahs have called for his release. The bottom line remains that within a few weeks, a key Saudi Shiite cleric has been sentenced to death in an unfair trial and a group of Sunni militants were able to kill Shiites in a house of worship on the eve of Ashura. It is hard to see how Shiite Muslims should feel safe and accepted in a state where anti-Shiism is perpetuated in schooling and public discourse and such atrocities are allowed to happen. The recent killings have confirmed the truism that Gulf Arab support for sectarian hate speech and militias abroad would one day backfire, and they have set a worrying precedent. Parts of the Saudi ruling family may finally feel that their long-standing association with the Wahhabi religious establishment and radical anti-Shiite groups in the region may have been a strategic mistake. But these ties are ties that bind, and they are difficult to undo. After decades of using anti-Shiism as a strategic tool at home and abroad it will be virtually impossible to backtrack without alienating the core constituencies of the Saudi regime. And so the contradictions within the Saudi political system, and the regional sectarian war, are likely to get worse rather than better in the foreseeable future. _Toby Matthiesen is a research fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. He is the author_ _of “_ _The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism_ _,” which outlines the history of political movements among the Shiites of Saudi Arabia and their relationship with the Saudi state. It will be published by Cambridge University Press in January 2015._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Yemen model won’t work in Iraq, Syria

_Katherine Zimmerman is a research fellow and the al-Qaeda team leader for the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project._ President Obama says the United States is looking to its Yemen policy as a model for what to do in Iraq and Syria. But what the president labels the “Yemen model” has not been as successful as the White House claims; indeed, it is in danger of collapse. Attempting to replicate it in much more challenging conditions in Iraq and Syria will almost certainly fail. A little background: The United States partners with the government of Yemen against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which remains the most imminent direct al-Qaeda threat to the U.S. homeland. AQAP’s top leadership includes Osama bin Laden’s former secretary, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, now reportedly al-Qaeda’s general manager; former Guantanamo detainee Ibrahim al Rubaish; and its innovative bombmaker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who continues to target the United States and U.S. airlines. The Obama administration defines its objectives in Yemen narrowly as preventing an AQAP attack on U.S. interests abroad and at home. These objectives have shaped a counterterrorism strategy that relies on a partnership with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to fight AQAP in Yemen without using U.S. combat troops. The model is one of limited U.S. training and advisory support to help a local partner keep a terror threat in check. U.S. military assistance provides troop-transport capabilities to increase the Yemeni military’s operational range; U.S. military personnel train and advise local troops, providing crucial logistics and intelligence support for Yemeni counterterrorism operations. U.S. airstrikes targeting AQAP’s leaders and mid-level commanders involved in plots against U.S. interests act as a stopgap to supplement Yemen’s capabilities and degrade the leadership network driving external threats. The appeal of the Yemen model is its low cost and limited U.S. footprint. But does the feel-good solution deliver? In reality, no. AQAP has not stopped trying to kill Americans since its establishment in 2009. It is behind at least three attempts to strike the United States — in 2009, 2010 and 2012 — and the terror threat that closed more than 20 U.S. diplomatic posts in North Africa and the Middle East in August 2013. In 2011, a year without an attempted attack on the United States, AQAP fielded an insurgent force in southern Yemen and declared an Islamic emirate in the territory it seized. While the Yemeni military pushed back, its operations ended before it eliminated all of AQAP’s havens. Yemen’s victories against AQAP have been tactical and likely temporary. A military offensive this spring focused on havens such as the group’s mountainous stronghold in al-Mahfad, which straddles the primary route connecting Yemen’s south to its east. Yemeni troops hoped to disrupt an AQAP line of communication and remove access to training camps there. But during a similar Yemeni operation in 2012, AQAP appeared to retreat, only to launch a counteroffensive and later regain the territory. Recent AQAP attacks in the cleared areas point to a probable repeat performance. A key issue is that the Yemeni troops are not prepared for the fight, which began under Hadi’s predecessor. The majority of the force engaged against AQAP consists of regular army units, which do not receive direct assistance from the United States. The bulk of U.S. military aid is oriented instead toward supporting Yemeni counterterrorism operations, such as raids to detain AQAP cells and disrupt plots. But the fight in Yemen is not primarily counterterrorism; it is counterinsurgency. U.S. military aid is not wasted, but it will have limited effect as long as the main effort is a ground offensive against AQAP positions. The assumption underlying the U.S. focus on Yemen’s counterterrorism capabilities is that AQAP is primarily a local terrorism problem — apart from a small and dangerous faction — that can be addressed over time by Yemeni forces. That assumption is false. AQAP’s shift in 2011 toward an insurgency created new military requirements that Yemen may not be able to fulfill. The slow tempo of Yemeni and U.S. counterterrorism operations has also given the AQAP faction focused on the United States space to regenerate. AQAP’s threat remains viable. The Yemen model also carries another big risk. To succeed, it is dependent on a continued commitment from President Hadi and his government. Unfortunately, Hadi, like his predecessor, has other priorities. When former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh was threatened with Arab Spring-like uprisings in 2011, he immediately redeployed government forces fighting AQAP to the capital to protect his regime. Similarly, Hadi faces a growing security threat from the Shiite Houthi movement as its fighters push south toward Sanaa, the capital. The Houthis, who receive support from Iran, have engaged the Yemeni military six times since 2004, and the government’s efforts against them will likely drain military resources from the battle against AQAP. In short, not only is the Yemen model not working but the conditions that have delivered occasional successes in Yemen do not exist in either Iraq or Syria. A cooperating host government? A cohesive military force? A scattered and disorganized enemy? No, no and no. Ultimately, and unfortunately, the only common elements in Yemen, Iraq and Syria appear to be insufficient U.S. assistance to an unprepared force — and probable failure. **Read more about this issue:** Hooria Mashhour: The United States’ bloody messes in Yemen Fred Hiatt: Iraq highlights for Obama the threat of disengagement David Ignatius: Obama’s foreign policy inertia Dana Milbank: A swing and a miss for Obama’s foreign policy David Ignatius: Obama’s counterterrorism blueprint looks good, on paper

How Saudi Arabia played Donald Trump

This week’s bombing in Manchester, England, was another gruesome reminder that the threat from radical Islamist terrorism is ongoing. And President Trump’s journey to the Middle East illustrated yet again how the country central to the spread of this terrorism, Saudi Arabia, has managed to evade and deflect any responsibility for it. In fact, Trump has given Saudi Arabia a free pass and a free hand in the region. The facts are well-known. For five decades, Saudi Arabia has spread its narrow, puritanical and intolerant version of Islam — originally practiced almost nowhere else — across the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden was Saudi, as were 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists. And we know, via a leaked email from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in recent years the Saudi government, along with Qatar, has been “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to [the Islamic State] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” Saudi nationals make up the second-largest group of foreign fighters in the Islamic State and, by some accounts, the largest in the terrorist group’s Iraqi operations. The kingdom is in a tacit alliance with al-Qaeda in Yemen. The Islamic State draws its beliefs from Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi version of Islam. As the former imam of the kingdom’s Grand Mosque said last year, the Islamic State “exploited our own principles, that can be found in our books. . . . We follow the same thought but apply it in a refined way.” Until the Islamic State could write its own textbooks for its schools, it adopted the Saudi curriculum as its own. Saudi money is now transforming European Islam. Leaked German intelligence reports show that charities “closely connected with government offices” of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are funding mosques, schools and imams to disseminate a fundamentalist, intolerant version of Islam throughout Germany. In Kosovo, the New York Times’ Carlotta Gall describes the process by which a 500-year-old tradition of moderate Islam is being destroyed. “From their bases, the Saudi-trained imams propagated Wahhabism’s tenets: the supremacy of Shariah law as well as ideas of violent jihad and takfirism, which authorizes the killing of Muslims considered heretics for not following its interpretation of Islam. . . . Charitable assistance often had conditions attached. Families were given monthly stipends on the condition that they attended sermons in the mosque and that women and girls wore the veil.” Saudi Arabia’s government has begun to slow many of its most egregious practices. It is now being run, de facto, by a young, intelligent reformer, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who appears to be refreshingly pragmatic, in the style of Dubai’s visionary leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. But so far the Saudi reforms have mostly translated into better economic policy for the kingdom, not a break with its powerful religious establishment. Trump’s speech on Islam was nuanced and showed empathy for the Muslim victims of jihadist terrorism (who make up as much as 95 percent  of the total, by one estimate). He seemed to zero in on the problem when he said, “No discussion of stamping out this threat would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists . . . safe harbor, financial backing and the social standing needed for recruitment.” But Trump was talking not of his host, Saudi Arabia, but rather of Iran. Now, to be clear, Iran is a destabilizing force in the Middle East and supports some very bad actors. But it is wildly inaccurate to describe it as the source of jihadist terror. According to an analysis of the Global Terrorism Database by Leif Wenar of King’s College London, more than 94 percent of deaths caused by Islamic terrorism since 2001 were perpetrated by the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other Sunni jihadists. Iran is fighting those groups, not fueling them. Almost every terrorist attack in the West has had some connection to Saudi Arabia. Virtually none has been linked to Iran. Trump has adopted the Saudi line on terrorism, which deflects any blame from the kingdom and redirects it toward Iran. The Saudis showered Trump’s inexperienced negotiators with attention, arms deals and donations to a World Bank fund that Ivanka Trump is championing. (Candidate Trump wrote in a Facebook post in 2016, “Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!”) In short, the Saudis played Trump. (Jamie Tarabay makes the same point.) The United States has now signed up for Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy — a relentless series of battles against Shiites and their allies throughout the Middle East. That will enmesh Washington in a never-ending sectarian struggle, fuel regional instability and complicate its ties with countries such as Iraq that want good relations with both sides. But most important, it will do nothing to address the direct and ongoing threat to Americans — jihadist terrorism. I thought that Trump’s foreign policy was going to put America first, not Saudi Arabia. _Read more fromFareed Zakaria’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more here:** Anne Applebaum: Trump’s bizarre and un-American visit to Saudi Arabia David Ignatius: A young prince is reimagining Saudi Arabia. Can he make his vision come true? Newt Gingrich: The president just made a titanic foreign policy shift. The media missed it.

Almost 1,000 people have been killed in attacks on health-care facilities since 2014, WHO says

The WHO's data was drawn from online databases and simple Web searches, so the report isn't built on the strongest statistical foundation, but it is one of the first attempts at a comprehensive analysis of attacks on health-care facilities and workers, which is a war crime, if intentional, and is becoming more common.  More than half of the attacks included in the report were against facilities, while a quarter were against health-care personnel themselves. There were 594 attacks in total, with 228 in Syria alone, representing 38 percent of the total. Although there were four times as many documented attacks in 2014 as 2015, both Syria and the Palestinian territories saw increases in 2015. Hospital attacks in Syria have gained widespread attention since multiple facilities run by Doctors Without Borders, often referred to by its French initials MSF, were bombed in February and May, killing dozens. MSF says on its website that its facilities or those it supports in Syria were attacked 94 times in 2015, with 12 instances resulting in total destruction. Eighty-one medical staff at MSF-supported hospital were killed or wounded in Syria in 2015. Two attacks on MSF hospitals in Yemen and Afghanistan also rocked the international community last year. On Oct. 3, U.S. forces bombed an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 44, including women and children. The U.S. military has claimed that mechanical and communication failures led to this grievous mistake, but a recent investigation by Matthieu Aikins for the New York Times Magazine raises the possibility that Afghan forces knowingly led the Americans into the attack out of spite for MSF, which they believed was harboring Taliban fighters. Later that month, a Saudi-led airstrike destroyed an MSF hospital in Yemen, though all inside made it out alive.

How Iran fights the Islamic State

The Islamic State views Shiite Muslims as apostates. It portrays Iran as a Shiite power threatening the “real” Muslim community — the Sunnis. Because of this — and the threat the group poses to Iran’s interests in the region — Tehran views the Islamic State as a national security threat. As a result, it placed “no limits” on resources to combat it both inside and outside its borders   To lessen the sectarian aspect of the conflict — after all, Iran wants to lead all Muslims, not just the Shiite minority — Tehran engages with various political and religious groups fighting the Islamic State, including the Iraqi government and Army, Kurdish fighters and Sunni groups.    But given that Iran was a major target, it was unlikely to escape attacks completely.      The attack will increase public support for the IRGC, who are viewed as the country’s protectors. They were first to respond to the attacks and dealt with the terrorists swiftly, earning themselves the praise of both those caught in the attack and the government. The attack will also spark calls for an expansion of efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, despite the lack of popularity of Iran’s efforts in Syria. And yet if the politics in Iran around regional policy will change as a result of the attack, it’s unlikely that the actual policy will. Iran is already heavily invested in both countries. It doesn’t have unlimited resources, and it is already losing soldiers and political capital in both countries.  Iran’s extensive and multilayered counterterrorism program was successful in preventing an attack within Iran’s borders and against Iranian civilians. Until last week’s attack. It is unsurprising that an Islamic State-sponsored attack slipped through the cracks, given Iran’s significance as a target for the group. The attack, a boon for the Islamic State’s morale, will make Rouhani’s goal of engagement with Gulf Arab neighbors more difficult, but — given its limited resources — will not see Tehran significantly increasing its efforts in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Orlando rampage reflects convergence of terrorism and mass shootings

The deadly attack at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday is raising serious concerns among global security experts and criminologists about a convergence between terrorism and the American phenomenon of mass shootings. Armed with an AR-15 — the weapon of choice for mass shooters — Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State during an attack that killed 50 people at a popular gay club called Pulse, authorities said. The rampage echoed several recent high-profile terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in which extremist sympathizers used firearms instead of explosives, once a terrorism staple. Nidal Malik Hasan, a follower of radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki, gunned down 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood, Tex. Last July, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, seeking martyrdom, fatally shot five service members in Tennessee. And late last year, not long after terrorists in Paris shot up cafes and a theater, a radicalized couple in San Bernardino, Calif., killed 14 people at an office holiday party. Terrorism and mass shooting experts say the use of firearms in terror attacks, particularly among lone wolves, is probably not a coincidence. For attackers without direct ties to experts in terrorist networks, the country’s nearly 60,000 gun dealers offer plenty of high-caliber options. “It’s becoming increasingly apparent that mass shootings can be just as deadly as bombings,” said Adam Lankford, a University of Alabama criminal justice professor and author of a book on mass shooters and suicide bombers. “And the scary part is that it’s often much easier to pull off.” Making bombs is complicated. Buying materials and seeking assistance from others — online or in person — can tip off law enforcement officials. And bombs have a way of either blowing up attackers during construction or failing to detonate when needed. “It’s much easier to purchase and learn how to shoot a gun than it is to learn how to make a bomb,” said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor who studies mass killings. “You have more tactical control with a gun than a bomb.” And there are psychic rewards, too, for radicalized mass killers. “There’s a certain level of satisfaction they can get by shooting people,” Fox said. “With a bomb, it’s sudden and over. With shooting, you have tremendous power and control over your victims. One by one you can see them suffer and die.” Statistics on terrorist tactics generally involve completed attacks, not those that have been disrupted, so it’s difficult to know with precision how terrorist playbooks are evolving, according to William Braniff, the executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). But the group’s statistics offer clues. From 1970 to 2014, explosives were the primary weapon in more than half of terrorist attacks in the United States, according to START. Several times during that period, no firearms were used in U.S. attacks. But in 2014, 14 of the 29 terrorist attacks involved firearms. And START’s research shows that between 1970 and 2014, 40 percent of terrorist attacks with firearms were deadly, versus 4 percent in attacks without guns. “Firearms are available, lethal and frankly they get a lot of media attention,” Braniff said. “As a country, we obsess over it. We have a gun culture.” And what makes the potential convergence so terrifying, experts said, is that defending against mass shootings in public places, whether by extremists or psychopaths, is nearly impossible. After James Holmes killed 12 people at a Colorado movie theater in 2009, theater chains added security and metal detectors. Experts say the measures reflect the way policymakers and businesses often deal with mass shootings — protecting against the last attack, not the future ones that are more difficult to imagine and predict. “We tend to react to the latest episode as if it’s the same way every time,” said Fox, the Northeastern professor. “There are plenty of ways they can get us, and if we respond by having an armed guard at every night club, there’s plenty of other places that will still be vulnerable.” Fox argued that extreme security measures actually give terrorists what they want. “The thing about terrorism is that we wind up victimizing ourselves,” he said. “We’ve seen it in airports, inconveniencing ourselves well beyond what’s appropriate. That plays into the desire of terrorists. They don’t just want us dead. They want us to suffer.” What are the solutions? The gun lobby has one: More guns, so good guys with guns can kill bad guys with guns. The National Rifle Association called for more armed guards after Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. But school officers have been present at other school shootings, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Braniff, the executive director at START, said close monitoring of social networks is crucial to disrupt threats, particularly because so many attackers are radicalized there. Mateen was investigated by the FBI twice, in 2013 and again in 2014, for inflammatory remarks to co-workers and alleged ties to the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria, a spokesman said. Both times the investigations were closed for lack of evidence. How far should the government go in monitoring communications? That debate, dating back to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is still ongoing in the United States. In the meantime, schools, businesses and other organizations are hiring specialists to train employees how to respond to active shooters — not just hiding under desks and behind doors, but even fighting back. G4S, the security company where the Orlando shooter reportedly worked, offers the training. “These violent situations,” the company says, “are dynamic, complex and unpredictable.” **Read more:** ‘It was just complete chaos’: Orlando massacre survivors on the struggle to stay alive Orlando suspect’s father hosted a TV show and now pretends to be Afghanistan’s president Ex-wife of suspected Orlando shooter: ‘He beat me.’

Map: The world according to the Islamic State

The Islamic State had one of its most successful weeks recently with the capture of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria. But another statement about the group is also quite disturbing: The militants established 10 networks outside of Iraq and Syria, according to the Soufan Group.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico What's more: These Islamic State strongholds are only the ones that the jihadists have publicly accepted as part of their growing caliphate. Several others have pledged allegiance to the group, but only these were actually acknowledged. The theory behind this speaks to the Islamic State strategy.  The networks — "three in Libya, two in Saudi Arabia, and one each in Sinai, Nigeria, Yemen, Algeria, and Khorasan in Pakistan and Afghanistan" — are seen as liaisons that won't easily become lost or overtaken by other forces, according to the Soufan Group. One of the most notable terrorist groups recently connected to the Islamic State is the Nigeria-based Boko Haram. After carrying out attacks that left at least 50 people dead in March, the leader of Boko Haram announced its alliance with the Islamic State.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Although Islamic State jihadists are hesitant to forge ties with other groups, they are quick to take credit for many of the high-profile attacks that have happened as of late, even if they don't have a network in those regions, including the Texas shootings, Charlie Hebdo massacre and the attacks in Tunisia.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Within Syria and Iraq, the militants have established 20 different "states." Unlike most of the 10 "wilayats," or states listed above, the Islamic State controls land and has tried to create a government in most of these cities. Note that recent victories over cities like Ramadi aren't included yet as there hasn't been a formal declaration of a state, yet.  Compare the Islamic State's growing network to the once reigning terrorist group al-Qaeda. Deeming the Islamic State's practices too radical, al-Qaeda severed ties with the militants more than a year ago.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Read more:**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Map: The Islamic State’s disturbingly successful week    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Opinion: How the Islamic State could win    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Watch: How the Islamic State celebrated its victory in Ramadi    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The Islamic State was dumped by al-Qaeda a year ago. Look where it is now.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Why Trump’s speech on terrorism was such a missed opportunity

On Sunday in Saudi Arabia, President Trump delivered his first speech abroad, calling for stronger partnerships with Muslim-majority countries to destroy terrorists through military action and financial measures and to combat the “false allure of the craven ideology” that has inspired radicalization. While he avoided his campaign rhetoric about Islam and Muslims, Trump made it clear that his administration will continue to prioritize countering violent ideology, or what the president has consistently labeled “radical Islam.” Trump’s myopic focus on radical ideology misses the real drivers behind why young people are joining groups like the Islamic State. What the president has called “radical Islam” was more important during the earlier days of al-Qaeda, particularly among extremist leaders who would squabble (and even fight) among themselves over the meaning of particular religious texts. This is why President George W. Bush’s administration frequently referred to the importance of the “ideological struggle” and the “war of ideas” in the early years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But during the past decade, the focus on “radical Islam” has become largely irrelevant for most people who support groups like the Islamic State. Researchers like me who have spent time in regions talking with people concluded some time ago that, while we cannot ignore the ideology, we should not myopically focus our resources on combating “radical Islam.” Two decades ago, I spent nine months with one of the ideological founders of the jihadist movement in Jordan, part of the same network as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq. I was an academic and wanted to understand what motivated his network of followers to violence. I learned firsthand about a radical ideology that promotes an apocalyptic war with the West and total domination. And I saw recruiters manipulate young people, promising them purpose in this life and a special place in paradise in the next. What I heard from extremists I interviewed around the world, however, suggests that taking aim at “radical Islam” misses the mark. While the young jihadists I met spouted ideological diatribes and quoted the Koran at length, their words rang hollow — almost as if they were something the recruits thought they should say rather than something they understood and deeply believed. Most jihadists, I found, know little to nothing about Islam. While they use religion to justify horrific acts, it is a convenient foil. About 4,600 personnel files of Islamic State fighters show that 70 percent of recruits have only a basic understanding of sharia, or Islamic law. Islamist extremists are much more likely to have degrees in engineering, science and medicine than in disciplines related to Islam, and at least a few had to buy “Islam for Dummies” to learn about their own religion. They are in no position to determine whether violence is sanctioned by Islam, and most of the ones I interviewed were not exactly wide-eyed true believers ruthlessly guided by the will of God. If you can’t draw a straight line from radical Islam to terrorism, what might be driving extremism in the Middle East? The answer is complicated, but since the 1970s, study after study suggests that socioeconomic factors — not religion or ideology — lay the groundwork for violence. The vast majority of young people in places like the Middle East and North Africa face a bleak socioeconomic future. Youth unemployment in the region hovers around 30 percent, which is expected to skyrocket as economies struggle to create enough jobs to keep pace with a massive demographic youth bulge. In 2000, the World Bank estimated that the region would need to create about 100 million new jobs to keep pace, and it’s nowhere near to closing the gap. The effect of this socioeconomic crisis is about more than just employment and livelihoods for young people; it represents a fundamental breakdown of the social contract in the region. For decades, governments in the Middle East and North Africa promised socioeconomic support — free education, subsidies and public-sector employment — in exchange for limits on political participation and civic activity. Young people expected that they would have jobs and that governments would provide opportunities and pathways for secure livelihoods. The expectation, however, has been dashed by corruption, economic crises, skills gaps and decreased public-sector employment. Young people struggle to find jobs, or at least jobs that match their education levels and skills, and many face delayed marriage, boredom and a sense of exclusion and injustice. They have lost confidence in government, suffer from severe frustration and disillusionment, and are paralyzed by what many call “waithood” — waiting for their futures to be decided by forces beyond their control. The dramatic failure of the Arab Spring to fulfill hopes has only deepened feelings of disempowerment and helplessness, emasculation and a loss of self-esteem, low levels of life satisfaction and a lack of meaning and relevance. Groups like the Islamic State feed on disillusionment and prey on the sense of helplessness that is growing among young people. Recruits to the Islamic State tend to be better educated than average, unemployed or underemployed and not particularly knowledgeable about Islam. For many, the appeal of extremist groups is not religious duty, conviction or ideology. It is the promise of empowerment, regained dignity and (ironically) hope. For example, during a focus group for a project I helped run in the Middle East last year, a teenager openly praised the Islamic State by saying, “They are the only ones fighting against corruption.” The Trump administration will be more effective if it invests heavily in programs that address the real drivers of radicalization by empowering young people, providing socioeconomic opportunities and inspiring hope for the future. Trump’s speech ignored this reality. In fact, U.S. officials working on countering violent extremism tell me that Trump appointees have derided socioeconomic and empowerment programs as “jobs for jihadis” and are maneuvering to cut them as they gut the budgets at State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Cutting these programs would be shortsighted and would hurt our national security. Trump’s narrow focus on countering “radical ideology,” unfortunately, will only distract us from the real solution. His speech in Saudi Arabia could have been used to rally allies behind a much bolder and more effective strategy that addresses the actual drivers of radicalization.

Two of her daughters joined ISIS. Now she’s trying to save her two younger girls.

MORNAG, Tunisia — In a small box in her bedroom, Oulfa Hamrounni keeps the photo she treasures most. It shows one of her daughters, brown hair flowing, a smile on her round face. The photo was taken before the girl and her sister left home to join the Islamic State’s affiliate in Libya. Today, Hamrounni is struggling to bring her teenage daughters back to Tunisia. She’s also trying to prevent two others from joining them. “I am afraid for my younger daughters,” she said. “They still have the same ideology of my older daughters.” The younger ones are 11 and 13. Hundreds of foreign female Islamist militants, including many Westerners, have journeyed to the battlegrounds of Syria and Iraq to begin new lives under the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Now, there are signs that they are being encouraged to travel to Libya as well, signifying a shift in the strategy of the terrorist network as it faces growing threats and constraints to its operations in the Middle East. Most radicalized women and girls join the Islamic State to marry fighters and bear their children, which helps the group’s arm in Libya build a state, mirroring the strategy in Syria, experts who monitor jihadist activity have said. The creation of family structures deepens the Islamic State’s reach and ideology in its territory, which makes it more difficult for Western and regional governments to eradicate the militants and defuse their threat in North Africa. “Official propaganda showcases Libya as the new frontier of the self-proclaimed caliphate,” said Melanie Smith, a researcher with the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which focuses on violent extremism. “Hence the encouragement of foreign females signifies a need to consolidate the land they have managed to acquire.” When he announced the “caliphate” in 2014, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi specifically invited women alongside male engineers, doctors, lawyers and architects, signifying that the women’s “primary responsibility is to physically build and populate territory,” Smith said. As wives, their role is to be dutiful and obedient to their militant husbands. As mothers, they nurture the next generation of fighters. Some women also have combat duties. Rahma, 17, became the wife of Noureddine Chouchane, a senior Tunisian Islamic State commander thought to have been killed in a U.S. airstrike on the Libyan city of Sabratha on Feb 19. Her 18-year-old sister, Ghofran, was married to an Islamic State militant who was killed after the attack. Six months ago, she gave birth. Both sisters are now in the custody of an anti-Islamic State militia in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. On a recent day, their mother sat in her small rented house in Mornag, a gritty town 15 miles south of Tunis. In front of her was the photo of Rahma. “They used to be the opposite of this,” she said in a low, resigned voice. The sisters loved hard-rock music. Rahma played the guitar. She and Ghofran often wore T-shirts and mingled with boys in cafes. They eschewed the headscarves favored by many Muslim women, their mother said. But their family life was troubled. Their father struggled to find work and often came home drunk, Hamrounni said. In 2011, the couple divorced, and he disappeared. By then, Tunisia was in the midst of its Arab Spring revolution. With the toppling of dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and the new openness that followed, religious extremists made inroads with disaffected youths frustrated by the lack of jobs and opportunities. One group set up an Islamic education camp across the street from Hamrounni’s home in the central city of Sousse. From a loudspeaker, the imam implored young people to give up their Western influences, warning of catastrophic consequences. First Ghofran joined the camp, then Rahma. “I was happy that my daughters were respecting Islam,” Hamrounni recalled. They began wearing the niqab — a black veil with an opening for the eyes. They stopped watching television, save for religious programs. They avoided shaking hands with males. They urged their two younger sisters to leave school because it was secular and taught by “nonbelievers.” One day, Rahma threw her guitar and CDs into the trash. Western music was now taboo. On another day, the sisters tossed out their hard-rock T-shirts. They burned pictures of themselves playing music, the ones with their faces uncovered. All except the photo their mother keeps in her box. More than 700 Tunisian women have joined the Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria and Iraq, according to the nation’s Ministry of Women. Badra Gaaloul, a researcher with the Tunis-based International Center of Strategic, Security and Military Studies, estimates that there are more than 1,000 female foreign Islamist militants in Libya, including 300 Tunisians. Others are from Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Morocco, as well as Western European nations. “They serve as wives, mothers, as religious instructors to teach the laws of the Islamic State,” Gaaloul said. “They also police areas and train to be fighters and suicide bombers.” Researchers are noticing efforts on social media to lure more female militants to the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, which the Islamic State seized in the chaos that has followed the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi in October 2011. In tweets, monitored last fall by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, female jihadists urged followers to head to Libya, noting that routes from Turkey into Syria were blocked. “How many brothers & sisters rn in Turkey cannot go back home, and cannot enter in . . . Make your visa and go to #IS in #Libya,” wrote an extremist named “Zawjah Shahid,” Arabic for “martyr’s wife.” By 2014, Rahma and Ghofran were attending ceremonies celebrating the martyrdom of Tunisian jihadists killed in Syria. Through social media and websites, they learned about the armed groups fighting there. They put black Islamic State flags in their bedrooms. “By then, I had lost control of my daughters,” Hamrounni said. They also began to radicalize their younger sisters, Taysin and Aya. They bought a toy Kalashnikov rifle and showed them how to operate it. They showed them videos of how the Islamic State trains children to use weapons. “We used to watch how they taught children to become snipers,” said 11-year-old Taysin. “They always told me to join ISIS and go into the field and fight,” said 13-year-old Aya. In late 2014, Hamrounni crossed the border with her family to the Libyan city of Zawiyah to find work. The war’s violence had not reached there. Within weeks, Ghofran had fled the house. Two days later, the family returned to Tunisia. Hamrounni restricted Rahma’s movements, but that didn’t stop her aspirations. Last summer, she vanished, too. In Libya, while her sister was the dutiful wife of a militant, Rahma trained in weapons. Her mother thinks she was in Sabratha with other Tunisian extremists to launch an attack in the country. After the U.S. airstrike, the sisters were captured. In a phone interview, Ahmed Omran, a spokesman for the Libyan militia, acknowledged that the girls were in its custody but declined to comment further. Hamrounni has appeared on national television, chastising the Tunisian government for not doing more to get her daughters released, even though she is aware they would be thrown in jail. Tunisia’s Interior Ministry did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment. Hamrounni no longer allows her two younger daughters to access Facebook. She doesn’t let them speak to their older sisters the rare times they call. “I am not with the Islamic State now,” said Taysin, a precocious girl dressed in pink with a black headscarf. But as the conversation flowed, it became apparent that she still felt some sympathy for the militants’ ideology. “The nonbelievers, they have to be killed,” Taysin said. “The nonbelievers are trying to beat Islam. We have to fight them.” Next to her, a doll lay on a shelf. Taysin had named her Rahma. When asked how she felt about her older sisters joining the Islamic State in Libya, she answered, “They did the right thing.”

Five families slipped away from southern India, moving to ISIS territory in Afghanistan

PADANNA, India — The aspiring jihadists began leaving here quietly last May, slipping away in twos and threes to avoid suspicion. By the time their relatives realized they were missing, five families — some with small children — had left their comfortable bungalows and jobs as doctors and businessmen to make the perilous journey to Islamic State-held territory in Afghanistan. Authorities believe that 19 adults and three children settled in Nangahar province, on the mountainous border with Pakistan. Their departure has raised alarms about the Islamic State’s reach in India as well as growing extremism in Kerala, a southern state with deep ties through migrant workers to the Persian Gulf. Two of the Keralites have been killed by drones in Nangahar, including one as recently as April 11, family members say. Then, on April 13, U.S. forces dropped a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb on a cave complex where militant commanders were believed to be hiding. In the ensuing devastation, 13 Indian nationals were among the 94 who died, Afghan authorities say, but whether any of the Indian victims were from the Kerala cell has not been determined. Families have hope — a voice message one son sent to his father last week said they had all survived. Nevertheless, most have accepted that they will never see their relatives again. “Let them die in a bombing!” said Abdul Rahman Hamza, 66, the devastated father of a doctor and a school employee who took their pregnant wives and his 2-year-old grandson to the remote Afghan region. “What they are doing is not Islamic. The real Islam doesn’t promote terrorism.” An estimated 100 Indians have left to fight for the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, according to Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi — a fraction of the number of foreign fighters who have taken up the cause in the past two years. The Islamic State is considered less of a threat to India than terrorist organizations based in neighboring Pakistan, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the siege of Mumbai in 2008, according to Sahni. Still, there are worrying signs: At least 10 suspected Islamic State activists were detained in a six-state sweep Thursday. And after a suspected militant was killed in a shootout with police last month, a pro-Islamic State channel on the Telegram messaging service exhorted Muslims to carry out attacks in India, according to a report from the SITE Intelligence Group. “Kill them, Stab them, hit them with a car, Use guns, Weapons anything you have. And make them weak, Shed their . . . blood like water,” the message said. The sun-dappled state of Kerala — a tourist haven of meandering backwaters and shimmering beaches — has long been one of India’s most diverse and educated states. But in recent decades, a more extreme form of Islam has taken root, authorities say, spurred by migrant workers returning from the Middle East. An estimated 2.2 million Keralites work in Persian Gulf nations; they sent home $10 billion in remittance money in 2016, according to the Center for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital. The decades-old link has wrought changes large and small. Three international airports ferry workers to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere on a daily basis, while, back home, the workers build towering villas with their earnings and more and more Muslim women don full black coverings. In the district that includes Padanna, the oldest mosque — a humble structure in the local style — is being obscured by new domes and minarets. In Padanna, Hamza’s sons and others began attending Koran classes at a school organized by Abdul Rashid Abdullah, 30, an engineer who had left a private-sector job to teach. Abdullah had embraced a strict form of Islam called Salafism after the death of his first child, according to Alok Mittal, the inspector general of India’s National Investigation Agency. In the months before they disappeared, the brothers — studious Ijas Abdul Rahman, 34, a doctor, and his more outgoing younger brother, Shiyas Abdul Rahman, 26 — grew more devout, relatives say. They stopped going to movies and deleted family photos from their cellphones because images of people were forbidden. Yet there were happy times: Their wives were both pregnant, and they often spoke excitedly about the babies who would arrive a few months apart. Shiyas’s wife, Ajmala, who was pregnant for the first time, rejoiced and worried over every little change in her body, her sister-in-law said. Shiyas and his family departed first, telling his parents they were moving to a nearby city to pursue religious studies. A few weeks later, Ijas and his family left, saying he had gotten a job in a hospital in the Lakshadweep Islands. Authorities eventually pieced together that five families had left the district to join the Islamic State and were given weapons and religious training when they arrived in Afghanistan, Mittal said. “It’s kind of blind belief,” said K. Madhu, a civil police officer in the state’s special branch who knows the families well. “All these people were very rich. They didn’t need money. They were going to give up all material pleasures for a medieval lifestyle, to live like shepherds.” At one point, Hamza, who owns a hotel and restaurant in Mumbai, left an angry voice message for a nephew who had also vanished. Between obscenities, the older man told him not to bother coming home. The nephew responded with a photo of an AK-47. “We are not going to come back. We are devoted to [Islamic State leader] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. We’ll meet again in paradise,” the nephew texted later. Hamza’s house — set amid palm trees, with soaring ceilings and marble floors — seems empty now that so many members of his family have gone. The room where one of the young couples lived has grown musty from disuse, stripped of personal belongings. The room looks out over the brightly painted villa next door, once home to another young man who disappeared. He was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan in February. His 11-year-old sister still cries at the sound of his name. Sitting in her quiet dining room, Hamza’s wife, Hafsath, said mournfully that she believed her sons’ religious education had taken them “to an extreme level.” “I’m scared. I’m frightened. I’m also worried about the small children, their lives,” she said. “I don’t understand why they have chosen that place. I feel angry at times, but I still want them to come back.” About three months ago, the landline rang. It was her daughter-in-law Rufaila, Ijas’s wife. She was calling to ask after a sick relative and to tell them she had given birth to a beautiful baby girl they named Fatima. Rufaila grew emotional, however, when she confessed to her mother-in-law that she was kept in the dark about their destination when they left Kerala. She believed the lie Ijas had told his parents: that he was taking a new job at a hospital in the Lakshadweep Islands. “Where are you?” Hafsath asked desperately, wanting to help. The line went dead. Shahina K.K. in Kerala, Walid Sharif in Kabul and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

Will Yemen’s latest round of negotiations reflect learning from past failures?

After the 2011 popular uprising, the country’s major longstanding political players signed the GCC Agreement on Nov. 23, 2011. Setting up the framework for what many hoped would be Yemen’s transition toward a peaceful and democratic future, the agreement centered on the formation of a government of national unity and a military reform committee, and afforded immunity to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his closest associates. In the first months, progress was made: A new government was formed in December, and immunity for Saleh and his associates was officially approved by parliament in January 2012, a highly contentious decision for the revolutionary youths. Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was elected president in February 2012, and Saleh formally stepped down from the presidency. In early 2012, the first steps were taken to establish the National Dialogue Conference (NDC), which would discuss key issues including a new constitution, the issues of the South and Saada, and transitional justice. Despite these advances, very little progress was made on military issues. Roadblocks and other interference with daily civilian life by military and security officials were never fully removed. Although Hadi was able to remove many of Saleh’s closest associates from their leadership positions within 18 months, most new appointees were from Hadi’s home governorate, leading to accusations of nepotism. Partially as a result, most new leaders were unable to overcome the entrenched loyalty of the elite military units to Saleh and his close associates. Throughout the transition, major terrorist acts killed hundreds of security personnel and civilians. These failures would ultimately devastate the transition process.   The NDC, opening in March 2013, included a number of well-known personalities representing the main political trends in the country. It had 565 members, of whom 56 percent were southerners, 28 percent women and 20 percent youths. Forty seats were allocated to civil society, 85 to the southern separatists and 35 to the Houthis. The NDC completed its work in January 2014, agreeing on 1,800 separate “outcomes” as its decisions were called.  Following the NDC, a Constitutional Drafting Committee (CDC) was established to translate the NDC’s work into a draft constitution to be submitted for a referendum. The draft consists of 446 articles and provides an excellent basis for better governance in Yemen. However, the NDC’s outcomes were sometimes contradictory and others incomplete, leaving the CDC with no clear guidance to resolve contentious issues. The process eventually adopted was unconvincing to a number of actors, including the Houthis, who finalized their takeover of Sanaa shortly after the final draft constitution was delivered to President Hadi on Jan. 3, 2015, and moved their military forces farther south, in alliance with Saleh’s elite forces, triggering the start of full civil war and the intervention of the Saudi-led coalition.  The Saudi-led coalition has now been at war for more than a year at high human and financial cost, and the rapid and decisive victory they anticipated is nowhere in sight. Regardless of increased control of territory, overall the military stalemate prevails.   The culmination of these events and revelations has, at long last, raised the profile of the war in the United States and beyond, increasing public opposition to the war and influencing the European and Dutch parliaments to stop weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, with pressure on Britain and United States to do the same.   Whatever new transition process emerges from successful negotiations must consider the failures of the previous efforts if the Yemeni people are to achieve a safer and more stable future. Any lasting agreement will need to prioritize the basic socio-economic needs of the vast majority of the country’s poor population, and this goes far beyond infrastructure contracts. Successful political dialogue needs to represent all sectors of society equitably, without privileging the elites whose political interests contributed to the current conflict. However, these same elites cannot be excluded, at the risk of renewed military conflict. The definition of security must also expand beyond counterterrorism to include safety and security for people in their daily lives and the creation of security forces unaffected by corruption or partisanship. Foreign intervention is a reality: Recommending its exclusion would be unrealistic, despite its dubious success record. Fundamental change will require new creative and constructive approaches focused on the future of Yemen and Yemenis, addressing its social, economic and environmental problems. To achieve this will be no simple feat.

Saudi military officer killed in suspected militant attack

A Saudi military officer was killed by gunfire Tuesday in an attack claimed by an Islamic State faction previously linked to bombings against mosques and other sites in the Western-allied kingdom. The assertion by the group could not be independently verified. But it suggests a widening of its targets in Saudi Arabia to strike directly at military and security forces, which are aided by the United States and other Western allies. A statement by the Saudi Interior Ministry said Col. Kitab Majid al-Hammadi was gunned down in al-Dawadmi, a hilltop town about 125 miles west of the capital, Riyadh. The statement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, said the attacker’s identity was not known. The Islamic State group, known as Najd Province, claimed its fighters killed Hammadi and identified him as a member of the Interior Ministry’s general investigation unit, according to a statement posted by the Amaq News Agency, a website believed to be closely tied to the Islamic State. Last year, the Islamic State group emerged in Saudi Arabia by claiming responsibility for a blast at a mosque used by the kingdom’s Shiite minority, killing more than 20 people. It later claimed it carried out further attacks on Saudi Shiites and was behind a June bombing at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait that left at least 27 people dead. Saudi forces have stepped up raids and other security measures amid worries of expanding recruitment by the Islamic State faction, including attackers in February who kidnapped and killed a family member who served on a counterterrorism unit. **Read more:** Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Islamic State has an English-language radio broadcast that sounds eerily like NPR

"We thank our listeners for tuning in and present the following Islamic State news bulletin." That is how thousands of listeners are greeted when they tune into al-Bayan, the Islamic State radio broadcast that delivers the Islamic State news from a smooth, male voice with an American accent.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The news bulletin, delivered through Twitter and other social media sites, is yet another avenue the Islamic State has used to up its recruitment and get even more people to join in its fight to create a caliphate. The radio segment eerily sounds like an NPR news program -- it leads with "a glimpse of the main headlines," followed by updates from the various "wilayats," or states, of the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and beyond. The program then ends with a recap of the headlines and then another thank you to "listeners for tuning in." But behind the savvy production, professional tone and soothing background music lurks a more sinister message: The bulletins, distributed in English and in Arabic, calmly detail the attacks the Islamic State carried out, the suicide bombings by their fighters and the deaths of opposition groups. When a suicide bomber's attack is announced on the program, it is always followed by a wish that Allah would accept him as a martyr. Take this June 1 broadcast-- the news of a militant attack in Misrata, Libya, that left five dead the previous day was listed under news from "Wilayat Tarabulus," an Islamic State stronghold in Libya.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The news bulletin also includes the execution of spies, rockets aimed at opposition groups, snipers that killed Kurdish fighters  and any victories over what the announcer calls "strategic" points, cities or villages. Along with Islamic State successes, attacks from opposition forces are also listed. But unlike the death tolls from Islamic State assaults, deaths of Muslims or children are always highlighted as the casualties from attacks carried out by the militant group's enemies. From the June 1 bulletin: Listing news from regions beyond Iraq and Syria, these broadcasts highlight the rapidly growing "wilayats," or states, that the jihadists now either control or have an affiliated militant group that is extremely active. The attacks in regions far beyond the original Islamic State-controlled cities are clearly mentioned, emphasizing the group's increasing influence.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico But the even more disturbing notion these broadcasts highlight is one of the biggest struggles that forces fighting the militants face: Their growing propaganda machine has morphed into a powerful tool that has attracted more than 20,000 fighters from all around the world, inspired attacks in places like Bangladesh to Texas, and has resulted in thousands of supporters far beyond Syria and Iraq. In fact, data by the Brookings institution shows that Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Twitter accounts by Islamic State supporters. The Islamic extremist propaganda is leaps and bounds ahead of the dispatches of Osama bin-Laden in a cave, but even more recently, it is a clear example of "how far the hardcore Islamic propaganda machine has come since 2012, when an aging Frenchman posed in front of a jihadi flag and threatened France in the name of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," according to the Associated Press.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico While Islamic State's use of flourishes, U.S. propaganda has struggled to keep up. **_Read the previous story here._**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Related content:**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Graphic: The propaganda wars since 9/11    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Map: The world according to the Islamic State    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The Islamic State was dumped by al-Qaeda a year ago. Look where it is now.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Four Israeli soldiers killed in truck attack in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian driver intentionally rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers Sunday, killing four and wounding a dozen on a picture- postcard promenade overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City and a park called the “Peace Forest.” The assault occurred just blocks from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and down the street from the United Nations headquarters. The dead soldiers — three women and one man, all in their early 20s — were part of a large group of officer cadets who were getting an educational tour. Israeli officials quickly labeled the truck-ramming a terrorist attack and said the driver was from a nearby East Jerusalem neighborhood. The Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, applauded the “heroic operation” but did not assert responsibility for it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the scene several hours after the attack, said the assailant showed “all the signs he was a supporter of the Islamic State” militant group. It was one of the deadliest attacks in more than a year of stabbings, shootings and vehicular assaults by Palestinians. It comes just a week before a planned conference in Paris that seeks to push Israelis and Palestinians to restart their stalled peace talks. Leah Schreiber, a tour guide escorting the soldiers, said she saw the truck accelerate and jump the curb, plowing into uniformed troops who had just exited their bus. “It took a few seconds to understand what was happening,” Schreiber said. “That this was a terror attack.” Graphic surveillance video from the scene shows a large white Mercedes-Benz truck careening into the soldiers and then rapidly backing up in circles, running over the wounded, as the soldiers fled. Eitan Rod, an armed tour guide, told Israel’s Army Radio that he was chatting with several officers when he saw the truck roaring toward him. He dived onto the grass. “I saw the truck start to reverse and then I already understood that this was not an accident,” he said. “I felt that my pistol was still on me, so I ran up to him and started emptying my clip. He went in reverse and again drove over the injured.” Rod told Israeli television that he wondered why army officers at the scene did not immediately open fire. He blamed Israeli military authorities, who last week convicted a soldier of manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed Palestinian assailant in Hebron as he lay wounded. Israeli army spokesmen, however, countered the claim of hesitancy by releasing a video of a soldier describing how he fired his rifle at the driver, who was shot dead in his truck. Chen Lendi Sharon, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency service, said he arrived at a chaotic scene, with wounded soldiers trapped under the truck. Police chief Roni Alsheich said there was no warning before the attack. “You don’t need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target. The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker,” he said. Rescue workers said three women and a man were killed in the attack. Israel later identified them as Lt. Erez Orbach, Lt. Shira Tzur, Lt. Shir Hajaj and Lt. Yael Yekutiel. In a statement, Netanyahu described the attack as “part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by ISIS, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem,” referring to rampages by truck drivers at the seaside corniche in Nice in July and the Berlin Christmas market last month. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, asserted responsibility for the attacks in France and Germany, declaring that its “soldiers” were responding to its call to target nations fighting the group in Iraq and Syria. Netanyahu did not immediately offer any evidence that the Jerusalem attack was inspired by the Islamic State or that the assailant was a supporter of the group. There have been many similar attacks by Palestinians that have been inspired by nationalistic, religious and personal motives, and not the Islamic State, according to Israeli security officials. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, said the Sunday attack was driven by the upcoming Paris conference. “The world has received a clear answer from the Palestinians to the peace conference coming up in Paris: more terror,” Hotovely said in a statement. Palestinian leaders have stressed that they support the conference as a way to avoid violence — not stoke it — by seeking a peaceful resolution through international diplomacy and renewed talks with Israel. Arab-language news media identified the truck driver as Fadi al-Kanbar from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber. Israeli TV reports said Kanbar was in his 20s and married with children. In Washington, Mark Toner, deputy spokesman at the State Department, said: “There is absolutely no justification for these brutal and senseless attacks. We condemn the glorification of terrorism now or at any time and call on all to send a clear message that terrorism must never be tolerated.”

The world’s largest Muslim country bans support for the Islamic State

Authorities in Indonesia this week condemned the Islamic State — the Sunni extremist militants who have taken over large chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria, killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the process — and ordered a ban on YouTube videos that in any way endorse the jihadists. Despite being home to the world's largest population of Muslims, Indonesia is a pluralistic state with myriad ethnic groups and religious minorities. Still, its government wrestles with the real fear of homegrown extremism.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday "The government rejects and bans the teachings of [the Islamic State] from growing in Indonesia. It is not in line with state ideology ... or the philosophy of [diversity] under the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia," said Djoko Suyanto, a former commander in chief of the Indonesian military who now holds a senior cabinet post in the country's newly formed government, at a news conference Tuesday.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday The Southeast Asian archipelago nation may be thousands of miles away from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, but it is no stranger to the call of global jihad. Government authorities believe there are about 30 Indonesians enlisted in the Islamic State's legion of foreign fighters, according to the Jakarta Post. A recent video uploaded on YouTube showed a jihadist named Abu Mohammed al-Indonesi urging fellow Indonesians to join the fight and flock to the Islamic State's self-declared Caliphate.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Indonesia's own jihadists have been largely subdued over the past decade after a ruthless crackdown by the country's security forces. But political Islam is strong in parts of the country, and there are pockets of low-level support for wider pan-Islamic causes. A worrying trend of violence toward religious minorities, including members of the beleaguered Ahmadi sect, persists.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Speaking to Australia's ABC News in June, Indonesian terrorism expert Sidney Jones said there were splits among the country's hard-bitten jihadists on which Islamist faction fighting in Syria to support. "I think the scary thing in some ways is that ISIS now seems to have more support from the most militant factions of the Indonesian jihadi community, where the less-radical ones are supporting the al-Qaeda-linked rival of [the Islamic State] called the al-Nusra Front," she said.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday As Time magazine reports, Indonesia makes it possible to raise money or join jihadist groups overseas. That tolerance led to a spate of troubling incidents: Supporters of the Islamic State held a rally in Jakarta in March, while in June, Islamists dressed in Islamic State insignias disrupted a family weekend carnival day in the Javanese city of Solo.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday The latest statements made by the government suggest that it intends to take a tougher line on such displays of solidarity.

Terrorism, or not? Why Purple Hearts are in question following the Chattanooga attack

Two weeks after the attack on military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., killed five U.S. service members, the U.S. government is still grappling with whether to call the event terrorism. Potentially at stake: Purple Hearts for the service members killed and wounded, and the financial benefits that go with them. The July 16 attack was carried out by 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who was born in Kuwait and became a naturalized American citizen. He called Muslims who waged Jihad in earlier generations “the best human beings that ever lived” other than the prophets on his blog. And he downloaded recordings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who recruited for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until he was killed in a 2011 airstrike, according to an NBC News report.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _[Heroism in the Chattanooga Naval Reserve Center: ‘He went back to save others‘]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Those killed in the attack include four Marines and a sailor: Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40; Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35; Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist; Lance Cpl. Squire D. “Skip” Wells, 21; and Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26. Other service members and a Chattanooga police officer also were wounded before Abdulazeez was killed by police. The Marine Corps has proactively prepared Purple Heart nomination packages following the attack, but is waiting to see whether the service members involved are eligible for them, said Maj. Rob Dolan, a Marine Corps spokesman in Quantico, Va. The service “will wait until all the facts are gathered and the FBI investigation is complete,” he said. An FBI official, Joshua Campbell, and a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in eastern Tennessee, Sharry Dedman-Beard, declined to comment, citing the open investigation. White House spokesman Eric Schultz referred comment to the FBI and Justice Department. Eligibility for the Purple Heart will hinge in part on what the FBI determines motivated Abdulazeez. The Navy and Marine Corps Awards manual allows for the Purple Heart to be approved in several circumstances, including:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Those criteria are important. The service members were attacked on U.S. soil by a U.S. citizen, seemingly eliminating options 2 through 8 and 10. That leaves 1 and 9, which depend on how the U.S. government define Abdulazeez (Was he an international terrorist, or a mentally ill American?), the attack itself and what he did beforehand. If authorities prove that Abdulazeez was both inspired by a terrorist organization _and_ met with members from it, the Chattanooga shooting victims would appear to qualify for the Purple Heart under new criteria included in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _[A Marine recruiter was shot in Chattanooga. He’s still playing the ‘what- if’ game.]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico It states that troops who were wounded or killed in an attack qualify for the award if it is carried out by an individual who was both in contact with a foreign terrorist organization beforehand _and_ “inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization.” Abdulazeez traveled several times to the Middle East before the shooting, but it is currently unclear whether he was in contact with any militant groups. Under the current legislation, that’s a key part of Purple Heart eligibility.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Before the language was approved, service members who were wounded in the Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., and the June 1, 2009, ambush on an Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., did not receive Purple Hearts, even though both attacks were initiated by men who said they were inspired by al-Qaeda. In the Fort Hood case, Maj. Nidal Hasan, a radicalized Army psychiatrist, killed 13 and wounded at least 30 more. In court testimony afterward, he said he was targeting people who were “going against the Islamic Empire.” He communicated repeatedly with the radical cleric Awlaki before the attack, authorities said. In the Little Rock attack, two recruiters were shot, one fatally. The shooter, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, told authorities that he was sent to carry out the attack by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He traveled to Yemen before the shooting. Victims in other recent attacks on military installations without a direct terrorism tie — the 2013 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, for example — have not qualified for Purple Hearts. The award can include hostile- fire pay for those killed or wounded, as well as faster service and financial incentives from the Department of Veterans Affairs.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The Marine Corps also is examining whether service members involved in the Chattanooga attack may qualify for a valor award, Dolan said. It’s unclear what that could be, however. _[During Chattanooga attack, Marines scrambled to warn away civilians outside]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico There is precedent for service members to receive prestigious combat valor awards like the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross or Silver Star for actions against a foreign enemy while Stateside. An obvious example is the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to the military awarding at least 15 Medals of Honor. But service members are more frequently recognized for heroism while Stateside with the rare Soldier’s Medal and its approximate equivalents in the other services, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the Airman’s Medal and the Coast Guard Medal. Following the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, the Army awarded at least eight Soldier’s Medals to service members who displayed valor while attempting to repel the attack.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico _ **UPDATE:** This piece has been to clarify recent legislation updating criteria for the Purple Heart._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Why terrorists attack concert halls

When a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom, killing concertgoers as they filed out of pop star Ariana Grande’s show, he joined a particularly insidious tradition of attacks on entertainment spaces. The killers who carry out such acts of terrorism aren’t simply launching assaults on Western culture. They’re attempting to destroy the particular freedom that comes from surrendering to art, exploiting the very vulnerability that accompanies that surrender. The apparent suicide bombing in Manchester was the fourth major such attack in five years. In 2012, James Holmes killed 12 people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. In 2015, a series of attacks in Paris targeted the Stade de France, where suicide bombers detonated their vests outside the arena during a friendly match between France and Germany’s soccer teams; gunmen and another suicide bomber targeted patrons at restaurants; and three shooters took hostages and carried out a mass shooting at the Bataclan theater during a concert. In 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in an attack at Pulse, an Orlando nightclub; he seems to have considered Disney World as an alternate target.  Attacks on cultural institutions rather than airports or military installations may all be part of the same jihad. Yet targeting cultural spaces has a profoundly different effect. An airport is a necessary waystation. No one goes there for pleasure, and no one who truly needs to get someplace is going to stop flying simply because the risks have been elevated. The long-term costs of a hijacked airliner or an airport shooting or bombing are tallied in logistics, annoyance and dollars spent on security, or security theater. By contrast, we choose to go to concerts, to the movies, to sporting arenas and to dinner because of the pleasure they bring us, and the communion we feel in the presence of our community, whether gay men in Orlando or soccer friends in Paris. We cannot fortify every communal space the way we have done with airports unless we are willing to become a radically different society. And so the costs of such attacks are disaggregated to individuals. We all share the burden of these massacres, and weigh them every time we pursue beauty and transcendence along with our fellow citizens.  Attacks like these aren’t intended merely to kill people who like al fresco dining and the Eagles of Death Metal, or gay men who find their community on the dance floor, or girls young enough to don cat ears. They are an attempt to murder the idea that it’s safe to eat outside on a November evening, or go to any concert, anywhere, or let your child be, for one evening at least, deliriously happy and free in the presence of a pop idol. As Holmes wrote in his notebook, “Targets random. The cruel twists of fate are unkind to the misfortunate.” These attacks are especially deadly and exceptionally cruel because they take advantage of the surrender that is involved in any aesthetic experience. If you are absorbed in the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, dancing to a rock band or a DJ’s remix, or holding tight to a pink balloon, you aren’t alert to the possibility of danger. The art that transports you is the very thing that makes you vulnerable. The same darkness that liberates you from your everyday life, whether it is mundane or oppressive, gives cover to your killer. Surrounding movie theaters, concert venues, sporting stadiums and even restaurants with ever more oppressive layers of security might make us all safer. Tightly circumscribing the zones where we can truly feel free and relaxed reminds us just how small those areas have become, and how desperately we must fight to preserve them. Staying home out of fear, and refusing to give in to artistic abandon, is no victory either. We’re all James Holmes’s “misfortunates” now, bracing in the dark of the theater or the club rather than giving ourselves up to it completely.

‘Terrorist’ attack on Jordan intelligence office in refugee camp kills 5

An attack described as a “terrorist” strike targeted offices of Jordan’s powerful intelligence service Monday, killing five people and raising concerns that Islamist militants were behind the bloodshed in the Western-allied nation. Jordan’s government spokesman, Mohammed al-Momani, said the “terror attack” took place at 7 a.m. in the Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp near the capital, Amman, on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The dead included four members of the intelligence agency and a receptionist, he added. Momani did not name who was responsible for the attack or how it was waged, but he strongly suggested that Islamist factions could be responsible. He said the attackers showed “criminal behavior of those outside our moderate religion.” Jordan’s intelligence service has been a critical ally to the United States in the battle against the Islamic State. It has repeatedly foiled plots by the Islamic State, according to the state, most recently in a lengthy raid in March. Jordan’s air force also takes part in strikes against Islamist State targets. One of its pilots was publicly executed by being set fire in a cage in an Islamic state video released early last year. Jordan responded by executing two convicted militants. Despite being adjacent to Syria and Iraq, the main battlegrounds in the war between the Islamic State and its opponents, attacks on Jordanian soil have been relatively rare. In 2005, dozens were killed in suicide bomb attacks against luxury hotels claimed by Iraq-based militants but there have been few incidents since. In addition to the historic Palestinian refugees that make up a major proportion of its population of 7 million, Jordan is home to 600,000 registered refugees fleeing Syria. In February, King Abdullah II of Jordan warned that country was stretched to the limit by all the refugees, warning that “the dam is going to burst.” **** Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Killings, violence, disappearances and intimidation threaten academic freedom

Higher education communities worldwide have endured hundreds of attacks in the past four years, a barrage of persecution and violence that threatens academic freedom and scientific progress in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, according to a report released Tuesday. The Scholars at Risk Network, based on the campus of New York University, said it documented 333 attacks on students, scholars, administrators and staff of colleges and universities in 65 countries from January 2011 through May 2015. The attacks included 111 incidents of killings, violence and disappearances; 67 of wrongful imprisonment; 47 of wrongful prosecutions; and dozens of other acts of intimidation against colleges and universities, such as travel restrictions or loss of academic posts. “These attacks not only threaten the safety and well-being of scholars, students, administrators and staff,” Robert Quinn, the network’s executive director, said in a statement. “In conflict countries, like Syria and Iraq, failure to protect higher education will cripple any efforts to rebuild those societies when the fighting eventually stops, dragging everyone into a never-ending cycle of violence.” Quinn said more protective measures also are needed “in fragile and volatile places like Pakistan, Thailand, Venezuela and Egypt … where universities, scholars and students are on the front lines in shaping the future of society.” The 48-page report, believed to be one of the most extensive compendiums of its kind, was scheduled to be released at the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva. The network, founded in 2000, includes about 360 member institutions globally. On April 2, Garissa University College in Kenya suffered one of the deadliest attacks of recent years. Gunmen affiliated with the al-Shabab militant group stormed the campus, killing students and taking hostages. At least 147 people died, and scores more were wounded. [ _Al-Shabab attacks Kenyan university, killing at least 147_]    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico In September 2014, the dean of Islamic studies at the University of Karachi was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while en route to a reception to honor him. “Targeted killings include those aiming to silence particular individuals because of the content of their research, teaching, writing or public expression,” the report said. Many of the attacks were not deadly, but they were nonetheless chilling. The report cited the case of Azmi Sharom, a law lecturer at the University of Malaya, who in September 2014 was charged under Malaysia’s Sedition Act “for giving an interview to a newspaper in which he compared a current constitutional crisis with a similar crisis five years earlier.” In August 2014, the report said, a student at Khon Kaen University in Thailand and an activist were arrested on charges of “insulting the crown,” for attempting to stage a satirical play called “The Wolf Bride.” They were each sentenced to two and a half years in prison. “Overall incidents involving prosecutions and imprisonments threaten the heart of higher education by deploying coercive legal force to target academic speech, content and conduct,” the report said. It urged nations to repeal any laws wherever necessary “to ensure freedom to think.”

Stopping an Awakening in Iraq before it can start

A centerpiece of President Obama’s strategy for defeating the Islamic State is mobilizing tribal fighters to join the Iraqi military in retaking Anbar province and others dominated by Sunnis. But new research shows that the jihadists have been working since 2009 to gut the very Sunni tribal leadership on which Obama’s rollback depends — making the U.S. campaign much more difficult. U.S. strategists want to create a “national guard” version of the tribal militia known as the Awakening, which in 2007 and 2008 crushed al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of the Islamic State. But overlooked evidence shows that the jihadists have worked systematically to destroy the Awakening and assassinate tribal leaders who might challenge their rule. The jihadists’ long-running intimidation campaign against the Sunni tribes is one more sign that, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told me in September, the United States “underestimated” the Islamic State. Obama later told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he shared Clapper’s critique. Despite these mea culpas, U.S. planners may be making a similar mistake in assuming that the tribal networks can be rebuilt quickly. U.S. officials believe that Sunni support has been galvanized by the removal of polarizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite. That’s true, but fighting the jihadists will be a long uphill road. Research documenting the Islamic State’s onslaught was compiled by Craig Whiteside, a former Army officer who fought in Iraq and now teaches at the Naval War College. By his count, at least 1,345 Awakening members have been killed in Iraq since 2009 by the Islamic State or its predecessor organizations. “In the Sunni areas where the Iraqi government had little control, it did not take long for the Islamic State to slowly and methodically eliminate resistance one person at a time,” he writes in a military blog called “War on the Rocks.” Whiteside cites the example of the strategic town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad. Between 2009 and 2013, 46 Awakening members were killed in 27 different incidents there. The dead included four sheiks from the local Janabi tribe. Similar killings across Sunni areas of Iraq “were barely noticed by the Iraqi government or in the media,” Whiteside writes. The jihadists documented their assassination campaign in a grisly video called “The Clanging of the Swords,” which Whiteside cites in his report. Watching the video, you see a series of drive-by assassinations, accompanied by heroic Islamic music, as Islamic State fighters gun down selected vehicles on the road or pedestrians on the streets. “The hungry lions chase their prey,” says an Arabic narrator, whose words are translated into English. It’s clear that the assassins’ intelligence is precise. The Islamic fighters also targeted Iraqi police and army units in Sunni areas and Baghdad itself, starting more than two years ago. Islamic State communiques released in February 2013 claimed that in the second half of 2012, the group conducted 37 attacks in Baghdad and 43 assassinations in other areas of Iraq. U.S. analysts failed to see this gathering storm. As its campaign against the Sunni tribal forces gained momentum in 2012 and 2013, the Islamic State began offering amnesty to Sunnis who had been part of the Awakening militia or the Iraqi security forces. The jihadist video shows scores of Sunnis experiencing “the joy of repentance” in an auditorium in Anbar. They recite a pledge of penitence together and then embrace masked jihadists on stage, one by one. To swell its ranks further, the Islamic State staged a series of daring prison raids it called “Breaking the Walls.” Whiteside counts seven prison assaults between July 2012 and July 2013, culminating in a raid on Abu Ghraib prison that freed more than 500 senior Islamic State fighters, including one named Abu Wahib, who later became the group’s leader in Anbar. The importance of this prison-break campaign in the rapid build-out of Islamic State forces wasn’t understood by U.S. analysts. U.S. officials argue that Sunni tribal leaders still want to work with American military advisers — all the more so after the jihadists’ brutal campaign of intimidation. As Sheik Zaydan al-Jibouri told me in Amman last month, “We want to create a strategic relationship with the Americans.” But this time around, the tribal leaders must combat a deeply entrenched enemy. The Islamic State controls the ground; it has the intelligence; it has fierce, combat-hardened fighters. Obama is right to seek Sunni “boots on the ground” for the campaign against the jihadists, but he needs to explain better to the American public the roots of this conflict, and how difficult and protracted it will be. _Read more fromDavid Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **** Max Boot: The U.S. strategy against the Islamic State must be retooled. Here’s how. The Post’s View: President Obama needs to fix his flawed Islamic State strategy Eugene Robinson: The Islamic State fight is turning into a ‘dumb’ war The Post’s View: Military success has bred popular support for the Islamic State The Post’s View: Mr. Obama’s half-hearted fight against the Islamic State Andrew J. Bacevich: Even if we defeat the Islamic State, we’ll still lose the bigger war

The Easter bombing is the latest reminder that Pakistan must stop tolerating terrorism

PAKISTAN HAS made progress in fighting terrorism in the past two years, but a horrific suicide bombing in one of its heartland cities on Sunday showed how serious the threat remains. A militant dispatched by an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban attacked a crowd of families in Lahore who were peacefully strolling in a park on Easter; the group later said Christians were its target. In the end, more than 70 people were killed, the majority of them Muslim, including some 30 children. Since a 2014 attack on a school that left more than 150 dead, the Pakistani government — and more importantly, its military — has finally begun to fight in earnest against domestic jihadists. But the latest attack exposes the gaps in the campaign. A long-overdue army offensive destroyed Taliban bases in the western frontier territories, forcing many of the militants into eastern Afghanistan. Progress was also made in combating terrorists in the southern city of Karachi. Last year saw a noticeable reduction in successful attacks. Pakistani authorities largely neglected militant groups deployed in other parts of the country, however, including in populous Punjab province, where Lahore is located. They have also shrunk from measures needed to protect religious minorities, including Pakistani Christians, who number more than 2 million. A poisonous blasphemy law, which provides the death penalty for perceived insults to Islam, remains in force and is regularly used to target Christians. Pakistan’s failings are hardly unique: Christians are in danger of being eliminated as a significant minority community across the Middle East. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, like the Taliban, have adopted the genocidal aim of killing all non-Muslims, a departure from Islamic law as well as centuries of practical coexistence. Christians are being systematically driven out of Iraq, and communities in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian territories are shrinking as refugees flee to the West. Even as President Obama and responsible leaders in Europe try to fight prejudice against Muslims, Muslim governments are fueling demagogues such as Donald Trump by failing to protect Christians. Following the attack in Lahore, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed in a televised address to fight terrorism “until it is rooted out from our society,” and authorities arrested hundreds of suspected militants. But the government faces formidable opposition: In Islamabad, thousands of demonstrators this week protested the execution of an extremist convicted of assassinating a governor who criticized the blasphemy law. The best approach, as Pakistan should have learned by now, is not to tolerate or negotiate with such extremists, but to forcefully confront them. Exceptions cannot be made for jihadists who fight for causes favored by the Pakistani elite, such as the “liberation” of Kashmir from Indian rule, or Taliban battling the Afghan government. While Mr. Sharif and the military leadership have come a long way toward accepting those tenets, they have not yet fully embraced them. That means terrorism will remain a threat to Pakistan for the foreseeable future. **Read more:** Fareed Zakaria: The key to solving the puzzle of Afghanistan is Pakistan Daniel Williams: Christianity in Iraq is finished Colbert I. King: The harrowing lives of Christians in the Middle East Marco Rubio and Russell Moore: We must remember slaughtered Christians in the Middle East Charles Krauthammer: Syrian Christians and the English Jew

Militants storm Yemen military base; U.S. strike said to kill al-Qaeda figure

SANAA, Yemen — Armed militants linked to al-Qaeda stormed a Yemeni military base in a restive southern province before dawn Monday, killing at least 20 soldiers and capturing more than two dozen others, according to Yemeni military officials. The assault occurred hours after a U.S. drone strike reportedly killed a top al-Qaeda figure involved in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The attack on the base was the latest indication of an intensifying conflict between U.S.-backed Yemeni security forces and al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate for control of southern Yemen. Over the past year, the militants have seized large swaths of territory in the south, taking advantage of political turmoil during Yemen’s populist revolution, which ousted longtime authoritarian ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. Since President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi took office in February, officially ending Saleh’s rule, the militants have escalated their assaults, staging raids and suicide bombings. The government has responded with airstrikes, while the Obama administration has increased its use of drones to assassinate militants in the area. It was unclear whether Monday’s assault was in retaliation for the death of Fahd al-Quso, a senior leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the Yemeni affiliate of the terrorist network. Yemeni government officials said Quso and another man were killed in an attack Sunday in the southern province of Shabwa while he was stepping out of his car. Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most-wanted list. He was indicted in connection with the suicide attack on the destroyer USS Cole, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 were injured in the southern port of Aden. Monday’s attack unfolded at a military base on the outskirts of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, which is the nexus of the current battles. There were differing estimates of the toll, with some news agencies reporting as many as 32 killed. A spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia, a group linked to AQAP, told the Reuters news agency that the militants had captured 28 soldiers and a tank. He did not say whether the assault was meant to avenge Quso’s death. In his first public speech, Hadi declared Saturday that the government’s fight against al-Qaeda was in its early stages and that he would improve Yemen’s counterterrorism cooperation with the United States. The Obama administration played a key diplomatic role in ushering Saleh from power and replacing him with Hadi. **More world news coverage:** \- Putin begins new presidential term \- Jordan’s stability in doubt \- U.S. frees Afghan prisoners in exchange for pledges of peace \- Read more headlines from around the world

Bombers strike rebel-linked mosques during Friday prayers in Yemen

SANAA, Yemen — Suicide bombers attacked two mosques linked to Yemen’s powerful Shiite rebels Friday, killing scores of worshipers and wounding hundreds more in a further sign that the country is collapsing into sectarian chaos. The attacks come a day after intense clashes in the southern city of Aden and an attempted assault on an oil-rich province by the rebels, known as Houthis. An increasingly unstable Yemen poses security concerns for the United States, given that the country has been a staging ground for attacks by Yemen’s branch of al-Qaeda against U.S. military and other Western targets. The bombers targeted mosques used mainly by supporters of the Houthis, who have captured vast territory in a military assault that many Yemenis fear is turning the country into a proxy battleground for regional powers. Shiite Iran has boosted support for the Houthis, while Sunni Saudi Arabia backs their enemies. Shortly after the attacks in the capital, Yemeni medical workers put the death toll at 46 and the number of wounded at 100. By late afternoon, a Houthi-run television network said there were 137 dead and nearly 350 wounded. “There were two explosions that happened in the mosque: one in the front next to where I was sitting and another in the back. Both were carried out by suicide bombers,” said Abdullah Abdulkarim al-Houthi, a 50-year-old Houthi official who sustained shrapnel wounds in his arms and legs. He added, “Dr. al-Muhatwari didn’t survive.” Hashem Abdullah, 28, was standing near the other mosque that was attacked, known as al-Hashoosh. He said a car bomb exploded next to the building just before a suicide bomber entered and detonated his explosives. The incident occurred shortly after the end of Friday prayers, when the mosque was teeming with people, he said. “The explosion caused confusion among all the people, and soon after that a suicide bomber ran into the mosque and blew himself up near the area of the imam of the mosque,” said Abdullah, referring to the prayer leader. Abdullah said he spent part of the afternoon clearing away charred Korans and clothing and loading trucks with the human remains from the attacks at Hashoosh and the nearby Badr mosque, which was targeted at the same time. After the attacks, Houthi militiamen fanned out across the area where the bombings took place, known as Juraf, blocking roads and inspecting civilians for weapons. Several Toyota pickup tricks with machine guns mounted on top blocked roads. Footage aired by the Houthi television channel al-Masirah showed emergency responders frantically carrying bodies in blood-soaked sheets. The bodies were loaded onto pickup trucks while men in the background shouted in grief. A group calling itself the Sanaa Province and claiming affiliation with the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a message transmitted via Twitter, it warned that the bombings were the “tip of the iceberg that is coming,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. An Islamic State claim of responsibility for the attacks was greeted with some skepticism among U.S. officials, who noted that the group is not known to have a significant presence in Yemen. By contrast, other groups, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have had a foothold in the Yemeni capital for years and have carried out previous attacks. AQAP, however, released a statement Friday denying responsibility for the bombings, according to the SITE group. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that the United States is investigating the claim of responsibility by the Yemeni branch of the Islamic State and is trying to determine whether the group has the organizational depth to coordinate such attacks, according to an Associated Press report. Earnest said the Islamic State often claims responsibility for attacks purely for propaganda value. U.S. officials said that even if the bombers were not dispatched or directed by the Islamic State, militants eager to associate themselves with the group’s brand may be behind the bombings. The Islamic State’s claim reflects an apparent new determination by the group to take propaganda advantage of distant attacks and depict itself as expanding elsewhere even as it struggles to maintain its grip on territory in Iraq. The group alos has recently accepted a pledge of loyalty from Boko Haram in Nigeria and asserted responsibility for a deadly assault Wednesday on a museum popular with Western visitors in Tunisia. The latter claim is seen as more plausible, U.S. officials said, because thousands of Tunisian citizens have traveled to fight in Syria, where many have likely formed ties to the Islamic State. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, lashed out at the West and Sunni Arab countries, accusing them of colluding with AQAP in Friday’s attacks. “They all move as one team, and they are supported by the United States and Britain, and this alliance is funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” he said by telephone. The mosque attacks follow intense fighting in the southern city of Aden between forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and military units thought to be under the control of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted as president during an uprising in 2011. Also Friday, Yemeni security officials said that AQAP took control of a southern city after security forces there surrendered. The AP reported that the officials said al-Qaeda militants driving pickup trucks and flying black flags swept through the city of Houta, the capital of Lahj province. They took over the main security barracks, the governor’s office and the intelligence headquarters, which houses prisons holding al-Qaeda detainees. The officials said security forces loyal to Saleh surrendered to the militants without resistance. Those who resisted at the governor’s office were summarily killed, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. On Thursday, Houthi militants attempted to attack the oil-rich province of Marib but were repelled by tribal forces, Yemeni officials said. Marib is considered strategically vital because of its oil and gas reserves, and the area’s power plants provide electricity to Sanaa and other parts of Yemen. The largely Sunni tribes of Marib have vowed to fight Houthi incursions, and Shiite rebels, diplomats and analysts say that Saudi Arabia has substantially increased funding to the tribesmen to defend the area. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries have backed the governing authority in Aden that Hadi established in opposition to the Houthi-controlled government in Sanaa. One Yemeni official from the area said the Saudis have given significant funding to the president to win support from tribes in southern Yemen. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing concern for his safety. In January, the Houthis put Hadi under house arrest in Sanaa and compelled him to resign. Last month, he fled Houthi captivity for Aden, rescinded his resignation and asserted that he was the legitimate leader of the country. Naylor reported from Beirut. William Branigin and Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report. **Read more:** Who are the Houthis, the group that toppled Yemen’s government? Fighting escalates in Yemen as Houthis launch airstrikes Chart: Yemen’s chaos, explained Read today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

The White House says a deadly raid in Yemen was long planned in Washington. Not true, say officials who served Obama.

The Pentagon and the White House on Thursday defended the execution of a U.S. Special Operations raid in Yemen that killed civilians along with a Navy SEAL, saying there was sufficient intelligence to carry it out and that it had been considered in Washington since December. But former Obama administration officials disputed the Trump administration’s version of events, saying the raid carried was never specifically discussed in the White House when Barack Obama was president. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the civilians were killed early Sunday in Yemen by gunfire from aircraft needed to support the SEALs after they were attacked by militants, among them women who ran to planned fighting positions. The SEALs, he said, were “in extremis,” a term the U.S. military uses to define situations in which service members or partner forces are under immediate threat. The dead are said to include the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric and a propagandist with al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen who was killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike. “The enemy had gone to a building and taken up fighting positions in that building to fire on our troops who were on the ground conducting this operation,” Davis said. “The enemy put potentially the civilians at risk in doing so.”  White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the plan for the operation was first submitted by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East, to the Defense Department on Nov. 7, one day before the presidential election. A plan was approved by the Pentagon on Dec. 19 and turned over to the White House. Obama administration officials approved a plan for an operation during an interagency meeting Jan. 6, two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, and decided it would be best to carry it out in the dark of a “moonless night,” Spicer said. That meant waiting until after Trump took office. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reviewed a memorandum on the plan Jan. 24 during his first week on the job, and Trump was briefed on it by national security adviser Michael Flynn the following day, Spicer said. Trump met with Mattis and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and then authorized the mission one day later.  Colin Kahl, a national security official in the Obama administration, disputed Spicer’s description of the planning Thursday evening. Kahl, in tweets shared hundreds of times, said that the Defense Department worked up a general proposal that asked for the authorities to do raids in Yemen, but that the mission carried out Saturday was not specifically a part of that. Then-President Obama did not make any decisions because he thought it represented an expansion of the war in Yemen and believed the Trump administration should assess how to proceed, Kahl said. “In a nutshell, Trump and his team owns the process and the ultimate decision — and the consequences,” Kahl tweeted. Davis, asked by reporters Thursday morning whether the lunar cycle played a role in the raid, declined to answer directly, but said the Pentagon sought permission to do the raid after Trump took over. “This was an operation that for reasons of the calendar had a date when it was most optimally conducted,” Davis said. “That date happened to fall after January 20th, and that’s when we sought the authority for and received the authority for proceeding with it.” Another defense official said Kahl’s understanding of events is wrong. “The raid had been planned several months and was given full consideration by the previous administration,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.    “We have nothing to suggest that this was compromised,” Davis said, adding that report “does not match with reality.” Spicer defended the mission as a “successful operation by all standards,” despite the loss of life, saying the intelligence gathered would protect American lives. Trump traveled Wednesday to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to view the arrival of the remains of Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, 36. “It’s hard to ever call something a complete success when you have the loss of life or people injured,” Spicer said. “But I think [it was] when you look at the totality of what was gained to prevent the future loss of life here in America and against our people and our institutions and probably throughout the world, in terms of what some of these individuals could have done.” A U.S. military official familiar with the specifics of the mission expressed frustration with the way it has been characterized. The SEALs, he said, worked through several “contingencies” in difficult circumstances and brought everyone home, including Owens after he was mortally wounded. Even with modern technology, the official added, carrying out missions such as this one is rife with uncertainties. Spicer identified the moonless night as the reason for the raid’s timing despite some other U.S. officials recommending against doing so. They cited the operational security of potential future missions as their reason. The New York Times included the detail in its report Wednesday. Spicer did not respond Thursday to questions about why he confirmed the lack of moonlight’s role in the operation.

Ax-wielding attacker on train roils Germany over migrants

BERLIN —  A teenage Afghan asylum seeker who police say carried out an ax attack on a German commuter train pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before he set out on his mission, fueling a roiling debate in Germany about whether a historic influx of migrants has imported conflict from the Middle East to the undulating hills of Bavaria. The Islamic State released a video it said the teenager made before using an ax and knife to injure five people, leaving two of them with “acute, life-threatening wounds,” according to an investigator. In the video — recorded in what appeared to be the bedroom of his foster residence — he vowed to create so much destruction that he would wipe out memories of Thursday’s attack in Nice, France, which claimed 84 lives. The revelation that the attacker, killed by police and identified by security officials only as “R.A.,” was an Afghan migrant who registered in Germany in June 2015 ignited fresh questions about whether Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door last year to migrants had imperiled her nation’s security and overtaxed its ability to integrate them. Politicians and analysts said the attack was likely to further sour German citizens’ attitudes toward the newcomers in their midst. “With an ax on a moving regional train. How often did this happen in the 20th century, and why not?” wrote Marcus Pretzell, a member of the Alternative for Germany party who is a lawmaker in the European Parliament, on Twitter. Pretzell has advocated using armed force to defend Germany’s border from asylum seekers. Analysts said that Monday’s attack may be a turning point in Germany’s discussion about migration, particularly since anger had already grown following sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve in Cologne on about 1,200 women. Those attacks were largely blamed on men of North African and Arab origin. “The climate of the debate will change,” said Heinrich Oberreuter, a political scientist at the University of Passau. “The federal government will be forced to put the problem of internal security into the center of its refugee policy.” Germans initially greeted asylum seekers with roses, clothing and sustenance during peak arrivals late last year. But a series of attacks and assaults linked to immigrants has changed attitudes and sent Merkel’s approval rating plummeting ahead of 2017 elections. Merkel and her allies have since sought to harden Europe’s borders, and they have acknowledged missteps in how they handled the influx of more than 2 million people, the largest since 1950. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, meanwhile, has been surging at the polls. There were few reassurances Tuesday from German leaders, who were left to deal with the consequences of the second Islamic State-linked attack in Europe in less than a week, following the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice. Even though the militant group claimed responsibility for both strikes, investigators have not yet found evidence that it directed either attack. “In principle, such acts can already be perpetrated every day in every place, more or less worldwide,” said Joachim Herrmann, interior minister for the state of Bavaria. “We are not safe.” In a measure of the political sensitivity of the incident, he warned against “sweeping judgments” about refugees. Merkel has acknowledged that militants used the migrant route last year to smuggle themselves into Europe, creating the biggest challenge yet to her 11-year rule. Refugee flows have since halted after a deal with Turkey to house more people there. “Our structures were overwhelmed,” said the powerful center-left leader of the North Rhine-Westphalia region, Hannelore Kraft, who last year was far more welcoming toward asylum seekers. “That’s why I am glad that our borders are tight for the first time,” she told the WDR broadcaster in comments published hours before the train incident. The attacker arrived in Germany last year as an unaccompanied minor and registered his asylum claim in March, authorities said Tuesday. He lived in a group home for underage asylum seekers in Bavaria starting in March before moving in with a foster family near Würzburg two weeks ago. Prosecutors said the teenager had just learned of a friend’s death in Afghanistan over the weekend. In a Pashto-language note found in his bedroom, he vowed to “take revenge on these infidels,” investigators said. Investigator Lothar Koehler said that the teenager posted a cryptic online message about the “enemies of Islam” hours before the attack. When searching his house, investigators also found a notepad with a drawing of the Islamic State flag and what they believe to be a farewell note to his father. In the video, issued by the Islamic State’s Amaq news agency **,** a young man identifies himself as a “soldier of the caliphate” and threatens further attacks by the group “in every village, city and airport,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist organizations. “I lived among you and in your houses. . . . I will slaughter you in your houses and tear you apart,” he said, gesturing with a kitchen knife about three or four inches long. An unnamed police official told the German DPA news agency that authorities believed that the man in the video was the attacker. German authorities said they found no evidence of direct communication between the militant group and the attacker. The Islamic State said that the teen was a “fighter” for the group, the Amaq agency said. Islamic State leaders have called on followers to strike Western targets even without direct support or approval from the group’s formal structures. If an attacker pledges allegiance to the group before an attack, the Islamic State will typically claim the violence as its own. Herrmann said acquaintances had not seen any outward indications of changes in behavior or views by the teen, suggesting that he may have “suddenly reoriented in a short period of time.” Acquaintances described a “calm” and “well-adjusted” young man who attended a mosque on religious holidays but showed no signs of extremism, Herrmann said. Police could hear a male shouting “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — when a passenger on the train called them during the attack, investigators said. On Monday around 9 p.m., the teenager boarded the commuter line that runs from Treuchtlingen to Würzburg in the southern German province of Bavaria. The train, carrying 20 to 30 passengers, had just pulled out of the station when the youth began his attack, wielding the ax to strike heavy blows to the heads of his victims, Herrmann said. Four people suffered injuries before the assailant fled from the train when someone pulled its emergency brake in the town of Heidingsfeld, a suburb of Würzburg. As he ran, he attacked a woman who was walking her dog, seriously injuring her. A specialized police unit that happened to be in the area found him on the bank of the Main River and fatally shot him. The people injured on the train were members of a family from Hong Kong, Herrmann said, and one of them remained in serious condition.

A huge leaked list of Islamic State fighters sounds too good to be true. Is it?

It almost sounds too good to be true: a huge list of Islamic State fighters, leaked from inside the organization's own internal security division, potentially representing a treasure trove of detailed information on the group to be picked apart by intelligence agencies. On Wednesday, Sky News revealed that it had acquired this list, reportedly registration documents for Islamic State fighters from 2013. There were tens of thousands of names on the list from at least 51 countries, the British news organization reported, making it perhaps the most important Islamic State leak since the Sinjar records of al-Qaeda in Iraq — documents discovered by U.S. forces in Iraq that contained the details of more than 600 fighters from that group, a precursor to the Islamic State.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Sky News reported that the documents were contained on a memory stick that was stolen from the head of the Islamic State's internal security police. Though it was the first Western outlet to publish details of the list, it appears that an opposition Syrian outlet, Zaman al-Wasl, was able to publish details of the list first, shortly before Sky News published its story. German authorities are also believed to have a list that is either similar or the same, according to reports in the German press from earlier this week.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The scale and detail of the information certainly seems dramatic. In registration questionnaires, foreign fighters were asked to provide not only their own details, but also information about who had smuggled them into Islamic State-held territory and their links back home. They were even asked whether they would prefer to fight or die in a suicide bombing. Richard Barrett, former global terrorism operations director at MI6, told Sky News that the list was "an absolute goldmine of information of enormous significance and interest to very many people, particularly the security and intelligence services."    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico U.S. officials said that they are aware of the reported cache but have reached no conclusions about the authenticity of the documents. The CIA declined to comment. One U.S. official, however, did say that the records would be "fantastic if true." Whether they actually are true remains to be seen. A number of stylistic details from the list have stood out as inconsistent to experts, including the fact that the Arabic version of the group's previous name, "The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria," is written two different ways, a previously unseen circular logo appears on the documents, and the column used to refer to the death of the fighter did not use the jihadist term for "martyrdom," as seen widely in other Islamic State documents. Additionally, while Sky News suggests that there are tens of thousands of names on the list, Zaman al-Wasl reports that its own list features 22,000 entries. But, due to repetitions, only 1,700 people are actually identified. Charlie Winter, a terrorism analyst currently at Georgia State University, told Agence France-Presse that these unusual details gave him reason to pause. "There would be big alarm bells for me, because when I've seen inconsistencies like that in the past, they've been on really shoddily made forgeries," Winter said. Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, another analyst who has written guides to recognizing faked Islamic State documents, said he remains unconvinced that the documents are "wholly authentic," noting that a financial motivation could have led to the documents being faked or authentic data being tampered with somehow.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Others have suggested that the documents' obvious flaws suggested they were indeed the work of an overworked bureaucracy, rather than a forger. "If these are forgeries, why aren't they more artfully done?" William McCants, director of the Brookings Institution's Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, said in an email. Peter Neumann, a jihadism researcher with King's College London, suggested on Twitter that faking this many documents was simply unrealistic.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Rita Katz, co-founder of the Search for International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group, said that a number of details can be cross-referenced with other reports, suggesting that the information contained in the documents is real. While she acknowledged the stylistic oddities within the documents, she suggested that this is indicative of their bureaucratic rather than theological or propagandistic function. "ISIS, just like al-Qaeda, is a very detail-oriented organization," Katz explained, using an acronym to describe the Islamic State. "These forms are for administrative purposes – and while some indicate that the use of the word 'killed' is not appropriate and might hint that the docs are fake, ISIS often uses the word killed instead of martyred." **Read more:**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Osama bin Laden warned against almost every aspect of Islamic State playbook    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Islamic State is no longer so formidable on the battlefield    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The current chaos in Syria may help the Islamic State    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Palm Sunday bombs rock Egyptian churches; state of emergency is declared

TANTA, Egypt — Moments after the explosion rocked her church Sunday morning, Mona Faiez’s phone rang. It was her sister, checking to see if she was alive. She was unhurt; she wasn’t at the church, where 27 now lay dead and scores more were injured. But alerted by the call, she rushed toward it. These were her fellow parishioners, her closest friends. “What kind of human could do this,” she asked, “and why?” Less than three hours later, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to St. Mark’s Cathedral in the northern city of Alexandria, killing 17 and injuring many more. The dead included three police officers who stopped the bomber from entering the site. The head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, was presiding over Palm Sunday Mass at the church, also packed with worshipers, but he was unharmed. By Sunday night, President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi had declared a state of emergency across the country for three months. Altogether, at least 44 people died and more than 100 were injured in the two attacks, the deadliest single day to strike Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority in decades. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for both bombings through the Amaq News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamist militant group. World leaders, including Pope Francis and President Trump, condemned the attacks. Here in Tanta, 80 miles north of Cairo, Faiez said she reached St. George’s Church shortly after 9.30 a.m. Her closest friend, Soliman Shaker, was a church deacon in his 60s. He was preparing for his daughter’s wedding in a couple of weeks. The bomb, police said, had been planted in the church’s pews. But witnesses said a suicide bomber was in the pews when he detonated his explosives. Shaker was dead. “I ran to the church to find my lifelong friend shattered to pieces by the bomb,” said Faiez, 61, who lives nearby. Sunday’s assaults threaten to further alienate the country’s Coptic Orthodox community, which makes up 10 percent of the population. For decades, Egypt’s Copts have felt discriminated against by the country’s Muslims, and assaults against them have intensified since the 2011 revolution — part of the Arab Spring uprisings — that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Christians largely supported the rise of Sissi, who came to power after the overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. After taking office, Sissi launched a brutal crackdown on Islamists that was supported by many Christians. Yet anger within the Christian community toward Sissi is growing. After each attack in recent months, the government promised to safeguard Christians with improved security measures, but the assaults on the community have continued. Outside the church in Tanta on Sunday, Christian and Muslim residents denounced the government and demanded accountability. Clashes broke out when officials of the provincial government tried to enter the church. Some neighbors stood on balconies crying, and relatives and friends of the victims wore black. One man stood atop a barricade and screamed in frustration at a priest who arrived at the scene in a car. “And now what, Father?” the man yelled. “Until when is our blood going to remain cheap? We are fed up! Do something, Father!” At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis, who plans to visit Egypt three weeks from now, denounced the bombings and expressed “his deep condolences” to Tawadros II and “all of the dear Egyptian nation.” In remarks made after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope asked God to “convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons.” Trump tweeted, “So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly.” Sunday’s bombings came less than a week after Trump hosted Sissi at the White House, where both leaders reiterated their resolve to work together to fight extremist groups such as the Islamic State. In December, the Islamic State asserted responsibility for a bombing at Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral complex that killed at least 25 people and wounded 49. It marked a shift in the Islamic State’s strategy, making Christians a primary target in their campaign against the government. More recently, hundreds of Christians fled Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula after militants aligned with the Islamic State affiliate there killed several who were attacked in their homes or in drive-by shootings. In a video, the Sinai-based affiliate warned that it would escalate attacks against the nation’s Christians. Over the past six years, numerous attacks on Christians have left scores dead. On Jan. 1, 2011, the Church of Saints Mark and Peter in Alexandria was bombed, killing 23 people as they left the New Year’s Day service. Ten months later, Egypt’s security forces killed 28 Christians protesting the demolition of a church, claiming the protesters first attacked them. In 2013, Christians were targeted in a spate of attacks after Morsi was ousted in a military coup. On Friday, the Catholic archbishop of Egypt, Bishop Emmanuel, told journalists at a news conference that Pope Francis’s visit here was meant to send a message that Egypt was safe. The pope is scheduled to meet with Sissi and leaders of the country’s Catholic diocese. And in an effort to improve relations between Muslims and Christians, the pope is also expected to meet with the grand imam of Al-Azhar, a centuries-old mosque and university that is widely respected by Sunni Muslims. On Sunday, residents in Tanta questioned how someone was able to get a bomb into the Mass. Concerned about more attacks on Christians, local authorities appeared to have taken no chances on this holy day. Police officers were present and security appeared tight, witnesses said. “It is beyond my comprehension how they could leave such a bomb inside the church,” said Laurice Mikhaiel, 60, who lives across from the church. “We churchgoers get inspected as we come in and out. There is always security present.” Victor Fathy, 42, arrived at the church about a half-hour after the blast. He learned that his cousin, Raouf Salib, a father of two children, was among the dead. Several witnesses, he said, told him that they had seen a suicide bomber. Inside, the “walls were covered with blood and every seat was shattered to pieces.” He looked at the floor. “There were no holes in it,” he said. “It was not a bomb left under the bench.” For Faiez, that only raised more questions. “The head of the security here told me he had seven policemen standing here to protect the church,” Faiez said. “What exactly were they doing? How futile!” Raghavan reported from Cairo.

Reports: Islamic State hacker killed in U.S. airstrike

An American airstrike took out a British hacker key to the Islamic State's cyber-strategy. Officials believe Junaid Hussain, a 21-year-old from England, was killed in an airstrike in Syria on Tuesday, according to media reports.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Hussain was a primary target for the Pentagon — No. 3 on its "kill list" of Islamic State leaders, a person familiar with the matter told the Guardian newspaper. The Defense Department did not respond to an inquiry about reports of Hussain's death.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico He was widely thought to be a leading player in the Cyber Caliphate, an Islamic State hacking unit linked to attacks that hijacked the social media accounts of news outlets and the U.S. military. The Islamic State is also known as ISIS or ISIL.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Hussain was also known as Abu Hussain al-Britani and played a key role in the group's online recruitment efforts. His online persona often appeared linked to Islamic State attacks across the world. In May, he appeared to offer online encouragement to two gunmen who opened fire at a contest in Garland, Tex., featuring caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. And in June, he was linked to a failed plot to attack an Armed Forces Day parade in London using pressure- cooker bombs.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The Islamic State operative also had a high-profile history as a hacker. As a teenager, he was thought to be a leader in a hacktivist collective known as TeaMp0isoN that was suspected in cyberattacks against NATO, the United Nations, NASA and other targets, according to CNN.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico In 2012, he was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to placing nuisance calls to a British anti-terrorism hot line and illegally accessing and publishing former prime minister Tony Blair's address book. Hussain was thought to have fled to Syria in 2013 while out on bail over separate charges.

Two U.S. troops die battling Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan

Two U.S. service members were killed during operations against the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Thursday, the latest sign of the security challenges the Trump administration faces in America’s longest and most costly war. Military officials said the deaths occurred during a joint U.S.-Afghan raid on Wednesday evening in Nangahar province, where a small but virulent Islamic State cell poses a threat to Afghan and U.S. coalition forces. A third service member was wounded in the same operation, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan said in a statement. The Pentagon on Friday identified Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, as the Army Rangers killed. The soldiers were members of 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, an elite Army force that specializes in raid operations. “The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, referring to the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State-Khorasan Province. The incident took place in Nangahar’s Achin district near a site where the U.S. military unleashed a massive 22,000-pound bomb this month, a sign of the scale of the ongoing conflict nearly 16 years after U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan. The recent fighting in Achin, including the first-ever use of the GBU-43 bomb and Wednesday’s incident, which killed two Americans, illustrates the danger posed by just one of multiple militant groups in a conflict that U.S. officials have described as a stalemate.  At the same time, local forces are struggling to contain an array of militant groups along the country’s border with Pakistan, including the Islamic State. Faced with those challenges, the Trump administration is reevaluating its strategy for Afghanistan and considering sending additional U.S. troops to support local forces. Nicholson has called for thousands of extra service members to help train and support the Afghan military. According to Navy Lt. Chris Donlon, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Wednesday’s incident happened close to Achin and near where U.S. aircraft dropped the GBU-43 munition two weeks ago. That bomb targeted a sprawling Islamic State tunnel complex, and although Afghan officials said between 36 and 100 Islamic State fighters were killed in the strike, the U.S. military has not announced what exactly the bomb accomplished. An Afghan military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss current operations, confirmed that there had been a joint U.S.-Afghan operation in a village near Achin district Wednesday but was not aware of any casualties. He said it had been a long day of fighting. The Afghan branch of the Islamic State, mainly composed of militants pulled from other groups, has emerged as an increasing counterterrorism focus for the United States in Afghanistan. Although military officials say the group is far smaller than it was at its height in 2015, an estimated 600 to 800 militants, located mainly in remote mountainous areas, have proven to be a deadly adversary. Fighting has been fierce as U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces, backed by hundreds of airstrikes, have sought to advance against militant strongholds in recent months. The deaths mark the third time this year that a member of the U.S. military has died in combat in Afghanistan. On April 8, Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Md., was killed by small-arms fire, also in Nangahar. They come just days after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Afghanistan to assess the security situation and advance deliberations about the Trump administration’s approach to a war that has largely been overshadowed by events in Iraq and Syria Dan Lamothe in Washington and Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report.

Al-Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri has tried to attack the U.S. three times, officials say

SANAA, Yemen — He has dispatched his own brother to death, hiding a bomb on him before he crossed into Saudi Arabia to target the kingdom’s chief counterterrorism official. He has tried to attack the United States three times in the past three years, building small, sophisticated and hard-to- detect devices in his workshop in the rugged terrain of southern Yemen. Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who hails from a middle-class Saudi family, is the top bombmaker for al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch. Only 30 years old, he represents the CIA’s worst fears: a highly skilled terrorist determined to attack the United States. American officials believe Asiri’s latest bomb was designed to be smuggled onto a U.S.-bound aircraft last month. The nonmetallic device had an advanced detonator and was superior to anything created by terrorists so far. “Asiri is an evil genius,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “He is constantly expanding, he is constantly adjusting.” U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have said Asiri built the bombs in the attempts to bring down a commercial flight near Detroit and two cargo planes headed for the United States. King said the latest bomb, part of a foiled plot, appeared to be “a modification of the previous ones.” With the death of Osama bin Laden, Asiri is a key reason that U.S. officials consider Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to be one of the most significant threats to the American homeland. “He is highly determined and fully committed to attack America,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and defense studies at the Gulf Research Center in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. “For al-Qaeda, an attack inside the U.S. is worth 11 attacks outside. It has become their obsession.” Over the past year, AQAP has taken advantage of Yemen’s political turmoil and seized large swaths of territory in the south. Yemen’s government and the Obama administration have responded with aerial assaults and drone strikes, targeting Asiri and other top operatives of AQAP. Asiri built the “underwear” bomb worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab when he tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight headed to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. A year later, Asiri built the printer-cartridge bombs that al- Qaeda placed on Fedex and UPS planes destined for Chicago. If it were not for a technical problem (Abdulmutallab’s device failed to detonate) or solid intelligence tips (Saudi counterterrorism officials alerted authorities in Dubai and Britain to intercept the cargo planes), Asiri would have succeeded in staging a catastrophic disaster in American skies. “Ibrahim al-Asiri is the one who enabled the operations of al-Qaeda in Yemen to move from local attacks to international ones,” said Said Obaid, the Yemeni author of a book about AQAP. Asiri’s family hails from southwest Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border, the region that was home to several Sept. 11 hijackers. But nothing in Asiri’s childhood suggested that he and his brother Abdullah would turn to jihad. Born in Riyadh in 1982, Asiri is the son of a Saudi military officer. “They used to listen to music and had a wide variety of friends, friends not like the ones they had later, when they became more religious,” his mother told the Saudi newspaper al-Watan in a 2009 interview. A sister told al-Watan that her brothers became more devout and reclusive after the death of their elder brother in a car accident in 2000. “It was after that that they started swapping videotapes and cassettes on the mujaheddin,” she said. Asiri studied chemistry in Riyadh, but when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, he became more radicalized, like thousands in the Arab world. He tried to join al-Qaeda in Iraq to fight the U.S. occupation but was arrested by Saudi authorities as he tried to cross the border. He was imprisoned for nine months and released. Soon after, according to Saudi officials, he and Abdullah launched a militant cell linked to the al-Qaeda wing in Saudi Arabia to plot attacks against oil pipelines, the royal family and security services. He was placed on the kingdom’s most-wanted list of al-Qaeda terrorists. By 2007, when al-Qaeda’s Yemen and Saudi branches merged to create AQAP, Asiri and his brother had crossed into Yemen. There, Asiri learned to make bombs. Alani and other analysts say he was probably taught by a Pakistani bombmaker linked to al-Qaeda. But other analysts say Asiri appears to have taught himself, through manuals and other resources on the Internet. “He seems to be largely self-educated, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He has been able to miniaturize bombs so they are capable of being smuggled.” Asiri’s brother became his first experiment. He had created a bomb unlike any other, using 100 grams of PETN, a white, powdery explosive that was virtually undetectable. Their target was Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism chief. In a video posted later on jihadist Web sites, Asiri embraced and kissed his brother and said goodbye. Abdullah al-Asiri crossed the border and gained entry to Nayef’s palace by claiming he was defecting. But the explosion that killed Asiri only slightly wounded Nayef. Nonetheless, AQAP was emboldened. The group had never come so close to killing a member of the royal family. With his brother dead, Asiri’s credentials in AQAP soared, Obaid said. Soon he was plotting his next attack, with Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student he was introduced to by Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who was killed in an American drone strike last year. Asiri was initially thought to have died in the same strike. A Justice Department sentencing memo from February in the Abdulmutallab case describes Asiri as having the Nigerian “practice the manner in which the bomb would be detonated; that is, by pushing the plunger of a syringe, causing two chemicals to mix, and initiating a fire (which would then detonate the explosive).” In 2010, Asiri created even more sophisticated bombs, this time inside printer cartridges. They passed undetected through airport security. It took authorities in Dubai and Britain nine inspections before they found the devices. In March 2011, the Obama administration designated Asiri as a wanted terrorist. Riedel said people he spoke to who examined the Detroit and cargo plane bombs said they show “learning and adaptation.” The most recent attempt, using no metal, was a further refinement to evade airport security scanners, Obaid said. “Al-Qaeda consider him a treasure that cannot be lost,” he said. For that reason, he and other analysts say, Asiri is training the next generation of bombmakers in the event he is killed. “The unfortunate reality is that Asiri is not the only one to worry about in AQAP,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. “He appears to be training others so that, if he is taken off the battlefield, his expertise won’t be lost.” **More world news coverage:** - \- U.S. disrupts airline bomb plot \- CIA unraveled the plot from within \- Putin team taunts demonstrators \- Read more headlines from around the world

Islamic State, growing stronger in Libya, sets its sights on fragile neighbor Tunisia

BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia — The families arrived at the cemetery in the night carrying the bullet-riddled corpses of their sons and brothers, residents recalled. One by one, the bodies were placed in unmarked graves, outcasts even in death. The dead men had been fighters for the Islamic State. All Tunisians, they had crossed into Libya to join the terrorist group’s affiliate there. In March, they returned with other radicalized Tunisians in an attempt to seize Ben Guerdane, a smuggling hub 20 miles from the border. Dozens of the militants were killed in fierce clashes with security forces, including at least 10 who were raised here in the southeastern corner of the country. Only eight were buried in the cemetery. “Some families refused to take the bodies,” said Samir Naqi, a senior police official. That Ben Guerdane, long known as an incubator for jihadists, was not captured was a victory for Tunisia. But the attack and its aftermath revealed the North African nation’s fragility as it struggles to contain the toxic fallout from the Arab Spring uprisings five years ago, and represented an escalation in the Islamic State’s ambitions. Tunisians form the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. But with U.S. and Russian airstrikes hammering them there, and travel bans and stricter border controls in place, more Tunisians are joining the Islamic State in Libya. Increasingly, Libya’s conflict is spilling into Tunisia, the only country to emerge as a functioning democracy after the revolutions. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, asserted responsibility for two attacks in Tunisia last year: in the resort town of Sousse and at the Bardo Museum in the capital, Tunis. Scores of people died, mostly foreign tourists, at the hands of Tunisian gunmen believed to have been trained in Libya. The sophisticated raid on Ben Guerdane — a multi-pronged assault on Tunisian security forces — triggered fears that the militants are seeking a safe haven in Tunisia, whose secular history and Western leanings have made it a target of religious extremists. “It’s now clear that Libya is a threat for us,” said Mohamed Maali, the head of Tunisia’s anti-terrorism department. “With ISIS fighters under pressure in Syria, the new destination is Libya, where, unfortunately, there’s no authority and no order. For them, it’s paradise.” The streets that run past the low-slung houses of Ben Guerdane are unpaved. Entire fields are repositories for trash. There are no factories, no universities, none of the economic development seen in the northern tourist regions of Tunisia. On any given day, scores of unemployed young people sit in cafes or laze on street corners. Countless livelihoods are linked to illicit trafficking of weapons, fuel and consumer goods to and from Libya. Or to conflict. “Because of the poverty and the marginalization, the youth of Ben Guerdane find themselves with no options to remain here,” said Salem Chouat, 80, a former mayor. “At the same time, they meet with ISIS recruiters who promise lots of money, cars and a great life. So what do you expect the youth to do? Their choice is either smuggling or ISIS.” Hundreds of young men have left Ben Guerdane over the past three decades to wage jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia, **** radicalized in part by a repressive regime that persecuted Islamists. Their fighting skills were so valued that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the slain leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to the Islamic State, was known to have said, “If Ben Guerdane had been located next to Fallujah, we would have liberated Iraq.” After the 2011 revolution that ousted Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, religious extremists took advantage of the new freedoms and a security vacuum to help radicalize another generation of youths. More than 4,000 Tunisians joined the Islamic State and other armed factions in Syria and Iraq, often traveling there after receiving training and indoctrination in Libya, U.N. investigators said. An additional 1,000 to 1,500 went to fight in Libya. Many of the militants were from Ben Guerdane. Now, there are signs that the Islamic State is telling foreign fighters to go to Libya and stay there, underscoring the shifting geography of the terrorist network. The group established a stronghold in the city of Sirte after the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the militants view the coastal city as a possible fallback option if Raqqa, the Syrian seat of their self-declared caliphate, falls to the U.S.-led coalition. In October, Tunisian Defense Minister Farhat Horchani announced that at least 250 Tunisian Islamic State fighters had left Syria, after the Russian airstrikes began, to fight in Libya. In one recruiting video posted online last year, an Islamic State commander standing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, presumably in Libya, urges Muslims to join the fight against Gen. Khalifa Hifter, an anti-Islamist commander whose militias control parts of eastern Libya. “To all the brothers in the Arab Gulf islands, Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan,” the Islamic State commander says, “to all those who are protective of God’s religion, come and join our fight.” If proof was needed that the Tunisians listened, there was evidence in the aftermath of a U.S. airstrike on an Islamic State training camp in the Libyan city of Sabratha on Feb. 19. Most of the 41 killed were Tunisians. They probably included Noureddine Chouchane, a top commander who was recruiting and training Tunisians to attack inside their homeland, according to Tunisian and Libyan officials. Two weeks later, Tunisian militants stormed Ben Guerdane. Hussein Abdul Kabir remembers the four masked gunmen who entered his family’s compound in a Toyota pickup truck. It was shortly after 6 a.m. His brother Abdul Athi, head of Ben Guerdane’s counterterrorism brigade, was walking out of his house. As everyone scattered, the gunmen chased Abdul Athi. One speaking Arabic with a Tunisian accent yelled, “The non-believer, Abdul Athi,” Hussein recalled. Then two gunmen, unmasked, emerged from the house next door and ran in from the opposite direction. Abdul Athi was cornered. “The assassins knew the neighborhood well,” said Hussein, a bull-necked man with sad, dark eyes. Dried blood still stains the ground where his brother died. “I recognized one of them,” Hussein said. “He is from Ben Guerdane.” In a different part of town, militants attacked the police station, triggering heavy clashes. Some opened fire at a military barracks from the minaret of a mosque, attracting return fire that left it pocked with large holes. Street battles unfolded against security forces in other enclaves. During one battle, Salim Dhawi huddled in his cellphone shop as a fighter crouched in a firing position nearby. “He said: ‘Don’t worry. We are the Islamic State,’ ” Dhawi recalled. “ ‘We are here to protect you from this non-believer government.’ ” Witnesses said five militants erected a checkpoint in front of the Midway Cafe, as if they were already the lords of the town. They clutched Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Some wore military fatigues. They began stopping cars and checking IDs. At one point, they dragged a customs official from his car and shot him dead, said Mohamed Ali, a co-owner of the cafe. After the killing, he said, one fighter with a Tunisian accent declared, “Tomorrow, we will be ruling you.” By the time the clashes ended, 52 militants, 12 security force members and eight civilians were dead, said Naqi, the senior police official. All of the militants killed, he added, have been identified as Tunisians, including three commanders who were from Ben Guerdane. Was the assault designed to test the security forces’ capabilities? Was it revenge for the U.S. airstrike? Was it an attempt to create a foothold in Tunisia as the United States and its allies plan a possible military intervention in Libya? It may have been all of the above, Tunisian security officials said. Despite the repelling of the militants, a sense of collective unease lingers. A security barrier made of sand berms and water trenches, covering nearly half of Tunisia’s 285-mile border with Libya, was mostly complete in February. Yet many, if not all, of the militants crossed over from Libya. Five days before the attack, Tunisian security forces killed several militants in a house near Ben Guerdane. Yet the outfit managed to regroup and stage the bold, highly coordinated strike. Tunisian security forces said they later found safe houses in Ben Guerdane where weapons from Libya were stored, evidence of the relationship between the Islamic State and smuggling cartels that help fund and drive the conflict. Some of Abdul Athi’s own relatives are suspected of being Islamic State loyalists, recruited to get close to the man who knew the most about the militants’ network in the town. The house the two gunmen emerged from belonged to a cousin whose wife’s two brothers had fought in Syria, Tunisian security officials said. “He was targeted because he knew all the people of Ben Guerdane who sympathized with ISIS,” said his father, Mohammad Abdul Kabir, as he clutched his fatherless grandson, Mahab. “He knew all the people who went to Libya for training.” Since the attack, dozens of suspects have been arrested amid concerns about more cells in Ben Guerdane. Three mosques suspected of extremist teachings have been shut down. The border crossing into Libya is closed for Tunisians younger than 35 — unless they have a letter from their parents stating their purpose. Security forces are closely monitoring the relatives of alleged fighters. One of Hamza Jarie’s close relatives is among those being watched. Last year, Tunisian authorities branded Jarie, who is from Ben Guerdane, as one of the country’s most dangerous terrorists. He was captured in Sabratha by a Libyan militia after the U.S. airstrike in February. In a video posted online last month, Jarie confesses to working at an Islamic State propaganda radio station. The relative in Ben Guerdane said he was held and interrogated in prison. Security forces routinely raid his home in the predawn hours. He is not allowed to travel overseas, and he is stopped at security checkpoints whenever he leaves town. The taint has prevented him from finding a job. “I am paying for something I didn’t do,” said the relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears retribution from security forces. “This aggression by the state is what makes people disappointed in the state,” he said. “This is what makes terrorists.” Senior Tunisian security officials say such tactics are necessary. They also say concerns about human rights are hampering their ability to stop terrorists. “We are still learning democracy. But, personally, I can’t understand human rights for terrorists. They want to kill us,” said Maali, the anti-terrorism chief. Sipping coffee at a crowded sidewalk cafe, former mayor Chouat warned that the security measures are unlikely to stop Ben Guerdane’s youths from flowing next door or fighting from inside Tunisia — as long as the south remains without good schools, roads and jobs. “If the situation continues like this, we may lose full control of our youth,” he said. “We fear it will make them angrier at the government. We fear it will push them to do all kinds of bad things.” **** The war against the Islamic State hits hurdles just as the U.S. military gears up Israel, Hamas and Egypt form unlikely alliance against Islamic State affiliate How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong A Syrian rebel’s slaying in Turkey points to the long, lethal reach of ISIS

Alarmed Germans wonder about the security risks posed by asylum seekers

BERLIN — When hundreds of thousands of migrants poured into Europe from the war-torn Middle East and beyond, Germany stepped in with shelter and aid. Yet a new wave of violence is exposing the extent to which Western Europe’s most populous nation has also opened the door to risk. The latest attack: A rejected Syrian asylum seeker who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and was known by authorities to be suicidal, detonated a backpack bomb rigged with metal projectiles in the Bavarian city of Ansbach late Sunday. After being turned away from a pop music fest for not having a ticket, the 27-year-old exploded the bomb near a wine bar, killing himself and wounding 15 bystanders — including three left in serious condition. It marked the fourth bloody assault on German soil in a week, stoking the fears of Germans who have largely looked on as terrorism struck their neighbors. A disturbed Iranian German teenager carried out the most deadly of the attacks — the mall shooting Friday that left 10 dead including the assailant. Yet the three others involved asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan — two of them self-described supporters of the Islamic State. Though the vast majority of migrants are peaceful and in genuine need of sanctuary, the violence is sparking a national debate here. How, Germans wonder, did a country with relatively weak intelligence services allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers without a firm plan for managing the potential consequences? “I am absolutely pro-Syrian [migrants], but the German government has underestimated the problem,” said Guido Steinberg , a terrorism expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “The [asylum seekers] are traumatized, they are brutalized, and they react in ways that have become totally alien to our country.” In the wake of the attacks, officials are growing alarmed at the prospect that some traumatized asylum seekers are easily recruited or self-radicalized. Sunday’s attack came only days after a 17-year-old ax-wielding Afghan asylum seeker — a video of whom was released by the Islamic State — wounded five people in an attack begun on a Bavarian commuter train. On Monday, Germany beefed up security at airports and train stations. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said authorities are now conducting 59 investigations into refugees suspected of possible links to terrorist organizations. But authorities, critics say, have failed to recognize that a small number of migrants, severely traumatized by war and strife, can react in unpredictable ways. Also on Sunday, for instance, a Syrian refugee in the city of Reutlingen hacked to death a Polish woman, and left two others wounded, in what officials called a crime of passion. Together, the string of attacks has focused attention on migrants in a way not seen since January, when a spate of sexual assaults during New Year’s Eve celebrations sparked a national outcry. Politicians and pundits are calling for new measures to more quickly vet asylum seekers, deport those rejected and prevent radicalization inside refugee centers. They are also calling for more local police officers. Among the migrants coming to Germany “are also persons who are a considerable danger for internal security,” Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of Parliament from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, told the N24 broadcaster on Monday. Refugee advocacy groups warned, however, that innocent refugees are beginning to feel targeted. Activists called for more assistance to aid refugees affected by wars, warning that discord between the newcomers and German society would only delight the Islamic State. “Because of their circumstances, not only in their home countries, but also while fleeing, many new arrivals are traumatized to a high degree,” said Karl Kopp, spokesman for the advocacy group Pro Asyl. “They need to be reached . . . and that’s expensive.” Last month, Parliament passed a series of new security measures — a notable departure in a country with a strong aversion to heavy state security, given the Nazi and Cold War eras. It is now mandatory, for instance, to show identification when buying a prepaid cellphone card, and the federal police will be able to deploy undercover agents. It is also now easier for the German domestic intelligence service to collect and store data from teenagers as young as 14. Yet Germany, experts say, is still facing a huge challenge. It is possible, for instance, to board a flight at Berlin’s Tegel Airport to destinations inside the European Union without ever showing a passport or identification card. The German intelligence services are far more reliant than the British or the French on local police work and tips from foreign agencies for counterterrorism operations. Officials are also facing a backlog for processing asylum seekers, leaving them blind to the backgrounds of many recently arrived migrants. The deportation system, meanwhile, is rife with loopholes, and rejected migrants do not necessarily leave. The Ansbach suicide bomber, for instance, was issued deportation orders in 2014, after German officials discovered that he had previously applied for, and received, asylum in Bulgaria. He was supposed to be deported back to Bulgaria but was permitted to remain after twice trying to kill himself. He received psychiatric treatment. Then, a second deportation order was issued on July 15 — nine days before the attack. He left behind a video on his cellphone pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, according to Joachim Herrmann, the top security official in Bavaria. Citing a provisional translation of the video in Arabic, Herrmann said the bomber “then announces an act of revenge against the Germans, because they are getting in the way of Islam.” The Islamic State, according to Amaq, a news agency that supports the group, claimed responsibility for the attack. But the claim came only after the German announcement about the video, and the Islamic State did not offer any fresh details about the attacker, raising questions about whether the claim was real or perhaps opportunistic. “As of now, it doesn’t seem that there was any coordination between ISIS and the bomber,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist organizations. Herrmann said German investigators have not yet found evidence that the suspect was in direct contact with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, though he may have been inspired by it. Investigators were still seeking to determine whether he was driven by extremism, mental incapacity or a combination of both. “Our security authorities are well organized, but there can never be absolute security,” de Maizière said Monday.

The Islamic State’s latest shock tactic: Showing children on suicide missions

The boy appears to be no older than 12. He hugs his father, climbs into an armored vehicle packed with explosives, then kisses his father’s hand before departing on a mission that ends in a fireball on the horizon. That attack in Aleppo last month was one of at least 89 cases over the past year in which the Islamic State employed children or teenagers in suicide missions, according to new research that indicates the terrorist group is sending youths to their deaths in greater and greater numbers. The father-son sequence was memorialized in propaganda photos released last month by the Islamic State, adding to an expanding collection of online eulogies that provides insight into how the organization uses children in both combat operations and mass-casualty attacks on civilians in Iraq and Syria.  The study describes the Islamic State’s use of children in suicide attacks as part of a broader strategy to cultivate a generation of school-age militants indoctrinated in the group’s ideology and completely inured to its extreme brand of violence. Since its emergence as a dominant force in Syria, the Islamic State has frequently cast children in roles designed to shock outsiders. A video released last month showed a child in an Islamic State headband pressing the button on a remote control, detonating a bomb strapped to a car containing three accused spies. But the new study is the first comprehensive catalog of cases in which the Islamic State used children in missions where they were expected to die. Roughly 60 percent of the victims were categorized as “adolescent,” meaning ages 12 to 16. None were older than 18, and some were as young as 8 or 9, according to researchers at Georgia State University involved in the project. At least 11 children or adolescents were killed in Islamic State operations in January, compared with six in the same month a year ago, according to the report, titled “Depictions of Children and Youth in the Islamic State’s ‘Martyrdom’ Propaganda.” The use of children in combat has often been a sign of desperation, as was the case in Nazi Germany in the closing months of World War II. But researchers said that the Islamic State is not being forced to rely on underage fighters because of dwindling adult ranks. Instead, they said that the group seems to employ children for reasons including their propaganda impact and ability to evade detection, as well as a system of values that regards even young lives as subordinate to the cause of reestablishing a “caliphate.” “It is striking that children are being integrated into the ISIS war machine not as substitutes but as soldiers and suicide attackers fighting alongside adult [militants],” said Charlie Winter, a senior research associate at Georgia State and co-author of the report, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. Winter said that the practice could intensify if the Islamic State loses territory and fighters. “We know that there are a lot more [children] being recruited than eulogized,” Winter said. “As the military situation becomes more difficult for ISIS in the months and years to come, we’ll see more instances of youths being used on the battlefield.” The vast majority of the children and teenagers used in suicide missions were from Iraq or Syria, where the Islamic State controls an area the size of West Virginia, according to the report. But others came from the Middle East and North Africa, and at least four were from Western nations, with two from Britain and one each from France and Australia. // <![CDATA[ // ]]> The list of underage fighters killed between January 2015 and 2016 was assembled by examining Islamic State propaganda releases that generally did not disclose victims’ real names or ages. Instead, researchers categorized the youths as adolescent or pre-adolescent based on physical characteristics or other clues. Of the 89 cases cited in the report, 36 underage fighters were killed after carrying out operations in which they drove vehicles packed with explosives. Eighteen took part in teams that carried out Kamikaze-style assaults on enemy positions, firing weapons and then detonating suicide belts. Only two cases involved suicide attacks on civilian targets. Other terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, have tended to conceal their use of children in suicide attacks because of public scorn for the tactic, said Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State and a co-author of the report. The Islamic State, by contrast, “is absolutely advertising it and making it routine,” Bloom said, citing not only the group’s use of children in attacks but widespread evidence that children routinely attend public beheadings and screenings of propaganda videos showing other children being employed in suicide missions. “It’s about changing what is considered right and wrong and making children almost immune to the horrific nature of what they’re seeing,” Bloom said. “It hardens these children and makes them more ready and psychologically available for things they’ll do in the future.” The researchers did not include the images and videos they examined in their published report, citing privacy issues and a desire to be sensitive to families of the victims. But the study, which was funded through a grant program backed by the Pentagon, refers to images that have been widely circulated online. Among them are the slide-show-like sequence of the father and his son in Aleppo, as well as an image of a child “wearing his baseball cap back-to-front, sitting atop what appears to be a fairground ride” before he was eulogized as a “martyr” by the Islamic State’s media wing in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital. The toll has grown since the report was completed. Winter said that five new eulogies for youths were released by the Islamic State on Thursday.

Tunisia, after igniting Arab Spring, sends the most fighters to Islamic State in Syria

TUNIS — Tunisian pastry chef Slim Gasmi died on a Syrian battlefield and was lionized with a hashtag: #martyrdomofabuqatada. Gasmi, 28, had been trying to build a life for himself and his new fiancee in a working-class Tunis neighborhood, but a radical Islamist roommate persuaded him to travel to Syria to fight in that country’s civil war. By the time he was killed in April more than 1,500 miles from home, he had transformed into a warrior with a long beard and a nom de guerre, Abu Qatada, celebrated on a radical jihadist Twitter feed. Tunisia, a small North African country of 11 million people, has become the largest source of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to estimates by the Tunisian government and private analysts. As many as 3,000 Tunisians, most of them men under 30, have joined the battle, placing this popular Mediterranean tourist destination higher than even Saudi Arabia and Jordan on the list of the homelands of the 15,000 or so foreigners fighting with the Islamic State and other radical militant groups. That flow of Tunisian fighters is partly an unintended consequence of the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 that overthrew longtime dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and touched off popular revolutions across the region. The moderate, Islamist-led government elected after the revolution granted new religious freedom after a half-century of harshly enforced secularism, when the state banned women’s veils and almost all other displays of piety and jailed thousands of people it suspected of holding Islamist beliefs. That freedom was quickly exploited by Islamist radicals, who killed two politicians and at least 25 police officers and soldiers, and used newly free mosques to incite a rising tide of violence that now reaches as far as Islamic State strongholds in Syria and Iraq. Faced with sudden bloodshed in a country that had long been a calm, European-style oasis wedged between chaotic Libya and Algeria, the post-revolution government has struggled to balance religious freedom and public security. Human rights organizations and lawyers say the government has overemphasized security, creating a climate of repression and anger that is fueling the flow of Tunisian fighters to the Islamic State. “For many of these young men, death in Syria is a lot better option than staying here and going to prison, and being tortured and harassed,” said Marwen Jedda, a human rights lawyer who represents many Islamist clients. In a country that is 99 percent Muslim, the government has banned more than 150 Muslim civic organizations, closed a radio station and arrested at least 2,000 young people on terrorism charges. Rights advocates say the government is engaging in the same arbitrary arrests and systematic torture of prisoners practiced by Ben Ali’s brutal regime, in power from 1987 to 2011. Government officials deny that security forces use widespread torture but say they are being tough to protect the country from violent radicals who took advantage of their new freedoms. “We gave them too much oxygen, and now we are choking on that oxygen,” Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, who is in charge of Tunisia’s security, said in an interview. Tunisia has a long history of sending “holy warriors” to fight in Gaza, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq. Analysts here said that for many years Ben Ali tacitly encouraged them to go overseas, preferring that they commit their violence far from the tree-lined boulevards and sidewalk cafes of Tunis. But the flow to Syria, and particularly to the Islamic State — the brutal group that recently beheaded two U.S. journalists and two British aid workers — is the largest exodus of fighters in Tunisia’s history. The government is waging a campaign using billboards to remind people of Tunisia’s traditionally moderate brand of Islam. The billboards read “Terrorism is not ours.” “I talk about this all the time during Friday prayers,” said Imam Arbi Zitoun of the Sidi Youssef Dey Mosque in Tunis. “I tell people that going to Syria is like killing yourself. That is not the Islam of Tunisia.” In interviews here, the families of several men who traveled to Syria to fight said they went partly because of poor economic conditions, noting that Tunisian unemployment is high and the Islamic State pays its fighters a salary. But they said a far greater motivation was a sense that Tunisia’s government, even after the revolution, is hostile to its own Muslim population. They said frustrated young men are being radicalized in mosques and on the Internet, often by preachers and recruiters from, or paid by patrons in, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or other Persian Gulf states. “Young people are thirsty for religion, and they are looking for identity and meaning in their lives, and when someone shows up and offers that, they are impressed and will follow that person,” said Mahfoudh Balti, whose 21-year-old son, who was studying to be an electrician, went to fight in Syria two years ago. “The lack of religious freedoms in Tunisia influenced my son, because now if you pray in a mosque they accuse you of terrorism,” Balti said. “By preventing these young men from praying, it pushes them another way.” Balti said his son, whom he declined to identify by name, became disillusioned when he arrived in Syria and saw Muslim groups fighting one another instead of the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. He said his son never fought with any group and remains in hiding in Aleppo, Syria, unable to return home because he knows he would be arrested and charged with terrorism. Jeddou, the interior minister, said between 450 and 500 Tunisian men have returned and about a third of them are in jail. The government is closely monitoring the rest, hoping that they might lead officials to networks involved in radicalizing young people and sending them to fight. Monia Bouali, 43, a Tunis lawyer, said that when she was 15, she was jailed for two weeks for wearing a head scarf to school. She was thrown out of her public school and blocked by Ben Ali’s regime from going to medical school, and she sees the same pattern being repeated even after the pro-democracy revolution. “So far, the government is only dealing with these young people on the security level, and that’s a big mistake,” she said. “You can’t oppress them for being Muslim, because this is a Muslim society. You need to allow them to express themselves and to be involved in civil-society organizations. “If you oppress religion, it will rise again in another shape,” she said. In October 2011, Tunisia elected its first post-revolution government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. But that government resigned in January over its inability to complete a new constitution and amid criticism that its failure to control its most extreme supporters had led to the rise in violence. A caretaker government was installed, finished the constitution and oversaw parliamentary elections held Sunday, in which Ennahda finished second to the secular Nidaa Tounes party. Presidential elections will be held next month. Jeddou said the Ennahda government initially tried to allow Islamists to organize and be part of society. He said officials allowed the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, formed by some of the 3,000 men released from Tunisian prisons immediately after the revolution, to hold public meetings and do social work in poor neighborhoods. But by the end of 2012, he said, “they showed their true face.” He blamed Ansar al-Sharia for the assassinations of two opposition politicians in 2012, and for the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. Embassy and an American school, among other acts of violence. The U.S. government has categorized Ansar al-Sharia as a terrorist organization. Its founder is one of the men released from prison, Saif Allah bin Hussein, better known as Abu Ayyad, a veteran jihadist who fought in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden. The government banned the group in August 2013 and made membership a crime. Pushing the group underground has led to even more violence, including an attack on Jeddou’s home in May that killed several guards. Jeddou said security forces have tortured some suspects, but he called those individual “lapses,” not a policy. He said that under Ben Ali, torture was systematically used against political enemies and involved doctors advising torturers on the most effective techniques. He said his ministry is working to eradicate torture but “we are still in a period of transition.” He said the government knows of 2,560 Tunisians who have gone to fight in Syria, at least 80 percent of them with the Islamic State. He said the actual number was probably closer to 3,000. Of those, he said, 450 have been killed and 60 are being held in the Assad government’s prisons. He said the Tunisian government has stopped 9,000 more from going to Syria, catching them either at the Tunis airport or at border crossings into Libya or Algeria. Jeddou said a small percentage of those going to fight with the Islamic State are educated professionals. The vast majority, he said, are “not sophisticated people, with limited education and social problems.” Slim Gasmi was born and raised in the southern desert town of Tataouine, where parts of the “Star Wars” movies were filmed, then moved to Tunis after dropping out of high school. When he couldn’t find work after his vocational-school training as a pastry chef, he left for Libya to look for a job. He had relatives there and quickly found work with a food wholesaler. He started saving money for his marriage and came home every few weeks to visit his fiancee in Tunis. His sister, Latifa, first noticed changes when he visited in June 2013. He had never been particularly religious, but now he grew his beard and told his sister that he was thinking of going to Syria to fight because “people in Syria are suffering, and we need to help them.” The family suspected the influence of Gasmi’s new roommate in Libya, another Tunisian man who was far more religious. They also feared that in Libya he had encountered proselytizers from Saudi Arabia or other Persian Gulf countries who had recruited him to fight in Syria. On the phone, he started repeating a phrase that his family found chilling and out of character: “The land of Levant is the land of jihad.” Latifa said she pleaded with him: “If you want to be a good person, you don’t kill people. If you come home and teach people the Koran, that’s doing jihad, too. You don’t have to go to Syria to kill people to do jihad.” On New Year’s Eve in 2013, he called home to say he was in Turkey and about to cross into Syria. Latifa, in tears, begged him not to go, but he told her not to worry. A month later he called his brother, Tijani, to say he was in an Islamic State camp near Aleppo, Syria. His brother started crying and told him to come home. Gasmi started crying, too, and said that he wanted to leave but couldn’t because the militants had taken his passport and wouldn’t let him go. He told his brother that he didn’t like the bloody infighting among competing Islamist forces in Syria. “I’m not here to kill people, I’m here to help people,” he said. The family didn’t hear from him again until late March, when he contacted his fiancee on Facebook. He seemed depressed, and his message was cryptic: “I can’t tell you anything,” he said. “I want to talk to you but I can’t.” He ended the message with a sad-face emoticon. On April 1, Gasmi’s aunt called the last number from which he had called. A man answered, and she asked to speak to Slim. “First of all, his name is not Slim,” the man said. “It’s Abu Qatada. And Abu Qatada was martyred today. We have already had a funeral for him and buried him.” The next day, a photo of Gasmi’s body, with his new martyr’s hashtag, was posted on Twitter by an al-Qaeda affiliate known as Jabhat al-Nusra. It showed him lying on a field stretcher, his face bruised and lined with dried blood. His eyes and mouth were half-open. The photo also appeared on a Facebook page maintained by the group. There, one commenter said Gasmi had fled the Islamic State but was stopped at a Jabhat al-Nusra checkpoint, where he was taken into custody and forced to join the group. It said he was killed in battle. “He was just naive. He didn’t know what he was doing over there,” said his uncle, Ahmed Lahmar. “Tunisian men are being sold as sheep.”

Security threat from Yemen complicates Obama’s Guantanamo plan

The recent security threat emanating from Yemen has complicated President Obama’s latest push to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reviving doubts among conservative lawmakers about whether it is safe to return Yemeni detainees to their turbulent home country. More than half of the 166 prisoners being held in Guantanamo are from Yemen, and the transfer of many of them is essential to Obama’s long-promised goal of closing the detention center. But the recent threat involving al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the terrorist group’s Yemen-based branch is known, underlines the national security and political obstacles ahead. The United States and other countries this week shut down their embassies in Yemen, citing concerns about security. “Since it’s now well-known that Yemen-based al-Qaeda is actively plotting against us, I don’t see how the president can honestly say any detainee should be transferred to Yemen,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement. “Sending them to countries where al-Qaeda and its affiliates operate and continue to attack our interests is not a solution.” It is not the first time that Yemen has emerged as the prime obstacle to Obama’s attempt to close the prison, which he has called an important terrorist recruiting tool and a $350 million annual burden on the strained federal budget. After the attempted bombing in 2009 of a Detroit-bound airliner by a young Nigerian trained in Yemen, Obama suspended the transfer of Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo. The effort to close the prison had slowed ever since. But a hunger strike by a majority of Guantanamo detainees this year pushed questions about the prison’s legality and Obama’s languishing promise to close it back into the public debate. In a May speech at the National Defense University, the president announced that he was lifting his moratorium. That has set in motion, albeit slowly, an assessment process led by the Defense Department and known as the Periodic Review Board. The board will hold hearings for about 70 detainees who have not been cleared for return, about 30 of whom are from Yemen. An additional 86 detainees — the majority of them Yemeni — were cleared more than four years ago for repatriation or resettlement, although the White House must notify Congress before any transfer can occur. Late last month, the administration notified Congress that it would soon repatriate two Algerian detainees. The Yemeni government is a U.S. ally in counterterrorism operations, tacitly allowing drone strikes against suspected militant targets. But the government’s weak hold on much of the rugged country has allowed al-Qaeda’s most potent franchise to flourish in the hinterlands and in some cities. Last week, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi visited the White House to discuss repatriation efforts, drawing praise from Obama for his help on security issues. At the same time, the State Department’s new special envoy for Guantanamo closure efforts, Clifford Sloan, is negotiating the terms of prisoner repatriation to Yemen to determine how the government intends to prevent their return to the battlefield. Those measures could include a short-term detention on return, regular monitoring, or participation in a reintegration program, which has proven successful in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. During his meeting with Obama, Hadi said he intended to start “an extremist rehabilitation program,” although the cash-strapped government’s efforts to do so have been hampered by the cost. “They obviously have a number of good candidates for repatriation, including those cleared by the national security process more than four years ago,” said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Nobody sent back to Yemen is just going to be dropped off at the airport.” The new Yemen threat comes as a divided Congress prepares for a fall debate over rival elements within the defense authorization legislation that could help or hinder Obama’s ability to shutter the prison. The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved proposals from the chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), that would give Obama more flexibility in transferring prisoners and allow some to be detained, to be prosecuted or to receive specialized medical care inside the United States. Chambliss and other Republicans on the committee objected in a minority report. The GOP-controlled House, meanwhile, approved a measure that would block any Yemeni prisoner transfers. The administration and many Hill Democrats objected, and those elements will be the subject of debate when Congress takes up the matter again as early as next month. “I don’t think that the release of any Yemeni detainees is imminent,” said David Remes, a civil liberties lawyer who represents 14 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo. “I do believe that the heightened security concerns would complicate matters if the president were planning to transfer Yemeni detainees very soon.” Two of Remes’s Yemeni clients are scheduled to be among the first to go before the Defense Department’s Periodic Review Board, which will determine what security risk each detainee would present if returned. Remes visited Guantanamo last month to meet with his clients about the board hearing, which is likely before the end of the year. Lawyers and civil liberties advocates say that the fact that the first two detainees to undergo the review are from Yemen underscores the importance that Obama has placed on repatriating that group. But Remes is worried that the latest security threat may disrupt any planned transfers to Yemen and, perhaps, delay the review process for others. “The security concerns are unfounded,” he said. “It’s easy to demagogue the issue, and so far President Obama has rolled over every time he has faced controversy on this.” Senior administration officials say Obama has no plans to reconsider his decision to lift the transfer moratorium, saying that doing so was based not on security assessments but on the improved cooperation and capabilities of Hadi’s 20-month-old government. “We are continuing to review detainees from Yemen on a case-by-case basis, as we do with detainees from all other countries,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Yemeni rebels pose a rising threat in southern Saudi Arabia

NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia — Thousands of Saudi troops have been deployed along these desiccated hills, struggling to halt cross-border attacks by Yemeni rebels who fire rockets and carry out lethal ground incursions. The Yemeni fighters have killed and captured hundreds of Saudi soldiers in a conflict that presents Saudi Arabia with the biggest challenge to its territory in years. Thousands of mortar shells and crude rockets have slammed into schools, mosques and homes in Najran, a city of several hundred thousand people only a few miles from the mountains of northern Yemen. The border assaults have come in response to a devastating air and ground war that a Saudi-led military coalition launched in Yemen last year. That conflict has in turn spilled across the border with devastating consequences, said Maj. Gen. Saad Olyan, who commands more than 20,000 Saudi forces along the 1,100-mile southern border. “Just last week, 10 of my men were killed by these militiamen on the border,” he said. His forces are battling increasingly sophisticated ambushes by the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, and units from Yemen’s splintered military. “Some of them were killed in an ambush, shot in cold blood” by the rebels, Olyan said during an interview at his Najran headquarters, which has been struck by rocket fire. Najran residents try to go about life normally, but the scars left by the Yemeni attacks reflect how brutal the fighting has become. Dents in the streets that appear to be potholes were actually made by exploded mortar shells. Many schools — some of which have been hit by Katyusha and Grad rockets — have been closed. Thousands of residents living in border communities have been moved to safer ground, and Najran’s airport has been closed to civilian air traffic because of the fighting. “The attacks come suddenly, and you can’t do anything about them,” said Abdullah al-Nasser, 41, an administrator at a nursery school in Najran that was hit by a rocket several months ago. Fortunately, he said as he walked through the school’s destroyed auditorium, there were no casualties. Thousands of civilians have been killed since the Saudi-led military coalition — which includes mostly fellow Sunni Muslim nations — intervened in Yemen, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in the desperately poor country. Saudi Arabia intervened to stop assaults by the Houthis, followers of the Zaydi sect of Shiite Islam who toppled Yemen’s Saudi-backed government last year. Saudi officials accuse the Houthis of acting as proxies of Iran, a Shiite-led powerhouse and the kingdom’s foremost regional competitor. In turn, the rebels and allied military units loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have sought to inflict pain on Saudi Arabia by launching intense cross-border attacks. Houthi-affiliated media outlets regularly report that the rebels have stormed deep inside southern parts of the kingdom, including near Najran. The city sprawls with drab, low-slung apartment buildings and lacks the hustle and bustle of Riyadh, the capital, about 500 miles to the north. The old downtown, which dates back hundreds of years, features quaint shops that sell ornamental knives, traditional desert clothing and spices. The place would feel like a sleepy village were it not for the raging conflict. The fighting comes amid a wave of attacks in the kingdom claimed by the Islamic State, including a suicide bombing in October that killed one worshiper at a mosque in Najran. Saudi officials, moreover, have been forced to mobilize a massive number of troops along the Yemen border at a time of financial hardship from slumping oil prices and expensive outlays that include propping up Egypt’s increasingly authoritarian leadership and backing rebels in Syria’s civil war. “The Houthi-Saleh threat to southern Saudi is off the charts,” said Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based analyst who specializes in Persian Gulf security issues. Although part of Saudi territory, areas in the south historically have been claimed by Yemen. Residents of Najran and surrounding territory have strong family and cultural connections to communities in Yemen. Furthermore, the majority of residents in Najran are Ismailis, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. They have long complained of discrimination by Saudi authorities, who officially practice a particularly conservative form of Sunni Islam whose followers regularly condemn Shiites as apostates. “The Ismailis are seen as heretics by the conservative Saudi elite,” said Karasik, who noted that the Yemeni rebels appear to be attacking the area to test the loyalties of Ismailis. But some Ismaili residents of Najran say that the Yemen war actually has improved relations with Saudi authorities. Abdullah Sedran said that the military and government officials have attempted to reach out to the local Ismaili population during the crisis. “There is a sense that the discrimination has decreased, and you feel that the government has done a lot to restrict the extremists who call us infidels,” said Sedran, 52, an Ismaili who lives in Najran. Fahad Nazer, a former political analyst at Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Washington, said local tribesman have rallied around the Saudi cause. “A number of videos have circulated on social media showing tribal leaders in Najran and Jizan reciting poetry and expressing gratitude to the troops stationed there,” he said, referring to another Saudi area attacked by Yemeni rebels. Col. Yaser al-Qahtani said he has noticed a sense of solidarity during the conflict. He heads the air defenses around Najran, including Patriot missile batteries that defend the area from Yemeni-fired Scud missiles, longer-range projectiles capable delivering a large payload. On a recent day, he displayed the U.S.-made missile defense system to a visiting journalist as he spoke about the suffering experienced by civilians and soldiers. “I was at work when a missile destroyed my home here,” said Qahtani, 43, a Najran resident and father of four. “Luckily, my family wasn’t there, or they all would have been killed.” He added, “We are all together in this war.” **Read more:** Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Al-Shabab militants storm army base in Somalia, killing dozens

A large contingent of al-Shabab militants stormed a Somali military encampment on Thursday, killing dozens of government-aligned soldiers and civilian bystanders. The incident was rare in its brutality — many of the dead reportedly were beheaded — as well as its location in the semiautonomous region of Puntland, hundreds of miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, where al-Shabab has focused its recent attacks. Military officers gave conflicting reports of the number of soldiers killed when speaking to news agencies. Estimates ranged from 20 to 70, although all agreed it was the worst al-Shabab attack in Puntland in many years. Through its Shahada News Agency, al-Shabab claimed that it killed 61 soldiers. The attack came just days after Puntland sentenced five al-Shabab fighters to death after they were found driving a truck laden with explosives through the region’s biggest city, Bosaso, in late April. The events Thursday unfolded in the village of Af Urur, about 60 miles southwest of Bosaso. Puntland is also home to a group of fighters that splintered off from al-Shabab last year to form an Islamic State affiliate. Al-Shabab is an Islamist group whose leaders have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. They are most active in southern Somalia, where they once exercised almost total control, but since 2011 have been pushed out of most major cities by African Union troops. The troops attacked on Thursday belong to the Puntland Dervish Force, an official paramilitary group that receives substantial funding from the United States. The number of people killed by al-Shabab rose sharply last year, as compared to 2015. A study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies found that the group was responsible for 4,281 deaths, a 30 percent rise. Those numbers make al-Shabab the deadliest militant group in Africa, as attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria dropped precipitously in 2016 after years of accelerating violence. Between 1991 and 2012, Somalia effectively had no internationally recognized federal government and was in a state of civil war. The northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland assumed differing degrees of autonomy during those years, and the country has yet to fully reintegrate. Elections earlier this year brought Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to power. Known as “Farmajo,” he is seen by many as a leader capable of working toward national unity. A resurgent al-Shabab has compounded the misery that has beset Somalia stemming from more than two years of pervasive drought. Nearly 7 million Somalis are dependent on some form of humanitarian aid, accounting for more than half the country’s population. Thursday’s attack plays into fears that al-Shabab will expand its militancy during the holy month of Ramadan. The attacks often prevent aid organizations from going about their work.

The questions unanswered in Jordan attack that killed 2 U.S. contractors

JERASH, Jordan — The shooting deaths of five people, including two U.S. contractors, at a police academy in Jordan this month was probably a violent workplace rampage by a disgruntled officer rather than an act of terrorism, Jordanian officials say. His concerns were not about politics or religion but were personal and mostly about money, his family and friends say. But the official version of events provided by the Jordanian government sheds little light on the shooter, who has been identified as police Capt. Anwar Abu Zeid. Questions remain about what made him snap and why he seemingly targeted foreigners. On Nov. 9, Abu Zeid opened fire at the international police training academy, killing a South African trainer, two Jordanian interpreters and the two Americans. The center is at the sprawling U.S.-funded King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) in Amman. The three foreigners were employees of the U.S. defense contractor DynCorp International. The attack sent shock waves through the kingdom, a key U.S. ally, where several hundred American military advisers and contractors work closely with Jordanian counterparts in training members of the Iraqi, Palestinian and Libyan security forces. The location of the shooting prompted speculation that the Islamic State was involved. The timing also seemed suspicious: The attack occurred on the 10th anniversary of suicide bombings that killed 60 people at three hotels in the capital. Al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq said it carried out those attacks in retaliation for Jordan’s pro-Western policies. After initial investigations into the shooting, Jordanian authorities ruled out Islamic State or al-Qaeda involvement. Instead, they said it was a “lone wolf attack,” the act of a “disturbed” individual. The motive “is rooted in the shooter’s psychological and financial issues, which has been proved by investigations and witnesses’ testimony,” Interior Minister Salameh Hammad said at a news conference Nov. 14 in which the investigative findings were announced. The U.S. Embassy cautioned that all avenues are still being explored as investigations continue. “We have seen the preliminary conclusions announced by the Ministry of Interior and are working together to continue investigating all possible motivations and links of the attacker,” the embassy said in a statement. Although the Islamic State praised the attack, no group has asserted responsibility for it. The Islamist groups active in Jordan range from the Muslim Brotherhood to hard-line, al-Qaeda-aligned Salafists. In Abu Zeid’s home village of Raymun, a cluster of squat, white cinder-block houses atop rolling hills of olive orchards about 40 miles north of Amman, friends and relatives remembered the father of two as devoted to his king and country. On graduating from university, Abu Zeid quickly rose through police ranks to become a captain in Jordan’s criminal investigations department, often dealing with the country’s most violent criminals. Although he rarely spoke of his work, his relatives said they believe he spent part of his career working on a counterterrorism unit, compiling an extensive file on Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, leading to his appointment at the Jordan International Police Training Center at KASOTC in January. The Jordanian government has declined to comment on Abu Zeid’s professional duties or position at the center. Abu Zeid was an observant Muslim, attending dawn prayers at his neighborhood mosque and even fasting every Monday and Thursday — a voluntary undertaking modeled after the example of the prophet Muhammad. As a job perk, the Jordanian government twice sent him on the hajj; once to accompany his mother on her pilgrimage and again as an award for memorizing the Koran. In all, he made 13 trips to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. “Yes, Anwar was observant, but so we all are, and so were all his colleagues,” said Fadi Abu Zeid, his brother. “Our Islam is a moderate Islam, one that condemns acts of violence.” When he married seven years ago, Abu Zeid paid for his wedding himself at a cost of several thousand dollars, a large sum for a Jordanian police officer. Under pressure, he took out a hefty loan for “personal reasons” from an Islamic bank four months ago, his family members said. They also said that the bulk of Abu Zeid’s $775 monthly salary went to paying off that loan. On the day of the shooting, Abu Zeid attended dawn prayers and took a police bus to Amman. Police say he hid a Kalashnikov assault rifle and 138 rounds of ammunition in a duffel bag. When he reached the gates of the compound, he was asked what was in the bag, according to Jordanian reports. He replied that it was his “winter uniform.” Personal firearms are not allowed on the compound, and only the center’s guards carry guns. In his only reported communications with family or friends that day, Abu Zeid asked his mother to set aside for his dinner a plate of his favorite meal, steamed cabbage stuffed with rice and meat. After noon prayers, Abu Zeid retrieved his bag from his office, then walked toward the police training center. When a car with three trainers drove by, he fired on it, killing a U.S. contractor inside. He went to the academy’s canteen, which is reserved for foreign trainers, just as contractors were sitting down to lunch. According to official Jordanian accounts, he opened fire indiscriminately, fatally hitting the four other victims. He then fled to the forested edge of the compound and positioned himself behind a tree, firing at guards and staffers who were in pursuit. A shootout ensued, ending when a marksman’s bullet hit Abu Zeid in the forehead, killing him, police say. Jordanian authorities say they are trying to uncover how Abu Zeid acquired the Kalashnikov and smuggled it into the high-security area. Fadi, Abu Zeid’s brother, has expressed skepticism about the official account, demanding the release of surveillance video. Abu Zeid’s relatives speculate that he might have been bullied at work. During his burial last week, a handful of people shouted, “Death to America.” The families of the two slain Jordanian translators are demanding answers and a settlement from Abu Zeid’s tribe, declaring the killings a “premeditated terrorist attack.” Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world