11.27
“ISIS is mimicking Australian military advertisements to recruit vulnerable men, experts have warned. Professor Greg Barton, chair of Global Islamic Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, told news.com.au the techniques being used help brainwash young Australians into thinking they can become part of a greater cause. 'If you look at ISIL (Islamic State) propaganda, disregarding the deliberately provocative stuff like beheadings, a lot of it resembles mainstream military recruitment,' Professor Barton said. 'It sells itself as a way of being respected, learning skills, doing interesting things and making a difference for a so-called important cause.'The Australian Defence Force (ADF) also advertise jobs by showing Australians that there is an important value to 'our way of life'. ‘Working in close cooperation, the Navy, Army and Air Force are tasked with the defence of: our nation, its borders and coastline our people and their values, and our way of life,' their website reads. They explain that life in the ADF is enjoyable, with 'days that are always different.”
Egypt
Egypt Today: Muslim Brotherhood Members Adopt ISIS Ideology In Prison
“Leader of the intellectual reviews of the Muslim Brotherhood youth in prisons, Amr Abdul-Hafiz, revealed on Thursday that many elements of the Muslim Brotherhood group adopted the ideology of ISIS in prison. “After five years of dealing with Muslim Brotherhood in prison since the ousting of Mohamed Morsi, I can divide MB members into four sections,” he said revealing that the first section possesses the same ideas and convictions, the second section tends to be more extreme and more violent, the third one started to accept the fact that the group should handle its situation with the government and the fourth wants to get out of prison after repentance. He said that prisons repress extremists but do not deal with extremism, adding that " extremists may come out after a while, and prisons should turn into hospitals that deal with extremism.” On September 23, Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a court ruling putting prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader and businessman Hassan Malek and 55 other MB members on the list of terrorist entities. On August 30, Cairo Criminal Court put the MB members on the terrorist list over accusations of damaging the Egyptian economy by smuggling foreign currencies and financially supporting terrorist groups. In 2015, the attorney general referred Malek and other defendants to the Emergency Court after he was arrested by security forces. Several members of Malek’s family were also added to the terror list endorsed by Cairo Criminal Court in December 2017.”
Libya
Reuters: Suspected Islamic State Gunmen Kill Nine In Southern Libya: Resident
“Gunmen on Friday raided a town deep in Libya’s southern desert, killing nine people and kidnapping several others, a resident said, with officials blaming the attack on the militant group Islamic State. A military source said the attackers had occupied a police station in the oasis town of Tazerbo, north of Kufra, until residents expelled them. The source also said the attackers were believed to belong to Islamic State. The town - which was a resting point for tourists going on Sahara camping tours before Libya plunged into chaos in 2011 - listed six residents on its website as having been killed. A resident said nine people had been killed and 10 wounded, adding that the attackers had kidnapped several policemen and civilians. Islamic State has staged several attacks on southern towns since withdrawing into the desert after losing its main stronghold, the coastal city of Sirte, late in 2016.”
“The value of frozen Libyan assets held by the UK has risen to £12 billion but they cannot be used to compensate victims of its support for Irish republican terrorism, the Government has disclosed. Restrictions on how the seized money can be handled means part of the massive fund is in “negative yield”, witnesses told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster. Ministers were accused by public representatives of treading water on efforts to secure reparation payments to victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA attacks while large sums languished in sealed coffers. That sounds like a Government that is prepared to tread water with no end in sight. Gregory Campbell Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Alistair Burt said the North African country’s Government was primarily responsible for helping those who had suffered but British ministers were trying to facilitate progress. DUP East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said: “That sounds like a Government that is prepared to tread water with no end in sight.” A previous Libyan regime armed the Provisionals with massive amounts of weaponry, extending the Northern Ireland conflict and causing enormous human suffering, the committee has said. Chairman Andrew Murrison said he was disappointed no progress appeared to have been made on securing financial help for survivors of the violence after Mr Burt faced questioning for more than an hour.”
Nigeria
BBC News: Nigeria Admits Soldiers Were Killed In Metele 'Terror Attack'
“Nigeria's army has acknowledged for the first time that soldiers were killed in a militant attack last Sunday on a base in Borno state, in the north-east. It had been reported that at least 40 soldiers died when an Islamist militant group targeted the base in Metele. The army disputes that death toll but has not given its own figure. With just three months to go to presidential elections, the authorities are keen to show they have the security situation under control. President Muhammadu Buhari, who is running for a second term, came to power in 2015 after promising to defeat Boko Haram militants. The insurgents, who have caused havoc in Nigeria through a wave of attacks, are fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state. 'Trying times' While the army has retaken most of the territory the militants once controlled, they are still able to carry out deadly attacks. In a statement, released on Friday evening, the army admits that it is operating in "trying times", which is a rare if veiled admission that the military is experiencing serious setbacks in the fight against the jihadists, says BBC Africa editor Will Ross. It added that "false casualty figures" and the sharing of inaccurate videos boost the "propaganda intent of the terrorists.”
News 24: Nigerian Soldiers Lash Out In Video After Bloody Boko Haram Attack
“Troops fighting on the frontlines of the Boko Haram conflict in northeastern Nigeria have released a video claiming at least 100 soldiers died in a recent attack and deploring the poor state of their equipment. In the five-minute video seen by AFP on Saturday, a soldier narrating in the background shows the burnt shells of several tanks and vehicles at the Metele base, which was attacked by the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province on November 18. At least 43 soldiers were killed in the attack according to military and civilian sources, though the army disputes the death toll. The video came as it emerged Saturday that around a dozen girls had been kidnapped by suspected members of Boko Haram in border villages in southeastern Niger. It underscored growing desperation among troops, who in June protested at being redeployed to the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.”
Agence France Presse: Boko Haram Attacks Leave 53 Dead In Pre-Election Show Of Force
“Boko Haram jihadists have killed 53 soldiers and farmers in three days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, security sources said on Tuesday, in a new show of force ahead of February elections in the West African country. Despite the government's insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, the group has recently carried out a string of major attacks on military and civilian targets. President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking re-election in February, faces widespread criticism over his security record as soldiers based in the northeast regularly complain of fatigue and insufficient supplies of food and arms. The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group, killed at least 44 soldiers in attacks on three military bases at the weekend, according to security sources. Of those, at least 43 were killed on Sunday in Metele, a remote village near the border with Niger, according to a military officer who requested anonymity. "Our troops were completely routed and the terrorists captured the base after heavy fighting," he told AFP, adding that the base commander and three officers were among the dead. A search was under way for survivors or further victims in the surrounding bush, he said. A pro-government militiaman said the jihadists arrived on around 20 trucks and army air support did not arrive until after they had "invaded the base and looted the weapons". The same day, jihadists also launched a pre-dawn attack on a base in the town of Gajiram, some 80km north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. Fighting lasted several hours, local residents told AFP.”
Somalia
Military Times: US Airstrikes In Somalia Kill 6 Al-Shabab Extremists
“The U.S. military on Thursday announced the latest of several deadly airstrikes this week against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia as it targets a region well north of where the al-Qaida-linked fighters control large parts of the country. The U.S. Africa Command statement said two new strikes killed six fighters and destroyed a weapons cache on Wednesday near Harardere. That al-Shabab-controlled community last month was targeted by the deadliest U.S. airstrike in almost a year, with dozens of extremists killed. The U.S. has now carried out 35 airstrikes this year against al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, which continues to stage deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and other cities. Somali intelligence officials said the latest airstrikes targeted locations in the rural villages of Jimo-Luqunyar and Adaley, 75 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Harardere. They said at least four missiles hit a base for over 30 extremists assigned to collect livestock taxes from nomadic communities in the area. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.”
Capital News: Two US Air Strikes Kill 37 Al-Shabaab In Somalia
“The first air strike left 27 militants dead while 10 others were killed in the second attack. In a statement, the US says the air strikes conducted on Tuesday reduced Al-Shabaab’s ability to plot future attacks, disrupted its leadership networks and degraded its freedom to manoeuvre within the region. No civilian was killed during the two air strikes. The US has committed to continue supporting Somalia and other AMISOM forces by ensuring the militants are flushed out from their safe havens. Reports indicate that the Al-Shabaab has been using portions of Southern and Central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations and shelter radical terrorists. “The desired end state in East Africa is one in which terrorist organisations cannot destabilise Somalia and its neighbouring states nor threaten the interests of the US and its international allies in the region,” reads a statement by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). “Accordingly, the US Africa Command will continue to work with its partners to transfer the responsibility for long-term security in Somalia from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) to the Federal Government of Somalia and its member states,” it added. On October 16, a similar air strike killed 60 in Central Somalia. This was the deadliest attack since November 2017 when 100 terrorists were killed. In the past, the US forces have been accused of killing civilians during the air strikes. Since 2007, Al Shabaab has fought to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu. It was in 2011 that the Al-Qaeda affiliated group was pushed out of Mogadishu, the Somali capital and subsequently from other key towns including the port city of Kismayu.”
Africa
Al Jazeera: Mali: Senior Member Of JNIM Amadou Koufa Killed In French Raid
“A senior Malian member of the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) armed group has been killed in a raid led by French forces, according to the Malian army. "I confirm that Amadou Koufa was killed during the operation," Malian army spokesperson Colonel Diarran Kone told Reuters news agency on Saturday. He declined to elaborate. France's army had said on Friday that Koufa may have been killed in the operation in the central Mopti region that "put out of action" about 30 of his group's fighters. General Abdoulaye Cisse told AFP news agency on Saturday that Koufa was killed in the Wagadou forest. "He died of his injuries," he said. "After the military operation the terrorist Koufa was seriously injured and taken away by his supporters before he died," another military official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. JNIM has not commented on the reports of Koufa's death yet. Koufa, a preacher, was one of the top deputies to Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Mali's most prominent armed group JNIM.”
Voice Of America: Al-Shabab Militants Kill 15 In Attack On Religious Center
“Al-Shabab militants have attacked the compound of a controversial cleric in the central Somalia town of Galkayo, killing him and at least 14 other people, officials and witnesses said. Residents in the town said they woke up Monday to huge explosions followed by heavy, sustained gunfire at the compound in the southern half of the town. Witnesses said that at around 6 a.m. local time, a car bomb rammed into the gate followed by suicide infantry who stormed the compound. The compound has been the headquarters of the Sufi cleric Sheikh Abdiweli Ali Elmi and his congregation. Al-Shabab accused him of committing blasphemy last year and threatened to kill him after he posted controversial videos on YouTube. Religious leaders criticized him for posting videos that showed the cleric pointing to a picture some thought represented the Prophet Muhammad. He was also condemned for using music in his worship services.”
Agence France Presse: Islamic State Claims 118 Killed In Self-Styled ‘West Africa Province’
“The Islamic State group has claimed to have killed 118 people in its self-styled West Africa province in the last week, after a series of attacks against military bases in northeast Nigeria that have raised fears of a resurgent Boko Haram. The Islamist militant group said in a video posted online that it conducted five operations in Chad and Nigeria between November 15 and 21, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity. No other details were given but the claim follows recent attacks on army bases in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, which has been the epicenter of the deadly nine-year conflict. Security sources said at least 44 soldiers were killed in an attack in Metele village, near the border with Niger, on Sunday, although one soldier who escaped gave a higher toll. “The truth is we lost more than 100 men because we were quickly routed,” he said on condition of anonymity from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Friday. “We were outgunned, so we tried to fight. We realized it was unrealistic so we decided to leave.” Most of the soldiers were killed as the trucks they were in tried to crash through a perimeter fence at the base but got stuck. Senior officers were among the dead, he added. Even a search team that came to find the bodies of fallen soldiers on Tuesday was attacked, the soldier said. Regional threat AFP has reported at least 17 attempts to overrun army bases since July. Many have been claimed by the IS-backed Boko Haram faction, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Security analysts said more attacks were expected in the run-up to February 16, when Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament.”
United Kingdom
The New York Times: U.K. Panel Finds ‘Litany Of Errors’ In Response To Terrorist Attacks
“A damning parliamentary report released on Thursday raised questions about the way Britain tracked terrorism suspects, accusing the authorities of moving too slowly to forestall one of five major jihadist attacks in 2017 and finding a “litany of errors” in the handling of another. The report by the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee — titled “The 2017 Attacks: What Needs to Change?” — offered an unusual admission by MI5, the domestic security service, that it had made a mistake in not tracking the suspect in a lethal Manchester bombing. The report also offered a sharp counterpoint over all to the portrait offered by security and policing agencies of their successes in foiling terrorist plots. The conspiracies have proliferated since July 7, 2005, when suicide bombers killed 52 subway and bus travelers in London. The parliamentary report drew some broad conclusions, saying that the police and the security services were not sharing information as efficiently as they should and criticizing official efforts to persuade big technology companies to remove jihadist material from their platforms.”
“A british ISIS jihadi carried out a series of cyberattacks that targeted America servicemen and women inside the United States, a new book says. Junaid Hussain rose to become the group’s number three as it embarked on its brutal rampage that saw it occupy huge swathes of Syria and Iraq. He was married to fellow terrorist “White Widow” Sally Jones and was killed aged 21 in a drone strike in 2015. The Birmingham-born jihadi’s story features in a new book by John P Carlin, a former senior official in the US Department of Justice. Hussain “successfully executed one of the most global cyber plots we’d ever seen”, Carlin writes in Dawn of the Code War: America’s Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat. “A British terrorist of Pakistani descent, living in Syria, recruited a Kosovar hacker who was studying computer science in Malaysia, to enable attacks on American servicemen and women inside the United States,” says Carlin. Hussain started hacking aged 11 and in 2011 was part of a group of “hacktivists” who hacked Tony Blair’s personal assistant, then released the former Prime Minister's address book online. He was jailed for six months for the stunt but became radicalised and travelled to Syria to join ISIS, soon after marrying Jones, who was herself killed in 2017. Hussain became part of the terrorists’ propaganda war, the so-called the CyberCaliphate, using the name Abu Hussain al-Britani. They defaced websites and seized control of home pages as well as social media accounts.”
France
PM News: French Court Jails Islamic State Returnee For 10 Years
“A French Court has handed a 10-year prison sentence to a man who travelled to Syria and joined the Islamic State Extremist Group, Prosecutors in Paris said on Friday. The Paris Court of Assizes found Mohammed Reda Ouharani guilty of travelling to Syria to join Islamic State, undergoing military and religious training and participating in the group’s activities. Ouharani, a French national born in Algeria in 1991, also travelled to Lebanon with the intention of carrying out a suicide attack against members of the Shiite Muslim community, the court found. After his return to France, he stayed in contact with Islamic State handlers and suggested carrying out an attack in France. Islamic State has claimed credit for most of the terrorist attacks that killed no fewer than 230 people in France in 2015 and 2016. The group, which has now lost almost all the territory it controlled in Syria and Iraq has repeatedly called on its supporters abroad to carry out attacks against civilian and military targets, often singling out France.”
“The suspected jihadists were placed in pre-trial detention over the weekend after being officially charged with “conspiracy to commit a terrorist act” on the first day of nationwide demonstrations against higher fuel taxes and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies. Three of the suspects were arrested near the southeastern French town of Lyon last Tuesday, an anonymous police source told the daily. Two of the men are brothers aged 23 and 35 who are known to police as “radicalised”, according to newspaper Le Parisien. The third is a 52-year-old man who is also believed to be an aspiring jihadist. The fourth suspect is already serving a prison sentence for terrorism offences. The 25-year-old, who has been described by police as “very radicalised” and as the terror group’s “mentor,” communicated with the other men using a mobile phone hidden in his cell. Although police remain unsure of the precise target, enough evidence was gathered during raids on the suspects’ homes to confirm that the men had planned to take advantage of the chaos caused by anti-fuel tax protesters to launch a violent attack on French soil.”
Australia
Associated Press: Australian Judge Sentences IS Supporter To 38 Years In Jail
“A supporter of the Islamic State group who helped a teenager kill a police accountant in Sydney was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Friday, as Australia's prime minister argued for greater government power to strip extremists of citizenship. Milad Atai had pleaded guilty to assisting and encouraging Iranian-born Farhad Jabar, 15, to shoot Curtis Cheng as he walked from the police building on Oct. 2, 2015. Atai also pleaded guilty to helping Jabar's older sister Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammed fly to Syria a day earlier. Jabar was shot dead by police, and a year later the sister died with her Sudanese husband in an airstrike in Syria. Justice Peter Johnson of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ordered Atai, 22, to serve a minimum 28 ½ years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole. Johnson said Atai had supported extreme jihad for several months before the shooting and appeared to still hold radical views. As Atai was led away from court, he raised an index finger in the direction of the judge in an Islamic State salute. A fellow member of his Islamic State cell, Raban Alou, gave the same judge the same salute when he was sentenced in March to 44 years in prison for giving Jabar the .38 revolver used to kill Cheng. The 20-year-old must serve at least 33 years in prison. Talal Alameddine, the 25-year-old who supplied Alou with the gun, was sentenced in May to 17 years in prison and must service at least 13 ½ years. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday outlined legislation to strip Australian citizenship from any dual national convicted of a terrorism offence.”
Technology
The Telegraph: Social Media Giants ‘Risk Lives’ By Not Helping Police
“Social media firms failed to alert police to any suspicious terrorist activity on their platforms for four years, the UK’s former head of counter-terrorism reveals today, as he demands they face financial penalties. Sir Mark Rowley, who headed Britain’s anti-terror police until earlier this year, said their failure to pass on information had been “wholly irresponsible” and put lives at risk. Sir Mark oversaw police investigations into all recent major terror attacks, including the Manchester Arena bombing that claimed 22 lives, the Westminster Bridge attack in which Pc Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by terrorist Khalid Masood, and the London Bridge attack in which eight people died. Writing for The Daily Telegraph today, Sir Mark says: “In nearly four years leading police counter-terrorism efforts, I saw zero proactive reports of suspicious behaviour to us by any of these companies. This is irresponsible. “When a social media firm finds someone sharing the most gruesome terrorism material or bomb-making instructions and then cancels their account, they do not tell the p-olice. “This makes the work of police and MI5 more difficult and endangers the public’s safety.” Sir Mark said his time coincided with the rise of Isil which, unlike al-Qaeda or the IRA, operated as an “open-source terror organisation” – which he referred to as a “cult” – that radicalised supporters through propaganda on the internet, including via social media. He said the tech and social media companies had been “too late and too slow” in responding to this new threat, which was why he believed it would take a combination of “regulation and financial sanctions, as well as persuasion, to put the public interest at the centre of these companies’ policies.”
CNBC: UK Lawmakers Urge Firms To Boycott Tech Giants Who Fail To Tackle Terrorist
“U.K. lawmakers urged advertisers to boycott internet firms that fail to remove or control the publication of extremist content. In a report published Thursday evening, the U.K. Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee concluded that security agencies needed help from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google to curb the "enormous growth" in online extremist material. The committee said online communications service providers (CSPs) had made "little tangible progress over the last four years" to tackle the publication of this content. "Action that affects the CSPs' profits clearly hits home harder than any sense of 'doing the right thing'," the report said. "Encouraging companies who advertise on the CSPs' platforms to put pressure on the CSPs to remove extremist content — with the threat of pulling their adverts if they do not — will have more impact on the CSPs.”
The New York Times: The New Radicalization Of The Internet
“Social media has played a key role in the recent rise of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, including three recent incidents — one in which a man was accused of sending mail bombs to critics of the president, another in which a man shot dead two African-Americans in a Kroger’s grocery store in Kentucky, and a third in which a man is accused of conducting a murderous rampage at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Each of these attacks falls under the definition of right-wing extremism by the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland: “violence in support of the belief that personal and/or national way of life is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent." Antiglobalism, racial or ethnic supremacy, nationalism, suspicion of the federal government, obsessions over individual liberty — these are all hallmarks of this network of ideologies, which is, of course, shot through with conspiracy theories.”
The Wall Street Journal: Facebook’s Latest Headache Is A Bikini App That Shut Down In 2015
“When a small app developer sued Facebook Inc. FB -2.29% in 2015 over how it restricts access to user data, the action got little attention, in part because the social-media giant successfully sought to have most of the court records sealed. Now that lawsuit is adding to Facebook’s mounting headaches, with a British lawmaker saying on Sunday that he has obtained documents from the case and is considering releasing them to the public. Damian Collins, chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Committee, said he had secured the documents from Six4Three LLC, which sued Facebook in 2015 alleging that its data policies were anticompetitive and favored certain companies over others. Mr. Collins, a Conservative member of Parliament, has been in the forefront of British lawmakers voicing concerns about the political abuses of social media. Mr. Collins is due to head an international panel he has convened on Tuesday in London that will question Facebook’s vice president of policy solutions, Richard Allan, on “fake news” and disinformation.”
Terrorist Financing
“Entifadh Qanbar, Head of the Iraqi Future Constitutional Party, stated that the budget allotted for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is equivalent to 20% of Jordan's overall budget, or 25% of Lebanon's overall budget. The PMF receives funds from the Iraqi state, even though its loyalty belongs to other countries, Qanbar stressed. The Chairman of the Iraqi Future Constitutional Party added that a large portion of the PMF's budget, which is estimated at $1.7 billion {per annum}, is being embezzled by the leaders of this Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militia. For his part, Sheikh Muzahim al-Hweit, Spokesman for Mosul's Arab Tribes in Nineveh, disclosed that some of the money allotted for the PMF is being sent on to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and to other militias in Syria.”
Counter-Terrorism
Akhbar Elyom: Expert Applauds Proposal For Counter-Terrorism Curriculum In Egypt's Schools
“Retired Colonel Khaled Okasha, a strategic security expert, hailed a new proposal to teach counter-terrorism as part of the national education curriculum in Egyptian schools. During a telephone interview on the "Nile News" television channel, Col. Okasha, who is also a member of the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism, described the proposal as being very positive and serious. The expert also noted that educating counter- terrorism in schools would strengthen and enhance the spirit of patriotism among pupils from an early age. Additionally, the pupils will have enough time to realize the scale of the threats that jeopardize the homeland security, Col. Okasha elaborated. The proposal aims mainly to educate children on how to deal with risks, which is quite common in many developed countries, the member of the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism added.”
ISIS
Medan Elakhbar: Iraq: ISIS Renews Smuggling Of Oil And Cigarettes
“Hakim Al-Zamili, head of the security and defense committee in the previous Iraqi parliament, warned that what is happening in Mosul today is similar to what happened there before 2014. He pointed out that ISIS militants have begun to re-emerge in certain areas south of al-Baaj in Mosul. "What is happening now in Mosul is similar to what happened before 2014; there are royalties {being imposed} and smuggling of oil and cigarettes while the {Iraqi} security services have been busy filling their own pockets," Al-Zamili said in a press statement. He added that "there are arbitrary arrests, as well as the exaggerated number of security and military units. The weakness of some of them has paved the way for ISIS to raise its head, exploiting the presence of mafias and a weak local administration, starting with the governor.”
Muslim Brotherhood
Veto Gate: Egypt: Review Of Lawsuit Against Confiscation Of Muslim Brotherhood's Funds Postponed
“The Second Circuit of the Administrative Court at the State Council's Judges Club postponed till January 20th, 2019 its review of a lawsuit filed by Osman Anani, the legal counsel of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. In this complaint, Anani demanded overturning the decision to seize the funds of the banned Islamist group according to an earlier prime minister's decision dated October 2nd, 2013. This decision included the formation of a governmental committee to appraise and appropriate the funds and assets of the Muslim Brotherhood, since the group was outlawed by an earlier ruling issued by the Urgent Matters Court on September 23rd, 2013. The lawsuit is directed against the Prime Minister and the assistant Justice Minister, who chaired the Muslim Brotherhood's funds committee.”
Houthi
The Seventh Day: Houthis Loot Houses In Dhale
“The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms has observed a series of violations carried out by the Houthis against homes in the village of Al-Haqab in Al-Bala'a. In a statement today, it enumerated the violations and crimes committed by the Houthis against the people, and homes, of Al-Haqb village in Dhale governorate. The Houthis have targeted civilians with mortar shells and posted snipers in all the streets, seeking to displace the residents. The Houthis' bombardment did not give residents the chance to take what they needed {before fleeing}, not to mention the damage caused to their homes. The Houthis then arrested anyone who remained in the village.”
