The Belgian "black widow" Malika el-Aroud, a long-time female jihadi recruiter for global jihad has passed away (64 years). She was one of the rare such prominent female terrorist figures in Europe, over more than two decades. A thread.
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Guy Van Vlierden
@GuyVanVlierden
Journalist . Here I report on extremism, mostly in English. I don't block anyone but only answer genuine questions. It's not about me, but the news.
Guy Van Vlierden’s Tweets
Following 2 decades of spilling blood & treasure while chasing terrorists to every corner of the globe the focus has shifted from violent non-state actors to near-peer competition with nation-states and great powers. Me & in (Jul 22)
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Apparently 'Umar Bakri Muhammad was released from Lebanese prison this past Thursday. He had been imprisoned for his support of Jabhat al-Nusra in 2014. Back in the day, he founded al-Muhajirun in the UK and helped mobilize a generation of British jihadis.
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New post: translation & overview of 'Liwa al-Ghalibun' statement that claimed attack on U.S. forces in Syria just over a week ago.I also correct misconception in media & think-tank articles confusing this group w/an earlier 'al-Ghalibun' I once wrote about
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Global Terrorism Index 2023
Incidents in the Sahel have increased by over 2000% in the last 16 years
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Today launched the Islamic State Select Worldwide Activity Interactive Map. This new tool provides a novel, accessible way to understand the group’s global reach & activities. is the director of the project. 1/15 washingtoninstitute.org/islamicstatein
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This is also what #Journalism is about, getting the info from the actors, submitting it to public opinion & decision makers. Some days one wakes up pretty proud of doing properly this job. #OlivierDubois
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Je dévoile la réponse au sujet #Dubois, car elle s’adresse aussi à la famille, Aanabi réaffirme ce qui m’a été dit «Olivier n’a pas été attiré…al-Bakay n’a rien à voir avec sa prise en otage…les services français savent…la balle est dans leur camp» donc porte ouverte aux négos
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Today, 🇩🇪 Federal Court of Justice partially overturned the sentence of female #returnee Jennifer W., who had been sentenced to 10 years for being involved in the death of a 5yo Yazidi girl & being an IS member. Prosecutors had appealed, arguing the sentence was too lenient.
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German IS member, Jennifer Wenisch, faces tougher sentence for death of five-year-old girl bbc.in/3FcmkRr
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🔴Exclusive itw of #AQIM's emir about #Algeria, #BurkinaFaso, terrorist threat in #France and its departure from #Mali, the last French hostage #OlivierDubois, the war with #IS, local alliances, negotiations & the Hattin com
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J’ai reçu les réponses de l’émir d’#AQMI Abou Oubaïda Youssef al-Aanabi à mes 17 questions, certaines réponses sont claires et précises d’autres moins. Le contenu sera expliqué et mis en contexte bientôt.
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In another category of extremist news — state extremism, as a matter of fact...
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24 февраля в 11-30 сдали заявку на митинг в Смольный. «За мир, против войны!» Из 7 организаторов двое попали под уголовку, трое - с административкой. 6 из 7 заграницей. Помню, было морозно, светило солнце, мы несли документы и охуевали, до чего докатились. Невозмжно было поверить
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In Belgium, a 16 y/o convert to Islam has been arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack. He came into the crosshairs of security services when a video he made surfaced on channels linked to the Islamic State. Here are excerpts from that video
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Who is al-Qaeda's new leader Seif al-Adel?
"Possessed of a ‘caustic tongue’, he is apt to threaten violence against anyone who displeases him, and is known to meet disloyalty with swift and ruthless force," writes as reported by .
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Yesterday, 59 women and children repatriated to the Kyrgyz Republic from internally displaced persons camps in northeast Syria.
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The US Embassy in Sweden just posted a security alert regarding potential terror attacks in Sweden, warning about ”possible retaliatory attacks by terrorists in the wake of recent Quran burning incidents” se.usembassy.gov/security-alert
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It’s honestly a miracle that Sweden hasn’t been subjected to more terror attacks, given the rising gang crime and availability of arms & explosives. Foreign actors instigating malicious campaigns about Sweden ”kidnapping Arab children” and now re: the Quran burning doesn’t help twitter.com/CrimeSwedish/s…
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The #Netherlands will issue its first ever indictment of a #Dutch national member of #ISIS #Daesh , Hasna A., for her enslavement of a #Yezidi #Yazidi in the course of the #YazidiGenocide .
Statement and thread.
freeyezidi.org/news-updates/n
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My second report on Jihadi activities throughout the Sahel last month
"CEP-KAS: Sahel Monitoring January 2023"
counterextremism.com/blog/cep-kas-s
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Remarkable news from one of #Belgium’s main Jihadi recruiters, Jean-Louis Denis “le Soumis”, old time leader of Resto du Tawhīd, got extradited from Benin last Friday
rfi.fr/fr/afrique/202
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Four men, aged between 22 and 28, have been given long jail sentences (from 19 years to life imprisonment) for being accomplices to murder in the deadly attack by a lone jihadist gunman in Vienna on 2 November 2020. All have the right to appeal
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We are thrilled to launch a new database on jihadi Foreign Terrorist Fighters, including data on FTFs and countries' responses (laws, admin measures...). Check it out!
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Launching the Foreign Terrorist Fighters (#FTFs) Knowledge Hub!
All FTF-related #data, trends, national & international #policy responses in one place. Compiled by @ICCT_TheHague @TMCAsser.
Bookmark now: buff.ly/3WPbsyT
#counterterrorism #research
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The White House just announced that the Wagner Group will be designated a transnational criminal organization.
My team & I have done a research deep dive into the US's ability to designate Wagner. This thread looks into what we have found.
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Revelations about a French citizen fighting in the ranks of Russia's Wagner Group in Ukraine
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Article à suivre. Et je serais sur LCI ce soir à 22h pour discuter de cette première enquête pour @blast_france twitter.com/blast_france/s…
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Spain starts repatriating families of IS fighters from Syrian camps
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My first monthly report for and
Monitoring Jihadi Activities in The Sahel
December 2022
counterextremism.com/blog/cep-kas-s
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A small thread on operations of The Islamic State during 2022, officially claimed by Nashir News Agency on January 4, 2023
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A perfect example of deradicalization, it seems. But it does not testify to his sense of guilt that he later stated that he wasn't a terrorist, only a fighter, and that Europe's refugee policy is causing a greater carnage than he himself ever did (11/11)
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He renounced violence immediately after his arrest, ensured that his group's remaining weapons were surrendered even before the end of his trial, and emerged as a human rights activist in prison already (10/11)
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On January 3, 1982, an attempt to liberate imprisoned comrades —including his girlfriend — with a bomb attack resulted in the death of a passer-by. All this earned him a life sentence — later reduced to 30 years, of which he served 22 (9/11)
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Segio was directly involved in the assassination of two Milan magistrates (Emilio Alessandrini on January 29, 1979 and Guido Galli on March 19, 1980) and prison officer Francesco Rucci on September 18, 1982 (8/11)
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Behind that NGO is Sergio Segio (67), also mentioned as "executive director" of the subsequent report. In the eighties, he was known in Italy as Commandante Sirio, a member of the extreme left terrorist groups 'Prima Linea' and 'Nucleo di Comunisti' (7/11)
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But Fight Impunity didn't edit that report itself, according to the small print. It only "promoted" the report, while the real work was done by the Italian NGO 'Associazione Società INformazione Onlus' (6/11)
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It is equally astonishing, the sources of say, that barely a few months after its foundation, it published a voluminous annual report on the state of impunity for human rights violations in the world (5/11)
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