Chinese leaders “believe they have a narrow window of strategic opportunity to strengthen their rule and revise the international order in their favor”. — Former U.S. National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World.
The Islamic State claims in the latest edition of its weekly Al-Naba newsletter that Al Qaeda started a “war” against the so-called caliphate’s men in West Africa. Independent reporting confirms that the two sides have clashed in recent weeks.
On April 2, as Nigeria’s megacity Lagos and its capital Abuja locked down to control the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s military announced a massive operation — joining forces with neighboring Chad and Niger — against the terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province. This spring offensive was in response to a seven-hour attack by Boko Haram fighters that killed 98 Chadian soldiers in late March. Since then, the joint Nigeria-Chad-Niger military offensive has killed hundreds of Boko Haram militants.
The Egyptian army and security forces have been under attack this Ramadan, as in previous years.
Spanish police have arrested a man in Barcelona over a suspected ISIS terror plot.
A few months ago, a police officer, Noam Anouar, who infiltrated Islamist circles… stated that no-go zones in France are now foreign enclaves on French territory. “The gangs operating there,” he wrote, “have formed a parallel economy based on drug trafficking. They consider themselves at war with France and with Western civilization. They act in cooperation with Islamist organizations, and define acts of predation and rampage as raids against infidels”. He noted that reclaiming these areas today would be complicated, costly, and involve calling in the army.
La scara istoriei umanitatii, lumea liberala a fost, de fapt, foarte scurta ca fereastra de timp. A fost, de asemenea, si restransa geografic, limitandu-se la un perimetru cultural-politic si civilizational fericit, numit Occident, pe cele doua maluri ale Atlanticului de Nord.
UN experts say mercenaries from the Vagner group, a Russian private security firm, are supporting Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar in his battle to capture the capital, Tripoli.
Persons “in need of international protection or for other humanitarian reasons”, however, are exempted from these restrictions on non-essential travel from third countries.” — European Commission statement, March 30, 2020.
As Iraq grapples with the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic and longstanding economic difficulties, (compounded by record-low oil prices) Islamic State’s operations continue with increasing lethality. TRAC Senior Analyst, Daniel Lebowitz has tracked Spring Islamic State activity since before the beginning of Ramadan 2020. His report reveals that IS ambushes, IEDs, and assassinations have escalated in Diyala, Kirkuk, Anbar, Dijah, and Salahuddin, Iraq. The violence places more pressure on the Iraqi government that is facing increasing public resentment coupled with the US withdrawal from key military bases, creating the perfect climate for a repeat of last season’s Hot Summer in the country’s rural areas. The more chaos and bloodshed caused, the more legitimate the new Islamic State leader appears.