“Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Thursday. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, seen by The Associated Press, said that as of Aug. 17, Iran has 164.7 kilograms (363.1 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 %. That’s an increase of 22.6 kilograms (49.8 pounds) since the IAEA’s last report in May. Uranium enriched up to 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. By IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%.”
“Authorities identified a 26-year-old man as responsible for the deadly stabbing spree at a festival in Solingen, Germany, last week that left three people dead and wounded eight others as a Syrian national with possible links to the Islamic State. Federal prosecutors in Germany identified the suspect as Issa Al H., omitting his family name because of German privacy laws. The Islamic State previously claimed responsibility, saying that the attacker targeted Christians who carried out the attack "to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere." The Islamic State group described the man who carried out the attack as a "soldier of the Islamic State" in a statement on its Telegram account. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said that Issa Al H. was living at a home for refugees in Solinger prior to the attack.”
DW-TV: Israel Is Doing This Preemptively
“The UN Secretary-General is calling on Israel to immediately halt its large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank. For now, Israel presses ahead, and claims to have killed some Palestinian militants in a gun battle in a mosque on Thursday. DW spoke with Hans-Jakob Schindler about Israel’s goals in the Palestinian territory.”
The New York Times: Inside The Frantic U.S. Efforts To Contain A Mideast Disaster
“As Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken flew to Mongolia on July 31, his mind was on events far away, in the Middle East. Hours earlier, Israel had assassinated a top Hamas leader in Tehran, and Iranian officials were vowing retaliation for the murder of a close ally on their soil. Using a secure phone in his private compartment of the plane, Mr. Blinken spoke to several foreign officials in the hours after the killing, asking them to urge Iran against taking any action that could lead to all-out war with Israel. Days later, one of the officials, the foreign minister of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, visited Tehran and called for “peace, stability and security.” President Biden also quickly persuaded the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to schedule a new round of talks aiming to secure a cease-fire in Gaza. Those meetings had an unstated purpose as well: discouraging Iran from mounting an attack that could derail the talks and make Tehran look like a spoiler.”
Voice Of America: Pakistan Security Officials In 'Taliban' Captivity Appeal For Help
“Militants in northwestern Pakistan released a video Thursday of an army colonel and his brother, a senior civilian security officer, showing them in captivity and requesting authorities help secure their freedom. The officers are part of a group of four people, including their third brother and a nephew, whom gunmen abducted Wednesday evening while attending their father's funeral in the militancy-hit Dera Ismail Khan district. The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four men but did not share their demands publicly. “We are safe and well and in the custody of the Taliban in a remote area where the Pakistani government has no control," Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Amir stated in the 35-second video. Two men dressed in traditional attire, holding assault rifles, are seen in the background with their faces deliberately kept out of the video frame.”
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels released footage on Thursday showing their fighters boarded and placed explosives on a Greek-flagged tanker, setting off blasts that put the Red Sea at risk of a major oil spill. The vessel was abandoned earlier after the Houthis repeatedly attacked it. In the video, the Iran-backed Houthis chant their motto as the bombs detonated aboard the oil tanker Sounion: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.” The blasts capped the most serious attack in weeks by the Houthis in their campaign disrupting the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as well as halting some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen. The Sounion carried some 1 million barrels of oil when the Houthis initially attacked it on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat.”
“An Israeli missile hit a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip, killing several people from a local transportation company, the American Near East Refugee Aid group said Friday. Israel claimed without immediate evidence that it opened fire after gunmen seized the convoy. The strike killed several people employed by a transportation company that the aid group was using to bring supplies to the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, said Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territories. The strike happened Thursday on the Salah al-Din Road in the Gaza Strip and hit the convoy’s first vehicle. “The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed,” Rasheed said in a statement. “Despite this devastating incident, our understanding is that the remaining vehicles in the convoy were able to continue and successfully deliver the aid to the hospital. We are urgently seeking further details about what happened.”
Reuters: Israeli Military Says Killed Local Hamas Commander In West Bank
“Israeli border police killed a senior commander of the Islamist movement Hamas in the West Bank on Friday, the military said. It said Wassem Hazem, identified as the commander of Hamas in the volatile city of Jenin, was killed in a car it said contained weapons, ammunition and large quantities of cash. Two other Hamas gunmen were killed by a drone while trying to escape from the vehicle, it said.”
Reuters: Israel, Hamas Set Three-Day Pauses In Fighting For Gaza Polio Shots, WHO Says
“Israel's military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separates, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories. He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed. "From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage," Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
Reuters: Al Qaeda Branch Says It Killed 300 Fighters, Not Civilians, In Burkina Faso Attack
“An al Qaeda-linked group said it killed nearly 300 people in Saturday's devastating attack in north-central Burkina Faso but said it targeted militia members linked to the army, not civilians, the U.S. consultancy Site Intelligence Group reported. The attack outside the town of Barsalogho was one of the deadliest in nearly a decade of Islamist violence in the West African country. A group of victims' relatives said at least 400 were killed when jihadists opened fire on civilians digging defensive trenches on orders of the military. Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin said soldiers and militia members were excavating the trenches when it attacked. "Those who were eliminated in this attack are nothing, but militias affiliated with the Burkinabe army ... not as they lied and said that they were civilians," JNIM said in a communique translated by Site on Thursday.”
Politico: How Britain Took Its Eye Off The Far Right
“It was the summer Britain saw some of its worst riots for more than two decades. The flashpoint was the murder of three children in July, in a horrific stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the seaside town of Southport. Online disinformation suggesting the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker led to mosques and refugee accommodations being targeted by violent mobs in more than a week of unrest. The disorder and anger seen across the U.K. was targeted at immigrants, legal and illegal — and sometimes even people of color who had lived in the U.K. for generations — and it was stoked by far-right groups of varying degrees of organization. As the new Labour government seeks ways to prevent a repeat of the violence, officials working in counter-extremism told POLITICO that work monitoring far-right extremism had stalled over the past three years towards the end of the last Conservative government, despite rising tensions over immigration.”
Politico: Germany Deports Dozens Of Convicted Criminals To Afghanistan
“For the first time since the Taliban took power, Germany deported Afghans convicted of crimes back to their home country on a charter jet Friday morning, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson said. “Germany’s security interests clearly outweigh the protection interests of criminals,” the spokesperson said. Flight trackers showed a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 taking off from Leipzig for Kabul shortly before 7 a.m. The operation was prepared by the German chancellery and the interior ministry for two months. The 28 deportees were brought to Leipzig overnight from detention centers, received €1,000 in cash and were accompanied by a doctor, according to a report by the German newspaper Spiegel. The German government initiated the deportations using Qatar as an intermediary, the report added.”
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers.
Get the latest news on extremism and counter-extremism delivered to your inbox.