It was the first time Thomas Haldenwang, president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or BfV, had hosted his agency’s traditional symposium. The event in Berlin was entitled “Mobilization Capability in Political Extremism” — referring to issues beyond Islamic extremists, a group that was almost exclusively the focus of attention in recent years under his controversial predecessor, Hans-Georg Maassen. Haldenwang also put right-wing and left-wing extremists on the agenda, like reported by dw.com.

Despite this shift in focus, Haldenwang neither ignored nor trivialized religiously motivated extremism. People should not be deceived by the fact that the “Islamic State” (IS) has suffered a military defeat in Syria and Iraq, he said. Referring to the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka that left several hundred people dead, Haldenwang added that IS has gone underground as a terrorist organization and said he fears their attacks could inspire potential imitators in other regions of the world.

Propaganda in German

IS followers in Western Europe have been spreading propaganda — including in Germany. “This propaganda continues to call for attacks on Western targets,” Haldenwang told DW. “Unfortunately, we know of enough Islamic terrorists who are pursuing these plans.” The last — and most serious — such attack in Germany occurred in December 2016, when Anis Amri, a Tunisian national, killed 12 people after driving a truck into a Berlin Christmas market.

The BfV also noted a “new dynamic” among right-wing extremists: They address certain issues to get close to ordinary citizens and poison the atmosphere with propaganda and disinformation. The escalating xenophobic protests after the violent death of a German in the summer of 2018 in the city of Chemnitz is a perfect example, Haldenwang said — the suspects were from Syria and Iraq. Protests went on for days. Boundaries were flouted, Haldenwang said.

Justification for AfD observation

Without naming names, Haldenwang reminded the symposium that “certain parties” in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, are taken with xenophobia and hatred of immigrants. Noisy protest “fuels extremist groups,” he said, adding that is why the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s youth organization, as well as a wing of the party linked to Thuringian AfD boss Björn Höcke, are under suspicion. In both cases, Haldenwang said the agency knows there have been extremist activities.

The BfV plans to monitor an AfD gathering planned for early July. Observing participation, behavior and speeches is bound to be a “very interesting source of knowledge” for the agency, Haldenwang said.

What about the NPD?

The fact that the far-right scene as a whole in Germany is widening its networks, mainly through the internet, is not a new realization — but it is becoming increasingly important for the BfV. It is often unclear who is doing business with whom, including with the ultranationalist National Democratic Party (NPD), a group almost entirely forgotten. Labeled unconstitutional by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, the party was not banned outright, because the judges felt it was too insignificant for subversion. However, Haldenwang said he could not rule out that former NPD members and supporters are on the lookout for new organizations.

Another Kosovo Albanian has been killed in the fighting in Syria.

Reportedly, the victim is Rron Emini, a 23-year-old from Prishtina, who joined the terror organization ISIS [Al-Nusra] three years ago, like reported by rtklive.com.

Kosovo’s Minister of Justice, Abelard Tahiri, has confirmed the information.

France’s Ambassador to Iraq, Bruno Aubert, has discussed with head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council Judge Faiq Zaidan the fate of French ISIS members, like reported by aawsat.com.

Aubert and Zaidan discussed efforts to strike a judicial agreement between Iraq and France, a Council statement said.

In February, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) handed over to the Iraqi authorities 14 French nationals accused of fighting for ISIS.

Iraqi President Barham Salih later announced that they will be tried in Iraq in accordance with the Iraqi law.

“Aubert discussed with Zaidan the issue of the 14 Frenchmen arrested by the Iraqi authorities in an intelligence operation,” an official familiar with the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the suspects are being prosecuted in Iraq because the crimes they have committed fall under the jurisdiction of Iraqi courts.

He explained that France wants to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government to repatriate the militants.

“Iraq’s Penal Code has defined mechanisms for dealing with crime and its perpetrators, both in Iraq and abroad,” legal expert Ahmed Abadi told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Iraq has no jurisdiction over crimes committed outside its territories, except for ISIS militants,” he said, explaining that the crimes committed by such extremists has repercussions on Iraq’s national security.

Iraqi ISIS members are subject to Iraqi law whether they committed their crimes in Iraq or Syria, Abadi added.

However, he noted that foreigners, who have not been accused of terror-related crimes, cannot be prosecuted by Iraq unless they commit a crime inside the country.

Separately, the Iraqi ministry of interior declared that federal police discovered an ISIS hideout in Kirkuk’s southern village of Khzefiya where they found 42 rockets.

Leader of Al-Wataniya Coalition Iyad Allawi warned that ISIS has started to follow new tactics since the collapse of its so-called “caliphate.”

He said he has previously warned of the militants’ insurgency campaign. 

Allawi also expressed regret that Iraq continues to have an environment that is incapable of uprooting terrorism.

EU foreign, defence and development ministers are meeting a handful of African states in Brussels next week, as part of a broader EU-backed security and military-led operation in the Sahel, like reported by euobserver.com.

“This an important occasion to look at how we can take a fully integrated approach to our relations to the Sahel,” a senior EU official told reporters in Brussels on Friday (10 May).

The move comes amid heighten tensions as the EU and individual member states seek to damp down trouble spots throughout the semi-arid region south of the Sahara, where jihadist groups like the Boko Haram have taken root.

Earlier this week, the UN warned that insecurity and armed attacks in the Sahel have reached unprecedented levels.

Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are all part of a shaky pan-military operation known as the G5 Sahel Joint Force, launched in 2014. The force is supposed to crack down on the militias.

All five are sending their diplomats to Brussels to meet the EU ministers, where they are expected to ask for more development and security aid.

The meetings kick off on Monday with foreign ministers where talks will focus on the regional politics. Defence ministers will then meet on Tuesday to discuss immediate security challenges.

“Foreign and defence ministers will then discuss it with ministers of the G5 Sahel countries in terms of how we cooperate with them and notably with their efforts at stabilisation and improving security,” noted the official.

The final meeting takes place on Thursday with development ministers.

The trio of ministerial meetings in the same week with the same focus is somewhat unusual – pointing to a wider convergence of EU development, humanitarian and security policy throughout the region.

The region is crippled by widespread poverty, corruption, and organised crime. Mali and Niger are also known migrant smuggling routes towards Libya and further on towards Europe.

430,000 displaced
The UN says the number of people displaced by violence throughout the Sahel has increased five-fold in the past year alone, to more than 330,000 people, in addition to 100,000 refugees.

The EU has common security and defence policy (CSDP) missions in Niger and Mali, where they carry out military training exercises and other forms of support.

A regional force with some 5,000 soldiers, the G5 Sahel Joint Force is also in part funded by the European Union, along with big contributions from Germany and France.

The EU had initially mobilised some €50m to help fund the five-nation army, which has since increased. The EU money is being used to provide “non-lethal equipment, services and infrastructure.”

Merkel trip
Germany is also heavily involved and has some 1,000 troops stationed in the region. Last week, Germany chancellor Angela Merkel toured the Sahel nations and pledged an additional €40m to fight terrorism.

For its part, France has 4,500 troops in Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to help local forces fight the jihadists.

“The common G5 force is not just a French question, it is a European question,” said one EU diplomat, also drawing a link to the conflict in Libya.

Libya’s embattled prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj will also be in Brussels on Monday.

The German Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, voted overwhelmingly to extend three army missions in Africa for another year on Thursday. The army, known as the Bundeswehr, is currently engaged in one UN and one EU mission in Mali and another EU mission in Somalia, like reported by dw.com.

The mandate for all three missions will run until late May of 2020.

Yet the deployment of German special forces units in Niger and Cameroon drew harsh criticism from parliamentarians who accused the government of illegally bypassing lawmakers.

UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA

The Bundeswehr’s UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA in Mali, which began in 2013, is designed to bolster Mali’s government and deny quarter to terrorists.

As terrorist groups are heavily involved in organized crime and human trafficking, the mission is considered a priority for its impact beyond Mali’s borders.

Some 50 nations currently deploy about 13,000 soldiers and 1,700 police in the West African county. Around 840 German soldiers actively participate in the mission at the moment, though the mandate allows for up to 1,100.

Mali has been roundly criticized for not doing enough to bring about a political solution to the local conflicts. More than 150 UN troops have been killed since the mission began.

The German government has called the security situation in Mali “fragile,” and calculates mission extension costs for MINUSMA at €314 million ($352 million).

European Union advisory and training mission EUTM

The Bundeswehr also participates in the EUTM mission sponsored by the European Union, which is designed as a training mission for Mali’s armed forces.

The EUTM mandate does not call for European troops to directly engage in missions carried out by the Malian army.

The Bundeswehr is tasked with advising Mali’s Defense Ministry and army leadership, as well as protecting MINUSMA staff.

Some 620 soldiers from 22 EU member states participate in the mission, which also began in 2013. The Bundeswehr mandate allows for up to 350 troops, though that number is currently lower, with 190 German soldiers deployed. Berlin says that a year-long extension of the EUTM mission will cost €41 million.

EU Somalia mission Operation Atalanta

The Bundeswehr is also involved in the EU’s Operation Atalanta mission designed to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia. The mission, which was launched in 2008, is tasked with securing shipping routes for international convoys transporting aid to suffering Somali citizens.

Piracy in the strategically important Horn of Africa has been greatly hampered due to the presence of EU naval forces according to the German government’s extension request to the Bundestag.

Currently, 80 German soldiers participate in the Atalanta mission. The mandate for the coming year, which the government estimates will cost around €40 million, will drop to a maximum of 400 soldiers, down from 600.

Contentious deployments in Niger and Cameroon

The deployment of special forces units in Niger and Cameroon, however, drew sharp parliamentary criticism. At issue are two units deployed to train local forces.

As the Bundeswehr is a parliamentary army, its deployments require a parliamentary mandate. A number of parliamentarians decried the lack of such mandates in Niger and Cameroon as illegal.

Although the Bundeswehr and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government argue that is not the case for training forces, those opposed to the deployment called it “obviously illegal.”

Opposition Left Party parliamentarian Sevim Dagdelen, for instance, demanded, “The government must immediately present a special forces deployment mandate to parliament for a vote.”

Green Party defense expert Tobias Lindner, who is also in the opposition, said, “The government must put its Niger mission on solid legal footing, both in the interest of transparency and for the protection of deployed soldiers.”

‘Not actively participating in operations’

Concerns over safety were also voiced by Peter Bartels, parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governs with Merkel’s Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) parties.

Speaking of the deployments, Bartels said he was worried that German troops could be dragged into armed conflicts. Bartels acknowledged that other forces deployed to Niger had a mandate, but the special forces units did not.

Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, brushed off concerns about the legality of the special forces deployments, saying soldiers were only tasked with training local forces and “not actively participating in operations.”

Seibert’s sentiments were echoed by the Defense Ministry. The speaker did, however, say that the government would provide parliamentarians with written information about the scope of the Niger and Cameroon missions.

An imam working in the French city of Rouen was arrested along with another individual on suspicion of aiding the illegal migration of individuals across the English Channel.
The imam, who came to France seeking asylum as a political refugee, and one other who is also reported to be of the Muslim faith, were arrested in Normandy on April 30th after investigators alleged that the two men, aged 39 and 29, had been helping migrants cross the English Channel since December 2018, French newspaper La Voix du Nord reports.

Most of the crossings took place in either Bray-Dunes, which lies next to Belgium, or the commune of Audresselles which lies just outside of Calais. Investigators say the pair also admitted to providing either six or seven inflatable boats to migrants trying to make the voyage to the UK.

The accused appeared before Boulogne Criminal Court on Monday but claimed that they both need more time to properly prepare their defence and the court granted their request, adjourning the proceedings until June 3rd.

The prosecutor attempted to have them held in custody until the next hearing but the court denied the request.

Following a number of landings and attempted crossings last December, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid called for, “an urgent call with his French counterpart over the weekend to reaffirm the continuing need for the UK and France to work closely together to tackle the problem.”

On Christmas day alone, around 40 migrants were picked up by the British Border Force in five separate incidents in the channel.

Earlier this year, undercover reporters revealed that the people traffickers aiding the illegal migrants were boasting to them that they would be guaranteed to get to the UK and never be sent back. One Afghan man named Aanam even bragged about helping at least 300 migrants cross into the UK illegally.

Authorities in Ireland are nowhere near prepared to deal with an Islamist attack against its people, an expert has warned after national police recently launched efforts to stop radicalisation through increasing ‘diversity’, like reported by breitbart.com.

Former chief petty officer in the Irish navy Eamon Dolan, who now works training three and four-man teams to protect ships against attacks from Somali pirates and other threats, said the population of Ireland is a “target for extremists”.

Training and recruitment manager at the private maritime security company, Alphard, Dolan told local media he feared for his homeland’s safety after travelling from Sri Lanka to take part in a march at which 1,500 retired members of the Irish Defence Forces staged a protest against ‘crisis’-level pay and conditions.

“Having been in Sri Lanka and witnessed the recent terrorism atrocities unfold where churches, hotels, and roadside bombs targeted mainly Christian communities, and having seen the unbelievably professional response of counter-terrorism units, I can tell you, that we in Ireland are targets for extremists,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“As a security expert, I can also tell you we’re not ready [in Ireland]. Our reservists are also being depleted and it’s a question of when, not if, we are targeted,” he said.

But law enforcement officials in Ireland had previously claimed that underrepresentation of third world migrant populations amongst officers in the country was like a “ticking time bomb” that could encourage people to “radicalise”, suggesting that a lack of ethnic diversity in its workforce could lead to “an explosion in our communities sooner than we might have ever imagined”.

Breitbart London reported last month on moves by the Gardaí (Irish police) to allow hijabs as part of its uniform, as part of a bid to encourage more diverse candidates to join the force.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents 12,000 rank and file police officers in Ireland, stated last year: “If ethnic minorities are marginalised or disenfranchised, history shows us they will retreat and extremists will take over leading to the type of social chaos we have seen in many cities across Europe in recent times.”

The Islamic State’s recent defeat in Syria has seen Ireland join other EU nations that have absorbed huge numbers of immigrants, in being faced with the question of what to do with migrants who fought with the jihadi terror group but who hold Irish passports.

Globalist Irish leader and mass migration enthusiast, Leo Varadkar, said he would be “loathe to revoke anyone’s citizenship” after members of the Islamist terror group who have lived in Western nations began showing up at ‘refugee camps’ in the Middle East, hoping to make journeys back to Europe.

The grandparents of two children stranded with their French jihadist mother at a camp in Kurdish-held Syria filed a lawsuit at Europe’s top rights court Monday over France’s refusal to allow them home, lawyers said according to france24.com.

It was the latest challenge to the French government’s opposition to returning the children of suspected jihadists in Syria or Iraq.

The four-year-old boy and three-year-old girl, who were born in Syria, are among an estimated 500 children of French citizens who joined the Islamic State’s so-called “caliphate” before the jihadists’ last Syrian redoubt was overrun in March.

France has said it will consider requests for their return on a case-by-case basis only. Since March it has repatriated just five orphans and a three-year-old girl whose mother was sentenced to life in prison in Iraq.

Critics say the policy exposes innocent victims of the war, many of whom have suffered serious trauma during the fighting and coalition bombardments, to inhumane living conditions and long-term psychological risks.

The grandparents of the two children, whose mother had joined jihadists in Syria, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, eastern France, their lawyers told AFP.

“By refusing to repatriate this mother and these two sick children who are wounded and in a state of extreme weakness, France is consciously and deliberately exposing them to inhumane and degrading treatment,” they said in a statement.

The suit also accuses France of violating the family’s right to enter the state where they are citizens the first time such an argument has been invoked in the case of jihadists’ children, the lawyers said.

They declined to name the mother.

Some Western women have given birth to children in territory previously controlled by IS, but their children have never been registered with authorities in their home countries.

‘Justice on French soil’

The two children and their mother, who is the subject of an arrest warrant by a French anti-terror judge, were wounded in the battle for Baghouz, the last IS stronghold taken by Kurdish-led forces.

They are being held at the camp of Al-Hol in northeast Syria, where 73,000 people live according to the United Nations, including 12,000 foreigners.

The lawyers for the family said cholera, tuberculosis and dysentery are spreading in the camp, with the children undernourished and the mother suffering from typhoid fever.

The mother “has confirmed her desire to have her children repatriated… and wants to face justice on French soil,” her lawyers said.

But France is loath to bring back foreign fighters or their families after suffering a wave of deadly jihadist attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2015.

After considering repatriation at the urging of Kurdish forces in Syria as well as the United States, the government decided against bringing home any men or women who joined the IS fight.

Legal attempts beginning last year to force France to allow the return of citizens held in Syria have failed.

In April, France’s State Council, which rules on the legality of policies and laws, rejected several requests, saying it was a French diplomatic matter outside the council’s jurisdiction.

Former president Francois Hollande has agreed to meet with relatives of children in camps on Tuesday, lawyers said.

They hope he will “hear the distress” of those “who should not have to pay for their parent’s choices,” a statement issued by Marie Dose and Henri Leclerc added.

‘Hunger and cold’

Repatriation of citizens who went to fight in Syria and Iraq is a hugely sensitive issue in Western nations.

Britain and the United States have even stripped some Islamic State proponents of citizenship.

This hardline stance drew criticism in March when 19-year-old Shamima Begum lost her British citizenship after giving interviews in which she begged to return home but showed little remorse for having been an IS propagandist.

Her baby Jarrah died of pneumonia less than three weeks after he was born.

The burden of treating children is also daunting for Western governments, which have had to set up special services for dealing with deep psychological scars from their years in the battle zones.

Many show the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including vivid nightmares, mutism and a visceral rejection of any attachment to others.

“These children have known hunger and cold. Some had already been separated from their parents, sometimes to protect them from the war, and they are scared of being abandoned again,” said Marie-Rose Moro, a doctor who has treated several returned families.

A Muslim preacher, convicted in 2017 of inciting violence in Switzerland, has finally been deported after being identified as a Somali national. The man has now been sent back to Somalia, the Swiss authorities have confirmed, like reported by swissinfo.ch.

The deportation process was complicated by the hate preacher having no documentation and refusing to cooperate with migration officials. He was initially presumed to be Ethiopian, but was finally confirmed as Somalian, the State Secretariat for Migrationexternal link told Swiss public broadcaster SRFexternal link on Saturday.

Two years’ ago, a court ordered the expulsion of the man after finding him guilty of delivering unlawful sermons at the An’Nur mosque in Winterthur. He has been banned from re-entering Switzerland for a decade.

The controversial mosque in northeastern Switzerland was closed down after being accused of radicalising Islamic youth. The media found that around six worshippers had travelled to Syria to fight for radical Islamic groups. Police were also called in when witnesses were subjected to intimidation and attacks.

The delay in getting the preacher deported also produced some controversy with some canton Zurich politicians accusing the migration office of dragging its feet during the process.

A reportedly dangerous Islamist terrorist was arrested in Greece’s border city of Evros recently and is now in the custody of the Greek police, like reported by greekreporter.com.

According to a report on the local Thraki Nea website on Saturday, the alleged terrorist is a 22-year old man who recently tried to illegally enter Greece from Turkey by crossing the Evros river.

When arrested with a number of other people who were also trying to cross the river, the young man claimed to be a refugee who wanted to find safety in Europe.

The police authorities immediately suspected that something wasn’t right with this particular individual and began investigating him, believing from the outset that he was lying.

What they found soon proved them right.

The Greek authorities discovered photographs of the man allegedly posing with guns in Afghanistan, while others depicted him in a battlefield in the country.

The man remains in custody, but is no longer being detained in the area where he was initially arrested.

The Greek police have not yet made any official comments regarding the incident.