The Counter-Terrorism Force confirmed in a statement the arrest of an ISIS member in his hideout in Swawa area of Sirte, like reported by libyaobserver.ly.

The force indicated in a statement that the arrest took place in cooperation with the Attorney-General Office as part of the security coordination with Sirte Protection Force, in conjunction with the repelling of Haftar’s aggression on Tripoli.

Local and international bodies have warned in several statements that the aggression of Haftar on Tripoli will increase the terrorist’s activities in Libya and the region.

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a real and present danger, according to the latest United Nations six-month report on jihadist activities.

Islamic State (ISIS) leadership “aims to adapt, survive and consolidate in the core area and to establish sleeper cells at the local level in preparation for eventual resurgence, while using propaganda to maintain the group’s reputation as the leading global terrorist brand – the ‘virtual caliphate,’” the report declares.

“When it has the time and space to reinvest in an external operations capability, ISIL will direct and facilitate international attacks in addition to the ISIL-inspired attacks that continue to occur in many locations around the world,” it states.

“The current abatement of such attacks, therefore, may not last long, possibly not even until the end of 2019,” it warns.

The report points to the estimated 30,000 foreigners who traveled to fight for ISIS and may still be alive.

“Their future prospects will be of international concern for the foreseeable future,” the report says. “Some may join al-Qaida or other terrorist brands that may emerge. Some will become leaders or radicalisers.”

Relying on information provided by intelligence agencies of U.N. member states, the report offers a collective overview from security services around the world.

Despite a drop in recent major attacks, the threat to Europe from Islamic State activity “remains high,” the report declares.

“Deradicalisation programmes have not proven to be fully effective,” the report says. “The most combat-hardened fighters serving longer sentences are not yet approaching release from prison. They remain dangerous and continue to pose a challenge both inside and outside the penal system.”

The presence of jihadist extremists in prisons elevates the threat of radicalization of “inmates afflicted by poverty, marginalisation, frustration, low self-esteem and violence,” the text states.

As many as 6,000 European citizens traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS or other radical groups, the document notes, and while a third was killed, another third remains at large, and two thousand or more may have returned to Europe.

The report also notes that the Islamic State still has access to somewhere between $50 million and $300 million remaining from the revenues of the caliphate, a sum that could be used to inflict significant damage.

July 18 marks the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Buenos Aires Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building, like reported by dw.com. A van loaded with explosives was detonated, killing 87 individuals and injuring over 100. It was the deadliest terror attack Argentina ever witnessed. To this day, the real perpetrators have not been identified, and it took almost 21 years until Argentina’s parliament voted to compensate the victims and their relatives.

The anniversary has revived public debate on intolerance, discrimination and anti-Semitism in Latin America. “Latin America has not seen the physically violent anti-Semitism that other parts of the world have experienced through terrorist attacks,” says Ariel Seidler of the World Jewish Congress Latin American branch. “There are anti-Semitic incidents, but in general Jewish communities can freely practice their faith.”

Middle East conflict and anti-Semitism

Ariel Gelblung of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Latin America concurs: “Prejudices and hatred can be found everywhere, including Latin America. But generally speaking, Latin America is not a region marked by anti-Semitism.” But what is widespread, he says, is a tendency to equate Jewish communities with the state of Israel. So when there are growing tensions in the Middle East, anti-Semitic incidents elsewhere in the world tend to increase. But Gelblung insists that “we are no where near what Jewish communities are experiencing in Europe and the United States.”

According to the US Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) index of Anti-Semitism, in 2015 19% of adults on the American continent harbored anti-Semitic beliefs. This value is higher in other parts of the world. For example in Western Europe, where in 2015 24% of adults held such beliefs, or in the Eastern Europe, where 34% held anti-Semitic beliefs.In the Middle East and North Africa, meanwhile 74% of adults held such beliefs in 2015, according to the ADL.

In Seidler’s view, anti-Semitism barely exists in countries like Paraguay, Cuba and Guatemala. This also applies to Argentina, Seidler says, a country that has a 200,000-strong Jewish community among a population of 44 million people. He says in Argentina peaceful “co-existence and inter-religious dialogue are promoted.” Adding that there, people accept one another.

Tensions in Chile and Venezuela

In Chile and Venezuela, however, the situation is much more serious. Seidler says “tensions in Chile are tied to the Middle East conflict and have led to anti-Semitic hate speech.” This may also have to do with the fact that Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Arab world, according to Gelblung. It comprises some 400,000 members in a country of 18 million people, while Chile’s Jewish community consists of just 15,000 individuals. And many Chilean citizens sympathize with the Palestinian wish for an independent state.

Ariel Gelblung says that criticizing the Israel government must not lead to members of the Jewish community being discriminated against. A Jewish man, who attends a university, must not be held accountable for something happening on the other side of the word, Gelblung stresses.

He argues that “during the time of the Hugo Chavez government [in Venezuela], policymakers propagated a form of anti-Semitism, and the country’s Jewish community shrunk from 20,000 to just 2,000 members in less than 20 years.” He also reports attacks on synagogues, expropriations, acts of aggression and that Jews were treated like foreigners in their own country. He says when minorities are ostracized they tend to be stigmatized as foreigners.

Anti-Semitism online

Even though most religious communities get on well in much of Latin America, things are very different online. Ariel Seidler warns that “anti-Semitic hatred spreads far more easily on the internet.” He analyzes anti-Semitism statements made online on behalf of the World Jewish Congress. And says there is a stark difference between the online and offline world, with a quantitative and qualitative increase of anti-Jewish vitriol online. Seidler says the “most extreme case is that of David Fremd, who was murdered in Uruguay in 2016 by an Islamist.” He says anti-Semitic material downloaded from the internet was found on the perpetrator’s computer.

Both experts underscore that anti-Semites ought to be brought to justice swiftly. Gelblung says it is telling that the 1994 AMIA bombing still remains shrouded in mystery. “In the minds of many people, there is the belief that this was an attack on the Jewish community, but not on Argentina or its citizens.” Gelblung is convinced that as this mindset continues to prevail, the crime will never will be fully solved.

Egypt said all takfiri groups stem from the same extremist ideological source established by the Muslim Brotherhood organization, stressing the need to continue efforts to address terrorism in all its forms, like reported by aawsat.com.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez made this stance at a meeting of the liaison strategy group of the Global Coalition against ISIS in Washington.

He said victories over ISIS should not be considered a final goal, adding that the only way to eliminate terrorism lies in adopting a unified international approach on an all-out confrontation of terrorist groups, their ideology and activities.

Hafez cited the initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to renew religious discourse, praising the role played by the al-Azhar and Dar al-Iftaa to counter terrorism.

He stressed that Egypt will continue to support the liaison strategy group based on its experience in combating terrorism, highlighting the role played by its religious institutions in correcting misconceptions about religion and promoting moderate Islam.

An international study by Center on Religion and Geopolitics in Britain noted that 50 percent of extremists have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or related organizations.

Meanwhile, Advisor to Egypt’s Mufti, Ibrahim Najm stated that the Brotherhood is the root of extremism in the world, accusing it of adopting destructive rhetoric and inciting violence.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that organizations like the Brotherhood make false interpretations of the holy Quran to justify their actions and legitimize their crimes.

Should domestic labour be valued the same as work outside the home? What is the contribution of a stay at home wife and mother? How can we evaluate emotional labour when it often goes unseen?

No, these are not topic questions during a “Lean In” circle, like reported by lowyinstitute.org. These are questions that many courts are grappling with now that female foreign supporters of ISIS who travelled to the so-called caliphate are now seeking to return to their home countries.

There is a growing acknowledgment that many of these women weren’t just duped or groomed or tricked into travelling to a war zone. They supported ISIS of their own volition and agency. Despite their desire to return to their home countries, many remain committed to the cause and potentially dangerous. If they have renounced their support of ISIS, they must still be held accountable for their participation in a nihilistic and violent organization that threatened global security.

The definition of “participation” or “support” of a terrorist organisation must be expanded to account for the full contribution of women in jihad, including the essential state-building tasks these women performed – such as supporting combatants through many forms of domestic and unseen labour, educating recruits, and bringing up children in the ideology – and not just carrying out attacks, recruiting, and spreading propaganda.

Absent other mitigating factors, women’s crucial domestic, educational and other enabling influence should also be considered as terrorist “support”, and charges and sentencing should reflect this.

Yet because it cannot be proven that these women did participated in direct combat or attack plotting, how can we asses and describe the nature of their support? If a particular country does not have a foreign incursion offence (as Australia does), on what grounds can a government seek to try and convict women for their “invisible” support of ISIS?

It is very difficult to try and convict someone for terrorism support under most criminal justice systems and under current laws when they “only” had a domestic role. It is easy to dismiss the agency of many of these women when we have been conditioned to accept that women under ISIS were cloistered or oppressed, confined at home bearing and rearing children, with little constructive role in the organisation.

After all, women were allowed out in public only under full covering and for express purposes – how then could they had any active role in the terrorist organisation that is prosecutable?

A potentially precedent setting terrorism case in Germany is attempting to do just that. Sabine S. – a 32 year old German convert to Islam who also formerly fought in the Irish Army ­– was convicted of supporting terrorism and sentenced to five years. While five years is an arguably light sentence, prosecutors managed to find a way around a previous high court ruling that found performing household tasks did not constitute support of terror activities. Prosecutors argued instead that because Sabine S had lived with her family in houses belonging to people who had fled territory occupied by ISIS, she helped the terrorists secure control over conquered territory.

However, even though the German high court found that domestic duties do not constitute terror support, ISIS certainly did. More than supportive, ISIS views the domestic role of women as in fact essential.

ISIS eventually expanded the role of women beyond domestic duties and many women became involved in insurgent operations in theatre and as part of self-directed attacks around the world. But ISIS always viewed the role of women as more important than that of combatant. In many ways, it viewed its men as expendable, not of this world. Men’s role was to fight, not fear death and sacrifice their lives for the cause.

Its female supporters, however, were not so expendable. From the outset, ISIS believed that jihad was a generational conflict. Women’s primary role was to give birth to, raise and indoctrinate future generations of jihadists. This is why it was common for women to celebrate their husbands martyrdom and quickly remarry.

Numerous writings and propaganda emphasised women’s essential role as the thread between generations. For example, in Dabiq magazine, in an article called, “A Jihad Without Fighting”, the author laid out this fundamental role of women by evoking the strong, protective imagery of a lion and her cubs:

As for you, O mother of lion cubs … what will make you know what the mother of lion cubs is? She is the teacher of generations.

ISIS believed strongly that role of women as mothers and the bearers of the next and better generation of jihadists is a critical function of their revival after the fall of the caliphate. While committing many atrocities against women, ISIS at the same time understood and valued the domestic and emotional labour of women for their own nefarious ends.

Without the wives and mothers of ISIS, the jihad cannot continue.

Argentina’s government is planning on designating the Lebanese-based Hezbollah group as a terror organization for its role in the terror attacks against the Israeli embassy and the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentinian newspaper La Nacion reported.

“We are evaluating different possibilities. One of them is to pass a decree,” sources in the Ministry of Security and the Financial Intelligence Unit told the newspaper. The two entities have been tasked by President Mauricio Macri to find the “most rapid” solution to achieve the goal of including the Iranian-backed group in the list of terror organizations.

“We do not have a majority in Parliament, and it would take too long to pass a law there,” highly-placed sources in the Argentinian government explained to La Nacion.

July 18, 2019, will mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in the country’s capital. The attack left 85 people killed and 300 injured.

The report added that on that day Macri would pay tribute to the victims with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is scheduled to visit the country next week.

Pompeo will participate in the Western Hemisphere Ministerial anti-terrorism summit that the government of Argentina will host commemorating the bombing on July 19.

The United States and Argentina already held a workshop on countering Hezbollah’s terrorist activities in the western hemisphere in Buenos Aires in June.

La Nacion highlighted that the move by Macri’s government appears to be connected to the US official’s visit. The paper called it a critical turn in Argentina’s foreign politics.

The designation of Hezbollah as a terror group would imply enforcing political and financial restrictions on its members in the country.

A suicide bomber on foot targeted a wedding party in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring 14, local officials said according to 1tvnews.af.

Atahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar province’s governor, said a 13-year boy set off his explosives inside the house of a pro-government militia commander, named Malik Toor, in Pacheragam district.

Taliban denied their involvement in the deadly attack, but Islamic State militants have carried a string of suicide bombings and attacks on government offices, schools, and aid groups in recent years in Jalalabad, Nangarhar’s main city.

 Sawab Centre has announced the launch of a new campaign on its social media platforms. Under the hashtag #DaeshTheDelusion, the campaign will run from 10th – 12th July, in Arabic, English, and French on Sawab’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms, like reported by
wam.ae.

#DaeshTheDelusion is the centre’s forty-first social media campaign countering extremism and presenting positive alternatives to violent and divisive ideologies. Other Sawab campaigns have focused on terrorism’s devastation of families, communities, and ancient civilisations, as well as positive themes such as inspirational stories of youth impacting their communities for the better and the important contributions of women in preventing and resisting extremism and in advancing their societies.

Sawab Centre is a joint UAE-US digital communications hub to combat extremist ideologies online and promote positive alternatives.

The campaign will run concurrently with the quarterly meeting of the Communications Working Group of the Global Coalition Against Daesh.

#DaeshTheDelusion seeks to expose the lies and falsehoods of the extremists, who manipulate the truth in order to recruit followers and promote a false aura of righteousness and invincibility. Sawab will highlight the losses of the Daesh extremist group from 2015 to the present day, the role of the ordinary citizen in the fight against extremism, and how these terrorists brutally target houses of worship including mosques and churches.

The campaign also addresses the roots of terrorism and its devastating impact on the lives of those who suffer in an environment where extremist thought predominates.

Since its launch in July 2015, the Sawab Centre has encouraged governments, communities, and individual voices to engage proactively to counteract online extremism. Over this time, the centre has given voice to the millions of people around the world who oppose extremist ideologies, while supporting efforts to expose terrorist groups’ brutality and criminal nature.

The Mossad and IDF Military Intelligence have foiled some 50 terror attacks around the world over the course of three years, Israeli media outlets reported.

According to a report by the Mako news site, the thwarted attacks were mostly the work of ISIS and Iran.

Twelve of the planned attacks targeted Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been one of Israel’s most vicious critics in the region.

After IDF soldiers were attacked by Turkish anti-Israel activists on the Mavi Marmara vessel that attempted to run the Gaza blockade in May 2010 and the soldiers responded with lethal force, Turkey broke off diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

For some of this time, however, Israel was apparently still passing information to Turkey on terrorist threats.

In response to the news, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said, “It appears that not only the citizens of Israel owe thanks to the Mossad.”

“It would be interesting if the tyrant Erdogan would be kind enough to thank us for saving the lives of his citizens,” he added. “Spoiler: No.”

The self-declared commander of Islamic State in Australia was a teenager when he began telling his followers ‘we are terrorists’, sought out guns and explosives and tried to set up a stronghold in the Blue Mountains, police allege according to dailymail.co.uk.

Isaac El Matari, now 20, was one of three men arrested in Sydney this week during anti-terror raids.

He was charged on Wednesday with being an IS member, planning a terror attack and preparing for a hostile incursion into a foreign country.

El Matari had declared himself ‘the General Commander of IS in Australia’ and told other persons of interest ‘we are terrorists’, court documents state.

Anti-terror investigators allege he had ‘answered the call of war’ and spoke of ‘sacrificing himself’ for IS.

The Greenacre man was allegedly planning on travelling to Khorasan province – an IS stronghold in Afghanistan.

His preparations included obtaining an Australian passport and visiting the Pakistani consulate to obtain a visa.

At Penrith’s Flight Centre he allegedly purchased a ticket for a flight to Islamabad via China.

He would then be smuggled across the border into Khorasan province and, once there, get his hands on a rifle, authorities believe.

But El Matari’s terror plots were also focused on Australia, according to court documents.

He was allegedly trying to import guns and TNT explosive and had collected United States army uniforms at an undisclosed location.

He is accused of ‘creating a stronghold in the Blue Mountains and operating a contingent of IS fighters and choosing locations in Sydney to conduct a terrorist attack’.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney earlier this week said the plot was in the ‘early stages’ of planning and targeted police stations, defence establishments, embassies and consulates, councils, courts and churches in Sydney’s CBD.

El Matari did not appear at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday and his lawyer did not apply for bail.

Two of his friends turned up but did not speak to media as they hurried from the court.

A day earlier, one of the men also sat in the public gallery of Bankstown Local Court when El Matari’s co-accused, Radwan Dakkak, appeared.

Dakkak, 23, was arrested in the same raids and also charged with being a member of a terror organisation.

When the prosecutor on Wednesday named that organisation as ‘Islamic State’ the alleged terrorist smiled to supporters and raised his eyebrows.

A group of young men smiled back.

Court documents reveal Dakkak ‘knowingly’ joined IS in mid-December.

Detectives say Dakkak, from Toongabbie, is ‘prominent in the global online extremist community’. He did not apply for bail either.

Dakkak and El Matari are expected back before Parramatta Local Court on August 30.