ISIS

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HVEs Focus on Military Targets and Travel to Support FTOs

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HVEs Focus on Military Targets and Travel to Support FTOs

On March 31, James Bradley, a.k.a. Abdullah, and his wife, Arwa Muthana, were arrested in Newark (Essex County) after attempting to board a cargo ship traveling to Yemen to fight for ISIS. The couple also conspired against military targets in the event their travel was unsuccessful, similar to other plots by homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) apprehended last year. Since 2020, several HVEs have been arrested for attempting to join a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) overseas and/or attack military personnel in the United States.

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ISIS Supporter Conducts Mass Casualty Attack in Vienna

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ISIS Supporter Conducts Mass Casualty Attack in Vienna

On November 2, Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old man with dual citizenship from Austria and North Macedonia, killed four people and injured at least 22 in an attack that began outside of a closed synagogue in Vienna, Austria. The attack occurred at six locations in the city center of Vienna starting at about 8 p.m. local time. Initially, law enforcement believed the gunman, known to Austrian authorities as an ISIS sympathizer, was part of a coordinated attack with additional shooters still at large; however, authorities now believe he was a lone offender.

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Jihadists Target French Citizens in Retaliation for Satirical Cartoon

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Jihadists Target French Citizens in Retaliation for Satirical Cartoon

On October 29, an attacker killed three French citizens, including a woman who was beheaded, at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in the southern French city of Nice. This is the fourth incident where Salafi-jihadists targeted and killed French civilians since September and follows President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of a satirical cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed. On the same day as the attack at the basilica, a man was arrested after stabbing a security guard with a knife at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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HVEs to Continue Targeting Uniformed Officers

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HVEs to Continue Targeting Uniformed Officers

Homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) continue to act in support of foreign terrorist organizations as government officials respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide protests attended by the public, and the 2020 elections. Since January, six HVEs have been identified, including two arrested for providing material support, one for plotting an attack, and three for targeting and injuring law enforcement and military personnel amid recent events.

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Violent Islamist Extremists Promote US Social Tensions

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Violent Islamist Extremists Promote US Social Tensions

International Islamist extremists and terrorist groups continue to publish propaganda about US racial and political tensions to proliferate their deception that America is a corrupt state. While US domestic policies are not a focus of these groups’ ideologies, their propaganda is part of a larger campaign to discredit the United States and motivate residents to accept their violent extremism and encourage supporters to conduct terrorist attacks.

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Attack on Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi

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Attack on Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi

On May 21, Adam Alsahli, a 20-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas, tried to speed through security gates at 6:15 a.m. (local time) at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. Alsahli opened fire and wounded a member of base security who was wearing a bulletproof vest. She rolled over and hit a switch that raised a security barrier, preventing Alsahli from getting onto the base. Other security personnel shot and killed him.

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ISIS Attacks Reveal Extremists’ Resiliency

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ISIS Attacks Reveal Extremists’ Resiliency

In 2020, ISIS and its affiliates have demonstrated their resiliency by continuing suicide attacks and conducting campaigns with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan while attempting to inspire supporters in Western countries. In February, US Central Command assessed that ISIS’s operations would not be disrupted following the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October, which has proven accurate as the group continues to target Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian governments and law enforcement officers battling COVID-19.

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Salafi-Jihadists Exploit Economic Instability Overseas

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Salafi-Jihadists Exploit Economic Instability Overseas

Salafi-jihadist extremist organizations can potentially use economic uncertainty and unemployment overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic to entice marginalized and unemployed men to join their groups and conduct attacks in countries weakened by the crisis. According to the International Monetary Fund, the pandemic is likely to cause a global recession on par with the financial crisis in 2008, during which gross domestic product contracted by more than 2 percent worldwide and more than 11 percent in the Middle East.

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Online Extremists Exploit COVID-19 to Inspire Supporters

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Online Extremists Exploit COVID-19 to Inspire Supporters

Supporters of domestic and international extremist groups have encouraged followers to conduct attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic to incite panic, target minorities and immigrants, and celebrate the deaths of their enemies. In order to remain relevant, extremists routinely manipulate crises to validate their ideologies and incite potential attackers.

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US Military Kills IRGC General in Iraq

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US Military Kills IRGC General in Iraq

On January 2, the US military killed Major General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, in an airstrike in Baghdad. The IRGC is an Iranian government agency tasked with defending the regime against internal and external threats. In April, the US Department of State designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization, as the group espouses a radical ideology and uses terrorist tactics against its enemies abroad.

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White Supremacist Extremists Exploit Jihadist Tactics

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White Supremacist Extremists Exploit Jihadist Tactics

An NJOHSP review of white supremacist tactics indicates members are adopting strategies similar to those employed by foreign terrorist organizations, including strict membership guidelines, online propaganda, and inspiring lone offenders. Both the European neo-Nazi group, Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), and its similar American counterpart, Atomwaffen Division (AWD), have co-opted social networks and media arms to further spread their ideologies and gain followers.

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US Forces Kill ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

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US Forces Kill ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

On October 26, US Special Operations Forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid in the northwest Syrian village of Barisha, located in the Idlib province. In 2014, Baghdadi declared the establishment of a worldwide caliphate in Iraq and Syria, leading many homegrown violent extremists to travel overseas to join the group and conduct attacks in the United States. Baghdadi appeared in only two propaganda videos since 2014, one announcing the caliphate and one in April.

Paris Attacker Illustrates Insider Threat

Paris Attacker Illustrates Insider Threat

On October 3, Mikael Harpon, a computer specialist in the Intelligence Directorate of the Paris Police, stabbed four colleagues to death, including three police officers and a civilian employee, before a trainee officer fatally shot him. This unsophisticated attack illustrates how an insider’s collective suspicious behavior could be viewed as a threat and reported to authorities.

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ISIS Strategically Features Leader in New Video

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ISIS Strategically Features Leader in New Video

ISIS’s release of a video featuring its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, prior to Ramadan likely indicates efforts to rally supporters during its post-caliphate period, purport its global presence, and encourage attacks during the holy month. On April 29, ISIS released its first video in five years with Baghdadi, who has not publicly appeared since he proclaimed ISIS’s caliphate in 2014 at the Great Mosque in Mosul, Iraq.

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ISIS West Africa Posturing For Prolonged Insurgency

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ISIS West Africa Posturing For Prolonged Insurgency

ISIS West Africa’s tactical successes and support in Nigeria have given the group the ability to expand its influence throughout the Sahel in the coming months, threatening US economic interests in the region, including direct investment opportunities. ISIS West Africa, formed in 2016 following a split with Boko Haram, operates primarily in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region and maintains an estimated 5,000 fighters, according to open-source reporting.