Eye on Extremism, July 20, 2016

Eye on Extremism

July 20, 2016

Counter Extremism Project

The Washington Post: A New Jihadist Threat May Be On The Horizon In Syria
“As the U.S.-led coalition has begun to gain ground against the Islamic State in Syria, officials have begun focusing attention on another jihadist group they fear may pose a more dangerous long-run threat there, the al-Qaeda affiliate known as Jabhat al-Nusra. Jabhat al-Nusra has played a clever waiting game over the past four years, embedding itself with more moderate opposition factions and championing Sunni resistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group has mostly avoided foreign terrorist operations and has largely escaped targeting by U.S. forces. Meanwhile, it has developed close links with rebel organizations such as Ahrar al-Sham that are backed by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”
Reuters: As Mosul Fight Approaches, Worries About The Day after
“Dozens of defense and foreign ministers will meet in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday to take stock of the fight against Islamic State, their focus increasingly on a major prize: the militant group's bastion in Mosul, Iraq. The battle for Mosul is expected to be difficult, but the aftermath could be tougher, Iraqi, United Nations and U.S. officials say. Plans are still being finalized to provide urgent humanitarian aid and restore basic services and security for residents and as many as 2.4 million displaced people. Defense ministers of the anti-Islamic State coalition will meet at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Wednesday, followed by a joint session of foreign and defense chiefs on Thursday.”
New York Times: Bangladesh, Blaming Local Groups for Attacks, Seeks Suspects Tied to ISIS
“Bangladesh, reeling from a sudden intensification of terrorism this summer, has begun an urgent search for men suspected of building an Islamic State presence in the country and recruiting young Bangladeshis to fight in Syria and Iraq. Bangladesh’s government has maintained that the escalating attacks there were the work of domestic terrorists supported by domestic patrons, and it has dismissed claims of responsibility from groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.”
CNN: How Safe Are US Nukes In Turkey?
“As Turkey deals with the fallout of a failed coup, the country's fragility and proximity to Islamic terrorism have raised questions about the safety of US nuclear weapons stationed there. Most experts believe that the US maintains 50 nuclear weapons in Turkey housed at the US air base at Incirlik. The weapons are Cold War-era B-61 ‘gravity’ bombs. ‘It's an open secret’ the bombs are at Incirlik, Joshua Walker of the German Marshall Fund, who specializes on US-Turkey relations, told CNN. Turkish authorities encircled the base, cut off the power supply and temporary closed the airspace around Incirlik as they fought off the coup launched on Friday.”
New York Times: A Third Of Nice Truck Attack’s Dead Were Muslim, Group Says
“When a Tunisian man drove a truck down a crowded street in Nice last week in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, more than one-third of the people he killed were Muslim, the head of a regional Islamic association said on Tuesday. Kawthar Ben Salem, a spokeswoman for the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes, said that Muslim funerals were being held for at least 30 of those who died during the Bastille Day attack, including men, women and children.”
Reuters: France Says West Plans Strike On Islamic State In Iraq, Confirms Libya Presence
“France and the United States are preparing a coordinated strike against Islamic State on the militant group's stronghold in Mosul, Iraq, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said. ‘(French Defence Minister) Jean Yves Le Drian is in Washington. He is preparing with the Americans a coordinated attack on Mosul,’ le Foll said on France Info radio. Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault spoke about a Washington meeting of the anti-Islamic State coalition in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday. Le Foll said he could not confirm a report in Le Parisien newspaper, citing an Associated Press report, which said two French special forces soldiers had been killed in Libya on Sunday. However, he confirmed that French special forces were present in the country.”
Turkey's Power Cutoff To Incirlik Air Base A Problem For Pentagon
“The US military is doing ‘prudent planning’ in case it needs to move its anti-ISIS operations out of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey following the country's failed coup, several US defense officials told CNN Tuesday. The Turkish government cut off the power to the base after the coup attempt took place Friday, leaving it without a commercial power supply for four days and counting. The Pentagon has been able to fully operate the base through generator power but said it would be difficult to continue indefinitely.”
Daily Beast: German Ax Terrorist Sent Suicide Vid To ISIS
“Before 17-year-old Muhammad Riyad went on an axe rampage on Monday, slashing at least 20 passengers on a German train, he sent a suicide video to ISIS. In the clip, which the jihadist group’s news agency, Amaq, released on Tuesday, Riyad calls himself as a soldier of the caliphate while brandishing a knife. “I want to perform a martyrdom operation in Germany," he proclaims. “I will slaughter you with this blade and will cut your throats with an axe.”
The Guardian: Germany's First Attack By Radicalised Asylum Seeker Alarms Officials
“German officials are weighing up how to react to what is being treated as the first attack with a jihadist motive by an asylum seeker on German soil, who prosecutors suggested may have decided to carry out the attack just days earlier. A 17-year-old Afghan armed with an axe and a knife attacked passengers on a regional train in northern Bavaria on Monday evening, seriously injuring four Chinese tourists before being shot dead by police. Prosecutors said on Tuesday that two of the injured were suffering from ‘acute life-threatening’ wounds. The attack had been carried out with an ‘Islamist religious motive’, a spokesperson for the state office of criminal investigations said. A hand-painted Islamic State flag had been found in the teenager’s room at his foster home, as well as a college book with a text written in Pashtun.”
The New York Times: Turkey Pursues Cleric Living In U.S., Blamed As Coup Mastermind
“Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says that a mild-mannered Muslim cleric living in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania was pulling the strings of a coup attempt last week that almost succeeded in taking over the state, and killing Mr. Erdogan himself. Now, Mr. Erdogan says that many thousands of Turkish citizens — soldiers, policemen, bureaucrats, teachers, judges, lawyers and many more professions — are all part of the cleric’s movement and must be punished. Tens of thousands of people have already been arrested or suspended from their jobs in the four days since the coup failed, after a night of violence that plunged the country into chaos. Mr. Erdogan and the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, have been adversaries in recent years, and Turkey has said before that Mr. Gulen must be extradited by the United States.”
The Times Of Israel: Hamas Sentences 3 Gazans To Death For Spying For Israel
“A Hamas-run military court on Tuesday sentenced three Gazans to death and three to prison, charging them with being informants for Israel. A 57-year-old man from Gaza City was convicted of passing intelligence to Israel for over 20 years, including the location of Hamas’s tunnels, hideouts, rocket caches, as well as the houses and cars of the terror group’s fighters, a source in the Gaza military court told the Palestinian news site Safa. A man in his 50s from Khan Younis as well as a 35-year-old from Rafah were also sentenced to death for passing information to Israelis, the report said.”
Brazilian Extremist Group Uses Telegram To Pledge Allegiance To ISIS Ahead Of Olympics
“Hundreds of thousands of athletes and tourists are about to arrive in Rio de Janeiro from around the world for this year's Summer Olympics, whose opening ceremony is just more than two weeks away. Security is going to be extremely tight. The police and army are on high alert for copy-cat attacks after European cities have suffered one terrorist assault after the other. A vast ocean separates Brazil from the violence that has engulfed Syria and Iraq, but networks of terrorists spread messages through encrypted channels these days. On Monday, an obscure Brazilian outfit called Ansar al-Khilafah pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on a Telegram channel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.”

United States

Reuters: Kerry Says U.S. And Russia Plan 'Concrete' Syria Steps
“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the United States and Russia have planned ‘concrete steps’ for the direction they will take in Syria. He also urged Russia to use its influence on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to halt Syrian military attacks on opposition groups and civilians. Kerry spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by phone earlier on Tuesday and discussed ways to resolve the Syria crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. At a news conference in London, Kerry said he would update his fellow foreign ministers at an international meeting on Syria in the British capital on Tuesday, describing his visit to Moscow last week ‘and the concrete steps that the U.S. and Russia are planning to take.’”
CNN: U.S.-Led Airstrikes In Syria Kill Civilians, Groups Say
“A U.S- led coalition in Syria has killed more than 100 civilians since June and wounded dozens more in airstrikes in and around the ISIS-controlled city of Manbij, according to several human rights groups. The Manbij area is the last large tract of land along Syria's northern border with Turkey under ISIS control, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Considered a strategic supply point between Raqqa and Turkey, it has become the site of intense fighting since a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias entered the city in June. Though accounts vary, several human rights group said airstrikes this week killed dozens of people, pushing the death toll past 100.”

Syria

BBC: Syria Conflict: Rebels 'Filmed Beheading Boy' In Aleppo
“Videos have emerged online that appear to show Syrian rebels taunting and then beheading a boy they say is a captured Palestinian pro-government fighter. One video shows five men posing with the frightened child, who could be as young as 10, in the back of a truck. One of the men grips him by the hair. The same man is later filmed apparently cutting the boy's head off. The incident is reported to have taken place in Handarat, north of Aleppo, where there has been heavy fighting. The area is the location of the unofficial Palestinian refugee camp of Ein El Tal, which was home to some 7,000 people before they were displaced by armed groups in 2013.”

Turkey

The Guardian: Turkey Sacks 15,000 Education Workers In Purge After Failed Coup
“Turkey has escalated its purge of government officials in the aftermath of the failed coup, with about 35,000 public servants affected by the end of the day despite a government spokesman insisting that the crackdown was being carried out in accordance with the rule of law. In the latest developments on Tuesday, the government fired more than 15,000 employees at the education ministry, sacked 257 officials at the prime minister’s office and 492 clerics at the directorate for religious affairs. Additionally, more than 1,500 university deans were asked to resign. It followed the firing of nearly 8,800 policemen, and the arrests of 6,000 soldiers, 2,700 judges and prosecutors, dozens of governors, and more than 100 generals – or just under one-third of the general corps. Some 20 news websites critical of the government have also been blocked.”
BBC: Turkey Coup Attempt: Crackdown Toll Passes 50,000
“More than 50,000 people have been rounded up, sacked or suspended from their jobs by Turkey's government in the wake of last week's failed coup. The purge of those deemed disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan widened on Tuesday to include teachers, university deans and the media. The government says they are allied to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who denies claims he directed the uprising. PM Binali Yildirim said the preacher led a ‘terrorist organisation’. ‘We will dig them up by their roots,’ he told parliament. Turkey is pressing the US to extradite Mr Gulen and the issue was raised during a phone call between US President Barack Obama and President Erdogan on Tuesday, the White House said. Spokesman Josh Earnest said a decision on whether or not to extradite would be made under a treaty between the two countries.”
Voice Of America: Turkish Airstrikes Hit Kurdish Rebels In Iraq
“Turkish state media report at least 20 Kurdish militants were killed in Turkish airstrikes on northern Iraq early Wednesday. Turkey's F-16 fighter jets targeted members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the mountainous region of Hakurk near Iraq's border with Turkey, according to Anadolu news agency. A two-year-old cease-fire and peace process between Turkey's government and the PKK collapsed in July 2015. Turkish warplanes have been carrying out frequent bombing raids on PKK camps in northern Iraq and in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. The rebels have responded with a string of bloody attacks on security forces.”

Yemen

Sputnik: World Bank Approves $50Mln Grant To Help Yemeni Communities
“An emergency grant of $50 million to bolster a development fund and public works project in Yemen has been approved, to aid the nation’s preparation for post-conflict recovery, the World Bank announced in a press release. The World Bank estimated that the grant will enable 380,000 Yemenis in conflict affected areas will to access basic services such as water and improved roads. Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Houthi rebels, the country’s main opposition force. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition has carried out airstrikes against the Houthi rebels at Hadi’s request.”

Middle East

The Times Of Israel: Palestinian Stabber Shot By Troops Dies Of Wounds
“A Palestinian who was shot upon stabbing two Israeli soldiers on Monday has died of his wounds, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday. Mustafa Baradeah, 51, attacked the soldiers with a knife near Al-Aroub, north of Hebron on Highway 60 in the southern West Bank on Monday before being shot, according to the army. He was taken in critical condition to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem where he died later that day, a spokeswoman said. The two soldiers, who were lightly injured in the head and hand, respectively, received medical treatment at the scene and were taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood.”
Daily Caller: Israel Takes A Page Out Of Trump’s Playbook, Plans To Build Wall To Keep Out ISIS
“Israel approved building a wall on its northern border with Jordan Tuesday in an attempt to keep out Islamic State and other jihadis. Israeli Defense Ministry officials drew up and approved the plan in order to prevent potential attacks from car bombs and shootings. The $7 million wall will cover around three miles of territory along the southern Golan Heights, near the area where the Israeli, Jordanian and Syrian borders meet. It will reportedly include a surveillance system that can detect infiltrators. It’s the second wall to be built along the Jordanian border, and the third wall project to be approved in the last three years. Another wall project was completed in 2013 and covers about 56 miles of territory in the Golan Heights. A second project, approved in 2015, is located along the southern border with Jordan in the Arava desert.”

Libya

Associated Press: UN: Islamic State Fighters Face Possible Defeat In Libya
“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Islamic State fighters in Libya are facing the ‘distinct possibility’ of defeat in their last stronghold and are likely to scatter elsewhere in the North African country and the region. The U.N. chief said in a new report to the U.N. Security Council that member states' estimates of the number of IS fighters range between 2,000 and 7,000 from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Morocco and Mauritania. Ban said one member state recently reported between 3,000 and 4,000 IS fighters in Sirte, the extremist group's last bastion along Libya's northern coast which he called ‘the most active war front’ in the country.”

Nigeria

Voice Of America: Cameroon Pressured For Accountability In Fight Against Boko Haram
“Although Cameroon has received praise for its military action to push Boko Haram out of the northern part of the country and neighboring Nigeria, Amnesty International is criticizing the Cameroonian security forces for crimes including extrajudicial killings, torture and holding prisoners in inhumane conditions. In a report titled ‘Right Cause, Wrong Means,’ published late last week, Amnesty International said more than 1,000 people accused of supporting Boko Haram are being detained in terrible conditions, many in a prison called Maroua in the northern part of the country. Built to house 350 people, it is holding more than 1,500. Amnesty said up to eight people are dying each month in the prison due to poor conditions.”

Germany

The Wall Street Journal: German Train Attack Highlights Risk of Extremism Among Migrant Youths
“A 17-year-old asylum seeker’s rampage on a German train has thrown the spotlight on a subset of migrants seen as particularly susceptible to crime or radical extremism: unaccompanied minors. Investigators on Tuesday were still piecing together what drove the teenager identified as an Afghan refugee to stage the ax attack that injured five people the night before. The young man, who arrived in Germany on his own and sought asylum more than a year ago, appeared to have radicalized rapidly and only recently, authorities said. But the attacker’s age hits directly at concerns recently voiced by German officials and youth workers: that lone-traveling teenagers are especially prone to extremist ideology or recruitment by criminal gangs or fanatics.”
Associated Press: IS Group Claims Responsibility For Train Attack In Germany
“The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for an ax-and-knife attack on a German train that left at least five people wounded, but authorities said the 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker who was shot and killed by police as he fled the scene appears to have self-radicalized and had no direct link to the extremists. The boy shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ (‘God is great’) as he attacked people on the regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg Monday night, and a hand-painted flag of the Islamic State was found during a search of his room, according to state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. Though the Islamic State group claimed responsibility through its Aamaq news agency, Herrmann said the suspect, whose identity has not been released, had written notes in his native Pashto that indicated he may have been self-radicalized and there was ‘no indication’ he was directly connected to the IS group.”
Reuters: German Foreign Minister Urges More Ties Between Police, Spy Agencies
“German Foreign Minster Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday called for greater cooperation between police and intelligence agencies in Europe as well as sustained international efforts to fight Islamic State after recent extremist attacks. ‘The attacks of the past have shown us there is no absolute security,’ Steinmeier told Reuters in a written interview. ‘Terror strikes randomly and can hit each of us individually.’ ‘The fact is we urgently need even closer cooperation between police and intelligence agencies in Europe, and better information sharing,’ he said. It was also critical to continue battling Islamic State and help improve the outlook for people in areas freed from the extremist group's influence.”

France

Reuters: French Lawmakers Back Emergency Rule After Nice Attack, Inquiry Sought
“French lawmakers approved a six-month rollover of emergency rule on Wednesday in the wake of last week's truck attack on the city of Nice, the third deadly assault in 18 months for which the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility. President Francois Hollande's Socialist government remained under pressure, however, over security standards as the head of the regional government in the southern Nice area demanded an inquiry into policing levels on the night of the carnage. Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck into crowds of Bastille Day revelers in the July 14 attack in the Riviera coast resort of Nice, killing 84 people before he was shot dead by police. Around 38 of the 84 killed were foreigners. The extension of extra search-and-arrest powers for police was approved by 489 votes to 26 shortly before dawn in France's National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.”
NPR: Despite Heightened Security, France Struggles To Cope With Terrorism
“The vacation city of Nice has hundreds of police surveillance cameras posted across the city. But that didn't stop Thursday's truck attack that killed 84 people and injured more than 200. Security officials in France are struggling to find the right way to counter lone-wolf attacks and make people feel safe. French leaders are facing criticism after last week's deadly terror attack in Nice. A truck driver slipped past police to mow down crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on a seaside promenade. Many people in France are asking how that could've happened, especially when France has been on heightened security alert ever since the terrorist attacks in Paris last November.”
Sputnik: French Police Detain Airport Driver Suspected of Extremism, Find Explosives
“The arrest of the 23-year-old suspect engaged in the delivery of passengers to the airport was carried out in the French Val-de-Marne department, southeast of Paris, the Europe 1 radio broadcaster said. During searches in his apartment, police found explosives and detonators, the media outlet reported. The suspect’s whereabouts were revealed during a probe into a theft case. According to the investigators, the detainee, who is listed in the databases of individuals associated with the extremists, was also involved in a series of robberies of customers. Investigators have reportedly found a picture of Daesh flag.”

Europe

The Wall Street Journal: NATO Muscles Up To Fight ISIS
“The global coalition to counter ISIS, led by the U.S. and including every NATO ally, is making good progress. But the job is far from complete. It needs all the support it can get, and NATO is stepping up to help. Last week, NATO leaders met in Poland and agreed on three immediate steps to project stability in North Africa and the Middle East. First, NATO’s advanced Awacs surveillance aircraft will provide valuable information directly to coalition forces. Second, the alliance is launching Operation Sea Guardian, a new maritime security operation in the Mediterranean, to include counterterrorism and intelligence-sharing. It can also work with the navies and coast guards of the region to strengthen their ability to fight terrorism.”

Brazil

Fox News: Brazil Terror Sect Aligns With ISIS As Olympics Approach
“A group calling itself ‘The Brazil Caliphate’ has pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamic State, sparking fresh concerns about the nation's ability to safeguard the upcoming summer Olympics. In the July 17 pledge, ‘Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil’ posted to its Telegram channel an allegiance to Al Baghdadi, the ‘Emir of the Believers, the Caliph of the Muslims, and promised to fully obey him in establishing ‘the religion of Allah’ against ‘the enemy.’ Among the group’s other entries on the channel are links to more Islamic State ‘Nashir’ propaganda channels in Spanish and Portuguese, links to previous issues of ISIS’ glossy Dabiq Magazine, Nasheeds or jihadi songs and a speech by ISIS spokesman Al Adnani, translated in English and Portuguese.”

Technology

The Times Of Israel: EU Looks To Israeli Tech To Battle Terrorists
“A top European Union security official says the body is looking to Israeli technology in its efforts to locate so-called lone wolf terrorists before they attack. He says that internet companies had proved reluctant to police their own systems for content that could indicate terrorist activity, arguing that there was too much information to process, and highlights the difference to the automated monitors for pornography involving children. Europe is reeling from a string of attacks that have killed hundreds of people. At least two of the attacks — in Copenhagen in February 2015 and in Nice last week — were carried out by one person apparently acting alone.”

ISIS

New Sabah: New ISIS Campaign Targets The People Of Mosul
“The ISIS terrorist organization has launched a new campaign targeting the people of Mosul through sermons in local mosques. The goal is to urge residents to volunteer to join its ranks to defend the city. The terror group warned the population of a repeat of the Fallujah scenario. And while a real famine is looming in the southern parts of Nineveh, ISIS has carried out further executions of civilians in these areas. According to activists in Mosul, should a battle for the city commence, ISIS will permit its militants to steal and loot money and properties owned by residents and to wreak havoc in the city. This is their warning to citizens against the malicious schemes of this group.”

Iran

Dar Alakhbar: Ahwazi Activists Vow To Target Oil Pipelines To Prevent The Iranian Regime From Financing Terrorist Organizations
“Iranian forces were mobilized after an oil pipeline in the "Seven Hills" area, east of the capital of Ahwaz, was attacked. Dozens of fire engines and security vehicles belonging to the Revolutionary Guards were rushed to the scene and cordoned it off. Security forces set up numerous checkpoints in search of the culprits behind the attack. Ahwazi activists stressed that attacking commercial installations, including in the oil sector, should continue. They explained that the Iranian regime is using its revenues to finance terrorist organizations and support institutions and centers which disseminate the Safavid [sub-Shiite] Persian stream of thought in the Middle Eastern region.”

Muslim Brotherhood

Youm7: A report uncovers salaries of top Muslim Brotherhood TV employees in Turkey
“An exclusively published report by the Egyptian daily newspaper “Youm7” exposes the enormous salaries paid to the “symbols of incitement”, referring to the senior management in the Muslim Brotherhood’s TV channels and media outlets in Turkey, including Moataz Matar, Mohammed Nasser, Hamza Zobaa and others. The newspaper accuses these prominent Muslim Brotherhood TV figures of spreading false and inflammatory news against the Egyptian state and its institutions based on the directives and agenda of Turkish Intelligence. The report added that some of the annual salaries of the group’s TV figures are as follows: Moataz Matar $90,000, Hamza Zobaa $70,000, Mohammed Nasser $60,000, Osama Gaweesh $35,000 and Mohammed Showman $25,000.”

Hamas

Albawabhnews: A Palestinian Analyst: Turkey Provides Sizable Funding For Hamas
“Mr. Fayez Abu Hijleh, a Palestinian political and media analyst, said that the Palestinian Islamic Movement “Hamas” repudiates the efforts for national reconciliation with “Fatah”, the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by the late Yasser Arafat. Mr. Abu Hijleh added that Hamas governs Gaza as if it was its own “Emirate” separate from the rest of Palestine. It grants its sheikhs control of the illegal trade through the underground tunnels and imposes high fees (i.e. bribes) on any traveler wishing to leave Gaza via the border crossings. Furthermore, Hamas represses political freedoms and arrests 'non-conforming' political journalists, the analyst added. Turkey provides substantial funding for Hamas, hosts some of its leaders and supports its tough stance against national reconciliation. Mr. Abu Hijleh also stated, “It's no wonder Hamas celebrated the failure of the military coup against the Turkish president, in spite of the fact that Erdgan supports the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and Arabs.”

Houthis

Ababiil.Net: The Houthis Deduct Two-Day Wage From Public Administration Employees
“Mr. Waleed Mohammed Alqudaimi, Director of the Al Hawak District of the Al Hudaydah Governorate, asserted that the Houthis' militia is committing financial corruption in the public administration sector in order to promote its revolutionary project in Yemen under false pretenses. Mr. Alqudaimi said that the local regime in Al Hudaydah Governorate held a meeting yesterday attended by 65 executive officeholders and directorate managers to approve a 2-day deduction from the salaries of the public administration employees, under the pretext of supporting the military effort. Mr. Alqudaimi added that the governor himself refrained from attending this meeting although he was privy to its content. Moreover, the Director of the Al Hawak District said that none of the participants contested this decision. On the contrary, some of the 'hypocrites' suggested deducting a 3-day salary, displaying no concern for the economically suffering local residents.”