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US designates 'Daesh-Egypt', other ISIS affiliates as terrorist groups
 [AlAhram] The US Department of State designated on Wednesday "ISIS-Egypt" as a terrorist group as part of new designations of ISIS groups and individuals in several countries, saying it will continue to target ISIS and "deny it access to the US financial system." The designation also included 40 ISIS leaders and groups in Tunisia, Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Philippines. "These designations are part of a larger comprehensive plan to defeat [ISIS] in coordination with the 75-member global coalition to defeat the group," a statement said. The ISIS-Egypt group has grabbed credit for terrorist attacks in Egypt's Wahat region, the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt. ISIS-Egypt most recently claimed an attack by a gunman on a Coptic church in Helwan, south of Cairo, which killed nine people in December. In April 2014, the US designated the North Sinai-based ISIS affiliate Ansar Beit al-Maqdis as a terrorist organization. In January, the US State Department placed on its terror list two other Egyptian terrorist groups, Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra  ...The Revolution Brigade, which along with Hasm (Decisiveness or Determination) is one of the fighting arms of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, established to fight back against the overthrow of President Morsi..., which Egyptian authorities have linked to the Moslem Brüderbund organization. Manila Hails US Move to Blacklist Local IS-Linked Groups [AnNahar] The Philippines hailed on Wednesday Washington's decision to blacklist two local pro-Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... groups, including one which occupied the southern city of Marawi last year, triggering a months-long battle. The US State Department and the Department of Treasury designated the Maute group and the Dawlatul Islamiyah Waliyatul Masrik as "terrorist organizations" on Tuesday, blocking US-based assets belonging to them or their supporters and barring Americans from dealing with them. "The (move) is an affirmation of what Philippine authorities already know -- that the Maute Group and the Dawlah-Islamiya are terrorist groups that need to be dealt with decisively using the full force of the law," a statement by the defence ministry in Manila said. "They will be denied access to the US financial system and will face sanctions as may be deemed appropriate, making it more difficult for them to conduct their activities in the Philippines and abroad." Militants from the Maute group were routed from Marawi last October after a five-month battle sparked by its bid to establish an IS caliphate in the largely Catholic country's southern Mindanao region. The US, a long-time defence ally, helped Philippine forces with intelligence input, including reconnaissance flights, during the fighting which claimed more than 1,100 lives and reduced large parts of the city to rubble. However the Philippine military warned last week that remaining members of the group have recruited about 200 button men to mount another attempt. The Dawlatul Islamiyah, or Dawlah-Islamiya as designated by the Philippine defence ministry, is a smaller faction also based in Mindanao. "We are profoundly committed to preventing ISIS from gaining (a) foothold in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, and we should continue working together on this objective," Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Ernesto Abella told news hounds, using an acronym for IS. Brigadier-General Bienvenido Datuin, front man for the Philippine military, said the US move would boost local counter-terrorism efforts. "(A) specific advantage... is the checking of money trail, financial sources, logistics lines and conduits of terror groups in foreign countries that may have connections with local violent myrmidons," he said. Other armed Philippine groups that have made the US terror blacklist in previous years include the New People's Army, waging a decades-old Maoist armed rebellion, and the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... , which linked up with the Maute button men in Marawi last year. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-02-28 |
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