Month: December 2022

The United States is pushing to regain its position as a center for semiconductor manufacturing and research as part of a Biden administration plan to make the nation less reliant on supply chains in Asia. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports from the Southwest state of Arizona on competition for billions of dollars in federal funding to bolster domestic chip manufacturing. Additional videographer: Levi Stallings

The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle recently, the group’s spokesman said in audio released Wednesday. He gave no further details. 

Al-Qurayshi is the second IS leader to be killed this year at a time when the extremist group has been trying to rise again with its sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria. Its affiliate in Afghanistan also claimed attacks that killed dozens in recent months. 

The U.S. military said al-Qurayshi was killed in mid-October adding that the operation was conducted by Syrian rebels in Syria’s southern province of Daraa. It was not clear why the announcement was made on Wednesday, more than a month after al-Qurayshi was killed. 

“ISIS remains a threat to the region,” the U.S. Central Command said. “CENTCOM and our partners remain focused on the enduring defeat of ISIS.” 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported in mid-October, that Syrian rebels who had earlier reconciled with the government killed a group of IS fighters in the southern village of Jassem in Daraa province. 

They included a commander identified as an Iraqi citizen along with a Lebanese fighter and others, the observatory said, adding that one of the IS fighters detonated an explosive belt he was wearing during the clash. 

Little had been known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a U.S. raid in February in northwest Syria. 

None of the al-Qurayshis are believed to be related. Al-Qurayshi is not their real name but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe to which Islam’s Prophet Muhammad belonged. IS claims its leaders hail from this tribe and “al-Qurayshi” serves as part of an IS leader’s nom de guerre. 

The death marked a blow to the group that was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later. The announcement by IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when IS has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a caliphate. 

“He died fighting the enemies of God killing some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield,” al-Muhajer said. 

Al-Muhajer said Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi was named as the group’s new leader. 

“He is one of the veteran warriors and one of the loyal sons of the Islamic State,” al-Muhajer said. Little is also known about Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi. 

Asked in Washington about al-Qurayshi’s death, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, John Kirby, said: “We certainly welcome the news of the death of another ISIS leader. I don’t have any additional operational details to provide at this time.” 

Al-Qurayshi is the third leader to be killed since founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in northwest in October 2019. 

No one claimed responsibility for the killing. 

On Wednesday, a bomb blast hit a religious school in northern Afghanistan killing at least 10 students, a Taliban official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Afghan affiliate of IS has been waging a campaign of violence that escalated since the Taliban took power in August 2021. 

Earlier this month, IS militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northwestern governorate of Kirkuk, killing four soldiers. 

The Islamic State group broke away from al-Qaida about a decade ago and ended up controlling large parts of northern and eastern Syria as well as northern and western Iraq. In 2014, the extremists declared their so-called caliphate, attracting supporters from around the world. 

In the following years, they claimed attacks throughout the world that killed and wounded hundreds of people before coming under attack from different sides. The group used social media to show the world its brutality, releasing videos of people being beheaded, drowned alive in pools while locked in metal cages or set on fire after being doused with gasoline. 

In March 2019, U.S.-backed Syrian fighters captured the last sliver of land the extremists once held in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. Since then, IS fighters have been carrying out sporadic attacks. 

 

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U.S. efforts to ease tensions between Turkey and Kurdish fighters in northern Syria appear to be having little effect, with both sides refusing to back down despite warnings that a conflict will only benefit the Islamic State terror group.

U.S. defense and military officials say they have been in constant contact with Turkey, a NATO ally, and with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key partner in the fight against IS, so far to no avail. 

“We have not seen signs of de-escalation,” a spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition to defeat IS told VOA via email Tuesday, repeating the call for “immediate de-escalation on all sides.” 

“We continue to oppose any military action that destabilizes the region and threatens the safety of the civilian population as well as disrupts our ongoing operations to defeat ISIS,” the spokesperson added, using another acronym for the terror group. 

Despite the repeated pleas, both Turkey and the SDF indicated Tuesday they are bracing for the conflict to grow, with Turkish officials adamant that the SDF be seen not as an ally in the war on terror but as an extension for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Turkey-based terror group.

“Our determination to eliminate this threat against our national security will continue unabated,” said Turkish embassy officials in Washington, communicating on the condition of anonymity.

“We are guided by the ultimate goal of ensuring the protection of the Turkish borders and striking at the root of terrorism,” the Turkish officials told VOA, adding, “Terrorist shelters, hideouts, fortifications, their so-called HQs [headquarters] and training centers constitute legitimate targets.”

But the U.S. has been hesitant to abandon the SDF, crediting the mainly Kurdish force with helping to crush the IS self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019. 

Already, Washington’s inability to broker a lasting understanding between the SDF and Turkey has put some of the 900 U.S. troops in Syria, part of an ongoing counter-IS mission, in harm’s way when a Turkish airstrike hit within 300 meters of U.S. personnel.

And for its part, the SDF is warning that the situation on the ground is about to get worse. 

“Their [Turkey’s] preparations are in full swing for an imminent ground offensive,” SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi said Tuesday in a virtual forum hosted by Columbia University. 

Turkish proxy forces in Syria “are now fully prepared,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “The Turkish armed forces have also been amassing a huge number of forces and equipment on the border, too.” 

Turkey launched what it calls Operation Claw-Sword with a series of airstrikes against Kurdish targets in Syria and Iraq earlier this month, describing it as retaliation for a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed eight people and injured dozens more. 

The SDF has denied any connection to the terror attack, arguing that suspects currently in Turkish custody have connections to IS. 

  

Abdi has also argued that IS is hoping to reap the rewards of renewed Turkish-Kurdish hostilities, pointing Tuesday to new intelligence estimates. 

“ISIS is actively preparing to break out many prisoners and are waiting for a Turkish offensive,” he said. “They’re expecting a ground offensive and will carry out their own planning if and when the ground offensive takes place.” 

 

U.S. officials, likewise, have voiced concern that IS cells in northeastern Syria are benefiting. 

The U.S.-led coalition confirmed Tuesday that anti-IS missions are no longer a priority for the SDF, and in Washington, the Pentagon said the number of patrols aimed at hunting down the terror group’s remnants is shrinking. 

“They [the SDF] have reduced the number of patrols that they’re doing, and so that therefore necessitates us to reduce the patrols,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters. 

“Continued conflict, especially a ground invasion [by Turkey], would severely jeopardize the hard-fought gains that the world has achieved against ISIS,” he said. 

On Tuesday, Turkey pushed back against such charges, saying such concerns “cannot be more detached from reality.”

“The fact is, Daesh remains a threat above all to the neighboring countries due to the wrongdoings and ill-advised strategies of those who make these kinds of statements,” Turkey’s ambassador to the United Nations, Feridun Sinirlioglu, told the Security Council, using the Arabic acronym for IS. 

“We have on countless occasions warned against the mistake of subcontracting the fight against Daesh to another terrorist organization, namely the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, which in reality is nothing but the PKK,” he added. 

In a further effort to reduce tensions, the Pentagon said it expected Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to speak soon with his Turkish counterpart. 

SDF officials hope, this time, the message to Ankara will be more forceful. 

“The U.S. position should be stronger,” Abdi told VOA Kurdish in an interview Monday, referring to a 2019 tweet from then-candidate and now U.S. President Joe Biden, which described former President Donald Trump’s support at the time for a Turkish invasion of Syria “a betrayal.” 

 

“I recently sent a letter to President Biden and reminded him of these things,” Abdi said. “President Biden should keep the promises he made in the past. We hope he will keep them now.” 

Zana Omer of VOA’s Kurdish Service and VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. 

President Joe Biden on Tuesday toured a $300 million semiconductor manufacturing facility in Michigan that aims to create 150 jobs and said the U.S. was “not going to be held hostage anymore” by countries like China that dominate the industry. 

“Instead of relying on chips made overseas in places like China, the supply chain for those chips will be here in America,” Biden said to a crowd of more than 400 people who gathered to see him at an SK Siltron CSS facility in Bay City. “In Michigan. It’s a game changer.” 

The company is part of the South Korean SK Group conglomerate, and the facility will make materials for semiconductors that will be used in electric vehicles. 

Biden tied the project directly to the CHIPS and Science Act, which he signed in August. The bill includes about $52 billion in funding for U.S. companies for the manufacturing of chips, which go into technology like smartphones, electric vehicles, appliances and weapons systems. 

Biden also said that China’s president, Xi Jinping, expressed dissatisfaction with the legislation when the two men met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit earlier this month in Bali, Indonesia. 

“And he’s a little upset that we’re deciding we’re going to once again be, you know … we’re talking about the supply chain, we’re going to be the supply chain. The difference is going to be, we’re going to make that supply chain available to the rest of the world, and we’re not going to be held hostage anymore.” 

China has pushed back vocally against the legislation and also against an October move by the administration to impose export controls on chips, a move intended to block China from getting these sensitive technologies.  

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning in October accused the U.S. of “abusing export control measures to wantonly block and hobble Chinese enterprises.” 

This week, in response to a separate proposal through the National Defense Authorization Act aimed at banning government agencies from doing business with Chinese semiconductor manufacturers, she said: “The US needs to listen to the voice calling for reason, stop politicizing, weaponizing and ideologizing economic, trade and sci-tech issues, stop blocking and hobbling Chinese companies, respect the law of the market economy and free trade rules, and defend the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.” 

But those concerns seemed far away as Biden enjoyed the welcoming crowd and painted his vision of his nation’s technological future.  

“Where is it written,” he said, “that America will not lead the world in manufacturing again?” 

Students in Washington are gathering to support people in China who are protesting Beijing’s draconian “zero-COVID” policy. 

China’s lockdown protests began spreading following a deadly apartment fire last week in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi that killed at least 10. Reports that the victims were trapped inside because of zero-COVID policies sparked resistance in Xinjiang and later across the country.   

When asked by Reuters at the regular press conference whether China is considering ending the zero-COVID policy soon amid the protests, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, after a long pause, said the reporter’s question was “inconsistent with the facts.” 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to a VOA request for comment. 

Hundreds of people gathered at George Washington University on Monday evening to stand in solidarity with the Chinese protesters. 

The event was initiated on Sunday by a Telegram account called “GWU Democracy Wall.” Within 24 hours, the word spread on other social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter and the Chinese social media app WeChat.   

Most of those at the event who spoke with VOA Mandarin asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation against their families in China by Beijing or by pro-Beijing groups while they are studying outside China.  

A Chinese student whose last name is Dai told VOA that he was encouraged to participate after seeing the protesters in China who confronted the police face to face.   

Dai said he wants to show “people around the world that the Chinese people won’t resign ourselves to adversity. We have our own ideas. We also dare to fight for our legitimate rights and interests.”

Vanessa, a Taiwanese student at George Washington University, expressed surprise at the number of people who showed up to protest. As a co-organizer, she said the vigil was a grassroots event organized by volunteers who didn’t know one another before they came together to plan the event.  

“As a Taiwanese, I’ve been watching this incident in China, and was moved and happy to see so many people finally have the courage to stand up. Taiwan had the same experience decades ago, and then it took a lot of efforts and the sacrifices of many predecessors to get what we have in Taiwan today,”she said.    

A half Chinese, half Taiwanese American student whose last name is Hsu and who also studies at George Washington University spoke to VOA Mandarin. 

“I think the Chinese people are actually very brave,” she said, “especially the younger generation, everyone knows what is right and what is wrong. But because of such a regime, many young people with ideas can’t do anything, because they are worried about their own safety. However, the recent protests in China showed me that there is hope.”

Rory O’Connor, a student of political theory and Asian studies at Catholic University, told VOA Mandarin that his Eastern European heritage and that region’s experience with communism made him want to support the Chinese protesters.   

“It is the latest in a long line of injustices committed by the [Chinese Communist Party] upon long-suffering and sort of defiant people, and to see that people who have been angry for some time but are finally willing to overlook the risks and simply do what they believe is right and live within the truth. I think that’s admirable,” he said.  

U.S. security officials see no signs that threats to the homeland are decreasing now that the country has weathered contentious elections and a politically polarizing decision by the Supreme Court on abortion.

Although neither event sparked widespread violence, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that the United States is still mired in “a heightened threat environment,” with little hope that things will get better over the next several months.

“Lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the homeland,” the department warned in a new National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin.

Senior DHS officials pointed to several recent acts of violence across the country — the shooting this month at a gay nightclub in Colorado, a rash of threats to various religious institutions and the October attack against the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — as evidence of what they describe as a dynamic and complex threat landscape.

“We do not at this time have credible intelligence indicating an impending [attack],” a senior official told reporters, briefing on the condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the department.

“There’s no one event that that caused us to issue this bulletin,” said a second senior DHS official. “This is a public communication … seeking to point out, to share with the American public, our concern about an ongoing threat environment that has persisted for a period of time now.”

Bulletin warns of extremists

One cause for concern, they said, is the information environment, which has enabled violent extremists to praise previous attacks and acts of violence and share writings or manifestos by the attackers.

U.S. officials have also seen the spread of conspiracy theories, some of which appeal to a wide range of extremists.

“One of the things we’ve seen with violent extremist ideologies is that they often commingle or cross over,” the second senior official said. “It just contributes to an environment where individuals … might grab on to those narratives in a way that motivates and animates their violent or potentially violent activity.”

While U.S. officials have emphasized the growing threat from domestic extremists, the DHS bulletin notes that “foreign terrorist organizations continue to maintain a visible presence online in attempts to motivate supporters to conduct attacks.”

Whether foreign or domestic, the new bulletin warns extremists could seize upon a number of upcoming events as justification for violence.

They include the ongoing certification of the results of this month’s midterm elections and the December 6 run-off election for the U.S. Senate seat in the southern state of Georgia.

“Fortunately, things went fairly well with the actual election,” one of the DHS officials told reporters when asked about concerns over potential election-related violence.

But he warned “that concern doesn’t evaporate on Election Day.”

DHS says perceptions could trigger violence

DHS said other events that could spark violence include the two-year anniversary of the riot at the U.S. Capitol, and even holiday gatherings.

The department also said additional violence could be driven by the growing perception of overreach by the U.S. government, warning that government officials and even law enforcement officials could become targets.

“DHS is committed to working with partners across every level of government, in the private sector, and in local communities by sharing information, equipping communities with training and resources, and providing millions of dollars in grant funding for security enhancement and prevention,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Wednesday.

The department said such grants include $20 million in 2022 for prevention programs and another $250 million to help improve security for nonprofit organizations at risk of attack.

This is the seventh time DHS has issued a NTAS bulletin since January 2021. The previous bulletin, issued in June, also warned of a heightened threat environment, pointing to the anticipated Supreme Court decision on abortion and the potential for violence surrounding the November midterm elections.

Iranian authorities have arrested the two actors behind a viral video where a group of film and theatre figures stood silently without headscarves in solidarity with the protest movement, a rights group said Wednesday.

Actreess and director Soheila Golestani, who appeared without her headscarf in the video, and the male director Hamid Pourazari, who also appeared prominently, have both been arrested, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

It was not clear where they were being held, it added. Some reports suggested they had been detained as the World Cup football clash between Iran and the US got underway late Tuesday but this could not be immediately confirmed.

In the video, Golestani, wearing black, walks into the shot without a hijab and turns around to reveal her face, looking directly into the camera.

Nine other women then join Golestani with the same gesture, as do five men.

The Iran Wire website said all those in the video were Iranian actors. It was not clear if they too risk arrest.

Prominent Iranian playwright Naghmeh Samini confirmed on her Instagram account that Golestani and Pourazari had been arrested.

She described the arrests as the “reaction of the some of the audience” to a “performance”.

The death in September of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the notorious Tehran morality police, has triggered more than two months of protests which pose the biggest challenge to the clerical regime since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Several Iranian actors have during the protest movement made taboo-breaking gestures of removing their headscarves, with are mandatory for women in the Islamic republic.

Earlier this month Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s best-known actors remaining in the country, posted an image of herself on social media without a headscarf.

Iran also arrested two prominent actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, who expressed solidarity with the protest movement and removed their headscarves in public in an apparent act of defiance.

Both have now been released on bail, reports said.

Iranian cinema figures were under pressure even before the start of the protest movement sparked by Amini’s death.

Prize-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after their arrests earlier this year.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.