Everything to do with ISIS

[No Excuses]

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/19/the_atlantics_big_islam_lie_what_muslims_really_believe_about_isis/

A very good analysis of the Atlantic article

I really don't see where the good analysis. It doesn't really counter anything in the Atlantic article.

[visionary]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/kurdish-forces-show-the-strain-of-isis-fight#.ep4yPQpG7v

Kurdish Forces Show The Strain Of The ISIS Fight

 

The soldier pressed a handkerchief to his face to fight the smell of corpses at his feet. Then he crossed the street, sat on a curb, put his head between his knees, and spit. He lit a cigarette. “I’d rather smell the smoke,” he said, “because the stench is rotten, it’s gross.”

 

The soldier gazed warily at three young ISIS fighters who lay dead at the foot of a crumbled wall. One was charred from a rocket-propelled grenade. Another had a hole in his head. The jihadis wore thick socks but no shoes, to muffle their steps along the pockmarked streets during the battle that raged there the day before.

 

The soldier was part of an ethnic Kurdish force called the peshmerga that has spent more than six months battling ISIS in northern Iraq. He and his colleagues won this town south of the Mosul Dam, called Wana, the previous afternoon. They spoke as if they’d been dispatching demons. “They are like animals,” a 30-year-old lieutenant said, “and they don’t have brains to think.”

 

It was ISIS’s push into Iraq’s Kurdish region that prompted the U.S. to begin airstrikes against the group in August, paving the way for the Obama administration to launch a new war. Two months after taking over the Iraqi city of Mosul, the extremists were threatening genocide against the Yazidi religious minority around Mt. Sinjar and advancing toward the regional capital of Erbil.

 

The peshmerga have since become the main partner on the ground for the U.S. and its coalition of allies, shouldering the grunt work of combat. More than half of the airstrikes the U.S. has carried out in Iraq, according to the U.S. military command overseeing operations against ISIS, have hit along Kurdish lines. The extent of U.S. cooperation with the Kurds suggests the true percentage is far higher, said Christopher Harmer, an analyst tracking the conflict at the Institute for the Study of War.

[TheGoodBits]

Unfortunately, us bombing ISIS is like the Red Coats trying to stop the Revolutionary War. Sure the Red Coats won a few pitched battles in conventional combat, but in the end, unconventional guerilla warfare succeeded and we see how it turned out for the crown.

 

Simplistic, but still. And no, I'm NOT comparing IS's barbarity to our Founding Fathers.

 

I agree and disagree. Ultimately the bombing campaign won't defeat ISIS by itself, but it will (and has) stopped them from establishing more of a footprint in the region. I read somewhere, maybe here, that their main supply route is in danger of being cut off by Kurdish fighters. No chance that would have happened this soon without the support of our airstrikes. 

[visionary]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/west-rebuffs-egypt-proposals-for-military-intervention-in-libya-1424388828

West Rebuffs Egypt Proposals for Military Intervention in Libya

 

Egypt’s president made an aggressive gambit this week to win broad international support for military intervention to fight Islamic State in neighboring Libya—his first major foray onto the global stage.

 

But Western diplomats said he was rebuffed because of his own crackdown at home on moderate Islamists.

 

https://twitter.com/wheelertweets

Libya: Car bombs in eastern town of Quba this morning. Reuters reports 3, with 40 dead & 70 wounded. ISIS webpage claims 2, both suicides
12:21 PM

 

Libya: Car bombs in Quba this morning at a fuel station and police station. All (or most) casualties regular people at the fuel station
12:22 PM

 

Libya: A third car bomb in Quba has been reported by a military spokesman as targeting the home of HoR president Aguila Saleh. (No photos)

12:26 PM

 

Past few hours in Sirte Libya: Airstrike @ Ouagadougou conference center, followed by clashes at the port. Sources says 3 ISIS guys killed
2:12 PM

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/why-the-iraq-offensive-will-fail-115356.html?ml=m_u1_1#.VOgbvPnF9UN

Why the Iraq Offensive Will Fail

 

American officials said this week they plan to train up to 25,000 Iraqi troops in a major mission to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from Islamic State militants sometime this spring.

 

The mission is welcome, but frankly it is unlikely to succeed unless there is, at the same time, a deeper understanding on the part of our government of the real threat that the Islamic State and its adherents pose to us as a nation—and what our role in this broader fight must be. Unless the United States takes dramatically more action than we have done so far in Iraq, the fractious, largely Shiite-composed units that make up the Iraqi army are not likely to be able, by themselves, to overwhelm a Sunni stronghold like Mosul, even though they outnumber the enemy by ten to one. The United States must be prepared to provide far more combat capabilities and enablers such as command and control, intelligence, logistics, and fire support, to name just a few things.

 

Yet to defeat an enemy, you first must admit they exist, and this we have not done. I believe there continues to be confusion at the highest level of our government about what it is we’re facing, and the American public want clarity as well as moral and intellectual courage, which they are not now getting.

 

There are some who argue that violent Islamists are not an existential threat and therefore can simply be managed as criminals, or as a local issue in Iraq and Syria. I respectfully and strongly disagree.

 

We, as a nation, must accept and face the reality that we and other contributing nations of the world are at war, and not just in Iraq. We are in a global war with a radical and violent form of the Islamic religion, and it is irresponsible and dangerous to deny it. This enemy is far broader than the 40,000 or so fighters in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. There also exists a large segment of this radical version of Islam in over 90 nations abroad as well as here at home. Just ask those countries from which foreign fighters are flowing into the Levant to support this “jihad.”

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spokesman-car-bomb-eastern-libya-kills-30-29097457

Islamic State Bombers Kill Dozens in Libyan Suicide Attacks

 

Islamic State militants unleashed suicide bombings Friday in eastern Libya, killing at least 40 people in what the group said was retaliation for Egyptian airstrikes against the extremists' aggressive new branch in North Africa.

 

The bombings in the town of Qubba, which is controlled by Libya's internationally recognized government, solidified concerns the extremist group has spread beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and established a foothold less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy.

 

The militants have taken over at least two Libyan coastal cities on the Mediterranean — Sirte and Darna, which is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Qubba. They released a video Sunday that showed the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians who were abducted in Sirte, and Egypt responded Monday with airstrikes on Darna.

 

The Islamic State group has established its presence in Libya by exploiting the country's breakdown since dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011. Hundreds of militias have taken power since then, and some of them have militant ideologies. A militia coalition known as Libya Dawn has taken over Tripoli, where Islamists set up their own parliament and government. Islamic extremist militias controlled the second-largest city of Benghazi until late last year, when army troops began battling them for control.

 

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombings in Qubba, but said there were only two attacks, while the government said there were three.

 

Army spokesman Mohammed Hegazi said one attacker rammed an explosives-packed ambulance into a gas station where motorists were lined up.

 

"Imagine a car packed with a large amount of explosives striking a gas station; the explosion was huge and many of the injured are in very bad shape while the victims' bodies were torn into pieces," Hegazi said.

 

Two other bombers detonated vehicles next to the house of the parliament speaker and the nearby security headquarters, he said.

 

Government spokesman Mohammed Bazaza put the death toll at 40, with at least 70 injured, some seriously. The number of dead was expected to rise. Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity becase they were not authorized to talk to the media said at least 45 were killed.

 

Among the dead were six Egyptians working at a cafe next to the gas station.

Video broadcast from the scene showed dozens of cars wrecked and ablaze, with pools of blood on the asphalt, along with body parts, shoes and shattered glass. Bodies covered in sheets were lined up nearby. The government and parliament announced a week of mourning.

 

"This terrorist, cowardly and desperate attack only increases our determination to uproot terrorism in Libya and in the region," Bazaza said, adding that Libyan air force jets conducted several airstrikes, without specifying where.

 

Witnesses in the city of Sirte said it was hit by multiple Libyan airstrikes Friday, targeting a convention center that is used as a headquarters by the Islamic State group.

[jpyaks3]

Im sure there is a logical reason for us to NOT back Egypts attacks on ISIS.   Can someone post it?

Because

 

A. Sisi is a piece of **** who has no problem killing hundreds of peaceful protesters and sentencing hundreds more to death/life in prison for protesting.

 

B. He is showing us a brilliant case study on what not to do to deal with Islamism (ban a moderate party, force people to become more radicalized, kill innocent and peaceful protesters, etc.)

 

C. He is trying to intervene in Libya to instill his own puppet dictator (Khalifa Haftar) which will just tear the country even more apart. 

 

Supporting Sisi in this is a dangerous game that is counterproductive to pretty much all of our interests. You want to know situations where ISIL/radical Islamists thrive and multiply? Look at whats happening in Egpyt right now and what Sisi wants to export to the region. 

 

This is a pretty decent article

 

 

Regardless of how the confrontation between the Tripoli government and ISIL goes, the strategy preferred by the Sisi regime can have disastrous consequences on Libya's already precarious situation, not to mention the rest of the region.

 

The objective of that strategy is not about national reconciliation, social cohesion, democratisation, military and security professionalism, and democratic control of armed actors. It is more about eradication of political rivals, empowering like-minded/loyal military generals, and installing another repressive authoritarian regime on the borders of Egypt, and - where most of the other sides intersect - defeating ISIL.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/sisi-war-libya-150222054159639.html

[visionary]

Because

 

A. Sisi is a piece of **** who has no problem killing hundreds of peaceful protesters and sentencing hundreds more to death/life in prison for protesting.

 

B. He is showing us a brilliant case study on what not to do to deal with Islamism (ban a moderate party, force people to become more radicalized, kill innocent and peaceful protesters, etc.)

 

C. He is trying to intervene in Libya to instill his own puppet dictator (Khalifa Haftar) which will just tear the country even more apart. 

 

Supporting Sisi in this is a dangerous game that is counterproductive to pretty much all of our interests. You want to know situations where ISIL/radical Islamists thrive and multiply? Look at whats happening in Egpyt right now and what Sisi wants to export to the region. 

 

This is a pretty decent article

 

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/sisi-war-libya-150222054159639.html

That article brings up good points about Sisi, but gives a bit too much credit to the uh...'government' in Tripoli that is fairly unpopular in Libya and among Libyan activists outside the country and considered by a lot of Libyans to be run or heavily influenced by terrorists, assassins, and kidnappers.  The Tripoli government leadership also had some pretty weird comments recently denying Isis' existence in Libya and claiming it was all a conspiracy.

 

Also I think it's smart to be wary of Sisi and possible ulterior agendas, but so far there haven't been a lot of realistic alternatives provided by anyone else.

And Libyans may have a different view on Sisi and the Muslim Brotherhood than we do or even Egypt does.

Even moderate Islamists have gotten quite a bad reputation in Libya the past couple of years from alliances with groups like ISIS or Ansar Al Sharia, destroying religious shrines, handicapping the government and constantly undermining other leaders...even going as far to trying to kidnap the PM...though I can't recall how that ended, assassinating and kidnapping activists and their family members, and refusing the will of the electorate after losing and starting their own government, also occupying different cities and airports, though that blame is also shared by city militias and is more about regional factionalism.

 

 

 

In other news: 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blast-does-damage-to-home-of-iranian-ambassador-in-libya/

ISIS supporters claim responsibility for attack on Iranian diplomat's home

 

A bomb blast outside the Iranian ambassador's house in Libya's capital on Sunday which caused minor damage to the empty building was claimed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

 

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham condemned the "terrorist" attack, which she said claimed no lives. She called on political rivals in Libya to form a national unity government to end the country's escalating chaos.

 

Twitter accounts used by ISIS supporters said the attack was carried out by the group's branch in Tripoli and posted pictures from the site of the explosion. There are growing concerns that ISIS has spread beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and established a foothold in Libya, just across the sea from Europe. There was no official statement from the group claiming responsibility for the attack.

 

The group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings Friday in eastern Libya that killed at least 40 people in what the group said was retaliation for Egyptian airstrikes against the extremists' aggressive new branch in North Africa.

 

The Sunday attack only caused minor damage to the home of the Iranian ambassador, who is out of the country, according to a Libyan security official in Tripoli, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to brief reporters.

 

The Sunni extremist group considers Shiite Muslims, who make up the majority of Iran's population, as apostates. Tehran is a strong backer of both the Syrian and Iraqi governments, which are at war with the ISIS.

[visionary]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/-turkey-evacuates-troops-at-historic-tomb-in-syria-one-soldier-killed.aspx?pageID=238&nID=78662&NewsCatID=352

Turkey relocates historic tomb in Syria over jihadist threat

 

Turkey has evacuated its military personnel protecting the Tomb of Süleyman Şah in northern Syria as well as the artifacts in the mausoleum in an operation jointly conducted by the intelligence organization and the Turkish army, a few days after reports suggested that the tomb was besieged by jihadists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

 

A soldier was killed in an accident during the early hours of the operation, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu confirmed during a press conference early on Feb. 22. The soldier has been identified as Halit Avcı. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reportedly called the family of Avcı to convey his condolences.

 

The tomb, around 37 kilometers from the Turkish border, is regarded as Turkish territory by international agreements and was protected by around 40 soldiers.

Davutoğlu, Land Forces Commander Hulusi Akar and other military officials determined the details of the military operation during a meeting at Turkey’s General Staff headquarters in Ankara on Feb. 20, Hürriyet has learned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved the operation.

 

During the operation that was launched late Feb. 21, airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft, military helicopters and drones were on duty as 39 tanks and 57 armored vehicles penetrated the border with support teams from Turkey’s Special Forces. Live footage and other data from the field were followed in an operation room at the General Staff’s headquarters.

 

Without engaging in any clashes, Turkish troops left Syria early Feb. 22, after detonating the symbolic building to prevent ISIL militants from using it as a base.

 

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/02/19-jordan-egypt-isis-response

Jordan, Egypt, and the response to ISIS: Beyond air strikes

 

Tha’r, or “blood vengeance” in Arabic: this was how the Jordanian Air Force spokesman described last week's renewed strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), carried out in retribution for the murder of downed pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh. The word was splashed across Egyptian newspapers, as the country’s warplanes struck the ISIS-held city of Derna in retribution for the group’s murder of 21 Egyptian Christians.

 

Many in both countries drew parallels between the two situations, with candle-lit vigils and high-level communications to express solidarity. “The killing of an Egyptian citizen is no different than that of the Jordanian pilot,” said one Egyptian analyst to news site Mada Masr.

 

ISIS broadcast film of Kasasbeh being burned to death on February 3, ostensibly aiming to drive a wedge between Jordan’s ruling elite (particularly King Abdullah) and its people—who, it bears noting, had little say in the initial decision to join the U.S.-led air war against ISIS. The regional coalition against ISIS in Syria, based on the September 2014 Jedda Communique, has succeeded in providing a veneer of Arab participation around U.S.-led strikes, yet Arab governments have done little to bring their publics along with them.

 

Demonstrators and newspaper editors called on the government to execute all ISIS sympathizers in detention, with the government acquiescing by immediately executing two condemned Iraqi terrorists in Jordanian custody, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli. King Abdullah, vowing a “relentless war” against the group, was greeted by cheering crowds of thousands.

 

Even radical voices critical of the coalition have been forced to moderate their tone, likely fearful of public wrath or a spell in Jordanian prisons. Former al-Qaeda ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi was released from prison to condemn Kasasbeh’s burning as un-Islamic, while prominent jihadi Salafi leader Abu Sayyaf said that the execution “had no connection to Islam,” blaming the burning on ex-Baathist officers among ISIS ranks.

 

In the weeks since the video’s release, though, the group’s actions have failed to divide the Jordanian people, instead provoking the unified wrath of much of the population. Safi al-Kasasbeh, the pilot’s father, called on the Jordanian government “to take blood vengeance for Muadh and blood vengeance for the nation.”

 

France deployed an aircraft carrier in the Gulf on Monday as part of the US-led military campaign against the IS jihadist group in Iraq. The 'Charles de Gaulle' carrier carrying departed Bahrain on Sunday in the direction of Iraq

[visionary]

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/168690

U.S. Says Iraqis Fighting to Recapture Western Town from IS

 

About 800 Iraqi forces backed by U.S. warplanes are waging a battle to retake the western town of al-Baghdadi from Islamic State jihadists, a U.S. military commander said Monday.

 

Kurdish militia, meanwhile, rebuffed an attempt by the IS group on Sunday night to recapture an Iraqi town standing on a crucial supply route to the northern city of Mosul, the commander said.

 

Lieutenant General James Terry, who oversees the U.S.-led war effort against IS, told reporters the jihadists had been "halted" across Iraq and that it was now only able to launch smaller-scale attacks.

 

Terry, who is headquartered in Kuwait, said that while the IS militants are under mounting pressure, the Iraqi army was improving.

"The capabilities that we're seeing in the Iraqi security forces are growing," the general said.

 

"At the same time, what we're not seeing on the part of Daesh (IS) is as important also. We're not seeing those broad counter-offensives" that they staged previously, he said.

 

Iraqi army and commando units, as well as tribal fighters, were currently carrying out an operation to retake the small town of al-Baghdadi which IS jihadists had seized about a week ago, according to Terry.

 

The counter-attack, dubbed "Lion's Revenge," involved "well over 800" Iraqi forces, including mechanized units.

 

The town is located near the Iraqi army's al-Asad base, where 300 U.S. troops are stationed to advise and train local forces.

 

A group of about 20-25 IS fighters -- including several suicide bombers -- staged an attack on the Asad base this month but the assault was quickly crushed.

 

An overview of some of the events leading up to the current situation.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-advance-in-libya-could-present-threat-to-europe-a-1019976.html

A Threat to Europe: The Islamic State's Dangerous Gains in Libya

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/us-usa-libya-obama-idUSKBN0LR1MX20150223?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Obama says Libya situation continues to pose threat to United States

 

President Barack Obama sent a formal letter to Congress on Monday extending a national emergency for Libya for a year because of the conflict over power and access to the country's resources.

 

"The situation in Libya continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," Obama said in his letter to Congress.

[visionary]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/23/isis-used-a-u-s-prison-as-boot-camp.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

ISIS Used a U.S. Prison as Boot Camp

 

In an excerpt from their new book on ISIS, Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan show how jihadists used a U.S.-run Iraqi prison to coordinate with al Qaeda.

In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who behead Western hostages in slickly produced videos and have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS’s first incarnation as “al Qaeda in Iraq,” Weiss and Hassan explain who the key players are—from their elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the former Saddam Baathists in their ranks—where they come from, how the movement has attracted both local and global support, and where their financing comes from.

 

The following excerpt concerns Iraq midway through the first decade of this century.

 

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Islamic state of Iraq (ISI) weren’t only using U.S.-run prisons as “jihadi universities,” according to Major General Doug Stone; they were actively trying to infiltrate those prisons to cultivate new recruits. In 2007, Stone assumed control over the entire detention and interrogation program in Iraq, with an aim to rehabilitation. Not only had the internationally publicized and condemned torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison left a permanent stain on the occupation and America’s credibility in the war, but theater detainment facilities had also been used as little more than social-networking furloughs for jihadists. Camp Bucca, based in the southern province of Basra, was especially notorious.

 

According to one U.S. military estimate, Bucca housed 1,350 hardened takfiri [a takfiri is a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy] terrorists amid a general population of 15,000, yet there was little to no oversight as to who was allowed to integrate with whom. Owing to the spike in military operations coinciding with the surge, the detainee number nearly doubled to 26,000 when Stone took command in 2007.

 

“Intimidation was weekly, killing was bimonthly,” Stone recalled in an interview. “It was a pretty nasty place that was out of control when I got there. They used cigarettes and matches to burn down their tents and mattresses, and when we tried to rebuild the tents, they’d just burn them down again. We thought they’d burn the whole goddamn prison down.”

[PeterMP]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/18/opinion/kohn-isis-terror/index.html

 

"It's called "terrorism" for a reason. The goal is to cause terror, to scare people into acting -- or overreacting. The most recent ISIS propaganda video was produced in English for a reason. It seems they want the West to react and take the bait. And we are obliging."

 

"A YouTube video of a beheading forces the U.S. president to go to 'war' in order to avoid being called weak by his domestic political opposition. That's not leadership! Worse, the so-called hawks push for deeper involvement irrespective of military reality. They live in a fantasy world of U.S. military exceptionalism."

 

"Yes, the violent terrorism of ISIS is medieval and inhumane. That doesn't mean it can't also be rational."

"We have to stop broadcasting their propaganda. We have to stop responding with bombs every time they provoke us with videotaped slayings. We have to stop being weak and fearful in the face of ISIS' threats. Otherwise, no matter how much territory we bomb, ISIS will keep winning."

 

"In fact, if you think the only way to defeat them is with bombing, they've already won."

[visionary]

Guessing this will put more of a damper on any immediate prospect of a grand Arab coalition involving Egypt and the GCC....

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hearst/sisi-tapes-are-genuine-br_b_6739008.html

Sisi Tapes Are Genuine, British Forensic Lab Finds

 

On Sunday night Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took to the air to proclaim his innocence. Stung by the publication of secretly recorded conversations in which the Egyptian president and his senior staff revealed their contempt for their Gulf donors, discussing how to tap them for billions more and how to divert the money into the army's bank accounts, the president said he was the victim of a plot.

 

Addressing himself directly to his "brothers in the Gulf," he said that "we show every respect for them, and we should be vigilant toward what is done in order to create division and dissension."

 

Sisi blamed what he called a fourth generation of warfare, in which "technology" is being used to accomplish political goals to weaken him. In this vein he claimed that his voice and those of his closest advisers had been fabricated. Sisi said:

I have met with all strands of the Egyptian society. I spoke, and my speech is recorded for up to 1,000 hours. In the 1,000 hours there is not a single violation or one abuse coming out of my mouth against anyone, not a state, not a faction, not a group and not an entity.

These protestations of innocence are going down like a lead balloon in Saudi Arabia, which, since the death of King Abdullah, is under new management. King Salman's first act was to throw out of office the coterie of advisers who had tried to stop him from inheriting the throne. As these are the same people who funded and backed Sisi's military coup, the Egyptian leader must be asking himself whether he has just lost his chief sponsor. He will soon find out.

 

Sisi's existential angst will not be calmed by news that a leading British laboratory in forensic speech and acoustic analysis has authenticated one 30-minute section of the tapes. Worse than that, the laboratory ruled out the possibility that the tapes were fabricated or manipulated electronically.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-mideast-crisis-congress-idUSKBN0LT2B220150225?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

More moderate Syrians ready to battle Islamic State than expected: U.S. official

 

Moderate Syrian fighters in greater numbers than U.S. officials had expected are stepping forward to battle Islamic State militants, the White House's special envoy for the campaign against the group said on Wednesday.

 

"The numbers are much higher than we thought, and it's been a very encouraging. We've had an encouraging sense that there is an interest in this," retired General John Allen, President Barack Obama's envoy to the anti-IS coalition, told a U.S. Senate committee.

 

U.S. officials have said they plan to train about 5,000 Syrian fighters per year for three years at sites outside Syria as part of the campaign to stop Islamic State, which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

 

Allen testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as lawmakers began considering Obama's request for a formal three-year authorization for the campaign against IS.

 

The measure is expected to face difficulty in Congress, where many Democrats worry it will lead to another long engagement by U.S. combat troops in the Middle East and Republicans are concerned it does not give commanders enough flexibility to defeat Islamic State.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-idUSKBN0LT1IX20150225

Islamic State seize 100 Iraqi tribesmen before battle for Tikrit

 

Islamic State fighters have abducted 100 Sunni Muslim tribesmen near the city of Tikrit, local tribal leaders said on Wednesday, apparently to neutralize suspected opponents before a widely expected army offensive.

 

Iraqi soldiers and pro-government Shi'ite militias have been massing for days in preparation for an attack on Islamic State strongholds along the Tigris River to the north and south of Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein.

 

Tikrit, about 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, has been controlled by the Sunni Muslim radicals since they swept through northern Iraq in June, scattering Iraq's security forces.

 

Tribal leaders said Islamic State fighters had detained 42 Sunni tribesmen in the village of Rubaidha on Tuesday whom they suspected of being ready to take up arms against them.

 

"They broke into the houses and asked for mobiles," said Hatam al-Obeidi, a Rubaidha resident who escaped to the town of Tuz Khurmatu on Wednesday.

 

"They were checking everything in the mobiles that might show that the owner is against them," he said, adding that his own telephone had been returned to him after a gunman told him he was "clean".

 

Last week, insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a government-backed Sunni militia, said Abu Kareem al-Obeidi, who left Rubaidha for the neighboring Diyala province to avoid abduction.

 

The militants initially set up a headquarters in Rubaidha, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Tikrit, after their June offensive, but pulled out after army helicopters mistakenly bombed the house of the local sheikh beside their base.

 

The sheikh then asked the militants to leave, residents said.

 

Iraq's military said around 2,000 Shi'ite militia fighters, known as the Popular Mobilisation, had arrived near Tikrit in preparation for a major operation against Islamic State.

 

Raed Jabouri, governor of Tikrit's Salahuddin province, said on Tuesday that 5,000 fighters from the security forces and the Popular Mobilisation - formed last year with Iranian support after the rout of the army - would join "the operation to liberate Tikrit".

 

Witnesses said the militants had on Wednesday blocked three main entrances to the south, west and north of Tikrit with 4-metre (12-foot) concrete blast walls.

They also covered a bridge across the Tigris with about 1 meter (three feet) of sand in the hope of absorbing the impact of bombs.

 

The witnesses saw a stream of SUV vehicles, apparently containing detainees, heading north toward the northern, Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul.

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-mideast-crisis-syria-northeast-idUSKBN0LT0GB20150225?utm_source=twitter

Syrian Kurds cut IS supply line near Iraq; fears for Christians mount

 

Kurdish militia pressed an offensive against Islamic State in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group.

 

At least 90 Assyrian Christians were seized from villages in Hasaka province in a mass abduction coinciding with the offensive in the same region by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict.

 

The Syriac National Council of Syria put the figure as high as 150. Hundreds more Christians have fled to the two main cities in Hasaka province, according to the Syriac council and the Observatory.

 

Islamic State has killed members of religious minorities and Sunni Muslims who do not swear allegiance to its self-declared "caliphate". The group last week released a video showing its members beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.

 

The abductions in Syria follow advances by Kurdish forces against Islamic State in parts of the northeast near the Iraqi border, an area of vital importance to the group as one of the bridges between land it controls in Iraq and Syria.

 

"They want to show themselves strong, playing on the religion string, at a time when they are being hit hard," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based Observatory, speaking by telephone.

 

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, last month drove Islamic State from the Syrian town of Kobani, since when further signs of strain have been seen in the group's ranks.

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/us/new-york-terror-plot/index.html

FBI: Three men attempted to join ISIS

 

One of three men arrested in the United States on Wednesday in a failed attempt to join ISIS in Syria allegedly discussed assassinating President Barack Obama, according to a complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

 

However, the man told an FBI agent that he "currently does not have the means or an imminent plan to do so."

 

Two of three men planned to embark on the journey Wednesday, and one of them discussed hijacking a commercial flight to Turkey and divert it "to the Islamic State, so that the Islamic State would gain a plane," the complaint said. They also talked about joining the U.S. military in order to attack soldiers.

 

The suspects -- identified as Abdurasul Jaraboev, 24; Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19; and Abror Habibov, 30 -- were arrested in New York and Florida, according to the complaint. They face charges that include attempting and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, the complaint said.

 

"This is real," New York Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters. "This is the concern about the lone wolf inspired to act without ever going to the Middle East or the concern of once they get to the Mideast, acquire fighting skills, capabilities and then attempting to return to the country."

 

Saidakhmetov was arrested Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport attempting to catch a flight to Turkey, authorities said. Jaraboev, who was to catch a later flight, was arrested at his home in Brooklyn. Habibov who Bratton said "helped organize and finance" the operation, was in Jacksonville, Florida.

 

In addition to threats against Obama, the suspects allegedly talked of killing U.S. law enforcement officers. Jaraboev also talked of planting a bomb at Coney Island if ordered to do so by ISIS.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Seems like they identified that d-bag in some of the videos: 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jihadi-john-the-islamic-state-killer-behind-the-mask-is-a-young-londoner/2015/02/25/d6dbab16-bc43-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html?hpid=z1

[Chachie]

My knee-jerk reaction to this is as follows...

 

Now that we have them identified and in custody, implant them with irremovable microchips and send them off to IS.  

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Another example of how backwards and idiotic these guys are: 

 

http://newsfeed.gawker.com/isis-smashes-3-000-years-of-history-in-iraqi-museum-att-1688184667?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow#

[mcsluggo]

it is amazing how well this group can position themselves 100% in the "steaming turd" camp.   in almost all cases there are at least SOME shades of grey......but... not with ISIS.

 

 

they are teh modern day literary/symbolic heirs to the Nazis... just so thoroughly reprehensible that its hard to believe that they weren't penned  (way over the top) by some comic book nerd somewhere.  

 

they.. just... plain ... suck.

 

 

and they suck to such an extreme degree that even Ghandi and the Dali Lama would have to do little mental fist-pumps after seeing them getting kicked, hard, in the nuts.  over and over and over again.  

[Dan T.]

Jihadi John ID'ed

Colin Kaepernick

. . .

[visionary]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/iraq-launches-offensive-isis-north-baghdad-n315216

Iraq Launches Offensive on ISIS North of Baghdad

 

Iraq's army and Shi'ite militia have launched a long-awaited offensive against ISIS in Salahuddin province, a stronghold of the radical Islamist fighters north of Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Sunday.

 

The ultra-radical fighters control several strongholds in the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin, including Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein. They also hold other towns on the Tigris river north of the government-held city of Samarra, which Abadi visited on Sunday.

 

"The prime minister and armed forces chief ... announce the start of the security campaign to liberate Salahuddin," a statement issued by Abadi's office said as he met military leaders in the province, where thousands of troops and militia have gathered for battle.

 

In comments broadcast on Iraqi television, Abadi said the Islamist militants would be pushed out of all of Salahuddin and offered their supporters a final opportunity to hand themselves in. "I call upon all those who have been deluded and made mistakes in past to lay down arms today," he said. "This is their last chance. If they insist on staying on their wrong path they will receive the fair punishment they deserve because they ... stood with terrorism."

 

Thousands of troops and fighters from Shi'ite militias known as Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) have been mobilized for the campaign against ISIS in Salahuddin.

 

Abadi's announcement follows several failed attempts to drive the militants out of Tikrit since they swept towards Baghdad last June, adding large parts of north and west Iraq to the swathes of neighboring Syria already under their control.

 

Months of U.S.-led air strikes, backed up by the Shi'ite militias, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers have contained ISIS and pushed them back from around Baghdad, the Kurdish north, and the eastern province of Diyala. But they have held most of their strongholds in Salahuddin and taken new territory in the western province of Anbar. Fighting around al-Baghdadi in Anbar has highlighted the challenge of defeating ISIS fighters.

 

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/LizSly

Iraq PM Abadi & Iran's Qassem Soleimani both on the frontline in Samarra to oversee offensive on Tikrit @ahmusawi:

12:45 PM

[visionary]

http://www.newsweek.com/30000-iraqi-troops-launch-major-assault-isis-held-city-310511

30,000 Iraqi Troops Launch Major Assault on ISIS-Held City

 

Iraqi security forces, backed by Sunni and Shia militiamen, have launched their largest offensive against ISIS since the terror group swept through the country’s northern regions last summer, in an attempt to recapture the city of Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

 

30,000 troops and militiamen were advancing on several fronts, according to Iraqi army personnel and Iraqi state TV, and were being supported by Iraqi airstrikes on Islamic State positions around the strategic city, which fell to the terror group last June along with other towns and cities in the northern Sunni heartlands.

 

"Security forces are advancing on three main fronts towards Tikrit, Ad-Dawr (to the south) and Al-Alam (to the north)," a senior army officer told AFP news agency. "The attack is being carried out using fighter jets, helicopters and artillery targeting Tikrit to secure the advance and cut supply routes.”

 

Iraq’s Al-Iraqiya TV confirmed that Iraqi troops and a number of Popular Mobilisation Forces (Shia militia coalition) fighters were advancing towards Tikrit city as airstrikes on positions in the Sunni-majority Salahuddin province forced ISIS militants into retreat.

 

Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi confirmed the operation yesterday before it began early this morning. He pledged to give Sunni tribal fighters a pardon if they abandoned the terror group in the city, calling the offensive their “last chance” to “lay down arms and join their people… to liberate their cities”.

 

Al-Abadi wrote on his Twitter account that Iraqi forces should ensure they take the “utmost care in protecting civilian lives and property” while Hadi al-Ameri, the Popular Mobilisation commander and an important figure in the Iraqi assault, requested that residents of Tikrit abandon their homes within two days so Iraqi forces could “wrap up the battle”.

 

Abdel Wahab Saadi, the military commander for Salaheddin province, where Tikrit is situated, told AFP that the capture of Tikrit was a “stepping stone” to damaging ISIS’s territorial control of large swathes of the country.

 

"The aim of course is to liberate Salaheddin to allow for the return of displaced families but it is also going to be a stepping stone on the way to liberating Mosul," he said.

[visionary]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/twitter-escalates-isis-skirmish-2000-accounts-suspended-week/story?id=29335434

Twitter Escalates Its Own ISIS Battle: 2,000 Accounts Suspended Last Week

 

ISIS has been under attack in the last few days from Twitter, which has quietly suspended at least 2,000 accounts linked to the terror group and its supporters, according to people with knowledge of the operation.

 

The sites shut down include some of the most important distributors of ISIS messages in a major escalation against ISIS’s propaganda and recruitment efforts, according to J.M. Berger, a terrorism analyst who monitors ISIS online messaging.

 

"Twitter has been doing a whole lot over the past week. They've slammed them pretty hard, including the official media distribution guys," Berger said. He said 13 of the 16 major ISIS distribution accounts were among those shut down.

 

Top U.S. security officials previously said ISIS has successfully leveraged social media networks, including Twitter, as powerful recruitment tools to draw in fighters from 90 countries. But a person with knowledge of Twitter’s recent suspension spree said it was not done due to U.S. government pressure -– in fact, he said the U.S. intelligence community would prefer the accounts stay open for intelligence gathering purposes.

 

Instead, the suspensions have been a result of increased media reporting, which in turn spurred public awareness, which has created more user-generated policy violation reports, the person said. It’s against Twitter’s policy, for instance, to make direct, specific threats of violence against others.

 

The assault on ISIS social media was followed by an apparent threat Monday by supporters of the Syria-based network responsible for killing thousands of innocents while establishing an Islamic "caliphate" from Syria to Iraq and elsewhere. The message posted online called out Twitter founder Jack Dorsey by name and used his photo.

 

The Twitter spokesperson would only say that the company's security team was "investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials," and that content is constantly reviewed against Twitter's rules.

 

"I would certainly be concerned if I were Twitter," said Berger, co-author with Jessica Stern of "ISIS: The State of Terror," set for release next week.

[visionary]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/lawyers-of-isil-suspects-withdraw-from-trial.aspx?pageID=238&nID=79245&NewsCatID=509

Lawyers of ISIL suspects withdraw from trial

 

A court has postponed to June 17 the trial of suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who attacked a Turkish gendarmerie post in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde, after the lawyers of the defendants withdrew from the trial on March 5.

 

The defendants’ lawyers said they did not want to plead and left the court room.

 

This is the third delay of the hearing into the case of 11 suspects in a shooting attack that left three dead and five injured, including a Turkish gendarmerie soldier and a police officer, on March 20, 2014.

 

“Defending a person, even an animal, is a blessed thing. Everybody has the right to be defended, lawyers cannot avoid this. But these defendants are neither animals nor human beings,” defense lawyer Nail Gündüz told reporters after the hearing.

 

All assailants, including German citizen Benjamin Xu, Swiss citizen Çendrim Ramadani and Macedonian citizen Muhammed Zakiri, are suspected of being members of ISIL.

 

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING IS 'bulldozed' ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq govt says
3:15 PM 

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/isil-fighters-bulldoze-ancient-assyrian-palace-iraq-150305195222805.html

ISIL fighters bulldoze ancient Assyrian palace in Iraq

 

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters have used a bulldozer to start destroying a 3,000-year-old Assyrian palace near Mosul in Iraq, archeologists and other sources have told Al Jazeera.

 

The reported demolition at Nimrud on Thursday comes less than a week after video was released showing ISIL fighters destroying ancient artefacts in the Mosul Museum.

"They came at midday with a bulldozer and started destroying it," said an Iraqi official, referring to the ancient Assyrian palace 20km southeast of Mosul.

 

In the late 1980s, Iraqi archaeologists discovered a tomb there with one of the richest troves of ancient gold jewellery ever found.

 

Until Thursday, the palace contained intricate stone reliefs and winged bull statues known as lamassu.

 

The ISIL video last week showed the destruction of artefacts in the Mosul Museum and statues at the palace at Ninevah, within Mosul city limits. ISIL fighters then told city residents they planned to move on to Nimrud next.

 

ISIL has not yet released video footage of Thursday's demolition.

[RansomthePasserby]

ISIS doesn't make sense to me. They're so evil and inhumane, it's like they're a characature of bad guys taken from a poorly written action movie.

[mistertim]

ISIS doesn't make sense to me. They're so evil and inhumane, it's like they're a characature of bad guys taken from a poorly written action movie.

No kidding. They really are taking it to another level. ****ing barbarians, man. At least with some other terror groups you get a sense of what they want. They have some list (whether valid or not) of grievances or demands or whatever. There is some sense of WHY they're doing what they're doing. These guys seem like they're just being evil for the sake of being evil. Though in their minds I guess this is all valid in some way according to their warped worldview and desire to return to the way things were centuries ago. 

 

That being said, they aren't stupid or completely aimless. They know the world is watching and obviously intend to use all of this stuff as propaganda or to goad countries into acting rashly and going in guns blazing without a plan for what they hope to accomplish.