Everything to do with ISIS

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-18/islamic-state-attacks-libya-jail-in-tripoli-in-failed-rescue-bid

Islamic State Attacks Libya Jail in Tripoli in Failed Rescue Bid

 

Islamic State militants stormed a prison in Tripoli in a failed attempt to free inmates and nine people were killed in ensuing clashes, according to Rida Forjani, a member of the security force that guards the site.

 

Three Radaa Deterrence Force soldiers were killed in the fighting at Mitiga base, where the prison is located, along with all six Islamic State fighters, Forjani said in a telephone interview. Radaa Force operates as part of the Tripoli’s defense forces.

 

The gunmen launched the assault at around 7 a.m. on Friday, blowing up the walls of a mosque adjacent to the prison in order to enter it, he said. Islamic State’s so-called Tripoli Province branch claimed the attack in statements on social media.

 

It was the first time Islamic State militants attacked Mitiga, a military airfield that has been used for civilian traffic since Tripoli’s international airport was damaged last year in fighting between militias vying for control of the city.

 

Islamic State has claimed several bombings targeting empty embassies, local security buildings and the capital’s Corinthia Hotel since late December.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-key-to-defeating-isis-is-reconciling-sunnis-and-shiites-in-iraq_55fc6495e4b00310edf6f7d1?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016&section=politics

To Defeat ISIS, Iraqi Sunnis And Shiites Must Reconcile. Here's How The Latest Attempt At That Failed.

 

Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi quietly supported a Qatar-sponsored effort to bring together Iraqi Sunni leaders that failed earlier this month in Doha, American and Gulf officials have told The Huffington Post.

 

The revelation is the latest sign that Abadi is willing to pursue even potentially contentious channels to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites.

 

Such reconciliation is central to the battle against the brutal Islamic State group, which thrives on driving wedges between the two Muslim sects. Mistrust between them allowed the extremist organization to recruit thousands of Sunnis in Iraq and Syria, Sunni-heavy nations ruled by Shiite-friendly governments.

Abadi's ascension has been seen as the chance to make amends, but he’s had limited success. Though he has worked closely with Sunni politicians like the speaker of Iraq's parliament, he has also given his blessing to vicious Shiite militias battling ISIS, many of whom are closely linked to Iran. The militias have often meted out harsh treatment to Iraqi Sunnis in areas they retake, and the U.S. has been careful to distance itself from them even as it supports the larger Iraqi effort against the extremists.

 

So the prime minister's openness to dialogue is an important sign. The revelation of his role in the Doha meeting comes on the heels of another indicator that he wants to change things: He's gained political space from united Shiite-Sunni protests against government incompetence, and is using it to streamline his government and remove sectarian-minded figures tied to Tehran -- with the support of Iraq's top Shiite religious leader.

 

But any hopes the Doha discussions would bear fruit were soon dashed, officials told HuffPost.

 

Days after the conference, Abadi bashed it on Twitter, while his foreign ministry recalled a top envoy to Qatar. The conference "was held in the Qatari capital Doha without the knowledge of the Iraqi government," Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal told Al Jazeera.

 

Officials in Washington who closely follow Iraqi politics say the public face-saving exercise was the result of both domestic pressure and poor planning for the conference.

 

Abadi had to publicly condemn the talks in Qatar after pro-Iran elements within the Iraqi government leaked details of them to the press, said a high-ranking congressional aide. Now, the aide added, "progress is a ways off."

 

Instead of being a direct product of Iranian influence, such sectarian actions are led by Iraqi Shiites who feel threatened by talk of renewed Sunni power in government and "see Iran as their biggest guarantee," the aide told HuffPost. The aide said Washington could combat these moves by providing greater political and diplomatic support to Abadi and other more conciliatory figures in Iraq.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-intel-scandal-2015-9?utm_content=buffera3bf5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer?r=UK&IR=T

'Bad news on ISIS wasn't welcome': We know more about how US officials reportedly cooked ISIS intel

 

Top US military officials used subtle manipulation tactics to influence the outcome of intelligence reports on the fight against ISIS in the Middle East, according to analysts who detailed specific allegations from the growing scandal to NPR.

 

Unnamed military sources told NPR that leaders at US Central Command, or Centcom, had tougher standards for reports involving bad news and changed the wording of reports to make them sound less negative.

 

When analysts wanted to include good news in a report, two military sources close to the investigation said, they needed little sourcing. Bad news, meanwhile, required extensive footnotes and intelligence data to back it up.

 

"The bad news didn't just need to be footnoted," one military source told NPR. "The intelligence data itself had to be attached to the report."

 

"It became pretty clear if they wrote something bad, it was likely to be changed," the source added. "Knowing that bad news on ISIS wasn't welcome meant that, over time, the picture of the fight began being rosier."

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http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/in-syria-many-families-face-a-terrible-dilemma

In Syria, many families face a terrible dilemma

 

Tuesday marks the first anniversary of the American-led air strikes against ISIL targets inside Syria. For the most part, the campaign in Syria was designed to be secondary to the main fight in Iraq, by targeting ISIL’s financial and logistical routes on the northern front. A week into the campaign, the Pentagon announced that 16 out of 20 ISIL-controlled oil refineries had been destroyed and air strikes would move to blunt the group’s ability to conduct combat in Iraq.

 

A year later, the campaign can be credited for two main successes. The first one was the protection of the Kurdish town of Kobani from falling to ISIL’s advancing forces, even though the group’s offensive lasted for more than four months under aerial bombardment and ground forces. The second main success was clean: in July, Kurdish forces swept through the border town of Tal Abyad with the coalition’s assistance.

 

Elsewhere, however, ISIL made more gains than before the campaign started. In May, it drove the Assad regime’s forces from the city of Palmyra, in central Syria. The seizure of Palmyra has allowed the group to push further towards Homs and southern Syria through the lawless and neglected desert – an environment that favours ISIL in terms of buying loyalties and establishing safe bases. It also advanced in the countryside around Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Deraa and Damascus.

 

Aside from the military situation, special consideration must be given to how the targeting of ISIL’s financial routes is affecting local attitudes towards the group. In recent months I have noticed a trend of some families sending at least one of their children to join ISIL because that was the only way for them to generate an income in the family. This is especially the case among displaced families, although not limited to them.

 

http://www.vocativ.com/news/233039/u-s-trained-syrian-fighters-say-their-chief-of-staff-resigned/

U.S.-Trained Syrian Fighters Say Their Chief Of Staff Resigned

 

The chief of staff of Division 30, a group of U.S.-trained Syrian fighters formed to fight the Islamic State, has resigned, according to a recent statement that lists a slew of problems surrounding the unit.

 

Colonel Mohammad al-Daher, Division 30’s chief of staff, said in a statement published on social media platforms Saturday that he resigned due to six factors, including slow implementation of the unit’s training program, a lack of a sufficient number of trainees and failure to provide the basic needs required for the group’s work. He also cited a “lack of seriousness” in implementing the program that established Division 30.

 

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/20/new-batch-of-us-trained-fighters-enter-syria.html?utm_content=nobylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

New batch of US-trained fighters enter Syria to fight ISIL: report

 

A group of 75 fighters, recently trained by U.S. and coalition forces in Turkey, have entered northern Syria to join the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a monitoring group reported on Sunday.

 

The fighters entered Syria in a convoy of a dozen cars with light weapons and ammunition, under air cover from the coalition that has been carrying out strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British human rights group, said on Sunday.

 

"Seventy-five new fighters trained in a camp near the Turkish capital entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told Al Jazeera.

 

U.S. officials on Sunday did not issue an immediate response to the report. On Wednesday, Gen. Austin Lloyd, who oversees the U.S. campaign against ISIL, told Congress that four or five U.S.-trained rebels were fighting in Syria. On Friday his spokesman, Col. Patrick Ryder, told reporters that four more had re-entered Syria since Austin spoke.

 

Abdel Rahman said the new group of U.S.-trained fighters crossed through the Bab al-Salama border point, the main gateway for fighters and supplies heading into Aleppo province.

 

That supply route has been increasingly targeted by ISIL fighters seeking to cut off support to rival rebel groups who are also fighting against the Syrian regime.

Abdel Rahman said the group was deployed to support two other U.S.-backed units, with most assigned to Division 30, the main unit for US-trained fighters, and others to a group called Suqur al-Jabal (Falcons of the Mountain).

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/europe/isis-defectors-reveal-disillusionment.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur&_r=0

ISIS Defectors Reveal Disillusionment

 

A small but growing number of defectors from the Islamic State are risking reprisals and imprisonment to speak out about their disillusionment with the extremist group, according to a research organization that tracks former and current militants.

 

The Islamic State considers defectors as apostates, and most of the hundreds thought to have left the group have gone into hiding.

 

But 58 defectors, nine of them from Western Europe and Australia, have gone public with their testimonies since last year, according to a report to be published Monday by the International Center for the Study for Radicalization at King’s College London.

 

ccording to the report, some of the defectors said they disapproved of the Islamic State’s hostility to other Sunni rebel groups that opposed President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and its indiscriminate killings of civilians and hostages. Others grew weary of what they saw as favoritism and mistreatment by commanders, or were disappointed that the life of a militant was far less exciting, or lucrative, than they had imagined. Two left after they found out that they had been selected as suicide bombers.

 

The researchers urged governments to give defectors more incentives to speak out so that their narratives could be used to dissuade potential recruits. The 58 defectors, seven of them women, spoke on separate occasions to various news organizations, including The New York Times, and the report compiles their testimony while providing context and analysis.

 

“The defectors provide unique insight into life in the Islamic State,” the report says. “But their stories can also be used as a potentially powerful tool in the fight against it. The defectors’ very existence shatters the image of unity and determination that I.S. seeks to convey.”

 

Some of the Islamic State’s “shininess is wearing off, and it’s starting to look less impressive,” said Peter Neumann, director of the center and professor of security studies at King’s College. “So a lot of people are becoming more confident in coming out,” he said.

 

http://www.vice.com/read/after-isis-killed-his-close-friends-matthew-vandyke-founded-a-mercenary-security-firm-to-fight-back-253

After ISIS Killed His Friends, This Guy Founded a Security Firm to Kill ISIS

 

In 2013, VICE spoke to Matthew VanDyke, an American documentary-maker who decided to pick up a gun and fight against Gaddafi in the Libyan revolution. His story is extraordinary. Taking his place at the frontline in a recent Middle-eastern conflicts, Matthew lives a life that makes Hemingway's look a little dull. He's traveled North Africa and the Middle-East by motorbike, visited Bin Laden's home, and been taken as a prisoner of war. (He escaped when rebels and other prisoners freed him.)

 

In the two years since his last conversation with VICE, VanDyke has seen two of his close friends, James Foley and Steven Sutloff, murdered. He has set up his own private security firm, Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), an organization that is actively fighting ISIS in Iraq, and he's kickstarted humanitarian projects and trained hundreds of Iraqi militiamen.

 

VICE decided to catch up with VanDyke and learn more about SOLI; the lines between activist, journalist, and fighter; and what VanDyke believes it will take to defeat ISIS.

 

 

https://news.vice.com/article/report-says-iraqs-shia-militias-laid-waste-to-tikrit-after-kicking-out-the-islamic-state?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

Report Says Iraq’s Shia Militias Laid Waste to Tikrit After Kicking Out the Islamic State

 

Shia militias backed by the Iraqi government deliberately destroyed hundreds of homes and shops in Tikrit after retaking the city from Islamic State (IS) militants in March and April of 2015, according to a report released Sunday by Human Rights Watch.

 

The 60-page report uses satellite imagery to document the damage done to Tikrit and several nearby towns. The destruction was carried out with no apparent military reason after IS withdrew from the area, Human Rights Watch said.

 

IS seized Tikrit, which lies between Baghdad and Mosul and is famous for being Saddam Hussein's hometown, in June 2014. Some residents told Human Rights Watch that they initially welcomed the militants after years of alienation by the government of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. But IS committed numerous human rights abuses during its occupation, forcing many people to flee the city and its surrounding areas.

 

The Iraqi government relied on the Iranian-backed militias to liberate Tikrit, but, according to Human Rights Watch, the forces ultimately laid waste to entire swathes of the city. After IS fled, several pro-government Shia militias allegedly abducted more than 200 Sunni residents south of Tikrit near the city of al-Dur. At least 160 of the abductees remain unaccounted for.

 

Prior to the campaign, Shia militia leaders had planned revenge for the IS massacre of 770 Shia military cadets near Tikrit in June 2014. IS practices a radical form of Sunni Islam, and its members consider Shias to be apostates. In March, video footage emerged of home demolitions in which Shia militiamen cursed Sunni residents.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-fight-against-the-islamic-state-in-iraq-stalled-us-looks-to-syria-for-gains/2015/09/21/0c473098-607e-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html

With fight against the Islamic State in Iraq stalled, U.S. looks to Syria for gains

 

With the offensive to reclaim territory from the Islamic State largely stalled in Iraq, the Obama administration is laying plans for a more aggressive military campaign in Syria, where U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have made surprising gains in recent months.

 

The effort, which would begin by increasing pressure on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, marks an important shift in an administration strategy that for most of the past year has prioritized defeating the militant group in Iraq and viewed Syria as a place where there were few real prospects for battlefield success.

 

The White House’s top national security officials met last week and will convene again in the next few days to discuss ways to capi­tal­ize on recent and unexpected gains made by Syrian irregular forces. The administration is considering providing arms and ammunition to a wider array of rebel groups in Syria and relaxing vetting standards, effectively deepening America’s involvement in the ongoing civil war.

 

Such a move could lift some of the restrictions that have slowed the Pentagon’s troubled program to train Syrian fighters in Turkey and other sites outside Syria.

Rather than subjecting rebels to repeated rounds of screening before and during their training, U.S. officials might restrict vetting to unit leaders already in the fight. “The key thing is getting them some [expletive] bullets,” one U.S. official said.

 

The change is driven partly by frustration with the stalemated fight in Iraq, where an Iraqi army assault on Ramadi has ground to a halt and where a much-
anticipated offensive to reclaim Mosul, originally planned for this year, may come only after President Obama leaves office.

 

“We have opportunities now [in Syria] that we didn’t think we would have. We have an opportunity to push down on Raqqa,” said another U.S. official, speaking, like others, on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations. “We have an opportunity to take away the entire [Turkish] border from ISIS, and we didn’t think we would have that.”

 

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-22/obama-s-islamic-state-war-czar-stepping-down

Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down

 

President Barack Obama is about to lose the man he hand-picked to build the war effort against the Islamic State. Retired General John Allen will be stepping down as envoy to the global coalition this fall, and the White House is searching for a replacement to be the face of America’s flailing effort to destroy the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.

 

Allen will leave government service in the coming weeks, four administration officials told us. State Department officials said they were not ready to officially announce Allen’s departure, but he has notified his superiors he will give up his job in early November, after serving just over one year. His chief of staff, Karin von Hippel, will also depart, to join a British think tank.

 

The timing of Allen’s departure could not be worse for the Obama administration. The incoming Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Robert Neller, testified last month that the war is at a “stalemate.” Last week, the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, testified that of the 54 Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. military, only “4 or 5” were still in the fight. And now the Pentagon is investigating allegations by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reporting on the progress in the war effort was altered before being given to top officials.

 

U.S. officials familiar with Allen's decision say he has been frustrated with White House micromanagement of the war and its failure to provide adequate resources to the fight. He unsuccessfully tried to convince the administration to allow U.S. tactical air control teams to deploy on the ground to help pick targets for air strikes in Iraq. Allen also tried several times to convince the White House to agree to Turkish demands for a civilian protection zone in Syria, to no avail. Nonetheless, administration officials stress that Allen's decision to leave his post was motivated mainly by the health of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disorder.

 

"John Allen has put his heart and soul into trying to make the president's strategy work,” said Derek Harvey, a former senior U.S. military intelligence official who worked with Allen at U.S. Central Command. “I have sympathy for the hard task he was given because I do not believe the president's team was fully on board and he was never empowered to bring the leadership necessary to achieve the mission."

 

While Allen was working inside the administration, the White House could rely on him to push back against many others in the U.S. national security establishment who argued that Obama was not fully committed to his strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State. Earlier this month, he told ABC News that there had been many successes in the war, and he focused on setbacks for the terror group in Tikrit, Iraq, and Kobane, Syria.

 

“Where we were a year ago today, I wasn't sure how it was going to unfold," Allen said. "It was not clear to me even that Iraq would survive this. In the intervening months, we've seen remarkable progress in many respects.”

 

Allen was successful in negotiating the deal whereby Turkey is now allowing the U.S. to use the Incirlik Air Base for air operations in Syria. But the broader campaign against the Islamic State has been stymied. The Turks recently launched an offensive not against the jihadists but against Kurdish separatists, who have been important allies to the U.S. on the ground. As Islamic State forces have expanded and consolidated territory in Syria, they have managed to keep control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and expand into Ramadi, the heart of the 2007-08 Sunni-led rebellion against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor organization to the Islamic State.

Another one gone.

How long until his biography comes out?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/world/middleeast/iraq-yazidis-turn-to-international-court.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Iraq: Yazidis Turn to International Court

 

Members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority on Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to investigate accusations of atrocities committed by militants of the Islamic State, which they said constituted genocide against their people. Murad Ismael, a member of the delegation, said the Free Yezidi Foundation and the Yazda group handed court prosecutors a report with accounts of killings, abductions of women and children, sexual enslavement and the destruction of religious sites. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the court’s former chief prosecutor, served as the group’s “legal and strategic adviser,” Mr. Ismael said. Fatou Bensouda, the court’s current chief prosecutor, has condemned crimes by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, but she has said that because those countries have not joined the court, it has no jurisdiction over matters that take place in Syria or Iraq. But Mr. Ismael said the involvement of Islamic State militants from countries that are court members, including Tunisia, Georgia and Australia, in such critical roles as training, fund-raising or organizing crimes against Yazidi women and girls might allow the court to proceed with an investigation.

 

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/syria-drone-strike-prompts-legal-challenge-against-uk-government-1222456

Syria Drone Strike Prompts Legal Challenge Against UK Government

 

Britain's government is facing a legal challenge today over its use of a drone to kill two British Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in Syria, even though it is not part of military action there.

 

Prime Minister David Cameron announced this month that a British drone had killed two British jihadists and another unidentified militant in the group's stronghold of Raqqa in August.

 

That was the first such strike carried out by Britain in a country where it is not at war and prompted fierce criticism from human rights campaigners.

 

Now two leading members of Britain's Green Party and legal rights charity Reprieve have said they are preparing to launch court action against the move.

Their lawyers claim that the government has either failed to draw up a "targeted killing policy" or failed to publish it, both of which are illegal.

 

"The Raqqa strike, and the intention of the government to pre-authorise targeted killings in the future in countries where the UK is not at war, is of concern to the claimants and many others," they said.

 

"The concern is heightened by the lack of clarity about the circumstances in which the government reserves the right to kill British citizens outside of an armed conflict."

 

British forces are taking part in air strikes against IS targets in Iraq but not Syria after parliament voted for only limited participation in coalition strikes last year.

Cameron said the strike in Raqqa was an "act of self-defence" as one of the militants had been planning "barbaric" attacks in Britain.

 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4566835.ece

Iraqi troops desert to join refugee trail

 

The second time Qassim was wounded in the see-sawing battle with Isis over Iraq’s largest oil refinery, he decided enough was enough.

After recovering from a shrapnel wound to the leg, he packed his bags and headed to Baghdad airport for a flight to the Kurdish north, the first step in a journey that brought him this month to a desolate field on the Hungarian border.

[visionary]

http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-intelligence-scandal-is-at-the-heart-of-centcom-2015-9?op=1

The ISIS intel scandal is 'directly at the heart of Central Command'

 

Accusations of altered US military intelligence have come from deep within the Pentagon agency covering security interests in the Middle East, according to a report in The New York Times.

 

The Times identified one of the intelligence analysts who has called reports on the war against ISIS into question as Gregory Hooker, a top Iraq analyst at US Central Command, or Centcom, who has more than two decades of experience in his job.

 

"Interviews with more than a dozen current and former intelligence officials place the dispute directly at the heart of Central Command, with Mr. Hooker and his team in a fight over what Americans should believe about the war," Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo wrote in The Times.

 

The Pentagon is investigating allegations that top military officials have pressured intelligence analysts into conforming their reports to a more positive narrative of the fight against the militant group ISIS (also known as the Islamic State).

 

More than 50 intelligence analysts at Centcom have supported a formal complaint sent to the Defense Department, and Hooker is reportedly at the helm of that group.

 

"This core group of Iraq analysts have been doing this for a long time," Stephen Robb, a retired Marine colonel and a former head of the Centcom Joint Intelligence Center, told The Times.

 

"If they say there's smoke, start looking for a firehouse."

 

Current and former Centcom officials told The Times that analysts' complaints center on the two most senior intelligence officers at Centcom, Maj. Gen. Steven Grove and his civilian deputy, Gregory Ryckman.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/world/middleeast/thousands-enter-syria-to-join-isis-despite-global-efforts.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Thousands Enter Syria to Join ISIS Despite Global Efforts

 

Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters.

 

Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

 

President Obama will take stock of the international campaign to counter the Islamic State at the United Nations on Tuesday, a public accounting that comes as American intelligence analysts have been preparing a confidential assessment that concludes that nearly 30,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Iraq and Syria from more than 100 countries since 2011. A year ago, the same officials estimated that flow to be about 15,000 combatants from 80 countries, mostly to join the Islamic State.

 

That grim appraisal coincides with the scheduled release on Tuesday of a six-month, bipartisan congressional investigation into terrorist and foreign fighter travel, which concludes that “despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists.”

 

Other parts of the Obama administration’s policies on Syria and for combating the Islamic State have suffered significant setbacks, as well.

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/iraq-liaising-russia-iran-syria-isil-150927032744633.html

Iraq liaising with Russia, Iran and Syria against ISIL

 

Iraq has said that its military officials are engaged in intelligence and security cooperation in Baghdad with Russia, Iran and Syria to counter the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a pact that could raise concerns in the US.

 

A statement from the Iraqi military's joint operations command on Saturday said the cooperation had come "with increased Russian concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia undertaking criminal acts with Daesh (ISIL)".

 

The move comes as at the same time Russia has stepped up its military involvement in Syria in recent weeks, while pressing for Damascus to be included in international efforts to fight ISIL, a demand Washington rejects.

 

The announcement also reflects Iran's increasing influence just four years after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

 

Russian news agency Interfax quoted a military diplomatic source in Moscow as saying the Baghdad coordination centre would be led on a rotating basis by officers of the four countries, starting with Iraq.

 

The source added a committee might be created in Baghdad to plan military operations and control armed forces units in the fight against ISIL.

 

Iraqi officials on Friday had denied reports of a coordination unit in Baghdad set up by Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders aimed at working with Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq.

 

The armed groups, some of which have fought alongside troops loyal to Assad, are seen as a critical weapon in Baghdad's battle against ISIL.

 

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in New York on Friday that his country had not received any Russian military advisers to help its forces but called for the US-led coalition to bomb more ISIL targets in Iraq.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/27/us-mideast-crisis-france-syria-idUSKCN0RR07Y20150927?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

France launches air strikes against Islamic State in Syria

 

France said on Sunday it had launched air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria in an effort to stem its growing presence there.

 

"Our country thus confirms its resolute commitment to fight against the terrorist threat represented by Daesh. We will strike each time that our national security is at stake," the French Presidency said in a statement.

 

France, which has so far only taken part in strikes in Iraq, began reconnaissance flights over Syria earlier this month in order to gather information on Islamic State positions.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/27/the-british-woman-who-wants-to-run-isis-hackers.html

The British Woman Who Wants to Run ISIS’ Hackers

 

She played in a punk band back in Britain called “Krunch.” Now, she’s looking to raise holy hell online for the Islamic State.

A navel-baring British punk rocker turned Islamic State widow is now aiming for a leadership role in the terror group’s cadre of hackers and online recruiters, U.S. officials believe.

 

Should she succeed, Sally Ann Jones, 45, would become ISIS’s most public European national to openly threaten the United States and UK’s networks. She also would likely become the most influential woman in ISIS, transforming her into a key operational figure.

 

“She appears to have picked up the flag of her late husband and is actively working to incite attacks and recruit new members,” a U.S. military official told The Daily Beast.

 

But other Western observers wonder whether Jones has the technical chops for such a role—and whether ISIS would allow a Western woman to rise so high in the organization.

 

Jones was once the U.K.’s most infamous defector to ISIS. Now she could be a major target of the kind of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that killed her husband, 21-year-old Junaid Hussein, who led ISIS’s hacking campaign until his August death.

 

A U.S. military official said Jones, who now calls herself Sakinah Hussain or Umm Hussain al-Britani, recently caught the attention of Western officials after ISIS’s Sept. 11 online threats against Americans.

 

ISIS—under Jones’s leadership, it is believed—announced a hashtag campaign on Twitter #AmericaUnderHacks campaign to “celebrate” the anniversary. As part of that, the group released 100 names of military, law enforcement and other government personnel as part of a kill list.

 

The names were derived from government websites. It was what a second U.S. military official called “lame.”

 

If Jones is indeed able to carve out an operational role for herself, it could speak to the future of Western women in ISIS. While a handful of Arab women—notably, Umm Sayyaf, the wife of the terror group’s one-time financier —have taken leadership roles in ISIS, female Westerners largely have not. Instead, they’ve ended up as brides for ISIS fighting men, said Mia Bloom, professor of communication at Georgia State University who specializes in the role of women in terror organizations.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/world/middleeast/iraq-agrees-to-share-intelligence-on-isis-with-russia-syria-and-iran.html

Russia Surprises U.S. With Accord on Battling ISIS

 

For the second time this month, Russia moved to expand its political and military influence in the Syria conflict and left the United States scrambling, this time by reaching an understanding, announced on Sunday, with Iraq, Syria and Iran to share intelligence about the Islamic State.

 

Like Russia’s earlier move to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad by deploying warplanes and tanks to a base near Latakia, Syria, the intelligence-sharing arrangement was sealed without notice to the United States. American officials knew that a group of Russian military officers were in Baghdad, but they were clearly surprised when the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command announced the intelligence sharing accord on Sunday.

 

It was another sign that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was moving ahead with a sharply different tack from that of the Obama administration in battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, by assembling a rival coalition that includes Iran and the Syrian government.

 

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f56bdf0-621b-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fworld_mideast%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3mzzfoQMv

Isis shapes strategy to expand its influence abroad

[visionary]

http://syriadirect.org/news/palmyra-youth-turn-to-is-in-city-with-%E2%80%98no-future%E2%80%99/

Palmyra youth turn to IS in city with ‘no future’

 

Since the Islamic State (IS) captured Palmyra city from regime forces on May 20, approximately 1,340 young men from the city and other surrounding towns in the eastern Homs countryside have joined IS’s ranks through an “optional enlistment process,” Nasir a-Thaer, a member of the Local Coordination Committee (LCC) in Palmyra city told Syria Direct earlier this month.

 

Although IS has not adopted an official mandatory enlistment policy in Palmyra, “the people are in need of work in exchange for revenue to continue living,” Khaled al-Homsi, a member of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA) and member of the LCC in Palmyra city, tells Syria Direct’s Noura Hourani.

 

Amidst continuous regime bombardment, a lack of basic services and virtually no jobs, many of Palmyra’s young men turn to IS to give them the sense that “they are in control of their town and of their family” when all other stability is absent in their lives, tells al-Homsi.

 

Q: Can you explain why Palmyra's young men are joining IS?  Do monetary factors play a role?

 

The primary reason they join IS is a lack of awareness among Palmyra's young men concerning the dangers of IS and their use of brainwashing techniques on Palmyra’s populace.

Another reason is the poor living conditions that these young men are suffering from. There is no work in the city, no future.  Whether or not IS is practicing coercion, the people are in need of salaries to continue living. Thus, they join their ranks out of the need to survive.  Finally, a number of young men need to feel like they are in control of their town and of their family. They need to feel like they've become leaders and [acquired] leadership characteristics that IS grants its fighters.  IS accepts young men between the ages of 15 and 40, approximately.

 

Q: After joining IS, are these young men thrown into combat immediately or do they undergo Sharia courses and military training?

 

At first they undergo closed Sharia courses taught by specialized IS members, so that they can be brainwashed. After that, depending on what they want to do, recruits either undergo military courses or training in running [public] offices or [providing public] services. Later on they're thrown into combat outside of Palmyra because they pledged allegiance to IS to fight for them anywhere unconditionally.

 

Q: When a young man volunteers in IS's ranks and his family is opposed—what happens in that case?

 

The Islamic State considers volunteering in its ranks jihad, [and by extension] those who don't show up for service in its ranks aren't showing up for jihad. They therefore consider families who oppose their sons' service to be sinners.

 

As for the families themselves, they don't have power over their sons and can't do anything about them joining IS.

 

Q: What is the current situation in Palmyra like since IS took over?

 

The city is semi-isolated. The regime constantly is bombing the city and has destroyed 40 percent of the houses. The regime burned the gardens and IS destroyed the ruins that people relied on [for jobs]. Palmyra has thus witnessed a huge exodus [of citizens]. The internet and electricity are also cut off, meaning we activists rely on generators.

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING France will carry out 'more strikes' against IS in Syria, defence minister says

1:15 PM

 

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak

Four Britons have been hit with international sanctions in a bid by the Government to stem the flow of home-grown Islamic State recruits
5:23 PM

[visionary]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/28/u-s-turns-to-zero-dark-thirty-writer-for-anti-isis-propaganda.html

U.S. Turns to ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Writer for Anti-ISIS Propaganda

 

The State Department says it’s losing the information war to ISIS—and is tapping HBO, Snapchat, and a screenwriter with deep CIA connections to help turn things around.

The Obama administration is turning to HBO, Snapchat, and a controversial, Oscar-winning screenwriter to help them fight ISIS.

 

Earlier this year, the State Department convened a group of friends in the U.S. film industry, social media, and premium cable TV to brainstorm ways to counter jihadist propaganda.

 

In June, State Department officials and counterterrorism advisors traveled to Sunnylands (nicknamed the “Camp David of the West,” due to its history of being a super-exclusive vacation spot for celebrities and politicians) in Rancho Mirage, California, for a summit on how to effectively fight a propaganda and media war against extremist networks abroad. ISIS, for instance, has already mastered the art of ripping off Hollywood techniques to make recruiting and propaganda films, and basically has its own Twitter army. The June meetings were essentially a sequel to a three-day summit convened by the White House in February on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) through community-based strategies.

 

Industry and government sources tell The Daily Beast that attendees included Mark Boal (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty), and executives from HBO, Snapchat, and Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC. (Earlier this year, British Prime Minister David Cameron weighed the idea of banning Snapchat out of fear that terrorists send encrypted communications via the video messaging service.)

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-defeating-requires-leader-syria-151051977.html

Obama says Assad must go, pushes campaign against IS

 

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go if the Islamic State group is to be defeated, as he rallied world leaders to reinvigorate the coalition campaign against the jihadists.

 

A day after clashing with Russian President Vladimir Putin over how to handle the crisis in Syria, Obama hosted a counter-terrorism summit at the United Nations to take stock of the one-year air war against IS fighters in Iraq and Syria.

 

"In Syria (...) defeating ISIL requires, I believe, a new leader," Obama told the gathering of some 100 leaders, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

 

Russia snubbed the meeting, sending a low-level diplomat after Putin stole the limelight with his UN speech calling for a broad coalition to fight IS that would include Syria's army.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused Russia of displaying bravado on the Syria crisis that had yet to be backed up with action against the IS group.

 

"You have to look at who is doing what. The international community is striking Daesh. France is striking Daesh. The Russians, for the time being, are not at all," Fabius told a news conference, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

 

"If one is against the terrorists, it is not abnormal to strike the terrorists," Fabius added.

 

The counter-terrorism summit takes place a year after Obama stole the limelight at the last UN gathering when he vowed to crush IS and called on countries to join the United States in the campaign.

 

Taking stock one year on, Obama said IS had lost a third of the "populated areas" it controlled in Iraq and had been "cut off" from almost all of Turkey's border region.

 

But he added that military action alone would not succeed and that the coalition must address the conditions that allow Islamic radicalism to thrive.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/us-usa-islamicstate-sanctions-idUSKCN0RT1P820150929?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

U.S. sanctions Islamic State supporters, targets finances

 

The United States tightened financial pressure on Islamic State on Tuesday, slapping sanctions on more than 30 leaders, supporters and affiliates around the world to squeeze the militant group Washington is having trouble defeating.

 

The Treasury Department designated 15 people as Islamic State supporters for providing technical, logistic or financial backing, working as political leaders or recruiting foreign fighters. The designations allow the government to freeze their assets and bars U.S. citizens from dealing with them.

 

The State Department named 10 individuals and five groups affiliated with Islamic State as foreign terrorist fighters, a designation that enables financial sanctions and penalties on them and their supporters.

The people and groups designated by the United States came from the United Kingdom, France and Russia to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia, "highlighting the truly global nature of the threat that these actors pose," a senior U.S. official told reporters.

 

The aim is to prevent Islamic State from using its funds to buy weapons and spare parts, and block it from supporting new affiliates that have been emerging around the world, another senior administration official said.

 

The official called the sanctions "a real ramp-up in our efforts" to prevent Islamic State militants from using the international financial system to spread its cash and influence by supporting affiliated groups.

 

The action came just ahead of a Leaders' Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism, due to be held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York. The group brings together leaders from more than 100 countries.

 

Unlike al Qaeda, which uses the financial system to raise revenues from abroad, Islamic State raises funds internally in the territory it occupies in Syria and Iraq, including some $500 million annually in oil revenue and hundreds of millions raised through extortion and taxation, the senior administration official said.

 

"That creates a unique problem for us," the official said. "How we're dealing with that problem is by trying to financially isolate ISIL within the territory that it controls so that its financial resources do not turn into financial strength."

 

 

https://twitter.com/brett_mcgurk/status/648883044913410048

President Obama welcomes Tunisia, Malaysia, Nigeria, to the now 65 members in our global coalition to counter ISIL.

11:32 AM

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/zaidbenjamin

Iraqi forces & Peshmergah launched a joint operation to retake the strategic city of Hawija
7:30 PM

 

Breaking: Peshmergah, PKK & the Kurdish anti-terrorism forces have launched an operation near Hawijah - Peshmerga Source
7:50 PM

 

Breaking: The operation backed by the US-coalition to secure oilfields near Tikrit & Kurkok from future ISIL attacks - Peshmerga Source
7:51 PM

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/29/putin-assad-syria-russia-world-to-vlad-put-up-or-shut-up-in-anti-terror-fight/

World to Vlad: Put Up or Shut Up in Anti-Terror Fight

 

ssian President Vladimir Putin says his growing military adventure in Syria is meant to put the hurt on the Islamic State. On Tuesday, exasperated and disbelieving world leaders demanded that he prove it.

 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday it is time for Moscow to show it is truly committed to taking the war to the Islamic State, which Paris refers to as Daesh, noting that the U.S.-led coalition has so far shouldered the burden of fighting Islamic State extremists.

 

“The international coalition is striking Daesh, France is striking Daesh, Mr. Bashar al-Assad only a little bit, and for the moment, the Russians not at all,” Fabius told reporters at a news conference at the U.N. General Assembly session. “You have to look at who does what.”

 

France can now throw stones, since it started hurling rockets. Fabius’s blunt dismissal of Russia’s role in the fight against the Islamic State comes just days after the French government finally entered the war in Syria, launching an airstrike that destroyed an alleged Islamic State training camp near Deir ez-Zor. For the Quai d’Orsay, actions speak louder than words.

 

“If one is against terrorists, it is not abnormal to strike those terrorists,” Fabius said.

 

Other countries also called on Russia to use its growing military influence inside Syria to battle the Islamic State rather than just prop up strongman Assad’s embattled regime. “In the new Syria there should not be any place for Assad or Daesh,” said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday.

[visionary]

http://bnonews.com/news/index.php/news/id1953

Kurdish forces retake villages from ISIS in major operation in northern Iraq

 

Kurdish forces backed by coalition airstrikes have retaken eight villages and 140 square kilometers (54 square miles) of territory from the Islamic State (ISIS) group in northern Iraq, the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force reports. (more)

 

Peshmerga fighters launched a ground offensive on early Wednesday morning against ISIS forces west of Kirkuk. "Peshmerga fighters successfully penetrated Daesh defensive positions, cleared fighters, liberated eight villages, and re-established government control over approximately 140 square kilometers between Huwayjah and Kirkuk," the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.

 

Coalition aircraft carried out more than 50 airstrikes over the past few days to set favorable conditions for the Kurdish forces.

 

"The Peshmerga fighters continue to reduce Daesh's initial gains in northern Iraq. This was another important fight in the overall effort to degrade and ultimately defeat Daesh," said coalition spokesman Col. Christopher Garver.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

Iraq Ahimidi Hamad Salem ISIS leader for Mosul Hospital got killed by Coalition warplanes Airstrikes

11:56 AM

 

Iraq Marwan Fattah Mohammed ISIS leader for AL_Sarqeat in Iraq got killed in by Coalition warplanes Airstrikes
11:58 AM

 

Iraq Bassem Mohammed Ramadan ISIS Leader for Armament got killed by Coalition warplanes Airstrikes
12:00 PM

 

Iraq Sarmad Awad Saleh ISIS leader for Explosives got killed by Coalition warplanes Airstrikes
12:01 PM

 

Iraq Taleb Omran al-Jubouri ISIS leader for the the right side of Mousel city got killed by Coalition warplanes Airstrikes
12:02 PM

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/magazine/meet-the-american-vigilantes-who-are-fighting-isis.html?smid=fb-share

Meet the American Vigilantes Who Are Fighting ISIS

 

A ragtag group of fighters from America and Europe have joined the fight against extremists in Syria. But with little training and no clear leadership, do they know what they’re doing?

 

May was the flowering month for the Syrian thistle. The pink heads grew from the rubble in a small village south of the city of Tel Tamer, in northern Syria. A local Kurdish militia had liberated the village from the Islamic State, or ISIS, in the night. Coalition airstrikes had set fire to the grass and blackened the earth. Concrete buildings and small mud-brick homes were charred and gutted, riddled with bullet holes. The belongings of residents confettied the ground. At a curve in the road lay the corpse of an ISIS fighter.

 

I found a 26-year-old American civilian named Clay Lawton standing alone, just outside the village. Square-jawed, with large eyes and bright teeth, he was a volunteer freedom fighter with the local militia. ‘‘I’m from Rhode Island,’’ he said. ‘‘You know it? Most people confuse it with Staten Island or Long Island.’’

Continue reading the main story

 

While we were talking, the unit he had arrived with drove off. Now he was alone, wondering how he would find a commander and return to the action. ‘‘I guess you could say I’m free-floating,’’ he said

 

Lawton first heard about ISIS on ‘‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.’’ At the time, he was lounging around Key West, driving tour boats from island to island, going to parties, talking to girls. Three months later, he ran out of things to do and bought a ticket home. He lived with his parents and took a job painting houses, thinking he would start a career as a carpenter. After high school, he spent a couple of years in the Army but never deployed. He always wished he had. When a friend from boot camp sent Lawton an email full of links to videos made by the Islamic State — the execution of James Foley, clips from the day ISIS executed 250 Syrian soldiers in the desert — Lawton looked up ‘‘how to fight ISIS’’ on his lunch break.

 

https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa

Bombing of AlBab happened in 2 stages. Strikes after Friday prayers targeting mainly ISIS locations/ HQ. No civilians killed.
1:08 PM

 

2nd round of bombing in AlBab was at 2 pm. Target: local AlHal market. Two residents of AlBab told me 40 pple killed. Impossible to verify.
1:12 PM

 

Impossible to say at this stage who carried out the strikes. Was it both done by Russia? US? Maybe one by regime? It is not clear.
1:13 PM

 

 

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

Iraq Fallah Al Kurdi (AKA Said Majid Al Barzanji), ISIS leader and the planner of American Consulate attack in Erbil back in April, was killed after American drones targeted his car North Huwaijah near the technical institute in Iraq

1:42 PM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/04/us-mideast-crisis-palmyra-idUSKCN0RY0YN20151004?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Islamic State militants blow up ancient Arch of Triumph in Palmyra

 

Islamic State militants have blown up the Arch of Triumph, a major monument in the 2,000-year-old Roman city of Palmyra, Syria's antiquities chief said on Sunday, after they destroyed two ancient temples at the central Syrian site in recent months.

 

Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters that sources in Palmyra had confirmed that the Arch of Triumph, a jewel in the exquisite collection of ruins in the oasis city, had been blown up.

 

Islamic State militants have blown up temples at the Roman-era UNESCO World Heritage site, which it has controlled since capturing Palmyra from Syrian government forces in May and mined other monuments and historic buildings. The group considers the buildings sacrilegious.

 

"It's as though there is a curse that has befallen this city and I expect only news that will shock us. If the city remains in their hands the city is doomed," Abdulkarim told Reuters.

 

"It is now wanton destruction ... their acts of vengeance are no longer ideologically driven because they are now blowing up buildings with no religious meaning," he added.

 

In August, the Sunni Muslim militants blew up the temple of Baal Shamin, then the Temple of Bel, one of the best preserved Roman-era sites.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/world/asia/bangladesh-skeptical-of-claims-that-isis-was-behind-shootings-of-foreigners.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Bangladesh Skeptical of Claims That ISIS Was Behind Shootings of Foreigners

 

Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday dismissed claims that the Islamic State was behind the fatal shootings of two foreign nationals last week, instead suggesting that the shootings may have been the work of homegrown militants aligned with her political opponents in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or B.N.P.

 

“I can surely say that IS or any such type of organization or their activities have not sprouted in Bangladesh yet,” Ms. Hasina told reporters who visited her home for a press briefing on Sunday, according to an account by the state-owned news service.

 

Within the space of five days last week, an Italian aid worker and a Japanese man were shot dead, in each case by unidentified gunmen who raced away from the scene on a motorbike.

 

Hours after each killing, a social media account believed to be used by the Islamic State posted a statement claiming responsibility for killing men they described as “crusaders,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical Islamic websites. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

 

However, the Bangladeshi authorities expressed skepticism that the Islamic State was involved. The country’s home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the claim was “absolutely rubbish.”

 

“There is no IS in the country, no way,” he said. “Why would IS do this here? These are incidents for creating instability in the country.”

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4b1b8050710f44e4b6d90192fdbf6787/says-it-behind-bomb-sunni-area-iraqs-shiite-south

IS says it bombed Sunni area in southern Shiite city in Iraq

 

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a car bombing in Iraq's southern, predominantly Shiite city of Basra that killed at least 10 people the day before.

 

IS says in a statement posted on a Twitter account linked to the group that it carried out Monday's attack in Basra's southwest suburb of al-Zubair, targeting Shiites. The Sunni-dominated al-Zubair is located 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Basra.

 

The attack was part of a series of bombings across Iraq that killed at least 56 people.

 

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement, but its language and phrasing is consistent with past IS claims of responsibility.

IS controls large swaths of Iraq's north and west, including its second-largest city of Mosul and most of Anbar province.

[Zguy28]

ISIS executes 12 Christians—including boy and 2 women who were raped in public and beheaded—for refusing to renounce Jesus

 

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/isis.executes.12.christiansincluding.boy.and.2.women.who.were.raped.in.public.and.beheadedfor.refusing.to.renounce.jesus/66532.htm

Islamic State militants have brutally murdered 12 Christians, including the 12-year-old son of a Syrian ministry team leader who had planted nine churches, for refusing to renounce Jesus Christ and embrace Islam instead, the Gospel Herald reported.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

The horrific executions took place last Aug. 28 in an unnamed village outside Aleppo, Syria, according to Christian Aid Mission, a humanitarian group that assists indigenous Christian workers in their native countries.

 

"In front of the team leader and relatives in the crowd, the Islamic extremists cut off the fingertips of the boy and severely beat him, telling his father they would stop the torture only if he, the father, returned to Islam," Christian Aid Mission said, according to Gospel Herald.

 

"When the team leader refused, relatives said, the ISIS militants also tortured and beat him and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy then met their deaths in crucifixion.''

 

"They were killed for refusing to return to Islam after embracing Christianity, as were the other eight aid workers, including two women,'' Christian Aid Mission said in its statement.

 

The eight were reportedly brought to a separate site in the village and asked if they would also return to Islam. But after they refused the offer, the women, ages 29 and 33, "were raped before the crowd, summoned to watch, and then all eight were beheaded."

 

More at link.

[Riggo-toni]

Winning the hearts and minds....

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/middleeast/pregnant-yazidis-forced-abortions-isis/index.html

ISIS 'forced pregnant Yazidi women to have abortions'

 

ISIS militants forced pregnant women they had sold into slavery to have abortions, according to three young Yazidis who escaped from the Islamic militants' brutal clutches.

 

After abducting hundreds of young women and girls from their homes in Iraq's Sinjar province last August, ISIS fighters rounded the captives up in "slave markets" where they were picked out to be used for sex.

 

The terror group was so intent on using rape as a weapon of war that they brought in their own doctors -- gynaecologists -- to determine which of the women they had captured were virgins.

 

Bushra, 21, says she witnessed two doctors invasively examine girls to find out if they were already pregnant. Those found to be expecting were forced to abort their babies.

 

"One of my friends was pregnant," Bushra recalls. "Her child was about three months in the womb. They took her into another room. There were two doctors and they did the abortion.

 

"Afterwards, they brought her back. I asked her what happened and how they did it. She said the doctors told her not to speak."

Bushra says the abortion left her friend bleeding heavily, and in so much pain that "she could not talk or walk."

 

"She was the first. After that, they took the pregnant women and put them in a separate house."

 

Noor, Munira and Bushra say they were abducted when fighters stormed their villages; separated from their families and spirited away to ISIS controlled regions of Iraq, they were forced into sex slavery.

 

The refugee camps of Dohuk are filled with stories like theirs, of women and girls bought and sold, given as gifts, or bartered for weapons.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/middleeast/syrian-familys-agony-raises-specter-of-chemical-warfare.html?smid=fb-share

Syrian Family’s Agony Raises Specter of Chemical Warfare

 

The warning from the front lines came by walkie-talkie. An Islamic State artillery position had boomed to the east, signaling that an incoming round was whistling toward Marea, a town on northern Syria’s agricultural flatland.

 

“One shell fired!” the voice on the radio said. “Be careful!”

 

Inside the house he shared with his family, Abu Anas Ishara, a rebel fighter defending his hometown, knew the routine. Usually 10 to 15 seconds passed before shells landed and exploded.

 

But Marea had been struck so often that Abu Anas had wearied of it all. He did not seek cover. Nada, his wife, kept feeding their infant daughter, Sidra, delivered by cesarean section five days before.

 

The shell hit the roof of their home.

 

As the couple were enveloped by dust and foul-smelling smoke, Shahad, their 3-year-old daughter, cried out.

 

“Papa!” she screamed.

 

Abu Anas and Nada staggered outside, each carrying a child, all seemingly unharmed. It was the morning of Aug. 21. Their descent into the confusion and scorching pain of a chemical warfare attack had begun.

 

Struck from afar by a blister-agent shell, the family would suffer from an agonizing form of violence that since the 1990s, when the Convention on Chemical Weapons took force in much of the world, had seemed to fade into the past, only to be revived by the Islamic State.

 

Since the spring, the group has used two types of chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria multiple times, according to international arms analysts, victims, local activists and Western officials, joining Syria’s government as a party in the conflict that has used chemical weapons.

 

The weapons have included improvised bombs containing chlorine, a toxic industrial chemical that Sunni militants in Iraq have crudely weaponized in vehicle and roadside bombs for roughly a decade, and artillery or mortar projectiles containing a blister agent that appeared this summer after being fired from Islamic State battlefield positions.

 

 

[visionary]

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_6-linked-to-isil-arrested-on-charges-of-minting-coins-in-gaziantep-province_400856.html

6 linked to ISIL arrested on charges of minting coins in Gaziantep province

 

Six individuals linked to the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been arrested on charges of illegally minting coins in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, a written statement from the Gaziantep Governor's Office said on Wednesday.

 

ISIL had previously announced it was planning to create its own currency in coins.

 

In an operation recently undertaken by the Gaziantep Police Department's counterterrorism unit, minted coins, coining blocks and other materials that make possible the minting of coins were confiscated. Six suspects were detained in the operation and were later sent to prison.

 

Issuing a written statement on the raid and arrests, the Gaziantep Governor's Office said they received a tipoff about members of the terrorist ISIL group establishing a mint to coin its own currency. The police seized 12 coining blocks and 56 coins in four different sizes, along with other materials required to mint coins in the operation.

 

In a video published on social media months ago, an ISIL terrorist was heard saying that the organization would mint its own coins in order to avoid a "global economic system that is based on satanic usury."

 

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING IS executed 70 Sunni tribesmen in Iraq's Anbar: elder, UN
1:15 PM

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/iraqi-forces-recapture-areas-isil-ramadi-151007143240718.html

Iraqi forces recapture areas from ISIL around Ramadi

 

Iraqi forces have retaken several areas north and west of Ramadi as efforts to close in on the Anbar provincial capital, which was seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in May, intensified.

 

An operation involving 2,000 troops backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition led to the recapture of several neighbourhoods from ISIL, officials said on Wednesday.

 

A brigadier general from the Anbar operations command said those included Zankura, Albu Jleib, al-Adnaniyah and parts of Albu Risha and an area known as Kilometre 5.

 

"The Iraqi security forces also took control of the main road west of Ramadi and they are now using it to support the forces positioned to liberate Ramadi," Adhal Fahdawi, a member of the provincial council, told AFP news agency.

 

According to the US-led coalition's daily tally of air strikes in Iraq and Syria, a total of 27 strikes have been conducted in the Ramadi area since the start of October.

"The coalition's air support has played a big part in this progress," Fahdawi said. "If operations continue at this pace, I expect the liberation of Ramadi to be possible by the end of the month."

 

Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman for the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary organisation also involved in the operation, even predicted it would happen "in the next few days".

 

Iraqi officials, including Assadi and Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi, had said immediately after ISIL fighters blitzed the security forces out of Ramadi in mid-May that a reconquest would be a matter of days.

 

The Iraqi forces' advance has been sluggish, however, sparking mounting criticism of the US-supported effort to train and equip Iraqi fighters in Anbar.

Meanwhile, Iraq may request Russian air strikes against ISIL on its soil soon and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than the US in the war against the group, the head of parliament's defence and security committee said on Wednesday.

 

"In the upcoming few days or weeks, I think Iraq will be forced to ask Russia to launch air strikes, and that depends on their success in Syria," Hakim al-Zamili, a leading Shia politician, told Reuters news agency.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/Matthew__Barber

Sinjar sources: today PKK/YBŞ (Yazidi) forces wrested control of the Shilo checkpoint near Skiniya from IS, cutting Mosul off from Syria
12:55 PM

 

The main highway from Mosul to Syria is now under PKK/YBŞ (Yazidi) control, and supposedly at least 20 IS jihadists were killed.
1:04 PM

 

The Shilo checkpoint is located where the road coming south from Bara (northwest end of Sinjar Mnt.) connects to the main east-west highway.
1:09 PM

 

Amazing: the only paved road connecting IS-held Mosul to IS-held Syria is now under Yazidi & PKK control.
1:11 PM

 

To reach Raqqa from Mosul, IS must now use dirt roads or take a major detour south.
1:13 PM