Everything to do with ISIS

[visionary]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-23/u-k-offers-france-use-of-cyprus-base-for-syrian-operations

U.K. Offers France Use of Cyprus Base for Syrian Operations

 

Prime Minister David Cameron offered France the use of Britain’s Akrotiri base in Cyprus for its military operations in Syria, as he visited Paris to pledge support for the fight against Islamic State.

 

Just over a week after terrorists attacked the French capital, Cameron met President Francois Hollande to discuss the international response. “It’s absolutely right to take decisive action to stop terrorists,” the prime minister said at the end of their meeting.

 

“The U.K. will do all in our power to support our friend and ally France to defeat this evil death cult,” Cameron told reporters. The Akrotiri Royal Air Force base will be available for French aircraft, he said.

 

He pledged to go to Parliament in London this week with a “comprehensive strategy” to deal with Islamic State. This may include asking lawmakers to approve the extension of bombing from Islamic State positions in Iraq to those in Syria as well. Cameron has long wanted to do this, but has been held back by the opposition Labour Party, as well as by some in his own Conservative Party.

 

Cameron promised intelligence sharing with France and said the European Union needs to agree to share airline passenger data.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/belgium-weighs-extending-lockdown-police-hunt-paris-attackers-054139052.html

France boosts IS fight as Brussels locked down

 

France launched military missions over Islamic State areas in Syria and Iraq Monday from a newly-deployed aircraft carrier as Brussels was locked down for a third day amid fears of a repeat of the Paris terror attacks.

 

President Francois Hollande met British Premier David Cameron in Paris in an effort to widen an international alliance against the jihadist group as the Charles de Gaulle, stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, went into action.

 

In Europe's institutional capital, police in Brussels arrested five more people but Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam remained at large. Schools, public buildings and the metro were closed, with armed police and troops out in force on quiet streets.

 

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel warned late Sunday as he extended the security alert that the city faced a "serious and imminent" threat of attacks similar to those claimed by IS which left 130 people dead across Paris.

 

Hollande told Cameron that Britain and France had a "joint obligation" to strike at the jihadist group blamed for a series of bloody attacks, including the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt with the loss of 224 lives.

 

Top-line French Rafale jets loaded with bombs were catapulted from the flight deck of the 42,500-tonne nuclear-powered carrier as Cameron and Hollande spoke, an AFP reporter onboard saw.

 

"We will intensify our strikes, choosing targets that will do the most damage possible to this army of terrorists," Hollande said.

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/france-launches-missions-over-syria-iraq-from-newly-deployed-carrier-military

Latest: France strikes ISIS in Iraq from newly-deployed carrier

 

ABOARD CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER (AFP) - French fighter jets took off on Monday (Nov 23) from the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, newly deployed to the eastern Mediterranean, in an operation against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), military sources said.

 

"We carried out strikes in Ramadi and Mosul in support of ground forces that were pushing against troops of (ISIS)," said army chief of staff General Pierre de Villiers, aboard the carrier.

 

He said planes from the Charles de Gaulle would launch strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, including command and recruitment centres as well as oil facilities, in "a matter of hours or days".

 

Rafale jets catapulted from the carrier's flight deck on Monday morning, an AFP reporter saw.

 

http://www.france24.com/en/20151123-syria-troops-advance-against-homs-province?ns_campaign=reseaux_sociaux&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_linkname=editorial&aef_campaign_ref=partage_aef&aef_campaign_date=2015-11-23&dlvrit=65413

Syria troops advance against IS in Homs province

 

The Syrian army recaptured a town and village in the central province of Homs from the Islamic State group on Monday, state media and a monitoring group said.

 

"The army in cooperation with popular defence groups (pro-regime militias) took control of Maheen and Hawareen in the southeast of Homs province after inflicting heavy losses on Daesh," state television said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

 

Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the army's advance, which it said had been backed by Russian warplanes and military helicopters.

 

The recapture of Maheen comes after it was overrun by IS on November 1.

 

Previously, a ceasefire had been in force under which rebel factions remained inside the town but government forces manned checkpoints around it.

IS forces launched their assault on Maheen from neighbouring Al-Qaryatain, which the group captured earlier this year, kidnapping hundreds of civilians and destroying ancient Christian sites.

 

The army advance now puts Al-Qaryatain, which is just 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Maheen, in their sights.

 

Elsewhere in Homs province, the Observatory said government forces were advancing on the outskirts of the ancient city of Palmyra, which IS captured in May.

 

 

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

Raqqa 6 Airstrikes by Warplanes targeted a fuel tanks west Huneda town in Raqqa countryside 
6:25 AM

 

Raqqa An Airstrikes today targeted the new bridge again
11:22 AM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/23/us-canada-kurdistan-idUSKBN0TC2HK20151123?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Iraqi Kurdistan minister urges Canada to boost aid to fight ISIS
 
The top diplomat for Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday urged Canada to provide more aid in the fight against Islamic State, particularly if the newly-elected Liberal government follows through on a pledge to halt airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
 
Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's department of foreign relations, said his government would respect the decision of the Canadian government if it withdraws fighter jets from the region, but would like to see more support in the form of weapons ammunition, equipment, training and capacity building.
 
"As someone who has come from the front lines I have seen the impact of the airstrikes. Our experience is that these strikes have been effective," Bakir said.
"If that (withdrawal) was a decision of the Canadian government of course we respect that, but at the same time we would like to ask for the expansion of other types of support so it would be compensated."
 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that Canada will stick to its plan to pull six jets from bombing missions against Islamic State, despite the group's claiming responsibility for attacks in Paris that killed at least 130 people and which prompted the United States, France, Britain and others to promise more strikes.
 
Bakir was speaking in Calgary as part of a nearly week-long visit to Canada.
 
He will also visit Ottawa and Montreal, and met Canada's defense minister, Harjit Sajjan, at a security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over the weekend.

 
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/libyan-militias-isil-tobruktripoli-sirte-151123063110310.html

Libyan groups urged to close ranks against ISIL
 
France's defence minister has told rival armed groups in Libya they will be committing suicide unless they stop fighting each other and take on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
 
Jean-Yves Le Drian's comments came as the UN's new envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, made his first visit to the North African country since his appointment earlier in the month.
 
ISIL has established a foothold around the city of Sirte, the hometown of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, helped by a civil war between rival governments in Tripoli and Tobruk.
"Libya preoccupies me very much," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio on Sunday, nine days after armed men and suicide bombers loyal to ISIL killed 130 people in Paris.
 
"Daesh [iSIL] is in Libya because it can exploit the internal rivalries ... If we reunite these forces, Daesh will cease to exist.
 
"It is an emergency. Tunisia is nearby, Egypt is nearby, Algeria is directly concerned; Niger, Chad ... these countries need to be able to organise a forum with the support of international organisations and the United Nations," he said.
 
Le Drian's comments came a day after Kobler arrived in Tobruk for talks with officials there and to work on a UN-proposed plan to end hostilities between the Tobruk and Tripoli administrations.
 
Kobler's predecessor, Bernardino Leon, left in October and drew accusations of bias from rival factions.
 
Shortly after he left his UN role, Leon acknowledged he had taken up a job in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, prompting anger due to a purported conflict of interest.

 
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/11/173429/spanish-man-confesses-that-he-sent-over-200-isis-jihadists-to-syria/

Spanish Man Confesses That He Sent over 200 ISIS Jihadists to Syria
 
Investigators believe  Mustapha Maya Amaya ran one of ISIS’s most important European recruitment networks, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
 
He used social media sites to recruit combatants internationally from countries such as France, Tunisia, Turkey, Belgium, Egypt, Morocco and Indonesia. He used the alias “Abu Jihad” as his name of Facebook.
 
Social networking is one of ISIS’s most used strategies in recruiting young militants.
 
French and Spanish investigators suspect that Maya Amaya recommended weapons  to the network’s new recruits. French investigators believe these arms were from the same stock as those used in the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the November 13 Paris attacks. It is believed these arms were purchased in Egypt and came from the Libyan army.
 
Police say they have evidence of Maya Amaya advising one individual to buy arms in Egypt to save money.
 
Maya Amaya is the first Spanish citizen arrested for recruiting ISIS members. The 52-year-old converted to Islam, changed his name from Rafael to Mustapha and married a Moroccan citizen.
 
Amaya has been fleeing Moroccan authorities since 2012. He moved to the Spanish city of Melilla and lived in the District of La Canada, one of the city’s poor neighborhoods.
 
Police have also collected over 25,000 conversations that Amaya had electronically and over the phone which he may have had with extremists.

 
 
https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

an Airstrike targeted the southern entrance for Raqqa city
4:41 PM
 
Water and Electricity ate cut from yesterday for most parts of Raqqa city
4:42 PM

 
 
https://m.facebook.com/CJTFOIR/posts/1637254499874018?utm_source=hootsuite

Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve

14 hrs  Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria and Iraq

SOUTHWEST ASIA- On Nov. 22, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes using attack, ground-attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft. Separately in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 19 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using rocket artillery and bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets.

The following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:

Syria
• Near Mar’a, two strikes destroyed an ISIL artillery piece, an ISIL mortar tube, and an ISIL weapons cache.
• Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed an ISIL excavator and destroyed an ISIL earthen bridge.
• Near Al Hasakah, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL structures and an ISIL tactical vehicle.
• Near Al Hawl, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL fighting positions.
• Near Ayn Isa, four strikes struck four separate tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and six ISIL structures.

Additionally on Nov. 21, two strikes occurred in Syria that were previously unreported:
• Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike struck an ISIL crude oil collection point.
• Near Al Hasakah and Dayr Az Zawr, one strike destroyed 283 ISIL vehicles.

Iraq
• Near Albu Hayat, one strike struck an ISIL staging area.
• Near Ar Rutbah, one strike struck an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) facility.
• Near Fallujah, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles and wounded two ISIL fighters.
• Near Habbaniyah, one strike destroyed an ISIL artillery piece.
• Near Kisik, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL fighting position.
• Near Makhmur, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and two ISIL fighting positions.
• Near Mosul, one strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
• Near Ramadi, five strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle, eight ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL house borne improvised explosive device (HBIED), two ISIL recoilless rifles, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL building, and denied ISIL access to terrain.
• Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL fighting position, and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.
• Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed five ISIL fighting positions.
• Near Hit, one strike destroyed an ISIL bridge section.

Strike assessments are based on initial reports. All aircraft returned to base safely.

 

A strike, as defined in the CJTF releases, means one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect for that location. So having a single aircraft deliver a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of buildings and vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making that facility (or facilities) harder or impossible to use. Accordingly, CJTF-OIR does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

 

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community.

 

The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct operations. Coalition nations which have conducted strikes in Iraq include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States. Coalition nations which have conducted strikes in Syria include Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the U.S.

[Springfield]

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/middleeast/john-kerry-adds-voice-to-those-urging-bigger-push-against-islamic-state-in-syria.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur&_r=0

John Kerry Adds Voice to Those Urging Bigger Push Against Islamic State in Syria

 

With the Obama administration under mounting pressure from some of its own top former officials to take a more aggressive approach to combating the Islamic State, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that he would like to see the American-led military and diplomatic effort in Syria “go faster.”

 

He added that President Obama had charged his aides with “coming up with any concepts that will, in fact, work, and which could help change the situation on the ground.”

 

Defending Mr. Obama’s policies, Mr. Kerry argued that weeks before the Paris attacks the president had already made a series of decisions that would put more military pressure on Islamic State militants, including the deployment of 50 Special Operations troops to Syria. But those troops, intended to advise the Kurdish rebels, have still not arrived, and Mr. Kerry conceded that other steps had not been fully instituted by the time the Paris assault occurred.

 

In interviews over the past few days, however, White House, State Department and Pentagon officials have described fierce debates within the administration over how deeply to involve American forces in the campaign against the Islamic State.

 

Several said that the arguments made last week by Mr. Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton — calling for a no-fly zone in Syria and a more muscular military response to bolster the diplomacy now underway — generally reflected arguments Mr. Kerry made, and lost, in the Situation Room.

 

“I think you are going to see many of those decisions revisited now,” said one senior administration official, who declined to speak on the record about continuing strategy discussions within the administration.

 

Yet so far Mr. Obama appears to be sticking to his incremental approach, part of a long-term effort to make the Persian Gulf states less dependent on American intervention in the region’s crises. His trip to Asia over the past week was part of his aim to refocus American diplomatic energy.

Mr. Obama remains concerned that a no-fly zone, while attractive for the humanitarian benefits it might bring to displaced Syrians, would involve a far greater military commitment than its proponents, including Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kerry, are willing to acknowledge. He also worries that it would be a distraction from the campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

 

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon after meeting the leadership of this wealthy gulf nation, and just before a meeting with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Jubeir, Mr. Kerry was careful not to get ahead of Mr. Obama. He echoed the president’s statement in Malaysia over the weekend that he was confident that the Islamic State would ultimately be defeated.

 

But frustration crept into his voice, when he said “we have to cut off this narrative of success by Daesh,” using the somewhat derisive Arabic expression for the group that Mr. Obama has also begun to adopt. He said that while he had “some ideas” to speed American pressure, “the president has to make these decisions.” He declined to describe those ideas in any detail.

 

The pressure on the administration to take a far more active role comes in part because several of Mr. Obama’s former counterterrorism advisers have gone public with critiques arguing that the administration has been too slow, and too tentative, when it comes to the Islamic State and Syria. One of the most stinging criticisms came from Michael G. Vickers, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence until the spring.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/europe/russia-says-it-killed-14-isis-recruiters-in-north-caucasus.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur

Russia Says It Killed 14 ISIS Recruiters in North Caucasus

 

Russian security services killed 14 insurgents who were smuggling fighters out of the North Caucasus region to join the Islamic State in Syria, Russian news reports said Monday.

 

Quoting a statement from Russia’s antiterrorism committee, the reports said the men were killed Sunday in two clashes with law enforcement agents in and around the southern city of Nalchik in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

 

The first 11 killed were hiding in a fortified base in the wooded mountains near Nalchik, and information there led to the other three, the reports said.

 

Insurgent websites in the region questioned whether all the men were in fact loyal to the Islamic State, although the former leader of the fighters, who was killed in a clash on Nov. 10, had publicly vowed allegiance to the would-be caliphate in August.

[HogNose]

All hell will break loose if one of these Russian fighter pilots ends up in a cage like the Jordanian. Hopefully they make it out alive.  I know there is footage circulating of a dead pilot but that I believe is from 2013 and is a Syrian pilot. 

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-us-france-stand-united-against-terror-171705279.html;_ylt=A0LEV1r0r1RWnxMABU9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMHV0ajY0BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA5MzJfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Hollande and Obama vow unity against IS, appeal to Russia

 

France and the United States pledged Tuesday to step up the fight against the Islamic State group, urging Russia to throw its weight behind global efforts to resolve the four-year Syria conflict.

 

President Francois Hollande met his US counterpart Barack Obama at the White House as the Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane dealt a severe blow to efforts to coordinate the fight against IS.

 

Speaking 11 days after jihadists killed 130 people in the French capital, Hollande urged an "implacable" joint response to crush the group in Syria and Iraq.

At a joint press conference, Obama pledged America's full support in the wake of the November 13 carnage, switching into Hollande's language to tell him, "We are all French."

 

"We are here to declare that the United States and France stand united in total solidarity to deliver justice to terrorists and those who sent them, and to defend our nations," Obama said.

 

"Americans will not be terrorized," he said.

 

Washington and Paris have both stepped up their fight against IS in Syria, with France launching its first strikes from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean on Monday and the US calling for more international cooperation against the jihadist group.

 

Hollande said he and Obama had agreed to "scale up our strikes both in Syria and in Iraq to broaden our scope to strengthen our intelligence sharing regarding the targets."

 

Both said they would boost support for forces battling IS on the ground -- while both continuing to rule out any ground intervention.

 

"France will not intervene militarily on the ground," Hollande said. "It is for the local forces to do so."

 

 

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

Raqqa one of the places that got hit by Russian Warplanes "Fuel depots Sadcob" in Hundia village west Raqqa
10:41 AM

 

Raqqa Russian Warplanes targeted Ukayrishah Oil Refinery with several Airstrikes and Flames Escalate for more than 1 hour
12:07 PM

 

Raqqa Warplanes targeted Twenan Gas Field in Tabqah south Countryside in several Airstrikes
12:12 PM

 

Raqqa Photo shows the smoke rise from Ukayrishah Oil Refinery after she got hit with several Airstrikes
12:20 PM

 

Raqqa one of the places that got hit by Warplanes "Ukayrishah Oil Refinery" same place where US troops land before
12:24 PM

 

Raqqa one of the places that got hit by Warplanes Twenan Gas Field in Tabqah south Countryside
12:26 PM

[visionary]

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/566279-reactions-to-the-paris-attacks-from-the-land-of-the-caliphate

Reactions to the Paris attacks from the ‘land of the caliphate’

 

Westerners may not realize it, but Syrians who live in areas controlled by ISIS sympathize deeply with the French people. Considering the amount of pain and suffering they have endured under its rule, there is nothing strange about this. “We know how dreadful this ordeal must be for France because we experience it during every moment of every day,” says Mahmoud, a teacher from Manbij. “ISIS’s steel bars [jails] have never stopped receiving new visitors.” Fear, Mahmoud says, is a constant companion to everyone. “As long as you’re not an ISIS member, you will most certainly live in fear. The people who truly know what the fear of terrorism feels like are those who have experienced it.” Terrorism is more than just bombings; it is to live in a constant state of fear.

The Paris attacks came as a terrifying shock to many people in ISIS-controlled areas. They were horrified to learn that the group had managed to inflict such a high number of deaths and injuries. “We were expecting a series of bloody bombings in Damascus and the coastal region, and perhaps in the Russian Federation,” says Mamoun, a Syrian from Al-Bab. “It never crossed our minds that France, the friend of the Syrian people, would be affected.”

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/uk-mideast-crisis-usa-sanctions-idUKKBN0TE23E20151125

U.S. sanctions businessman helping Syrian government buy oil from Islamic State

 

The United States sanctioned a Syrian businessman on Wednesday who it said was a middleman for oil sales between Islamic State and the Syrian government, the latest salvo in an effort to cut off the flow of funds to the militant group.

 

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that it had also sanctioned three other individuals for providing support to the Syrian government, and businesses linked to them, including a Russian bank.

 

The measures, the latest round of sanctions related to the ongoing civil war in Syria, freeze any U.S. assets and prohibit Americans from transactions with the targets.

 

Islamic State, which has been described by U.S. officials as the wealthiest terrorist group of its kind, is believed to derive much of its funding from oil fields seized from the Syrian government. IS sells the oil through long-standing smuggling networks, experts and officials say.

 

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also agreed to purchase IS oil, a Treasury official said last year.

 

The U.S. Treasury said it was targeting Syrian businessman George Haswani, who it said "serves as a middleman" for oil purchases by the Syrian government from Islamic State. His company, an engineering and construction firm, was also sanctioned.

 

The European Union sanctioned Haswani in March, and at the time, he denied the accusation that he bought oil from IS militants for the Syrian government, telling Reuters by phone that the EU had no evidence to back up the claim and should instead look for intermediaries he said were smuggling oil to Turkey on Islamic State's behalf.

 

The U.S. sanctions also target Mudalal Khuri, who the Treasury said assisted or acted on behalf of the Syrian government, its central bank, and central bank officials, and represents Syrian government interests in Russia.

 

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who the Treasury said is a wealthy Russian businessman and president of the World Chess Federation, was also sanctioned for helping the Syrian government. Russian Financial Alliance Bank was targeted for being controlled or owned by Khuri and Ilyumzhinov.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/french-parliament-votes-overwhelmingly-extend-air-strikes-syria-181245384.html;_ylt=A0LEVzex_FVWgR0ADW5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyN2RpcXU4BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjEzMjRfMQRzZWMDc2M-

French parliament votes overwhelmingly to extend air strikes in Syria

 

French lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to extend air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria, which have been stepped up following the Paris attacks.

 

The National Assembly approved a motion to prolong the operation by 515 votes to four, with 10 abstentions.

[HogNose]

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/566279-reactions-to-the-paris-attacks-from-the-land-of-the-caliphate

 

 

 

What a great read....very good article. 

[visionary]

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/11/25-isis-debate-thanksgiving-mccants

How to win your family's ISIS debate this Thanksgiving

 

Americans will gather around the dinner table this Thursday to give thanks for their blessings and pray for those less fortunate. Then the ritual feasting and arguing shall commence.

 

Most of the arguments this Thanksgiving will involve ISIS because 1) it’s been in the headlines nonstop, and 2) people don’t know much about the group so the subject is perfect for the exhausting debates that characterize the holiday. Here are some of the ISIS-related statements you can expect to hear, and what you need to know to outmaneuver your dad, impress your boyfriend, and maybe, just maybe, emanate a little more light than heat from your side of the debate.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/hollande-urges-germany-more-anti-fight-192115815.html;_ylt=A0LEV15yC1ZWN58AdoFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyN2RpcXU4BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjEzMjRfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Hollande urges Germany to do more in anti-IS fight

 

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday urged Germany to do more in the fight against Islamic State jihadists after he held talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in the wake of the Paris attacks.

 

"I hope Germany can do even more in the fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq," Hollande said, using another term for IS, the group which claimed responsibility for the carnage in the French capital.

 

Merkel said in response she would act "swiftly" to assist in the fight against terror.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/us-france-shooting-merkel-idUSKBN0TE2J920151125?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Germany's Merkel vows more support for France after attacks
 

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she would think about how Germany could further support France in fighting terrorism following the Nov. 13 attacks by Islamist militants in Paris that killed 130 people.

 

"When the French president asks me to think about what more we can do, then it is our duty to reflect on this and we will also react very quickly here," Merkel told a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katebubacz/inside-the-hunt-for-isis-in-iraq?utm_term=.acgX774Ex#.lb5pWWyP5

Inside The Hunt For ISIS In Iraq

 

Hawre Khalid, a Kirkuk-based photographer, goes inside police raids as Iraqi authorities search for ISIS suspects in their city.

 

 

https://twitter.com/LibyaAlHurraTV

IS commander in Sirte, Abu Jalal AlMagribi, has reportedly been killed in airstrikes. Libya
9:54 AM

 

Heavy clashes in between IS and military forces in Benghazi's Laythi area, where IS is holed up. Libya
9:59 AM

[HogNose]

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/09/09/4308825.htm

 

 

 

Saving Islam from the Deceit and Depravity of the Islamic State

 

Islam has never been challenged from within as it is now. Scholars are therefore obliged to respond, and their response should be intellectual.

The ideology of the Islamic State (to which the media typically refers with the initials ISIS, which stands for "the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria") is based on a complex system of fallacies that cut the sacred texts from their context, and on a series of devious stratagems that select from the corpus of the law what satisfies their twisted minds.

 

[visionary]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_PARIS_ATTACKS_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-26-13-11-28

HOLLANDE, ON MOSCOW VISIT, CALLS FOR BROAD ANTI-IS COALITION

 

French President Francois Hollande called for forming a broad international coalition against the Islamic State group, using his visit to Moscow on Thursday to try to unite France, the U.S. and Russia on a response to the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

 

IS has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, as well as deadly bombings in Beirut and the downing of a Russian airplane on Oct. 31 that killed all 224 people on board over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

 

"We need to take the lead so that there can be actions against terrorism that must be intensified," Hollande told Russian President Vladimir Putin at the start of their talks at the Kremlin.

 

"Terrorism is our enemy," Hollande said. "We know it, it has a name: it's Daesh, the Islamic State."

 

Putin said that Russia was mourning for Paris victims and those who died in the downing of the Russian passenger plane over Egypt. He praised Hollande's efforts to build an anti-terror coalition and said that Moscow was open for stronger cooperation.

 

Germany, meanwhile, has decided to send reconnaissance aircraft, tanker planes and a warship to help in the fight against IS.

 

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

Raqqa 3 Airstrikes targeted Raqqa city
10:28 AM

 

Raqqa 4 people got killed and several injured because of Airstrike by Warplanes targeted Heten School
11:11 AM

 

Raqqa Warplanes targeted Uykershea town in eastern countryside of Raqqa with 6 Airstrikes
11:17 AM

 

the last airstrikes targeted Raqqa were
2 house close to AlRahman Mosque
Hazima Square
Cars Office in AlQetar area
6 killed & 8 wounded
12:15 PM

 

Warplanes targeted Zour Shemar Town in Eastern countryside of Raqqa with 3 Airstrikes
12:23 PM

 

Raqqa 8 civilians got killed in Airstrike by Warplanes targeted Heten School including 5 children and 12 wounded
1:51 PM

 

https://twitter.com/bbclaurak

Several sources suggest majority of shadow cabinet in favour of action - Tom Watson understood to think PM was v convincing

11:34 AM

 

BREAKING - Corbyn writing to Labour MPs to say he cannot support PM's proposals for air strikes - more v soon
12:24 PM

 

Corbyn - I do not believe the PM's current proposal for air strikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore cannot support it
12:31 PM

 

For shad ministers who thought they were going to have more discussion next Mon, how are they to react to Corbyn saying he's made mind up?
12:36 PM

 

https://twitter.com/ksnavarra

Germany Chancellor Merkel currently addressing parliamentary group in Berlin, says 'German military intervention against IS necessary'
12:49 PM

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34927170

German Tornado jets to help French against IS in Syria

 

Germany plans to deploy Tornado reconnaissance jets to help the French air campaign against so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

 

A naval frigate, satellite images and aerial refuelling will also be provided, the defence minister said.

 

France has asked Germany to commit more resources after the deadly Paris attacks - carried out by IS militants.

 

"We know that this inhumane rage can hit us or other societies at any time too," said Ursula von der Leyen.

 

Germany will also bolster its military training mission in northern Iraq, where it is helping Kurdish forces battling IS militants, German MP Henning Otte said.

 

"Germany will be a more active contributor than it has been until now" in the anti-IS offensive, Mr Otte said.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/claims-attack-shiite-mosque-bangladesh-052446912.html;_ylt=AwrXgyIR81dW5CIAyjfQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByYnR1Zmd1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

IS claims attack on Shiite mosque in Bangladesh: SITE

 

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on worshippers at a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh, the US-based monitoring organisation SITE said Friday.

 

The attackers entered the mosque in Shibganj, some 200 miles (125 kilometres) north of Dhaka, during early evening prayers on Thursday and opened fire on the gathered worshippers before fleeing.

 

Television footage showed the heavily guarded Shiite mosque with broken windows and blood stains on the floor.

 

Police said the muezzin had been killed and three worshippers wounded in the shooting, a rare attack on minority Shiite Muslims in the mainly Sunni nation.

 

Detectives say they are questioning two people over the shooting although they had not been formally arrested.

 

"We have picked up two Sunni locals for interrogation in connection to the shootout," Shibganj police chief Ahsan Habib told AFP.

[visionary]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-accused-covering-deaths-six-children-killed-syria-coalition-air-strike-924299699

EXCLUSIVE: US accused of covering up death of six children in Syria air strike

 

A Syrian father has accused the American military of attempting to cover up the deaths of six of his children and the serious injury of two others in a US-led coalition air strike.

 

Standing amid the rubble of his former home, Muawiyya al-Amouri told Middle East Eye that six of his children, aged between 10 months and 10 years old, and three members of a refugee family sharing their house, had died in the attack near Atmeh, a town close to the Turkish border, on 11 August.

 

“A plane belonging to the alliance shelled my house with six missiles. They destroyed my house and my children died. I had some refugees in my home from Ariha [near Idlib city] who died as well,” he said.

 

US Central Command confirmed that the coalition had carried out an air strike in the area as part of its campaign against the Islamic State (IS) group and launched an investigation into possible civilian casualties following media reports at the time.

 

The incident was also the subject of a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

 

But in recent emails, US military spokespeople told MEE the investigation had concluded that allegations of civilian casualties were "unfounded" and said the strike had targeted an IS "staging area".

 

"After careful review and based on the best available evidence, it was determined that allegations of civilian casualties by the coalition were unfounded and deemed not credible," said Centcom spokesman Kyle Raines.

 

Yet al-Amouri, who was not in the house at the time, said that five of his daughters had been killed: Fatimah, aged 10; Hayat, aged nine; Amina, aged seven; Asia, aged five and Marwa, aged four; as well as his 10-month-old son Abdullah.

 

He also identified the three members of the refugee family who were killed as Umm Tawfiq, her son Yusuf Yaseen, 25, and daughter Fatima Yaseen, 17

Asked by MEE to clarify what the target of air strike had been, Centcom spokesman Major Tim Smith wrote: "The target was a Daesh [iS] staging area in the vicinity of Atmeh. And it was a successful strike by the Coalition.

 

"The Coalition takes a lot of time and research into developing our targets to ensure maximum effect against Daesh and to minimize the potential for civilian casualties. No evidence links casualties or injuries to the Coalition air strike."

 

But Al-Amouri said: "IS hasn’t been in this area for approximately two years. This is my house. My home. It was occupied by me, my children, some refugees. All civilians."

 

Sources in Atmeh told MEE that IS had been forced out of the town by local rebel groups in early 2014 after setting up checkpoints where some residents had been shot, and attempting to take over local mosques.

 

Initial reports of the air strike had suggested that the main target had been a nearby building used as a headquarters and munitions factory by a rebel group originally from Homs known as Jaysh al-Sunna. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 10 fighters as well as civilians had been killed.

 

But Tauqir Sharif, a British aid worker based in Atmeh's nearby refugee camp, told MEE that all the victims he had seen had been civilians. He was a few hundred metres away when the missiles struck and helped to pull bodies out of the rubble, he said.

 

"In the factory nobody was killed. They didn't kill any soldiers or military personnel. The warehouse was clearly a warehouse and the house was clearly a civilian house. It was very precise, they targeted that house. There was nothing left," he said.

On the bright side, there have been few civilian casualties in US airstrikes in the past few months, also most recent strikes have been in ISIS areas.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/life-returns-syrian-town-ousted-045024798.html;_ylt=AwrXgyLvPVlWT3EANxDQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByb2lvbXVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

Life returns to Syrian town after IS ousted

 

Outside her home in a town of northeast Syria, four-year-old Baydaa scribbles on a leaflet of religious rules left behind by the Islamic State group as they fled earlier this month.

 

Her face is adorned with make-up of the sort banned by the jihadist group, which was expelled from Al-Hol by a new US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces that overran the area on November 12.

 

The town was once a key waystation for IS between the territory it holds between Iraq and Syria, and its capture was a strategic victory for the new Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition.

 

But it is also a chance for residents to breathe easy again.

 

"My little daughter Baydaa has put kohl on her eyes and make-up on her face, which was forbidden when the 'organisation' was here," said Baydaa's father, Hamdan Ahmed, referring to IS.

 

"I'm so happy not to see them in our village anymore," the 39-year-old told AFP.

Elsewhere in the suburb, on the dusty sandy outskirts of the town, 42-year-old Mariam fed a small herd of sheep by a row of mud houses, including her own modest home.

 

"We left the village during the fighting after shells landed in our food store. We lost grain for the sheep, lentils and flour and were left with nothing to eat," she said.

 

Even though the jihadist group is now far from her home, Mariam is still afraid they may return and covers her face with her headscarf when speaking to strangers.

 

She wears a long colourful dress that is traditional in the conservative region, but would not have met the strictures of IS.

 

"When IS was here, any woman who left home without a face veil and black robes would face whipping," she said.

[Koala]

How does a group of maybe 20 to 30000 men, with no army or nation behind them, end up befuddling the entire world. Do you really think that the combined militaries of syria, russia ,france and america are really just unable to do an6thing but helplessly bomb unrelated fighters and innocent civilians?

Hmm lets see, Syria went in with its army, razed every rebellious city but couldnt really kill more than a handful of fighters. Iran and hezbollah trot in, say they wanna kill isis, but end up destrying only the remnants of the fsa while leaving isis free to claim half the countryside. Then the u.s trots in with the same story about Isis but curiously end up bombing the crap out of ISIS's rival, AlNusra, while leaving ISIS almost totally unscathed. Now Russia trots in, says they are fighting ISIs with a wink, and bam hhey suddenly go to killing rebel groups that are fighting Assad, all of whom coincidentally are fighting Isis.

Do you see a pattern here? Who is unleashing ISiS on who?

[visionary]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/11/29/islamic-state-defections-kurds-lloyd-austin-syria-isil/76503736/

Islamic State defections mount as death toll rises, U.S. official says

 

Defections of Islamic State fighters — a closely watched measure by officials of U.S.-led coalition — have begun to thin the ranks of the militants in Iraq in the last month, intelligence reports and drone footage show.

 

Wholesale defections, sparsely-manned checkpoints and elite foreign fighters pressed into mundane duty indicate that the U.S.-led bombing campaign and advances by Kurdish forces are eroding the forces of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, said Army Col. Steve Warren, the top spokesman for the counter-ISIL coalition in Baghdad.

 

Top military officials estimate that the campaign has killed 23,000 Islamic State fighters, raising their death toll by 3,000 since mid-October. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East as chief of Central Command, told troops last week in Iraq that the campaign is inflicting maximum pain on the enemy, according to a military official who attended the meeting but who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

 

Warren cautioned that evidence of Islamic State manpower shortages was largely anecdotal. When indicators are combined, however, they show strains on the group's fighting force, he said. Islamic State fighters continues to field about 20,000 to 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, and they hold key Iraqi cities of Mosul and Ramadi, and large portions of Syria.

 

It's also too soon to tell if apparent strain on the group is a long-term trend, said Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution. "I view those as provisional signs of progress," O'Hanlon said. "Individual metrics like  these can be deceptive, especially given the difficulty of measuring things accurately. I'd tend to agree with CENTCOM that these anecdotes and snippets of information sound promising, but just remain a bit more skeptical until we see some more indicators and see what happens when more time passes."

 

Near Kirkuk in the last week, 90 Islamic State fighters laid down their arms and turned themselves over to Kurdish peshmerga forces, Warren said. The former fighters were local men who had been coerced into joining the jihadists and have grown disillusioned with the cause or simply saw a way to quit the fight by turning themselves in.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/28/us-mideast-crisis-syria-britain-iduskbn0th0ru20151128?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=565a878204d3010858b6b3c7&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Britain's Fallon says parliament's Syria vote uncertain: Sunday Telegraph
 

Britain is not certain to hold a parliamentary vote on taking military action against Islamic State forces in Syria, defense minister Michael Fallon said, as it would become "difficult" if opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn orders his MPs to oppose it.

 

Fallon, in an interview published in the Sunday Telegraph, said he hoped lawmakers from all parties would consider the arguments, with Labour deeply split on the issue.

 

Labour leader Corbyn wants his lawmakers to vote against air strikes. But many of his MPs, including some in his top team, are demanding a free vote rather than one in which they are directed to vote against the strikes.

 

With a slender majority, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron wants MPs outside his party to back extending air strikes to hit Islamic State in Syria. Britain has already carried out air strikes targeting Islamic State in Iraq.

 

Cameron's drive to win support in parliament has taken on fresh urgency after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.

 

Asked if a vote on action in Syria was certain to go ahead, Fallon said: "No. We are committed to building a consensus, seeing whether there is a majority there."

 

Fallon added that it would "certainly make it more difficult" if Corbyn directed his MPs to vote against action in Syria.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/world/middleeast/isis-grip-on-libyan-city-gives-it-a-fallback-option.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

ISIS’ Grip on Libyan City Gives It a Fallback Option

 

Iraqi commanders have been arriving from Syria, and the first public beheadings have started. The local radio stations no longer play music but instead extol the greatness of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

 

When the Libyan arm of the Islamic State first raised the group’s black flag over the coastal city of Surt almost one year ago, it was just a bunch of local militants trying to look tough.

 

Today Surt is an actively managed colony of the central Islamic State, crowded with foreign fighters from around the region, according to residents, local militia leaders and hostages recently released from the city’s main prison.

 

“The entire Islamic State government there is from abroad — they are the ones who are calling the shots,” said Nuri al-Mangoush, the head of a trucking company based here in Misurata, about 65 miles west of the Islamic State’s territory around Surt. Many of its employees live in Surt, and five were jailed there recently.

 

As the Islamic State has come under growing military and economic pressure in Syria and Iraq, its leaders have looked outward.

 

One manifestation of the shift is a turn toward large-scale terrorist attacks against distant targets, including the massacre in Paris and the bombing of a Russian charter jet over Egypt, Western intelligence officials say. But the group’s leaders are also devoting new resources and attention to far-flung affiliate groups that pledged their loyalty from places like Egypt, Afghanistan, Nigeria and elsewhere. There are at least eight in all, according to Western officials.

 

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/russia-must-reconsider-its-role-in-the-fight-against-isil

Russia must reconsider its role in the fight against ISIL

 

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/11/29/how-assad-funds-the-islamic-state/

How Assad Funds the Islamic State

[FrFan]

Daesh will fall before the year end but the ideological war will still need to be won

[visionary]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/29/i-m-sure-they-re-being-tortured-u-s-ally-accused-of-abusing-isis-prisoners.html

‘I’m Sure They’re Being Tortured’: U.S. Ally Accused of Abusing ISIS Prisoners

 

On October 22, a team of Kurdish soldiers, backed up by elite commandos from the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, raided an ISIS prison compound in the Iraqi town of Hawija, where Kurdish intelligence indicated dozens of their own peshmerga fighters were being held. It turned out there were no Kurds in the prison, but 69 hostages were freed, and more than 20 ISIS fighters were killed.

 

The Kurds also took six ISIS fighters as their prisoners. And now, U.S. officials and humanitarian aid workers in the region tell The Daily Beast, it appears those prisoners are being tortured in Kurdish custody, in violation of international law.

 

“I am sure they are being tortured, no question,” said a U.S. defense official in Iraq who is familiar with raid and spoke on condition of anonymity. He noted that Americans do not have access to them, but added, “You have to remember where we are. Torture is pervasive.”

 

The brutality of the Kurdish campaign against ISIS is well established in reporting by The Daily Beast and other media. But the treatment of these prisoners, taken with the assistance of U.S. government forces who then deny any responsibility for what happens to them, is reminiscent of the “rendition” program under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, which transferred suspected terrorists to the custody of governments that used methods of torture flatly prohibited by American and international law.

 

A human rights worker in the region, who asked not to be identified, said Kurdish authorities haven’t disclosed where the prisoners are being held and that he, too, thinks that is because the prisoners are being tortured.

 

Various nongovernmental organizations in Iraq and Syria have documented, over the course of the U.S.-led war against ISIS, systematic abuses by Kurdish military forces against the militants and their perceived sympathizers, including the forced removal of civilians from their homes in what one human rights group said amounted to “war crimes.”

 

http://rudaw.net/NewsDetails.aspx?pageid=175461

The menace of Shia militia to Kurds and Iraq itself

 

The recent clashes between Iraqi Shia militia the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Kurdish Peshmerga in the mixed Kurdish town of Tuz Khurmatu earlier this month was a worrying incident. It was also a depressing reminder of the potentiality that simmering tensions between the Kurds and elements within the Shias over disputed territories could escalate into further conflict and bloodshed.

 

The Kurdish claim over Kirkuk for example is something that some Iranian-backed Shia militias are resolutely opposed to, and in that area they certainly have the means to forcefully oppose the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) regardless of whether or not Article 140 is finally implemented.

 

The central government in Baghdad has a responsibility to reign in these militias and ensure that issues pertaining to disputed territories are resolved by negotiations or referendum, not by brute force. Especially if it wants to be seen as a legitimate authority for the increasingly divided polity that is today’s Iraqi state.

 

But that's the thing: There are very worrying signs that in some places these militia groups are in fact eclipsing the central government who mightn't be able to reign them in if they, say, attacked the Kurds and/or Peshmerga in Kirkuk or elsewhere. A worrying Reuters investigation from last month found that these militias may soon be in a position whereby they outgun the state and can do essentially whatever they want regardless of whatever Baghdad's official policy or stance happens to be.

 

Clashes in Tuz Khurmatu were halted due to Iran's arbitration between the two sides. Not Baghdad's. That itself was telling about who has the real clout among such groups. Sure Baghdad's resources--like everyone else fighting ISIS in Iraq--are understandably stretched. But the tenuous control it has over many of these militia groups is surely something that Erbil has the right to worry about. Especially in light of the complete failure of anyone but their own comparably lightly-armed Peshmerga to defend not only Kirkuk but the internationally-recognized KRG territories, including Erbil, in August 2014. There is no reason to believe that an attempt by any of the Shia militia group ostensibly under Baghdad's command today could be halted by that government if they were to take aggressive actions against the KRG.

 

Not only is Baghdad's ability to prevent the KRG region from being attacked by any of these groups in serious question but rigorous upholding of the 'One Iraq' policy (which is strictly adhered to by the United States) is seeing the Peshmerga being allotted small quantities of armaments and supplies with which to defend itself against ISIS and, likely, put substantial manpower and resources into any future effort to wrest Mosul from ISIS's control. In stark contrast the PMF have been seen brandishing hardware originally designated to the Iraqi military. All the while shipments of arms from Europe going through Baghdad (which include additional supplies for their forces too) have routinely been increasingly denied permission to finish their journey's to deliver arms to Erbil.

[visionary]

https://news.vice.com/article/syrias-newest-rebel-army-has-its-sights-on-the-islamic-state

Syria's Newest Rebel Army Has Its Sights on the Islamic State

 

The Islamic State group may have suffered several defeats along the periphery of its so-called caliphate, but so far no one has been able to challenge its control over the core of its territory. While the US-led coalition has escalated its airstrikes on the Islamic State's oil infrastructure, the allied nations have shown little appetite for the grueling ground fight that would be needed to actually drive the group out of Syria's east. And although Raqqa seems to serve as the Islamic State, or ISIS', symbolic and administrative center in Syria, it is Deir al-Zour province that provides much of its oil revenue and serves as a critical link between its Syrian and Iraqi territories.

 

That may be about to change, thanks to a new force of eastern Syrian rebels with a singular focus on the Islamic State and, local sources say, quiet backing from the United States.

 

Known as the New Syrian Army or NSA, it first appeared in November in a YouTube video under its Arabic name, Jaish Suriya al-Jadid. Its aim is to retake Deir al-Zour, and it seems to have copious American weaponry and air support from the coalition on its side.

 

Based on interviews with involved rebels and informed local activists reached via Skype and social media, it is clear the NSA faces tough odds. Its numbers are reportedly few, in part because some Deir al-Zour rebels distrust its American backers. Yet the group, drawing strength from deep-seated local enmity towards the Islamic State, might still offer the best hope of pushing ISIS out of a key province.

 

When fighting between ISIS and a broad cross-section of Syria's rebels broke out across the country in January 2014, ISIS initially contracted into a few eastern Syrian strongholds before rebounding west. Deir al-Zour, however, resisted stubbornly. Local Free Syrian Army or FSA units and the eastern branch of Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusrah, managed to fend off ISIS until the summer of last year. But then the stunning June 2014 ISIS capture of Mosul in neighboring Iraq effectively meant the end for the resistance in Deir al-Zour. Islamic State fighters took their newly captured American weaponry and turned west, encircling the city. The last of the local rebels fought a desperate battle before surrendering or fleeing west across Syria's central desert.

 

Since then, ISIS has made Deir al-Zour pay for its courage, and for its continuing resistance, which has included assassinations of ISIS members. In the most egregious example, ISIS retaliated against the local Sha'eitat tribe, which had staged a rebellion in the summer of 2014, by killing more than 700 of its members – and teaching the people of Deir al-Zour a terrible lesson in the process.

 

"By ISIS's own admission, Deir is the area that most resisted. That cost them men and materiel," said one Deir al-Zour activist who was interviewed via social media and agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity.

 

Deir al-Zour sits at the dark center of ISIS's Syrian and Iraqi territory, and news from the province is comparatively sparse; it has some activist news outlets, but has received only a fraction of the coverage Raqqa has. Yet ISIS has been no less brutal in Deir al-Zour than in Raqqa.

 

"Al-Raqqa is totally normal compared to what's happening in Deir al-Zour," said another activist. And the bad blood is mutual. "There's an old grudge between people [in Deir al-Zour] and ISIS," said activist Omar Abu Layla. "If the opportunity comes, they'll fight, even if they have to do it with knives."

 

http://www.raqqa-sl.com/en/?p=1568

Bombing the oil sources of ISIS is not giving its results

 

https://twitter.com/DeirEzzor24

East Rural DeirEzzor AlbuKamal Coalition planes begin several airstrikes targeting perimeter of AlbuKamal 
3:17 PM

 

https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon

David Cameron announces UK Parliament to vote Wednesday on joining US-led airstrikes on ISIS in Syria
3:33 PM

[visionary]

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566299-russia-plans-new-syria-airbase-report

Russia plans new Syria airbase: report

 

Russia plans to expand its military force in Syria and deploy jets to a second airbase near Homs, according to a Kuwaiti daily with close access to Moscow’s military intervention in Syria.

Al-Rai reported Monday morning that a Russian intelligence brigade would deploy near the Al-Shayrat Airbase located approximately 35 kilometers southeast of Homs.

“The Al-Shayrat airbase houses around 45 airplane hangars, each of which is fortified in a way that prevents any damage if it is shelled or targeted,” sources in the Damascus joint operations room of the “4+1” military coalition of Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah told the newspaper’s chief international correspondent, Elijah J. Magnier.

“It also has a main runway and a 3 kilometer backup runway that engineering teams are working to prepare,” the sources added.

Russia currently conducts its air sorties from the Hmeimim airbase adjacent to Latakia’s International Airport, where it has deployed a force of approximately 50 aircraft since the late summer.

The report added that Moscow wants Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iraqi militias fighting on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime to seize the ISIS-held towns of Qaryatayn and Palmyra, both of which are located near the Al-Shayrat base, in order to “prevent any shelling that might affect the Russian air forces inside it.”

The Homs town of Qaryatayn was seized by ISIS in early August, months after the extremist organization took control of the desert town of Palmyra—which lies on key logistical routes in eastern Syria—earlier in the summer.

The sources explained that “ground operations in the area around Palmyra will be launched once again after the joint forces reach the city’s limits. “

The report also said that “Russia has promised that it will increase the number of its planes to over 100 in the near very near future to meet the needs of the ground forces.”

 

http://time.com/4129222/russia-airstrikes-syria-civilian-casualties-isis/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter

Russian Airstrikes in Syria Seem to Be Hurting Civilians More Than ISIS

 

Two months into a bombing campaign in Syria, Russia has caused a lot of collateral damage

 

One airstrike hit a post office, part of a series of strikes that killed 17 civilians. At least four other attacks targeted hospitals. An airstrike on Sunday hit a marketplace, killing at least 30 people.

 

Russia’s military intervention in Syria is killing civilians at a high rate in rebel-held areas of the country’s northwest, even as the campaign has failed to produce a decisive shift in the larger civil war between regime of president Bashar Assad and his opponents.

 

Russia launched a major campaign of airstrikes beginning on September 30 in support of the Assad regime’s fight to maintain and expand the territory it still controls in Syria. The Russian government claims the operation has targeted the extremists of ISIS, but the majority of Russian strikes have actually fallen on areas controlled by mainstream rebel groups opposed to both Assad and ISIS, and often supported by the West.

 

During the month of October, Russian operations resulted in at least 44 individual strikes that killed between 255 and 375 non-combatants at a conservative estimate, according to Airwars, a watchdog group that carefully combs reports of civilian deaths.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/us-mideast-crisis-usa-military-idUSKBN0TK50G20151201

U.S. deploying elite force to boost fight against Islamic State
 

The United States said on Tuesday it was deploying an elite new force of special operations troops to Iraq to conduct raids, free hostages, capture Islamic State leaders and carry out "unilateral operations" in neighboring Syria.

 

Defense Secretary Ash Carter offered few details on the new expeditionary group. It is separate from a previously announced deployment of up to 50 U.S. special operations troops in Syria to coordinate on the ground with U.S.-backed rebels fighting in a civil war raging since 2011.

 

Carter said the new force will be larger than the one being sent into Syria, but did not specify how many troops it will include.

 

The Pentagon chief said the new deployment of this "specialized expeditionary targeting force" was being carried out in coordination with the government of Iraq and would aid Iraqi government security forces and Kurdish peshmerga forces.

 

"These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders," Carter told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, using an acronym for Islamic State.

 

"This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria."

 

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new force will be based in Iraq.

 

President Barack Obama is under pressure to accelerate a U.S.-led coalition's efforts to combat Islamic State, in particular after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Obama has been reluctant to commit large numbers of American ground troops, instead deploying limited numbers of advisors and elite forces.

 

His critics, including Republicans in Congress, accuse Obama of moving too slowly against Islamic State, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

 

The top U.S. military officer, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, said the new elite force would greatly accelerate the collection of intelligence, which "will make our operations much more effective."

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/uk-plan-strike-isil-syria-divides-mps-151201042501389.html

UK plan to strike ISIL in Syria divides MPs

 

British members of parliament are set to vote on whether to allow the country's air force to target the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group in Syria, a move that has exposed divisions within parliament and within the opposition Labour Party.

 

If successfully passed by the MPs on Wednesday, British fighter jets will be allowed to extend their campaign against ISIL fighters in Iraq to neighbouring Syria, where the group has its headquarters in the city of Raqqa.

 

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, called for military intervention in ISIL-held areas of Syria after the group's attacks in Paris on November 13, which left 130 people dead.

Speaking to parliament last week, he said he was urged by US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande to commit his forces to the campaign in Syria.

 

"These are our closest allies and they want our help ... if not now, then when?" Cameron said.

He is backed by much of the British public, according to at least two recent polls.

 

A YouGov survey found 59 percent of participants  wanted air strikes against ISIL in Syria, while 20 percent were opposed.

 

A ComRes poll found similar results, putting those supporting strikes at 60 percent and those opposing at 24 percent.

 

Cameron's main opposition in parliament comes from the Scottish nationalist SNP, whose MPs will vote against any attempt to authorise air strikes, and the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, who is struggling to convince all his MPs to vote against the government.

 

Corbyn, a former chairman of the Stop the War coalition, which was formed after the Iraq war, faces opposition from his own shadow cabinet.

 

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/261644-general-we-have-not-contained-isis#.Vl34LEEO7nB.twitter

Joint Chiefs chairman: 'We have not contained' ISIS

 

The United States has "not contained" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the nation's top military officer said Tuesday, contradicting President Obama's remarks last month about the terror group.

 

"We have not contained" ISIS, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

 

The comment runs counter to what the president said days before ISIS launched a string of attacks across Paris.

"I don't think they're gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them," Obama told ABC News.

 

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, later said the president's remarks applied specifically to Iraq and Syria.

Dunford said ISIS has been "tactically" contained in areas they have been since 2010 but added, "Strategically they have spread since 2010."

 

His remarks were in response to questioning by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) on whether ISIS has been contained at any time since 2010.

 

Dunford added that ISIS posed a threat beyond Iraq and Syria to countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Jordan.

[visionary]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/01/how-isis-suckered-the-west.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

How ISIS Suckered the West

 

It began with the refugee crisis. Photographs of dead children being washed ashore shook the international community’s new isolationist convictions.

But it was the jihadist attacks in Paris on Friday the 13th that united politicians from across the divide. Few now believe that what happens in Raqqa, stays in Raqqa.

 

Socialist French President François Hollande asked conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron to come to his aid bombing ISIS in Syria. The British prime minister supported a French-sponsored UN Security Council resolution backing such airstrikes last week. Cameron is now preparing to put the vote to the UK Parliament, probably this Wednesday. The Obama-led  “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” foreign policy is finally unraveling.

 

Despite this shift in momentum, President Barack Obama made it clear in his G20 speech immediately after the Paris attacks that he would not budge from his current Syria policy. Apparently, he thinks it’s still working. And while, at 48 percent, a near majority of Britain’s public is now in favor of airstrikes, 22 percent remain undecided, and Cameron is yet short on votes in Parliament. The far-left leader of his opposition, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, also remains firmly opposed to any such strikes.

 

The jury is out as to whether any of the more centrist Labour Parliamentarians will rebel to vote alongside Cameron.

 

Here’s why they should, and in writing this, I appeal to them directly.

Alongside airstrikes, it is high time to put aside the politically motivated agenda to sideline the Kurds. Yes, this will be uncomfortable for our allies the Turks, and the Iraqi regime, but to date the Kurds have proven themselves, over and over again—in Northern Iraq, Kobani and Sinjar—to be the only effective fighting force on the ground against ISIS. If given a chance, a Kurdish state could rise to become the only democratic, secular Muslim-majority state in the Middle East. This would set an example, and could go on to become a torch light for the region. It is inexcusable that our diplomacy has until now neglected the possibilities this presents.

 

Airstrikes must also be supported by an international ground force. These would number a few thousand, not tens of thousands, and ideally be fronted by Sunni Arabs. These Sunni Arabs should be backed by an international squad of special forces and support staff. The aim would be to dislodge ISIS from its capitals of Mosul and Raqqa.

 

A NATO component invoking Article 5 and the doctrine of “collective defense” could be invoked to involve Turkey, who should be invited to form part of this nascent international coalition. In return, the Turks must also be pressed to come to terms with the Kurds, and retreat from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman vision and courting of Islamists in the region. Sunni ground troops would then be able to establish safe zones inside Syria, thus providing sanctuary, and stemming the unmanageable flow of refugees through Turkey and into Europe, while providing territory in which to train and reequip the Sunni-Arab fighters.

 

Beyond ISIS, the question of what to do with Assad in Syria remains. As part of a deal with Russia and Iran, the Syrian regime should be kept intact, to avoid the abyss that engulfed post-Saddam Iraq. But, put simply, Assad must go. There will be no peace while Assad remains in power. Likewise, the international community must simultaneously oversee the eventual disarming of all militia as part of any peace deal that absorbed them into a new Syrian Federation. As Libya demonstrates, armed militia will ruin any fragile peace within the blink of an eye.

 

A Syria and Iraq strategy cannot succeed divorced from a regional strategy. ISIS still has a strong hold in Libya, and could fall back there. Sisi’s Egypt must be encouraged to work with the transitional Libyan government in common purpose against ISIS, while liberalizing, and absorbing their respective opposition.

 

But none of this will work anywhere if Arab civil society is not supported in challenging the appeal of Islamism at the grass roots. ISIS is merely one of the manifestations of a global jihadist insurgency, which in turn is merely the violent spasm of Islamism taking root in the region. No insurgency survives this long without significant enough support on the ground, and it is this support that must be sapped. Counter-Islamism and democratic reform on the Arab street are the only way forward. The alternative to Islamist theocracy cannot be more Arab monarchy.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/archicivilians

As expected - Opposition forces lost Kafrah village to ISIS due to heavy Russia|n airstrikes, giving ISIS the ability to gain territory.
6:16 AM

 

ISIS fighters trying to advance more and reach the border crossing with Turkey, as Russia attacking Azaz city and Rebels positions.
6:18 AM

 

https://twitter.com/Paradoxy13

Reports ISIS has unfortunately taken large parts of Kafrah & al-Bal in N Aleppo following heavy clashes w/ rebels
2:01 AM

ISIS is in black, Kurds and allied forces in yellow, rebels in green, and regime and allied forces in red.

 

https://twitter.com/michaelh992

Very significant: ISIS is advancing south of the Turkish border and is closing in on strategic city of Azaz 
7:09 AM

 

Opposition forces were weakened by both the clashes with Kurdish forces/Jaish al-Thuwar, as well as Russian airstrikes
7:14 AM

 

The loss of Azaz (which has been ISIS's target for months now) would cut the opposition supply line to Aleppo
7:15 AM

 

This https://twitter.com/Paradoxy13/status/671947385740910592 was a few hours ago, now ISIS seems to be in the outskirts of Azaz, opposition defensive lines collapsing

7:12 AM

 

 

 

Also the debate on taking part in anti-ISIS air strikes in Syria is going on now in the UK parliament.

[visionary]

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/us-threat-bypass-baghdad-arm-sunnis-fight-isis.html

US threatens to bypass Baghdad and arm Sunnis against IS

 

he US has put Baghdad on notice that it could lose military support if Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi doesn't do more to integrate Sunnis.

 

Summary⎙ Print Congress and the Obama administration are demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi do more to combat sectarianism.

Lawmakers of both parties have run out of patience with Shiite sectarianism that is seen as a major obstacle preventing more Sunni tribes from turning against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). Their frustration boiled over at a Dec. 1 hearing of the House Armed Services panel during which legislators demanded that the Obama administration turn the screws on Baghdad.

 

"Are we ... sitting side-by-side with them and being very clear in our communication that the funding that they're getting by the will of the American taxpayer is at risk and they will lose it if they don't progress?" asked Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq. "That's the kind of leverage I'm talking about."

 

The top civilian and military defense officials both concurred.

 

"That's the kind of leverage I'm talking about, too," Defense Secretary Ash Carter answered. "And the answer is yes."

 

And the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said he wouldn't hesitate to recommend that the US directly support other actors on the ground if working with Abadi doesn't pan out. Many Sunnis have been reluctant to fight IS because they feel discriminated against by the government in Baghdad and threatened by Iran-backed Shiite militias.

 

"I don't personally have a better idea than to enable the current government of Iraq to be successful, to provide the kind of stability and security within which we won't see organizations like [iS]," he said. "And if at any point in the future ... I believe that assumption — that we can get there — no longer obtains, then I will recommend a completely different campaign plan to get after [iS] inside of Iraq."

 

The comments come amid a renewed lobbying push by Sunni tribal leaders intent on getting their concerns heard in Washington. They argue that Iranian influence runs deep in Baghdad and that Abadi's hands are tied.

 

At least five different groups of Iraqi Sunni leaders have registered to lobby on behalf of Sunni interests over the past 18 months, including the nonprofit Peace Ambassadors for Iraq just last week. The nonprofit is chaired by Sheikh Jamal al-Dhari, who recently told The Washington Times that Russia has been courting Sunni tribal leaders frustrated by US admonitions that they work out their concerns with Baghdad.

 

The Dec. 1 hearing and other recent statements by lawmakers suggest their message is getting across.

 

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Dec-02/325632-germany-seeks-turkey-accord-to-deploy-aircraft-in-anti-isis-fight-source.ashx#.Vl844aA1iiY.twitter

Germany seeks Turkey accord to deploy aircraft in anti-ISIS fight: source

 

Germany is seeking an agreement with Turkey to deploy six German reconnaissance aircraft at a Turkish base close to Syria to step up Berlin's role in the fight against ISIS, a diplomatic source in Ankara said Wednesday.

 

Turkey and Germany were working to finalize a memorandum of understanding to agree within a legal framework the deployment of six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft as well as one refueling aircraft at the Incirlik air base, the source said.

 

An advance German team was in Turkey last weekend to inspect the base in the southern Adana province in order to make sure that these reconnaissance aircraft can be deployed there, the source added, asking not to be named.

 

 

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566317-isis-advances-in-flashpoint-north-aleppo

ISIS advances in flashpoint north Aleppo

 

ISIS has swept into a village outside a key rebel supply line in northern Aleppo, with activists blaming the setback on Russian airstrikes against rebel factions which are also battling a Kurdish-affiliated coalition further to the west.

The new ISIS advance is the latest battlefield development to rock the flashpoint northern Aleppo front adjacent to a swathe of territory Turkey wants to turn into a “safe zone” free of both the extremist group and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YGP).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday morning that “fierce clashes are raging in the area around the village of Kafrah and other nearby areas, between ISIS on one side and rebel factions on the other.”

“ISIS has advanced and information suggests that it has taken control of large parts of the area,” the monitoring NGO added.

Activist media outlets, in turn, reported Wednesday that ISIS had stormed into Kafrah, a village 10 kilometers east of the rebels’ key supply route running through Aazaz from the Turkish border toward Aleppo.

Shaam news blamed the loss of Kafrah, as well as the nearby village of Jarez, on Russian airstrikes as well as local rebel factions’ “preoccupation” with their recent fighting against the YPG-aligned Jaysh al-Thuwar coalition.

"It should be noted that Russian warplanes raided rebel positions in the area, which facilitated the group’s entry into those villages," the activist outlet said.

 

https://twitter.com/VivaRevolt

SIS has suddenly advanced and has taken Kafrah, Jarez, Al-Bal, Sheikh Rih, Mazraat Talibiyah
8:33 AM

 

Azaz is deep danger with these advances,but ISIS can't march on it without taking Marea,so no need to panick
8:34 AM

 

Jabha Al-Shamiyah  and FSA counter-offensive underway against ISIS in Jarez
9:50 AM

 

https://twitter.com/LeShaque

Russia bombed the living hell out of opposition forces in Azaz. Now IS is about to take it over. Conclude what you will from this.
10:24 AM

 

https://twitter.com/michaelh992

Opposition forces launched a counter offensive and are said to have recaptured Jarez, near Kafrah Syria
11:20 AM

 

https://twitter.com/Paradoxy13

15 reported dead in multiple Russian airstrikes on rebels fighting ISIS in Ahras, Aleppo today.
4:03 PM

 

 

Apparently Labour MP Hillary Benn gave a speech in favor of airstrikes that got applause from everyone.  Getting lots of compliments from all sides now.

[visionary]

http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/audio-coverage-of-the-syria-airstrikes-debate-in-the-house-of-commons/

Live: the best speeches from the Syria airstrikes debate

 

Welcome to Coffee House’s rolling coverage of the Syria debate in the House of Commons this afternoon. We will be detailing the best speeches in favour of and against the motion below, with full quotes and audio clips.

 

9:45pm: Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn has delivered a rousing speech in favour of the airstrikes that received huge applause from both sides of the Commons:

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34992032#?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

UK launches first Syria air strikes

 

Four Tornados took off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus shortly after MPs voted to approve bombing.

 

The strikes focused on six targets in an oil field under IS control in eastern Syria, the BBC understands.

 

On Wednesday, MPs voted by 397 votes to 223 for UK action in Syria after a 10-hour Commons debate.

 

Two of the four jets have now returned to base. The Ministry of Defence confirmed they had carried out the "first offensive operation in Syria".

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the first pair of Tornados had left RAF Akrotiri with three 500lb Paveway bombs each.
They returned to base shortly before 03:00 GMT without those weapons, he said.

 

The jets used their Raptor pods - special long-range photography equipment - for surveillance, before dropping the Paveway bombs, our correspondent understands.

An RAF Reaper unmanned drone was also in the air to provide intelligence, he added.

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/12/02/us-backed-syrian-democratic-forces-emerges-as-force-against-isis.html

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces emerges as force against ISIS

 

Drawing on thousands of combatants from Syria’s mix of religious and ethnic groups, a U.S.-backed alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces has emerged as the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State group.

 

But the dominant role of Kurdish fighters in the alliance is a concern for majority Sunni Arab factions and their regional backers, raising questions about the group’s future role in a broader political context in Syria.

 

The coalition, which focuses on fighting the Islamic State, already faces opposition from other groups fighting to topple President Bashar Assad because those groups widely distrust the Kurds.

 

And while the coalition has been capturing territory steadily in northern Syria from the extremists, it is hampered greatly by its inability to retake areas with a majority Sunni Arab population.

 

In a devastated landscape where extremists and Islamic groups largely preside, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are the closest thing to an inclusive and moderate fighting force in Syria. It represents the largest of the non-government fighting forces arrayed against ISIS in Syria, with some estimates putting the number of fighters affiliated with the group at nearly 40,000.

 

“The Syria Democratic Forces are the most organized in the Syrian chaos,” said Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali, speaking from the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria. He said the group has a united command stretching from the predominantly Kurdish town of al-Malikiyah in the east to Afrin in the west, with new members joining the alliance on daily basis.

 

The group is led by the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, the People’s Protection Units, known as the YPG. It seeks to build on the success of the Euphrates Volcano, an alliance of Kurd and Arab factions that last year liberated Kobani from Islamic State militants.

 

It includes Arab forces such as the Sanadid force, mainly drawn from the Arab Shammar tribe; a Christian militia known as the Syriac Military Council, which includes Assyrians; the mainly Arab Jazira Brigades; the Seljuk Brigade, which consists mostly of Turkmen forces; and the Jaysh al-Thuwar group, which includes U.S.-backed rebels who were routed from Idlib and Aleppo provinces earlier this year by the Al Qaeda branch in Syria, the Nusra Front.

 

Most of those groups are small and poorly equipped. Apart from the YPG, they lack military capabilities beyond defending their towns and villages.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/03/us-mideast-crisis-usa-military-idUSKBN0TL1Y320151203?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

New U.S. force for Iraq to number around 100: U.S. military
 

A new force of special operations troops being deployed by the United States to Iraq will likely number around 100, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren said on Wednesday.

 

"It will be ... probably around 100, maybe a little bit less," said Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State. "It's really going to be a majority support personnel, everything from ... aviators to collectors. So actual forces who will do offensive or kinetic operations, it's a very small number, double digit."

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the deployment of the force in congressional testimony on Tuesday. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told Reuters on Tuesday that the total number might be around 200.

 

 

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

we are against the UK strikes on Raqqa all the world is bombing Raqqa UK will not make any change in The situation
12:14 AM

 

using some groups not from the area by some countries for the Liberation of Raqqa is a big mistake that ISIS use it to make people join them and it make a sensitivity between the people of the area that could lead to another kind of war in the end in the end nobody will liberate Raqqa Except the people of Raqqa

12:26 AM