War against ISIS

[UAE]

Didn't see video and don't want to. But I wonder what they're trying to achieve. To drag Egypt in war and separate Arab Muslims/Christians? A lot of Arab Christians will begin hating us from now on.

I don't know what they are trying to achieve to be quite honest. Intimidating people and governments, flexing their muscles maybe or starting a clash b/t people from different faiths.

 

[Redheart]

It's like Obama doesn't want the filthy beasts defeated. Appears like we have to wait two more years before we see any serious offensive against ISIS and other smaller terror groups. Some critics claim that Hussein Obama is a Muslim. Because of that . . .

 

[KimberlyD]

I'm sorry, I don't get your statement about him being a Muslim. What does that have to do with anything? I could care less if he's a Muslim or not. Christian Presidents have screwed up too. Look at Nixon. Their religious faith has nothing to do with whether they are a good President or not. Action does.

Obama is not what is holding us from ISIS. Congress is, and it is not the first time either. Congress always stalls as much as they can before allowing us to take action on anything. They did it during the Bush administrations (sr and jr) and through Regans with everything that was going on. On a few occasions, their stalling cost a lot of US soldiers lives and on other occasions they caused us a big mess to fix. I am in NO WAY an Obama supporter, but this is Congresses mess not his. Give credit where credit is due.

 

[003]

ISIS comes again. I will simply suggest that they stop their childish begetting and think over how much innocent lives they have already taken. They might have reason for fighting, but their method is both horrendous and inhumane. They must be stopped at once before things get to worse.

 

[KimberlyD]

That is the problem. They can't see innocent people. They do not believe there are any innocent people. Anyone that does not bow down to their ideals is guilty... infidels. They will kill and destroy until they get their way or we destroy them first.

 

[Shimus]

Unfortunately, Kim is right. No matter the amount of persuasion everyone in the world could offer (even their own families) they believe the core of what they are doing is righteous and god-willed. These people cannot be reckoned with, and then will eventually lead to a clash of forces.

On topic, they're going to continue these double sided approaches until they feel they're starting to repel us. Perhaps the smartest decision would to be place an operation that uses feint tactics in an area and flush them out and deal with them in packs or one-by-one, anyways. The Aid worker's death is not the last of ISIS's cruelty. These fanatics are the crazy sort.

 

[KimberlyD]

Agreed. It has already been proven that getting their leaders is not going to slow them down. If it did, then ISIS would not exist. We cut the head off the snake various times over the past 20 odd years and yet the terrorist groups just reformed and grew bigger. They are more like a hydra then a snake. Time to light a fire under the bums and eliminate the threat altogether, but there are walls blocking us for the time being so the feint tactics may be our best shot for the time being until we can get those walls down...

 

[blur92]

It doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any peace in the Middle East anytime soon which is unfortunate because it seems like the majority of their conflicts are centered around religious circumstances.

I would go as far as saying the conflicts are primarily centered on power than religion. I think religion is a sort of scapegoat reason used to bring people to a certain side. It is a means to an end, and the end being power.

 

[KimberlyD]

As it always has been @blur92. According to what I have been reading on the net though, some time between April and May... the US is working with the Iraqis to regain control of some of the towns and cities that ISIS has seized control of. The one mentioned mostly was Mosul.

 

[Rowe992]

If this report is true then this is good news. I hope the marines are put in a position where they are forced to defend themselves against ISIS and therefore leads to a direct confrontation with US ground troops. I hope Obama is ready to have more troops on the ground if needed so that these scum can be defeated.

 

[Shimus]

The problem is if they release information of plans, there will be nobody there when the time comes. The reason we're not hearing of anything is probably because meetings are going on behind closed doors and they're plotting the next strike.

Or we can hope.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Kurdish fighters attack ISIS in northeast Syria

A fighter of the Kurdish of the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) holds a position in a trench on October 19, 2013 in the Kurdish town of Derik (aka al-Malikiyah in Arabic), in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate. (File photo: AFP)

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Monday, 23 February 2015

Syrian Kurdish forces advanced against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in two separate attacks in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border on Sunday, an organization tracking the war reported, according to Reuters news agency.

In an attack backed by U.S.-led air strikes, the Kurdish YPG advanced to within 5 km (3 miles) of Tel Hamis, an ISIS-controlled town 35 km (22 miles) southeast of the city of Qamishli, Kurdish official Nasir Haj Mansour said.

“Twenty-three farms and villages, big and small, have been liberated,” Mansour told Reuters by telephone.

Hasaka province in the northeastern corner of Syria is strategically important in the fight against Islamic State because it borders areas controlled by the group in Iraq.

The attack is the latest example of coordination between the U.S.-led alliance and the YPG in the fight against ISIS, which has seized wide areas of Syria and Iraq and declared them part of a cross-border “caliphate”.

The YPG had decided to launch the attack after ISIS reinforced its positions in the area with foreign fighters.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said at least 12 ISIS fighters were killed in the fighting and confirmed the advance by the YPG. Mansour said 20 ISIS fighters had been killed.

In the second advance in the northeast, Kurdish fighters took two villages from ISIS at the Iraqi border, helped by heavy shelling by Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces on the other side of the frontier, the Observatory said. It said the shelling killed eight people, five of them children.

The Kurdish YPG militia has been one of the extremist group's toughest enemies in Syria and last month flushed ISIS out of the town of Kobane with the help of U.S. and allied air support and Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements on the ground.

The hardline Islamist militant group has shown signs of strain in Syria since it was driven out of Kobane. Syrian government forces have also made gains in the provinces of Hasaka and Deir al-Zor recently.

Since driving ISIS from Kobane, the Kurdish forces backed by other Syrian armed groups have pursued ISIS fighters as far their provincial stronghold of Raqqa.

[With Reuters]

Last Update: Monday, 23 February 2015 KSA 07:27 - GMT 04:27
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/02/23/Syrian-Kurds-attack-ISIS-in-northeast-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

New ISIS video shows Kurdish fighters in cages

The video does not contain any explicit threats to the captives. (Screengrab)

Agence France Presse, Baghdad
Sunday, 22 February 2015

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group released a new video on Sunday purporting to show captured Kurdish Peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in cages.

The video shows 21 captives presented as 16 Peshmerga fighters, two Iraqi army officers and three policemen from Kirkuk, a city about 240 kilometers north of Baghdad.



The captives, in orange jumpsuits with their heads lowered, are led to cages in a square surrounded by concrete walls and masked IS fighters carrying pistols.

A bearded man in a white turban warns the Peshmerga against fighting ISIS.



Then the caged captives are shown being paraded through the streets on the back of pick-up trucks, as dozens of residents and armed men look on.

The date and location is not specified in the video, but Kurdish sources told AFP it was filmed a week earlier in the main market of Hawija, an ISIS-held town some 50 kilometers from Kirkuk.

The video does not contain any explicit threats to the captives but they are shown at the end kneeling before masked men holding automatic weapons or pistols.



The video also features images from previous ISIS videos, including of the killing of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was burned alive in a cage, and the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians, mainly from Egypt, in Libya.

A Peshmerga commander in Kirkuk, Gen. Hiyowa Rash, told AFP that the Peshmerga hostages had been captured on Jan. 31 “when Kurdish fighters repelled a terrorist attack by ISIS targeting Kirkuk.”

ISIS seized swathes of Syria and Iraq last year, declaring an Islamic “caliphate” and committing widespread atrocities.

Last Update: Sunday, 22 February 2015 KSA 18:15 - GMT 15:15
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/02/22/New-ISIS-video-shows-Kurdish-fighters-in-cages-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

At least 90 Syrian Christians abducted by ISIS

ISIS abducts at least 90 Syrian Christians from villages in northeast Syria. (File photo: AP)

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitor that tracks violence in Syria said on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reported.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the abductions took place after dawn raids in villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority near the town of Tel Hmar, a mainly Assyrian town, in the western countryside of the city of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.

The latest offensive coincides with a push by Syrian Kurds in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border since Sunday that had compounded losses for the militant group in Syria.


Last Update: Tuesday, 24 February 2015 KSA 11:39 - GMT 08:39
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/02/24/At-least-90-Syrian-Christians-abducted-by-ISIS-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Yazidi woman shares ISIS horror in Jolie film

Naseema, who lost her husband, two daughters and three sons, was seized by the extremists last summer. (UNHCR)

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

A Yazidi mother who was seized by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has shared her memories with Hollywood star and special envoy for the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees Angelina Jolie as part of a of a new film by UNHCR, the Huffington Post reported.

Naseema, who lost her husband, two daughters and three sons, was seized by the extremists last summer and separated from her family.

The 45-year-old was released in January before taking shelter in an abandoned building in northern Iraq.

“As they were capturing us, my eldest daughter was screaming. She was shouting at them, ‘I will never go with you!’” Naseema remembers. "After they took her outside, they closed the door and she disappeared."

The U.N. agency made three films telling the stories of women captured by ISIS.

During her last trip to northern Iraq, Jolie called for international action to help millions of displaced Syrian refugees and Iraqis who have been left homeless.

Jolie visited the Khanke Camp for internally displaced people and spoke to victims of the extremist group.


Last Update: Tuesday, 24 February 2015 KSA 10:49 - GMT 07:49
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/02/24/Yazidi-woman-shares-ISIS-atrocities-in-Jolie-s-new-film-.html