War against ISIS

[BLACKEAGLE]

ISIS attack on Syria’s Kobane kills 146

Turkish soldiers stand as people from the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab or Kobani wait to cross into Turkey following the attacks by IS militants as seen from the Turkish side of the border in Suruc, Turkey, Thursday, June 25, 2015. (AP)

Reuters, Beirut
Friday, 26 June 2015

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobane and a nearby village, in what a monitoring group described on Friday as the second worst massacre carried out by the hardline group in Syria.

Fighting between the Kurdish YPG militia and ISIS fighters who infiltrated the town at the Turkish border on Thursday continued into a second day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and a Kurdish official said.

A separate ISIS assault on government-held areas of the northeastern city of Hasaka was reported to have forced 60,000 people to flee their homes, the United Nations said, warning as many as 200,000 people may eventually try to flee.

ISIS has a record of conducting large scale killings of civilians in territory it captures in both Iraq and Syria, where it has proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims according to an ultra-hardline vision of Islam.

The attack on the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane and the nearby village of Brakh Bootan marked the biggest single massacre of civilians by ISIS in Syria since it killed hundreds of members of the Sunni Sheitaat tribe last year, Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said.

He said 146 civilians had been killed. Kurdish officials said at least 145 had died.

The assault included at least three suicide car bombs. The dead included the elderly, women and children, he said.

The ISIS fighters were reported to number in the dozens and entered the town in five cars disguised as members of the YPG and Syrian rebel groups.

In their other assault on Friday, ISIS fighters clashed with Syrian government forces in the south of Hasaka for a second day and shells hit areas in the center, the Observatory said.

It appeared that ISIS was also fanning out towards the southeast of the city, which is divided into zones run separately by the Syrian government and a Kurdish administration that oversees the YPG.

The twin attacks which began on Thursday showed the fighters returning to the offensive after two weeks of defeats at the hands of Kurdish-led forces, supported by U.S.-led air strikes. Earlier this week the Kurds advanced to within 50 km (30 miles) of Raqqa city, the de facto capital of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate.

In the latest battles, ISIS has picked targets where it is difficult for the U.S.-led alliance to provide air support to those fighting on the ground. In Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, aerial bombardment risks civilian casualties in residential areas targeted in the attack.

In Hasaka the ISIS targets were in areas controlled by President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S.-led coalition, which has been bombing ISIS targets in both Syria and Iraq since last year, has ruled out cooperating with Damascus.

Huge displacement in Hasaka
Kobane was the site of one of the biggest battles against ISIS last year. The Kurdish forces eventually drove the militants out of the town in January with the help of U.S. air strikes and Iraqi Kurdish fighters, after months of battles.

Recent weeks have seen momentum shift repeatedly in the battle against ISIS. The fighters advanced rapidly last month, seizing cities in Syria and Iraq, before the recent Kurdish advances in Syria. ISIS fighters have often adopted a tactic of attacking elsewhere when they lose ground.

The group wrested control of at least one district of Hasaka city in its raid there on Thursday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an estimated 50,000 people had been displaced within Hasaka city while 10,000 had left northwards towards Amuda town, close to the Turkish border.

Speaking to Syrian state TV, the governor of Hasaka said the city was “safe and secure” and urged people to return home.

The Observatory said fighting was continuing. Government forces were carrying out air strikes targeting areas south of Hasaka controlled by ISIS, it added.

State news agency SANA said scores of ISIS fighters were killed in the bombardments. This could not be independently confirmed.

Assad has lost territory since March in areas of northwestern, southern and central Syria to a patchwork of armed groups, including ISIS, other hardline Sunni jihadists, and rebels who profess a more inclusive vision for Syria.

The Observatory said at least 34 people had been killed in Deraa province in southern Syria since an insurgent alliance known as the Southern Front launched an operation on Thursday to capture the remaining areas of government control. Those killed included rebel fighters and a media activist, it said.

The head of one of the rebel groups fighting in the south said there had been progress, but it was not fast.

“The battle continues,” Bashar al-Zoubi, the head of Yarmouk Army, told Reuters.

Al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front also has a presence in the south. SANA said the army had targeted Nusra Front on Friday, killing a number of fighters and destroying their weapons.

The government has focused on shoring up control over the main cities in the west, including Damascus, with vital military support from the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, Hezbollah.


Last Update: Friday, 26 June 2015 KSA 17:07 - GMT 14:07
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/06/26/ISIS-attack-on-Syria-s-Kobane-kills-146-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Isis, a year of the caliphate: 4 maps that show how far and fast the group has spread

Isis, a year of the caliphate: 4 maps that show how far and fast the group has spread - Middle East - World - The Independent

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Four charts that will tell you everything you need to know about the war with Isis, one year on

Exactly one year ago, the terror group Isis declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the territory under its control in Syria and Iraq.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, the Yazidi people and Christians have been persecuted for their religions, and thousands of civilians, soldiers, journalists and aid workers have been brutally murdered in Isis' consolidation of power.

Alleged Isis militants stand near an Isis flag raised in the town of Kobani, on the Syrian-Turkish border, in October 2014.

In just a few short years the group has grown into one of the most successful and dangerous terror organisations ever formed, and the fight to defeat it is far from over. Below are four charts that illustrate the group's strengths to date:

Air strikes by the coalition of the willing have wiped out 10,000 Isis fighters and more than 2,000 Isis-controlled buildings since they began last August, according to US officials.

Graphic via Statista

However, recruits to replenish Isis' ranks are forcibly recruited from within the "caliphate", an area the size of the UK with a population of approximately five million people. Many disaffected Sunnis from elsewhere in the region are also drawn to Isis:

Graphic via Statista

The group also actively seeks to groom and recruit impressionable young Muslim people from further afield, helped by slick propaganda videos and secure chat groups. France and the UK have respectively the 6th and 8th highest recruitment rates overall:

Graphic via Statista

There are also fears that Isis' hold could spread much futher afield, with some security experts predicting the group's ideals could take root in southeast Asia.

At present there are seven other conflicts in Muslim countries where state authority is weak or non-existent, providing suitable conditions for Isis, al-Qaeda and other extremist movements to become powerful:

Graphic via Statista
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/four-charts-that-will-tell-you-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-war-with-isis-one-year-on--ZkdXTkeVGg

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Senior Islamic State leader killed in U.S.-led coalition strike
WASHINGTON

Smoke raises behind an Islamic State flag after Iraqi security forces and Shiite fighters took control of Saadiya in Diyala province from Islamist State militants, November 24, 2014.
Reuters/Stringer


The U.S. military said on Thursday a coalition airstrike in Syria killed a senior Islamic State leader who helped fundraise, secure arms and transport fighters for the militant group.

The June 16 strike killed Tariq bin Tahar al-'Awni al-Harzi, the Pentagon said, identifying him as the brother of another fighter linked to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

"His death will impact ISIL's ability to integrate foreign terrorist fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight as well as to move people and equipment across the border between Syria and Iraq," said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The Pentagon had previously reported that Harzi's brother was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 15 on Mosul, Iraq.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Senior Islamic State leader killed in U.S.-led coalition strike| Reuters

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Saudi policeman killed in raid, ISIS flags found

Members of the Saudi security forces take part in a military parade in Mecca. (File photo: Reuters)

AFP, Riyadh
Friday, 3 July 2015

A Saudi policeman was shot dead on Friday during a raid in which three people were arrested and flags of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group were found, the interior ministry said.

The killing came with the Gulf region on alert against attacks by ISIS, which has been blamed for killing other Saudi policemen and has claimed three deadly mosque bombings in the kingdom and Kuwait.

The ministry said security officers came under fire as they searched for a suspect at a home in Taif, a mountain city about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Jeddah at 4:30 am (0130 GMT).

A sergeant died “as a result of the exchange of fire,” said a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

“They arrested three suspects, confiscated Daesh flags, silencers and personal laptops,” the ministry added.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for ISIS, Sunni extremists known for their brutality who have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, inspiring attacks elsewhere in the world.

The wanted man, identified as Yousif Abdulatif Shabab al-Ghamdi, remains at large.

An ISIS-affiliated group in Saudi Arabia, calling itself Najd Province, claimed the suicide bombings in May and June at mosques of the minority Shiite community.

Shiites have intensified security around their houses of worship throughout the Gulf as a result. ISIS considers Shiites to be heretics.

Last Update: Friday, 3 July 2015 KSA 19:56 - GMT 16:56
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/03/Saudi-policeman-killed-in-raid-ISIS-flags-found-Interior-ministry-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

U.S., allies target ISIS in 24 airstrikes in Syria, Iraq

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/03/U-S-allies-target-ISIS-in-24-air-strikes-in-Syria-Iraq.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Al Arabiya English

8 hrs ·
The U.S.-led coalition said they carried out a series of 16 airstrikes Saturday on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, according to Agence France-Presse.

Airstrikes hit ISIS targets in Syria stronghold
The U.S.-led coalition said they carried out a series of 16 airstrikes Saturday on the Islamic State
ara.tv

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Al-Shabab kills 14 in northern Kenya attack

New recruits belonging to the Shabaab militant group march during a passing out parade at a military training base in Afgoye, west of the capital Mogadishu in this February 17, 2011 file photo. (Reuters)


AFP, Nairobi
Tuesday, 7 July 2015

At least 14 people were killed Tuesday when Islamist militants raided a northern Kenyan town on the border with war-torn Somalia, officials said.

Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamist group said on Tuesday it was behind the gun attack in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera, a raid it said was part of its campaign against Kenya.

“We are behind the Mandera attack. We killed over 10 Kenyan Christians,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters. “This is part of our ongoing operations against Kenya.”

The Somali-led Shabab militants have carried out a string of attacks in the region, highlighting the insecurity that plagues parts of the country.

The Tuesday morning raid comes a little more than two weeks before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to make his first visit to Kenya, where his father was born, since taking office.

The attack occurred at an area called Soko Mbuzi, a livestock market just outside the town of Mandera in Kenya’s far northeastern region, bordering Somalia and Ethiopia.

“People were sleeping when the attack happened, they just came and hurled explosives in the houses,” said Mandera County Commissioner Alex Ole Nkoyo, confirming 14 people had been killed in the attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“These were Al-Shabab from the nature of the attack. They used explosives and guns,” he said.

Nkoyo said those attacked mainly worked in a nearby quarry.

Kenya police chief Joseph Boinnet also blamed Shabab for the attack. “I can confirm a Shabab attack in Mandera early this morning,” he said on Twitter.

Kenya Red Cross said it had taken 11 wounded to hospital, and had sent a medical airplane to evacuate the critically injured to the capital Nairobi.

Under pressure in Somalia where it has for years been fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government, the al-Qaeda-linked Shabab is now increasingly targeting Kenya.

The Islamic militants have stepped up their attacks during Islam’s holy fasting month of Ramadan.

In the group’s deadliest attack to date, four gunmen killed 148 people, mostly students, at a university in the Kenyan town of Garissa in early April.

In late 2014 they carried out two attacks on a bus and a quarry close to the town of Mandera, killing at least 62 non-Muslims after separating people according to religion.

In 2013, four Shabab gunmen killed at least 67 people in an assault on the Westgate mall in the capital Nairobi.

Last Update: Tuesday, 7 July 2015 KSA 12:01 - GMT 09:01
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2015/07/07/Suspected-Shabab-kill-14-in-northern-Kenya-attack-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

uicide bomber explodes at northeast Nigeria church, 5 dead

A Nigerian holds a cross made out of a palm leaf, during Sunday mass at Church, in Yola, Nigeria. (File photo: AP)


By The Associated Press | Potiskum, Nigeria
Sunday, 5 July 2015

Witnesses say a woman suicide bomber blew up in the midst of a crowded evangelical Christian church service on Sunday and killed at least five people.

It is the latest in a string of bombings and shooting attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that has killed some 200 people in the past week.

Nearly 100 men and boys praying in a mosque were gunned down on Wednesday.

Police rushed to the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Potiskum city.

An AP reporter counted five bodies from the blast in the morgue of the local hospital where a wounded woman was being treated.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest attacks as barbaric and says they underline the need for an expanded multinational army to crush the extremists.

Last Update: Sunday, 5 July 2015 KSA 14:18 - GMT 11:18
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2015/07/05/Suicide-bomber-explodes-at-northeast-Nigeria-church-5-dead.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Bombs at mosque, restaurant in central Nigerian city kill 44

A girl walks past a house damaged in Saturday's rocket propelled grenades by Islamic extremist in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sunday, May 31, 2015. (File Photo: AP)

AP, Nigeria
Monday, 6 July 2015

Two bombs blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram exploded at a crowded mosque and an elite Muslim restaurant in Nigeria's central city of Jos, killing 44 people, officials said Monday.

Sixty-seven other people were wounded and were being treated at hospitals, said National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Abdussalam Mohammed.

The explosion at the Yantaya Mosque came as leading cleric Sani Yahaya of the Jama'atu Izalatul Bidia organization, which preaches peaceful co-existence of all religions, was addressing a crowd during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to survivors who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Another bomb exploded at Shagalinku, a restaurant patronized by state governors and other elite politicians seeking specialties from Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Jos is a hotspot for violent religious confrontations, located in the center of the country where Nigeria's majority Muslim north and mainly Christian south collide. The city has been targeted in the past by bomb blasts claimed by Boko Haram extremists that have killed hundreds of people.

Sunday's attacks are the latest in a string blamed on Boko Haram that have killed more than 200 people over the past week in northeast Nigeria.

The extremists returned Sunday to northeastern villages attacked three days earlier, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, said Stephen Apagu, chairman of a vigilante self-defense group in Borno state's Askira-Uba local government area.

He said the vigilantes killed three militants.

Boko Haram took over a large swath of northeastern Nigeria last year and stepped up cross-border raids. A multinational army from Nigeria and its neighbors forced the militants out of towns, but bombings and village attacks increased in recent weeks, apparently in response to an Islamic State group order for more mayhem during Ramadan. Boko Haram became the Islamic State group's West Africa franchise earlier this year.

Last Update: Monday, 6 July 2015 KSA 10:53 - GMT 07:53
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2015/07/06/Bombs-at-mosque-restaurant-in-central-Nigerian-city-kill-44.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

Seumas Milne

The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.

But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies – often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference call.

For the past year, US, British and other western forces have been back in Iraq, supposedly in the cause of destroying the hyper-sectarian terror group Islamic State (formerly known as al-Qaida in Iraq). This was after Isis overran huge chunks of Iraqi and Syrian territory and proclaimed a self-styled Islamic caliphate.

The campaign isn’t going well. Last month, Isis rolled into the Iraqi city of Ramadi, while on the other side of the now nonexistent border its forces conquered the Syrian town of Palmyra. Al-Qaida’s official franchise, the Nusra Front, has also been making gains in Syria.

Some Iraqis complain that the US sat on its hands while all this was going on. The Americans insist they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, and claim significant successes. Privately, officials say they don’t want to be seen hammering Sunni strongholds in a sectarian war and risk upsetting their Sunni allies in the Gulf.

A revealing light on how we got here has now been shone by a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became Isis) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.

Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria

Which is pretty well exactly what happened two years later. The report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language. But the implications are clear enough. A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria.

That doesn’t mean the US created Isis, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year. But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of Isis against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.

The calculus changed when Isis started beheading westerners and posting atrocities online, and the Gulf states are now backing other groups in the Syrian war, such as the Nusra Front. But this US and western habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite them, goes back at least to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which fostered the original al-Qaida under CIA tutelage.

It was recalibrated during the occupation of Iraq, when US forces led by General Petraeus sponsored an El Salvador-style dirty war of sectarian death squads to weaken the Iraqi resistance. And it was reprised in 2011 in the Nato-orchestrated war in Libya, where Isis last week took control of Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.

In reality, US and western policy in the conflagration that is now the Middle East is in the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against Isis in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. However confused US policy may often be, a weak, partitioned Iraq and Syria fit such an approach perfectly.

What’s clear is that Isis and its monstrosities won’t be defeated by the same powers that brought it to Iraq and Syria in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in the years since. Endless western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only destruction and division. It’s the people of the region who can cure this disease – not those who incubated the virus.
Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

45 ISIS fighters 'die after eating poisoned Ramadan meal in Iraq'

• Up to 145 militants reportedly sat down for the 'iftar' meal in Mosul, Iraq
• Not known whether it was deliberate or food poisoning, Kurds have said
• Previous images showed how ISIS fighters feast as their subjects starve
• Free Syrian Army rebel group snuck into ISIS camp posing as chefs and killed dozens in November

By Jay Akbar For Mailonline

Published: 07:57 GMT, 8 July 2015 | Updated: 09:46 GMT, 8 July 2015

At least 45 ISIS militants have been killed after breaking their Ramadan fast with a poisoned meal, according to reports.

A total of 145 people are thought to have sat down for the 'iftar' meal at Mosul, Iraq, but only 100 walked away alive, according to reports out of the embattled city.

It is unclear whether the fanatics were deliberately poisoned or whether they suffered from food poisoning, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party said.

Feasting: At least 45 ISIS fighters have reportedly died after breaking their Ramadan fast with a meal laced with poison (file photo)

Final meal: Around 145 ISIS militants are thought to have sat down for the 'iftar' meal in Mosul, Iraq, but only 100 walked away alive (file photo)

+4
Assassinated: A Kurdish spokesman said it was unclear whether the fanatics (file photo) were poisoned deliberately or whether they died from food poisoning

These reports from Iraqi media, which were seen by the Haaretz website, are not the first time ISIS militants have been known to be targeted by poisoned food.

Dozens of Islamic State soldiers allegedly died in similar circumstances in November when the Free Syrian Army rebel group sneaked into their camp - where 1,200 were supposedly stationed - posing as chefs and poisoned their lunches.

Sources inside the rebel group, which battles both ISIS and the Syrian government, claimed at least ten ISIS fighters died after eating the contaminated lunch.

The reports stemmed from the now-defunct Times of Iraq, and their reliability has been questioned since.

Images have emerged throughout Ramadan showing ISIS extremists sitting down to lavish meals while those living under its brutal regime starve.

Undercover footage from the terror group's adopted capital of Raqqa in Syria showed hundreds of young boys and burqa-clad women queuing for food and water in the blistering heat.

It was shared by anti-ISIS activists Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently alongside the caption, 'the second day of Ramadan' - the holy month when Muslims do not eat or drink from dawn until the sun has set.

While they starve, the terror group's soldiers share pictures of themselves sitting down to a hearty meal of fried fish, pickles, green salad and white rice.

Other bizarre images show the fighters' automatic rifles resting on the carpet beside silver platters full of fresh fruit and shining cutlery wrapped in dainty napkins.

As well as images of barbarity and beheadings, Islamic State often boasts on social media about how the eight million people living under its brutal reign in the Middle East and north Africa are well provided for.

It shares images of roads being paved and street signs being fixed in an attempt to portray it can take care of a massive population.

Now in heartbreaking images the Islamic State PR machine would rather not be seen, the shockingly young children stand in line with empty buckets - waiting for food and water which may never come.

45 ISIS fighters 'die after eating poisoned Ramadan meal in Iraq' | Daily Mail Online

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

A secret to ISIS success: Shock troops who fight to the death

ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane. (AFP)


The Associated Press, Baghdad
Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Bearded and wearing bright blue bandanas, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group's "special forces" unit gathered around their commander just before they attacked the central Syrian town of al-Sukhna. "Victory or martyrdom," they screamed, pledging their allegiance to God and vowing never to retreat.

ISIS calls them "Inghemasiyoun," Arabic for "those who immerse themselves." The elite shock troops are possibly the deadliest weapon in the extremist group's arsenal: Fanatical and disciplined, they infiltrate their targets, unleash mayhem and fight to the death, wearing explosives belts to blow themselves up among their opponents if they face defeat. They are credited with many of the group's stunning battlefield successes - including the capture of al-Sukhna in May after the scene shown in an online video released by the group.

"They cause chaos and then their main ground offensive begins," said Redur Khalil, spokesman of the U.S.-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units, which have taken the lead in a string of military successes against the ISIS in Syria.

Though best known for its horrific brutalities - from its grotesque killings of captives to enslavement of women - ISIS has proved to be a highly organized and flexible fighting force, according to senior Iraqi military and intelligence officials and Syrian Kurdish commanders on the front lines.

Its tactics are often creative, whether it's using a sandstorm as cover for an assault or a lone sniper tying himself to the top of a palm tree to pick off troops below. Its forces nimbly move between conventional and guerrilla warfare, using the latter to wear down their opponents before massed fighters backed by armored vehicles, Humvees and sometimes even artillery move to take over territory. The fighters incorporate suicide bombings as a fearsome battlefield tactic to break through lines and demoralize enemies, and they are constantly honing them to make them more effective. Recently, they beefed up the front armor of the vehicles used in those attacks to prevent gunfire from killing the driver or detonating explosives prematurely.

Those strategies are being carried over into new fronts as well, appearing in Egypt in last week's dramatic attack by an ISIS-linked militant group against the military in the Sinai Peninsula.

Andreas Krieg, a professor at King's College London who embedded with Iraqi Kurdish fighters last fall, said ISIS local commanders are given leeway to operate as they see fit. They "have overall orders on strategy and are expected to come up with the most efficient ways of adapting it," he said. The group "is very much success oriented, results oriented." That's a strong contrast to the rigid, inefficient and corrupt hierarchies of the Iraqi and Syrian militaries, where officers often fear taking any action without direct approval from higher up.

ISIS fighters are highly disciplined - swift execution is the punishment for deserting battle or falling asleep on guard duty, Iraqi officers said. The group is also flush with weaponry looted from Iraqi forces that fled its blitzkrieg a year ago, when ISIS overtook the northern city of Mosul and other areas. Much of the heavy weapons it holds - including artillery and tanks - have hardly been used, apparently on reserve for a future battle.

Iraqi army Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said ISIS also stands out in its ability to conduct multiple battles simultaneously.

"In the Iraqi army, we can only run one big battle at a time," said al-Saadi, who was wounded twice in the past year as he led forces that retook the key cities of Beiji and Tikrit from ISIS.

Even the group's atrocities are in part a tactic, aimed at terrorizing its enemies and depicting itself as an unstoppable juggernaut. In June 2014, the group boasted of killing hundreds of Shiites in Iraq's security forces, issuing photos of the massacre. It regularly beheads captured soldiers, releasing videos of the killings online. It is increasing the shock value: Recent videos showed it lowering captives in a cage into a pool to drown and blowing off the heads of others with explosive wire around their necks.

The number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria is estimated between 30,000 to 60,000, according to the Iraqi officers. Former army officers of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein have helped the group organize its fighters, a diverse mix from Europe, the United States and Arab and Central Asian nations. Veteran jihadis with combat experience in Afghanistan, Chechnya or Somalia have also brought valuable experience, both in planning and as role models to younger fighters.

"They tend to use their foreign fighters as suicide bombers," said Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer who now directs special operations for The Soufan Group, a private geopolitical risk assessment company. "People go to the Islamic State looking to die, and the Islamic State is happy to help them."

The group's tactics carried it to an overwhelming sweep of northern and western Iraq a year ago, capturing Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city. Shortly thereafter, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" spanning its territory in Iraq and Syria.

In May, it captured Ramadi, capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province, in a humiliation for Iraqi forces. In Syria, it seized the central city of Palmyra.

The elite shock troops were crucial in the capture of Ramadi. First came a wave of more than a dozen suicide bombings that hammered the military's positions in the city, then the fighters moved in during a sandstorm. Iraqi troops crumbled and fled as a larger ISIS force marched in.

"The way they took Ramadi will be studied for a while," Skinner said. "They have the ability to jump back and forth between traditional (military operations) and terrorism." He said a similar combination of suicide bombings ahead of ground forces was used in last week's Sinai attacks in Egypt.

Since US-led airstrikes in Syria and Iraq have made it more difficult for the group's forces to advance, ISIS has lost ground. Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen retook areas to the south and northeast of Baghdad, the oil refinery city of Beiji and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit north of the capital.

In Syria, Kurdish fighters backed by heavy U.S. airstrikes wrested the border town of Kobane from the ISIS after weeks of devastating battles. More recently, ISIS lost Tal Abyad, another Syrian town on the Turkish border.

Despite that loss, ISIS shock troops attacked Kobane last month. Around 70 of them infiltrated and battled a much larger Kurdish force for two days, apparently on a mission not to retake the town but to cause chaos.

They were all slain, but not before killing more than 250 civilians, including roughly 100 children, and more than 30 Kurdish fighters. At the same time, they attacked the northeast Syrian city of Hasakah, driving out thousands of people and still holding out in parts of the city despite continued fighting. Last week, they carried out a bloody incursion into Tal Abyad, again fighting until they were all killed but demonstrating their relentlessness.

"We are still nursing our wounds in Kobane," said Ghalia Nehme, a Syrian Kurdish commander who fought in last month's battle. "From what we saw, they weren't planning to leave alive. It seems they were longing for heaven," she said.

The use of suicide bombings has forced ISIS's opponents to adapt. Al-Saadi defied his own Iraqi military commanders who demanded a fast assault to retake Beiji. Instead, he adopted a slow, methodical march from a base near Tikrit, moving only a few miles each day while clearing roads of explosives and setting up barriers against suicide attacks. It took him three weeks to go 25 miles to Beiji, fighting the whole way and fending off more than two dozen suicide attacks, then another week to take Beiji, but he succeeded with minimal casualties.

ISIS also has adapted, and recently began using remote controlled aircraft fitted with cameras to film enemy positions. It is believed to have agents within the military. It also has superior communications equipment, using two-way radios with a longer range than the Iraqi military's, said Maj. Gen. Ali Omran, commander of Iraq's 5th Division.

Omran said that when the extremists figured out the military was listening in on its radio frequencies; it switched to more secure lines but continued using the infiltrated frequencies to feed the military false information.

Even ISIS supply chains are robust. Its fighters' rations often include grilled meat kebabs and chicken, better than what Iraqi troops eat, Omran said.

But ISIS has its vulnerabilities, noted Skinner. It has no air force. And its open, state-like organization gives an opportunity for spies to infiltrate, something the group clearly fears given the many killings of people it suspects of espionage. It also faces internal strains, trying to control and direct its multi-national personnel.

"We think of them as this spooky faceless organization that runs seamlessly," Skinner said. "I imagine it's probably the hardest organization to run, because it's staffed with unstable, violent people."


Last Update: Wednesday, 8 July 2015 KSA 11:32 - GMT 08:32

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/07/08/A-secret-to-ISIS-success-Shock-troops-who-fight-to-the-death.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

“Sawab”: UAE, U.S. launch anti-ISIS digital communication center

ISIS militants patrol Khazer, Iraq, near Mosul. ISIS’ well-organized and highly successful online campaign has been able to lure up to 3,400 foreign fighters every month. (File Photo: AP)

By Asma Ajroudi | Al Arabiya News
Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Counter-terrorism experts have long warned against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sophisticated use of social media in minting thousands of potential fighters to join its cause.

Despite the U.S. leading role in quickly understanding the regional threat and developing a multinational coordinated military coalition to combat ISIS, winning the online war has not been on top of its priorities.

But the new Abu Dhabi-based counter-terror center is promising to be the informational parallel of the military coalition.

The Sawab Center (Arabic for “the right and spiritual path”), an initiative by the U.S. Department of State and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was opened on Wednesday.

“The Sawab Center will use these online tools and campaigns in order to support Coalition efforts, to challenge Daesh’s [ISIS] online propaganda, and to amplify moderate and tolerant voices from across the region,” said Dr. Anwar Gargash, the UAE foreign minister, and Richard Stengel, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public affairs, in a joint statement today.

Stengel, who traveled to the UAE to take part in the opening, has frequently told the media that the war on ISIS is not only “a kinetic battlefield, but an informational one.”

A recent Brookings study estimated that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS sympathizers, from September through December 2014. The center put the maximum estimate of Twitter accounts at 90,000.

ISIS’ well-organized and highly successful online campaign has been able to lure up to 3,400 foreign fighters every month.

Using the same social media platforms the radical group is relying on, the Sawab Center will launch a number of “pro-active online messaging campaigns, targeting Daesh’s [ISIS] propaganda efforts,” said the statement.

Last Update: Wednesday, 8 July 2015 KSA 14:59 - GMT 11:59
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/digital/2015/07/08/-Sawab-UAE-U-S-launch-anti-ISIS-digital-communication-center-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Incredible footage shows ISIS cowards running for cover after trying to hide armoured vehicle under palm tree before it is destroyed by RAF drone's Hellfire missile

ISIS cowards run for cover from RAF drone's Hellfire missile in incredible video | Daily Mail Online