War against ISIS | Page 35 | World Defense

War against ISIS

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Air strike kills ISIS commander in Afghanistan
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Afghan ISIS leader Hafez Saeed was killed along with 30 other militants as they gathered in Achin district of Nangarhar province. (File photo: AP)

By Reuters | Kabul
Saturday, 11 July 2015

A senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) commander has been killed by an air strike in eastern Afghanistan, intelligence officials said on Saturday, the fourth high-ranking member of the militant group to be killed in the area in the past week.

Hafez Saeed was the leader of ISIS in the “so-called Khorasan state”, according to Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), referring to an old term to describe Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was killed along with 30 other militants as they gathered in Achin district of Nangarhar province late on Friday, the intelligence agency said. It did not give any further details about the air strike.

Saeed, a Pakistani, was among a small but increasing number of senior Taliban militants who have switched allegiance to ISIS in Afghanistan.

Such figures have been targets for U.S drone strikes, which have killed three other ISIS commanders in the same area in the past week, including Shahidullah Shahid and Gul Zaman.

After pushing out the Taliban insurgents, ISIS fighters have in the past two months gained ground in several districts of Nangarhar province, which shares a long and porous border with lawless areas inside Pakistan.

Achin fell to the ISIS militants last month after heavy clashes with the Taliban.

Last Update: Saturday, 11 July 2015 KSA 17:51 - GMT 14:51
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French forces shift tactics against extremists in north Mali
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In this Feb.10, 2013 file photo, French soldiers secure the area where a suicide bomber attacked, at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali. (File Photo: AP)

AP, Mali
Tuesday, 14 July 2015

The fight against extremists in northern Mali has shifted from full-on combat to a phase of hide-and-seek with militants, who are outnumbered and avoid direct contact with French troops, the forces say.

The French Operation Serval, launched in 2012, pushed extremists from strongholds in Mali’s north. In Operation Barkhane, launched nearly a year ago, French forces have adopted new methods of routing out Islamic extremists, including surveying the desert using drones flying sometimes in 20-hour shifts.

“The security situation is different now,” said Col. Luc Laine in Gao, Mali. The search for militants is “highly reliant on intel gathering, research, with lots of waiting around and isolated actions,” he said.

The scale of the operation, which covers a 4,000-kilometer-wide (2,500-mile-wide) span over five countries from Burkina Faso to Chad, allows forces to track down extremists beyond the borders of Mali, where many have taken refuge.

“We need them to be afraid,” says Col. Eric Bometon, commander of the air detachment. “There are no more highways for them, they have to borrow the beaten tracks, they have to slow down and that’s where we want them,” he says from his base in Niamey, Niger.

Al-Qaida-linked fighters in Mali have resorted to placing mines on the roads, launching deadly ambushes on U.N. peacekeepers in Mali and attacking French bases with rockets.

“It’s difficult for us to protect ourselves from that,” says Col. Luc Laine.

About 3,000 French troops, 11,500 U.N. peacekeepers and local armies are chasing extremists estimated to now be no more than a few hundred, according to French military estimates.

But many are thought to have taken refuge in Libya, out of Barkhane’s scope. Last week, Barkhane’s top commander warned Libya had become an “incubator of terrorism” and called intervention in Libya “a matter of efficiency.”

Last Update: Tuesday, 14 July 2015 KSA 15:49 - GMT 12:49
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Dozens killed in Boko Haram raids on Nigeria villages
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Boko Haram has mounted almost daily raids, bombings and suicide attacks in northeast Nigeria since May 29. (Screengrab)

By AFP | Kano, Nigeria
Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Boko Haram gunmen killed dozens of people in four villages in northeast Nigeria, slitting some residents’ throats and opening fire on others, one resident and the police said on Tuesday.

“Boko Haram gunmen came into our villages at night, killing 43 people,” said Sheriff Kulo, from Kilwa village near Monguno, who escaped to the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

There was no corroboration of his death toll but the state police commissioner confirmed the raids, which happened late last Friday.

Details have only just emerged because of poor to non-existent phone networks in the remote area.

Boko Haram has mounted almost daily raids, bombings and suicide attacks in northeast Nigeria since May 29, when Muhammadu Buhari became president vowing to crush the six-year Islamist uprising.

On Monday, he sacked his entire military high command, who were appointed by his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, in the latest sign he is making a fresh start in the counter-insurgency.

Kulo said the gunmen seized food and cattle then set villagers homes on fire.

“In Kilwa alone, they killed seven people, including the village head and left one seriously injured with a fracture on his leg,” he added.

“They then proceeded to Gwollam, Misala and Magaram, where they did the same thing. In all they killed 43.

“They opened fire on residents and in some cases they used knives to slaughter their victims.”

Many women and children fled to Monguno but were living in the open air with little food, he said. Others made it to Maiduguri to raise the alarm.

The Borno state police commissioner, Aderemi Padokun, confirmed the attacks.

“From what we heard, the gunmen raided these villages. They shot dead their victims and in some cases slit their throats. They also carted away foodstuffs and livestock,” he said.

“We don’t have details of the actual number of people killed in the attack but I can confirm it happened.”

Boko Haram mounted a similar raid on a nearby village in the Monguno area on July 1, killing 48.

The latest deaths take the number of people killed since Buhari’s presidency began to more than 625, according to an AFP count.

Last Update: Tuesday, 14 July 2015 KSA 15:51 - GMT 12:51
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Boko Haram raids Damasak, another village in Nigeria’s Borno state
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Chadian soldiers stand at a checkpoint in front of a Boko Haram flag the Nigerian city of Damasak, Nigeria, Wednesday March 18, 2015. (AP)

By Reuters | Maiduguri, Nigeria
Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Boko Haram insurgents raided a border town in Nigeria’s Borno state, and attacked another village in the same state, killing at least 12 people, a witness and military and vigilante sources said on Wednesday.

The militants attacked Damasak, a few kilometers from the Niger border, at around 4:30 am local time (0330 GMT) on Tuesday, a military and a vigilante leader in Maiduguri said.

Chadian troops backed by soldiers from Niger freed the town from Boko Haram earlier this year but the militants have attacked it several times since, the last time in late March.

Nigerien and Nigerian security sources said that troops from the joint taskforce had recently withdrawn from the town.

“They came in Hilux vehicles (pickup trucks) and motorcycles, set fire to all the houses but all the residents have fled the town since last weekend when troops from the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) were withdrawing to Niger,” said a Nigerian vigilante leader who declined to be named.

Nigeria has been fighting Boko Haram through a joint taskforce with Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Boko Haram also attacked the hamlet of Warsala on Tuesday night, on the outskirts of Ngamdu, a town at the border of Yobe and Borno states along a key highway.

At least 12 people were killed, according to a second military source and a bus driver from the village who counted the bodies.

“Boko Haram also burnt down all the houses, cars and other vehicles including two trailers,” bus driver Bukar Aji said.

Boko Haram has been trying to carve out a state in Nigeria’s northeast adhering to strict sharia law for the last six years. In March, it pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which has taken control of territory in Syria and Iraq.

The number of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria have spiked since the end of May, after the group lost most of the territory it had gained in 2014.

Last Update: Wednesday, 15 July 2015 KSA 19:14 - GMT 16:14
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American police officer’s son arrested in terror case
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In this July 26, 2012 photo provided by the Northumberland News, Alexander Ciccolo participates in a peace walk through Brighton, Ontario. (AP)

AFP, New York
Tuesday, 14 July 2015

The son of a U.S. police officer, who has a history of mental illness and was on probation for drinking, has been charged in connection with an alleged terror plot, officials said Monday.

Alexander Ciccolo, 23, also known as Ali al-Amriki, was arrested on Independence Day in the northeastern state of Massachusetts and is due to appear in court to answer firearms charges on Tuesday.

He was detained after allegedly taking delivery of four weapons -- two rifles and two pistols -- from an FBI informant. Prosecutors said he had a knife strapped to his waist at the same time.

They allege that he is a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, who wanted to wage a gun and bomb attack on college dorms and a cafeteria that would be broadcast live on the Internet.

Partially made Molotov cocktails were found in his apartment and he was monitored buying a pressure cooker similar to that used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, court papers allege.

The head of the FBI, James Comey, last week briefed the Senate select committee on intelligence that upwards of 200 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to join up with IS.

But court documents unsealed on Monday portrayed a disturbed Ciccolo, an individual with "a long history of mental illness" who was put on probation in February for a drinking conviction.

While in custody, he stabbed a nurse's head with a pen during a routine medical exam that left a hole in the skin and broke the pen in half, court papers said.

In the 18 months prior to his arrest he became "obsessed with Islam," prosecutors claim.

Last year, the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI was tipped off that Ciccolo allegedly had expressed a desire to go to Iraq or Syria to fight for IS.

The FBI says that he operated a Facebook page under the name Ali Al Amriki, that was a platform for extremist postings.

Under the photo of a man holding a machete, was written "another day in the forest strengthening myself" and next to the image of a dead American soldier, was written "Thank you Islamic State!"

Last month, he allegedly told an informant about his intention to travel inter-state to bomb two bars and a police station, before switching his focus to attacking a university instead.

Further concerns were raised by Ciccolo's alleged praise of the June 26 massacre of 38 foreign holidaymakers on a beach in Tunisia, which he is accused of calling a "huge accomplishment."

His family issued a statement through the Boston police department saying they were "saddened and disappointed" but thanking authorities for preventing "any loss of life or harm to others.

"At this time, we would ask that the public and the media recognize our grief and respect our desire for privacy," they said.

His police captain father was reportedly one of the first responders to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 others, carried out by brothers of Chechen descent.


Last Update: Tuesday, 14 July 2015 KSA 09:00 - GMT 06:00
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Kurds claim ISIS used chemical weapons in Syria
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Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic ISIS-held town on the Turkish border in June.a (AP)
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By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Saturday, 18 July 2015

ISIS had used poison gas in attacks in late June in northeastern Syria, a Syrian Kurdish militia said on Saturday

The YPG militia said poison gas had been used in attacks on June 28 and June 29 against YPG-held areas in the northeastern province of Hasaka, Reuters news agency reported citing Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman.

Xelil said the type of chemical used had not been accurately determined. None of the YPG fighters exposed to the gas had died because they were quickly taken to hospital, he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports on the war using an activist network on the ground, said it had also documented the use of poison gas by ISIS in northeastern Syria on June 28.

On Friday, ISIS claimed a deadly car bomb blast in an Iraqi town on Friday, killing dozens - including children - celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the militants said in a statement.

The attack occurred in a market area of the predominantly Shiite town of Khan Bani Saad as people shopped on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Confusion remains over the death toll, with wildly differing numbers from officials. Some reports put the number of dead at 35, 40 and 80 - while ISIS said 180 had been killed in the blast.

More than 70 were wounded, said Mohammed Jawad al-Hamadani, a member of the Diyala provincial council in which Khan Bani Saad is located.

“The explosion was big, it caused a lot of damage,” Raad Fares al-Mas, a member of parliament, said from nearby Baquba, the capital of Diyala.

In a statement, the Sunni militant group said the suicide bomber had three ton of explosives, Reuters reported.

In video footage purportedly showing the aftermath of the blast, people cry out in anguish while black smoke and fires billow out from the blast site.


Last Update: Saturday, 18 July 2015 KSA 07:27 - GMT 04:27
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ISIS claims Iraq car bomb attack, 90 killed
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A further 50 people were wounded by the blast in Khan Bani Saad, about 30 km northeast of Baghdad. (File: AP)

Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Friday, 17 July 2015

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed a deadly car bomb blast in an Iraqi town on Friday, killing dozens - including children - celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the militants said in a statement.

The attack occurred in a market area of the predominantly Shiite town of Khan Bani Saad as people shopped on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

The top official in Khan Bani Saad put the number of those killed at 90, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The toll so far is 90 martyrs and 120 wounded, and we have between 17 and 20 missing," Abbas Hadi Saleh told AFP at the scene.

He said 15 children were killed in the attack, which ripped through the heart of the town's market area.

“The explosion was big, it caused a lot of damage,” Raad Fares al-Mas, a member of parliament, said from nearby Baquba, the capital of Diyala.

In a statement, the Sunni militant group said the suicide bomber had three ton of explosives, Reuters reported.

In video footage purportedly showing the aftermath of the blast, people cry out in anguish while black smoke and fires billow out from the blast site.

ISIS, which controls large parts of northern and western Iraq - including its second largest city of Mosul, which they took in a lightning offensive last June - have previously carried out attacks in the ethnically mixed eastern province of Diyala where Khan Bani Saad is located.

Angry crowds went on the rampage after the explosion, smashing the windows of cars parked in the street in grief and anger.

“Some people were using vegetables boxes to collect body parts of kids' bodies,” said police major Ahmed al-Tamimi from the site of the explosion, describing the damage to the market as “devastating.”

The Diyala provincial government declared three days' mourning and ordered all parks and entertainment places to close
for the rest of the Eid ul-Fitr holiday to avoid further attacks.

ISIS also claimed a deadly car bomb attack that took place Tuesday in Khalis, another town in Diyala just 30 kilometers north of Khan Bani Saad.

Baghdad announced in January that Iraqi forces had “liberated” Diyala, significant parts of which had been overrun by ISIS after the jihadists launched a brutally effective offensive last June.

The militants no longer have fixed positions there but have reverted to their old tactics of planting car bombs, carrying out suicide operations or hit-and-run attacks.


Last Update: Saturday, 18 July 2015 KSA 10:44 - GMT 07:44
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Isis fighters 'blown up by their own landmine' in Iraq, Kurdish fighters claim
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Two militants were reportedly killed in an explosion near Makhmour


Lizzie Dearden

Wednesday 22 July 2015
Isis militants have been killed by their own roadside bomb in Iraq, Kurdish fighters have claimed.

A convoy of fighters from the so-called Islamic State were reportedly travelling near the northern town of Makhmour when one of their vehicles was blown up on Thursday.

Ali Hussain, a Peshmerga commander in the region, told Kurdish news agency Rudaw: “A mine had been planted by Isis troops in previous battles in the village of Kharbadan to target the Peshmerga (but) the vice versa happened, killing two of the group’s local leaders on the front.

“One of the slain emirs (leaders) was the group’s administrator in the area named Abu Malik, and the other one named Abu Abdul-aziz.”

The report could not be independently verified.

Makhmour, between Isis’ Iraqi stronghold of Mosul and the city of Erbil, capital or Iraqi Kurdistan, has been one of several frontlines since the extremist group’s insurgency began last summer.

Its use of mines has been documented in Syria, where observers reported militants laying bombs around the ancient city of Palmyra last month.

Isis continues to fight Kurds, Syrian and Iraqi troops, the US-led international air coalition and militias in its bloody campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate in the region.
Isis fighters &[HASHTAG]#039[/HASHTAG];blown up by their own landmine&[HASHTAG]#039[/HASHTAG]; in Iraq, Kurdish fighters claim - Middle East - World - The Independent
 

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Turkey to let U.S. strike ISIS from Incirlik base
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A U.S. Airforce plane lands at the Incirlik airbase, southern Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013. (AP)

The Associated Press, Washington
Friday, 24 July 2015

Turkey has agreed to let the United States launch airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group from its strategic Incirlik Air Base.

That's according to two Obama administration officials who weren't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

The U.S. has been seeking permission for months for the U.S.-led coalition to use Incirlik as a launching pad. Turkey had been resistant to the idea amid domestic opposition. But in recent days, Turkey has been hit by a surge of violence blamed on ISIS-linked militants.

The officials say President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the plan during a phone call Wednesday.

The White House is declining to confirm the Incirlik agreement but says Obama and Erdogan discussed deepening cooperation in the fight against ISIS

Last Update: Friday, 24 July 2015 KSA 23:32 - GMT 20:32
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One Turkish soldier killed in cross-border clash with ISIS
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Police forensic experts examine the street following an attack on police officers in Diyarbakir, Turkey, July 23, 2015. (Reuters)

Reuters, Diyarbakir
Thursday, 23 July 2015

A Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with Islamic State across the Syrian border on Thursday, a senior Turkish official said, days after a suicide bombing blamed on the Islamist radical group killed 32 people.

“Turkish soldiers returned fire after shots came from the Syrian side of the border, from the region where Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants are. The clash is going on at the moment,” the official said.

Local media reports said the clashes were close to the village of Elbeyli, east of the Turkish town of Kilis, and an area where the armed forces have sent reinforcements in recent weeks.

Turkey’s NATO allies have long expressed concern about control of its border with Syria, which in parts runs directly parallel with territory controlled by ISIS. Monday’s suicide bombing in the southeastern town of Suruc highlighted fears about Syria’s conflict spilling onto Turkish soil.

The Turkish army has already stepped up security along parts of the border in recent weeks, as the conflict in Syria involving Kurdish militia fighters, Islamist militants and Syrian security forces intensifies.

Around half of the armored vehicles which patrol Turkey’s borders are now along the Syrian frontier, another government official told Reuters earlier.

Last Update: Thursday, 23 July 2015 KSA 17:41 - GMT 14:41
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Two ISIS bridges destroyed in U.S.-led air strikes
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This image made from gun-camera video taken on July 4, 2015 and released by United States Central Command shows an airstrike on a bridge near Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group-held Raqqa, Syria, that was a key transit route for the militants. (AP)

Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Friday, 31 July 2015

U.S.-led coalition air strikes destroyed two key bridges used by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist group on Syria’s side of the border with Iraq early Friday, having pounded the militants with 41 strikes the previous day, a monitor and a joint command statement said.

The coalition “destroyed two bridges between the Syrian city of Albu Kamal and the Iraqi border,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“These bridges are strategically important for ISIS’s movements between Albu Kamal and Iraq,” he said.

Also read: U.S. airstrikes hit Nusra Front in Syria
Thursday's strikes concentrated on the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, a joint command statement said on Friday. The U.S.-led coalition aims to reduce the freedom of movement of ISIS, who command a large area across the borders of the two conflict-ridden countries.

ISIS seized the city of Albu Kamal and the nearby border crossing in July 2014, linking the group’s territory in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor to areas it controls in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

According to Abdel Rahman, the two bridges leading out of Albu Kamal -- one to the east, and one to the southeast -- were ISIS’s “main routes to the Iraqi border.”

“Using these bridges, it would take ISIS only a few minutes to reach the Iraqi border from Albu Kamal,” he said.

“The strikes do not cut off ISIS’s route to Iraq, but they make ISIS movements there more difficult, because it will take them longer and they will be in view (of the coalition) for a longer period of time,” he added.

The Pentagon confirmed the air raids, saying they had struck IS-held bridges in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province.

“Coalition forces struck multiple Daesh (ISIS) targets in the vicinity of the eastern Syria border to reduce the freedom of movement of Daesh,” said Brigadier General Kevin Killea, chief of staff of the US-led coalition.

“These strikes will have a profound impact on the ability of Daesh in Syria to affect operations in Iraq, particularly in Ramadi,” capital of Anbar province, Killea said.

The coalition launched air strikes on ISIS positions in Syria in September 2014, after the jihadists’ spectacular advances on both sides of the border.

(With Reuters and AFP)

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 19:42 - GMT 16:42
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Seven Libyan soldiers killed in clashes with ISIS
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A Libyan military soldier talks on a walkie-talkie outside an empty damaged building in Benghazi. (File: AP)

By Ayman al-Warfalli | Reuters, Benghazi
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Seven Libyan soldiers were killed on Friday when Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants stormed a checkpoint manned by forces loyal to the official government, military officials said.

Five soldiers were killed and 15 have been missing since the ISIS fighters attacked the checkpoint outside the eastern town of Ajdabiya, near the oil port of Bregaattack, one military official said. Two more soldiers were killed when the government sent reinforcements. Five were wounded.

“Fighting is continuing some 100 kilometers outside Ajdabiya,” one official said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on social media, saying it had captured ammunition and military equipment. It said it had attacked 200 soldiers.

ISIS has exploited a growing security vacuum in Libya, where two governments and parliaments are fighting for control four years after the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi.

The official prime minister has been based in the east, working with his cabinet out of hotels, since the capital, Tripoli, was seized by a rival group that set up its own government.

Both sides command loose coalitions of former anti-Gaddafi rebels. After Qaddafi ouster, the various factions split along political, regional and tribal lines.

Militants loyal to ISIS, the group which has seized much of Syria and Iraq, has built up a large presence in Sirte, to the west of Ajdabiya.

Separately, India said on Friday that four of its nationals had been detained near Sirte, but that it had secured the release of two of them. The Indian government did not say who was behind the detention of the men but said it was in touch with the families concerned.

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 00:08 - GMT 21:08
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ISIS no weaker now than one year ago: U.S. intelligence analysts
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An ISIS parade in Raqqa, Syria. (File photo: Reuters)

By Ken Dilanian, Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue | Associated Press
Saturday, 1 August 2015

American intelligence agencies have concluded that despite billions of dollars spent and more than 10,000 extremist fighters killed, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group is fundamentally no weaker than it was when the U.S.-led bombing campaign began a year ago.

U.S. military commanders on the ground aren’t disputing the assessment, but they point to an upcoming effort to clear the important Sunni city of Ramadi, which fell to the militants in May, as a crucial milestone.

The battle for Ramadi, expected over the next few months, “promises to test the mettle” of Iraq’s security forces, Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, who is helping run the U.S.-led coalition effort in Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon in a video briefing from the region.

The U.S.-led military campaign has put ISIS on defense, Killea said, adding, “There is progress.” Witnesses on the ground say the airstrikes and Kurdish ground actions are squeezing the militants in northern Syria, particularly in their self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa.

But U.S. intelligence agencies see the overall situation as a strategic stalemate: ISIS remains a well-funded extremist army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadists as quickly as the U.S. can eliminate them. Meanwhile, the group has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Afghanistan.

The assessments by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and others appear to contradict the optimistic line taken by the Obama administration's special envoy, retired Gen. John Allen, who told a forum in Aspen, Colorado, last week that “ISIS is losing” in Iraq and Syria. The intelligence was described by officials who would not be named because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

“We’ve seen no meaningful degradation in their numbers,” a defense official said, citing intelligence estimates that put the group's total strength at between 20,000 and 30,000, the same estimate as last August, when the airstrikes began.

ISIS’ staying power raises questions about the administration's approach to the threat that the group poses to the U.S. and its allies. Although officials do not believe it is planning complex attacks on the West from its territory, the group’s call to Western Muslims to kill at home has become a serious problem, FBI Director James Comey and other officials say.

Yet under the Obama administration’s campaign of bombing and training, which prohibits American troops from accompanying fighters into combat or directing airstrikes from the ground, it could take a decade or more to drive ISIS from its safe havens, analysts say. The administration is adamant that it will commit no U.S. ground troops to the fight despite calls from some in Congress to do so.

The U.S.-led coalition and its Syrian and Kurdish allies have made some inroads. ISIS has lost 9.4 per cent of its territory in the first six months of 2015, according to an analysis by the conflict monitoring group IHS.

A Delta Force raid in Syria that killed ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf in May also has resulted in a well of intelligence about the group's structure and finances, U.S. officials say. His wife, held in Iraq, has been co-operating with interrogators.

Syrian Kurdish fighters and their allies have wrested most of the northern Syria border from ISIS, and the plan announced this week for a U.S.-Turkish “safe zone” is expected to cement those gains.

In Raqqa, U.S. coalition bombs pound the group's positions and target its leaders with increasing regularity. The militants’ movements have been hampered by strikes against bridges, and some fighters are sending their families away to safer ground.
But American intelligence officials and other experts say ISIS is in no danger of being defeated any time soon.

“The pressure on Raqqa is significant ... but looking at the overall picture, ISIS is mostly in the same place,” said Harleen Gambhir, a counterterrorism analyst at Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank.

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 23:23 - GMT 20:23
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/ISIS-no-weaker-now-than-one-year-ago-U-S-intelligence-analysts.html
 

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Five Libyan troops killed, 18 missing after ‘ISIS attack’
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Libyan military soldiers fire their weapons during clashes with Islamic militias in Benghazi. (AP)

AFP, Benghazi
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Five Libyan troops loyal to the internationally recognized government were killed Friday and another 18 are missing after an attack on an eastern checkpoint allegedly carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, a state news agency said.

A military source told the LANA agency, loyal to the recognized government, that "five soldiers were killed... and 18 other soldiers are missing in an attack carried out by the Libyan branch of the Islamic State group" on Friday.

He added that the attack was against a military checkpoint "located on the desert road between the two cities of Ajdabiya and Tobruk" in eastern Libya.

The place of the attack, according to the source, is just 170 kilometers from the headquarters of the recognized parliament in Tobruk.

Plunged into chaos after the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya has two parliaments and governments vying for power, as a slew of armed groups battle for control of its oil wealth.

ISIS militants have taken advantage of Libya's divisions to establish itself in the country, close to Europe's shores.


Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 09:32 - GMT 06:32
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Five-Libyan-troops-killed-18-missing-after-ISIS-attack-.html
 

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ISIS member who quit because it was too brutal will be first Westerner tried for joining

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Tried: The ISIS member fled because it was too brutal

A German who quit Islamic State because of the brutality he saw will next week be the first westerner tried for being a member.

Ebrahim B, 26, has told in interviews of IS fanatics’ bloodlust and cruelty.

When in an IS jail for “democratic tendencies” a body and its decapitated head were put in his cell “to scare us”, he said.

He said he saw “terrible things” while with IS for three months last year which left him “disillusioned and broken”.

He added: “The world should know the truth. It was terrible.”



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Mass graves: ISIS kills Mosul tailors who refused to sew Afghan clothes
The masseur, recruited in VW town Wolfsburg, said recruits had to decide immediately to be a fighter or suicide bomber.

He added: “When you go there, you’re either dead or dead.”

He will reveal whether he fought for IS at his trial, which starts in Celle on Monday, but said: “Prison in Germany is better than freedom in Syria.”

ISIS member who quit because it was too brutal will be first Westerner tried for joining - Mirror Online
 
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