War against ISIS

[BLACKEAGLE]

New Zealand to join anti-ISIS mission

New Zealand will send troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission helping to boost the local military’s capacity to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). (File photo: Reuters)

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

New Zealand will send troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission helping to boost the local military’s capacity to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Prime Minister John Key said Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse.

Key said about 140 troops would begin a “behind the wire” mission in May after a request from the Iraqi government for international help in increasing its military capability to battle the militants.

“We cannot, and should not, fight Iraq’s battles for them -- and actually Iraq doesn’t want us to,” he told parliament.

“Our military can, however, play a part in building the capability and capacity of the Iraqi forces so they can fight ISIS themselves,” he said.

“Sending our forces to Iraq is not an easy decision but it is the right decision,” he said.

Key said New Zealand was part of a 62-nation coalition against ISIS which has captured swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria.

He described the group -- infamous for beheading, stoning and burning alive its victims -- as “barbaric”, saying New Zealand would “stand up for what’s right”.

He added that New Zealand troops would most likely work alongside their Australian counterparts at a military base in Taji, north of Baghdad.

Key said the initial deployment was for nine months and the mission would not extend beyond two years.

[With AFP]

Last Update: Tuesday, 24 February 2015 KSA 07:14 - GMT 04:14
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/02/24/New-Zealand-military-trainers-to-join-anti-ISIS-effort-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Syrians slowly return to Kobani after Kurds win back border town
Reuters | Feb 23, 2015 | 21:40

MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Thousands of people who fled the Syrian town of Kobani during a four-month battle between Kurdish and Daesh forces are now making their way home, only to find wrecked houses and unexploded bombs littering the streets.

The border town, once home to 200,000 people, was largely destroyed by fighting in which Kurdish defenders held off militant Islamists trying to overrun the area.

Assisted by Iraqi peshmerga forces and almost daily air strikes by the US-led coalition, the Kurds finally drove out the radical Sunni insurgents in late January and a fragile peace was restored.

Almost the entire population of Kobani fled across the border to Turkey to escape the fighting, some to refugee camps, others staying with family and friends or heading to Turkey's cities.

The returning residents' problems are far from over.

Near the Mursitpinar border crossing, dozens of people were carrying suitcases and bags of food and awaiting security checks before going back to Kobani.

One man said he was taking tents to live in as his home had probably been destroyed.

"We have fled to Turkey after ISIS [Daesh] reached to the outskirts of our town. But we have been hoping to get back home. Now that it is liberated, we are on our way back," said Muhammed Salih, 65, waiting to cross the border to Syria with his family of six.

However, Kobani official Idris Nasan said 15 people had been killed and many more injured in accidents involving unexploded ordnance since the siege was lifted.

"It's not safe for them. But they were looking forward to coming back," he told Reuters by telephone.

Turkey's largest refugee camp, built for escapees from Kobani, holds less than one third of its 35,000 capacity, according to Dogan Eskinat, spokesman for Turkey's disaster management agency AFAD.

"Turkey keeps track of exits as well as entries. The latest figure shows around 4,000 people have gone back to Kobani, he said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Kurdish forces have regained control of at least 163 villages around Kobani. But their progress had been slowed by renewed clashes to the west and southwest of the town.
Syrians slowly return to Kobani after Kurds win back border town | The Jordan Times

 

[Scorpion]

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

Are they going to burn them alive? @BLACKEAGLE @Cabatli_53 should the Kurds have their own country?

 

[UAE]

Can ISIS Shoot Down A Coalition Aircraft?


The United States and its Coalition partners began bombing fighters from the Islamic State several months ago, and have now racked up thousands of alleged kills. However, while at least one plane has been lost to mechanical failure during operations, none have been lost to enemy fire. Now that the Coalition is deploying slower and potentially easier-to-hit aircraft such as the A-10 in order to provide close air support for allied ground troops, the question needs to be asked: does ISIS has the capabilities to shoot down Coalition aircraft?

To answer this question, the most important issue which needs to be addressed is what anti-air weapons does the Islamic State operate, and how effective are they against modern warplanes.

Known ISIS Anti Air Missile Systems:


An ISIS fighter fires a Chinese FN-6 MANPADS

http://www.conflict-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ISIS-FN6.jpg

FN 6 MANPADS
Country of Origin: Peoples Republic of China
Maximum Height: 3,500m
Obtained via: Captured Qatari supply to FSA

9K32 Strela 2 MANPADS
Country of Origin: Soviet Union
Maximum Height: 1,500m
Obtained via: Captured SAA arms, looted from other rebels

9K38 Igla S MANPADS
Country of Origin: Soviet Union/Russian Federation
Maximum Height: 3,500m
Obtained via: Captured Iraqi army equipment.

Known ISIS Anti Air Cannons:


An ISIS AKP S-60 anti-air cannon

ZU-23
Country of Origin: Soviet Union
Maximum Height: 1,500m to 2,000m
Obtained via: Captured SAA army equipment.

AZP S60
Country of Origin: Soviet Union
Maximum Height: 4,000m
Obtained via: Captured SAA army/Iraqi army equipment.

Looking at this list of weapons, two things are immediately obvious. Firstly, almost all of the weapons are very old, coming from heavily exported stocks produced in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Secondly, the maximum effective ceilings of these weapons systems are low when compared to more modern and capable systems.

So what risk do these weapons pose to Coalition aircraft such as the F-18 and the F-22 strike fighters? Very little. These craft fly not just high, but also incredibly fast. This means that throughout the bulk of their flight they will be completely out of the range of ISIS’s AA weapons, and during attack runs, their speed will make them almost impossible to hit. Slower craft such as the Predator or Reaper drones are also not likely to be easily downed, because they fly at loiter altitudes in excess of 7,000m.

The most vulnerable aircraft which the Coalition is using against ISIS is also its most recently deployed. The A10 Warthog was redeployed in a rushed fashion to the region following gains by ISIS in Iraq’s Anbar Province. While this aircraft still generally flies at a high enough altitude to avoid most of ISIS’s weapons, during attack runs, due to its low speed, it is vulnerable, both to MANPADs and also anti-air cannon. It is worth noting however, that this aircraft can also take a severe beating, and can keep flying with an astonishing amount of airframe damage.

Outside of the Coalition, the craft being operated by other enemies of the Islamic State are comparatively more vulnerable to their anti-air weapons. In September this year, the Syrian air force lost an Su-25 jet carrying out airstrikes against the ISIS capital of Raqqa. Later, in October, the Iraqi army reportedly lost two helicopters to MANPADS fired by ISIS during battles around the city of Baiji.

Clearly, ISIS has a desire to down a Coalition jet, however, at this stage they would have to be almost impossibly lucky to down most of the aircraft used in bombing runs. While the A-10 is more vulnerable than the rest, it would still require a fair amount of luck for an inexperienced fighter to down one. In addition, the limited nature of ISIS’s AA weapons, especially its MANPADS, makes the possibility of a downed Coalition aircraft even less likely.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

“The more powerful ISIS grows, the more they are useful for the regime"

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has long had a pragmatic approach to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), says a Syrian businessman with close ties to the government. Even from the early days the regime purchased fuel from ISIS-controlled oil facilities, and it has maintained that relationship throughout the conflict. “Honestly speaking, the regime has always had dealings with ISIS, out of necessity.”

The Sunni businessman is close to the regime but wants to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions from both ISIS supporters and the regime. He trades goods all over the country so his drivers have regular interactions with ISIS supporters and members in Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in Syria, and in ISIS-controlled areas like Dier-ezzor.

The businessman cites Raqqa’s mobile phone service as an example of how there is commerce between the regime, Syrian businesses, and ISIS. The country’s two main mobile phone operators still work in Raqqa. “Both operators send engineers to ISIS-controlled areas to repair damages at the towers,” he says. In addition, there are regular shipments of food to Raqqa. “ISIS charges a small tax for all trucks bringing food into Raqqa [including the businessman’s trucks], and they give receipts stamped with the ISIS logo. It is all very well organized.”

The businessman has a driver who lives in an ISIS-controlled area near Dier-Ezzor. “My driver is always telling me how safe things are at home. He can leave the door to his house unlocked. ISIS requires women to veil, and there is no smoking in the streets. Men can’t wear jeans either. But there are no bribes, and they have tranquility and security. It’s not like there are killings every day in the streets like you see on TV.”

And, he notes, ISIS pays well — slightly less than the pre-war norms but a fortune in a war-torn economy: engineers for the oil and gas fields are paid $2,500 a month. Doctors get $1,500. Non-Syrians get an expatriate allowance, “a financial package that makes it worthwhile to work for ISIS,” says the businessman.

Assad does not see ISIS as his primary problem, the businessman says. “The regime fears the Free Syrian Army and the Nusra Front, not ISIS. They [the FSA and Nusra] state their goal is to remove the President. But ISIS doesn’t say that. They have never directly threatened Damascus.” As the businessman notes, the strikes on ISIS targets are minimal. “If the regime were serious about getting rid of ISIS, they would have bombed Raqqa by now. Instead they bomb other cities, where the FSA is strong.” That said, the businessman does not believe that the regime has a formal relationship with ISIS, just a pragmatic one. “The more powerful ISIS grows, the more they are useful for the regime. They make America nervous, and the Americans in turn see the regime as a kind of bulwark against ISIS.”

A senior Western diplomat who specializes in the Syrian civil war agrees that ISIS is seen as an asset by Assad. “They will do whatever it takes to devalue the opposition, even if it means strengthening ISIS. They know that if it comes to choosing between the black flag [of ISIS] and Damascus, the international community will choose Damascus.” And the strategy has worked extremely well. “The way it’s going now, it’s a matter of months, not even a year, that the moderate opposition is so weakened that it won’t be a factor anymore. So in just a few months from now the regime will be able to achieve its strategic goal of forcing the world to choose between Damascus and the black flags.”

So by ignoring the conflict between the Syrian opposition and the Assad regime to focus purely on ISIS may solve problems in the short term, says the diplomat, “but there will be more problems to come. These are the ingredients for a further escalation of the conflict — alienating large parts of the Sunni population, so that they have no choice but to join ISIS. Not for ideological reasons, but because they will do whatever it takes to overthrow the regime in Damascus.” Not only that, it will widen the geographical boundaries of the conflict by making this a fight of all Sunnis. “It’s a clear recipe for further escalation well beyond the geographical boundaries of the current conflict.”

However, Damascus believes that once it has neutralized most of the opposition, it can then defeat ISIS with ease. “ISIS alone, the regime can deal with them. What Assad wants is international recognition of his legitimacy as Syria’s President,” says the businessman. “When the war is over, he can easily handle ISIS with the help of Hizballah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.”
Why Assad Won&[HASHTAG]#039[/HASHTAG];t Fight ISIS

 

[UAE]

ISIS are serving Assad since they are fighting the FSA.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

'Jihadi John': Haines widow wants militant caught alive

The widow of a man killed by a masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" says she wants him caught alive.

Dragana Haines says the "last thing" she wants for the man who killed her husband, British aid worker David Haines, is an "honourable death".

The militant, pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton from west London.

Mr Haines' daughter said she wanted to see "a bullet between his eyes".

Emwazi, who is in his mid-20s and was previously known to British security services, first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.

Dragana Haines, wife of slain hostage David: "I hope he will be caught alive... He needs to be put to justice"

He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Mr Haines, US journalist Steven Sotloff, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter.

Mrs Haines told the BBC she wanted him to be caught alive and not have an "honourable death" by being killed in action.

She added: "I think he needs to be put to justice, but not in that way."

(Clockwise from left) Islamic State victims James Foley, Abdul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig, Alan Henning, Kenji Goto and Steven Sotloff
However Mr Haines' daughter, Bethany, told ITV News: "I think all the families will feel closure and relief once there's a bullet between his eyes."

A spokesman for the family of Steven Sotloff said: "We want to sit in a courtroom, watch him sentenced and see him sent to a super-max prison."

Mr Foley's mother Diane told the Times that she forgave her son's killer.

"It saddens me, [Emwazi's] continued hatred," she said. "He felt wronged, now we hate him - now that just prolongs the hatred. We need to end it.

"As a mum I forgive him. You know, the whole thing is tragic - an ongoing tragedy."

'The Beatles'
In each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose.

Speaking with a British accent, he taunted Western powers before holding his knife to the hostages' necks, appearing to start cutting before the film stopped. The victims' decapitated bodies were then shown.

Earlier this month, the militant featured in a video in which the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto appeared to be beheaded.

Hostages released by IS said he was one of three British jihadists guarding Westerners abducted by the group in Syria. They were known collectively as "the Beatles".

Mohammed Emwazi timeline:

• 1988: Born in Kuwait, moves to UK in 1994
• 2009: Completes computing degree at University of Westminster
• Aug 2009: Travels to Tanzania with two friends, he says for safari, but refused entry at Dar es Salaam. Put on flight to Amsterdam. After questioning there, returns to Dover
• Sept 2009: Travels to Kuwait to stay with father's family
• July 2010: Returns to UK for short stay but told he cannot return to Kuwait as visa denied
• 2012: Passes Celta English language teaching course
• 2013: Changes name by deed poll to Mohammed al-Ayan. Tries to travel to Kuwait but is stopped. Disappears. Parents report him missing. Police tell family four months later he has entered Syria

In a news conference, Asim Qureshi, the research director of the London-based lobby group Cage, which had been in contact with Emwazi over a number of years, detailed the difficulties Emwazi had faced with security services in the UK and overseas.

Mr Qureshi said Emwazi, who is understood to be about 27, had been "extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I knew".

He added that Emwazi travelled to Tanzania in May 2009 following his graduation in computer programming at the University of Westminster.

Mr Qureshi said he and two friends had planned to go on a safari but once they landed in Dar es Salaam they were detained by police and held overnight.

Emwazi told Cage he was subsequently "harassed" by security services and later told the charity he was "witnessing perceived injustices everywhere".

But Rafaello Pantucci, author of We Love Life As You Love Death, said the suggestion the security services may have driven Emwazi to carry out his killings was "disproportionate".

He said: "Security services asking questions and making your life a little bit difficult and ending up murdering people in this very cold-blooded way seems a very disproportionate causal link."

Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC News

US and British counter-terrorism officials discovered the identity of "Jihadi John" as far back as last September. The FBI, Britain's MI5 and other intelligence agencies used a combination of voice recognition software, interviews with former hostages and on-the-ground research in London to build up a profile of the man now revealed to be Mohammed Emwazi.

They have always declined to reveal the name for "operational reasons". Now that it's out in the public domain, it's emerged that Emwazi was well-known to MI5 and that it even tried to recruit him as an informer, years before he went off to Syria to eventually join Islamic State.

The practice by intelligence agencies of approaching jihadist sympathisers to work for them is likely to continue. It's believed both Britain and the US have informers inside the Islamic State "capital" of Raqqa. Yet this seems to have been little help in stopping the actions of Mohammed Emwazi, or bringing him to justice.

Emwazi then ended up flying to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where he claimed to be met by British intelligence agents from MI5 who accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, where the jihadist group al-Shabab operates. He denied the accusation and said the agents had tried to recruit him before allowing him to return to the UK.

In early 2013, at his father's suggestion, Emwazi changed his name by deed poll to Mohammed al-Ayan, Cage said.

Emwazi was believed to have travelled to Syria around 2013 and later joined IS, which has declared the creation of a "caliphate" in the large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq it controls.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or deny the latest reports, adding that the police and security services were working hard to find those responsible for the murder of the British hostages.

British police have not commented on his identity, citing ongoing inquiries.

Jihadi John sightings

• August 2014: Video in which US journalist James Foley is apparently beheaded
• 2 September 2014: Video in which US journalist Steve Sotloff is apparently beheaded
• 13 September 2014: Video in which British aid worker David Haines is apparently beheaded
• October 2014: Video in which British aid worker Alan Henning is apparently beheaded
• November 2014: Video in which Jihadi John is shown killing a Syrian soldier in a mass beheading, which also shows body of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter Kassig
• 20 January 2015: Video in which Jihadi John is seen standing alongside two Japanese hostages and demanding a ransom in exchange for their release
• 31 January 2015: Video released appearing to show Jihadi John beheading Japanese hostage Kenji Goto

BBC News - &[HASHTAG]#039[/HASHTAG];Jihadi John&[HASHTAG]#039[/HASHTAG];: Haines widow wants militant caught alive

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

ISIS’ propaganda backfires as it loses ground
Friday, 27 February 2015


Raed Omari

For almost two weeks, news reports from the battlefields in Iraq have been noting tough times for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Preparations for the ground assault against the terrorist organization and the successes on quality targets by the U.S.-led airstrikes all seem to be marking an emerging decisiveness on ISIS in addition to prophesying a curb to the group’s expansion as the first step towards its elimination.

It is as if the war on ISIS has really entered a new phase. The Iraqi forces, backed by the tribes, al-Hash al-Shaabi, the Kurds and the coalition’s air coverage, have been reported as regaining the upper hand on the battlefield. It was no doubt the tremendous impact of ISIS’ Hollywood-inspired videos, showing its unsurpassed brutality, that made many people around the world forget about the reality of the al-Qaeda-sprung militants. It was to my utmost shock that I once was told by an European professor: “ISIS seems [as though it is] going to control the world!” That was perhaps not the impression of my European friend but of many people who were watching with shock how ISIS is expanding and gaining ground very rapidly with no army to stop them. Such an impression is what ISIS’ propaganda machine has been trying to spread.

The image that wherever ISIS goes no one can stop it is no longer in place. ISIS is now being defeated, cornered and hurt

The world’s focus for a considerable period of time has been all placed on ISIS’ cluster-like expansion in Syria and Iraq. Little attention has been given to the news reports about ISIS’ defeats first in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, Anbar’s al-Baghdadi town and before that in the Syrian town of Kobane. The recapture of Kobane by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, backed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the coalition’s air coverage, was the best proof of ISIS’ actual status: an armed militia – not a state or organized army – that can be defeated, cornered and curbed if elements of conventional war are in place. By this I mean, air coverage, ground troops, logistic and technical supports, military plans and, more importantly, the will.

Self-styled entity
Let’s not forget that ISIS is a self-proclaimed and self-styled entity. All the images about its strength have been constructed by the group itself through horrific videos and testimonies of citizens living in its strongholds. These witnesses may have been forced to say what they said about ISIS. Or they might be members of the group itself. Someone may disagree with me here citing ISIS’s capture of Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul in June last year. But there was actually no war in Mosul. The purely Sunni city was captured because the Iraqi army decided not to fight ISIS, full stop. The fall of Mosul was in brief not the result of ISIS’s strength but had to do with the socio-political situation of Iraq. Iraq’s ex-premier Nouri al-Maliki’s sectarian policies, the marginalization of the Iraqi Sunnis, the agony, wrath and “poverty” of the ex-officers of Saddam Hussein’s dismantled Baath army, coupled with the terrorism of the Shiite militias, were the major reasons behind Mosul’s fall.

The image that wherever ISIS goes no one can stop it is no longer in place. ISIS is now being defeated, cornered and hurt. If the Iraqi forces, now equipped with U.S.-manufactured weapons, continue their march on ISIS-held territories, the group will be forced to withdraw northward and westward to Syria to be faced with the FSA that Washington has recently pledged to train and equip. This withdrawal has already begun but still within Iraq, media outlets has reported recently, talking about the intensified coalition airstrikes obliging ISIS fighters to pull out to Iraq’s al-Qaem province on the border with Syria.

For some reason, watching a video the group has recently released, I had the feeling that ISIS is now trying to fix its tarnished and widely-abhorred image. In that video, there was an ISIS member, speaking “politely” and “quietly” with no black mask on or AK-47 assault gun on his side or shoulder. The man was justifying the terrorist organization’s burning alive of Jordanian Moaz al-Kasasbeh. Definitely under the shock of the angry response of Jordanians – all Jordanians – and also the world on the brutal and barbarian execution of Moaz, this bearded man was helplessly trying to fix the “no way-to-repair” harm to ISIS’ image caused by the pilot’s burning alive and other barbarian acts.

ISIS could have secured some reputation and, maybe acceptance, if it only fought Syria’s sectarian regime and showed mercy to the Sunni communities. ISIS, which calls itself the “Islamic State,” could also have secured a good image if it dealt with the prisoners it held either according to Islamic law or the international law which stipulates decent treatment of prisoners of war, let alone civilians. But violence, torture, brutality and horror are basic ingredients of ISIS’ deviant ideology. ISIS is now perceived worldwide and also in Islamic countries as a terrorist organization and that is not going to change.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2015/02/27/ISIS-propaganda-backfires-as-it-loses-ground.html

 

[KimberlyD]

ISIS is in for a world of hurt. Just recently they took 220 Christians hostage in Syria and now the US is leading strikes against them. All I have to say.... IT'S ABOUT D^&* TIME!

 

[Rowe992]

Well haven't the US been doing drone strikes and air strikes against ISIS for the longest while? These strikes don't seem to be much of a deterrent since ISIS is operating and growing in numbers by the day with many people fleeing from western countries in hope of joining them. They better get ready for ground operations if they really want to get rid of ISIS and in the future stop interfering in other countries affairs.

 

[Goblinforhire]

“When the war is over, he can easily handle ISIS with the help of Hizballah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.”

I really can't believe that Assad is this naive, or it it optimistic. I think his main focus is to get rid of the rebels, I do think that he is in league with ISIS but I can predict they they will not be so easily gotten rid of. They might just decide they don't want to relinquish control (however limited) of Syria and this might be the final straw for a country which has already been destroyed by civil war.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

I really can't believe that Assad is this naive, or it it optimistic. I think his main focus is to get rid of the rebels, I do think that he is in league with ISIS but I can predict they they will not be so easily gotten rid of. They might just decide they don't want to relinquish control (however limited) of Syria and this might be the final straw for a country which has already been destroyed by civil war.

He's a psychopathic person.

 

[Coltodor]

Really terrible what happening. Iraq historical artifacts were already damaged during the looting during the Iraq War and now this. A lot of history is going down the drain.

 

[thegrey]

Yes this is really sickening! It reminds of Napoleon's troops using the Sphinx and other priceless landmarks for shooting practice. Very sad!

 

[crimsonghost747]

Just goes to show you how stupid these people really are. A flowerpot has more brain activity than these guys... surely these is an amazing religious "reason" for this but it has to be something ridiculous.