“The bombing killed 15 IS leading members and wounded the group’s financial and administrative officer in Anbar, Salah al-Zein Najim, cousin of the so-called IS Minister of War, Adnan Ismail Najim”, Fahdawi said. As I described in September of 2014, after Mosul fell to a similar fate, the crux of the dilemma is what to do once Iraqi forces reach a city riddled with dug-in ISIS forces. In this photo released on June 16, 2015 by a website of Islamic State militants, an Islamic State militant sits in a trench on the frontline of Deir el-Zour, Syria. ISIS overseas provinces, and its “Internationale”-ISIS-inspired individuals and cells undertaking subversion, propaganda and terrorism on its behalf-support the state-building efforts of the core ISIS structure””. “Victory or martyrdom”, they screamed, pledging their allegiance to God and vowing never to retreat. The predominantly Western-backed corrupt autocratic rule in the Arab domain, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian lands, East Jerusalem as the third holiest sites of Islam in particular, and repeated US-led interventions to secure a desirable Middle Eastern regional order are among the issues that have provided IS with considerable ammunition.
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Tense footage showing the moment an ISIS suicide vehicle bomb hurtles towards Iraqi forces – before being destroyed in the nick of time – has emerged online. The map above gives a sense of how the arc of territory now under Kurdish control might be extended to stretch into Iraq and encompass Erbil, The capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Hundreds of Western women have managed to join ISIS, and many others have been arrested at airports for allegedly trying to travel to Syria and join the group. Obama cited alleged successes of over 5,000 USA led coalition airstrikes over the last year, but the facts on the ground indicate that ISIS and quasi-governmental militias have only increased their violence and reach in key cities such as Ramadi and Palmyra.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking at the Atlantic Council, suggested that the United States needs to send almost 7,000 additional United States forces to Iraq – to augment 3,500 now there – in part to embed with Iraqi units and counter Iranian influence. But this past weekend many Americans in major cities spent the holiday with one eye over their shoulders as the nation went on heightened alert for potential terror attacks by supporters of Islamic State. USA air strikes helped the militias to seize Tikrit in March, and to achieve a few progress against ISIS around the strategically critical Bayji oil refinery earlier this month. More recently, IS lost Tal Abyad, another Syrian border town.
They were all slain, but not before killing more than 250 civilians, including roughly 100 children, and more than 30 Kurdish fighters. A USA military presence in Iraq might have given us the ability to influence events there.
Meanwhile, a YouTube video from the same time period, identified by archaeologist Sam Hardy, shows Syrian regime loyalists digging up ancient statues affixed to graves and loading the heads of the statues into the back of a pickup truck.
“They weren’t planning to leave alive”, Kurdish commander Ghalia Nehme said of the IS fighters in Kobani.
WASHINGTON – As the United States and Iran continue efforts to reach a long-term nuclear agreement, it is becoming increasingly evident that they are tacitly aligned in a longer-term struggle against the mutual threat of Sunni extremism.
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Mroue reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
