Released
U.S. forces release Al-Baghdadi from Camp Bucca, the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq. Kenneth King, commander at the time:
We spent how many missions and how many soldiers were put at risk when we caught this guy and we just released him.
Al-Baghdadi is not viewed as a threat upon release:
He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’ like, ‘This is no big thing, I’ll see you on the block’
Forced to watch snuff videos
Human Rights Watch says ISIS forced 153 boys as young as 14 in Kobani to watch videos of beheadings and crucifixions while listening to religious lectures, and flogged them with cables for not paying attention. Former prisoner:
Those who didn’t conform to the program were beaten. They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet.
Asked to leave northern town
Six of Syria’s main rebel factions ask ISIS to withdraw from the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border, which it captured several days earlier from Free Syrian Army rebels. The statement asks “our brothers in ISIL to withdraw their troops and vehicles to their main headquarters immediately” and implement an “immediate ceasefire” in the area. Signed by the Ahrar al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid and Jaysh al-Islam factions, and the smaller Suqur al-Sham, Furqan Brigades and Liwa al-Haq groups, it comes hours after the group clashes with the mainstream Northern Front Alliance and sends fighters towards a border post. ISIS and the Northern Front are asked to…
…resort immediately to the Islamic court, which will remain in session in Aleppo for 48 hours
Captures town from rival opposition
ISIS fighters seize the northern town of Azaz near the Turkish border from Free Syrian Army forces, causing confusion among the ranks of the opposition. FSA spokesman Loay al-Mikdad says the group took the town from Assad regime forces in self-defence and questions why ISIS are storming an area that is already ‘liberated’:
They said they came to defend the Syrian people. Now they have turned their guns away from fighting the regime to fighting the Syrian people.
Ousted from Aleppo, Idlib
Rival opposition factions strike back at ISIS after its moves to seize territory they have claimed from regime forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Raqqa-based Sham News Network media activist Abu Bakr:
The rebels have achieved tremendous progress against ISIS in all the points of conflict, liberating more than 80% of the Idlib countryside and 65% of Aleppo and its countryside
Mohammad Hassano, an activist in the town of Azaz:
People just couldn’t take it anymore, after all the kidnapping and arrests and attacks against the [Free Syrian Army]. People were very angry at them, but there was hesitation in fighting them because of the priority of fighting the regime.
Ousted from Raqaa
Mainstream rebel groups force ISIS out of Anbar provincial capital Raqaa, freeing at least 50 hostages that include journalists and aid workers taken captive by the group. ISIS remains in control of the Anbar cities of Ramadi and Falluja – where it is surrounded by the Iraqi military – but the fall of Raqaa means it has lost much of the territory in Turkish border areas that it has held for six months after seizing it from the other rebel groups. Many ISIS members are now said to be defecting to join Syrian Al Qaeda arm the Al-Nusra Front or more mainstream rebel groups including the remnants of the Free Syrian Army.
Withdraws from Aleppo
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that ISIS’s headquarters in Aleppo have been overtaken by rival opposition:
Fighters from several Islamist rebel brigades took control of the children’s hospital in the Qadi Askar district, which is the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city.
The extremist group has effectively abandoned the area:
ISIL withdrew from the Inzarat area after clashes with fighters from rebel… brigades, and the post office building was taken over by Islamist rebel fighters … There are hardly any ISIL members left in the city of Aleppo.
Expelled from Deir Ezzor
Rival opposition groups including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front expel ISIS from the province of Deir Ezzor. The oil-producing province is also a key conduit for weapons across the Iraqi border. The Al-Nusra Front, which has largely stayed out of conflicts with ISIS, joined about 10 other militant groups to expel the extremist faction.
Takes four strategic towns
ISIS takes four strategic towns located along a highway from Syria to Baghdad and could help the militants gain control of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Iraqi forces withdrew from Haditha, about 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) northwest of Baghdad, during the overnight hours. Sunni tribes considered friendly to the Iraqi army took over security for the town, but officials believe it will fall to ISIS. Iraq’s military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, told reporters there was a “strategic withdrawal” in some areas but did not detail the specific locations.
Expels Shiite Turkmen from villages
ISIS expels Shiite Turkmen from villages in an operation that leaves between 15 and 25 people dead including an old man and a woman, children and youths. The attacks take place in neighbouring Chardaghli, Brawchi and Karanaz 50 miles south of Kirkuk in Salahduin province, which links west to Baghdad, as well as Beshir, 30 miles north of the other three villages. Residents from each village say that after they left, their Sunni neighbors burned down their homes, set fire to their wheat, and stole their sheep, while insurgents blew up some Shiite mosques. Hassan Ali, a 52-year-old farmer who has fled to Kirkuk:
You cannot imagine what happened, only if you saw it could you believe it
Around 7,000 Shiites fleeing Beshir come under sniper fire as they pass neighboring Sunni villages. Residents of three Sunni northern villages also abandon their homes to flee into Sunni-majority areas through fear of reprisals.
Orders genital mutilation
The United Nations says that militant group Islamic State had ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq’s northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation. Doubts emerged on social media about the basis for the report. One document posted on Twitter suggested it may be a year old and have been issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the group’s previous name. Humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock:
We have current reports of imposition of a directive that all female girl children and women up to the age of 49 must be circumcised. This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed.
Lebanese border town attacked
Syrian rebels attack the Lebanese border town of Arsil in an apparent attempt to free a militant, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, detained a day earlier by Lebanese security forces. Army statement:
What happened today is the most dangerous incident Lebanon and the Lebanese have ever faced because it’s made clear that there is someone planning and preparing to attack Lebanon as well as planning to sabotage the Lebanese Army and the residents of Arsal
14 Lebanese soldiers killed
A Lebanese Army statement says its casualties total 14 soldiers killed, 86 wounded and 22 missing from three days of fighting against Syrian rebels claiming to be from both ISIS and Al Qaida affiliate the al-Nusra Front. The rebelssay they are fighting to free rebel commander Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who has pledged allegiance to both groups. Jomaa’s deputy:
Let them release our emir and we are ready to pull out from all over the town … Or else we will escalate and expand, and we will ask for more demands
Capture of Sinjar sparks ‘humanitarian tragedy’
Jihadist fighters capture the town of Sinja. A UN statement says some reports put the number of people forced to flee the area by the ISIS takeover at 200,000. According to the top UN envoy in the area a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar. UN:
The United Nations has grave concerns for the physical safety of these civilians.
ISIS takes control of dam
ISIS takes control of Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam. The dam is on the Tigris River and provides power to Mosul. Workers at the dam remain inside the facility. Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, says seizing dams is a tactic the group uses to gain control of a town and its people:
If you control the Mosul Dam, you can threaten just about everybody.
Militants give residents ultimatum
Islamist militants attack the towns of Sinjar and Zunmar forcing approximately 40,000 Yazidi families to flee their homes. Residents are given an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a security tax, leave their homes, or die. Jawhar Ali Begg, a Yazidi family member and spokesperson for the Yazidi community:
Thousands of Yazidi people have been killed. And thousands have become refugees. Their town is controlled by Islamic State, and their shrine has been blown up by IS. They’re killing Yazidi people and it’s a big attack against Yazidis.
Releases soldiers
Syrian fighters release three soldiers captured during the assault on the Lebanese border town of Arsal, bringing the total number of soldiers released to five. The group says it is still holding 10 soldiers and 17 policemen. The rebels are reported to pledge allegiance to both ISIS and the Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
Withdraws from Lebanese town
Syrian fighters affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda branch the Al-Nusra Front withdraw from the Lebanese border town of Arsal at dawn. The militants take with them 10 soldiers and 17 policemen captured and held as hostages. A fighter:
They could be released later in stages
Offer prisoner swap
ISIS fighters offer a prisoner swap of 19 Lebanese soldiers captured in their assault on the border town of Arsal in exchange for Islamist detainees, including Imad Ahmad Joma, previously affiliated with Al Qaeda branch Al-Nusra Front but now aligned with ISIS. A militant:
It is simple: their soldiers for the Islamic hostages.
Kidnaps 300 Yazidi women
Iraq’s Human Rights minister says ISIS has kidnapped as many as 300 Yazidi women and is holding them as slaves. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani:
We spoke to some of the Yazidis who fled from Sinjar. We have dozens of accounts and witness testimonies describing painful scenes of how Islamic State fighters arrived and took girls from their families by force to use them as slaves. The terrorist Islamic State has also taken at least 300 Yazidi women as slaves and locked some of them inside a police station in Sinjar and transferred others to the town of Tal Afar. We are afraid they will take them outside the country.