Downed Russian plane claim
The Sinai branch post an audio message on terror-related social media accounts insisting ISIS brought down the Russian plane in Egypt. The message is believed to carry the voice of Wilayat Sinai’s Abu Osama al-Masri, who has made recordings for the group in the past. In it, Masri claims the group will reveal ‘soon’ how they downed the plane, and points out the fact the crash occurred a year after the group first pledged its allegiance to Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Find your black boxes and analyze them, give us the results of your investigation and the depth of your expertise and prove we didn’t do it or how it was downed… Die with your rage. We are the ones with God’s blessing who brought it down. And God willing, one day we will reveal how, at the time we desire.
Market bombings
ISIS say they were behind two suicide bombs in Baghdad that killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 60. Among the dead were police and civilians. The suicide bombers hit police checkpoints in market places during morning rush-hour. The bombers were said to have been on foot and wearing explosives vests. Four people are killed in a third blast in a nearby district, but it is unclear who was behind it.
Captures Norwegian, Chinese men
Islamic State claims it has taken Grimsgaard-Ofstad, a Norwegian, and Fan, a freelance consultant from Beijing, hostage. The Dabiq online magazine posts photos of the men wearing yellow prison outfits, but does not say where or when they were captured. The magazine lists a telegram number for:
whoever would like to pay the ransom for his release and transfer.
Norwegian Prime Minister Solberg says Grimsgaard-Ofstad was captured at the end of January.
The kidnappers have presented a series of demands and significant amounts of ransom money,. We cannot give in and won’t give in to pressure from terrorists and criminals. Norway does not pay ransom…Our goal is to get our citizen home. But let me be very clear, this is a very demanding case.
Chinese officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Destroys Palmyra temple
ISIS destroys Baal Shamin temple, a Roman-era historic site in the Syrian city of Palmyra. According to reports the temple was destroyed a month previously. UNESCO calls the act a war crime:
The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history…Daesh is killing people and destroying sites, but cannot silence history and will ultimately fail to erase this great culture from the memory of the world. Despite the obstacles and fanaticism, human creativity will prevail, buildings and sites will be rehabilitated, and some will be rebuilt. Such acts are war crimes and their perpetrators must be accountable for their actions. UNESCO stands by all Syrian people in their efforts to safeguard their heritage, a heritage for all humanity
Syria’s director of Antiquities:
It stood as it was for more than 1,800 years… It was a beautiful tourist attraction…They destroyed an incredibly important architectural structure. It is the first structure in the Palmyra complex to be destroyed, although they recently destroyed two Islamic shrines nearby. They said they would destroy the statues but not the structures themselves inside Palmyra. They lied.
Murders 19 girls
ISIS murders 19 girls for refusing to act as sex slaves to ISIS soldiers. A Kurdish official from the area reports the girls were part of a group of women, taken as sex slaves, who hail from non-Sunni Muslim demographics that include Yazidis, as well as Christians. The group is reportedly being held in Mosul. UN Envoy:
The girls get peddled like barrels of petrol.
Kept Mueller as sex slave
Mueller’s parents say they were informed by government officials that their daughter was repeatedly raped by Baghdadi. American officials allegedly learned about Kayla’s abuse, after interviewing two Yazidi girls, 16 and 18, who escaped from the same compound where they were all held as sex slaves. The girls said Kayla was held in the home of Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian man in charge of ISIS’ oil and gas revenue. Sayyaf’s wife, Umm Sayyaf, who was captured in a U.S. raid on the compound confirmed the information. Baghdadi is said to have regularly visited the house to both speak to Sayyaf and rape Kayla. The information discredits reports that Mueller warmed to her captors and had even willingly married a member of the state.
Pregnant swedish teenager held
A pregnant 15-year-old Swedish girl is being held by ISIS in Syria after running away from her foster home with her boyfriend to join al-Qaida. Swedish Foreign Ministry:
We have been informed that a Swedish minor is in Syria. We are in contact with family members,
The 15-year-old, whose name is not disclosed, disappeared from her foster home in Boras, near the south-western town of Gothenburg, on 31 May. It said she is six months pregnant. She and her 19-year-old boyfriend married in a Muslim ceremony in Stockholm earlier this year without their parents’ knowledge and reportedly travelled to Syria via Turkey, where they were recruited by an al-Qaida-linked group. The couple were captured by ISIS fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, and have been moved to an ISIS-controlled area. The boyfriend has been forced to fight for the jihadist group. The daughter had called her parents at least three times while being held by Isis after women secretly lent her a cell phone. Mother:
I spoke to her yesterday and found out she has been moved to a group of women. She is not allowed to be with her boyfriend because they aren’t considered married by [ISIS]. She was very sad and very scared. We don’t know how to get her out of the country. Now she’s in an [ISIS]-controlled area so it will be even harder.
The father says that his daughter might be moved to live with a group of women in Manbij, a town north-east of Aleppo, if ISIS militants did not recognise the marriage.
300 election officials killed by firing squad
An anti-ISIS group says 300 people from Iraq’s Electoral Commission, including 50 women, have been killed by an ISIS firing squad at the Galzani army camp for being ‘apostates and infidels’.
Canada takes refugees
Prime Minister Harper pledges Canada will take an additional 10,000 refugees from Iraq and Syria over the next four years if the Conservative government is re-elected in October. Canada has already settled roughly 20,000 Iraqi refugees and 2,500 Syrians. The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada website shows it finalized 19,900 refugee claims from all countries in 2014. Harper:
We must stop ISIS
Iraq bombings
Jihadists kill 33 people in two suicide bombings in Iraq, including 20 at a central market area in Huwaydir. Islamic State claims responsibility.
Six F-16s arrive in Turkey
U. S. High Command in Europe says six U.S. F-16 fighter jets plus 300 support personnel. have arrived in Incirlik, Southern Turkey, increasing the unit equipment of the United States Air Force-led coalition against ISIS. The detachment is part of the 31st Fighter Wing based at Aviano Air Base, in Italy. Turkish media reports say the U.S. is expected to deploy around 30 fighter jets at Incirlik for strikes against ISIS. Incirlik is located close to ISIS strongholds across the border in Syria.
Russia urges US to include Syria
Russia says the United States is ‘unprepared’ for including the Syrian government in international plans to counter extremist ISIS. Lavrov says he discussed Putin’s proposal on coordinating efforts against IS during a recent meeting in Qatar with Kerry.
I asked him if it wouldn’t be easier to reach an agreement, to sit down at the negotiating table and discuss everything with the involvement of the Syrian Army. Unfortunately, the Americans are unprepared for that.
Lavrov says he also expressed concern about a U.S. decision to provide air support for Syrian opposition groups fighting against Assad’s government. He said he warned Kerry that some ‘grave mistake,’ such as the accidental bombing of civilians, could
explode the situation to such an extent that nobody would be able to control it.
Lavrov also rejects allegations that the Assad government has undeclared stockpiles of chemical weapons. He says ‘groundless accusations’ must be avoided and gave his ‘guarantee’ that all the claims ‘will be double-checked.’
We have every reason to believe that the Syrian government will continue cooperating closely.
Plot to assassinate Queen
British security forces says Islamic extremists from ISIS are planning to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II, using a ‘deadly pressure cooker bomb’ set to detonate near The Queen as she attends events in central London to commemorate the 70th anniversary of V-J Day, the Allied victory over Japan in World War II. The report comes before the threat has been neutralized, and that security forces are in a race against time to thwart the assassination plot. Security has reportedly been bolstered around the queen and Cameron ahead of the event.
Kidnaps 230 civilians
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that ISIS abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in Al-Qaryatain hours after the group captured the town. Many of the Christians had fled from Aleppo province, in Syria’s north, to seek refuge in Al-Qaryatain. SOHR says those abducted were wanted by ISIS for ‘collaborating with the regime’ and their names were on a list used by the jihadists as they swept through the town. Families who tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the jihadists. Al-Qaryatain lies at the crossroads between ISIS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in the Qalamun area.
Authorizes defence against Syrian attacks
Obama authorizes using air power to defend a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government forces or other groups, raising the risk of the American military coming into direct conflict with the regime of Assad. Though the new rules allow Pentagon strikes to defend the U.S.-allied force against any regime attacks, U.S. military officials play down the chances of a direct confrontation. The newly trained force is committed to fighting Islamic State, not the Syrian regime, and won’t be fielded in areas the regime controls. U.S. officials say they believe the regime won’t challenge the new force.
Flees Islamic state
Emwazi flees the terror group fearing for his life because of fears that other jealous members of ISIS might try to plot against him. The ISIS executioner is said to also be terrified of his publicity and being hunted down by the U.S. and U.K.. Source:
So it is possible he will end up suffering the same fate as his victims
Isis-free zone
Turkey and the US have agreed on the outlines of a plan to drive Islamic State out of a strip of land along the Turkish-Syrian border, in a landmark deal that will draw Turkey further into Syria’s civil war and looks likely to increase the intensity of the U.S. air war against Isis. The YPG accuses Turkey of targeting its fighters inside Syria as they laid siege to Isis-held positions close to another key border crossing, the town of Jarabulus.
Executes gay men
Islamic State militants execute two men accused of being gay by throwing them from the roof of a tall building in Palmyra and then stoning them. ISIS has been using its fighters in honey traps to expose gay men and then kill them.
Turkey to permit U.S. strikes on ISIS
It is reported that Turkey has agreed that the U.S. may use its airbase at Incirlik to launch air strikes on ISIS. Turkey’s decision comes one day after a telephone discussion between Presidents Obama and Erdogan. US officials decline to give details of the agreement with Turkey, and spokesmen decline to confirm it officially, saying it was up to Turkey to confirm. Turkish officials decline to comment on the report.
20 dead in suicide bombimng
Over twenty people die in twin suicide attacks by two 15-year-old girls in Maruoa, in northern Cameroon. One girl attacks a busy marketplace and the other targets a neighborhood area.
We are still searching if there are more bodies because many people were in the market and some are still in their shops, said police officer Eric Bambue, describing the scene as the worst thing he had ever seen.