‘Uses U.S. weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia’
A report by the London-based Conflict Armament Research small-arms research organization says ISIS is using U.S. weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia to moderate Syrian groups. The study documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July. The organization says ISIS disposed of ‘significant quantities’ of U.S.-made small arms including M16 assault rifles. It includes photos of ‘Property of U.S. Govt’ markings on the weapons. It also finds that anti-tank rockets used by ISIS in Syria are ‘identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013.’ The rockets were made in Yugoslavia in the 1980s.
Executioner ‘known to MI5’
The British militant believed to be responsible for the beheadings of Foley and Sotloff is reported to have been known to MI5 before he left the country. He was considered a low-risk target as he worked as a street collector raising funds for legitimate Arab charities. Doubt remains as to whether the British voice on the execution videos – belonging to the ISIS militant called ‘John’ by former captives, as part of a group of four British militants nicknamed ‘The Beatles’ – is that of the person who carried out the killings. It is also suspected that some parts of the videos, including Sotloff’s apparent message to America before he is killed, were faked, however ‘John’ is one of the most wanted among hundreds of UK fighters believed to be operating in Syria and Iraq. A source:
MI5 has identified this man and they have known exactly who he is for some time. He was even being looked at before he travelled abroad. At the time he was considered a very low-level risk because he was merely believed to be making street collections. Like so many jihadists before him, he then seems to have become radicalised almost overnight and disappeared to travel to the Middle East.
The man is thought to have traveled to the Middle East around a year ago, and became battlehardened within months.
Suicide bombs kill nine Sunnis
Two suicide bombings kill at least nine people and leave 70 wounded in the northern Iraqi Sunni town of Dhuluiya, which has been under siege by ISIS for more than two months. A suicide bomber in a seized military Humvee strikes a dirt berm built to reinforce the southern part of the town around 9 a.m. local time (0200 EDT), clearing the way for a second suicide bomber in another Humvee to drive into the center of the town and strike the market area. Dhuluiya journalist Shaalan al-Jibouri:
In the name of humanity we call on President Obama, who says they are the protectors of humanity — where are your planes, your missiles? Why this terrorism, why are our children being killed, our homes destroyed? We call on the American people to pressure their government to help us.
Lebanese soldier ‘beheaded’
The family of Lebanese soldier Abbas Medlej, a Shiite from the eastern city of Baalbak, say that photos posted online by ISIS apparently showing his beheading are real. The group says he was killed attempting to escape. If confirmed, he would be the second Lebanese soldier to be killed by the group. His mother, Zeinab Noun:
My son was sacrificed.
She says the family will seek retribution against Sunnis:
We have to take our revenge from those apostates.
Bombs kill 20
Two bombings in Baghdad kill at least 20 people and leave dozens injured. A carbomb in the Shia-majority area of Kdhamiya kills at least 11, while a suicide bomber drives a vehicle packed with explosives into a police checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing nine. Responsibility for the bombings remains unknown.
Kidnaps 50 men
ISIS militants kidnap 50 men from a district on the edge of the Sunni town of Hawija in the northern region of Kirkuk, a day after the fighters left the district in anticipation of an attack by the Iraqi military. Militants load the men onto vehicles and drive off. Town residents say they are unsure why the abductions have occurred as the town has not actively resisted ISIS.
‘Chinese militant captured’
The Iraqi military says it has captured an ISIS militant from China. If confirmed, this would be the first time a Chinese national is known to have fought for the group, also known as Islamic State. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang, responding to a foreign reporter’s question in Beijing:
We are not able to verify whether or not the information is true. I cannot confirm the information for you.
It remains unclear whether the man is of Uighur origin, a Muslim minority group in China’s Xinjiang province.
1,420 deaths in August
The UN reports that at least 1,420 people died in the violence in Iraq in August. The death toll – mostly civilians – compares with 1,737 deaths in July, and 2,400 in June and could rise much higher if the UN independently confirms hundreds of reported deaths in areas under ISIS control. U.N. representative Nickolay Mladenov:
Thousands continue to be targeted and killed by ISIL (Islamic State) and associated armed groups simply on account of their ethnic or religious background. The true cost of this human tragedy is staggering
Beheads commander as spy
ISIS has beheaded one of its own commanders as a suspected spy. Reports say Abu Ubaida Almaghribi, a Dutch national of Moroccan descent who was previously in charge of the prison where journalist James Foley was held before being killed by the group, has been executed as an alleged MI6 spy. A Moroccan news outlet:
Ubaida Almaghribi, who is originally from Morocco, and served as the head of intelligence services of the ISIS organisation in Aleppo, Syria, was beheaded after being accused of reporting information on the activities, movements, and plans of ISIS to the UK.
A second Moroccan report:
ISIS militants reportedly beheaded a group of prominent leaders including Abu Ubaida Almaghribi, because of doubts regarding their allegiance and work for foreign entities.
Sells Yazidi women
ISIS has ‘distributed‘ as many as 300 Yazidi women to rank-and-file members in the past few weeks. The Syrian Observatory on Human Rights confirms at least 27 cases in which women have been sold for around $1,000 each to fighters in Aleppo and Raqqa suburbs and Al-Hassakah, while others have been given away. SOHR says the women were kidnapped in Iraq and transported to Syria and that some have converted to Islam so that ISIS fighters can marry them. ISIS views them as:
captives of the spoils of war with the infidels
‘Waterboarded’
Foley was among at least four Western hostages waterboarded by ISIS. A source says the militants have mastered the ‘enhanced interrogation’ technique used by the US on some terror suspects after Sept. 11, 2001:
They knew exactly how it was done
Beheads Lebanese soldier
ISIS beheads a Lebanese soldier, one of 19 captured in an assault on the border town of Arsal aimed at freeing captured Syrian rebel commander Imad Ahmad Jomaa. The soldier, recognizable as Ali al-Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim from north Lebanon, is shown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, writhing and kicking the dusty ground while a militant announces he will be killed. Another militant then beheads him.
Acquires anti-aircraft weapons
ISIS has acquired an arsenal that includes state-of-the-art anti-aircraft guns that can shoot down modern warplanes and poses a significant threat to civilian flights. Prior to the group’s weekend capture of the Taqba airport, it had already seized a large amount of weapons from the Assad regime and fleeing Iraqi forces that includes top-shelf mortars, APCs and even several M1A1 Abrams main battlefield tanks, but its surface-to-air capability was limited to ageing, subpar equipment. However, more recent propaganda photos show militants holding standard-issue carbines and Russian-made Kalashnikov AK-47 replicas, a staple of Middle Eastern armed groups for decades, alongside Russian SA-24 Grinch manpads (man-portable air defence system) captured from the airfield. An American diplomat involved in monitoring Islamist groups:
There is a need to assess the air-defence capabilities of ISIS and also the capabilities of President Assad’s forces. But, I would like to stress that no decision has yet been made on whether to extend the operations in Iraq to Syria
The group is known to have Soviet, Polish and Bulgarian ZU23-2 and ZU23-4 anti-aircraft guns and American low altitude FIM92 Stinger manpads, and has used GSHK heavy-machine guns against the Assad regime’s attack helicopters to great effect, although they are not much use against high-flying fast jets. These are now thought to be augmented by Chinese FN-6 manpads that can hit targets at 11,000 feet and SA-16 Gimlet manpads, with effective range of 16,000 feet which were supplied in large quantities to the regime.
IS fighters have captured SA-16 MANPADS, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles & MiG-21B jets in #Tabaqa Airbase, #Raqqa. #Syria pic.twitter.com/c33TB56XdL
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) August 24, 2014
Beheading video of Kurdish fighter
ISIS releases a video apparently showing the beheading of a Kurdish fighter, as a warning to Kurds. Titled ‘A Message In Blood,’ it begins by showing what appear to be a group of 15 Kurdish peshmerga fighters captured in Iraq. The men are sitting and standing in front of an ISIS flag inside a small room with makeshift walls and blue mats lining the floor. An earlier shot shows the captured men still in uniform and peshmerga fighter Hassan Mohammed Hashin reads a prepared statement to Kurdish leaders:
You have made a huge mistake by joining hands with America.
The footage then cuts to a sandy roadside. The Great Mosque of Mosul is visible in the background as three armed, black-clad militants stand behind a kneeling captive. A fighter delivers a speech:
In the name of God, peace be upon him. I have two messages: the first one is for the dog of Roman, the jerk Obama, how did you send your nation and soldiers again to Iraq, did you forget the thousands of dead Americans who you gave them as a sacrifice for wars? Did you forget thousands of images of corpses, deformed and those people who still suffer? Did the economy of America recovered from its crises to get into a new one? But the second message is for the servant of the Jewish Mas’od, this is the destiny of one of the militants, and others who you sent to Muslims unless you finish your work with the Jewish and your alliance with the Crusaders.
The militant then unsheathes a knife from his belt, tilts the capitve’s head back, and begins to decapitate him. The video shows only a brief shot of the execution. It ends with ISIS fighters parading in APCs in Mosul, brandishing flags and weapons.
#ISISmovies hashtag
Twitter users satirize ISIS using the hashtag #ISISmovies. Libyan-American writer Hend Amry:
Sometimes, you have to mock, to belittle. Because sometimes, belittlement is your enemy’s greatest fear
Girls just want to have fundamentalism #ISISmovies
— Amro Ali (@_amroali) August 16, 2014
ISIS eyeing Mex-US border
According to a bulletin titled, ISIS Interest on the US Southwest Border, released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, social media chatter shows ISIS is looking at using the Mexico-US border as an entry point into the US.
A review of ISIS social media messaging during the week ending August 26 shows that militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of US, for terror attack. Social media account holders believed to be ISIS militants and propagandists have called for unspecified border operations, or they have sought to raise awareness that illegal entry through Mexico is a viable option. The identities of persons operating these accounts cannot be independently verified; however the accounts were selected for monitoring based on several indications that they have been used by actual ISIS militants for propaganda purposes and collectively reach tens of thousands of followers. One account was verified as belonging to an individual located in Mosul, Iraq…This Twitter account holder, who is the administrator of an ISIS propaganda trading group, stated that the time was right for such an action because ‘the US-Mexican border is now open large numbers of people crossing.
‘Bubonic plague weapon’
Plans to create a weaponized form of bubonic plague from infected animals are found on a laptop discovered in former ISIS hideout:
The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge
A fatwa on the justification for the weapon:
If Muslims cannot defeat the kafir [unbelievers] in a different way, it is permissible to use weapons of mass destruction
The laptop is believed to belong to a Tunisian national identified as Muhammad S., who joined ISIS after studying chemistry and physics at two universities in Tunisia’s northeast. A suggestion for weaponisation:
Use small grenades with the virus, and throw them in closed areas like metros, soccer stadiums, or entertainment centers. Best to do it next to the air-conditioning. It also can be used during suicide operations.
Experts say that the document is no indication that ISIS are already in possession of such weapons, but say that the longer the group remains active, the more likely it is to develop weapons capable of mass destruction.
Bomb threat
A man flying an ISIS flag from his car is arrested after threatening police with a bomb during a traffic stop in Southwest Chicago. Emad Karakrah, 49, has been charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated fleeing and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued license, and also issued with three traffic citations after a motorist called police after spotting the ISIS flag flying from his silver Pontiac southbound in the 7700 block of South Kedzie at 9:18 a.m. During his arrest, he tells police that there is a bomb in the car and he will detonate it if they search the vehicle, however when a bomb squad, the FBI and Homeland Security search the car, no bomb is found. He is held on a $55,000 bond and is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 3.
Executes Syrian soldiers
A video posted on YouTube, and reported confirmed as genuine by an ISIS fighter, shows the group apparently executing many Syrian soldiers after marching them through the desert. A video caption states that 250 executions have been carried out, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in the war, says the death toll is more than 120. The killings reportedly occurred as ISIS seized Taqba airbase in the province of Raqqa over the weekend. An ISIS militant:
Yes, we have executed them all.
Peacekeepers detained in Syria
The United Nations confirms that 43 international peacekeepers are being detained in the Syrian Golan Heights, as fighting intensifies near Quneitra.
In addition, another eighty-one UNDOF peacekeepers are currently being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah … The United Nations is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers, and to restore the full freedom of movement of the Force throughout its area of operation.