Given security detail after ISIS threat
Bachmann is given a security detail after ISIS threatens her online. The U.S. Capitol Police Dignitary Protection Division detail have been briefed on ISIS and the detail will continue until Bachmann retires at the end of this Congress.
Yazidis call for airstrikes
Yazidis trapped at Mt. Sinjar say they need air support as ISIS renews its assault on the area. Khalid Qassim Shesho, , a 44-year-old fighter trapped in the Sharfadin shrine:
We have so little ammunition, and they are advancing. I can see five Humvees without using binoculars. We need planes!
Kidnap attempt inside Turkey
Militants from the group make an abduction attempt on Abu Issa, the commander of a Kobani-based group, and his son in the southeastern town of Urfa 20 miles inside the border. Abu Issa and his son escape when one of the third-party people smugglers used by ISIS to transport people and weapons into Syria panics after spotting Turkish soldiers. Abu Issa is shot and wounded during the attempt. Turkey has stated that ISIS does not have a presence within the country.
Mississippi veteran joins fighting
The Kurds have another alley fighting with them against ISIS, one of few unofficial U.S. boots on the ground. His name is Jeremy Woodard, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan tours. Jeremy is a security guard from Mississippi, paying his way to Turkey and smuggling into the war zone. The veteran even uses sign language to communicate with his foreign comrades. Woodard:
I figured if I came over here more Americans and other people from other countries would come here. I’ve killed two, in my first battle in Jezaa, and that’s it so far. Hopefully my numbers will go up. I never thought I’d be over in Syria killing people, but they’ve killed innocent people. It’s not frightening to me. If I have one bullet left, I’ll take my own life before that happens. I’m not gonna get put on YouTube by ISIS, and let them put me on my knees and cut my head off for publicity.
Repelled in Kobani
Kurdish fighters are holding positions in the city near the Turkish border despite being outnumbered and the use of suicide bombers by ISIS, as well as the destruction of the city’s three hospitals. U.S. air strikes are continuing to support the efforts to repel ISIS.
Luqman Ahmad, a 34-year-old civilian:
We are very happy because we have heard from Jarablus and Raqqa that they have a lot of casualties from Isis – they have received a lot of bodies. We are very happy because the YPG [the People’s Protection Units] made progress today too in the west as well as the south. Inshallah we’ll have the same in the east soon.
Dragons Egg weapons cache may have been opened
Soldiers are concerned that the contents of the most secret bunker of Saddam Hussein’s regime, known as the Dragon’s Egg, may have been unsealed after reports that ISIS may be using chemical weapons. The X-shaped bunker was sealed with cement and was treated differently from other storage spaces at the Al Muthanna facility, says Lt. Joshua Hartley, who was stationed there in 2008 with the weapons company of the U.S. Marine Corps Second Division’s First Battalion.
We were made aware of a particular bunker on the north side [of Al Muthanna] which we were informed was sealed and remotely monitored. We were not to approach, and definitely not to attempt to enter.
He says it is an open secret that the bunker contained large amounts of the regime’s most dangerous nerve agents. Gen. Jack Kean, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, says the Dragons Egg and other caches could be used against troops:
Frankly, the weapons could be used by ISIS. Our troops’ mission was not to clean this up; that was something the Iraqis were supposed to do, and obviously they didn’t do a very good job of it. I know from talking to people who were involved, that the Sunni insurgents used some of these weapons as IED’s against us.
Crucifies 17-year-old
ISIS is reported to have crucified a 17-year-old boy it said was taking photos of its installations and selling the for 500 Turkish lira. The group is reported to have left his body on display in a square in Syria with a note pinned to his chest saying he has been ‘killed and crucified for a period of three days’ as punishment for ‘apostasy’.
Warns against online location data
The Financial Times reports that ISIS has published an Arabic-language manual telling followers that metadata on tweets and other information posted online is allowing western forces to locate them.
A number of security gaps have appeared that have benefited the enemy and have helped expose the identities of some brothers or identify some sites used by the mujahideen with ease … We know this issue is not only tied to pictures, but to PDF files, word files and video files
It is also asking followers not to tweet locations, names, or recognizable photos. Internet cafe owner:
A few stayed online, but no one posts selfies next to chopped-off heads any more
Rights monitor: ISIS making test flights
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says
ISIS fighters have been making test flights in fighter jets believed to be MiG 21 or MiG 23s captured from the government. It isn’t known if the jets are equipped with weapons or if the pilots are capable of long-distance flights. Rami Abdulrahman:
They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for Saddam Hussein. People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back,’ he said, citing witnesses near al-Jarrah military airport.
Fifth ISIS video
Cantlie again describes himself as a British citizen abandoned by his government. He dismisses the military response’s effectiveness:
Obama is terribly busy insisting US ground troops won’t be going back into Iraq. Thus even the Pentagon admits airstrikes are a stop-gap military measure that will not disrupt the Islamic State activities.
He says it is a political tactic:
Meanwhile, America puts 1,200 troops into Baghdad to protect their embassy and the airport. Surely sounds like boots on ground to me… The rise of the Islamic State give Obama a chance to look tough in the media just as midterm elections approach.
On relations between the U.S. and ethnic and sectarian minorities:
Since when has America cared about the fate of a minority in the Muslim lands? Modern history is sadly littered with religious minorities being crushed and neither the U.S. nor anyone else said anything.
Mother sends second message
Paula Kassig tweets a second message to ISIS:
Message to the men of the Islamic State in contact with my only son Abdul Rahman Kassig.
Abdul Rahman’s father and I have done all that you have asked to the greatest extent of our ability. We are humble people committed to serving others. I implore you in the name of the almighty God to communicate with us to discuss our son’s fate as he only seeks to serve God and the teachings of Islam.
May be using chemical weapons
Photos obtained by the the monitor MERIA indicate ISIS is using chemical weapons against Syrian Kurds in Kobani. MERIA Journal editor Jonathan Spyer says the Kurds are believed to have been killed in July with what ‘appears to be a case of mustard gas or some kind of blistering agent.’ The images show dead Syrian Kurds with large areas of white, blistered skin apparently having been burned away. Kurdish authority health minister:
Burns and white spots on the bodies of the dead [indicate] the use of chemicals which led to death without any visible wounds or external bleeding
Letter to mother published
ISIS publishes a letter apparently written by Sotloff to his mother in Dabiq magazine. Sotloff:
To Mom, I do not have much time and will probably not get this opportunity again, so I would like to get straight to the point. Your recent public video of pleading to the Caliphate not to kill me has been received loud and clear by them. However, this in itself is not enough to save me.
Fourth ISIS video
Cantlie warns of the dangers of a ground war:
Anyone hoping for a nice neat surgical operation without getting their hands dirty is in for a horrible surprise once it gets underway.
If these executions force public outcry or a policy change, that is a huge victory. And if they only goad our governments into dropping more bombs and spending millions more dollars, making our countries weaker in the process, that is a victory, too.
Close to completing Anbar takeover – report
Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent that ISIS is close to taking over the province and threatening western Baghdad. He says that an ISIS offensive launched on Oct. 2 has captured almost all the cities and towns it did not already hold in Anbar , taking Hit, Kubaisa and the provincial capital Ramadi. Other cities, towns and bases on or close to the Euphrates River west of Baghdad fell in a few days, often after little resistance by the Iraqi Army, even when backed by US air strikes.
ISIS close to taking Kurdish Syrian city
ISIS is reported to be close to capturing the Kurdish-controlled city of Kobani near the Turkish border in Aleppo province, despite U.S. air strikes in the area. The Independent reports that reinforcements are gathering to combat the city’s remaining defenders. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken:
Our focus in Syria is in degrading the capacity of [Isis] at its core to project power, to command itself, to sustain itself, to resource itself. The tragic reality is that in the course of doing that there are going to be places like Kobani where we may or may not be able to fight effectively.
Issues rules for journalists
ISIS issues a set of 11 rules for journalists in Deir Ezzor, including a requirement to submit a request for a license to the group’s media office, providing the user-names of any social media accounts operated by journalists, and avoiding working with TV channels it has placed on a blacklist as being anti-Islamic, including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Journalists must also swear allegiance to Baghdadi as the Caliph. The Independent reports that most journalists have fled the area since the rules were announced.
Tweets threat
ISIS threatens Kassig in a tweet:
Another American soldier peter E,kassing is ready for beheading, threat by Islamic State
Threatened in video
Kassig is threatened at the end of the video of Henning’s death. ISIS militant:
Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment of the Sham which keeps on striking our people. So, it is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people.
Third ISIS video
Cantlie appears in a third video, criticizing Obama’s speech about ISIS and the coalition plans:
It was all disappointingly predictable; America is good, the Islamic State is bad; and they will be defeated using aircraft and a motley collection of fighters on the ground. For their part the Islamic State say they welcome meeting Obama’s under-construction army.
