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ISIS

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ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq in Syria), also know as ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) or Islamic State, is a jihadist organization based in Syria and Iraq. Its leader is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States.

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17 Aug, 2015

Murders 19 girls

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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.

16 Nov, 2014

Peter Kassig beheaded

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ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of a dozen Syrian soldiers that ends with a militant standing over a severed head he says belongs to Kassig. U.S. officials said they are working to determine the video’s authenticity. The main militant has a British accent (although the video appears to have been distorted to hide the speaker’s identity) and warns that U.S. soldiers will meet a similar fate.

We say to you, Obama: … You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. Here you are: You have not withdrawn. Rather, you hid some of your forces behind your proxies.

The militant claims Kassig was killed because he “fought against the Muslims in Iraq, while serving as a soldier”. Kassig’s family says it is awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

The family respectfully asks that the news media avoid playing into the hostage takers’ hands and refrain from publishing or broadcasting photographs or video distributed by the hostage takers. We prefer our son is written about and remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the hostage takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their cause.

20 Oct, 2014

Beheaded man with Down Syndrome

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Kurdish rights activist Bazran Halil and his wife, Raushan, say the group beheaded a man with Down Syndrome in Kobani and impose horrific punishments for violating what they say is Islamic law. Bazran in an interview in Turkey:

There was a man with Down Syndrome. He couldn’t understand the situation, to flee, or to run away from the frontline. When ISIS arrived they beheaded him and took photos, shared them on social media and said ‘we killed an atheist, a Kaffir’.

Raushan:

For smoking, they chop your fingers off. Drinking is punished by jail. And if a woman is seen in the company of a man who is not her relative, she is stoned to death.

They say ISIS also abducted a group of high-schoolers in Aleppo for exams and made the boys study Shariah law in a mosque, shocking them with electric cables if they did not learn quickly enough.

Killed at 7:50 a.m.

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A Twitter user who has offered previously credible accounts of ISIS activities says a captive dressed in an orange jumpsuit was driven to a hill near Raqqa where Foley was beheaded. Roads are sealed, and a man with a knife is present. @Raqqa_SI:

We believe it’s the same person who executed the reporters before.

The killing takes place at 7:50 a.m. local time (00:50 Eastern time):

Isis beheaded this captive at 7:50 am and many cars went with them, one of cars were carrying a big TV camera in it

The Twitter user says two more cameras captured the killing, and another prisoner is readied to appear in a video:

We notice a Nissan red station and a black 4×4, in this black car there was another captive who was protected with many Isis troop

14 Sep, 2014

Executes eight Sunnis

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ISIS executes eight people in a Sunni village over the course of two days. An eyewitness says that on Friday night a pair of masked ISIS gunmen openly murdered a police officer in al-Jumasah village, 75 miles north of Tikrit, after accusing him of spying for the Kurdish and Iraqi military forces. They gather residents in the village square to watch the execution:

Islamic State members said that this is the fate of anyone who opposes them. They presented as evidence CDs and copies of the man’s correspondences with the security forces.

A small group of villagers opens fire on the house of an ISIS officer after the policeman’s killing. On Saturday morning, 10 Islamic State cars drive around al-Jumasah with two masked informants who help identify 10 people suspected of attacking the ISIS member’s house. On Saturday evening, three are released and seven others – all but one relatives of the slain policeman – are executed.

13 Sep, 2014

Haines executed, Henning threatened

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isis-david-cawthorne-hainesISIS releases a video showing the execution of British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines. In the video, titled ‘A Message To The Allies of America’, Haines is shown kneeling on a bare hillside under the open sky in a landscape that appears identical to those where journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley were executed. He reads from a script:

I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution. You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State. Unfortunately, it is we the British public that in the end will pay the price for our Parliament’s selfish decisions.

A black-clad executioner then issues a threat against another British hostage, a man identified as Alan Henning. The man’s voice and his distinctive London accent are similar to those of the same person who appeared in the videotaped executions of Sotloff and Foley. He threatens Prime Minister David Cameron:

If you, Cameron, persist in fighting the Islamic State, then you, like your master Obama, will have the blood of your people on your hands.

ALAN-HENNING

He says that the Western allies have no chance of winning:

Your evil alliance with America which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha Dam will only accelerate your destruction and playing the role of the obedient lapdog Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.

9 Sep, 2014

Kills 17 Sunnis

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ISIS kills at least 17 Sunni tribesmen in an apparent revenge attack. The group deploys an explosives-laden Humvee – apparently captured from the Iraqi military – at an entrance to the town of Dhuluiya, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. Some of the district’s most prominent Sunni tribes, including the Al-Jabour, have been openly fighting the Sunni extremists of ISIS for the last two months.

8 Sep, 2014

Suicide bombs kill nine Sunnis

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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.

6 Sep, 2014

Lebanese soldier ‘beheaded’

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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.

3 Sep, 2014

Steven Sotloff beheaded

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isis-steven-sotloffA video appears to show the killing by ISIS of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. The man identified as Sotloff addresses the camera:

I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing. Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?

A militant warns the U.S.:

Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.

The militant then appears to kill Sotloff by beheading him.

Sotloff was last seen alive at the end of a similar video which showed the execution by beheading of American journalist James Foley. He told Obama that his life was in the President’s hands. The most recent video ends with an apparent threat against the life of a man identified as David Cawthorne Haines, a British citizen.

28 Aug, 2014

American ISIS fighter killed

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isis-douglas-mcarthur-mccainAmerican national Douglas McArthur McCain is killed fighting for ISIS against the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. He is believed to be the first U.S. citizen killed while fighting for the group, also known as Islamic State.

19 Aug, 2014

James Foley beheaded by ISIS

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foley-stillFoley is beheaded by ISIS in a video posted online and titled A Message to America. Foley addresses the camera before his death, leaving a message for his brother, John, who serves in the US Air Force:

I died that day, John, when your colleagues dropped that bomb on these people. They signed my death certificate.

Foley recites a long list of anti-American statements, and ends his speech with:

I wish I had more time, I wish I could have the hope of freedom and see my family once again, but that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.

There is a member of the Islami State shown standing over Foley:

Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty & safety under the Islamic caliphate, will result in the bloodshed of your people.

Foley is then beheaded, and his head is placed on top of his body.

27 Jan, 2014

Senior militant killed

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A senior Iraqi intelligence official says senior ISIS leader Haji Bakr has been assassinated in a killing related to the dispute between ISIS and other opposition groups. Haji Bakr’s real name was Sameer Abid Mohammed Al-Halefawi, and he is reported to have served as an air-defense officer in Saddam Hussein’s army before joining Al Qaeda in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.