To deploy troops, aircraft
Abbott announces that Australia will deploy 400 air force personnel and 200 special forces troops to the United Arab Emirates where they will be based at a U.S. facility in preparation for possible military operations against ISIS. Eight Super Hornet jets, an EWAC (Early Warning and Control) plane and a tanker aircraft for aerial refueling will be deployed. He tells reporters in the Northern Territory capital city Darwin that the government considers the deployment ‘prudent and proportionate’, but that there there are ‘obviously further decisions to be taken’ before Australian forces commit to combat action.
I have to warn the Australian people that should this preparation and deployment extend into combat operations, that this could go on for quite some time
Salmond: ‘Unspeakable barbarism’
Salmond says the execution by ISIS militants of British aid worker Haines is an ‘unspeakable act of barbarism.’ He indicates that an independent Scotland would favor combating ISIS as the murder of Haines underscores the growing threat the group poses to UK citizens, after the group threatened British volunteer Alan Henning in the video of Haines’s death. But unilateral action would not be considered:
You can’t have a strategy where you bow to terrorism. There’s an urgent requirement to get back to collective [action] under the United Nations.
Executes eight Sunnis
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.
Family statement
Haines’s family issues a statement following his death. The aid worker, who spent 12 years with the Royal Air Force and served with the United Nations, has two daughters – Bethany, 17, and Athea, four, who lives with his Croatian second wife, Dragana. His brother:
David was like so very many of us, just another bloke. Born in 1970 to parents who loved us both, our childhood was centred around our family. He was, in the right mood, the life and soul of the party and on other times the most stubborn irritating pain in the ass. He would probably say the same about me. David served with the UN in the Balkans, helping people in real need. There are many accolades from people in that region that David helped. He helped whoever needed help, regardless of race, creed or religion. David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles. His joy and anticipation for the work he went to do in Syria is for myself and family the most important element of this whole sad affair. He was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly.
Emergency Cobra meeting
Cameron chairs an emergency meeting of Cobra, the UK emergency response committee, to decide on the government’s response to the release by ISIS of a video said to show the execution of British aid worker David Haines. Statement ahead of the meeting:
This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.
Hostage identified
The hostage threatened by ISIS in its videotaped execution of British aid worker Haines is identified as 47-year-old Alan Henning, a taxi driver from the northwest of England. Friends of Henning who were also captured but later released say an aid convoy they were traveling with was stopped by masked gunmen after crossing the Turkish border and Henning was separated from the others. His disappearance has previously been kept secret by his family at the advice of the British Foreign Office (FCO) while negotiations are made for his release.
Arab nations offer to join strikes
Arab states believed to include the UAE and Saudi Arabia offer to help attack ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq. U.S. official:
There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action.
U.S. officials decline to say which countries have offered help, but one appears to be the UAE. A senior western official says Saudi Arabia is prepared to act in a frontline role:
There is a very real possibility that we could have the Saudi air force bombing targets inside Syria. That is a remarkable development, and something the U.S. would be very pleased to see.
Another senior official says Saudi Arabia is far more willing to play an open role in the campaign against ISIS than during the 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In those campaigns it allowed military bases to be used by U.S. forces but did not commit its own forces, but Riyadh now sees ISIS as a direct threat:
They actually see themselves as the real target. “They know that they have to step up, and they are ready to, from what we can see.
Condemns third beheading
Cameron:
This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. It is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal. We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.
Obama:
The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines by the terrorist group ISIL.
Haines executed, Henning threatened
ISIS 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.
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.
‘Third world war’
Pope Francis says that conflicts around the globe represent a third World War. During a Mass held at Italy’s largest war memorial, a Fascist-era monument where 100,000 soldiers who died in World War One are buried, the pontiff appears to be referring to the recent conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine and Africa. The homily:
Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep … War is madness. Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction … War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: it seeks to grow by destroying. Greed, intolerance, the lust for power. These motives underlie the decision to go to war and they are too often justified by an ideology.
‘Kinetic military action’
Kerry says the U.S. is not fighting a war against ISIS, but is engaged in a counterterrorism campaign. Commenting after Obama’s primetime speech indicates the government is considering expanding airstrikes into Syria:
Look, we’re engaged in a counterterrorism operation of a significant order. And counterterrorism operations can take a long time, they go on. I think ‘war’ is the wrong reference term with respect to that, but obviously it involves kinetic military action
Raises terror threat to ‘High’
Australia raises its terror threat level to High from Medium at the advice of the Australian Secret Intelligence Organization (ASIO), indicating that an attack is considered ‘likely’ but not imminent.
Abbott:
We have no specific intelligence of a particular plot. What we do have is that there are people with the intent and capability to mount attacks.
‘Discussed infiltrating Mexican border’
A counter-terror official says ISIS militants have discussed the possibility of entering the U.S. via the Mexican border over social media, but says the Department of Homeland Security believes the border currently remains safe. Francis Taylor, DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis:
There have been Twitter and social-media exchanges among ISIL adherents across the globe speaking about that as a possibility. [DHS is] satisfied that we have the intelligence and the capability at our border that would prevent that activity.
Not ‘at war’
The Secretary of State repeatedly neglects using the term “war” when describing the military conflict of the United States against ISIS, explaining why the term “war” is not appropriate to use. Kerry:
What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation. It’s going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it’s a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.
The comment generates confusion on Capitol Hill. McCain:
It’s hard to find a response to that. Then what was the president talking about [Wednesday] night?
Germany bans support
Germany announces the ban of Islamic State support including the black flag and social media activity to further suppress the propaganda and recruitment of the extremist groups. The police now have the right of power to immediately respond without involving the cumbersome judicial system. Maiziere:
Germany is a true democracy, and there is no place here for a terror organization directed at the constitutional system and the belief in understanding among different peoples.
Jeddah Communique
The leaders of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council – the alliance of Sunni Arab Gulf nations that includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE – sign a document called the stating that they have formally Obama’s coalition against ISIS (full text here). The Jeddah Communique:
The ministers representing states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the United States declared their shared commitment to stand united against the threat posed by all terrorism, including the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), to the region and the world … The participants resolved to strengthen their support for the new Iraqi Government in its efforts to unite all Iraqis in combatting ISIL and discussed a strategy to destroy ISIL wherever it is, including in both Iraq and Syria.
Severed head photo
Sharrouf tweets a photo apparently showing his seven-year-old son holding the decapitated head of a Syrian soldier. Caption:
That’s my boy
In the photographs featuring Sharrouf and his son the heads are blackened and bloated, having been dead for a week.
Mass grave found
A mass grave is found in Nineveh province northwest of Mosul, and is assumed to contain the bodies of prisoners executed by ISIS. Security official:
The residents in the city of Ahmidat, 34 km northwest of al-Mosul, have found a mass grave containing the remains of 400 unidentified bodies, presumably belong to those of whom were executed by firing squads at the prison of Badush [in] June.
‘Obama strategy is credible’
Gen. Petraeus says that Obama’s strategy to counter ISIS will likely be successful, although the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria take years. ISIS is not as great a threat as Al Qaeda was during the height of the Iraq War:
This is not the kind of Iraq on fire, complete desperation we had during the surge. [ISIS] has nowhere the roots and the structure of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The formation of a more inclusive government will address sectarian tensions:
It’s a new Iraqi government now. There’s new hope, there’s outreach.
This could be vital in ensuring the strategy is a success, as ISIS capitalized on sectarian divisions and chain-of-command vulnerabilities when routing the Iraqi military in the group’s initial offensives:
The third failing was the population was not happy with sectarian and loyalist leaders.
In Syria, opposition to ISIS is less cohesive and the Assad regime may have to be removed before a credible force can be assembled against ISIS:
This is going to be years, not months.
UK, Germany: No air strikes
A day after President Obama tells American that the US will be joined by “a broad coalition of partners,” Britain and Germany announce they will not be participating in airstrikes against ISIS. British foreign secretary Philip Hammond says Parliament decided against participating in airstrikes in 2013, and it won’t be “revisiting” the matter. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country would not participate either.
To be quite clear, we have not been asked to do so and neither will we do so.