Iran might cooperate
Sources in Tehran tell BBC Persian that Ayatollah Khamenei has authorised his top commander to coordinate military operations with the U.S., Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Iran traditionally opposes U.S. involvement in Iraq. The Iranian foreign ministry officially denies that it will cooperate with the U.S. against ISIS.
Coaches militants
0 CommentsMembers of ISIS begin to coach members of an Egyptian militant groups, complicating the effort to stabilize the largest Arab nation.The Sinai-based senior command, Al-Maqdis, is responsible for killing hundreds of members of Egyptian security forces in the span of one year. ISIS now provides this particular militant group with instructions on how to more effectively operate. Al-Maqdis:
They teach us how to carry out operations. We communicate through the Internet. They don’t give us weapons or fighters. But they teach us how to create secret cells, consisting of five people. Only one person has contact with other cells.
‘Not as dangerous as Al Qaeda’
The top U.S. counterterror official says ISIS presents a threat to U.S. security but is not as grave a threat as Al Qaeda. National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen says at a Brookings Institute event that the group could inspire a lone wolf attack by a sympathizer in the U.S.:
[ISIS] poses a direct and significant threat to us [and] has the potential to use its safe haven to plan and coordinate attacks in Europe and the United States
But it is not as capable of carrying out a large-scale attack as al Qaeda was before 9/11:
ISIL is not al Qaeda pre 9/11. We are not what we were pre 9/11. We are so much better postured, in so many ways, to see, detect, stop any attack like what we saw on 9/11.
The major threat is to U.S. troops in Iraq:
We have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the United States … in the near term, we’re focused on protecting our personnel on the ground in Iraq.
Top ISIS officials killed
The Iraqi military confirms that al-Baghdadi’s top aide, Abu Hajar al-Souri, has been killed in an airstrike in Mosul. It says that the head of ISIS’s military council in the city of Tal Afar, Abu Alaa al-Iraqi, has also been killed in air operations in Mosul.
The Times commentary
Obama and Cameron write in a commentary for The Times that global security is under threat from Russia’s unilateral actions in the Crimea and Ukraine and the ability of groups like ISIS to develop state-like powers:
The growth of technology and globalisation, for all its great benefits and opportunities, has put power once reserved for States in the hands of the individual, raising the capacity of terrorists to do harm. The utterly despicable murders of two American journalists by ISIL are but the latest evidence of a brutal and poisonous extremism that murders indiscriminately and risks exporting terrorism abroa.
Isolationism has no place in the global era:
Of course there are some who say that we shouldn’t get involved in addressing these threats, that in Britain and America we have done our bit for the world and we should leave today’s problems for others to sort out. … First, those who believe in stepping back and adopting an isolationist approach misunderstand the nature of security in the 21st century. Developments in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria threaten our security at home.
They say NATO can adapt to the new global security environment, and renew calls for a rapid response force to tackle the Russian aggression and for member nations to commit to spending 2% of GDP on defense. Military, economic and political force must all be utilized:
We know that terrorist organisations thrive where there is political instability and weak or dysfunctional political institutions. So we must invest in the building blocks of free and open societies, including the creation of a new genuinely inclusive Government in Iraq that can unite all Iraqis, including Sunni, Shia, Kurdish, Christian and other minority populations. When the threats to our security increasingly emanate from outside the borders of our Alliance, we must do more to build partnerships with others around the globe who share our values and want to build a safe, tolerant and peaceful world – that includes supporting the partners who are taking the fight to ISIL on the ground, as we have done by stepping up support for Kurdish and Iraqi Security Forces. And we should use our expertise to provide training and mentoring to forces elsewhere, whether in Georgia or the Middle East, strengthening the capacity of forces there to tackle local threats.
The U.S. and UK will continue to lead the alliance:
… It is only by supporting peace, democracy and human rights around the globe that we will keep British and American families safe today.
Family: Killing is ‘great sin’
Steven Sotloff’s family says ISIS has violated many tenets of Islam by killing him. Family spokesman Barak Barfi accuses the group of the Arabic concept of a ‘great sin’:
I have a message for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Where is your mercy? Wayluk.
He cites several Quran passages and says ISIS has violated them:
I am here debating you with kindness. I don’t have a sword in my hand, and I am ready for your answer.
Could launch airstrikes without Assad’s support
Cameron says the UK could take action including launching airstrikes without approval from the Assad government as the regime has no legitimacy under international law:
President Assad is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Assad’s brutality gave credence to IS [Islamic State]
He says problems with governance in Iraq also led to the group’s rise there:
… There was an Iraqi government that was standing up for the Shias and not the Sunnis and the Kurds that again left a space for this poisonous organisation to fill
Asked whether a pragmatic deal with Assad is needed in the face of the greater ISIS threat:
In the past just simply saying ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ has led to all sorts of moral quagmires and difficulties. Assad has been part of the creation of Islamic State rather than being part of its answer.
Outlaws Islamic State
In an official declaration, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon outlaws the Islamic State. Meetings of any kind between members of the Islamic State is now illegal. Israel braces for the possible emergence of Islamic extremists cells in the country. The decree opens the gateway for legal prosecution of any local group that may fund jihadist. Illegal activity also includes ‘suggesting, inciting or encouraging’ acts of terrorism against the Israeli government. The statement allows the seizure of assets by the state of any who are affiliating with such groups.
Ya’alon:
This is necessary in order to protect state security, the public welfare and public order.
State Department video
The State Department creates a mock ISIS propaganda video intended to dissuade potential recruits from joining. The video titled ‘Welcome to the ‘Islamic State’ Land’ promises viewers they will ‘learn useful skills for the Ummah’ such as ‘blowing up mosques,’ ‘crucifying and executing Muslims,’ and ‘suicide bombings inside mosques.’ It shows clips from ISIS’s own propaganda videos of the group’s atrocities such as crucifixions, displays of mutilated corpses in the public square, mass executions and disposal of bodies in a pit. Tagline:
Run, Do Not Walk, To ISIS Country
Boston man may be ISIS media coordinator
0 CommentsA senior law enforcement official says authorities suspect that Boston man Ahmad Abousamra, a Syrian-American dual citizen who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, may be running ISIS’s social media campaign. A 2009 indictment states that Abousamra and alleged co-conspirators formed the media wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and the security official says he may be performing a similar role for ISIS. His FBI profile says that he is thought to be living in Aleppo, Syria, where he is reported to have fled in 2006 after being questioned by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Thousands attend soldier’s funeral
Thousands attend the funeral of Lebanese soldier Sgt. Ali Sayid, 29, who was executed by militants aligned with ISIS and the Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. In a Lebanese tradition when a young person dies, the mourners rock the coffin from side to side under a banner of his face. They fire weapons into the air and protest at what they say is failure by the government to negotiate for his release and the release of 26 other security personnel abducted along with him. His uncle, Ahmad Sayid:
He was betrayed by all the politicians, all of them! By parliamentarians and officials, and by the country. He was sold for a cheap price!
House lawmakers urge Syria strikes
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior members urge Obama to authorize strikes against ISIS in Syria. Panel chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member:
Target them and target the terrorist training camp where they’re bringing thousands of fighters from around the world, putting them through training over a period of weeks to teach them how to conduct terrorist activities. Those camps and the munitions should be targeted as well.
Cold threatens Iraq refugees
The UN High Commission on Refugees says the upcoming winter threatens to worsen conditions for around half a million displaced Iraqis receiving UN aid in August. A statement:
Time is now of the essence in providing support to Iraq’s displaced. Winter is approaching fast, with snow, rain and muddy conditions. In less than three months from now, daily temperatures will average less than ten degrees Celsius, and the rains will begin.
The agency says it has provided more than 100,000 mattresses, 10,000 family tents, and 40,000 jerry cans for water as well as tens of thousands of other essential items for some of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled into the northern Kurdistan region. It will send another 10 aid flights into Erbil over the next few days to supply 40,000 blankets, 10,000 kitchen sets, and almost 18,000 plastic tarpaulins. However the accommodation situation remains acute and the agency needs extra financial support:
UNHCR, as a part of the UN humanitarian relief effort, will be launching an appeal for an additional US$350 million to help meet these needs. The main focus will be on providing life-saving protection services and assistance to respond to the most urgent basic needs of displaced Iraqis, including winterization support.
Hid Jewish identity
Jewish leaders and people who knew Sotloff say that he hid his Jewish identity from ISIS. This includes concealing dual U.S.-Israeli nationality and that he worked for Israeli media outlets.
A person who was held captive by ISIS at the same time says he managed to fast on Yom Kippur and pray secretly towards Jerusalem. Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report where Sotloff had filed stories, says they refused to aknowledge a relationship with him, for Sotloff’s protection.
‘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.
Steven Sotloff beheaded
A 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.
Biden warns ISIS
Biden says the U.S. is grieving the deaths of Foley and Sotloff and will bring ISIS to justice:
They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.
He says America will not be intimidated by brutal acts like the beheading by ISIS of the two journalists:
We came back after 9/11. We dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama bin Laden would never, ever again threaten the American people. We came back after Boston strong, blaming no one but resolving to be certain that this didn’t happen again. As a nation, we’re united, and when people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget.
Jewish-Israeli Connections Hidden
Sotloff’s parents decide to keep his Jewish roots and Israeli citizenship a secret from the media and the world at large, after his disappearance in Syria in August 2013. They fear that if his true identity is discovered, he would be at a greater risk of being tortured and killed, and orchestrate a yearlong campaign to delete all references connecting him to Judaism and Israel from the internet. A total of 150 individuals speaking 20 different languages work to remove every article, page, post, and tweet that could potentially endanger Sotloff. (His Jewishness and Israeli citizenship are only made public are his murder.) A friend tells interviewers:
We had information ISIS was not aware of Steven’s Jewish background, and certainly unaware of his Israeli citizenship – this is what we were told by other journalists who were with him and were released. He was killed because of his connections to the West and his American citizenship, not because of his ties to Israel.
US will ‘degrade and destroy’ ISIS militants
At a news conference in Estonia, Obama promises to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, the group responsible for beheading a second America journalist, Steven Sotloff.
We will not be intimidated. Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.
He also vows that the U.S. would continue to lead the battle against “the kind of barbaric and empty vision that [ISIS] represents.”
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