‘We will send ISIS to death’
Outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki promises to turn the country into a ‘grave’ for ISIS. During an unannounced visit to the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli, he orders promotions and awards for those who fought in the weekend battle to successfully break an ISIS siege:
I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers … All Iraq will be a grave for those infidels, and we will send all the [ISIS] gang to death
‘Ethnic cleansing’
Amnesty International says ISIS is carrying out ‘a wave’ of ethnic cleansing in Iraq. A statement says the group have:
…launched a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq, carrying out war crimes, including mass summary killings and abductions, against ethnic and religious minorities.
It says several mass killings took place in Sinjar in August:
Two of the deadliest incidents took place when IS fighters raided the villages of Qiniyeh on 3 August and Kocho on 15 August. The number of those killed in these villages alone runs into the hundreds. Groups of men and boys including children as young as 12 from both villages were seized by IS militants, taken away and shot.
Senior Crisis Advisor Donatella Rovera:
Instead of aggravating the fighting by either turning a blind eye to sectarian militias or arming Shi’a militias against the Islamic State as the authorities have done so far, Iraq’s government should focus on protecting all civilians regardless of their ethnicity or religion. The people of northern Iraq deserve to live free from persecution without fearing for their lives at every turn. Those ordering, carrying out, or assisting in these war crimes must be apprehended and brought to justice.
‘Bring the battlefield home’
A Scottish-born girl is reported to have have moved to Syria and has disseminated jihadi messages via Twitter. The ‘@Umm Layth_’ Twitter account believed to be operated by is currently suspended. A tweet in June apparently supporting the Lee Rigby murder, Boston Marathon bombing and Fort Hood, Tx., shootings:
Follow the examples of your brothers from Woolwich, Texas and Boston. If you cannot make it to the battlefield, then bring the battlefield to yourself.
Police spokesman:
A 19-year-old female from Scotland was reported missing to us by her family in November 2013. Inquiries are ongoing in relation to her whereabouts and we are supporting her family.
‘Cluster munitions’
Human Rights Watch cites ‘credible evidence’ that ISIS has used cluster munitions in at least one location in northern Syria in recent weeks. Local Kurdish officials and photographic evidence show the extremist group used cluster munitions on July 12 and August 14 during fighting around the town of Ayn al-Arab – known as Kobani in Kurdish – in Aleppo governorate near the northern border with Turkey. A statement:
The use of cluster munitions by non-state actors such as the Islamic State shows the urgent need for Syria and all nations that have not yet done so to join the ban on cluster munitions and destroy their stockpiles
UK: Majority oppose airstrikes
A poll by The Independent finds that 35% of respondents agree Britain should take part in airstrikes against ISIS while 50% disagree and 15% say they don’t know. At 42%, men are more likely to support airstrikes than women, with 28%. It finds that 69% of respondents say the UK shouldn’t send ground troops and only 20% say it should.
Austria arrests suspected militant
A Chechen asylum seeker suspected of preparing to join Islamist fighters in Syria is arrested in Austria. The man is believed to have fought in Syria last year and come to Austria in December for medical treatment and to apply for asylum. Police spokesman Markus Haindl:
[He] had concrete plans to travel back to Syria
German arms shipments worth $92 million
The value of Germany’s planned arms shipments to Kurdish fighters will total $92 million (70 million euros) if a Bundestag vote approves the consignments following Merkel’s address to the lower house of the parliament. The non-binding vote is expected to approve the measure easily, as Merkel’s conservatives and the allied Social Democrats hold a large majority. The shipments would break a post-war German policy of not sending arms to war zones, and are unpopular with the general public, according to opinion polls.
Germany to arm Kurds
German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen announces the country will ship enough armour-piercing missiles, assault rifles and other military equipment to equip a 4,000-strong brigade of Kurdish fighters by the end of September. The weapons will be delivered in tranches and include 8,000 G36 assault rifles, the same number of G3 rifles, 30 Milan anti-tank missile systems equipped with 500 missiles, and five Dingo armoured cars as well as other arms and ammunition.
Not least because of the number of foreign fighters, it threatens our security in Germany and Europe.
Cargo plane comes under fire
ISIS militants fire on a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules C-130 cargo plane with small arms and heavy machineguns during an airdrop over the Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli in northern Iraq. With the drop taking place at night, the rebels fire by noise rather than sight as the darkened planes flew below 300 meters to make the delivery of 15 bundles of water, biscuits and hygiene packs. U.S. fighter jets flying top cover respond with maximum force after being guided in by a high-flying U.S. Air Force J-Star spy plane.
‘Threat to German security’
Merkel says in a speech to the Bundestag lower house that ISIS now controls an area in Iraq and Syria that is half the size of Germany:
The far-reaching detribalization of an entire region affects Germany and Europe … When terrorists take control of a vast territory to give themselves and other fanatics a base for their acts of terror, then the danger rises for us, then our security interests are affected
Notifies Congress on Amerli air operation
Obama officially notifies Congress that he authorized airstrikes against ISIS and humanitarian airdrops over the weekend in the besieged Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says the Amerli operation is…
…consistent with the military missions we have outlined to date in Iraq – to protect U.S. personnel and facilities and to address the humanitarian situation on the ground.
Northern town retaken
Iraqi Kurdish forces and armed Shia volunteers recapture the northern famring town of Sulaiman Bek, killing Mussab Mamoud, the ISIS leader in the town, and military wing commander Mazen Zaki along with more than 20 other fighters. General Abdul Amir al-Zaidi, head of the Dijala Operations command:
The town of Suleiman Bek has been liberated from Islamic State by the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga as well as local volunteers including the Peace Brigade, Badr Corps and Asaib Ahel-al-Haq
Reexamining military measures
Cameron says the government is reexamining the possibility of joining ‘military measures’ U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, and could act without prior approval from Parliament:
If there was a direct threat to British national interest, or indeed, as in the case with Libya when we had to act very, very rapidly to prevent a human catastrophe, the British Government must reserve the right to act immediately and to inform the House of Commons afterwards.
‘Mosul leaflet drop’
American planes drop leaflets ‘bearing the signature of the Iraqi defence ministry’ over Mosul, apparently as a prelude to bombing ISIS’s headquarters in the city. A source:
The American planes dropped leaflets this evening on the city of Mosul, asking the residents to evacuate their homes, which are close to the headquarters of ISIS, and to stay away from the gatherings of its elements
To send investigative team
The UN votes to send a team to Iraq to investigate what it says are summary mass executions, forced conversions, abductions, slavery, sexual abuse, torture and the besieging of entire communities by ISIS. Deputy high commissioner for human rights Flavia Pansieri:
The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale
The councils says ISIS has also banned women in Mosul from walking unaccompanied by a male guardian or risk being beaten, and using children as checkpoint sentries, informants and even suicide bombers. Of the 47-member Human Rights Council’s 47 members, only South Africa withholds support, saying the resolution is unbalanced.
‘Seeks Western attack’
Rogers warns that ISIS wants an attack on the west to raise its profile:
Isis would like to have a Western-style attack to continue this notion that they are the leading jihadist group in the world
A major aspect of the threat to the U.S. is returning ISIS-trained American fighters, and they should be charged under laws prohibiting terror support:
I’m very concerned because we don’t know every single person that has an American passport that has gone and trained and learned how to fight
Arrests 16-year-old female ‘jihadi’
French authorities arrest a 16-year-old girl at Nice airport as she attempts to depart for Syria ‘for jihad.’ Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says a man around the age of 20 has also been arrested on suspicion of being her handler and purchasing her airline ticket to Turkey.
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.
‘They will attack us whenever they can’
King, who sits on the House Homeland Security and Intelligence Committee, issues a warning that the ISIS will target the U.S. at any opportunity:
Al Qaeda didn’t need a grievance to attack us on 9/11. These groups, they don’t need any excuse. They will attack us whenever they can. I believe strongly that ISIS does plan on attacking the United States.
Will support Sunnis fighting ISIS
Al-Abadi says the government is willing to support Sunnis against ISIS as the group threatens to overrun Sunni-majority Anbar province, but they must accept state control:
I am not ready to send troops from the south to liberate Nineveh or Anbar or any other areas. I want the people of Nineveh to liberate their area … and Anbar’s people to liberate their areas, and they will be backed by the elite forces. Our army and our air forces will back those people, and I am ready to support all of them, even the armed groups which used to fight the state … We are ready to form local forces in Anbar, Nineveh and Salahadin, but they have to be under the control of the state.