‘We don’t have a strategy yet’
Obama says that his administration hasn’t yet developed a strategy to combat ISIS, as speculation mounts that the U.S. will bomb ISIS in Syria. To reporters:
I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet. I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggests that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we’re at than we currently are.
Peacekeepers detained in Syria
The United Nations confirms that 43 international peacekeepers are being detained in the Syrian Golan Heights, as fighting intensifies near Quneitra.
In addition, another eighty-one UNDOF peacekeepers are currently being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah … The United Nations is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers, and to restore the full freedom of movement of the Force throughout its area of operation.
Foreign women perform ‘sexual jihad’
Malaysian, Australian and British women are traveling to the Middle East to perform jihad al-nikah to boost the morale of ISIS fighters. Unnamed Malaysian intelligence official:
These women are believed to have offered themselves in sexual comfort roles to ISIS fighters who are attempting to establish Islamic rule in the Middle East. This concept may seem controversial but it has arisen as certain Muslim women here are showing sympathy for the ISIS struggle.
The official says a Malaysian woman in her 30s went to Turkey in December and met up with middlemen to complete the journey to Syria via land routes, while a Malaysian woman in her 40s linked up with the militants in April. Intelligence exchanged with other countries revealed that Sunni Muslim women from Australia and the United Kingdom have also joined up with ISIS.
War crimes
United Nations investigators say that both Damascus and ISIS have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity:
Violence has bled over the borders of the Syrian Arab republic, with extremism fuelling the conflict’s heightened brutality.
A 45-page report released in Geneva says that the government has dropped barrel bombs on civilian areas, including some believed to contain chlorine, while deaths in custody are rising and analysis of photographs taken in government detention centres reinforces ‘longstanding findings of systematic torture and deaths of detainees,’ including fighting-age men allegedly arrested during forced truces. It says ISIS has used amputations, public execution-style killings and whippings to instill terror in areas under its control, as well as ‘acts tantamount to enforced disappearance and forced displacement as part of attacks on the civilian population in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces.’
Journalist’s mother pleads with ‘caliph’
Shirley Sotloff issues a video plea to Al-Baghdadi on the New York Times website to release her journalist son, Steven, held by ISIS since 2013:
You, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you please to release my child. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.
She says Steven is an ‘innocent’ journalist who has no control over the U.S. government’s policies:
As a mother, I ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over.
She says he has been studying Islam since his capture:
I ask you to use your authority to spare his life and to follow the example set by the Prophet Muhammad, who protected People of the Book [Jews and Christans].
‘Interventionism created ISIS’
Paul criticizes Clinton’s foreign policy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, saying that interventionism led to the rise of ISIS:
To interventionists like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we would caution that arming the Islamic rebels in Syria created a haven for the Islamic State. We are lucky Mrs. Clinton didn’t get her way and the Obama administration did not bring about regime change in Syria. That new regime might well be ISIS.
He adds:
[…] Those who say we should have done more to arm the Syrian rebel groups have it backward. This is not to say the U.S. should ally with Assad. But we should recognize how regime change in Syria could have helped and emboldened the Islamic State, and recognize that those now calling for war against ISIS are still calling for arms to factions allied with ISIS in the Syrian civil war.
#StevensHeadInObamasHands hashtag
ISIS is promoting the hashtag #StevensHeadInObamasHands, an apparent threat against U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff, believed to be captured by the group. The tag is first released in a forum where the group tends to issue publications and instructions. In one use of the hashtag, a doctored photo shows an ISIS fighter with Obama’s face holding Sotloff prisoner, with the caption ‘Why would I care about him?’ Accompanying tweet:
Hey American .. This picture is a copy of the reality that you are not aware of it !
‘Massacred 700 Turkmen’
The UN says ISIS has massacred about 700 Shiite Turkmen. The victims include ‘women, children and old people,’ UNICEF Iraq chief Marzio Babille says. The killings are reported to have been carried out in the northern Iraqi village of Beshir between July 11 and 12.
Hijacks hashtags
ISIS hijacks popular hashtags in order to promote its messages as part of a sophisticated social media campaign, experts say. In one example of the tactic, a Twitter account related to the militant group, also known as Islamic State, appears to co-opts the #napaquake and #AskRicky hashtags, among others, to spread an image of a masked fighter holding an assault rifle while the White House burns in the background. Accompanying caption:
IF AMERICAN ENTERED THE WAR WE WILL INVADE IT’S [sic] TERRITORY.
Poll: 16% of French support ISIS
A poll of European attitudes towards ISIS shows that around one in six people in France support the group. The poll, carried out by ICM for Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya, shows 16% of French citizens have a positive opinion of ISIS, also known as Islamic state, with the percentage increasing among younger respondents and peaking at 27% for those aged 18-24.
Lawmakers demand ISIS vote
Lawmakers from both sides, President Obama and military leaders are weighing options to expand airstrikes against ISIS. Congress also returns early September. Senator Tim Kaine:
This fight, and the threat posed by ISIL, is serious enough that Congress and the administration must be united on U.S. policy going forward. I urge the administration to use the next two weeks to clearly define the strategy and objectives of its mission against ISIL, then bring it to Congress for a debate and authorization vote.
Kaine also stressed a new vote of authorization is required since the previous authorization of the Iraq war is obsolete.
Report: ISIS targeting Pope
A report in Il Tempo newspaper cites unnamed intelligence officials as saying that ISIS is targeting Pope Francis in order to ‘raise the level of confrontation’ in the Western world. It says the pontiff is the ‘greatest exponent of the Christian religions’ and a ‘bearer of false truths’ against Islam, and that he is…
…in the crosshairs of ISIS
‘Fears of imminent massacre’
There are fears a massacre is imminent of around 13,000 Shiite Turkmen in the northern town of Amerli held under siege by ISIS since June 15, the UN says. The population includes 10,000 women and children who are living in horrendous conditions with severe food and water shortages and no medical services. UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay:
The Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and the international community must take all necessary measures and spare no effort to protect members of ethnic and religious communities, who are particularly vulnerable, and to secure their return to their places of origin in safety and dignity.
Executes 670 Shiite prisoners
The UN says ISIS has executed as many as 670 Shiite inmates of Mosul’s Badush prison. The group abducts between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners from the jail and drove them to an uninhabited area before separating Sunnis from the group. It forces the remaining Shiite prisoners to kneel and verbally abuses them before executing them. High commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay:
Such cold-blooded, systematic and intentional killings of civilians, after singling them out for their religious affiliation, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity
Iran minister pledges solidarity with Iraq
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says his country appreciates efforts by Iraq to reach out to Sunnis and ethnic Kurds to improve regional security. His comments come after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi, who calls for an international effort against the ISIS insurgency. At a news conference:
We feel very comfortable about the democratic process in Iraq which has reached to a logical result through selecting prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi to form an inclusive government that comprises all Iraqi sects. The Islamic Republic of Iran will keep standing by your side. Iran backs the unity of Iraq and the stabilizing of security and considers that as a priority in its foreign policy.
Iraqi PM: ‘International effort needed’
Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi calls for an international war against ISIS during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. A statement from Abadi’s office after the talks:
Abadi pointed to the presence of many dangers posed in the region as a result of the existence of the terrorist gang Islamic State which requires regional and international efforts to exterminate this terrorist organization.
UK not considering airstrikes
British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Peter Westmacott tells CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley his government is not currently considering adding to U.S. air power in Syria. On cooperation with the U.S.:
…we are in this together, and we need a joint operation to really push back against this barbaric behavior. We mean what we say on that.
However when questioned by Crowley on whether this could include British airstrikes:
It is not now contemplated.
‘Close’ to identifying Foley’s killer
British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Peter Westmacott tells CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley that authorities are ‘close’ to identifying the ISIS militant who killed Global Post journalist James Foley in a videotaped beheading:
[…] We’re putting out a great deal of resource into identifying this person. I think we’re not far away from that. We’re putting a lot into it. And there are some very sophisticated technologies, voice identification and so on, which people can use to check who these people are. But, of course, the problem goes beyond one horrendous criminal, if you like […] I do know from my colleagues at home that we are close.
Siezes airbase
ISIS fighters seize the Taqba airbase in Raqqa Province in the north of the country on the Turkish border, effectively giving the group control of the province. The provincial capital, Raqqa, is the group’s long-term de facto headquarters. Photographs posted on Twitter apparently show ISIS fighters in the airbase, standing next to a destroyed aircraft and cutting the head off a dead soldier. The Syrian state news service, SANA, acknowledges that government troops have withdrawn from the air base but says they have successfully ‘regrouped’ and are still fighting nearby.
Former rapper ‘investigated for beheading’
Former rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary is believed to be under investigation for the beheading of Global Post journalist James Foley. Previously known as L Jinny or Lyrical Jinn in a music career that saw his grime tunes played on BBC Radio One in 2012, Bary is believed to have traveled to Syria in 2013 from Maida Vale, west London. His whereabouts in Syria are not known, and his @ItsLJinny Twitter account has been deactivated. Earlier in 2014, he posted a picture of himself online holding a severed head with the caption:
Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him