Releases soldiers
Syrian fighters release three soldiers captured during the assault on the Lebanese border town of Arsal, bringing the total number of soldiers released to five. The group says it is still holding 10 soldiers and 17 policemen. The rebels are reported to pledge allegiance to both ISIS and the Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
Ceasefire in Lebanese town
ISIS and the Lebanese military agree a 24-hour ceasefire in the border town of Arsal from 1600 GMT to allow a mediator to investigate the fate of 22 soldiers believed to be abducted by ISIS and help evacuate civilians. A security source says the army position came under fire shortly after the truce started but that it is still intact.
It is like a humanitarian ceasefire … Clashes erupted but now they have ended. The ceasefire is still on, it did not collapse. What happened was to be expected due to differences between the fighters
Army advances into border town
The Lebanese army advances into the border town of Arsal in a push to drive out ISIS militants who have seized control of the area. Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the government’s most senior Sunni Muslim:
The only solution proposed today is the withdrawal of the militants from Arsal and its environs
Militants give residents ultimatum
Islamist militants attack the towns of Sinjar and Zunmar forcing approximately 40,000 Yazidi families to flee their homes. Residents are given an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a security tax, leave their homes, or die. Jawhar Ali Begg, a Yazidi family member and spokesperson for the Yazidi community:
Thousands of Yazidi people have been killed. And thousands have become refugees. Their town is controlled by Islamic State, and their shrine has been blown up by IS. They’re killing Yazidi people and it’s a big attack against Yazidis.
ISIS takes control of dam
ISIS takes control of Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam. The dam is on the Tigris River and provides power to Mosul. Workers at the dam remain inside the facility. Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, says seizing dams is a tactic the group uses to gain control of a town and its people:
If you control the Mosul Dam, you can threaten just about everybody.
Qantas re-routes flights over Iraq
Heeding the warnings from US and France regulators,Qantas Airways temporarily re-routes the two daily flights from Dubai to London over Iranian airspace. Although there are international sanctions against Iran, US carriers are allowed to pay a fee to land there in an emergency. The decision comes a week after Emirates, an alliance partner, said it would stop flights over Iraq in response to information from the US claiming that Islamic militants had obtained high-altitude surface-to-air missiles from Syria. The information is currently being investigated.
Capture of Sinjar sparks ‘humanitarian tragedy’
Jihadist fighters capture the town of Sinja. A UN statement says some reports put the number of people forced to flee the area by the ISIS takeover at 200,000. According to the top UN envoy in the area a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar. UN:
The United Nations has grave concerns for the physical safety of these civilians.
14 Lebanese soldiers killed
A Lebanese Army statement says its casualties total 14 soldiers killed, 86 wounded and 22 missing from three days of fighting against Syrian rebels claiming to be from both ISIS and Al Qaida affiliate the al-Nusra Front. The rebelssay they are fighting to free rebel commander Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who has pledged allegiance to both groups. Jomaa’s deputy:
Let them release our emir and we are ready to pull out from all over the town … Or else we will escalate and expand, and we will ask for more demands
Lebanese border town attacked
Syrian rebels attack the Lebanese border town of Arsil in an apparent attempt to free a militant, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, detained a day earlier by Lebanese security forces. Army statement:
What happened today is the most dangerous incident Lebanon and the Lebanese have ever faced because it’s made clear that there is someone planning and preparing to attack Lebanon as well as planning to sabotage the Lebanese Army and the residents of Arsal
Arrests rebel commander
The Lebanese army says it has arrested Syrian rebel commander Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who initially confesses allegiance to Al Qaeda branch the Al Nusra Front. He is thought to have more recently switched alliances to join ISIS.
‘Death to Jews’ arrests
Two 32-year-old men are arrested in connection with an investigation into chants at a Hague protest. The public prosecutors office says the men, one from Amsterdam and one from the Hague, are suspected of inciting violence against a population group on the basis of their beliefs and race after it determines that they chanted ‘Death to Jews’ at the protest. Dutch-language tweet from Israel information center CIDI:
People who made themselves unrecognisable, Isis flags, death to Jews and journalists take to safety. The Netherlands 2014.
Orders genital mutilation
The United Nations says that militant group Islamic State had ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq’s northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation. Doubts emerged on social media about the basis for the report. One document posted on Twitter suggested it may be a year old and have been issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the group’s previous name. Humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock:
We have current reports of imposition of a directive that all female girl children and women up to the age of 49 must be circumcised. This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed.
‘Takes gas field’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIS has seized the Sha’ar gas field east of Homs, killing at least 90 of the men guarding it and losing 21 of its fighters in a “wide assault” from several directions. It says a further 270 guards, government forces and militia members loyal to Assad are missing, taken prisoner, wounded or killed. Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman:
Since the beginning of the year there have been clashes between the Islamic State and the regime in some areas, but these are the largest.
Uranium theift
The militant group takes a uranium compound from a university lab in Mosul. Officials tell CNN that the compound that was taken is a small amount that is not of weapon grade, and they expressed minimal concern. A letter from Iraq’s U.N. ambassador about the uranium compounds asks for help as the country struggles with a deadly insurgency:
To stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad.
Expands magazine
ISIS’s propaganda arm, Al-Hayat Media Center, publishes the fifth edition of the group’s weekly magazine, retitled Dabiq and expanded to 50 pages from eight. The magazine includes an editorial explaining the changes in layout, saying it has decided to focus on the concepts of monotheism, receiving knowledge, pilgrimage, holy war and Islamic society:
After a review of some of the comments received on the first issues of Islamic State News and Islamic State Report, AlHayat Media Center decided to carry on the effort – in sha’allah – into a periodical magazine focusing on issues of tawhid, manhaj, hijrah, jihad, jama’ah.
The name of the new magazine refers to the area of Dabiq in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which the group says will be the site of an apocalyptic battle between Islam and the Western ‘crusaders’:
[…] Allah’s messenger said, ‘The Hour will not be established until the Romans land at al-Amaq or Dabiq … then an army from al-Madinah of the best people on the earth at that time will leave for them.’
The lead story focuses on ISIS’s declaration of the new Islamic Caliphate on the first day of Ramadan, including excerpts of speeches by the group’s leaders. Speech by Al-Baghdadi:
O Muslims everywhere, glad tidings to you and expect good. Raise your heads high, for today – by Allah’s grace – you have a state and Khilafah, which will return your dignity, might, rights, and leadership … Therefore, rush O Muslims to your state. Rush, because Syria is not for the Syrians, and Iraq is not for the Iraqis. The earth is Allah’s.
It reports on what it says are efforts by ISIS to build relations with tribal assemblies in Aleppo as part of efforts to establish the caliphate. Other sections include graphic photos of what it says are government atrocities in Nineveh including execution of Sunnis as the Iraqi security forces retreated from ISIS’s advance on Mosul. The second part of the magazine focuses on a lengthy analysis of the concept of imamah (Islamic leadership). The news section focuses on successful ISIS military campaigns and what it says are conversions to the group’s ideology in territories it has captured in Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin and Anbar.
The magazine’s back page expounds further on the apocalyptic events to take place in Dabiq, including a hadith stating that the caliphate will conquer Constantinople (Istanbul), before returning to Sham (the Levant) and defeating the devil in battle.
Airstrikes target ISIS
Government airstrikes kill at least 30 insurgents who are trying to gain control of the Beiji oil refinery. A government plane targeted eight vehicles that were attacking government forces at the facility yesterday. The militants have taken control of Qaim, which controls a border crossing with Syria, last month during their blitz across Iraq, and now control a vast stretch of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Kidnapped drivers released
Turkey’s foreign minister says 32 drivers believed to have been kidnapped by ISIS militants last month are released in Iraq. The drivers were on their way to the airport in northern Iraq to board a flight back to Turkey when they went missing. Additionally, in June, the militants raided the Turkish Consulate in Mosul and abducted many staff members. There are still 40 staff members missing.
‘Jihadi Vogue’
Twitter users create a fake Jihadi Vogue magazine cover to spoof ISIS. The cover offers style tips on the right headbands to wear in combat, ‘eight reasons why moustaches are out,’ and ‘accessorize like a neo-Abassid.’
https://twitter.com/abuwaheeb_ISIS/statuses/488697707591376897
Texas man pleads guilty to terror support
University of Texas student Rahatul Ashikim Khan, 23, of Round Rock, Tx., pleads guilty to charges of supporting terrorism after investigators say he had been recruiting jihadi fighters through an online chat room under the user name AuthenticTauheed19. He faces up to 15 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set. A statement by U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman:
Rahatul Khan’s admissions during this morning’s guilty plea should serve as a sobering reminder that we need to remain vigilant in our efforts to detect and root out terrorism, even in our own back yard
California man arrested
Authorities arrest 20-year-old Orange County native Adam Dandach, also known as Fadi Fadi Dandach, as he is about to board a flight bound for Istanbul. A detention order shows that under questioning, he says that he planned to travel to Syria:
[…] that he would assist ISIS with anything the ISIS asked him to do, and that he believed the killings of U.S. soldiers are justified killings.
He is detained as a flight risk and a danger to his community, and indited on two felonies relating to his replacement passport, after authorities discover that his mother hid his original passport to prevent him flying overseas. The detention order:
Dandach stated that he was more disappointed that he did not get to go to Syria than in getting in trouble with law enforcement