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
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.
‘We are coming for you’
Video released by al Qaeda shows Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, believed to be the first American national to perform a suicide bombing in the Syrian conflict, apparently threatening the U.S. Abu Salha appears to tear up and chew his American passport before stating that he wishes to enter paradise with Osama bin Laden:
We are coming for you. Mark my words. You think you’ve won? You have never won. You will never defeat Islam … You think you killed Osama bin Laden? You sent him to paradise. Just know that we are coming.
‘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.
Declares ‘Caliphate’
ISIS declares itself a Caliphate, calling on other factions to pledge allegiance in a statement posted on jihadist websites. The group says that it has renamed itself Islamic State to reflect its new status. Spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani declares ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi the head of the Islamic world:
He is the imam and khalifah (Caliph) for the Muslims everywhere.
Magazine 4th edition
ISIS propaganda wing Al-Hayat Media Center publishes the fourth edition of the Islamic State magazine (pdf here). Expanded to eight pages from six and retitled IS Report, the publication leads with a feature titled ‘Smashing The Borders of the Rebels’ and a cover photo showing militants freely crossing the Syria-Iraq border. The subtitle – ‘The Battle of Asadullah Al-Bilawi’ – is an apparent reference to the group’s operation to take control of Mosul, named after a now-deceased ISIS commander. The cover story focuses on in-depth analysis of the historical background of regional geopolitics, including the Sykes-Picot agreement which determined the borders of modern-day Iraq and Syria. It says the group took control of the border region between Nineveh province in Iraq and al-Barakah province in Syria, demolishing ‘artificial barriers’ set up as ‘crusader partitions’ by the Western powers in an effort to restore the Islamic caliphate:
Last week, the mujahidin of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham reached yet another signicant milestone on the path to restoring the prophetic khilafah.
It says it executed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers in the battle for Mosul, and includes a photo feature apparently showing the men being marched to their deaths.
‘150 Australians in Syria’
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says that about 150 Australians are fighting in Syria:
In Syria, it seems that over a period of time they have moved from supporting more moderate opposition groups to the more extreme, and that includes this brutal extremist group ISIS
Radicalized fighters could pose a domestic threat:
We are concerned that Australians are working with them [ISIS], becoming radicalized, learning the terrorist trade, and if they come back to Australia, of course it poses a security threat. I’ve canceled a number of passports on the advice of intelligence agencies.
‘Dawn’ app
ISIS publishes an Arabic-language Android app titled ‘Dawn of Glad Tidings’ or ‘Dawn.’ After users provide personal information, the app tweets content created by ISIS including hashtags, images and links over the user’s account. With hundreds of users, the app reaches an all-time high of 40,000 tweets in a day during ISIS’s invasion of Mosul. This places an image of an armed fighter gazing at the ISIS flag flying over Mosul with the caption ‘We are coming, Baghdad,’ near the top of image searches for the Iraqi capital city.
$2 billion in funds
ISIS has over $2 billion in the bank, more than some small countries such as Tonga and the Marshall Islands, according to information captured on a batch of 160 flash disks. The majority of the wealth comes from seizure of assets by the group in its takeover of Mosul. A senior intelligence official:
By the end of the week, we soon realised that we had to do some accounting for them. Before Mosul, their total cash and assets were $875 million. Afterwards, with the money they robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they looted, they could add another $1.5 billion to that
It also has income from oilfields in northeastern Syria captured in 2012, smuggling of raw materials, and looting of the Assad administration’s crumbling government assets, but the extra cash allows the group to operate as a de facto caliphate in its own right:
They had taken $36m from al-Nabuk alone [an area in the Qalamoun mountains west of Damascus]. The antiquities there are up to 8,000 years old. Before this, the western officials had been asking us where they had gotten some of their money from, $50,000 here, or $20,000 there. It was peanuts. Now they know and we know. They had done this all themselves. There was no state actor at all behind them, which we had long known. They don’t need one.
Magazine 3rd edition
Al-Hayat Media Center publishes the third edition of Islamic State News. The issue leads with the group’s advance into Iraq. Feature header:
The Islamic State humiliates Maliki’s army with brazen attack on Mosul
It states that Iraqi President Maliki’s ‘tyrannical strength is no match for pious believers,’ and urges readers to join the cause:
Join the ranks, oh brothers!
It celebrates the group’s seizure of the Koniko gas field in Deir Ezzor with a photo feature showing closeups of a black-clad fighter firing an assault rifle. Also shown are executions in the province of three men – one is said to be an Assad sympathizer, and a second is said to have enlisted in the Nusayri (Alawite) army, an apparent reference to the regime’s armed forces, after ISIS declared its jihad in the area. Details are not given of the third man the group says it executed. Two men said to have broken the hadd – Islamic prohibition – against stealing receive an unspecified punishment that it says is ‘carried out under the supervision of trained doctors.’ The final section of the magazine focuses on humanitarian and religious activities in Homs and Diyala, including handing out fliers and improving security for shepherds and farmers.
Re-elected
Assad wins in presidential poll securing 88.7% of the vote. The victory gives Assad a third seven-year term in office. Parliament speaker:
I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election.
Kerry dismisses election
On a visit to Lebanon, Secretary of State Kerry declares the Syrian election meaningless and says it will have no impact on U.S. policy. Kerry says the United States continues to support a political solution to the Syrian crisis and announces a contribution of $290 million in humanitarian aid.
The elections are non-elections. A great big zero. Nothing has changed between the day before the election and after.
Magazine 2nd edition
ISIS publishes the second edition of Islamic State News magazine via its affiliate, Al-Hayat Media Centre. The issue leads with a photo feature on trade apparently flourishing in the Aleppo (Halab) market under ISIS control, with pictures of fresh fruit, cured meat, and flowers for sale. It includes photos of the implementation of a hadd – religious prohibition – against alcohol, and a graphic execution of an Assad shabeeh (loyalist) in Aleppo. Also shown are bloodsoaked bodies in the aftermath of what it says is fighting in Ar-Rawiyah village in Raqa area against the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and People’s Protection Units (YPG), an armed group from Syrian Kurdistan. The aftermath is shown of what ISIS says are victories in Malahimah, Anbar province, and other parts of the country. It includes photos apparently showing the conversion of captured opposition fighters in Anbar, and the execution of those who refuse to ‘repent.’ A feature on the group’s operation to retake al-Khair, as the group refers to Deir Ezzor province:
Allah facilitated for his mujahid slaves the liberation of two towns, as-Sabhah and al-Bareehah, so that they are now overlooking one of the biggest strongholds of the Sahwat [Sunni tribes]: the town of al-Busayrah where battles are taking place now. Allah also bestowed upon us much war booty in the battle of as-Sabhah, which included: a tank, a BMB, three sniper guns, a 12.5mm cannon, a 14.5mm dual-barrel anti-aircraft [gun], a number of Kalashnikov rifles, a car full of ammo, and a number of other cars.
Trained in Syria
Paris public prosecutor François Molins says the man arrested as the Brussels Jewish Museum shooting suspect, French national Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, trained in Syria:
During his last stay in jail he was noticed for extremist [Islamist] proselytism. On December 31, 2012, three weeks after he was freed, he travelled to Syria. He spent over a year in Syria, where he seems to have joined the ranks of combatant groups, jihadist terrorist groups.
Nemmouche is being questioned by the DGSI, which can hold him for up to 96 hours or 144 hours if investigators feel he poses an imminent terrorist threat.
American carries out suicide bombing
An American detonates a suicide bomb in Syria on behalf of al-Nusra Front, the Syrian arm of Al Qaeda, driving a truck laden with 16 tons of explosives into a restaurant patronized by government troops in the northwestern city of Idlib. The group tweets a statement confirming the bombing, referring to him by his nom de guerre, ‘the American father of the kitten’:
Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki performed a martrydom operation in Idlib, Jabal Al-Arba’een. May Allah accept him.
The U.S. government identifies him as Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, of Florida.
Interpol searches for Austrian girls
Interpol is searching for two teenage girls from Austria who are believed to have run away from their homes in Vienna to join ISIS. Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, have been missing since April 10. Photos on their Facebook pages apparently show them brandishing Kalashnikov rifles – in some cases surrounded by armed men. Some of the pictures have been circulating online for years, and their families believe that those pictures, and social media posts apparently by the girls, are fake. However, Austrian officials believe that the girls are located in a training camp, are already married, and are living in the homes of their new husbands. Facebook postings apparently from the two girls say that they planned to marry so that they could become ‘holy warriors’ and indicate that they are seeking martyrdom:
Death is our goal.
Assad cousin killed
A cousin of Assad is killed fighting militants along the Turkish border. Hilal al-Assad founded the National Defence Army of pro-government civilians fighting alongside the Syrian army, and is the head of the group. Rebel faction Jaish al-Islam issues a statement claiming responsibility for the killing:
The first rocket was fired around 7:15pm, followed by another five minutes later. The rockets targeted a house where Hilal was holding a meeting with other members of the National Defence Army.
Flees to Syria
Media report that Sharrouf was able to flee to Syria via Malaysia in January by skirting a travel ban placed on him. He boarded a flight at Sydney airport using his brother’s passport in place of his own, which was confiscated by authorities. New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell:
I have to say I think that immigration and the federal police and customs have been doing a magnificent job. But I look to see what caused what appears to have been a fairly major breakdown.