Dies in car crash
Shim, a Lebanese-American reporter for Press TV, is killed in a car crash in Turkey a day after stating that Turkish intelligence was spying on her. She had been reporting that ISIS militants had crossed the border in trucks used by NGOs to carry food. Press TV broadcast:
Just a couple of days ago she had been threatened by Turkish intelligence
https://twitter.com/shabbirh/status/524140074792148992
Press TV analyst: She was assassinated
Ali, a political analyst based in London, tells Press TV in an interview that Shim was pursued by the Turkish intelligence service. Ali, using another name for ISIS or the Islamic State:
[She was] assassinated [because] she gave the truth about what this regime in Turkey, that has been oppressing its people, that has been oppressing the Kurdish population and that is actively working to support…this terrorist organization known as the ISIL
Aid, bribes may be going to ISIS
Food, medical supplies, and other aid provided by USAID, European donors, and the UN may be being channeled to ISIS, along with money paid to bribe the group to allow convoys through. Unnamed aid coordinator:
The convoys have to be approved by ISIS and you have to pay them: the bribes are disguised and itemized as transportation costs.
The person says the kickbacks are either paid by foreign or local non-governmental organizations that distribute the aid, or by the Turkish or Syrian transportation companies contracted to deliver it. Jonathan Schanzer with the D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies:
I am alarmed that we are providing support for ISIS governance. By doing so we are indemnifying the militants by satisfying the core demands of local people, who could turn on ISIS if they got frustrated.
‘Target-rich environment’
U.S. officials say the ISIS offensive on Kobani is concentrating the group’s manpower in a small area and presenting a target for air strikes. U.S. CentCom chief Army Gen. Lloyd Austin:
The enemy has made a decision to make Kobani his main effort…Now, my goal is to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL. And if [the enemy] continues to present us with major targets … then clearly, we’ll service those targets, and we’ve done so very, very effectively here of late
White House Press secretary Josh Earnest says the administration sees the assault as an opportunity:
That has created a rather target-rich environment around Kobani for American and coalition air strikes that when they see clusters of fighters or they see depots of material or supplies that are critical to the success of those fighters, it’s easier to take them out.
Crucifies 17-year-old
ISIS is reported to have crucified a 17-year-old boy it said was taking photos of its installations and selling the for 500 Turkish lira. The group is reported to have left his body on display in a square in Syria with a note pinned to his chest saying he has been ‘killed and crucified for a period of three days’ as punishment for ‘apostasy’.
Rights monitor: ISIS making test flights
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says
ISIS fighters have been making test flights in fighter jets believed to be MiG 21 or MiG 23s captured from the government. It isn’t known if the jets are equipped with weapons or if the pilots are capable of long-distance flights. Rami Abdulrahman:
They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for Saddam Hussein. People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back,’ he said, citing witnesses near al-Jarrah military airport.
US talking with Kurdish rebel group
Israel’s Arutz Sheva newspaper reports that the State Deparment’s Jen Psaki confirms talks have been held with the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units), part of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The PYD is considered by Turkey to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. This is classified by the U.S. and EU as a terrorist organization due to its involvement in the insurgency in Turkey for Kurdish independence. Psaki:
This was just one conversation over the weekend. So it doesn’t represent coordination. It represents one conversation.
She doesn’t state how frequently U.S. officials might be in contact with the YPG. Arutz Sheva reports that an alliance with the Kurdish group could place Turkey’s involvement in the coalition against ISIS at risk. But it says Kurdish groups often have the best on-the-ground knowledge, and Kurdish groups previously warned the U.S. about ISIS months in advance.
Wisconsin man wounded in Syria
28-year-old Matson from Racine, Wis., is recovering in a northern Syrian hospital after being injured in the foot in an ISIS attack. On why he decided to join the Kurdish forces:
I couldn’t just sit and watch Christians being slaughtered anymore. I got sick of giving online sympathy. Five minutes of lip service does nothing. These people are fighting for their homes, for everything they have.
Issues rules for journalists
ISIS issues a set of 11 rules for journalists in Deir Ezzor, including a requirement to submit a request for a license to the group’s media office, providing the user-names of any social media accounts operated by journalists, and avoiding working with TV channels it has placed on a blacklist as being anti-Islamic, including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Journalists must also swear allegiance to Baghdadi as the Caliph. The Independent reports that most journalists have fled the area since the rules were announced.
‘Five-star lifestyle’
ISIS fighters in Raqqa are reported to live an elite lifestyle including eating at five-star restaurants, swimming in hotel pools, and owning luxury property and vehicles. They were also given payrises and roast lamb for the Eid al-Adha festival, and receive preferential medical treatment. Source:
As soon as they arrived, they became the elite of the community. They were given comfortable homes and cars — and they get a generous salary every month. Recently, a bombing left many people, including fighters, badly hurt. We ran to help and saw ISIS trucks arrive and remove their men for treatment, leaving the civilians just lying there.
Thousands of Kurds flee Syria
The Turkish Government says that at least 130,000 Kurdish refugees have fled Syria and moved to Turkey as they escape the Islamic State Militants. Temporary refugee camps have been put in place to cope with the growing numbers. Turkish Government:
More than 130,000 Syrian refugees. many of them Kurds, have crossed the border over the last three days.
Turkey closes borders
Turkey closes its borders to fend off at least 130,000 Kurdish refugees. The Kurds are fleeing a Syrian town which Islamic State Rebels are poised to take. The reaction takes place as some Kurds in Turkey take to the streets to protest in support of the entry of the refugees. Demonstrator Mehmet Eminakma:
We’ve come to support our brothers in Syria under attack by ISIL.
A$9 million funds investigated
Australian Federal Police investigate the Bisotel Rieh money-remittance provider after financial intelligence and compliance agency AUSTRAC suspends the company for failing to declare A$9 million (US$8.08 million) that it sent overseas between January and August. A company director, Damour Sharrouf, is understood to be Khaled Sharrouf’s sister while the other company director is Ahmed Alwash, believed to be Damour Sharrouf’s husband. The investigation concerns transfers of funds to individuals in Malaysia. Staff are said to admit that it ‘actively smuggles’ money from Turkey into Lebanon. AUSTRAC chief executive John Schmidt:
The figures don’t appear to match. It’s a fairly big difference in a short space of time. We are satisfied that the continued registration … may involve a significant financing-of-terrorism risk.
Approves aid to opposition
Congress votes 78-22 to approve training and arming the Syrian opposition. The new authorization to train the moderate Free Syrian Army expires Dec. 11. The bill does not decide on whether Congress will extend the training authorization or take up a broader authorization of military force against ISIS. Some senators are also pressing to add a passage that resembles a declaration of war to an annual defense policy bill pending in the Senate. House leaders oppose the addition, and the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could begin drafting their own authorization of force as soon as next week. Obama:
We are strongest as a nation when the president and Congress work together … These terrorists thought they could frighten us or intimidate us. Americans, we do not give in to fear.
Manning: Focus on containment
Manning writes a commentary in The Guardian stating that military strikes play to ISIS’s strengths, and recommending four areas that a containment strategy could focus on. She suggests countering ISIS’s online presence to curb recruitment. The coalition should then set clear, temporary borders in the region to discourage ISIS taking territory where humanitarian issues could result. It should place a moratorium on ransom payments for hostages and cut off other sources of ISIS funding such as oil trade and artefact theft. Finally, it should allow ISIS to succeed in setting up a failed ‘state’ – in a contained area and over a long enough period of time to prove itself unpopular and unable to govern.
Eventually, if they are properly contained, I believe that Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities – ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.
‘Won’t look like shock-and-awe’
Dempsey says strikes on ISIS in Syria will be different from the ‘shock-and-awe’ tactics of the Iraq War:
This won’t look like a shock-and-awe campaign because that’s not how Isil is organized.
The U.S. will work to ensure a Syrian chain of command is in place to lead forces against ISIS in what he says will be a persistent campaign.
Local forces to fight ISIS
Hagel says that the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria will depend on local opposition:
The best counterweight against Isil are local forces
U.S. troops will not engage the group directly:
American forces will not have a combat mission.
He says U.S. forces in Iraq will operate out of Baghdad and Irbil, for a total of about 1,600 troops. will support Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has agreed to host training grounds for more than 5,000 Syrian opposition forces, who will be given small arms, vehicles and communications equipment and training:
We would be prepared to provide increasingly [sophisticated] types of assistance.
The U.S. will select the Syrian opposition carefully:
A rigorous vetting process would be critical to the success of this program. There will always be risks. But we believe that risk is justified.
Hagel: ‘We are at war’
Defense Secretary Hagel says that the U.S. is fighting a war against ISIS:
This will not be an easy or a brief effort … We are at war with Isil, as we are with al-Qaeda.
Syrian airstrikes ‘may be illegal’
Officials in the House of Commons Library warn that airstrikes against ISIS in Syria may be difficult to justify under international law, despite Cameron’s view that the Assad regime is illegitimate and does not need to give permission for military operations. A briefing paper prepared for Members of Parliament:
Action in Syria will be difficult to justify legally without a request for assistance from the Assad government, and it is unlikely that the West could be seen to be responding to such a request. The British Government has said that any action in Syria will comply with international law, and the most likely way to achieve this would be to claim that military action is for humanitarian purposes, using the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. This remains controversial, however, without a United Nations Security Council resolution to authorise it.
‘Contingencies in place to deal with Assad defenses’
White House press secretary Josh Earnest tells a weekly press briefing that there are protocols in place if potential U.S. airstrikes in Syria against ISIS meet with a response from the Assad government’s air defenses:
There are rules of engagement any time that our men and women in uniform are put into harm’s way. And so there will be rules of engagement that are related to any military orders that the President directs – military actions that the President directs. So I’d refer you to the Department of Defense for a detailed assessment of that. But it won’t surprise you to know that there are contingencies related to self-defense when it comes to these sorts of rules of engagement.
He says that media reporting of the secret Special Forces mission to rescue journalist James Foley and other American hostages – which ultimately failed – demonstrates President Obama is willing to put boots on the ground if necessary:
But I can say that while I think it is evident to anybody who is paying attention here that that is – indicates the President’s willingness to order the kind of military action that’s required to protect the lives of military – of American citizens, even if it means sending our military into Syria.