House lawmakers urge Syria strikes
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior members urge Obama to authorize strikes against ISIS in Syria. Panel chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member:
Target them and target the terrorist training camp where they’re bringing thousands of fighters from around the world, putting them through training over a period of weeks to teach them how to conduct terrorist activities. Those camps and the munitions should be targeted as well.
Issues demands for captured troops
Fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front issue demands for the release of the 45 Fijian UN peacekeepers that they are holding hostage. The group has asked to be taken off the UN terrorist list, for delivery of humanitarian aid to parts of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and for payment for three of its fighters it says were killed in a shootout with UN officers. Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga, in Suva:
Negotiations have moved up to another level with the professional negotiators now in place
Steven Sotloff beheaded
A video appears to show the killing by ISIS of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. The man identified as Sotloff addresses the camera:
I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing. Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?
A militant warns the U.S.:
Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
The militant then appears to kill Sotloff by beheading him.
Sotloff was last seen alive at the end of a similar video which showed the execution by beheading of American journalist James Foley. He told Obama that his life was in the President’s hands. The most recent video ends with an apparent threat against the life of a man identified as David Cawthorne Haines, a British citizen.
‘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.
4.1 million Syrians receive aid
0 CommentsThe UN World Food Program says a record 4.1 million Syrians received food rations in August as more convoys were able to cross frontlines and the borders with Turkey and Jordan. Over the last six weeks, WFP and partner agencies have crossed front lines to reach more than 580,000 people, over four times the 137,000 reached in the preceding six weeks. Regional emergency coordinator for the Syria crisis, Muhannad Hadi:
We are reaching more people every day with urgently needed food assistance – many of them have been going hungry for months.
‘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
‘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
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.
Swears in new government
Assad swears in the new government of Syria. He says security and reconstruction will be top priorities, urges ministers to tackle corruption, and says the new government must ‘provide a new vision’ and avoid the ‘negatives of the previous stage.’ The government includes 11 new ministers, with most of the changes in portfolios related to finance and the economy. Voting for the new cabinet took place only in districts under government control. While the security situation remains dire, he says this cannot stand in the way of national unity:
This issue is being addressed by the defence ministry and the army… At the same time, it is important to continue with national reconciliation.
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.
Sells Yazidi women
ISIS has ‘distributed‘ as many as 300 Yazidi women to rank-and-file members in the past few weeks. The Syrian Observatory on Human Rights confirms at least 27 cases in which women have been sold for around $1,000 each to fighters in Aleppo and Raqqa suburbs and Al-Hassakah, while others have been given away. SOHR says the women were kidnapped in Iraq and transported to Syria and that some have converted to Islam so that ISIS fighters can marry them. ISIS views them as:
captives of the spoils of war with the infidels
Shoots down drone
0 CommentsThe Israel Defense Forces uses a Patriot missile to shoot down a UAV as it enters Israel near the border town of Quneitra, the scene of clashes between Syrian regime forces and rebels over the previous few days. The origin of the drone is unclear with Army spokesman Col. Peter Lerner tweeting that it is Syrian, while another IDF official says she has no information. Army statement:
In spite of the IDF’s sensitivity to recent occurrences in the proximity of the border, we have repeatedly stated that we will respond to any breach of Israel’s sovereignty and will continue to act to maintain safety and security to the civilians of the State of Israel.
Irish troops free Filipino peacekeepers
Irish UN Disengagement Observer Forces troops free a group of Filipino peacekeepers trapped by Syrian rebels including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra front at two security posts in the Golan Heights. The Irish troops and Filipino troops both return fire when shot at by rebels during the rescue mission, in which most of the trapped Filipinos are extracted.
#Golan: There are no reported casualties amongst #UN personnel http://t.co/IvUQe2FGZC #UNDOF
— UN Peacekeeping (@UNPeacekeeping) August 30, 2014
‘ISIS wants Lebanon’
Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s executive council, says ignoring the threat of ISIS could allow the group to seize Lebanon:
The terrorist threat on Lebanon is actual, real and continuous. And whoever doubts or underestimates [this threat] is either ignorant or negligent, and he harms the high national interest of Lebanon … ISIS’s decision has been announced. Their pretended slogan is to create the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria, which includes Lebanon.
He proposes a “tripartite” force to protect the country consisting of the military, the public and the “resistance”:
Whoever denies Hezbollah’s role in protecting [Lebanon is] oblivious to the truth.
’42 children killed’
0 CommentsAt least 42 children have been killed in government air strikes and shelling across Syria over the last 36 hours as the government seeks to restore its control of the country. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says regime forces deployed weapons including barrel bombs, killing 17 children between Friday and Saturday night and a further 25 children between midnight on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
‘Dead letter box’ system
British nationals use a sophisticated ‘dead letter’ email system to smuggle their way into Iraq and Syria to join ISIS, with terrorist handlers employing ‘silent’ email addresses that do not actually send messages, but contain instructions in the Draft folder. Militants are then moved secretly across Europe and smuggled across the Turkish border to training camps in Syria. As many as 20 British nationals are believed to be waiting in safe houses or hotels for the all-clear to cross the border.
Whereabouts of Fijians unknown
A senior Fiji military official confirms that the whereabouts of 44 kidnapped Fijian UN Disengagement Observation Force peacekeepers remains unknown, although the UN has received assurances they are in good health. Brigadier Mosese Tikoitoga to reporters in Suva after speaking to the UN team negotiating for their release:
Their whereabouts at this stage, unfortunately, I cannot confirm. They confirmed that our men are safe and they are all well. (But) they have been moved to a location out of the bombardment range of any security forces or the Syrian security forces. It is out of the UN territory. But again it’s the word of the group. We’ve got no verification whatsoever, no communication but we’re only relaying the message that was delivered to us by the negotiators.