Beheads Lebanese soldier
ISIS beheads a Lebanese soldier, one of 19 captured in an assault on the border town of Arsal aimed at freeing captured Syrian rebel commander Imad Ahmad Jomaa. The soldier, recognizable as Ali al-Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim from north Lebanon, is shown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, writhing and kicking the dusty ground while a militant announces he will be killed. Another militant then beheads him.
UN: Fijian peacekeepers ‘safe’
The UN says the 44 Fijian peacekeepers captured by Syrian rebels are safe and that it has been informed they were abducted by the rebels including fighters from Al Qaeda affiliate the al-Nusra Front for security reasons. A statement:
The United Nations has received assurances from credible sources that the 44 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) who were taken from their position on the morning of Thursday, 28 August, are safe and in good health
It says it has not had direct contact with the troops.
UNDOF has been informed that the intention behind those holding the peacekeepers was to remove them from an active battlefield to a safe area for their own protection
Philippine troops attacked
Philippine peacekeeping troops trapped in the Golan Heights are attacked by rebels. Philippine Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin says the attacks started early Saturday on 40 peacekeepers at a UN post in the area. He doesn’t give details of casualties. The attackers are thought to include fighters from the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
The Independent commentary
Miliband writes in The Independent that a multilateral approach is needed to tackle ISIS, including convening an international summit under the auspices of the United Nations, with the UK taking a leading role in engaging international partners on the issue, including more stable regimes such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which he says are under threat from ISIS’s plans to expand its self-declared caliphate:
This multilateral strategy should have a number of objectives: to tackle the root causes of support for ISIS from within Iraq; to starve them of backing from outside; to bring regional powers together for a lasting political settlement and greater stability; and to provide humanitarian help to those facing the horrific consequences of this conflict.
He says that Britain faces risks at home including the threat of returning radicalized militants and should reform a Home Office program aimed at dealing with such threats, including potentially strengthening policy on control orders – now known as Terrorism Protection and Investigation Measures, or TPIMs – that allow the government to act against suspects who cannot be charged or deported. While there is some role for the U.S. military, neither it or the UK should put boots on the ground – and the UK should avoid unilateralism at all costs:
The events of this summer have underlined how turning our back on the complexities and instability of the Middle East is not an option. But we must also show Britain has learnt the lessons of our recent history with an approach based on a genuine multilateralism, working with others to build alliances across continents against Isis and their ideology.
14-year-old ‘jihadi’ girl arrested
French authorities arrest a 14-year-old girl in the western city of Quimper on suspicion that she is planning to conduct jihad in Syria. She is moved to Paris to be questioned by an anti-terror judge on possible connections to the disappearance of another 14-year-old girl from the Paris area in June, as part of an enquiry that has also led to the arrests of a 15-year-old and 17-year old girl a week earlier.
More than 3 million refugees
The UNHCR reports that more than three million Syrians are now registered as refugees. It says that with almost half of all Syrians displaced from their homes, the war is…
… the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.
One in every eight Syrians has fled across the border into Lebanon, and a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria. More than half of those displaced are children. The number of registered Syrian refugees has increased from two million just under a year ago.
Acquires anti-aircraft weapons
ISIS has acquired an arsenal that includes state-of-the-art anti-aircraft guns that can shoot down modern warplanes and poses a significant threat to civilian flights. Prior to the group’s weekend capture of the Taqba airport, it had already seized a large amount of weapons from the Assad regime and fleeing Iraqi forces that includes top-shelf mortars, APCs and even several M1A1 Abrams main battlefield tanks, but its surface-to-air capability was limited to ageing, subpar equipment. However, more recent propaganda photos show militants holding standard-issue carbines and Russian-made Kalashnikov AK-47 replicas, a staple of Middle Eastern armed groups for decades, alongside Russian SA-24 Grinch manpads (man-portable air defence system) captured from the airfield. An American diplomat involved in monitoring Islamist groups:
There is a need to assess the air-defence capabilities of ISIS and also the capabilities of President Assad’s forces. But, I would like to stress that no decision has yet been made on whether to extend the operations in Iraq to Syria
The group is known to have Soviet, Polish and Bulgarian ZU23-2 and ZU23-4 anti-aircraft guns and American low altitude FIM92 Stinger manpads, and has used GSHK heavy-machine guns against the Assad regime’s attack helicopters to great effect, although they are not much use against high-flying fast jets. These are now thought to be augmented by Chinese FN-6 manpads that can hit targets at 11,000 feet and SA-16 Gimlet manpads, with effective range of 16,000 feet which were supplied in large quantities to the regime.
IS fighters have captured SA-16 MANPADS, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles & MiG-21B jets in #Tabaqa Airbase, #Raqqa. #Syria pic.twitter.com/c33TB56XdL
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) August 24, 2014
Raises terror threat level
The UK raises its terror threat level to Severe from Substantial, meaning that an attack is ‘highly likely’ although may not be imminent. Home secretary Theresa May:
[The decision is] related to developments in Syria and Iraq, where terrorist groups are planning attacks against the west
Severe is the fourth level in a five-tier system, one below Critical, which would indicate that an attack is imminent. This is the first time the level has been raised to Severe since July 11, 2011.
Rebels take border crossing
A Youtube video shows a group of rebels including fighters from Al Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front taking over the Quneitra border crossing on the Syrian side of the border with Israel after a battle with Assad regime forces. A fighter:
We are Al-Nusra fighters. We’ve just liberated the Syrian-Zionist crossing of Quneitra
In the footage, a black al-Nusra banner is seen flying in place of a Syrian flag in the border town, which is visibly damaged by the battle.
Fijian peacekeepers talks underway
Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe (Frank) Bainarama says talks are underway to free the 43 Fijian UN Disengagement Observer Force peacekeeping troops captured by rebels in the Golan Heights:
I want to assure the families of the soldiers we are doing everything possible to secure their safe return. The latest information we have is that they are safe and I can say now that the negotiations for their release have already begun.
Bainimarama says Fiji is ‘united as a nation in praying for their safe return.’
Filippino peacekeepers surrounded
Syrian rebels surround 75 peacekeepers from the Philippines at two UN posts in the Golan Heights. Their commander in Manila, Col. Robert Ancan:
We can use deadly force in defence of the UN facilities. I [would] just like to emphasise our troops are well-armed, they are well-trained … they are well-disciplined warrior peacekeepers.
The rebels include fighters from Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front. Ancan says they have used an English-speaking Fijian, one of a group of peacekeepers from Fiji captured earlier in the week, to relay demands to the Filippinos to lay down their weapons.
‘Oilfields earn millions a day’
Luay al-Khateeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center in Qatar, estimates ISIS is earning $2 million a day in oil revenues in Iraq and much more in Syria. The Iraqi fields are only producing half of the 80,000 barrels a day they are rated at, black-market crude is selling at $25-$60 a barrel:
From Syria they could be making double or even triple that.
Estimating the Syrian revenues is difficult since most of the oil is sold to the Bashar al-Assad government, which doesn’t disclose oil use figures, but the regime’s struggle means consumption is likely very high:
It’s a war of survival for the Syrian regime and they have no choice but to buy the oil — even though they know the money is going into ISIS hands.
Second slain American fighter identified
Minneapolis native and father of nine Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, a Somali-American, has been confirmed as the second American citizen to die while fighting for ISIS. Two sources say the group has sent a picture of Muhumed’s body to his family. The State Department has yet to confirm his death. He is believed to have died a week earlier in the same battle as Douglas McArthur McCain, the first American citizen confirmed killed fighting for ISIS, who is reported to have also grown up near Minneapolis. Facebook messages with a journalist before leaving for Syria earlier in the year:
Family is not gonna save me frm [sic] hell fire because muslims are getting kill[ed] and if I just sit here i will be ask in the [hereafter].
A Jan. 2 Facebook posting:
I give up this worldy life for Allah.
‘Syria plans under development’
The White House clarifies a remark by Obama that ‘we don’t have a strategy yet’ on combating ISIS – also known as ISIL and Islamic State – in Syria, saying that he was referring to plans still under development by the Pentagon. Press Secretary Josh Earnest:
The president was asked a specific question about possible military action in Syria against ISIL, and he was explicit that he is still waiting for plans that are being developed by the Pentagon for military options against ISIL in Syria. But when it comes to confronting ISIL in Iraq, the president has been very clear for months about what our comprehensive strategy is.
Fijian peacekeepers captured
Syrian rebels including fighters from the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, capture 43 Fijian peacekeeping troops from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights. A UN statement demands the ‘unconditional and immediate release of all the detained peacekeepers.’
Texan pleads guilty to terror support
Texas native Michael Todd Wolfe, also known as Faruq, pleads guilty to ‘attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.’ Wolfe was caught in an FBI sting as he sought a contact to help him enter Syria and join ISIS. A court complaint describes how he and his wife watched a video of ISIS activities with an FBI agent posing as a contact:
While watching the video, Wolfe occasionally stopped the video to explain the current allegiances of the various groups fighting in Syria. They include ISIS, al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, the Free Syria Army, and Dawla
Second American ISIS fighter may be dead
U.S. authorities are investigating a claim by a coalition of Syrian opposition groups that they have killed an American national during fighting with kharijites, or extremists. The statement is an apparent reference to fighting several days earlier between ISIS and the coalition, which is made up of fighters from the Free Syrian Army, Syrian Al Qaeda branch al-Nusra Front, as well as smaller militant factions. If true, the unnamed militant would be the second American ISIS fighter confirmed killed in battle, after the U.S. government said that Florida native Douglas MacArthur McCain also died in the fighting over the weekend.
American ISIS fighter killed
American national Douglas McArthur McCain is killed fighting for ISIS against the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. He is believed to be the first U.S. citizen killed while fighting for the group, also known as Islamic State.
Military options focus on Iraq
Obama says that while he has asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey for ‘a range of options’ for confronting ISIS, military plans are currently limited to protecting U.S. personnel in Iraq and do not extend to action in Syria. To reporters:
Our core priority right now is just to make sure our folks are safe
‘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.