Fighting ISIS

[cultsmasher]

Is there no end to the stupidity of this country? Lately they're talking about bombing ISIS in Syria and arming rebels against the "dictatorship" there. But like in Afganistan, if you arm and train some of these lowlifes, you're going to end up arming and training some enemies. Also, the Syrian government is against ISIS too. And as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Besides, the U.S. helped get rid of dictators in Lybia and Iraq. Which made things even worse. Egypt got rid of their dictator. Things didn't turn out well there either. To me, one of the problems is those whose voices really count in this country. Whenever there is conflict, dollar signs pop up in their eyes like in some old cartoon.

 

[waltky]

Obama says he'll reveal US strategy to stop ISIS this week...

Obama promises he'll finally unveil his ISIS strategy on Wednesday - and pledges to defeat them
7 September 2014 | Obama said he'll meet with lawmakers to discuss his plans on Tuesday before sharing them with the nation on Wednesday; 'We are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL,' he said in an interview, 'we're going to systematically degrade their capabilities'; The Commander in Chief gave out few details about his master plan but promised it does not include putting troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria

President Barack Obama will unveil the United States' strategy to overthrow Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria in an address to the nation on Wednesday, an interview with the president that aired on Sunday revealed. 'We are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL, we are going to systematically degrade their capabilities, we're gonna shrink the territory that they control, and ultimately, we're gonna defeat them,' Obama said in an interview for NBC's Meet the Press on Saturday. The president said he would meet with lawmakers on Tuesday to give them the opportunity to weigh in on his plans before making a formal announcement the following day.

In previewing his strategy to NBC, Obama acknowledged that there would be a military component to taking down the religious extremists and it would 'require some resources ... above what we are currently doing.' But the Commander in Chief swore he was taking the country to war. 'I'm preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from ISIL,' he said. 'This is not going to be an announcement on about U. S. ground troops,' he promised. 'This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.' 'The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground would be a profound mistake,' Obama NBC. The U.S. does not have the resources to 'serially occupy various countries all around the Middle East,' he said.

'And at some point we leave, and then things blow up again,' he added. 'So we've got to have a more sustainable strategy. 'The boots on the ground have to be Iraqi. And in Syria, the boots on the ground have to be Syrian,' he said. The president said other countries in the Middle East, namely Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, also need to lend a helping hand in Iraq. After speaking to other world leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit last week, Obama said he feels confident there's a broad coalition of countries both regionally and internationally who are willing to play a role in the fight against ISIS. Without going into detail about his own plans, Obama indicated that the U.S. would be helping Kurdish forces come up with a plan to reclaim the territory ISIS has taken over in Iraq. 'There's going to be an economic element to this. There's going to be a political element to it. There's going to be a military element to it,' Obama said of his blueprint for victory.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters take up position as their tanks (not pictured) shell Islamic State controlled areas at the Khazir front line leading to Mosul on Sunday. U.S. President Barack Obama said on the same day that the U.S. would give the Kurds a blueprint for destroying ISIS

Fishing for additional details, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked the president if Americans should read anything into the date of his upcoming speech - September 10, the eve of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 'We have not seen any immediate intelligence about threats to the homeland from ISIL,' Obama assured him. 'That's not what this is about.' Obama said he just wanted to make sure Americans know the government is on top of the situation in Iraq. 'More than anything I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat, and how we're gonna deal with it, and to have confidence that we'll be able to deal with it,' he declared. Todd also pressed Obama during the interview on his comment earlier this year that ISIS was the equivalent of a junior varsity basketball team. Obama denied to Todd that he ever characterized the barbaric, Islamic extremist group that way. 'I wasn't specifically referring to ISIL,' he said.

'I've said that regionally there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarially locally, that weren't focused on the homeland,' he claimed, noting that ISIS, also known as ISIL, was 'not yet' a threat comparable to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group Al Qaeda. 'I was very specific at that time,' Obama continued. 'What I said was not every regional terrorist organization is automatically a threat to us that would call for a major offensive.' Obama's decision to share his grand plan to confront ISIS follows a verbal gaffe late last month at a press conference during which the president admitted he did not yet have a strategy to confront ISIS in Syria. Since then, lawmakers from both major political parties have been pressing the president to clearly explain how he plans to decimate the violent terrorist group.

Obama says he ll reveal US strategy to stop ISIS this week Mail Online

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Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves joining the U.S. to take out ISIS in Iraq
September 5, 2014 ~ Reports today, Friday, Sept. 5, from various news outlets, specifically from Israel National News, who broke the story, confirm that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has approved militarily joining the U.S., in the fight against the murderous militaristic terrorist group, who proclaim themselves as the Islamic State, and the world have come to know as ISIS.

Just as the U.S. has its special forces, such as the Navy Seals and Army Rangers, Iran has its own elite international special forces, known as the Quds. Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the last 'say-so' in Iran's sociopolitical and military decisions, gave the direct order to Quds commander Quassem Solemani. Although Ayatollah Khamenei is known for not supporting any U.S. military action in Iraq, or any other part of the Middle East, it seems he realizes that the U.S. is leading the effort to rid not only Iraq and Syria from the clutches of ISIS, but also his own country, Iran.

This development comes amid the currently ongoing NATO 2014 summit, where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the formation of a 10-nation "core coalition" to combat the ISIS crisis. In his speech at the NATO summit, Secretary Kerry said that the U.S. would aid in the fight against ISIS, but he also made it clear, that there would be no U.S. boots on the ground, "We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own," said Secretary Kerry.

The 10 nations which ISIS will be confronting, are the US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark. However, if the U.S. decides to accept Iran's willingness to help with the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei and his Quds force, ISIS will be fighting against 11 nations. Senator Rand Paul, a strong 2016 U.S. presidential candidate on Thursday, Sept. 4, came out in favor of working with Iran and even Syria in the fight against ISIS, saying: “Right now, the two allies that have the same goal would be Iran and Syria, to wipe out ISIS,”

Although President Obama has been under fire for not being more forceful in combating ISIS, it seems that his patience is paying off. Since the beginning of the ISIS takeover, President Obama has been clear in saying that the U.S. cannot go at this alone, and that the fight against ISIS is not only a military fight, but also a political one. President Obama now has 10 nations out to save not only Iraq, Syria and the U.S., but also the world, from what historically has become to be known as the best funded "cancerous" Islamic terrorist killers, ISIS.

Iran s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves joining the U.S. to take out ISIS in Iraq - Paterson Top News Examiner.com

 

[waltky]

AL claims to support anti-ISIS effort - but will they supply troops?...

Arab States Voice Support for Tackling ISIS, But Will They Fight?
September 8, 2014 – Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo Sunday expressed support for efforts to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) group but stopped short of directly offering military personnel or assets to do so in either Iraq or Syria.

The gathered ministers earlier heard an appeal from Arab League head Nabil Al-Arabi to respond “militarily and politically” to the ISIS threat, urging them to take a “clear and firm decision” to tackle the terrorists. But while the text adopted by the ministers spoke of the need to take “all necessary measures” – and included references to the need to suppress funding and the flow of foreign fighters – there was no immediate indication that individual Arab countries would offer military support to the coalition which the Obama administration hopes will fight the Sunni jihadists.

Speaking at the end of the NATO summit in Wales two days earlier, President Obama said he was sending Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East for consultations, adding that it was “absolutely crucial” that Arab states – specifically Sunni-majority states – “are prepared to join us actively in the fight.” “And my expectation is – is that we will see friends and allies and partners of ours in the region prepared to take action, as well, as part of a coalition.”

Of the 22 Arab states, all bar Iraq and Bahrain are Sunni-majority. No Arab countries were included on a list of what Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday described as a “core coalition” to combat ISIS. The 10 countries listed were the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Turkey. In his address to the gathered ministers in the Egyptian capital, Al-Arabi acknowledged that Arab states have in the past been loath to risk being accused of interfering in each other’s affairs.

But underlining the potential threat ISIS poses to the existence of Arab states, notably Iraq and its neighbors, he spoke of the need to activate a joint Arab defense pact drawn up soon after the Arab League was established in the mid-20th century. Three-and-a-half years ago, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similar a statement to the president’s about the importance of Arab participation, on that occasion in reference to a looming military campaign against the Gaddafi regime in Libya. “Arab leadership and participation in this effort is crucial,” she said at the time, while then-ambassador to the U.N. – now national security advisor – Susan Rice said the Arab contribution would have to be “meaningful.”

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Janet Napolitano: ISIS 'On Everybody's Radar Screen' 3 Years Ago
September 8, 2014 - - The Obama administration was aware of ISIS three years ago, when Janet Napolitano was ending her tenure as Homeland Security Secretary, but the group was not the main topic of conversation, Napolitano told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.

"Yes, they were on everybody's radar screen. They were there," she said. "But were they the dominant source of conversation? Not at the time, no."

Napolitano said the group has "grown exponentially" in the past three years "in terms of size and capacity and capability." But even three years ago, there were concerns about Americans and Europeans going to Syria to fight with the terrorists, she said.

Napolitano said it's difficult to track the travel of Westerners who may slip into Syria and Iraq from other countries in the region, particularly from Turkey.

"Obviously eyes and ears are attuned to Americans who may be taveling into the region, trying to track travel with the travel documents that DHS does collect. But it's a very big region and these are very big borders, and freedom of travel is freedom of travel, so I would be surprised if you could say, yeah, we have 100 percent control" over who is coming and going.

Janet Napolitano ISIS On Everybody s Radar Screen 3 Years Ago CNS News

 

[waltky]

Judge for yerself, who's tune does Obama dance to?...

CAIR Wants Obama to Distinguish Islamic State From Islam
September 10, 2014 – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wants President Obama in his speech on ISIS Wednesday night to reject the jihadists’ “misappro-priation of Islamic terms and concepts,” and to recognize that the terrorist group was created by “the lack of freedom and justice in the region.”

CAIR leaders plan to join other local and national Muslim leaders in a Capitol Hill viewing of Obama’s prime-time address to the nation on a strategy to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) threat. CAIR’s national executive director Nihad Awad made it clear what Muslims in the U.S. will be looking out for in the speech. “American Muslims will evaluate the president’s strategy based on his willingness to reject ISIS’ misappropriation of Islamic terms and concepts, his clear support for the mainstream opposition to Syria’s murderous regime, his insistence on a non-sectarian government in Iraq, and his recognition that ISIS was created and is fueled by the lack of freedom and justice in the region,” he said.

CAIR, a lobby group that describes itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization,” regularly campaigns against expressions of what it deems to be “Islamophobia.” ISIS claims to be acting in the name of Islam, has declared an Islamic “caliphate” and invokes Mohammed and the Qur’an in its propaganda material, but the administration has repeatedly underlined its position that ISIS is unrelated to Islam.

In comments in Baghdad Wednesday Secretary of State John Kerry took the point further, not just restating that ISIS’ ideology “nothing to do with Islam,” but also asserting that its recent declaration of a caliphate has no legitimate religious basis. “ISIL claims to be fighting on behalf of Islam, but the fact is that its hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam,” he said, describing it as “evil” and noting that it is terrorizing people in areas it controls “regardless of their sect or ethnicity.”

Kerry is in the region to advance a coalition the administration is building to tackle the ISIS threat, and he said Muslim countries’ contribution to that coalition must include challenging the group on religious grounds. “Those countries – many others, particularly in the Muslim world – can join together in defining the real Islam and making it clear that there is no legitimacy whatsoever within ISIL for any of the claims that they make with respect to a religious foundation for their caliphate, their state, or for their actions,” he said. “It is necessary for moderate, reasonable people around the world to repudiate the distortion of Islam that ISIL seeks to spread and to contribute, as they do, to the urgent humanitarian relief effort that is required because of their barbarity.”

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Obama: Islamic State 'Is Not Islamic'
September 10, 2014 – President Obama laid out a four-part strategy Wednesday night to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), saying he will not hesitate to extend airstrikes to Syria.

“I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” he said. “That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.” In a prime time speech coming against a backdrop of his worst-ever opinion poll ratings, Obama said America will lead “a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat.” The strategy would encompass “a systematic campaign of airstrikes”; support for forces on the ground fighting against ISIS both in Iraq and Syria; a counter-terrorism effort including cutting off funding, stemming the flow of foreign fighters, strengthening defenses and countering ISIS’ “warped ideology”; and continuing to provide humanitarian aid for ISIS’ victims.

Obama, who ran for office pledging to end two wars, said he wanted Americans “to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” “It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” he said. “This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground.” “This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years,” Obama continued, alluding to the use of drone-launched missiles to target and kill terrorists in the troubled Arab nations on either side of the Gulf of Aden. “And it is consistent with the approach I outlined earlier this year: to use force against anyone who threatens America’s core interests, but to mobilize partners wherever possible to address broader challenges to the international order.”

On the eve of the 13th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attack on America, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 47 percent of Americans believe the nation to be less safe now than at any other point since September 11, 2001, up from 28 percent a year ago. As he began his address at the White House, Obama pushed back on that perception. “Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer,” he said, citing the death of Osama bin Laden, the targeting of al-Qaeda leaders in South Asia, Yemen and Somalia, and the troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

He went on to acknowledge, however, that “we continue to face a terrorist threat.” “We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That’s why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge. “At this moment, the greatest threats come from the Middle East and North Africa, where radical groups exploit grievances for their own gain. And one of those groups is ISIL, which calls itself the Islamic State.”

While Obama reiterated that U.S. combat troops will not be deployed to the fight against ISIS, he also announced he is sending an additional 475 military personnel to Iraq, “to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment.” That will bring the total number of troops stationed in Iraq to about 1518. The Pentagon said ahead of the speech the U.S. has approximately 1,043 troops there, including 289 personnel located at joint operations centers in Baghdad and Erbil and advising and assisting Iraqi security forces, and 754 providing additional security for the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital.

‘No religion condones the killing of innocents’

 

[waltky]

Britain cautious, Iraq pulls back troops...

U.S. sees Middle East help fighting IS, Britain cautious after beheading
Sun Sep 14, 2014 - Washington said countries in the Middle East had offered to join air strikes against Islamic State militants and Australia said it would send troops, but Britain held back even after the group beheaded a British hostage and threatened to kill another.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for U.S. efforts to build a coalition to fight the Islamic State militants who have grabbed territory in Syria and Iraq. The United States resumed air strikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, fearful the militants would break the country up and use it as a base for attacks on the West.

The addition of Arab fighter jets would greatly strengthen the credibility of what is a risky and complicated campaign. "We have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires," Kerry said. "And we also have a growing number of people who are prepared to do all the other things," he said in remarks broadcast on Sunday on the CBS program "Face the Nation".

Australia became the first country to detail troop numbers and aircraft to fight the militants in Iraq. It said it would send a 600 strong force and eight fighter jets to the region but did not intend to operate in Syria. Russia, at odds with the West over Ukraine, has said any air strikes in Syria would be an act of aggression without the consent of President Bashar al-Assad or an international mandate. Britain has often been the first country to join U.S. military action overseas and is under pressure to get much tougher with IS after video footage of the killing of Briton David Haines by IS militants was released on Saturday.

In footage consistent with the filmed executions of two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month, they also threatened to kill another British hostage. Speaking after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency response committee in London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing of Haines, a 44 year-old Scottish aid worker, callous and brutal and hailed him as a "British hero". "We will hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes," he said, calling IS "the embodiment of evil" and saying his government was prepared "to take whatever steps are necessary" against the militants.

SUNNI "ANVIL"

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Iraq's prime minister orders army to stop shelling areas held by ISIS militants
Sunday, September 14, 2014, Haider al-Abadi says he wants to spare the lives of civilians, even as Iraqi forces work to retake areas of the country held by ISIS thugs.

raq’s new prime minister said he is ordering his army to stop shelling densely populated areas held by ISIS militants, who he accuses of using human shields. Haider al-Abadi says he wants to spare the lives of civilians, even as Iraqi forces work to retake areas of the country held by ISIS thugs.

“I issued this order two days ago because we do not want to see more innocent victims falling in the places and provinces controlled by [ISIS],” al-Abadi said at a Saturday news conference in Baghdad. “We will continue to chase them [ISIS] and we know that they are hiding behind the civilians.”

Iraq’s Sunni minority has long been angered by some army tactics, leading some to greet the terrorists with open arms. UN envoy to Iraq Nickolay Mladenov said he supports the country’s push to prevent civilian deaths.

Iraq s prime minister orders army to stop shelling areas held by ISIS militants - NY Daily News

 

[waltky]

Prob'ly bought with the money from the bank dey looted...

Isis has enough weapons to carry on fighting for two years, UN warns
Tuesday 18 November 2014 ~ Arsenal is sufficient enough to threaten region ‘even without territory’; Much of Isis’s weapon stocks were stolen from US-backed Iraqi military; Report recommends sanctions including seizing Isis oil tanker trucks; Foreign jihadis flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘unprecedented scale’

A new report prepared for the United Nations Security Council warns that the militant group known as the Islamic State (Isis) possesses sufficient reserves of small arms, ammunition and vehicles to wage its war for Syria and Iraq for up to two years. The size and breadth of the Isis arsenal provides the group with durable mobility, range and a limited defense against low-flying aircraft. Even if the US-led bombing campaign continues to destroy the group’s vehicles and heavier weapons, the UN report states, it “cannot mitigate the effect of the significant volume of light weapons” Isis possesses. Those weapons “are sufficient to allow [Isis] to continue fighting at current levels for six months to two years”, the UN report finds, making Isis not only the world’s best-funded terrorist group but among its best armed. Isis, along with its former rival turned occasional tactical ally the Nusra Front, are sufficiently armed to threaten the region “even without territory”, the report concludes.

The report, months in the making, recommends the UN implement new steps to cut off Isis’s access to money and guns. The Isis arsenal, according to the UN assessment, includes T-55 and T-72 tanks; US-manufactured Humvees; machine guns; short-range anti-aircraft artillery, including shoulder-mounted rockets captured from Iraqi and Syrian military stocks; and “extensive supplies of ammunition”. One member state, not named in the report, contends that Isis maintains a motor pool of 250 captured vehicles. Much of the Isis weapons stocks, particularly “state of the art” weaponry stolen from the US-backed Iraqi military, was “unused” before Isis seized it, the report finds. But some of the relatively complex weapons “may be too much of a challenge” for Isis to effectively wield or maintain. Earlier this year, speculation focussed on Isis’s potential ability to produce chemical weapons after it seized Iraqi facilities that had contributed to Saddam Hussein’s illicit weapons programs, but the UN report casts doubt on the likelihood that Isis possesses the “capability to fully exploit material it might have seized”. Nor does the UN report believe that Isis can manufacture its own chemical or other weapons of mass destruction.

Islamic State (Isis) rebel militant soldiers. According to a UN Security Council report, Isis currently has enough weapons to continue fighting in the middle east for another two years.

But at least one anonymous member state has provided information about “chemicals and poison-coated metal balls” placed inside Isis’s homemade bombs to maximize damage. In October, Kurdish forces defending the Syrian town of Kobani from Isis reported cases of skin blistering, burning eyes and difficulty breathing after the detonation of an Isis bomb. The UN Security Council is expected to take up consideration of the report on Wednesday. The report recommends the UN adopt new waves of sanctions designed to disrupt the well-financed Isis’s economic health. Significant among them is a call for states bordering Isis-controlled territory to “promptly seize all oil tanker trucks and their loads” coming in or going out. While the report warns that Isis has alternate revenue sources, and does not predict that truck seizures can eliminate Isis’s oil smuggling money, it holds out hope that raising the costs to smuggling networks and trucking companies will deter them from bringing Isis oil to market.

To combat Isis’s ability to resupply its weapons stocks and launder money, the report recommends the UN mandate that no aircraft originating from Isis-held territory can land on airstrips in member states, and to prohibit flights into Isis-held territory. Exemptions would be made for humanitarian relief planes. The report comes on the heels of an October report to the Security Council assessing that 15,000 fighters from 80 countries have flooded into Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Isis and other militant groups. While still months off, the US has indicated it will intensify its fight against Isis, primarily in Iraq. After doubling the US troop commitment there, defense officials have said the US will bolster 12 Iraqi and Kurdish brigades, and may even join in the Iraqi fighting for key terrain, such as the borderlands between Syria and Iraq or the city of Mosul.

Isis has enough weapons to carry on fighting for two years UN warns World news The Guardian

 

[Indofred]

Is there no end to the stupidity of this country?

It isn't stupidity, it's design.
The arms industry pays massive bribes to your politicians to create wars and enemies.
I have to admit, they're very good at it.
The best bit - the convince the US public they're acting in America's best interests against an evil enemy - but neglect to mention they armed and trained the 'moderate rebels' in the first place.

The politicians are stupid, they're lining their pockets, but the US taxpayer is being taken for a ride.

 

[Indofred]

sis has enough weapons to carry on fighting for two years, UN warns

Most with "Made in the USA" stamped on them.

 

[waltky]

Iran finally catching on to the threat of ISIS...

Iran Increasingly Sees IS as Threat to Islamic Republic
December 13, 2016 - In an unusual display of public candor, Iranian authorities have said in recent speeches that Islamic State infiltrators are becoming a growing threat to the Islamic Republic.

At least three times in recent months, Iranian officials have spoken about breaking up IS-related terror cells and arresting IS-affiliated militants planning attacks inside Iran. The claims lack many details, including when the alleged incidents took place, the identity of most suspects and concrete links to IS. And at times, the information has conflicted with other accounts. But the growing emphasis by Iranian officials on the militant group's possible threat has caught the attention of Western analysts who monitor developments in Iran and offer varying views on the extent of the threat and Iran's aim by speaking publicly about them.

Involvement

Iran's involvement in Middle East conflicts by helping Shi'ite groups in Iraq and Yemen, and backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, makes the nation a natural target for IS and other extremist Sunni groups, experts said. "The [IS] threat is real and there is no doubt about its significance," Alireza Haghighi, a senior lecturer in global affairs at the University of Toronto, told VOA. Iran has Revolutionary Guard fighters on the ground in Syria helping Syrian government forces. While mostly targeting rebels, Iranian forces have sometimes tangled with IS fighters in Syria.

Civilians and armed forces members carry the coffins of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general and five soldiers who were killed in fighting in Syria, during their funeral in Tehran, Feb. 6, 2016. The Iranians were battling the Islamic State group and Syrian rebels.​

With its Sunni brand of extremism, IS sees Iran's Shi'ite majority as an enemy. Islamic State's new spokesmen promised last week that there would be attacks on Iran as well as on the West and Turkey. Iranian intelligence agencies have foiled several alleged plots by IS followers to attack Tehran and other major cities in the country, officials said. Iran Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said in August that agents "spotted and thwarted more than 1,500 young people who intended to join" IS. He said in October that agents disrupted a bombing plot targeting the Shi'ite religious commemoration of Ashoura inside Iran.

IS threats

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Irate Iraqis Recall Horrors of IS Prisons
December 15, 2016 — Islamic State "would kill us without dignity,” says Raith Ahmed, an English teacher and a father of two. “That means throwing out bodies to the dogs.”

As he talks, Ahmed picks through debris in Hamam Alil, Iraq, from what once was a neighbor's home, now destroyed by war. In corners of this former house, closet-like cells provide evidence the property and others like it were used as prisons, with former inmates saying as many as seven people were crammed into each cell. “On their very first day here, Daesh brought people here,” he continues, using the Arabic expression for IS, an insult to the group. “They confiscated the house.”

Iraqi soldiers were the first to be slaughtered, he adds, followed by others, like police or government workers, or anyone suspected of disagreeing with the militants. At one point, he says, he visited nearby fields - the killing place of choice - and saw hundreds of corpses. Residents in town still seethe with rage more than a month after it was recaptured by Iraqi forces. A few blocks away, 22-year-old Ahmed Mohammed Kenan wears camouflage pants. When IS fled, he joined one of many local militias working with the Iraqi army. “I joined for revenge,” he says. “Daesh killed seven of my brothers and my mother.”

A cell door in what was once an ordinary home in Hamam Alil, Iraq​

Life in IS prison

At a refugee camp about a half-hour's drive from Mosul, where many of the residents fled, a group of men becomes animated when asked what IS prisons were like. Almost everyone in the crowd had a story about imprisonments, whippings or other harsh punishments for activities once considered mundane. Abdul Hakim Mustafa, a former local football player, raised pigeons - a popular hobby in Iraq - in his home before IS forced him to move to Mosul. Not long after his move, militants visited his new place in the de-facto IS capital in Iraq. “They told me keeping pigeons as pets is forbidden,” says Mustafa. “But I hid two of the birds. They arrested me, beat me up and injured my knee.”

Mustafa said he spent four days in prison and was held in a one-meter-squared cell. Each day he was brought out of the cell, forced to sit in a chair and whipped 28 times. IS members told him he was arrested for the pigeons, and beaten because he played football. “They said because I played football I was out of religion,” he said. His story, however, is cut off as the crowd becomes rowdier. In the crowd is one man who says he went to prison for having a carton of cigarettes he was selling by the pack to buy food. Another possessed a trinket, a traditional Middle East “evil eye” that, according to folklore, wards off jealousy. “If they saw me like this they would whip me 50 times,” says another man, laughing as he points to his facial hair that is more stubble than beard, a forbidden style under IS. “Almost everyone in Mosul has been whipped.”

Irate Iraqis Recall Horrors of IS Prisons

 

[waltky]

Granny says if she catches any jihadis `round here - dey gonna get a backside o' double-aught buckshot...

U.S. special forces target terror leaders in Syria; 25 killed
Jan. 10, 2017 -- U.S. special forces were deployed in eastern Syria this weekend in an operation aimed at capturing leaders of the Islamic State terror group, military officials said Monday.

The U.S. Department of Defense publicly noted several operations in Syria on Sunday. One involved a raid in a small town along the Euphrates River that targeted militant leaders. The operation was initially reported by Deir al-Zour 24, which monitors militant activity in that area. The strike targeting jihadist leaders lasted for about 90 minutes and involved special forces troops arriving on helicopters. It ended with soldiers carrying away captured and killed Islamic State operators. In Deir al-Zour, U.S. soldiers attempted to capture an Islamic State leader they wanted to interrogate, but a firefight broke out and the person was killed while sitting in a car.

Special Forces deploying on helicopter​

The maneuvers were part of Operation Inherent Resolve, U.S. Central Command's campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria -- which is part of a larger, international coalition against the militant group also identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL. "[We] confirm a U.S. operation in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour on Jan. 8," John Dorrian, a spokesman for the coalition, told The Washington Post. "The U.S. and the entire counter-ISIL coalition will continue to pursue ISIL leaders wherever they are to ensure the security and stability of the region and our homelands."

The Post reported the strike was carried out by the Expeditionary Task Force, an elite U.S. unit based in Iraq tasked with hunting down top Islamic State leaders. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported Monday that the U.S. raid killed at least 25 Islamic State operatives. The group also reported two terrorist leaders -- Abu Sufiyan al-Omrani and Abu Huzaifa al-Orduni -- were killed in coalition airstrikes this weekend in Al-Raqqah, about 100 miles northwest of Deir al-Zour. CENTCOM said there were a total of 34 strikes carried out in Syria and Iraq on Sunday.

U.S. special forces target terror leaders in Syria; 25 killed

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IS Urges Western Sympathizers to Mount Attacks to Exhaust Enemies
January 10, 2017 - The Islamic State militant group is increasing online efforts to encourage sympathizers in the West to mount attacks in their home countries. The incitements include online posts detailing ways to manufacture crude chemical weapons.

The group's propagandists are not disguising the main aim of their leaders: to force Western powers to focus on their own security needs at the expense of pursuing the fight against IS in the terror group's self-declared caliphate, which has shrunk enormously in recent months. Followers are being urged to mount attacks that will exhaust the economies of their enemies in online propaganda monitored by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based organization.

Police direct family members away from a multiple shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida​

In the latest issue of IS's weekly online magazine, al-Naba, posted January 5, an article titled "A Monotheist Is an Army on His Own" celebrates attacks already mounted in the "land of unbelief." Among the attacks highlighted are last June's shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 dead and 53 wounded; the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France; and the Berlin Christmas market assault by a Tunisian who deliberately plowed a stolen truck into shoppers and revelers. The terror so far inflicted has "drained" the enemies' resources needed to strengthen homeland security, "exhausted" Western soldiers and police officers, and "humiliated" their governments, which "failed" to defend their countries, the magazine says.

Links on Telegram

Links to download al-Naba were posted on a pro-IS channel on Telegram, the Germany-based encrypted messaging app, which has become a preferred communications platform for jihadists. "These and the other attacks," al-Naba noted, "are sufficient to prove the extent of vexation that one mujahid, who is honest with Allah and has a sincere jihadi intention, could inflict if he properly prepares with the available resources at his disposal and goes forth to execute his attack while asking Allah to grant him success." Last week, the Telegram channel of Lone Mujahid, which periodically provides suggestions on attack methods, posted several threats to the United States along with instructions on building pressure cooker bombs similar to those used by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, who killed three and injured nearly 250 others.

Police officers, firefighters and rescue workers are seen at the site of an attack on July 15, 2016, after a truck drove into a crowd watching a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice.​

On January 3, the channel published a poster that included instructions on manufacturing a chemical weapon. The channel noted that the dissemination of "disease[-inducing] and chemical gases completely paralyzes life in vital [enemy] areas." Listing ingredients and providing assembly instructions for one such device, the post added that, if properly followed, "the interaction [of chemicals] will start and the countdown of [the] demise of America will as well, inshallah [God willing]." Lone Mujahid promised to provide further explanations on the "use of corrosive chemicals, poisons and explosive materials."

Propaganda surge