Tag: ISIS

Categories
International News

World // Arab and U.S. Forces Surge Against ISIS

The Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), Turkish militias, Kurdish forces, and U.S. personnel have begun an offensive against the ISIS stronghold in Raqqa, Syria. SDF told CNN it established a joint operations center last Saturday, and launched the “Euphrates Rage” mission on Sunday.

Raqqa is the “de facto” capital of ISIS territory, according to CNN. Its population of 200,000 is held down by roughly 5,000 militants. The city has been under ISIS control since the summer of 2014, according to CNN. According to SDF leaders, the retaking of Raqqa may take up to two months as forces seek to isolate ISIS positions in the city.

The U.S. will support operations with air cover and military advisors according to NPR. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General. Joseph Dunford told CNN that the US and Turkey are drafting a long term plan for “seizing, holding, and governing” Raqqa provided the Euphrates Rage operation is successful.

The commencement of the Euphrates Rage came just days after Iraqi forces’ surge against the ISIS stronghold in Mosul. The offensive to recapture Mosul is the result of several months of united Iraqi, Kurdish, and U.S. effort, according to NPR. Coalition spokesman Colonel. John L. Dorrian said to CNN, “In the meantime we will continue shaping operations like airstrikes against Da’esh leaders, command and control and resources. This is the first step in a campaign that will be conducted deliberately.”

“Doing operations simultaneously with the campaign to liberate Mosul will complicate command and control for the enemy, giving them more problems to solve than their flagging command and control can manage,” he added. As with Raqqa, Mosul has been under ISIS control since summer 2014, according to Al Jazeera, which also reported dozens of decapitated bodies found by Iraqi forces.

If control of Raqqa is successfully wrested from ISIS, there may be conflict between the Kurdish and Turkmen militias. According to Reuters and NPR, Turkey is concerned about Kurdish influence spreading into northern Syria as a result of the planned takeover. The Kurds and Turks have long-standing tensions, despite joining forces against a common enemy.

Mark Lowen of BBC stated “The Kurdish participation is problematic,” because “Kurdish fighters are accused of expelling Arabs from areas they’ve taken in the north and Raqqa has an overwhelming Arab majority.”

NPR reported that the coalition stated the Arab troops involved in the operation will be key in the aftermath of the offensive, as they are “indigenous to the area and will help establish regional support for SDF operations.”

Categories
International News

Canadian Killed in Philippines

On Monday, April 25, Canadian hostage, John Risdsel, was executed in the Philippines by Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf.

Risdsel’s severed head appeared on the remote island of Jolo Monday, just five hours after a ransom deadline set by the militants had expired. According to Reuters, the group demanded 600 million pecos ($6.4 million) for each of the captives and threatened to behead one of their four captives if the deadline was not met. Locals reported seeing two men on a motorcycle drop off a plastic bag that contained the head in the center of town and then fled.

Dani RGBRisdsel was one of three captives who were taken from the Oceanview Resort on Samal Island in the Philippines on September 21, 2015. The captive group was made up of Risdsel; fellow Canadian, Robert Hall; Hall’s girlfriend and Filipino native, Marites Flor; and Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad. According to CNN, this part of the Southern Philippines is home to the militant group, who has been linked to both al Qaeda and ISIS. CNN reported, this is not the first time the group has taken foreigners as hostages. In recent years the group has preyed on tourists, taking them hostage in an attempt to “further its aims.” The Philippine government, however, denounced the group as a terrorist organization, claiming they operate more like a criminal gang.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the group is also believed to have other captives including “a Dutch man, a Japanese and a group of Malaysian and Indonesian seamen.” The group abducted the Malaysian and Indonesian seamen at gunpoint from tugboats at the beginning of last month. In November, the group beheaded a Malaysian hostage on the same day that the Malaysian prime minister was scheduled to arrive in Manila for a summit.

Last month the group released a video of the hostages appearing to beg for their lives, and for the government and their families to secure their release. It is in this video that the threat was made to harm one of the captives if the group’s demands were not met. Bob Rae, a close friend of Risdsel’s, was quoted in a CNN article as saying “lots of effort” was made to comply with the demands, but the amount of money requested was simply too high. In the video heavily armed militants can be seen standing behind the hostages with large black flags hanging behind them.

The 68 year old Canadian native was a former chief mining officer of a mining company, described as “semi-retired” in a BBC news story, who also worked as a journalist. Justin Trudeau, Canadian prime minister, was quoted as stating Risdsel was killed in “cold blooded murder” by the group. He also said Canada would work with the Philippines and other international forces to bring justice to Risdsel’s death. Rae said in BBC article, ““It’s just very hard. I’ve been involved behind the scenes for the last six months trying to find a solution and it’s been very painful.”

Categories
International News

Shooting in Tunisia Museum

On Wednesday, March 16, gunmen entered and open fired on The Bardo Museum in Tunisia killing 19 people and injuring at least 20 more.

The museum, according to CNN, is housed in a 19th century palace, and calls itself “a jewel of Tunisian heritage.” The museum hosts exhibits featuring art, culture and history, marble sculptures, furniture, jewels, and mosaics dating from the back to the Roman and Carthaginian era, including one of the widely known poet, Virgil.

imgresAccording to Reuters, a London based news agency, the gunmen, dressed in military uniforms, stepped off of a bus and began open firing on tourists. Two of the gunmen then fled inside the museum with hostages.The two gunmen inside the building were later killed and are believed to be Tunisians, while the other three gunmen are still believed to be at large. Their identities, as well as their motives remain unclear.

Among the dead were five Japanese tourists and visitors from Poland, Germany, Italy, and Spain, as well as at least one Tunisian native, according to Reuters. In addition to the deaths, there were another 20 tourists and two Tunisians wounded in the attack.

While there is no solid evidence linking ISIS to the attack, many factors are forming suspicion of the influence of the Islamic State. The biggest factor causing suspicion, according to The New York Times, was the celebration of the attacks by ISIS supporters via social media which cited a video released by supporters in December that claimed there were ‘more attacks to come.’ Boubakr Hakim, a Tunisian militant, urged for the support of the Islamic state and claimed responsibility for the assassinations of two liberal Tunisian politicians and warned authorities, “You will not live in safety as long as Tunisia is not ruled by Islam.”

Another one of the largest indicators of the Islamic State’s involvement with the shooting is, according to New York Times, it’s emergence as one of the largest sources of foreign fighters joining ISIS. According to The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London, “Up to 3,000 Tunisians are believed to have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight as jihadists, more than any other country.” While the country has not experienced as much violence as other nations that were part of the Arab Spring, it has experienced its share of outbreaks and protests. The Arab Spring, which took place in Tunisia, sparked protests throughout North Africa and the Middle East and was a revolutionary wave of non-violent and violent demonstrations, protests, and civil wars that took place in the Arab world.

Despite Tunisia’s transition from dictatorship to dictatorship, it’s recent completion of presidential and parliamentary elections, and “ a peaceful handover of political power from one governing party to another,” authorities have struggled to handle periodic attacks by Islamic extremists. According to CNN, in February 2015, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry announced the arrests of about 100 alleged extremists, and “published a video allegedly showing that the group possessed a formula for making explosives and a photograph of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

Categories
International News

Iraqi Militia Vs. ISIS

The Iraqi military, alongside thousands of Shiite militia fighters, began a wide-scale offensive on Monday March 2, 2015 to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State.

This was not the first time the Iraqi military has sought to retake Tikrit in the months since the city, Saddam Hussein’s hometown and a Sunni stronghold, fell into rebel hands during the Islamic State’s blitz through the country after seizing the northern city of Mosul in June of last year.

Joe Poyfair GreySeveral times since then, the Iraqi army and allied Shiite militias have begun counteroffensives, only to abort them shortly after. These counteroffensives were sometimes in the defiance of objections from American officials, who would warn the Iraqi military of a blood bath should they try and enter Tikrit.

By sundown Monday, March 2, 2015 fighting raged in the areas surrounding Tikrit, but the army and militia fighters had not yet pushed on the city’s center. ISIS, during this time, released a video that was intended to terrify the citizens who were considering aiding the advancement of the Iraqi military forces.

The video clip showed the execution by gunshot of four men dressed in orange jumpsuits. These men were said to have been local tribesmen collaborating with the Iraqi Military.

In a speech Monday to Parliament, Mr. Abadi echoed the words of President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trades Center, saying that the residents of Tikrit were either with Iraqi or with ISIS. “There is no neutrality in the Battle against ISIS. If someone is being neutral with ISIS, then he is one of them.”

The fight against ISIS has brought the United States and Iraq into an awkward alliance in Iraq. While the United States’ effort has been in airstrike campaigns, Iraq has taken the most prominent role on the ground.

In a statement that addressed the worries over militias taking retribution on the local population, the United Nations representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said Monday that “Military operations reinforced by international and Iraqi air support must be conducted with the utmost care to avoid civilian casualties, and with full respect for the fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law.”

Rebels undertook a series of attacks in and around the Iraqi Capital Baghdad on Thursday, March 5, 2015 killing at least 16 civilians. These attacks by armed insurgents were mostly targeting civilian areas as Islamic State militants (ISIS) in the country’s north, set oil wells ablaze in an attempt to slow the Iraqi Government forces that were battling to reclaim territory.

In separate attacks on an outdoor market in the Baghdad suburb of Nahrawan, thirteen civilians were killed. At least thirty-nine individuals were wounded in a residential area in the southern district of Dora and in a market in Mahmoudiyah only twenty miles south of Baghdad.

An attack targeting a military patrol in a northeastern district, a bomb killed three soldiers and had wounded seven.

These armed attacks continue to come as government forces, Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and Sunni volunteers continue their fight to recapture areas around Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, which fell to Islamic State Militants in June of 2014.

On Thursday, March 5, 2015 militants set fire to some oil wells outside the city. The smoky fires were apparently meant to obscure targets from government bombing raids. The Iraqi government took part in wide-scale operations that began Monday, March 2, 2015.

Categories
News

ISIS Beheads Egyptian Christians

Last weekend, a video surfaced of the Jihadist group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), showing the beheadings of 21 men. All of these men except one, according to National Public Radio (NPR), were Christian laborers from Egypt.

article-coptic16n-6-webBeheadings have not been uncommon for ISIS. On August 13, 2014 ISIS released a video showing the beheading of U.S. journalist and ISIS hostage, James Foley. On September 13, 2014, yet another video, this time showing the murder of British aid worker, David Haines, is released. Then once more on October 3 and once again November 16, 2014 ISIS released videos of the deaths of British minicab driver, Alan Henning, and U.S. aid worker, Peter Kassig.

This particular set of murders by ISIS differs than the previous. According to Abraham Bashr Aziz, who was present during the kidnapping and is also a brother of one of the deceased, ISIS was specifically looking hostages who were Christian. He said, “I heard them screaming, and I heard them asking about the Christians. They just came to kidnap the Christians.” The kidnapping, however, was not random. According to NPR, the gunmen who came to kidnap Aziz, along with his friends and relatives, had a list of names. Aziz was one of the names on the list.

Egypt’s response to the beheadings was one of violence and retaliation. According to CNN Sunday, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi proclaimed his country “reserves the right of retaliation and with the methods and timing it sees fit for retribution for those murderers and criminals who are without the slightest humanity.” According to Reuters, an international news agency based in London, on Monday, February 16, Egyptian jet bombed Islamic State targets in Libya. An umbrella group of Islamists in Derna reported the bombing had killed women and children, and in addition warned Egypt of a “harsh and painful” response to come.

The terror from ISIS, however, did not stop there. According to CNN, an Iraqi official has recently confirmed that the town of al-Baghdadi, located in the province of Anbar, has been burned to the ground. With this town an additional 40 officers and tribesmen were burned alive. While the group has not posted photos of the murders on social media as they have in the past, there is reason to believe the Jihadist group is solely responsible for the murders and destruction. The proof comes from the social media updates bragging of their control of al-Baghdadi via photographs. These photographs included images of the recognizable government buildings in al-Baghdadi, along with corpses of the Iraqi joint forces located there.

Categories
News

World // ISIS Crisis Continues

The violent acts being committed by the Sunni-Islam extremist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has prompted the United States and other nations take military action. ISIS, which has its base in Raqqa, Syria, has taken over large areas of Syria and Iraq. The group has declared this area to be the “Islamic State,” according to a CNN article. Its oppressive rule and interpretation of Islamic law has been ravaging civilians, including ethnic and Christian minorities. Video of public executions has been released on the internet as ISIS continues to tighten its grip in the Middle East.

MaryCroninAccording to CNN, the beheadings of two American journalists was an impetus to the United States’ military intervention. The offensive has mostly included missile strikes by sea followed by air raids by bombers and fighter jets. According to the US military, training compounds, headquarters, storage facilities, supply trucks, and armed vehicles were hit in the initial strike on Tuesday September 23. The Pentagon also stated that some ISIS operatives were hit, but the number was not specified.

Other nations have joined the United States, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. As stated by a Washington Post article, France has also lent its support to the offensive.

According to Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who was quoted in the Washington Post, there is a possibility that civilians may be at risk as ISIS moves from more open areas with visible targets to urban areas. “We’ll have to determine that, as we go forward, if we can sustain the level of preciseness that is necessary to limit civilian casualties,” he cautioned.

Another complication threatening progress in the fight against ISIS may arise. Though there has been much cooperation in the Arab world with the West on this matter, the fact that ISIS is technically a Sunni Muslim group may be problematic for some governments. As stated in a CNN article, some governments may face dissent from their people, and they disagree with Sunnis fighting against other Sunnis.

Furthermore, Syria has cited disregard of its sovereignty, according to the New York Times. The nation has complained that American military actions on its soil without its cooperation is a violation of sovereign rights. President Obama and other US officials, on the other hand, insist this is not the case. Civil war in Syria helped extremist movements like ISIS to take root and spread, and Obama contends that by striking only ISIS and not “Mr. Assad”, the United States is helping Syria, thus the nation’s sovereignty is still intact.

Recent action involved the US-led air strikes targeting ISIS positions in northeastern Syria while the Syrian government aimed at other insurgents near its capital, Damascus this past Saturday. Meanwhile, ISIS attacked a Kurdish village near the Turkish border, according to the New York Times. At roughly the same time, two car bombs were detonated in the Syrian city of Homs, killing at least 45 people, including 41 children. The group has not taken official responsibility for this, though it is likely that it is responsible because of their recently increased presence in Homs. This, among other issues, has caused even more civilians to flee to Turkey, joining more than 150,000 refugees already there, the New York Times reported.

Military officials, including General Odierno, have dismally predicted that this conflict could endure much longer than previously anticipated.