The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

The mysterious identity of the "King of the North" and "Small Horn" discussed here. The "Great War" of Daniel 10:1 (NIV) discussed here. The heavenly & earthly establishment of God's Kingdom discussed here at length. Answers such questions as when does Jesus' Kingdom Rule begin and end.

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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#226 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:48 pm

ISIS Losing Ground In Symbolic Kobani Battle
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Turkish Kurds watch over the Syrian town of Kobani as they stand on top of a hill near Mursitpinar border crossing in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province. (File photo: Reuters)


Associated Press, Beirut
Thursday, 15 January 2015


Source of Article

With more than a thousand militants killed and territory slipping away, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group is losing its grip on the Syrian border town of Kobani under intense U.S.-led airstrikes and astonishingly stiff resistance by Kurdish fighters.

It is a stunning reversal for ISIS, which just months ago stood poised to conquer the entire town - and could pierce a carefully crafted image of military strength that helped attract foreign fighters and spread horror across the Middle East.

“An ISIS defeat in Kobani would quite visibly undermine the perception of unstoppable momentum and inevitable victory that ISIS managed to project, particularly after it captured Mosul,” said Faysal Itani, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, referring to the militants’ seizure of Iraq’s second-largest city during its blitz into Iraq from Syria last summer.

It would also rob the group of a “psychological edge that both facilitated recruitment and intimidated actual and potential rivals, as well as the populations ISIS controlled,” Itani said.

In September, ISIS fighters began capturing some 300 Kurdish villages near Kobani and thrust into the town itself, occupying nearly half of it. Tens of thousands of refugees spilled across the border into Turkey.

By October, ISIS control of Kobani was so widespread that it even made a propaganda video from the town featuring a captive British photojournalist, John Cantlie, to convey its message that ISIS fighters had pushed deep inside despite U.S.-led airstrikes.

The town, whose capture would give the jihadi group control of a border crossing with Turkey and open direct lines between its positions along the border, quickly became a centerpiece of the U.S.-led air campaign in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared it would be “morally very difficult” not to help Kobani.

The U.S.-led air assault began Sept. 23, with Kobani the target of about a half-dozen airstrikes on average each day, and often more. More than 80 percent of all coalition airstrikes in Syria have been in or around the town.

Analysts, as well as Syrian and Kurdish activists, credit the air campaign and the arrival of heavily armed Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq, who neutralized ISIS’ artillery advantage, for bringing key areas of Kobani under Kurdish control. These include a cultural center on a strategic hill overlooking several neighborhoods east and southeast of the town, which was captured in December, as well as a neighborhood that houses government buildings and a police station.

“The U.S.-led coalition airstrikes turned the balance. ... Without airstrikes, most likely the city would have been much more difficult to defend,” said Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an expert on Kurdish politics who writes for The Jamestown Foundation, a U.S.-based research center. “The peshmerga did play a role, but it was mostly the airstrikes.”

In the past month, the Kurdish fighters have made more advances, leading to a remarkable battlefield shift.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, estimates the Kurds now control roughly 80 percent of Kobani. Kurdish forces offer similar estimates. Four months after barreling into the town, the extremists barely hold Kobani’s southern and eastern edges, activists and residents say, despite weekly reinforcements to protect what it clearly views as a major strategic prize.

Since mid-September, the battle has killed some 1,600 people, including 1,075 ISIS group members, 459 Kurdish fighters and 32 civilians, according to the Observatory.

“Kobani is on the verge of being free of ISIS,” Abdurrahman said. The militant group’s “death toll is very high and they are not able to advance.”

That doesn’t mean ISIS is leaving without a fight.

The extremists have carried out more than 35 suicide attacks in Kobani in recent weeks, Abdurrahman and other activists said.

An ISIS video released last week via social media, apparently to boost morale, showed jihadist fighting street battles as coalition warplanes flew overhead. It showed a truck loaded with explosives being detonated by a suicide bomber inside the town. The footage could not be independently authenticated, but it corresponded with Associated Press reporting on the situation in Kobani.

In the video, a Tunisian fighter among the large contingent of foreign jihadis fighting in Kobani, was shown wearing sunglasses and carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle. He made a pledge to ISIS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that militants in Kobani were willing to fight to “the last drop of blood.”

“We are not scared by their warplanes,” the fighter said.

An ISIS member based in central Syria, speaking to the AP via Skype, also insisted militants in Kobani faced no setbacks. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the Kobani campaign.

It is not clear how long the battle for Kobani might last. ISIS brought in some 400 fighters, including many well-trained foreign recruits, during the first week of January, a Kobani-based Kurdish activist, Mustafa Bali, said.

Van Wilgenburg, the analyst, said losing Kobani would be a symbolic as well as strategic defeat for ISIS. But he cautioned: “This doesn’t mean it is the beginning of their defeat in Syria.”

Shorsh Hassan, a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG - the Syrian Kurds fighting alongside the Iraqi peshmerga in Kobani - praised the will of his fighters to battle the far better-armed ISIS militants while losing “dozens of martyrs and wounded fighters.”

“This is a price that we are happy to pay to liberate Kobani,” he said.


Last Update: Thursday, 15 January 2015 KSA 07:07 - GMT 04:07
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#227 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:28 pm

ISIS Loses Battle For Kobani
Date & Time: January 26th, 2015 02:03 pm

Source of Article & Video

(CNN) Kurdish fighters have taken the Syrian city of Kobani from ISIS' grip after 112 days of fighting with the Sunni extremist group, multiple sources said Monday.

The announcement comes a day after an Iraqi official declared that Iraq's Diyala Province had been "liberated" from ISIS.

Idriss Nassan, Kobani's deputy foreign minister, told CNN he expects an official announcement Tuesday "if things continue this way."

"YPG is in control," Nassan said, using the acronym for the People's Protection Units. "They are making sure to clear the streets and the places from ISIS to declare it a free city."

YPG spokesman Polat Can confirmed the news in a tweet: "Congratulations for liberation of Kobani to all of humanity, Kurdistan and people of Kobani."

Nassan called for the quick implementation of a "humanitarian corridor" to help the myriad refugees in the city, whom, he said, "need everything."

A Kobani official, who did not want to be named because it would interfere with Tuesday's official announcement, said the Kurds were going house to house in the newly liberated area to check for booby traps. Once the traps are removed or defused, the fighters will invite residents to return to their homes, the official said.

According to London-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights -- which also confirmed Kobani was liberated -- since October 6, when ISIS first raised its banner on the city's outskirts, the fighting among ISIS, YPG and the rebel battalions backing YPG has killed 979 ISIS combatants, 324 YPG fighters and 12 rebels.

Thirty-eight more ISIS militants died in attacks using booby-trapped vehicles or explosive belts, and the ISIS shelling of Kobani killed 12 civilians, SOHR said.

"On the other hand, hundreds of (ISIS) militants died during U.S. and Arab allies' airstrikes on the city and its countryside. Meanwhile, large parts of the city have become uninhabitable due to U.S. and Arab allies air raids, detonation of booby-trapped vehicles and mutual shelling," the group said.

Kobani apparently declared itself autonomous exactly one year before Monday's victory, SOHR said.

Iraqi victory claimed over ISIS in Diyala
A large-scale military operation to reclaim Iraq's Diyala Province from ISIS was successful, Iraqi transportation minister Hadi al-Amiri said Sunday.

The operation started last week, and at least 58 people -- including two journalists -- were killed. Nearly 300 others were wounded.

In a televised news conference Sunday, al-Ameri, who is also the head of the a powerful Shiite militia, said the province was "liberated" from ISIS.

Al-Amiri said that Iraqi security forces are searching for ISIS militants who fled into orchards and farms in remote areas.

Diyala Police commander Brig. Gen. Jamil Kamel al-Shamari also announced that Diyala is now under full control of Iraqi security forces.

ISIS has been fighting for Kobani for months, hoping to add it to the territory it already controls in Syria and Iraq as part of what it calls its independent Islamic nation.

Syria has been embroiled in a more than three-year civil war, with government troops battling ISIS and other rebels elsewhere, leaving Kobani's ethnic Kurds to defend the city.

Kobani, aka Ayn al-Arab, is strategically important because of its location on the border with Turkey.

Airstrikes by the United States and its allies, part of a larger U.S.-led coalition effort against ISIS in the region, intermittently take out ISIS targets in the area. The coalition started operations in September.


CNN's Ralph Ellis, Dana Ford, Gul Tuysuz, Raja Razek and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#228 Post by Sunshine » Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:11 pm

Syria Says Military Operation Needed To Expel IS From Yarmuk
Source of Article

Damascus (AFP) - Syria said Wednesday a military operation was needed to expel jihadists who have overrun large parts of a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, trapping thousands of civilians inside.

The Islamic State group's advances in the Yarmuk camp have sparked international concern for the civilians, who have already endured repeated bombardment and an army siege of more than 18 months.

The European Union has announced additional aid for residents of the camp, saying their suffering was reaching "intolerable levels" and the UN Security Council has urged a humanitarian corridor into the district.

Syria's Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar on Wednesday said the crisis required a military operation.

"The priority now is to expel and defeat militants and terrorists in the camp," he said, after meeting Palestine Liberation Organisation official Ahmed Majdalani, who arrived Tuesday from Ramallah.

"Under the present circumstances, a military solution is necessary," Haidar said.

He did not spell out when a military operation might begin or how it would be waged, but suggested that Syrian troops could be involved.

"The Syrian state will decide whether the battle requires it," he said.

- Concern for residents -

Amnesty International, however, said Wednesday that thousands of lives are already being put at risk by intensified regime shelling and aerial bombardment since the IS advance.

"Civilians have also come under sniper fire and been caught up in clashes between armed groups," it said. "For civilians still trapped in Yarmuk life is an agonising struggle for survival."

IS forces attacked Yarmuk on April 1 and have seized control of large parts of the camp, executing Palestinian fighters.

The Syrian government and residents of the capital have been rattled by the presence of IS militants just a few kilometres (miles) from the heart of Damascus.

Once a thriving district that was home to some 160,000 Syrian and Palestinian residents, Yarmuk has been devastated by violence since late 2012.

The Syrian army imposed a tight siege on the camp that reportedly led to deaths because of shortages of food and medicines.

An agreement between rebels and the government, backed by Palestinian factions in the camp, was reached last year and led to an easing of the siege, although humanitarian access remained limited.

Majdalani, speaking after meeting Haidar, said the Palestinian leadership would back whatever measures the Syrian government decided on.

"It is more and more difficult to talk about a political solution in the camp," he said.

But it remains unclear whether an operation will be accepted by all Palestinian factions, including the Hamas-linked Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, which has led the fight against IS in Yarmuk.

A range of Palestinian factions, including Hamas representatives, were to meet in Damascus on Wednesday evening to discuss the situation.

Inside the camp, concern has grown for the fate of thousands of residents, with the EU saying it would provide 2.5 million euros ($2.7 million) in emergency funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

"The suffering of civilians in Yarmuk camp is reaching intolerable levels," EU aid commissioner Christos Stylianides said Tuesday.

- IS bomb kills rebels -

Elsewhere in Syria, the toll in two car bombings late Tuesday in northern Aleppo province rose to 32, a monitor said, accusing IS of being behind the attacks.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group, said the attacks appeared to be a bid by IS jihadists to expand their reach in Aleppo.

One bomb hit a base in the village of Hawar Kilis, near the Turkish border, killing at least 23 rebels, while the second targeted a joint rebel office in the town of Marea and killed nine.

The Observatory said three commanders, including one from the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, were killed in the Marea blast.

Al-Nusra confirmed the death of its local commander in the town and accused IS of the bombing.

Despite sharing a similar ideology, Al-Nusra and IS are at odds in fronts across most of Syria.

More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, which spiralled into war after a regime crackdown.

***

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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#229 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:25 pm

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in convoy hit by airstrike, Iraq says
By Mohammed Tawfeeq and Hamdi Alkhshali, CNN
Updated 10:49 PM ET, Mon October 12, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

Source of Article

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The ISIS terror threat
56 photos: The ISIS terror threat

(CNN) Iraq's military claims its air force struck a convoy in western Anbar province that included ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The fate of Baghdadi is unknown, as he was "carried away in a vehicle," the military statement said.

But nine ISIS officials were killed in the airstrike, along with a "large number" of Baghdadi's bodyguards, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

The slain officials included several military leaders and an adviser to Baghdadi, the ministry said.

"The Iraqi air force carried out a heroic operation by striking al-Baghdadi's convoy while he was on his way to attend a meeting with senior ISIS leaders in Karabelah," the statement said.

The site of the meeting was also struck, and several ISIS leaders were killed and wounded, the statement said.

The Pentagon said it can't confirm the report.

Who might lead ISIS if Baghdadi dies?

Claims that Baghdadi has been hit in airstrikes have been made twice over the past year. In November, Iraqi officials said he had been wounded in an airstrike. In March, Iraq's Interior Ministry said the Iraqi air force wounded Baghdadi in an airstrike on the Iraqi town of Al-Qaem.

Each time, audio recordings of Baghdadi showed up on social media within days after the airstrikes.

He is enemy No. 1 in the fight against ISIS, and this summer, U.S. intelligence officials said they believed Baghdadi was in the area of Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the self-declared Islamic State. He was also still in charge of ISIS' operations, they said.

CNN's Susanna Capelouto, Holly Yan and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#230 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Tue Oct 04, 2016 11:11 pm

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly poisoned



Source of Article and Video -- Fox News

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is at death’s door after being poisoned by a mystery assassin in Iraq, it has been reported.

Three other senior jihadis were also afflicted by the toxin in Al-Ba’aj, southwest of Mosul – Islamic State’s biggest city in Iraq. The four have reportedly been rushed for treatment at a secret location.

FARS, an Iranian news agency, say that ISIS is now arresting several suspects to find out who has struck a blow at the terror group’s self-proclaimed ‘Caliph’.

The evil Iraqi cleric is known to have been personally responsible for the rape and torture of US aid worker Kayla Mueller.

He forced the 26-year-old to marry him, before repeatedly raping her.

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Mueller was killed during a Jordanian airstrike on ISIS in February last year.

Baghdadi was previously held by US forces in the city of Fallujah in 2004 during their invasion of the country.

Baghdadi was released within six months and would go on to be declared the leader of ISIS – then known as al-Qaeda in Iraq – in 2010.

If the reports are true, it would not the first time al-Baghdadi has been injured. In 2015 he was severely hurt in a US airstrike in Syria.

In June of this year, rumours surfaced that he was killed by a US airstrike in ISIS 'capital' Raqqa, but they were later found to be false.
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#231 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Thu Oct 06, 2016 12:39 pm

ISIS leader al-Baghdadi may have been poisoned

Source of Article

Story By Jamie Schram New York Post
October 3rd, 2016

The Pentagon is investigating whether ISIS kingpin Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was poisoned during a lunchtime feast — causing him to fall seriously ill.

The ISIS leader and three commanders were eating in the small town of Be’aj, Iraq, when all four suffered “severe poisoning” and had to be “transferred to an unknown location under strict measures,” the Iraqi news agency WAA said.

The barbaric terror group, also known as ISIL and Daesh, has launched a full-scale investigation to find the culprits, according to WAA.

Pentagon spokesman and Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told The Post that he is “aware of the reports, but we have no information to corroborate [them].”

“Suffice it to say we always have great interest in the whereabouts and condition of the leader of ISIL,” Davis added when asked if the US military was looking into the matter.

Over recent years, Baghdadi has risen to the top of the extremist world, becoming the most feared jihadi leader since Osama bin Laden.

The US government has put a $7 million bounty on his head.

Since 2013, his network of savage killers has taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq, ruling small towns and large cities with an iron-fist under ­Sharia law.

Baghdadi also has sent his military-trained soldiers to Western nations to carry out numerous deadly attacks, while encouraging lone wolves through social media to commit similar acts of bloodshed.

Scores of innocent people have been slaughtered in the attacks across Europe and America.

The radical cleric also allegedly participated in the rape and torture of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old Arizona resident, who was kidnapped in Syria while working as a humanitarian aid. She was killed last February in a Jordanian airstrike on ISIS.

In 2004, Baghdadi was captured in the city of Fallujah by American soldiers during the US invasion of Iraq.

After spending several years as a US prisoner at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, Baghdadi was released and subsequently took the reins as leader of ISIS in 2010.

There have previously been unverified reports that Baghdadi was either wounded or killed by US-coalition airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Iraqi jets leveled a radio station used by the ISIS.

Broadcasting abruptly stopped on Sunday at the Al-Bayan radio station, NBC News reported.

The station was “one of the strongest” propaganda tools used by the terror group, a spokesman at Iraq’s Joint Operation Command told NBC.

“They used to broadcast Islamic anthems that encouraged people to join them,” the spokesman said.

The station encouraged listeners “to stand against the government and encouraged people to be terrorists under the name of jihad,” he added.
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#232 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Thu Oct 06, 2016 1:01 pm

ISIS leader Baghdadi poisoned as Iraqi troops prepare attack on Mosul
POSTED AT 1:21 PM ON OCTOBER 4, 2016 BY JOHN SEXTON
Article From "HotAir.com"

Source of Article

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According to a report published yesterday by FARS news agency, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was recently poisoned along with three of his top aides:

Iraq’s Sumeriya News cited a local source in the Northwestern Nineveh Province as saying that “accurate information” showed Baghdadi’s food had been poisoned by unknown individuals and the food was given to him in the Be’aaj district, Northwest of the Iraqi province of Nineveh near the Syrian border.

So FARS is relying on a local news source in Nineveh. How reliable is this source? The story, which was covered yesterday by the Daily Mail among others also says there is an effort to arrest people and try to find out who is responsible for the poisoning. But this isn’t happening in a vacuum. As CNN points out, there is a looming siege on Mosul by the Iraq army:

Iraqi troops were last in this part of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, when they were fleeing the rampant advance of ISIS fighters.

Now, as part of an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government and the United States, they are preparing to reverse that humiliating loss…

When asked when the attack will begin, Iraqi and Peshmerga officers have the same one-word answer: “Soon.” It’s widely thought that the multi-pronged offensive will begin in the second half of this month. In the meantime, there’s been an uptick in coalition airstrikes — mainly by US, French and British aircraft — in and around Mosul.

So ISIS is about to face a moment of truth as it tries to hold on to Mosul, a city it has held for two years. This is likely to be a deadly battle that could kill a lot of ISIS fighters. Already there are reports that resistance fighters are killing ISIS commanders in the city in anticipation of the siege. With that in mind, here’s the line in the FARS story that made me wonder if there might be more than one possible explanation for this poisoning story:

The report on poisoning al-Baghdadi surfaced after media revealed on Sunday that ISIL’s top commanders, including al-Baghdadi, have started fleeing Mosul for Syria.

“The ISIL commanders, including al-Baghdadi, are escaping Mosul to Syria,” Iraqi Kurdistan Democrat Party’s media director Saeed Mamouziti said.

So ISIS is under pressure and some of its commanders are now strategically retreating to Syria. What is a the leader of a PR savvy terror group to do? Well, if what you really want to do is get out of town before you get killed by a U.S. airstrike it would help to have a good excuse.

This is purely speculation on my part, but telling your soldiers to stay behind and fight to the death as you head for the hills doesn’t look very good. But if you’ve been poisoned, no one can question your decision to disappear before the big battle or your commitment to die for the cause.

On the other hand, it’s possible Baghdadi really was poisoned. He certainly has made enough enemies. Either way, whether this is an accurate report or disinformation to explain Baghdadi’s retreat, it seems like bad news for ISIS.
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#233 Post by Abaddon (Ex. 23:21) » Sun Oct 16, 2016 12:08 pm

Al-Baghdadi Aide Among Dozens Executed By ISIS For Rebellion Plot
by Reuters

October 14, 2016

Source of Article

Modal Trigger Al-Baghdadi aide among dozens executed by ISIS for rebellion plot

BAGHDAD – Islamic State has crushed a rebellion plot in Mosul, led by one of the group’s commanders who aimed to switch sides and help deliver the caliphate’s Iraqi capital to government forces, residents and Iraqi security officials said.

Islamic State (IS) executed 58 people suspected of taking part in the plot after it was uncovered last week.

Residents, who spoke to Reuters from some of the few locations in the city that have phone service, said the plotters were killed by drowning and their bodies were buried in a mass grave in a wasteland on the outskirts of the city.

Among them was a local aide of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led the plotters, according to matching accounts given by five residents, by Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on IS affairs that advises the government in Baghdad and by colonel Ahmed al-Taie, from Mosul’s Nineveh province Operation Command’s military intelligence.

Reuters is not publishing the name of the plot leader to avoid increasing the safety risk for his family, nor the identities of those inside the city who spoke about the plot.

The aim of the plotters was to undermine Islamic State’s defense of Mosul in the upcoming fight, expected to be the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Mosul is the last major stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq. With a pre-war population of around 2 million, it is at least five times the size of any other city Islamic State has controlled. Iraqi officials say a massive ground assault could begin this month, backed by U.S. air power, Kurdish security forces and Shi’ite and Sunni irregular units.

A successful offensive would effectively destroy the Iraqi half of the caliphate that the group declared when it swept through northern Iraq in 2014. But the United Nations says it could also create the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world, in a worst case scenario uprooting 1 million people.

Islamic State fighters are dug in to defend the city, and have a history of using civilians as human shields when defending territory.

According to Hashimi, the dissidents were arrested after one of them was caught with a message on his phone mentioning a transfer of weapons. He confessed during interrogation that weapons were being hidden in three locations, to be used in a rebellion to support the Iraqi army when it closes in on Mosul.

IS raided the three houses used to hide the weapons on Oct. 4, Hashimi said.

“Those were Daesh members who turned against the group in Mosul,” said Iraqi Counter-terrorism Service spokesman Sabah al-Numani in Baghdad, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “This is a clear sign that the terrorist organization has started to lose support not only from the population, but even from its own members.”

A spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition which conducts air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq was unable to confirm or deny the accounts of the thwarted plot.

Signs of cracks inside the “caliphate” appeared this year as the ultra-hardline Sunni group was forced out of half the territory it overran two years ago in northern and western Iraq.

Some people in Mosul have been expressing their refusal of IS’s harsh rules by spray-painting the letter M, for the Arabic word that means resistance, on city walls, or “wanted” on houses of its militants. Such activity is punished by death.

Numani said his service has succeeded in the past two months in opening contact channels with “operatives” who began communicating intelligence that helped conduct air strikes on the insurgents’ command centers and locations in Mosul.

A list with the names of the 58 executed plotters was given to a hospital to inform their families but their bodies were not returned, the residents said.

“Some of the executed relatives sent old women to ask about the bodies. Daesh rebuked them and told them no bodies, no graves, those traitors are apostates and it is forbidden to bury them in Muslim cemeteries,” said one resident whose relative was among those executed.

“After the failed coup, Daesh withdrew the special identity cards it issued for its local commanders, to prevent them from fleeing Mosul with their families,” Colonel al-Taie said.

A Mosul resident said Islamic State had appointed a new official, Muhsin Abdul Kareem Oghlu, a leader of a sniper unit with a reputation as a die-hard, to assist its governor of Mosul, Ahmed Khalaf Agab al-Jabouri, in keeping control.

Islamic State militants have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of the offensive.

***
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#234 Post by Mary » Sat Jun 17, 2017 1:34 pm

Al-Baghdadi's Reported Death Gives Syrian Army
'Unique Chance' in War on Daesh
Image
Sputnik News International
Article Source
17:06 17.06.2017(updated 20:47 17.06.2017)


On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a Russian airstrike may have killed Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Raqqa in late May. Al-Baghdadi was reportedly among the 330 Islamist militants killed in the airstrike, along with other leaders of the extremist group.

"As a result of the Su-35 and Su-34 airstrikes, high-ranking commanders from the terrorist groups which were part of the so-called IS [Daesh] military council, as well as about 30 mid-level field commanders and up to 300 militants from their respective personal security details, have been killed," the Ministry announced.
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In addition to al-Baghdadi, the liquidated Daesh commanders included the "emir of Raqqa" Abu al-Hadji al-Mysri, the emir Ibrahim An-Naef al-Hajj, who controlled the area from Raqqa to Es-Suhne, and the head of the "Daesh security service" Suleiman Al-Shawah, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The death of al-Baghdadi as the result of a Russian airstrike was first reported on June 10 by Syrian state television and was later translated by some British outlets. However, the news did not make global headlines.
There have already been several times when al-Baghdadi was reported dead. His death was reported in June and December 2016, April 2015 and November 2014. In April 2015, he was reported dead after an injury, and in October 2016, reports emerged that al-Baghdadi had been poisoned. In January 2017, media reported that al-Baghdadi suffered heavy injuries in an airstrike.
The Russian Defense Ministry first verified the information regarding militant deaths resulting from the airstrike on July 16, when it issued an official statement.
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Putin Briefed on Russian MoD's Report on Possible Daesh Leader Baghdadi Elimination - Kremlin
Some Western media outlets have declared the reported death of the Daesh leader as a milestone achievement in the fight against global terrorism. At the same time, Western media remains focused on al-Baghdadi, ignoring the fact that almost all of the Daesh highest commanders and nearly 300 militants may have been liquidated in the airstrike.

While the information of al-Baghdadi’s death still awaits confirmation, there are two reasonable questions regadrding the matter. First, how could several Daesh commanders and three hundred additional militants gather in one place and for what purpose?
For example, while reporting to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday that "over 100 terrorists, including members of the Daesh leadership," were killed.
Second, does the threat posed by a terrorist or militant organization like Daesh seriously depend on the personalities of its leadership? There are two polar views on subject, and the question remains open.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri), also known as Abu Dua, was born in 1971 in the city of Samarra in Iraq.
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According to media reports, al-Baghdadi was brought up in a religious family. He received a PhD in Islamic Law from the University of Baghdad. During his time at the university, he became a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the Western coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, al-Baghdadi joined the Iraqi insurgents. In 2004, he went to jail and spent around a year in the Bucca Camp, a US prison in Iraq. After his release, he participated in the activities of various terrorist groups comprised of Islamist militants.

Al-Baghdadi claimed he was of Quraysh origin, in other words a direct descendant of Prophet Mohammed. Leadership of the Muslim community traditionally passed to a member of the Quraysh. Despite the fact that al-Baghdadi’s belonging to the Quraysh was never confirmed, his claim legitimized him as the spiritual leader.

The military structure of Daesh was built by former members of the Iraqi military and the Ba’ath Party. However, they needed a spiritual leader because radicalism turned out to be a better platform for Daesh than the pan-Arabism adopted by the Ba’ath Party.

On June 29, 2014, al-Baghdadi was proclaimed the caliph of Daesh, a "caliphate" created on the territories Daesh managed to seize in Syria and Iraq.

On July 5, he delivered his first public speech at Mosul’s Great Mosque, declaring jihad.
"However, in his three years of being the caliph, al-Baghdadi could not become the spiritual leader of the Muslim community, even despite his attempts to copy the behavior of charismatic Palestinian and Lebanese Shia imams, his de facto ideological rivals," an article in the Russian online newspaper Vzglyad read.
According to the article, while the initial leadership of Daesh was formed under the US occupation, including in the ranks of the Iraqi military, recently a trend has emerged to recruit more young Islamists to the terrorist group.
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Possibly, after the liquidation of the majority of Daesh’s initial leaders, the terrorist organization will see a crisis in its command. The question is how long this crisis will last. Currently, Raqqa is surrounded and it is nearly impossible to find a new charismatic leader among young supporters of Daesh.
"The Syrian Army should not miss this chance because the leadership collapse is likely to affect combat planning within Daesh. Nevertheless, the Russian airstrike in Raqqa creates a unique chance to consolidate the achievements the Syrian Army has gained in the last 18 months," the article concluded.


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"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
George Bernard Shaw

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Mary
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Re: The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

#235 Post by Mary » Sat Jun 17, 2017 2:27 pm

WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT AN ISIS LEADER?
IF RUSSIA KILLED BAGHDADI, ISLAMIC STATE COULD COLLAPSE
Newsweek
Article Source
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 6/16/17 AT 1:52 PM
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A man purported to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), makes what would be his first public appearance at a mosque in the center of Iraq's second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the internet on July 5, 2014. While Baghdadi is believed to have passed on much of the group's "command and control" to regional ISIS leaders around the globe, his death could signify a fatal blow to the group's image and exacerbate a series of territorial losses in Syria and Iraq.
Russia has released unverified reports that its military has killed Islamic State militant group (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria, raising questions as to the future of the jihadist organization that has already witnessed a series of major defeats.

Russia's defense ministry said Friday it was looking into reports that a May 28 airstrike that targeted a meeting of ISIS leadership in a southern suburb of Raqqa, the group's de facto capital in Syria, killed Baghdadi along with hundreds of other militants. The upper echelons of ISIS's command had reportedly met to discuss the group's exit from Raqqa, which is currently being assaulted by both U.S. and Russian-led forces in Syria.

While Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that he has "no one-hundred-percent confirmation of the information that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed," according to the state-run TASS Russian News Agency, experts have begun to weigh in on what the implications of decapitating the elusive head of ISIS would be for the jihadists.

"Taking out the Islamic State leader would be a major counterterrorism coup," Max Abrahms, an expert in security and international relations analysis, told Newsweek. "Removal of the top leader wouldn't alter the command and control, but it would be a major PR victory."

Abrahms said that in many cases, the leadership of extremist groups actually restrains the lower ranks from committing massive, indiscriminate acts of violence, so targeting the head often results in a surge of uncoordinated attacks. ISIS was "atypical," however, because Baghdadi and his top officials, including spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, have regularly encouraged followers to engage in random acts of violence against both military and civilian targets. While Abrahms said his research indicated Baghdadi has already delegated most of the group's tactical leadership to local commanders around the world, losing the iconic head may signify an irrecoverable, symbolic loss for ISIS by convincing "wannabe jihadists that the caliphate project totally failed" and by threatening the network of foreign support that has perhaps been Baghdadi's greatest achievement as ISIS leader.

While little is known about Baghdadi's early life, it is believed he became involved with ultraconservative Sunni Muslim circles after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and toppling of President Saddam Hussein. Baghdadi was detained by U.S. forces in 2004 and, after being released, ascended to the head of what was then called the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010. He later expanded the group into Syria, rebranding the group as ISIS in 2013 and splitting ties with old allies in fellow jihadist group Al-Qaeda. By 2014, his group had taken major cities in Iraq and Syria, and the cleric made his first and only known public appearance at the Grand Mosque al-Nuri in ISIS's Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. During the speech, which was widely publicized among jihadists around the world, Baghdadi declared ISIS a worldwide network and invited Muslims to join an organization that at the time claimed nearly half of Syria and Iraq.

In the years since, ISIS has suffered extensive territorial losses on multiple fronts. The group's remnants in Mosul have been completely surrounded by an alliance comprised of the Iraqi military, Kurdish forces, majority-Shiite Muslim militias supported by Iran and a U.S.-led coalition.
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Raqqa, the effective headquarters of ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate, is also the target of a massive international effort to dislodge the jihadists. As U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a majority-Kurd coalition of Arabs and ethnic minorities, storm Raqqa city, the Syrian army and its allies have pierced Raqqa's western countryside with heavy air support from Russian airstrikes. A report released in April by the U.K.-based IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre found that Russia and pro-Syrian government forces were the most actively engaged faction against ISIS, and their efforts may have paid off in a big way.

To be sure, many Western observers, including the Middle East Institute's Charles Lister, remain deeply skeptical of recent reports of Baghdadi's death. Frequent rumors of the leader's death have turned out to be false on numerous prior occasions. Sometime during the Iraq-led offensive on Mosul, which was announced in October, Baghdadi was believed to have fled into neighboring Syria, where the group still maintains stretches of territory, including the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and the northern city of Raqqa.

But even if the Russians are right and Baghdadi really is dead this time, don't expect his fighters to go quietly into the night. With their future uncertain, the jihadists may seek to join other Syrian insurgent movements supportive of ISIS's hard-line Salafist branch of Sunni Islam, and opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, to carry on their mission, Abrahms said.

"As ISIS continues to implode, many of those fighters will not lay down their arms but latch on to other Salafist groups, including new ones," Abrahms said.


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"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
George Bernard Shaw

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