ISIS in Iraq and Syria

Hernandez - BFA said:
Admittedly I don't know much about ISIS apart from the fact that they are terrorists and want a "caliphate".

Is there something that should make us more nervous about them than Al-Qaeda or previous terror groups?
Are they growing in popularity/numbers, or is it just a select thousand that will eventually (hopefully) pipe down?
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Put it this way, ISIS are so bad even Al-Qaida have condemned them :lol:
 
PedroMendez said:
just because there is a (strong) sectarian influence doesnt mean, that its only a sectarian conflict. People also have tribal and purely opportunistic/pragmatic motives.
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Ballache said:
@Uzz How do you explain the fact that some Christians in Lebanon are against the regime and the vast majority of Druzes in Lebanon are also against the regime? It's far more complicated than a Shia/Sunni conflict (which is all fairness does exist to a certain extent). It's the big boys fighting to keep their sphere of influence, throw Israel into the mix and you understand why the Middle East is a major wreck.
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I think both of you are right. I'd imagine that if there was no oil in the region, it would have been obliterated by now.
 
MDFC Manager said:
I think both of you are right. I'd imagine that if there was no oil in the region, it would have been obliterated by now.
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Usually these issues are oversimplified. There are various different conflicts on different levels, which are influencing each other. There are conflicts at sub state level, conflicts between states of the region and conflicts, where international players are involved. Most of them have different dynamics and causes, but they add all to the current clusterfeck. ISIS is one results of different disputes.

In Iraq a shia government heavily discriminates against sunnis (religion, power, history). In Syria a dictator oppresses big parts of the country often along sectarian lines. That didn’t start as religious conflict but evolved in this direction. In Yemen you have shia vs sunni vs Al-Qaida, which started primarily about power. Lebanon is a special case, which involves fairly extreme parties, who still have some understanding that they need to coexist peacefully (which is quite remarkable). Furthermore there are Kurds, who are in conflict with the national governments of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey to gain self-determination.

There is a regional conflict between SA and Iran, that fuels all other those conflicts because both sides fight each other on those battlefields.

Furthermore there is the Israel-Palestine conflict, where almost all countries of the region are “united” against Israel. On top of all the USA, the EU and Russia are involved aligning themselves in various alliances to peruse their own interest.

The next realistic steps towards more stability would be the normalization of Iran-USA relations and a stop of western military interference in the region. Ending the war on terror should be self-explanatory. Ending the conflict with Iran would allow Iran to evolve internally (imo one of the states of the region with the biggest potential to turn into a somewhat democratic state) and it would be a first step towards a less violent balancing process between SA and Iran.
 
Kaos said:
Just the government builds no? There still seems to be pockets of fighting in parts of the city.

Excellent news nonetheless :D
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Abadi announced it. There are a few scattered pockets, but the PM announcing it on national TV means it's pretty much done. The Iraqi forces are now in the center of the city, raising the Iraqi flag on all the high and government buildings. Some TV channels were even showing live pictures from inside the city.

Definitely excellent news. Hopefully they re-secure Baiji now, or may be first avoid making the same mistake they made with Baiji in Tikrit.
 
Schools fear Easter holiday exodus of teenagers joining Isil in Syria

01 Apr 2015

Schools fear that their will be an exodus of teenagers joining jihadist in Syria over the Easter holidays, but have not told police as they do not want their pupils to be criminalised, it has been claimed.

Nazir Afzal, a senior prosecutor, claims that he has been approached by the heads of two London secondary schools, one in east London and one in west London, over fears that their students have been “seduced and groomed” by Islamic State (Isil).

However, they have not contacted the authorities about the concerns, raised by the teenagers’ parents, because they do not want them to be investigated.

Mr Afzal told the Times that one said he was being “approached on a daily basis by parents who fear their kids are about to go to Syria”.

He added: “Both said they were scared of the Easter break and would be very relieved if all their pupils come back after the holidays.”
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...xodus-of-teenagers-joining-Isil-in-Syria.html
 
See what can be achieved when the US Air Force, Iranian Revolutionary guard quds force, and Iraqi Army work together ? :)
 
Raoul said:
See what can be achieved when the US Air Force, Iranian Revolutionary guard quds force, and Iraqi Army work together ? :)
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There's a 'walk into a bar' joke in there somewhere

Edit: You forgot the Shia militia, who arguably played the biggest role :nono:
 
Raoul said:
How could I forget those paragons, Asa'ib al-Haq. :)
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They're sectarian mentalists alright with massive hard-on for Khameini, but they're very good at killing Islamic State fighters. I say unleash them on the worst of them and leave all the ethical PR stuff to the official security forces :)
 
Iraq: Tikrit victory gives way to looting and lawlessness
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Iranian-backed Shia militiamen made up the bulk of the Iraqi government's forces in the Tikrit operation
Iraqi Shia militia, who helped recapture Tikrit from Islamic State (IS), are being pulled out of the city amid reports of violence and looting.

The militia made up the vast majority of the pro-government force that retook the city over the past week.

But people in Tikrit say the city's liberators have since stolen cars and ransacked government buildings.

Tikrit was captured by Islamic State in June last year in what was an important strategic victory for the group.

The city was ravaged by the fighting that followed and now sits largely empty.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered the arrest of anyone caught looting, but reports suggest the actions of the pro-government paramilitaries have gone beyond theft.

A correspondent for Reuters reported seeing an Islamic State fighter surrounded by a mob and stabbed to death, as well as the corpse of another being dragged by a car.

Ahmed al-Kraim, head of the city's Salahuddin Province council, told the news agency that mobs had burned down "hundreds of houses".

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi posted a picture online of himself raising an Iraqi flag in central Tikrit on 1 April
Government officials have attempted to distance the army from the reports, blaming the violence and looting on local Sunni tribal fighters.

Ahmed Salim Noreldin, a Iraqi soldier, told the BBC that IS militants had booby-trapped the streets with IEDs as they retreated, leaving the doors of homes and shops open on their way.

Mahmoud Al-sa'di, a captain in Iraq's federal police command, said that soldiers were attempting to defuse the bombs to allow residents to return.

Iraqi army officials say Tikrit is now completely free of IS. "The nearest IS position is 45km (27 miles) away," said Captain Al-sa'di. "There are no resistance pockets inside Tikrit."

The Iraqi army will now turn its attention toward Mosul, 225km north along the Tigris river.

IS's most significant stronghold in Iraq, Mosul presents a far greater challenge than Tikrit for the US-led air coalition and Iraqi ground forces.
 
Yazidi leader 'arrested by Kurdish authorities'

Row over links to Iran-backed militia sign of broader splits in Iraq following Haider Shasho's arrest on Sunday night

By Jonathan Krohn in Erbil and Richard Spencer
06 Apr 2015

One of the leading commanders of the Yazidis, the religious sect attacked and over-run by Islamic State fighters last summer, has been arrested by Kurdish authorities in what could prove a damaging rift in anti-jihadist forces.

It was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) assault on Yazidi and Christian territories in northern Iraq that triggered western intervention, including British and American air raids on Isil positions.

They were co-ordinated through the Peshmerga, the army of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, long allied to the West.

However, Haider Shasho, one of the best-known commanders of the Yazidi militia set up to fight Isil alongside Kurdish forces, was arrested while visiting family members on Sunday night.

He was leading Yazidis in the fight against Isil around Mount Sinjar, the heartland of the Yazidi people, in coalition with a variety of different Kurdish forces, and there are fears the arrest might lead to infighting.

“He’s a very important symbol for the Yazidis,” a spokesman for the Sinjar Mobilisation Units (HBS), Mr Shasho’s unit, said.

The arrest is part of a wider rift within Iraqi politics which is also starting to cause a major problem for the western coalition.

Many Yazidis and Christians both resent the Kurdish government of Masoud Barzani, saying it abandoned them to their fate last summer. Thousands of Yazidis were captured and in many cases massacred. Women

were sold into sex slavery.

Mr Shasho’s arrest seems to have been triggered by his decision to seek weapons from the Iranian backed Popular Mobilisation Units, a coalition of Shia miliitias fighting Isil alongside the regular Iraqi army.

Some see the future of Iraq, if the various anti-Isil forces ever manage to drive the jihadists out, as a continuing battle for influence between the United States and allies inside the country like Mr Barzani, and the Iranians.

Mr Barzani, if he was behind the arrest of Mr Shasho, may be marking the Yazidis’ cards as to their expected loyalties.

The HBS spokesman said that Mr Shasho’s uncle, Qassem Shasho, another Yazidi leader, had spoken to Mr Barzani and other Kurdish leaders, who had said Mr Shasho was being questioned about the “Yazidi situation in Iraq”.

“People say the PMU is like Isil, like the terrorists,” the HBS spokesman added, a reference to allegations that the Shia militias are also guilty of sectarian attacks. “They want to ask Haider why he is going to these people get money for his 1,500 people there.”

There was no comment from the Kurdish authorities.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...i-leader-arrested-by-Kurdish-authorities.html
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In Syria's war, Alawites pay heavy price for loyalty to Bashar al-Assad

The Alawites, the Assad family's sect, have seen up to a third of their young men killed in the Syrian conflict and mothers are now refusing to send their sons to war

By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut
07 Apr 2015

In the Assad regime's heartland, dead officers are sent home in ambulances, while the corpses of ordinary soldiers are returned in undecorated pick-up trucks.

Then come the press gangs: military recruiters raid houses to find replacements by force for the dwindling ranks of Syria's military.

Sharing their sect with President Bashar al-Assad, Alawites have long been the core constituency for the Syrian regime. As the civil war drags into its fifth year, the minority sect is seen by opposition rebels as remaining unwaveringly loyal.

But from inside the community, the picture looks very different: as their sons die in droves on the front lines, and economic privileges – subsidies and patronage – cease, Alawites increasingly feel they are tools and not the beneficiaries of the regime.

In a series of exclusive interviews, Alawites from the coastal province of Latakia, the sect's heartland, have told the Telegraph of how they are now trapped between jihadists who consider them apostates, and a remote and corrupt regime that told them the war would be easy to win.

"Most don't have salaries now, and some don't even have food to eat," said Ammar, a businessman in Latakia. "My friends ask me: 'Mr Ammar what shall we do? The regime wants to take us as soldiers. We will die. But we don't have the money to get out'."

The scale of the sect's losses is staggering: with a population of around two million, a tenth of Syria's population, the Alawites boast perhaps 250,000 men of fighting age. Today as many as one third are dead, local residents and Western diplomats say.

Many Alawite villages nestled in the hills of their ancestral Latakia province are all but devoid of young men. The women dress only in mourning black.

"Every day there at least 30 men returned from the front lines in coffins," said Ammar, who spoke to the Telegraph using a pseudonym to protect himself and his family.

"In the beginning of the war their deaths were celebrated with big funerals. Now they are quietly dumped in the back of pick-up trucks."

The Syrian government has not published official figures on its war dead. Syrian state television mostly fails to broadcast news of Alawite soldiers killed, instead playing up the deaths of their Sunni comrades, in a bid to shore up Sunni support.

A report by the opposition Syrian Network for Human Rights published at the end of last year found that pro-government fighting groups have suffered the greatest proportion of casualties , with over 22,000 soldiers and militiamen killed in 2014 alone.

A disproportionate number of those are Alawites: "In battles with Sunni armed groups, the government doesn't trust their Sunni soldiers not to defect," said one Alawite resident, a former soldier, who asked not to be named. "So the Alawites are sent forward."

The loss of life is causing a quiet rebellion among many in the sect: vilified by the increasingly extremist rebel opposition, most still feel they have little choice but to remain wedded to the regime. But it is an alliance tinged with hatred.

A female resident in Latakia city, also speaking anonymously, said: "Mothers are caring for their children more than for Bashar, and have started trying to hide them away."


Pushed to breaking point, and inspired by the instinct to protect, residents recounted cases where women set up "road blocks" at the entrances to some of the mountain villages to prevent the army from forcibly taking their sons to the military draft.

"They told the military commanders: 'Go and bring the sons of the big shots to war and after that we will give you our children'," said Ammar, citing one such protest where he was present.

The community is also the focus of the rebel movement, which is now dominated by Sunni jihadists who regard the Alawites as non-believers. They openly boast of their desire to "purge" what they describe as "dangerous filth'" from the country.

Alawites, who split from the Shia branch of the Islamic faith in the ninth century, believe prayers are not necessary and do not fast or perform pilgrimages. Many of the key tenets of the faith are secret, adding to their mystique but also fuelling the myths peddled by their opponents.

A tough, mountain race who were originally considered something of an underclass, the Alawites rose to power after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, when Syria's French rulers needed soldiers willing to defend the regime from a Sunni uprising. They found willing recruits in the Alawites, who were only too happy to fight their Sunni "oppressors".

Their growing strength in the military led Hafez al-Assad, a general, to seize power, which he then handed to his son, Bashar. Since then the Assad regime has enriched individuals within the sect, disproportionately appointing its men to senior political, military and financial positions.

The majority of Alawites, however, are still extremely poor.

"Assad didn't improve our salaries during his reign," said one Alawite resident. "In my village there are only a few villas dotted among hundreds of basic houses."

As the war continues with no clear end in sight, the collapse of the Syrian economy is forcing the poor into destitution.

The regime has cut subsidies that were keeping many families afloat. Electricity is intermittent in Latakia city and often cut off in the mountains. Fuel for transport and heating is expensive and hard to come by.

Local war lords are growing increasingly powerful, as men join their ranks, refusing to be sent with the military to fight in areas of the country where Alawites have almost no presence.

In their fiefdoms, the war lords are increasingly independent. The militia leaders feel able to refuse orders from commanders sent from Damascus, according to Joshua Landis, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma who has regular contact with Syrian members of the sect.

Several members of the Assad family, once too powerful to touch, have died in Latakia in murky circumstances, that some have interpreted as a competition by others for money and local power.

Mystery surrounds the death of Muhammad al-Assad last month, a well known second cousin of President Assad, and once a feared member of the shabiha, a smuggling mafia that emerged from the Assad family in rural Latakia in the 1980s.

Nonetheless, most of the Alawite community still believes that any actions that would seriously weaken the regime could result in their villages being overrun by an opposition hell-bent on sectarian revenge.

So, they keep their heads down, suffering in silence as their sons return in body bags.

Mohammed, the taxi driver said: "No one is smiling in Latakia now: every family has lost someone," he said. "The angel of death is working well."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...avy-price-for-loyalty-to-Bashar-al-Assad.html
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VidaRed said:
I'd like to hear the opinion of the resident iraqis on this.
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Completely true unfortunately.

It's mostly down to two key reasons:

Firstly, there's the sectarian angle. A lot of these officers and generals were Sunnis who Saddam chose to fill his officer positions with (much like Assad with Alawites). So now there's a bit of bitter resentment as Shias now make up the elite within the military infrastructure. This isn't a huge factor but it should nevertheless not be discounted as a reason.

The second and more pressing reason was down to the completely irresponsible maneuver from the US to completely the dismantle the Iraqi military structure following the fall of Saddam. Not only has this led to Iraq being less equipped to defend itself, but it had also led to thousands of seasoned Iraqi military personnel left without careers and prospects since the 'new' Iraqi military was built from scratch. So unfortunately all these officers and generals were sucked firstly into the Ba'athi loyalist insurgency, and then into contemporary Islamist movements such as Al-Qaeda in Iraq and now ISIS.

Naturally, its disgraceful that many of these Iraqis would betray their own by joining foreign Jihadist movements that pillage their land and murder their own brothers and sisters, but a lot of this would have been avoided had the trained Iraqi military not been disbanded by Paul Bremner and chums.
 
Uzz said:
The Shia Militia's crimes often go unreported, I've found. Especially the atrocities they've committed in Syria. They're often blanketed under the banner of Assad and his army.
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What are you on about? There's no cover up on crimes committed by Shia militias in the media, I've pretty much seen half a dozen articles in western media outlets, and of course the Arab media won't scupper a chance to report it either. And why are you interchanging the Iraqi militias and the Syrian army as if they're the same thing? They're completely different entities.
 
Kaos said:
The second and more pressing reason was down to the completely irresponsible maneuver from the US to completely the dismantle the Iraqi military structure following the fall of Saddam. Not only has this led to Iraq being less equipped to defend itself, but it had also led to thousands of seasoned Iraqi military personnel left without careers and prospects since the 'new' Iraqi military was built from scratch. So unfortunately all these officers and generals were sucked firstly into the Ba'athi loyalist insurgency, and then into contemporary Islamist movements such as Al-Qaeda in Iraq and now ISIS.

Naturally, its disgraceful that many of these Iraqis would betray their own by joining foreign Jihadist movements that pillage their land and murder their own brothers and sisters, but a lot of this would have been avoided had the trained Iraqi military not been disbanded by Paul Bremner and chums.
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:wenger: Jesus what a monumental feck up that decision was, wtf was Bremner thinking?
 
Kaos said:
What are you on about? There's no cover up on crimes committed by Shia militias in the media, I've pretty much seen half a dozen articles in western media outlets, and of course the Arab media won't scupper a chance to report it either. And why are you interchanging the Iraqi militias and the Syrian army as if they're the same thing? They're completely different entities.
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What am I on about? It's fairly clear.

Firstly, the atrocities committed by Shia militias, especially in Syria, go largely unreported. More often than not, they are covered under the blanket of Assad's army.

Secondly, The National Defence Force received training from Iran. Iran has also create Shia militias, mainly made up of foreign fighters. Both these militias and the NDF share joint command centres in Iraq and Syria, and the fighters themselves are largely interchangeable. So, you have the Syrian Army (Assad), under this banner, you have Shia militias, such as Hezbollah, the NDF (with Iran having a big fat finger in), etc as well as the same fighters operating in Iraq.

The thinly-spread Syrian army has been bolstered by several Iraqi Shia militias, often seeking to defend Shia shrines such as Saida Zeinab in Damascus. Many of them pulled back to Iraq this summer. The National Defence Forces, a Syrian paramilitary outfit, was created with Iranian help. Another Iranian protégé, Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia militia hardened by wars with Israel, has been prominent in battles near Damascus.
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With Iran's help and Baghdad's continued inaction, Iraqi Shiite militants have moved from fighting U.S. forces in their own country to fighting on Assad's side in Syria.

One of the most significant international brigades currently fighting on the Assad regime's side is the Damascus-based Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas (LAFA), a collection of predominantly Iraqi Shiite fighters organized and supported by the Qods Force, an elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
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Controlled by Iran, the deadly militia recruiting Iraq's men to die in Syria
The Middle East's most potent new political force, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, is stepping up its support for the Bashar al-Assad regime
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The Syrian Imam, Sh Abdul Hadi Arwani was murdered in his car this morning in Wembley.

"Imam AbdulHadi narrates his life in Syria of the criminal injustice of the tyrant Bashr Al Assad and his father Hafiz Al Assad, the Imam tells us how he had to flee at the young age of 16 after being sentenced captial punishment, a very thought-provoking talk, a must watch.

Imam AbdulHadi Arwani originally from Syria, the Shaykh acquired his early traditional religious studies from the teachers and Shuyukh of Syria. He then graduated from Jordan University specialising in Fiqh and its branches. He also studied extensively with the Shuyukh of Jordan, the Maliki, Hanafi, and the Shafi' Schools of thoughts and has a deep understanding of the Usul and the intellectual traditions of scholars and their jurisprudence. He is currently the Imam of An-Noor Masjid in Acton and the head of the Hadith department at the European Academy for Islamic Studies U.K, London."

He was vehemently anti-Assad, and was a learned man and good role model to the youth in the area.

We will learn a lot more about the suspicions around his death in the coming days, I'm sure.
 
Nope - haven't said that @Ballache

"We will learn a lot more about the suspicions around his death in the coming days, I'm sure."

As in, the murderer, motive etc.

Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an assassination. The Sheikh was under capital punishment in Syria, and had to flee aged 16. Whether it was by Assad or someone acting on behalf of him is another matter entirely. His death could also be happenstance as well. We don't know a lot, atm.
 
Uzz said:
Nope - haven't said that @Ballache

"We will learn a lot more about the suspicions around his death in the coming days, I'm sure."

As in, the murderer, motive etc.

Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an assassination. The Sheikh was under capital punishment in Syria, and had to flee aged 16. Whether it was by Assad or someone acting on behalf of him is another matter entirely. His death could also be happenstance as well. We don't know a lot, atm.
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Oh I wasn't implying that you were, just speculating.

@sun_tzu
Yeah I think the KGB have a bit more reach than the Syrian intelligence services. Unless the Russians did it that is :p
 
What do people think about the GhostSec (Anonymous) hacking? So far they've attacked 233 websites, closed down 85, and deleted 25,000 Twitter accounts related to ISIS, apparently.

The GhostSec division of Anonymous has been keeping itself busy. They have been compiling a list (https://ghostbin.com/paste/ce5jz) of websites “frequently used by the Islamic State through Twitter and other social media platforms for transmission of propaganda, religion, recruitment, communications and intelligence gathering purposes,” the group said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Anonymous group reported of "casualties" among the enemy ranks, which included 233 websites, which had been attacked, 85 websites that had been “destroyed” and 25,000 “terminated” Twitter accounts.

Not everyone is happy with the actions undertaken by Anonymous. Security services have criticised the group for taking matters into their own hands. These intelligence bodies say the elimination of jihadist websites and social media accounts prevents them from gathering valuable information concerning their activities.

These accusations were dismissed by Anonymous, who pointing out that public websites and social media accounts are used to spread propaganda and for recruitment purposes. The group added they are not used for communicating valuable military and strategic information.
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Poking the beast? Potentially having a negative affect on recruitment? Genuinely harming intelligence collecting? Job well done? Pointless?


Over the last few months, Twitter has been suspending about 2,000 IS-linked accounts per week.

The UK publication, the Daily Mail reported on Friday that the micro-blogging service has already suspended a total of 10,000 ISIS-linked accounts in just 24 hours. However, thousands more are being registered to replace those that have been closed down.

IS and its supporters have not been happy with the stance taken by the social platform and co-founder Jack Dorsey has already received death threats from irate jihadist sympathizers.

“Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you,” the Islamists told Twitter via the image-sharing site, JustPaste.it. They warned that Twitter employees and its co-founder have become “target for the soldiers of the Caliphate and supporters scattered among your midst!”

“When our lions come and take your breath, you will never come back to life,” extremists linked to IS stated.
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http://rt.com/news/248845-anonymous-opisis-warring-terrorism/

Maybe it'd be better being done silently, at least for the safety of those working at Twitter?

They've also apparently threatened a new 9/11 style attack because of all this.
 
Al Iraqiya and Al Arabiya have confirmed it, just waiting for Ba'athi TV (Al Sharqiya) to mourn their saint and its as good as confirmed.

Not many left now from the old guard. Traitorous cowards cosying up with foreign jihadists to help murder their own, good riddance.
 
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