Summary The Daily Star, Lebanon In fact, Washington had already taken firm action, by launching airstrikes in northern Iraq to stem military advances by ISIS that came uncomfortably close to the autonomous Kurdish region and U.S. interests there. The U.S. has acted in Syria and Iraq only when it believes […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent We keep banging on about British citizens turning into Jihadists – that tired old public relations man Dave Cameron does this all the time, with his worn-out political correctness – and it’s almost impolite to say “Muslim British citizens”. But isn’t it time we said […]
the following article first published ten years in June 2004 pertains to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the legendary leader and founder of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The name of this mysterious jihadist organization was later renamed the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and in 2013 it became the Islamic State of […]
Summary by Charles Krauthammer, The Daily Star Baghdad called President Barack Obama’s bluff and he came through. With the support of U.S. airstrikes, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have retaken the Mosul dam. In following through, Obama demonstrated three things: the effectiveness of even limited U.S. power, the vulnerability of the […]
BBC News: The UK is close to identifying a suspected jihadist who is believed to have beheaded a journalist, ambassador to the US Peter Westmacott has said. READ MORE…
Fareed Zakaria| The Daily Star Hillary Clinton was expressing what has become Washington’s new conventional wisdom when she implied, in her interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic, “moderates” might have prevented the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). In fact, America has provided massive […]
“Apocalyptic.” “End-of-days strategic vision.” “Beyond anything we have ever seen.” “An imminent threat to every interest we have.” “Beyond just a terrorist group.” “We must prepare for everything.” So are they Martians? Alien invaders from Planet X? Destroyer spacecraft from the movie Independence Day? The word movie is the clue. […]
The President came the nearest he has come yet to rivalling George W Bush’s gormless reaction to 9/11 by Robert Fisk, The Indepedent The “caliphate” has some pretty tough theatrical producers. They write a bleak and savage script. Our job is now to respond to each line, and they understand […]
BY ROBERT FISK, THE INDEPENDENT Now President Obama has seen the next US reporter to be threatened with beheading, will he blink? For centuries, governments told their soldiers and their […]
IAN JOHNSTON Friday 22 August 2014 Kurdish-born Mama Kurda is fighting with the Peshmerga forces who have been pushing back Isis, also known as Islamic State, in northern Iraq with […]
Sky News: The threat posed by Islamic State militants, who have seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, is “beyond anything we’ve seen”, according to US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. READ MORE…
Mainstream Muslim worshippers including parents of suspected British jihadists have vowed to work with police and security services to root out extremists. Rukia Khan, whose 20-year-old son is said to have joined IS in Syria, accused the killers of US journalist James Foley of betraying Islam and ‘killing humanity’. READ […]
by Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star, Lebanon Summary The dramatic expansion of the territory controlled by the “Islamic State” in Syria and Iraq in the last few months has generated a historic moment of reckoning in several arenas in those two countries, which mirror similar trends across the entire region. […]
Summary Visiting the Kurdish capital Irbil, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai called Wednesday on the international community to help Iraq’s minorities, asking the country’s Christians to stick to their roots and […]
Caliphate of Fear: The Curse of the Islamic State By SPIEGEL Staff 2014/08/19 REUTERS Images of Yazidis fleeing parts of Iraq and Syria have shocked the world and the battle against the jihadists with the Islamic State has united Americans, Europeans, Kurds and Iranians. Can the Islamists be stopped? In […]
By: Mohammed Abboud Published Tuesday, August 19, 2014 Female doctors in the Iraqi city of Mosul are witnessing the practices of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) firsthand, since they have to maintain a closer contact with them compared to school teachers and government employees who opted to […]
theguardian.com: A propaganda video circulated on Tuesday showed a masked Isis fighter beheading a kneeling man dressed in an orange jumpsuit who is purported to be James Wright Foley, a photojournalist who went missing in Syria in 2012. The masked executioner spoke in English, with what sounded like a British […]
By ALI KHEDERY AUG. 15, 2014 NEW YORK TIMES “THE country is in your hands,” whispered Iraq’s president, Fuad Masum, on Aug. 11 as he charged the newly designated prime […]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014 Stratfor By George Friedman Russia and Ukraine continue to confront each other along their border. Iraq has splintered, leading to unabated internal warfare. And the situation in Gaza remains dire. These events should be enough to constitute the sum total of our global crises, but they’re […]
By Mohamed Cherif swissinfo.ch (Reuters) The World Council of Churches (WCC) says dialogue is not possible with Iraq’s Islamic extremists, who have forced about one million Iraqis – including Christians […]