One of the more remarkable documents found in the Osama bin Laden compound included a letter to the Islamic State group of Iraq and Syria cautioning Abu Musab al-Zarqawi over his group’s extreme violence. The insurgency in Fallujah and Tal Afar had alarmed the al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan as to […]
The Daily Star The situation on the ground in Syria is extremely complicated, in contrast to the skies, where things are crystal-clear. The U.S.-led coalition carries out daily airstrikes against ISIS targets, while Syrian aircraft bomb regime opponents and anyone who happens to be in the way. After a series […]
BEIRUT — The Islamic State (IS) group is employing multiple tactics to subdue the Sunni Muslim tribes in Syria and Iraq under its rule, wooing some with gifts — everything from cars to feed for their animals — while brutally suppressing those that resist with mass killings. AP JORDAN TIMES […]
LONDON: Islamic State (IS) militants may ultimately lose the war in Iraq and Syria because they do not have enough money to run the territory under their control, despite holding assets worth more than $2 trillion, international terrorism experts said. The cost of running an entire administration – paying civil […]
Interview Conducted By Britta Sandberg In an interview, Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who was a key figure in the arrest of the mastermind behind al-Qaida’s 9/11 attacks, discusses […]
VIENNA: ARAB NEWS Top Saudi leaders joined representatives of other faiths in condemning violence by the so-called Islamic State (IS) at a conference organized in the Austrian capital by the King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) on Wednesday. The KAICIID was founded in October 2011 by […]
Exclusive: CIA has hugely underestimated the number of jihadis, who now rule an area the size of Britain PATRICK COCKBURN IRBIL Sunday 16 November 2014 The Islamic State (Isis) has recruited an army hundreds of thousands strong, far larger than previous estimates by the CIA, according to a senior Kurdish […]
By Erik Holm and Siobhan Gorman The Islamic State is getting into the gold-coin business. The “Treasury Department” of the jihadist group that is now occupying large portions of Syria […]
Robert Fisk visits Rumeilan, where its people strive to extract oil, produce asphalt and continue the struggle against the Islamist militants The skies are grey-black from the oilfields and refineries […]
By Robert Fisk, The Independent No one knows who Haj Badr was, but his white-painted tomb lies in a small sanctuary atop an ancient “tel” where potsherds thousands of years old lie scattered down the hillside. And it is from this windswept outpost south of Qamishli – for many years […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent Syrian Arab Airlines flight RB131 took off from Damascus International Airport to far-away Qamishli at 8.35am for its journey over Isis country, flying at an altitude of 17,000ft. Just how an airline can still function amid Syria’s tragedy – it has five working airbus A320s […]
RIYADH: ABDUL HANNAN TAGO Published — Sunday 9 November 20 Family negligence and a rigid approach to dealing with children were identified as part of the main cause of extremism in the Saudi society, according to resolutions adopted at first forum of this year’s King Abdul Aziz Center for National […]
Sometimes Séverine Mehault climbs the stairs to the second floor for no reason at all. She walks along the hallway, past her son’s room and into her daughter’s bedroom. Then […]
The United States and its coalition partners have conducted close to 800 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, hitting command-and-control facilities, training compounds, armored vehicles, oil refineries, supply trucks, artillery pieces, and bunkers. But there’s a notable absence from the target list: the Islamic State’s top leaders. […]
The Daily Star Lebanon Events this week in Iraq and Syria offer dramatic proof of how weak the international campaign against ISIS is, as if any proof were required. When a foreign hostage held by ISIS is paraded before the camera, or later executed, the world learns his name. In […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent Syria’s special forces troops are strung out across a pinnacle of hills here just north east of Lattakia on one of the country’s most dangerous […]
Rami G. Khouri| The Daily Star One of the most troubling aspects of the phenomenon of militant Salafist-takfiri groups like ISIS is the appearance of smaller groups across the Arab world that share ISIS’ ideology and methods, and in several cases have sworn allegiance to it. This is no surprise. […]
What on earth has descended upon the Middle East? BY ROBERT FISK, THE INDEPENDENT Why such an epic explosion of violence? It feels strange to ask these questions of Dr Bouthaina Shaaban, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s close advisers and former translator to his father, Hafez. Her office is spotless, […]
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Switzerland said it foiled a terrorist attack in Europe by detaining three Islamic State extremists. The Iraqi citizens are suspected of “misuse of explosives and toxic gases with criminal intent, acts preparatory to criminal offenses, pornography, and encouraging illegal entry to, exit from and residence in […]
A senior officer of Bashar al-Assad’s regime talks to Robert Fisk about his army’s brutal struggle with Isis, in a dirty war whose challenges include widespread atrocities ROBERT FISK DAMASCUS Wednesday 29 October 2014 Phones were ringing through the army headquarters in central Damascus and a veteran of Syria’s 1982 […]