David Ignatius| The Daily Star Jalal al-Gaood, one of the tribal leaders the U.S. has been cultivating in hopes of rolling back extremists in Iraq, grimly describes how his hometown in Anbar province was forced to surrender this week to fighters from ISIS. The extremists were moving Wednesday toward Gaood’s […]
Rami G. Khouri| The Daily Star The frightening rise and expansion of ISIS, which has now triggered yet another round of American-led foreign military attacks in the Levant, continues to confound many in the region and around the world. Many ask: Where did these killers come from and where do […]
WASHINGTON: The Islamic State has become the world’s wealthiest terror group, generating tens of millions of dollars a month from black market oil sales, ransoms and extortion, officials said Thursday. […]
By STEVEN ERLANGEROCT. 23, 2014 LONDON — The young Western Muslims trying to join radical Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq now include increasing numbers of young women who are seeking to fight or to become the wives of fighters. It is a new twist on a recruitment effort that […]
by Taylor Luck, The Jordan Times AMMAN — The Awqaf Ministry has banned four clerics for encouraging citizens to support the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group during Friday sermons earlier this month, the minister, Hayel Dawood, said Wednesday. Eyewitnesses say the four imams urged citizens to “come to the aid” […]
It is not only Western agendas that benefit by groups like the Islamic State; Arab and regional agendas are equally served, writes Ramzy Baroud What if the so-called Islamic State (IS) didn’t exist? In order to answer this question, one has to liberate the argument from its geopolitical and ideological […]
WASHINGTON: US-led aircraft hammered Islamic State militants with 21 bombing raids near Kobani on Monday and Tuesday amid signs the strikes had “slowed” the group’s advance on the Syrian border […]
The international coalition that was assembled to confront ISIS has certainly made its mark, but as an example of tragi-comedy. Following weeks of airstrikes and related anti-jihadist efforts in Iraq and Syria, ISIS militants are moving steadily closer to Baghdad, and to the Syrian-Turkish border in Ain al-Arab. Nearly 200,000 […]
Ever since the Pentagon started talking about Isis as apocalyptic, I’ve suspected that websites and blogs and YouTube are taking over from reality. I’m even wondering whether “Isis” – or […]
The Daily Star Turkey appears to be playing a game on its border with Syria, but it does not appear to have figured out how to win it, nor what […]
Rebecca Collard / Beirut @rebeccacollard Oct. 7, 2014 Smoke rises from the city centre of the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds, as seen from […]
Is there a “Plan B” in Barack Obama’s brain? Or in David Cameron’s, for that matter? I mean, we’re vaguely told that air strikes against the ferocious “Islamic State” may […]
By Katrin Elger, Hasnain Kazim, Christoph Reuter and Holger Stark spiegel.de Islim Ali is dragging a torn trash bag behind her, clothes spilling out of the growing holes. Twenty-two years […]
Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum| The Daily Star The global financial crisis taught the world how profoundly interdependent our economies have become. In today’s crisis of extremism, we must recognize that […]
• Locals say strikes have reduced checkpoints • Militants travel on two wheels instead of four • Hide in trenches in backyards of civilian houses RAHEEM SALMAN AND YARA […]
The popular belief that religion is the cause of the world’s bloodiest conflicts is central to our modern conviction that faith and politics should never mix. But the messy history […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent He’s offered to do a deal with Isis. No, not David Cameron. Not Obama, of course. I’m talking about Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader. He’s demanding that the Lebanese government swap Islamist prisoners for 21 soldiers and policemen held by Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra. […]
Scott Pelley speaks with two men who recognized the threat of ISIS early and warned of the possible consequences of not acting The following script is from the second part […]
• US aircraft and cruise missiles attack targets in Syria • Allies include Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar • Raqqa city and Iraq-Syria border among areas hit • […]
Anyone who has studied Syria knows the moderate opposition doesn’t exist by Robert Fisk, The Independent John Kerry is becoming more and more like William McGonagall, the “worst poet in the world” whose horror at the 1879 Tay Bridge railway disaster yielded the imperishable observation that it “will be remember’d […]