ISIS - Islamic State

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ISIS - Islamic State
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Content
Rouhani terms US led anti-ISIS coalition "ridiculous"
Kerry calls for global coalition to counter ISIS threat
UN: Mass killings, enslavement widespread under Islamic State
A jihadist by any other name?
NATO allies agree to take on ISIS threat
IS recruitment of foreign fighters key issue for NATO: US
U.K. Parliament votes to join air strikes against IS in Iraq
Fighting the fires they lit
Islamic State expands into Egypt
ISIS actions against Islamic law: Malaysian PM
Obama, the serial interventionist
Have authority to sanction action against Islamic State: Obama
Metastasis of the Islamic State
Kurds sole 'boots on ground' against Islamic State
IS planning to weaponise bubonic plague?
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War without end
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The pendulum of the Islamic State
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Obama to outline anti-IS strategy
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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com
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Content
UNSC resolution adopted to combat ISIS fighters
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Obama to convene UNSC meeting on foreign fighters: White House
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Young western women among jihadis
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Arab League chief: confront ISIS
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IS, Frankenstein's monster unleashed
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Kurds head to Syria from Turkey to fight IS
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War chest of IS is growing
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McCain exhorts India to join fight against Islamic State
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Turkey vows to fight Islamic State
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U.S. House approves Obama's Syria strike plan
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Turkey, Kurd tensions worry US in fight for Kobani
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Strange ambivalence
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War against the Islamic State
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Turkey- Syrian border town about to fall to IS
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After Syria and Iraq, AfPak on Islamic State radar
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Kurds protest across Europe, seek help against IS
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Germany may give weapons to Kurdish forces to fight jihadists
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Islamic State jihadists turn their sights back on Syria
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Content
'US can destroy ISIS without sending troops on ground'
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House of cards
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The ISIS has to be stopped
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Need to build a good coalition to combat ISIS
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Syria sees Turkish deployment inside its border as an aggression
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Saudis join war against Islamic State; many sceptical
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Turkey steps up border security to confront Islamic State
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Obama confident of progress against Islamic State
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Taking on ISIS
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Iraqi Forces pushed IS fighters back from Haditha Dam
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Islamic State not invincible: Need to take Russia, China on board
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Dealing with barbarism
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US hits jihadists in Syria, Qaeda threatens coalition
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NASA to make ISS an Earth-observing platform
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NASA to turn ISS into perfect Earth-observing platform
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Rouhani terms US led anti-ISIS coalition "ridiculous"
Thu, Sep 18, 2014
USA, iran, ISIS, The Hindu, international,
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has alleged that some of the 40 members of this
group had previously supplied the terror group with arms and training.
"If they want to use planes and if they want to use unmanned planes so that nobody is
injured from the Americans, is it really possible to fight terrorism without any hardship,
without any sacrifice?
"However, air strikes should take place with the permission of the people of that country
and the government of that country,"
Mr. Rouhani said Iran will give Iraq any support it requests for combating ISIS, but
made a point of saying religious sites must be protected.
"When we say the red line we mean the red line. It means we will not allow Baghdad
to be occupied by the terrorists or the religious sites such as Karbala or Najaf be occupied
by the terrorists,"
Kerry calls for global coalition to counter ISIS threat
Sat, Aug 30, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, Iraq,
The United States has called for a global coalition to address the challenge being posed
by terror group ISIS that has gained control over large parts of Iraq and Syria, threatening
to spread to other parts of the world.
Asserting that there is evidence that these extremists if left unchecked will not be
satisfied at stopping with Syria and Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry in an Op-ed
in The New York Times wrote that air strikes alone will not defeat Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS).
"ISIS' abhorrent tactics are uniting and rallying neighbours with traditionally conflicting
interests to support Iraq's new government. And over time, this coalition can begin to
address the underlying factors that fuel ISIS and other terrorist organisations with
like-minded agendas," Mr. Kerry said.
UN: Mass killings, enslavement widespread under Islamic State
Tue, Aug 26, 2014
Kurdistan, isis, international, kurds, Islamic state, Businessline,
Mass killings, systematic rape and enslavement have become the calling cards of the
Sunni extremist group Islamic State in the parts of Iraq it now controls, the top UN
human rights official said Monday.
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The killings of hundreds of Yezidi men and the enslavement of up to 2,500 women and
children who refused to convert to Islam at the beginning of August in the northern
province of Nineveh;
"Such cold--blooded, systematic and intentional killings of civilians, after singling them
out for their religious affiliation, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,"
Pillay said as she called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Observers and Iraq's Western allies blamed Shiite Islamist al--Maliki for hardline
policies that alienated the Sunni Arab minority, from whom the Islamic State draws its
support.
Al--Maliki was criticized for the rapid rout of Iraqi security forces when the Islamic
State launched a lightning attack in June on Nineveh and other northern provinces.
The premier designate welcomed the recent coordination between Iraqi forces and the
Kurdish Peshmerga, who in recent weeks have begun receiving direct military aid from
Western countries.
The Islamic State turned its fury on the Kurds in early August, routing the Peshmerga
from disputed areas, which they had taken over from Iraqi forces in June, and sending
more than 200,000 civilians, many of them Yezidis and Christians, fleeing for their
lives.
A jihadist by any other name?
Thu, Sep 18, 2014
ISIS, The Hindu, international, islamic state, Iraq,
U.S. President Barack has dug in its heels to back the "ISIL" acronym, which expands
to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and another official moniker in the West has
been "ISIS," or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, it was France that this week threw down
the gauntlet this week.
, French officialdom will now refer to the group under a different name, and one that
they are said to abhor, "Daesh."
"I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between
Islam, Muslims and Islamists. The Arabs call it 'Daesh' and I will be calling them the
'Daesh cutthroats.'
"no religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims
have been Muslim," and nor did they represent a state, given that it was formerly an al
Qaeda affiliate in Iraq
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NATO allies agree to take on ISIS threat
Sat, Sep 6, 2014
ISIS, The Hindu, international, nato,
The United States and nine key allies agreed Friday that the Islamic State group is a
significant threat to NATO countries and that they will take on the militants by squeezing
their financial resources and going after them with military might.
Laying out a strategy for Iraq, Mr. Obama hinted at a broader military campaign, likening
it to the way U.S. forces pushed back al-Qaida along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan,
taking out the group's leadership, shrinking its territory and pounding at its militant
followers. To do that, the U.S. used persistent airstrikes, usually by CIA drones.
So far, U.S. airstrikes in Iraq have been largely limited to helping Kurdish forces and
protecting refugees. But Mr. Obama has set a goal of dismantling and destroying the
Islamic State, and said Friday that the U.S. will continue to hunt down the militants
just as it did with al-Qaida and with al-Shabab in Somalia.
"I think it is absolutely critical that we have Arab states and specifically Sunni-majority
states that are rejecting the kind of extremist nihilism that we're seeing out of ISIL,
that say that is not what Islam is about and are prepared to join us actively in the fight",
Mr. Obama said
The Islamic State group espouses a radical form of Sunni Islam and initially invaded
Iraq to fight its Shiite government.
"What we can accomplish is to dismantle this network, this force that has claimed to
control this much territory, so that they can't do us harm," Mr. Obama said. He added
that U.S. ground troops in Syria are not needed to accomplish the goal, but instead can
work with moderate partners on the ground in the country.
One prong of a Western coalition approach would be for the nations' law enforcement
and intelligence agencies to work together to go after the Islamic State's financing both
in banks and more informal funding networks. But as long as the Islamic State has
access to millions of dollars a month in oil revenue, it will remain well-funded, U.S.
intelligence officials say.
NATO also agreed to increase cooperation among nations on sharing information about
foreign fighters. A number of nations, including the U.S., have noted that radicalized
citizens have been traveling to Syria and Iraq to fight, raising alarms that they could
return to their home countries and launch attacks.
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IS recruitment of foreign fighters key issue for NATO: US
Fri, Sep 5, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, nato,
Underscoring the importance of coordinated efforts in this regard, they cited the joint
action by the military forces of the U.S., France, Australia, and the UK to deliver
humanitarian supplies to the citizens of Amerli in northern Iraq in recent days.
They pledged to extend such cooperation in fighting IS to other strategic aspects
including the "strong Chapter 7 UN Security Council Resolution enacted last month
that calls on all member states to take decisive action to stop the flow of foreign fighters,
counter ISIL's financing."
At one of the events on the sidelines of the NATO dialogue Mr. Kerry noted that U.S.
President Barack Obama would be leading a National Security Council meeting in New
York in the course of United Nations General Assembly, which would focus specifically
on the challenge of dealing with foreign fighters taking up arms with IS.
U.K. Parliament votes to join air strikes against IS in Iraq
Fri, Sep 26, 2014
Britain, uk, isis, The Hindu, international,
The British Parliament on Friday backed a resolution calling for the country to render
military assistance in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. While 524 MPs voted
in favour of the resolution, there were 43 'no' votes.
He also said that the resolution had left Syria out because of the Labour Party's concerns,
but that he himself was clear that "ISIL needs to be destroyed in Syria as well as Iraq."
Mr. Cameron argued that unlike in 2003, in this case intervention is "legal," citing as
proof the specific request from the Iraq government for armed intervention.Labour
leader Ed Miliband wholeheartedly supported the motion, arguing that military intervention
in this case fulfilled the criteria of being legal, just, proportional, and a "last resort"
option.
Fighting the fires they lit
Tue, Sep 30, 2014
terrorism, uk, isis, The Hindu, international,
the British government has joined the United States-led coalition of countries that have
been conducting aerial bombings of regions in Syria and Iraq under the control of the
Islamic State (IS). The frenetic growth of the latest and most fierce avatar of jihadist
terrorism in the Iraq-Syria region, the rapid export of its ideology to the young and
disaffected in Britain and Europe who are joining its fighting forces in droves, the
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barbaric forms of punishment it employs against its critics, and its access to staggering
financial resources -- through oil from captured oilfields, and even the plunder and sale
of a vast reservoir of antiquities in northern Syria -- has given it a presence and strength
that poses a direct threat to the region and beyond.
However, Version 2014 of the Iraq story is an outcrop of Version 2003, when the
western alliance declared war against Iraq on the concocted premise of the presence of
weapons of mass destruction, destroying a once-prosperous society. This fanned sectarian
and religious divides in the country, and created a bubbling groundswell of popular
hatred of western governments. Today the same military alliance is struggling to douse
the fires that it set 11 years ago -- and it may end up stoking them.
Islamic State expands into Egypt
Fri, Sep 5, 2014
Egypt, isis, The Hindu, international,
Islamic State, fighting to redraw the map of the Middle East, has been coaching Egypt's
most dangerous militant group, complicating efforts to stabilise the biggest Arab nation.
Confirmation that Islamic Sate, currently the most successful of the region's jihadi
groups, is extending its influence to Egypt will sound alarm bells in Cairo, where the
authorities are already facing a security challenge from home-grown militants.
The success of Islamic State in seizing large parts of Syria and Iraq has raised concerns
in Egypt, where authorities are battling Ansar as well as militants who have capitalised
on the chaos in post-Gaddafi Libya to set up over the border.
Islamic State became the first jihadi group to defeat an Arab Army in a major operation
after steamrolling through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the Iraqi military
ISIS actions against Islamic law: Malaysian PM
Thu, Aug 28, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, malaysia,
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has strongly condemned the Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying the group's actions are against the teachings of the Prophet
and run counter to the Islamic law.
"The actions of the Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq run counter to our
faith, our culture, and our common humanity," Prime Minister Najib said.
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Obama, the serial interventionist
Tue, Sep 30, 2014
USA, isis, The Hindu, international,
Barack Obama, who helped turn Libya into a failed state by toppling its ruler Muammar
Qadhafi, has started a new war in Syria and Iraq even as the U.S. remains embroiled
in the Afghanistan war. Mr. Obama's air war in Syria -- his presidency's seventh military
campaign in a Muslim nation and the one likely to consume his remaining term in office
-- raises troubling questions about its objectives and his own adherence to the rule of
law.
any fight against terrorism can be effectively waged only if it respects international law
and reinforces global norms and does not become an instrument to pursue narrow,
geopolitical interests.
Ever since America launched its "war on terror" in 2001 under Mr. Obama's predecessor,
George W. Bush, the scourge of international terrorism, ominously, has spread deeper
and wider in the world. Once stable nations such as Iraq, Syria and Libya have become
anarchic, crumbling states and new hubs of transnational terrorism, even as the
Afghanistan-Pakistan belt remains "ground zero" for the terrorist threat the world
confronts.
Mr. Obama in Cairo in 2009 sought "a new beginning" between the U.S. and Muslims
"based upon mutual interest and mutual respect." However, his reliance on U.S. hard
power has been underlined by his serial bombing campaigns in Libya, Somalia, Yemen,
Iraq and Syria.
What stopped Mr. Obama from seeking United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
mandate before initiating a war in Syria against IS militants? The answer is obvious:
Mr. Obama wants to wage his open-ended war on U.S. terms, like his earlier interventions.
Five repressive Arab autocracies form the core of his "coalition of the willing" on Syria.
Paradoxically, four of the five -- Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab
Emirates -- plus the U.S., aided IS's rise, either openly or inadvertently. This is a coalition
of sinners now dressed as knights in shining armour.
Mr. Obama displayed his disdain for international law by addressing the U.N. after
presenting his bombing blitzkrieg in Syria as a fait accompli. his administration has
meretriciously claimed the defence of a third country, Iraq, as a legal ground. Such a
precedent could allow the sovereignty of any nation to be violated.
In reality, this is just the latest U.S. action mocking international law. Other such actions
in the past 15 years include the bombing of Serbia, the separation of Kosovo from
Serbia, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq without UNSC authority, Qadhafi's
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overthrow, the aiding of an insurrection in Syria, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

renditions of terror suspects, and the National Security Agency's Orwellian surveillance
programme. Yet, Mr. Obama has escalated a sanctions campaign against Russia in the
name of upholding international law.
The unpalatable truth that Mr. Obama seeks to obscure is that the main IS force was
born in Syria out of the CIA-trained, petrodollar-funded rebels who were reared to help
overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Obama turned a blind eye as IS made
significant advances from mid-2013 onward. I
If President Ronald Reagan accidentally fathered al-Qaeda, Mr. Obama is IS's unintended
godfather turned self-declared slayer-in-chief.
Training and arming non-state combatants flies in the face of international law. The
directive also ignores the lessons from past covert interventions. "We had helped to
create the problem that we are now fighting,"
fter all, large portions of the CIA's multibillion-dollar military aid for the Afghan rebels
in the 1980s were siphoned off by the conduit, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI), to trigger insurgencies in India's Kashmir and Punjab. India -- and Pakistan -have paid a heavy price for America's continued cosy ties with the Pakistani military
and its ISI spies. Yet, paradoxically, the U.S. has used counterterrorism as a key
instrument to build a strategic partnership with India.
Mr. Obama pledged in Cairo in 2009, "We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan.
We seek no military bases there." But in a change of heart, he now wants bases there
for a virtually unlimited period. The resolution of the political crisis in Kabul opens
the way for Afghanistan to sign the bilateral security agreement that Mr. Obama has
sought as the legal basis to keep U.S. bases. A residual U.S. force, however, will be
more vulnerable to Taliban attacks, thus strengthening Washington's imperative to
mollycoddle Pakistani generals and cut a deal with the "Quetta Shura."
More broadly, America's long-standing alliance with the Gulf's jihad -bankrolling
Islamist monarchs does not augur well for its "war on terror," which has spawned more
militants than it has eliminated.
A rolling, self-sustaining war targeting terrorist enemies that America's own policies
and interventions continue to spawn is not good news even for the U.S., whose military
adventures since 2001 have cost $4.4 trillion, making its rich military contractors richer
but destabilising security in several regions
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Have authority to sanction action against Islamic State: Obama
Wed, Sep 10, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, usa,
Mr. Obama told the leaders that he would welcome action by the Congress that would
aid the overall effort and demonstrate to the world that the U.S. is united in defeating
the threat from ISIS, the statement said.
"The Speaker said the spread of radicalised Islam is a global epidemic and our national
objective must be to defeat and destroy ISIS. He asked the President to define success
in those terms when he addresses the nation tomorrow night," an aide to the Speaker
said.
The U.S. has said Iraq is facing an "existential threat" from the Islamic State militants,
warning that the failure of the new Iraqi government to unite the country would threaten
the whole nation.
"It does threaten American national security interests for ISIL to be operating in a
virtual safe haven along the vanishing border between Iraq and Syria," he said.
Metastasis of the Islamic State
Mon, Aug 11, 2014
Islamic State, ISIS, The Hindu, international,
Comfortable in its bastions along the Euphrates river in Syria and Iraq, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi's Islamic State (IS) has struck at its two ends --- in Lebanon's Bekaa
Valley and Iraq's Jabal Sinjar. Consistent aerial bombardment by the Syrian government
moved the IS and its sometimes ally, Jabhat al-Nusra, back north toward the city of
Raqqa. An uneasy quiet reigns for now in Lebanon. But not so in Iraq.
Forty thousand Yazidis took refuge in their holy mountain, cut off for several days from
any humanitarian aid. Marzio Babille, UNICEF's Iraq chief, said that children were
"dying on the mountain, no the roads. There is no water. There is no vegetation. They
are completely cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State.
The geography of Iraq's northwestern highlands provided isolated valleys that shelters
heterodox ethnic and religious communities. They drew from a variety of traditions
and languages to create their own unique worlds. The Yazidis took their inspiration
from Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Fiercely protective of their culture
and independence, the Yazidis fought off the attempt by the Ottomans, the British and
the Iraqi state to integrate them into the country's institutions ---- formal religion and
the military.
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Kurds sole 'boots on ground' against Islamic State
Thu, Oct 9, 2014
isis, IDSA, international, Turkey, kurdistan, islamic state,
US President Obama's decision to fight the Dawlat al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq w Belaad

al-Sham (Daesh) by air has come under fire as the heroic Kurdish resistance in Kobane
(Kurdish for Ain al-Arab) threatens to crumble with mercenaries storming the northern
Syrian city, across the Turkish border. Daesh, meanwhile, got a morale booster when
the Pakistani Taliban (October 4) offered allegiance and asked militants across the
region to help establish a global Islamic caliphate.
Bitter last ditch battles are being fought by Kurdish men and women, including boys
and girls barely out of their teens, who are the sole 'boots on the ground' against the
Daesh. Observers feel Western air cover is ineffective
Turkey remains the main transit route for foreigners intending to join the Daesh, and
it is to Urfa (Turkey) that injured Daesh fighters go to hospitals for free medical care!
Kobane's fall will give the Daesh control over vast stretches of the Turkish-Syrian
border and provide a direct route to its units in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo and
Raqqa (headquarters of Daesh). It is to achieve this goal that Chechen commander Abu
Omar al-Shishani has made the conquest of Kobane a personal mission, especially as
US air power and ground action by Iraqis has made further progress in Iraq difficult.
Some analysts feel that to succeed, Washington must cooperate with the Syrian Kurds
(YPG) as Kurdish fighters alone have proved willing and capable of taking on the
Daesh. But that seems unlikely as Turkey (a NATO member) is unwilling to strengthen
the YPG or the PKK.
The Kurds are heavily outnumbered - Daesh has about 9,000 terrorists armed with
tanks and rocket launchers - while Kurds have no heavy weaponry and are running out
of ammunition.
The Daesh offensive coincides suspiciously with its mysterious release of 49 Turkish
consulate employees. Many Kurds, including Turkey's PKK, suspect that Istanbul
helped Daesh's sudden progress against the Kurds in Syria by releasing prisoners and
allowing foreign fighters to cross its border. Other sources say Turkey may be unwilling
to oppose the Daesh due to its indirect threats against "Constantinople" (the old name
of Istanbul) in a statement of September 22, which urged followers to kill Americans,
Australians, Frenchmen and others by any available means.
Another consideration is the safety of Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb of Suleiman
Shah, grandfather of the first Ottoman Sultan, Osman I. The tomb, closely identified
with Turkish identity and culture, lies in Syria, in territory now controlled by Daesh.
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Under the Treaty of Ankara, 1921, which created the new nation of Syria, the Ottoman
tomb remained a Turkish exclave, flying the Turkish flag and protected by a guard of
honour of Turkish soldiers.
IS planning to weaponise bubonic plague?
Fri, Aug 29, 2014
bubonic plague, isis, The Hindu, international, iraq,
Western governments appeared to be increasingly concerned about the possibility of a

terror attack by Islamic State, the militant group that now controls a vast stretch of
territory across Iraq and Syria,
War without end
Sat, Sep 20, 2014
Iran, USA, ISIS, Frontline, international, Iraq,
The lightning military advances made by the I.S. in northern and central Iraq and its
control of strategic assets such as dams and oil wells had initially prompted a lukewarm
response from the Barack Obama administration.
In fact, initially there seemed to have been some coordination between the Kurdish
administration in northern Iraq and the I.S. The I.S. forces had taken over Mosul while
the Kurdish forces ousted the Iraqi government forces from the disputed oil city of
Kirkuk. But what many observers in the region had viewed as a tacit opportunistic
alliance was short-lived. The I.S. soon turned its attention to the Kurd-controlled areas
of northern Iraq and Irbil, another oil city, prompting the U.S. to insist that the I.S. had
violated redlines.
The threat posed by the I.S. to northern Iraq prompted the White House to order
large-scale deployment of the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. has a consulate and hundreds
of military advisers and security operatives in Irbil.
The Kurdish leadership has been a long-standing ally of the West. An independent
Kurdistan could become an all-weather friend of the U.S. like Israel . The U.S. was left
with no option but to intervene militarily to prevent the collapse of its only political
ally in Iraq, which would have hurt its "special interests" in northern Iraq.
Another reason for the U.S. military intervention is to free the Mosul dam from the
control of the I.S. The dam, which generates electricity and supplies water to a large
section of the Iraqi population, has since been retaken by the Peshmarga and the Iraqi
forces after U.S. planes used massive firepower to disperse the I.S. forces.
The I.S. launched its military offensive at a time when the West's focus was on the
crisis that was unfolding in Ukraine and the Israeli offensive against the 1.8 million
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people trapped in the Gaza Strip. While Washington threatened Moscow for the Ukrainian
crisis, it did not lift a finger to stop Israel when it continued to massacre Palestinians.
The death toll in Gaza has touched 2,000.
The Obama administration has not been forthcoming with military help for the beleaguered
Iraqi Army, which has lost the key cities of Fallujah, Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul in quick
succession. The I.S. has declared Fallujah the capital of the "Islamic Emirate" it has
proclaimed. The U.S., instead, chose to make Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the
scapegoat for the military and political quagmire the country finds itself in. The fall of
Mosul sealed al-Maliki's political fate and he was forced to admit defeat.
The deepening sectarian divide in Iraq is the result of the U.S. occupation of the country
since its invasion in 2003. Washington encouraged a divide-and-rule policy in the
country to prolong its occupation.
Al-Maliki, after two terms in office, was forced to forsake his claim for a third term
after he lost the backing of many allies, including the leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah
Ali Sistani. The new Prime Minister, Haydar al-Abadi, has the support of both Washington
and Tehran. The U.S. viewed al-Maliki as being too close to Iran. The U.S. hoped that
the Western-educated al-Abadi would be more open to its demands. Al-Abadi, however,
faces an uphill task with the Kurds demanding more concessions and the Sunni leadership
refusing to acknowledge the new political realities in Iraq, where the Shias constitute
the overwhelming majority of the population. I
The leadership in Iran is no doubt bemused by the latest talk in the U.S. about targeting
the I.S. positions inside Syria. U.S. was looking at "all options" against the I.S., including
the redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. Washington has now classified the I.S. as a
"long-term threat" to U.S. interests. U.S. officials have admitted that I.S. fighters are
using U.S. equipment and military vehicles, including personnel carriers and Humvees.
Hagel said the I.S. was "tremendously well-funded" and that the group posed an
"imminent threat" to U.S. interests globally.
A lot of money has entered its coffers through covert and overt funding from the U.S.'
allies in the region, notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The U.S. stood aside for more than
two years as the I.S. grew into a potent force fighting the Syrian government. The Qatari
government was forced to issue a statement in late August denying that it had funded
or supported the I.S. The release of Curtis is an illustration of the influence some of the
conservative monarchies continue to have with "jehadist" groups such as al Nusra and
the I.S.
The Iraqi Army is a shadow of the force it once was. The first thing the U.S. did after
its invasion in 2003 was to disband the Iraqi Army, which had been weakened by the
first Gulf War and the draconian United Nations sanctions. The Iraqi Air Force, once
a potent force in the region, was scrapped altogether.
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The new Iraqi Army, set up under the overall supervision of the occupying forces,
turned out to be under-equipped, undisciplined and supervised by corrupt officers.
Recent events have shown that the army is incapable of putting up a fight. The fight
against the I.S. is now spearheaded by various militias, many of them trained by Iran
and the Hizbullah.
On the other hand, the I.S. consists of experienced fighters who had earned their spurs
in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other terrorist hotspots or those trained by Western
intelligence agencies in Turkey, Jordan and other countries. They had defected from
the moderate groups fighting in Syria, which had the support of the West, Turkey and
the Gulf monarchies.
The I.S. maintained that the execution of Foley was directly connected with the targeting
of its forces by the U.S. Air Force. The group had been allowed a free run in Syria
where the West and its regional allies viewed the secular government led by Assad as
the bigger enemy. "In Syria, ancient Christian churches were destroyed, nuns and
bishops were kidnapped and priests were killed. This was widely ignored in large part
because many in the region and in the West were so focussed on attacking the Assad
government," Edmund Ghareeb, an academic from the American University, observed.
More than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria since the Western-backed insurrection
started four years ago.
The pendulum of the Islamic State
Sat, Sep 6, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international,
Only if the social conditions that produced the IS -- the inequality and the despair -- are
altered could it be truly vanquished
Discomfort is palpable in the regional capitals. U.S. air strikes cannot destroy IS. The
canny IS prefers to swing across the vast territory that it threatens. A proper ground
assault against IS cannot come because of the contradictions of U.S. policy in the region.
In Iraq, U.S. air power did not only deliver the advantage to the Iraqi Army and the
Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga , but also to the Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters (the YPG
and the PKK). Turkey and the U.S. see the PKK as a terrorist organisation, although it
and its Syrian ally the YPG have been fierce in their defence of what they called Western
Kurdistan (Rojava or north-eastern Syria). The Shiite militias of Iraq (Badr and Salaam
Brigades as well as the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq) and the Shiite militia of Lebanon (Hezbollah)
have also been unyielding against the IS -- again the U.S. and the Europeans claim
Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation and they hold the Badr Brigades, trained by Iran,
at arm's length.
Responsibility for the emergence of the IS vests with a number of key actors. The
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United States' reckless war on Iraq created the reservoir for jihadis , as money from
the Gulf Arabs came to sustain them in an emerging sectarian clash against an ascendant
Iran. The narrow and suffocating Assad and al-Maliki regimes - which alienated large
sections of Sunnis - propelled the disenfranchised to reckless rebellion. In 2007, the
cartoonist Ali Ferzat said of the process called the Damascus Spring (2005), "either
reform or le deluge [the flood]." It was the flood. Alienated people who measure their
alienation in sectarian terms (Sunni) cannot be only defeated in the battlefield. Political
reforms need to be on the cards. So too must an alternative to the economic agenda
pursued in both Iraq and Syria since the mid-2000s. Under U.S. pressure, the Assad
and al-Maliki governments pursued neo-liberal policies that increased inequality and
despair. Absent a politics of class, the platforms against neo-liberal corruption took on
a harsh sectarian cast. The IS fed on that alienation for its own diabolical agenda. It
can be halted by air strikes and degraded by ground warfare. But only if the social
conditions that produced the IS -- the inequality and the despair -- are altered could it
be truly vanquished.
Obama to outline anti-IS strategy
Wed, Sep 10, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international,
U.S. President Barack Obama was poised to announce his support to both opposition
groups in Syria and the newly formed Iraqi government in their fight against the Islamic
State (IS), the militant group that captured large parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months
and declared a caliphate.
The official added that Mr. Obama would outline plans to build a coalition of allies and
partners in the region and in the broader international community to support U.S. efforts,
and will also touch upon how he would coordinate with the U.S. Congress as a partner
in these efforts.
Though rumours have been circulating for a while now about the prospects of the U.S.
expanding air strikes into Syria and also cooperating further with Syrian opposition
forces, no concrete policies have been outlined by the White House on either issue thus
far.
UNSC resolution adopted to combat ISIS fighters
Sat, Aug 16, 2014
ISIS, The Hindu, international, UNSC,
The resolution was adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be
militarily enforced. But Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Petr Iliichev, stressed that
"this cannot be seen as approval of the use of military actions."
Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari reminded the council that Damascus had repeatedly
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warned of the Islamist threat. He said the Syrian government is a "necessary partner in
the fight against terrorism."
Syria's Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, called the
resolution "the first concrete step towards tackling the threat of extremist groups" but
said more needs to be done.
Iraqi Ambassador Mohamed Ali al-Hakim said the Islamic State terrorist group "needs
to be defeated," and he urged the United States to widen its attacks.
The resolution adopted on Friday urges all countries to meet their obligations under a
resolution adopted immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United
States. It demanded that all 193 U.N. member states adopt national laws to combat
terrorism.
It notes "with concern" that oil fields controlled by the Islamic State group, Jabhat
al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda-linked groups are generating income that is supporting
their recruitment efforts and ability to carry out terrorist operations.
Obama to convene UNSC meeting on foreign fighters: White House
Thu, Aug 28, 2014
terrorism, isis, The Hindu, international, UNSC,
U.S. President Barack Obama will convene a meeting of the U.N. Security Council
next month on the threat posed by foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, the White House
has said, amidst reports that another American jihadi has died in Syria fighting for
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
There are thousands of foreign fighters from up to 50 countries who have travelled to
Syria to take up arms alongside ISIL, he said.
"We are very concerned about the risk that those individuals pose to the 50 countries
from which they travelled. In many cases, these are individuals that have Western
passports. They have some freedom of movement in our modern transportation system,"
he noted.
"We're aware of media reporting and social media activity indicating that a second
American citizen associated with ISIL has been killed in Syria," said Caitlin Hayden,
Spokesperson of the National Security Council at the White House.
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Young western women among jihadis
Thu, Oct 2, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, women, jihadis,
Hundreds of young women and girls are leaving their homes in western countries to
join Islamic fighters in the Middle East, causing increasing concern among counter-terrorism
investigators.
Girls as young as 14 or 15 are travelling mainly to Syria to marry jihadis , bear their
children and join communities of fighters, with a small number taking up arms. Many
are recruited via social media. Women and girls appear to account for about 10 per cent
of those leaving Europe, North America and Australia to link up with jihadi groups,
including Islamic State (IS).
Counter-terrorism experts in the U.K. believe about 50 British girls and women have
joined IS, about a 10th of those known to have travelled to Syria to fight. Many are
believed to be based in Raqqa, the eastern Syrian city that has become an IS stronghold.
Arab League chief: confront ISIS
Mon, Sep 8, 2014
arab league, isis, The Hindu, international,
The head of the Arab League urged its members Sunday to confront Islamic State
extremists "militarily and politically," issuing an apparent call to arms as President
Barack Obama prepares to go to lawmakers and the American public with his own plan
to stop the militants.
Backing from the 22-country Arab League could provide crucial support across the
Middle East for Obama's effort to assemble an international coalition against the Islamic
State, the marauding group that has conquered a swath of Iraq and Syria and committed
beheadings and mass killings to sow terror.
Already, NATO forces have agreed to take on the extremists.
The American military said the airstrikes destroyed, among other things, an Islamic
Group command post and several vehicles, two of which were carrying anti-aircraft
artillery.
A decades-old joint Arab defense agreement states that member countries can act alone
or collectively to ward off attack and restore peace by all means, including force.
Elaraby, a longtime Egyptian diplomat, said an agreement to activate that clause in the
1950 agreement is needed.
"They discussed the need for the Arab League and its members to take a strong position
in the coalition that is developing ... and the importance of decisive action" to stop the
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flow of foreign fighters, disrupt the Islamic State's financing and combat incitement,
the official said.
IS, Frankenstein's monster unleashed
Wed, Aug 27, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, syria, obama,
The Islamic State is a brutal, medieval organisation whose members take pride in
carrying out beheadings and flaunting the severed heads of their victims as trophies.
This cannot obscure an underlying reality: the Islamic State represents a Sunni Islamist
insurrection against non-Sunni rulers in disintegrating Syria and Iraq.
It is beyond dispute that the Islamic State militia -- formerly the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant -- emerged from the Syrian civil war, which began indigenously as a
localised revolt against state brutality under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before
being fuelled with externally supplied funds and weapons. From Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA)-training centres in Turkey and Jordan, the rebels set up a Free Syrian
Army (FSA), launching attacks on government forces, as a U.S.-backed information
war demonised Mr. Assad and encouraged military officers and soldiers to switch sides.
But the members of the U.S.-led coalition were never on the same page because some
allies had dual agendas. While the three spearheads of the anti-Assad crusade -- the
U.S., Britain and France -- focussed on aiding the FSA, the radical Islamist sheikhdoms
such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as well as the
Islamist-leaning government in Turkey channelled their weapons and funds to more
overtly Islamist groups. This splintered the Syrian opposition, marginalising the FSA
and paving the way for the Islamic State's rise.
The anti-Assad coalition indeed started off on the wrong foot by trying to speciously
distinguish between "moderate" and "radical" jihadists . The line separating the two is
just too blurred. Indeed, the term "moderate jihadists " is an oxymoron: Those waging
jihad by the gun can never be moderate.
The Afghan war veterans came to haunt the security of many countries. Less known is
the fact that the Islamic State's self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- like Libyan
militia leader Abdelhakim Belhadj (whom the CIA abducted and subjected to "extraordinary
rendition") and Chechen terrorist leader Airat Vakhitov -- become radicalised while
under U.S. detention. As torture chambers, U.S. detention centres have served as pressure
cookers for extremism.
Had the U.S. and its allies refrained from arming jihadists to topple Mr. Assad, would
the Islamic State have emerged as a lethal, marauding force? And would large swaths
of upstream territory along the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in Syria and Iraq have
fallen into this monster's control? The exigencies of the topple-Assad campaign also
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prompted the Obama administration to turn a blind eye to the flow of Gulf and Turkish
aid to the Islamic State.
Many had cautioned against the topple-Assad campaign, fearing that extremist forces
would gain control in the vacuum. Those still wedded to overthrowing Mr. Assad's
rule, however, contend that Mr. Obama's failure to provide greater aid, including
surface-to-air missiles, to the Syrian rebels created a vacuum that produced the Islamic
State. In truth, more CIA arms to the increasingly ineffectual FSA would have meant
a stronger and more deadly Islamic State.
Make no mistake: like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State is a monster inadvertently spawned
by the policies of those now in the lead to combat it. The question is whether anything
substantive will be learned from this experience, unlike the forgotten lessons of America's
anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan.
At a time when jihadist groups are gaining ground from Mali to Malaysia, Mr. Obama's
current effort to strike a Faustian bargain with the Afghan Taliban, for example, gives
little hope that any lesson will be learned. U.S.-led policies toward the Islamic world
have prevented a clash between civilisations by fostering a clash within a civilisation,
but at serious cost to regional and international security.
Kurds head to Syria from Turkey to fight IS
Sat, Sep 20, 2014
isis, The Hindu, Syria, international, Turkey,
Hundreds of Kurdish fighters have crossed from Turkey into neighbouring Syria to
defend a Kurdish area under attack by Islamic State militants,
The movement of hundreds of Kurdish fighters into Syria reflected the ferocity of the
fighting in the northern Kobani area, which borders Turkey.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish official Nawaf
Khalil said that the fighters were streaming into the Kobani. The Observatory, which
obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, estimated their
numbers in the hundreds.
Syrian Kurdish fighters had been successfully fighting off the militants for the past two
years. They even clashed with the Islamic State group's fighters in northern Iraq, carving
a safe passage for thousands of embattled Iraqis of the Yazidi minority, whom the
militant group sees as apostates.
The battle over Kobani is part of a long-running fight between the Islamic State group
and Syria's Kurds that has raged across several areas of northern Syria where large
numbers of Kurds live. The clashes are but one aspect of Syria's broader civil war a
multilayered conflict that the U.N. says has killed more than 190,000.
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War chest of IS is growing
Mon, Sep 15, 2014
ISIS, The Hindu, international, iraq,
Islamic State militants, who once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money,
have become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day
from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence
officials and private experts.
Such riches are one reason that American officials are so concerned about the group
even while acknowledging they have no evidence it is plotting attacks against the United
States. It is selling oil and other goods through generations-old smuggling networks
under the noses of some of the same governments it is fighting -- Kurdish-controlled
northern Iraq, Turkey and Jordan.
The price the Islamic State group fetches for its smuggled oil is discounted $25 to $60
for a barrel of oil that normally sells for more than $100 but its total profits from oil
are exceeding $3 million a day, The group also has earned hundreds of millions of
dollars from smuggling antiquities out of Iraq to be sold in Turkey, al-Khatteeb said,
and millions more from human trafficking by selling women and children as sex slaves.
An analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations estimated the group was reaping $8
million a month from extortion in Mosul alone.
That stream of funding has diminished in recent months as the group's violent tactics
have drawn worldwide attention, U.S. intelligence officials say. The group's reliance
on oil as its main source of revenue could easily be disrupted by American airstrikes,
officials say. But so far, no decision has been made to target Iraqi or Syrian oil
infrastructure, which is serviced by civilian workers who may have been conscripted.
McCain exhorts India to join fight against Islamic State
Tue, Sep 9, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, usa,
U.S. Republican Senator John McCain has urged New Delhi and Washington to extend
bilateral cooperation deeper into counterterrorism operations linked to West Asia, citing
both al Qaeda boss Ayman al-Zawahiri's announcement of a new terror 'wing' for the
Indian subcontinent, and the growing presence of foreign recruits in the ranks of militant
outfit Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
"Our governments are currently negotiating a Bilateral Investment Treaty, which is
worthwhile. But why not aim instead for a Free Trade Agreement? India and the United
States have, or are negotiating, FTAs with every other major global trading partner, so
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we are on course to discriminate only against one another."

U.S. disengagement from West Asia has created a vacuum that extremism and terrorism
are filling; about perceptions of U.S. weakness in the face of Russian aggression and
Chinese provocation; and by the American plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2017,
"which Indians believe will foster disorder and direct threats to India."
Turkey vows to fight Islamic State
Thu, Oct 2, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, turkey,
Turkey signalled it may send troops into Syria or Iraq and let allies use Turkish bases
to fight Islamic State (IS), as coalition jets launched air strikes
The proposal would also mean Turkey, until now reluctant to take a frontline role against
IS, could allow foreign forces to use its territory for cross-border incursions.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the removal of Syrian President Bashar
Al-Assad remained a Turkish priority and stressed Ankara's fears that U.S.-led air
strikes without a broader political strategy would only prolong the instability.
U.S. House approves Obama's Syria strike plan
Thu, Sep 18, 2014
USA, ISIS, The Hindu, Syria, international, Iraq,
Obama's plan to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels in a bid to halt the advance of
Islamic State, the jihadist militant outfit that has seized control of significant territories
in that country and neighbouring Iraq over the summer and sought to establish an Islamic
caliphate in the region.
the vote nevertheless brings the U.S. a step closer to troop deployment in active combat
roles,
"There will be no U.S. military personnel in Syria as part of this programme. We've
learned over the last decade, and through our successful campaign to degrade al-Qaeda,
that it is more effective to use America's unique capabilities to take out terrorist targets
in support of our partners' efforts on the ground to secure their own future
40 per cent of Democrats opposed the White House's proposals, which reports suggested
could be due to concerns that U.S. military operations in West Asia "could fester for
several years with no clear strategy or definition of success."
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Turkey, Kurd tensions worry US in fight for Kobani
Thu, Oct 9, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, kurdistan, turkey, usa,
Even as it prods Turkey to step up in the global fight against Islamic State militants,
the United States is worried that Ankara might use military action to target Kurdish
fighters who are the last line of defence against extremists trying to take over the Syrian
border town of Kobani.
drawing Ankara into the war could open a new line of attack against a Kurdish movement
that has for decades sought greater autonomy inside Turkey.
Turkey could simply choose to remain out of the fray, and let two of its enemies the
Islamic State group and Kurdish guerrillas fight for Kobani.
Turkey's parliament approved a measure to allow for assaulting the Islamic State group,
a step the U.S. and other world leaders viewed as Ankara's decision to enter the conflict.
But largely left unsaid was that the measure still allows Turkish troops to take aim at
the Kurdish separatists.
Ankara is "committed to fighting ISIS terrorists and PKK terrorists,"
The PKK and Turkey agreed to a cease-fire last year, but the relative peace has begun
to unravel. Tensions between the two sides have flared frequently, and this week alone,
14 people were killed as Kurdish protesters clashed with police in Turkey over Ankara's
hands-off approach in Kobani.
The U.S. does not consider the Syrian Kurdish fighting force or its political wing, the
Kurdish Democratic Union, terrorist organisations. Still, Washington has distanced
itself from both.
But the Obama administration knows that the Kurdish fighters in Syria are the only
force on the ground standing between the Islamic State militants and Kobani.
Turkey has said it does not want Kobani to fall. The country boasts the second-largest
army among NATO forces, and has stationed a handful of troops in Syria at a memorial
south of Kobani that is dedicated to Suleyman Shah, grandfather of Osman I, founder
of the Ottoman Empire.
Strange ambivalence
Mon, Oct 6, 2014
Islamic State, ISIS, international, Turkey, Businessline,
In a surprising turnaround this week, Turkey's parliament voted to authorise ground

military action against Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
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Turkey shares a 750-mile border with Syria, and ISIS has moved within sight of the
Turkish army. ISIS also occupied the 700-year-old tomb of Suleyman Shah, a descendant
of the original founder of the Ottoman empire, a site located in Syria but revered by
Turks.
For some time now, the US has been trying to coax Turkey into taking action. Until
recently, Turkey pleaded a hostage situation: 46 Turkish hostages were held by ISIS.
Then last month, the hostages were suddenly released, in mysterious circumstances.
Turkey was rumoured to have traded ISIS prisoners for the hostages.
Turkey has now apparently thrown in its lot with the US-led coalition of Arab states.
Many commentators have pointed out that air strikes alone are useless.
Turkey could provide the "boots on the ground" element that is sorely needed. Erdogan
also said that Turkey's operations were going to be focused on removing Syrian president
Bashar- al-Assad. But the US coalition has made no such statements, and most think
the US airstrikes will actually help Assad.
The general feeling is that Turkey can't afford to take tough measures, because it's too
close to ISIS. "While the United States can bomb ISIS targets and still feel relatively
safe 6,000 miles away, Turkey has to reckon with the possible local backlashes of
joining the anti-ISIS military campaign.
Some fear that if Turkey gets too involved, bombs might start exploding in Turkish
cities -- detonated by fighters who cross the border, or even by ISIS cells within
Erdogan has his own home grown problems. Media reports say as many as 1,000 Turks
have joined ISIS, a small number compared to other nations, but still worrying given
the creeping radicalisation of Turkey.
War against the Islamic State
Fri, Sep 26, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, islamic state, West Asia,
The drama unfolded in early August when the much-vaunted Kurdish peshmerga
abandoned Sinjar and other towns without a fight and retreated to defend their capital.
With Arbil under threat and thousands of Yazidis displaced and facing genocide, the
United States returned to the Iraqi battleground and in a month conducted over a hundred
air attacks on IS forces.
The nations allied against the IS scourge met in Jeddah on September 11. The assembly
consisted of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon,
Turkey, Iraq and the U.S. The participants (excluding Turkey) agreed to apportion
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responsibility thus: (i) the U.S. would undertake air raids against IS which would go
on from a few months to up to three years; and, (ii) the GCC countries would fund the
conflict, while providing their airbases and air space. The ground fighting would be
done in two parts: in Iraq, the Iraqi Army will be rehabilitated, armed and trained by
U.S. "advisers" and would fight IS forces in alliance with the Kurdish peshmerga and
"moderate" Sunnis. In Syria, an armed opposition of "moderate" elements would be
trained in Saudi Arabia , Jordan and other Arab capitals.
Turkey said it would not participate in the air operations. It has two principal interests
in Syria: regime change in Damascus and curbing the influence of Syrian Kurds who
are affiliated with the PKK in Turkey. Both these interests are served by a strong IS
and other Salafi militia with which it has had close ties during the Syrian insurgency.
For similar reasons, the GCC countries would be reluctant to have a high profile ground
combat role. Their concerns are of course more immediate in that attacks on IS would
exacerbate their own exposure to home-grown jihadi elements.
There is widespread scepticism both about the rehabilitation of the Iraqi Army. Given
that the Americans had spent over $25 billion in modernising the Iraqi Army, which
had then collapsed before the IS attacks, it is hardly likely that an effective professional
force can be built up in a few months time to combat IS.
Concerns relating to Syria are greater. Which are the "moderate" Syrian elements the
GCC will be training? It cannot be the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which has hardly any
territory under its control, has a reputation for corruption and ineptitude, and whose
members frequently join jihadi militia. There are widespread concerns that the GCC
countries may back the Salafi militia, funded by them for several years and consolidated
into the formidable "Islamic Front" towards the end of 2013.
Air power against this powerful force will not be enough; but, with no U.S. boots on
the ground and no other regional power willing to risk terrestrial encounters, this is not
a feasible option for now
there had been strident voices demanding that the West review its policy of toppling
the Syrian regime and instead make it a partner against IS. This has been firmly rejected
by Saudi Arabia, which now has the U.S. as its partner in this endeavour.
Second, there are now serious doubts about Saudi-Iran ties moving in a positive direction.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Amir Abdollahian, had visited Riyadh on August 25,
when he had discussed Gaza, Syria and IS with his interlocutors.
Third, the Jeddah conference marks the renewal of ties between the U.S. and Saudi
Arabia. They had been estranged since early 2011 when Saudi Arabia blamed the U.S.
for not preventing the fall of Mr. Hosni Mubarak, and later for the U.S.'s failure to
bomb Syria to effect a regime change.
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Four, Egypt, though critically dependent on the GCC's political and financial support,
is reluctant to join the coalition, fearing that its principals have geopolitical interests
on their agenda rather than a comprehensive war on terror. This has encouraged a
nascent rapprochement between Iran and Egypt.
However, there can be no stability in West Asia without a Saudi-Iranian engagement,
since Iran has to work with the Shia regimes in Syria and Iraq to shape accommodative
and inclusive governments, while the Kingdom has to wean "moderate" Sunnis away
from the IS coalition and make them part of the reformed polity.
Most see the war on IS as a pretext "to reconsolidate U.S. hegemony" and note that
regardless of the success or failure of the enterprise, there will only be "Arabs fighting
and killing other Arabs and Muslims."
There are also more immediate fears: U.S. attacks will exacerbate anti-West sentiment
across the region, particularly among the youth, who could move towards IS and other
jihadi groups in droves when the bombings decimate their families on the ground, as
had occurred earlier in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Turkey- Syrian border town about to fall to IS
Tue, Oct 7, 2014
isis, The Hindu, Syria, international, Turkey, islamic state,
The Islamic State group is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobani,
Islamic State fighters using tanks and heavy weapons looted from captured army bases
in Iraq and Syria have been pounding Kurdish forces in the strategic town for days.
Since the militants' offensive began in mid-September, more than 400 people have
been killed in the fighting, activists said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the coalition air campaign launched last
month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State group's advance and called for
greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the extremists
and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We asked for three things- one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone
parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq
to be trained and equipped.
Syrian Kurds, however, have scoffed at the rhetoric coming out of Ankara. They say
that not only are the Turks not helping, they are actually hindering the defense of Kobani
by preventing Kurdish militiamen in Turkey from crossing the border into the town to
help in the fight.
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The Kurds may have been helped by a round of airstrikes late Monday against Islamic
State positions. Two more rounds followed Tuesday morning, when journalists on the
Turkish side of the border heard the sound of warplanes before large plumes of smoke
billowed just west of Kobani.
The U.S.-led coalition has launched limited airstrikes over the past two weeks near
Kobani in a bid to help Kurdish forces defend the town, but the sorties appear to have
done little to slow the Islamic State group's advance.
Turkey has long suspected the YPG is linked to the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long
and bloody insurgency against Ankara. Syria's opposition also has accused the group
of conspiring with Assad, charges the YPG denies.
But the Kurds managed to force the militants to withdraw from most of those areas in
heavy clashes after midnight, the Observatory and a senior Kurdish official said.
The United States and five Arab allies launched an aerial campaign against the Islamic
State in Syria on Sept. 23 with the aim of rolling back and ultimately crushing the
extremist group. The U.S. has been bombing Islamic State targets in neighboring Iraq
since August.
The Islamic State group has conquered vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, declaring a
self-styled caliphate governed by its strict interpretation of Shariah law. The militants
have massacred captured Syrian and Iraqi troops, terrorized minorities and beheaded
two American journalists and two British aid workers.
After Syria and Iraq, AfPak on Islamic State radar
Wed, Sep 3, 2014
Pakistan, ISIS, The Hindu, international, Afghanistan, iraq, syria,
Formerly known as the ISIS, the group introduced itself as Daulat-e-Islamia (Islamic
State) in the pamphlet and made an appeal to the local population for supporting its
jihad (struggle) for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
A number of hardline groups operating in border areas have already announced support
for the outfit. Among them, Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and Maulvi Abdul Qahar,
stalwarts of Saudi Arabia-backed Salafi Taliban groups operating in Nuristan and Kunar
Provinces of Afghanistan, have extended support to the self-styled caliph Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi.
Recently established Ahrarul Islam, a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is
already working on the lines of ISIS. Similar is the status of the East Turkistan Islamic
Movement , also known as Hizb-e-Islami Turkistan.
Ahrarul Islam doesn't believe in boundaries between Islamic countries, therefore, it is
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working for the establishment of a network throughout South and Central Asian regions.
The group doesn't recognise al-Baghdadi as the caliph, but considers Afghan Taliban
chief Mullah Omar as 'commander'.
Kurds protest across Europe, seek help against IS
Tue, Oct 7, 2014
isis, The Hindu, international, Turkey, islamic state, kurds,
The activists are demanding more help for the besieged Kurdish forces struggling to
hold onto the Syrian town of Kobani.
Tensions are especially high in Turkey, where protests were reported in at least six
cities Tuesday after the extremists seized a strategic point in Kobani late Monday.
Islamic State fighters backed by tanks and artillery engaged in heavy street battles with
the town's Kurdish defenders.
The Netherlands has sent six F-16 fighter jets to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State
in Iraq, but says it does not see a mandate for striking in Syria.
France too is firing airstrikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq but has stopped short
of action in Syria, wary of implications on international efforts against President Bashar
Assad.
Germany may give weapons to Kurdish forces to fight jihadists
Fri, Aug 15, 2014
Kurdish, ISIS, international, Islamic state, Germany, Businessline,
Germany will airlift relief supplies for thousands of Yezidis and other religious minorities
fleeing the terror of the Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq, amidst indications
that it may also deliver weapons to the Kurdish forces fighting the Jihadists.
Germany yesterday pledged 20 million euros for emergency humanitarian assistance
in addition to 4.4 million euros committed earlier. This comes in the wake of fresh
appeal from the UN for international support to ease the sufferings of the displaced
population.
The UN on Thursday declared the crisis in northern Iraq the highest level of emergency
affecting more than 1 million people. Around 50,000 displaced people are yet to find
a refuge in the Kurdish area, according to UN estimates.
Pressure has been mounting on Germany to supply weapons to the Kurdish forces since
the US and France began arming them
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Islamic State jihadists turn their sights back on Syria
Sun, Aug 24, 2014
isis, The Hindu, Syria, international, islamic state, iraq,
Islamic State extremists rampaging through Iraq have now turned their sights back
towards Syria, where only a besieged airbase stands between the terror group and a
rush for the Mediterranean coast that could split the country in two.
The attack on the Tabqa airbase in eastern Syria comes as IS continues to move back
towards areas it controlled north of Aleppo until February. Using weapons the group
looted from abandoned Iraqi military bases, IS has returned with a vengeance to the
area, stunning regional powers with its rapid advances.
"The Islamic State is now the most capable military power in the Middle East outside
Israel," a senior regional diplomat has said. "They can determine outcomes in a few
days that the Syrian rebels took two years to influence. Their capacity is in sharp contrast
to the Syrian regime, which is only able to fight one battle at a time and has to fight
hard for every success.
Despite IS gradually subsuming parts of the opposition in northern Syria, the Syrian
regime had not attacked the terror group until it launched its offensive into Iraq on June
10. Since then, Syrian jets have bombed 30 targets in Raqqa, which had been a command
hub for IS for the past 18 months.
Western leaders have indicated that a key strategy in tackling IS will involve trying to
deprive it of the support of the 20 million Sunni Arabs who live between Damascus
and Baghdad. But the difficulties of that approach was underscored on Friday when
Shia militia shot dead dozens of Sunnis in a village north of Baghdad.
'US can destroy ISIS without sending troops on ground'
Fri, Sep 12, 2014
ISIS, international, Businessline,
The US can accomplish its goal of degrading and destroying the Islamic State without
sending troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the White House has said.
This includes a combination of measures like air strikes, supporting local troops of the
ground, building an international coalition, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest
told reporters yesterday.
The White House also said that the Islamic State, also known as Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria or ISIS or ISIL, is in fact following the policies of al-Qaeda.
"For a decade or more ISIL was actually known as al-Qaeda in Iraq. And that there
was important coordination and communication that was taking place between the
Page 26
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leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the al--Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden,"
he said.
"In fact, there are some al-Qaeda operatives who have indicated that they actually
believe ISIL is the true inheritor of Osama bin Laden's legacy. So these ties between
ISIL and al-Qaeda persist," he argued.
House of cards
Wed, Aug 27, 2014
isis, Frontline, international,
The fall of Mosul was particularly bewildering: this mixed community town, with a
population of nearly two million, had a functioning civil administration and armed
forces personnel of over 20,000. Patrick Cockburn, in a recent article, has said that the
capture of Mosul was facilitated by a "popular uprising". A soldier quoted by him has
said that, with the ISIS outside Mosul, many residents threw stones at the Iraqi troops,
calling them "Maliki's sons", "Safavids", and "the army of Iran", clearly affirming the
deep sectarian divide in the country, with the army being detested, in Cockburn's words,
as a "foreign occupying force of Shia soldiers".
on the eve of Ramzan, a spokesman announced the establishment of a "caliphate" in
the territories occupied by the ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which would henceforth be referred
to simply as the "Islamic State" under the leadership of the caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
the leader of the ISIS.
Emergence of the ISIS
The ISIS has as its immediate ancestor the fierce jehadi of Jordanian origin Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Like many modern-day jehadis, Zarqawi gained exposure to jehad in the
battlefields of Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Following the United States' assaults on
the Taliban and Al Qaeda after the events of 9/11, Zarqawi came to Iraq, where he was
associated with various jehadi organisations, but he was not a prominent figure at that
time. His defining moment came after the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003 when he
acquired a reputation for extreme ferocity and violence, not just against occupation
targets but also Shia shrines and individuals. In October 2004, he pledged his formal
allegiance to Osama bin Laden, cementing, according to Aaron Zelin, "a marriage of
convenience" in that Zarqawi now obtained access to Al Qaeda's donors and recruitment
and logistical networks, while retaining the independence of his organisation, Al Qaeda
in Iraq (AQI). Zarqawi was killed by the Americans in June 2006. However, his
organisation, which continued on its violent path under its new leadership, in October
2006 was renamed the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) to emphasise its distance from Al
Qaeda, its new focus on Iraq, and its ultimate goal to set up an Islamic state.
ISIS' constituents
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The ISIS has a well-organised military structure and a clear political vision--the realisation
of a caliphate across the Arab and Islamic realm, redolent of the early years of Islam.
Its core membership is of about 15,000 jehadi fighters, with several foreigners, including
about 2,000 from Europe. It was funded in the past from private sources in the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, but in Syria it boosted its resources through oil
smuggling, kidnappings and, above all, taxing local businesses, which perhaps generated
$8 million a month.
The ISIS has to be stopped
Mon, Aug 11, 2014
isis, international, iraq, Businessline,
As the Sunni ISIS hoodlums made frightening gains in Iraq, mercilessly butchering
Iraqi military personnel and even civilians, who were shot at point-blank range and
dumped in mass graves, one crucial question begged an answer. If the US could bring
on board western nations such as the UK, Germany, Poland and so on and launch a war
on the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks,
why did it stand on the sidelines and watch for so long the gory violence unleashed by
the ISIS terrorists in that country? Should the ISIS not have been challenged much
earlier, and its menace nipped in the bud?
trigger for the superpower's intervention was provided only when the ISIS accelerated
its atrocities on the Christian population in the areas under its control in Northern Iraq.
Christians were warned by the ISIS right from June when its assault began and when
it captured Mosul that they'd have to either convert to Islam or face annihilation.
There are around 500,000 Yazidis in Iraq, concentrated in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, west
of Mosul, and in the Kurdish-controlled region further north. This region has the Yazidi
holy shrines and is of religious significance to them just as the holy cities of Karbala
and Najaf are sacred to Shia Muslims.
When Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, the Kurds were given autonomy, but
Sinjar, where the Yazidis are concentrated, and many border regions remained an area
of dispute between the Kurds and Baghdad.
While the US has begun aerial assaults to destroy the ISIS's weaponry, President Barack
Obama has cautioned the world that there is no "quick fix" to this menace that threatens
to tear Iraq into several pieces, and the assault might have to continue for months and
not merely weeks.
Both the Kurds and the Baghdad government, finding the ISIS growing from strength
to strength, are urging the US to do much more than confine its anti-ISIS operation to
aerial assaults.
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"mixes with Islam some elements of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion, and
Mithraism, a mystery religion originating in the Eastern Mediterranean. This combining
of various belief systems, known religiously as syncretism, was part of what branded
them as heretics among Muslims".
Both the minorities -- Christians and Yazidis -- have suffered in Iraq from the ISIS
onslaught. While those Christians who have managed to flee and reach the shores of
countries such as France are being welcomed and given refuge, what will happen to
the hitherto unknown Yazidis is anybody's guess.
But the pity is that a once prosperous country has been nearly destroyed and a proud
people devastated by the US' one-point agenda -- to remove Saddam Hussein, either
to avenge Bush senior's bloodied nose in the first Gulf War, or for oil.
Need to build a good coalition to combat ISIS
Tue, Sep 9, 2014
isis, IDSA, international,
ISIS currently is the most potent and undoubtedly the most media savvy terrorist
organisation globally. It clearly seems to have a method to the madness in the usage of
acts of brazen and inhuman violence as a psychological tool against its opponents.
It is indulging in 'megaphone terrorism'. It's usage of media as recruitment and
propaganda tool is ensuring that it is able to sustain the momentum that the group has
generated as it is currently battling on three fronts. The group clearly is emerging as a
sponge for angry Sunni youth across the region and from European countries and even
America.
The Syrian civil war and the situation in Iraq where sectarian fissures have deepened
during the last one decade have provided fertile recruiting ground for many of the
Sunni's across the region, no doubt a formidable support base. This has helped ISIS
make stunning territorial gains.
Reports indicate that ISIS now comprises of over 10,000 fighters. The capture of Mosul
helped it build up its financial war chest and it is reportedly earning a million dollars
per day through illicit oil sales, smuggling and ransom.
The West has finally started acting against ISIS with American air strikes bringing to
a halt the rapid territorial gains by ISIS. The strikes have emboldened the Kurdish and
Iraqi forces to fight back. The air strikes underlined the fact that ISIS could be repulsed
through coordinated military action; it is also clear that it will require a coalition to
stabilise the area, a herculean task across a deeply divided region.
The tactical nous displayed by the ISIS forces has been attributed to many of Saddam's
Page 29
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military leaders, many who hopped onto the ISIS bandwagon due to the deep fissures
in Iraqi society. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the ISIS leader who was imprisoned in Iraq
after the American invasion clearly understands that to challenge the ISIS, the US will
need local backers on the ground to defeat the Sunni support base. It would also need
boots on the ground and a groundswell of bipartisan support in a deeply divided society
in Iraq/Syria.
Amongst the Middle Eastern countries, Iran is already in the fight as it supports the
Syrian and Iraqi regimes. The Hezbollah, which is seen as Iran's proxy in the region
is heavily involved. Turkey, which opposes the Syrian regime, but is wary of ISIS,
could support the coalition.
However, military action by Arab states is unlikely. Although most Arab states supported
Islamist groups fighting the Basher al-Assad regime, they have cracked down on the
movement of men and money-- notably the Saudi's-- after it became apparent that ISIS
challenged the legitimacy of the al-Saud rule in Saudi Arabia.
The biggest stumbling block on the way to generating wholehearted support against
ISIS would be the fear that a total defeat of ISIS would benefit their old sectarian
rival-Iran.
It is very likely that the Saudi's, Qatari's, Emirati's and Turks will rather demand
support for their efforts aimed at Assad's overthrow, as they have been doing so far,
to stop Iranians from dominating the region as they appear to control Baghdad. It is
also very likely that initial action by the US-led coalition against ISIS will primarily
target ISIS in Iraq, to assuage fears of Arab countries about the region becoming a Shia
crescent with preventive action emanating from Tehran and its affiliates.
However, episodic reactive action alone by the US and its allies may not be able to
stem the ISIS tide. Having troops on the ground with clear-cut objectives is critical to
beating back ISIS. America would do well not to have sectarian Shia militia and Kurdish
peshmerga play a key role in Sunni-dominated areas as it would destroy the local support
for action from the Sunni communities currently under ISIS domination.
It is apparent now that with the current crisis in Iraq, NATO and the US should continue
to invest in Afghanistan's long-term stability; or else, it would mean combating a more
potent Taliban or some other terrorist organisation-- may be allied to ISIS or imitating
its methods-- at a later stage. How astutely the US and NATO remain engaged with
Afghanistan will indicate whether they are serious about stabilising the war-torn country
or allow it to develop into a safe haven for terrorists compelling armed intervention at
a future date.
Apart from this, one deeply worrying issue for many Western countries would be how
to handle many of their citizens fighting for ISIS who may eventually come home to
Page 30
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roost, in case they are allowed to succeed in Iraq because of acts of omission by the
larger international community.
If such a scenario materialises, it is inevitable that many of the ISIS veterans would
pass on their ideology to the next generation of disgruntled members of their community.
From an Indian perspective, we have already had the first reported death of an Indian
fighting for ISIS. Reports about many youth fighting for ISIS from different countries
including India is troubling and many of the youth that manage to slip under the security
radar and return home could ferment trouble given their exposure to the radical, extremist
and apocalyptic ideologies.
Syria sees Turkish deployment inside its border as an aggression
Fri, Oct 3, 2014
Islamic State, isis, The Hindu, Syria, international, Turkey,
Syria has warned Turkey that deploying troops inside its borders will be seen as an
"aggression," calling on the international community to "put limits to the adventures"
of the Turkish leadership.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry's statement, issued on Friday, came a day after Turkey's
parliament gave the government new powers to launch military incursions into Syria
and Iraq.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said the Turkish decision is an "aggression against a founding
member of the United Nations".
Kurdish fighters battled Islamic State fighters on Friday near a Syrian Kurdish town
along the border with Turkey as Turkish Prime Minister said his country will prevent
the fall of Kobani.
The Kurdish town and its surrounding have been under attack since mid-September,
with militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages. The assault, which has
forced some 160,000 Syrians to flee, has left the Kurdish militiamen scrambling to
repel the militants' advance into the outskirts of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's civil
war, reported intense fighting on Friday to the east and southeast of Kobani, saying the
town's Kurdish fighters destroyed two vehicles belonging to militants. The group said
seven Islamic State fighters were killed in a village near Kobani.
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Saudis join war against Islamic State; many sceptical
Mon, Sep 29, 2014
Saudi Arabia, isis, IDSA, international, islamic state,
In an extraordinary show of determination to defeat the Dawlat al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq

w Belaad al-Sham (Daesh) or Islamic State (IS), Riyadh deputed Prince Khaled bin
Salman, son of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, and an unidentified royal scion
to join the military action against the terrorist group.
The high profile participation by the royal family indicates the regime's implacable
opposition to the mercenary group. Prince Khaled is the son of the Saudi prime minister,
defence minister and heir to the throne.
With these moves, the Arab Gulf nations have shed their diffidence and are openly
deploying forces to exterminate the most brutal killers of the 21st century. To the
cognoscenti, the rise of the IS was not unexpected and Washington was expecting an
attack on Iraq, especially Mosul, from at least August 2013. US security experts were
aware of the role of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey in supporting IS; what is less well
known is that the UAE was the largest financier. The group's rise was further abetted
by the US, UK and France funding, training and equipping 'moderate' rebels against
the Syrian regime, who then joined the IS with their weapons. The Iraqi Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr has publicly accused Washington of having created Daesh.
US President Barack Obama admitted (Sept 28) that America had underestimated the
strength and ferocity of the enemy and overestimated the ability of Iraqi forces to counter
the group. Washington also underestimated the rise of the group in Syria while it was
fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; this enabled it to recruit fighters from Europe,
Australia, the US, and Muslim countries. The Islamic State now poses an equal threat
to its Gulf and Western patrons, hence the air strikes.
Reservations persist in some capitals regarding the success of the operation as Washington
and Riyadh have not renounced the goal of removing Syrian President Bashir al-Assad.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed the airstrikes as a "psychological
operation", not a military one.
Experts feel that Iran would cooperate with the US-led action against Daesh if given
some concessions on its uranium enrichment program. Briefly, Tehran wants flexibility
on the number of atomic centrifuges it could keep under any long-term deal that would
lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program. Western officials
have privately admitted that it would be tricky to keep Tehran's nuclear negotiations
out of the regional imbroglio, given Iran's influence with the Syrian and Iraqi governments.
Other faultlines are surfacing. Iraq's Deputy National Security Advisor Safa Al-Sheikh
Page 32
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Hussein has accused Istanbul of helping the Islamic State by letting it export oil to
Europe via Turkey.
The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) also accused Turkey of covertly supporting
IS mercenaries fighting Kurds in Syria, and said it might endanger the March 2013
truce between Turkey's Kurdish militants and Istanbul.
It is not easy for Turkey to deflect allegations of helping Daesh. Initially, it allowed
the 560-mile border with Syria to be used as a 'jihad highway' from where weapons,
material, and foreign mercenaries from Europe crossed over to join the IS, though it
later imposed restrictions when it began to sense danger to its own territory.
Russia stressed the US mistakes which gave rise to the terrorists in Iraq after the invasion
of that country. Most serious was the dissolution of the Iraqi army, due to which the
soldiers went home with guns and some joined terrorist groups. Coupled with this was
the failure of the Iraq regime to create a new and strong army, with old and new cadres.
Further, to protect its naval base in Syria, Russia wants some guarantee that the raids
will not be directed against the regime. Reports suggest that Washington assured Tehran
it would not attack Syrian government forces during the campaign against IS in Syrian
territory.
In the West, experts fear that without ground forces, which the US is reluctant to commit,
the air raids in Iraq and Syria may exacerbate the crisis without defeating the IS which
is entrenched in large territory. The strikes will add civilian casualties, which Daesh
will exploit to make the coalition look bad.
Turkey steps up border security to confront Islamic State
Sat, Oct 11, 2014
Islamic State, isis, The Hindu, international, Turkey,
Turkey tried to strengthen security measures along the Turkish-Syrian border so as to

confront threats from the Islamic State (IS) militant organisation in Syria by sending a
dozen of military tanks to its southeastern part
As clashes between the IS militants and Syrian Kurds continue to rage in the border
town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, northern Syria has been subject to ferocious
attacks by the Sunni militants over the past three weeks.
The IS has succeeded in capturing hundreds of Kurdish villages around Kobane, forcing
tens of thousands of people to flee.
Turkey has opened its doors to 2,00,000 people following assaults by the IS on Kobane,
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, stressing that there are 1,30,000 (Syrian)
refugees in Europe while Turkey alone hosts 1.5 million.
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On Oct. 2, Turkish parliament passed a motion to authorise cross-border military actions
in Syria and Iraq, joining the U.S.- led anti-terror coalition that is carrying out a mission
in Syria against IS positions and like-minded groups.
The decision grants the Turkish government a one-year mandate to send Turkish armed
forces "to foreign countries for cross-border operations and interventions and to position
foreign militaries in Turkey for the same purposes".
Obama confident of progress against Islamic State
Fri, Oct 10, 2014
isis, international, islamic state, Businessline,
Obama has pledged to destroy IS, which remains in control of most of the territory it
has seized in Iraq and Syria despite days of U.S.-led airstrikes, and also to keep U.S.
ground forces out of combat.
The militant group, also known by its acronym ISIS and ISIL, has demonstrated its
brutality with the beheadings of four Western hostages in Syria and broadcasting it in
videos.
Taking on ISIS
Sat, Sep 6, 2014
isis, EPW, international,
Actions by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have contributed to a deterioration
of the already catastrophic Syrian civil war and the possible disintegration of Iraq. There
is no question that this radical Islamist group, which thrives on medieval methods,
primeval ideologies and brutality, has to be militarily defeated. H
The US invasion of Iraq and the post-occupation policy of dismantling the secular state
apparatus in the country in the hope that a dependent nation could be created allowed
the seeds of Al Qaida to be sowed on the back of Sunni anger against the new establishment.
The sectarian attitude of the Shia-dominated governments led by Nouri al-Maliki as
prime minister fanned the rising waves of Sunni resistance so much so that former
Ba'athist forces sought an alliance with the battle-hardened ISIS which had made
significant advances in the Syrian civil war.
The Syrian civil war had provided ISIS the opportunity to utilise the "great game"
played by various proxy forces intending to destabilise the Ba'athist regime of Bashar
al-Assad. Suffused with finances and weaponry supplied to the Syrian opposition by
various groups - financiers from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries such as Saudi
Arabia and Qatar - and helped by Turkish indulgence in allowing foreign recruits to
the ISIS cause to get free passes through the Turkish-Syrian border, the group over-ran
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resistance from the Syrian regime and took control over a large area in northern Syria.
The US also played its role in funding the rebellion against the Syrian regime, only to
see the ISIS and other allied forces reap most of the largesse.
Presently, the ISIS has control over one-third of Iraq and a significant number of towns,
cities, and oil refineries in Syria, and has established a "de facto" state. The ISIS sought
to expand its territory into the northern and oil-rich areas controlled by the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) beginning with the capture of Iraq's second-largest city,
Mosul. In doing so, it subjected Iraqi minorities - for example, the Yazidis - to brutality.
It was left to the Kurdish militias from Syria and Turkey - the People's Protection Units
(YPG) and the socialist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - to rescue a large number
of Yazidis, even as the US finally swung into action to protect its KRG allies and assets.
The pluralist and feminist YPG, an offshoot of the PKK's Syrian affiliates, has remained
the most effective force against the ISIS advance in Syria.
In Syria, the US prefers the heat to remain on the Assad government and is reluctant
to recognise the threat the ISIS (and other Islamist forces such as the Al Qaida-affiliated
Jabhat al-Nusra) poses to Syrian unity. This has meant that the ISIS has used its territorial
acquisitions as buffers. With its financial resources and US-sourced weaponry captured
from the Iraqi army, it is a formidable opponent to the Syrian government.
Iraqi Forces pushed IS fighters back from Haditha Dam
Wed, Sep 10, 2014
isis, Down to Earth, international, iraq,
Iraqi forces have recently cleared Islamic State (IS) militants from the area surrounding
the strategically important Haditha Dam and regained control over it. This was done
with the help of US airstrikes.
IS had taken control of country's largest dam Mosul dam. For 10 days, the IS (formerly
known as ISIS) was in control of a possible weapon of mass destruction which, according
to the US, is "the most dangerous dam in the world". This is because by manipulating
the dam for its own purpose, a military group can either impose a famine on major parts
of the country or cause a flood [1] . IS could have used the dam to starve the population
by cutting off electricity to much of agricultural land in northern Iraq.
Islamic State not invincible: Need to take Russia, China on board
Mon, Sep 15, 2014
isis, IDSA, international, Russia, China,
Amidst its countless victims, the Daesh has beheaded two American and one Syrian
journalist in just the past month. Euphoric over easy victories in large swathes of Iraq
and Syria (it now controls 11 oil wells), it has threatened some Western capitals, the
latest being Portugal, being part of the Iberian Peninsula covering Spain (Andalus).
Page 35
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Yet, some complex political issues could stymie an effective Western response led by
the United States.
First is Muslim hostility.
Equally pertinent is the composition of the US coalition - while Washington is keen to
include Beijing, it ignores Moscow, Iran, and the Syrian government of Bashir al-Assad.
It bears mention that Sunnis fear the new (Sunni) Islamic caliphate on account of its
extreme interpretation of Islamic law; they have suffered many beheadings and atrocities
at its hands. They are wary of US intervention because US action against Saddam
Hussein ended Sunni dominance of Iraq and plunged the country into severe sectarian
strife which enhanced the influence of Shiite Iran.
Moscow, meanwhile, has warned against air strikes against Syria without a UN mandate,
as any military action without the "consent of the legitimate government" would be
tantamount to aggression, "a gross violation of international law." Russia is a friend of
al-Assad and has vetoed sanctions against his regime.
Beijing has refused to commit to the call to destroy Daesh/IS, despite a visit from US
National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Obama now plans to chair a UN Security Council
meeting to discuss how to combat the Islamic State; he will need China and Russia to
get any meaningful resolution passed. But Beijing may not like to upset its cordial
relations with Moscow.
China, like Russia, suffers from domestic terrorism (the Uyghur East Turkestan Islamic
Movement). Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has put China on a list of countries
accused of persecuting Muslims, thus making it a target for jihad. Beijing fears its
citizens may join the Islamic State and return to China to carry out attacks.
The London-based Conflict Armament Research has observed that a significant number
of arms captured from IS fighters belong to the US government.
Meanwhile, Daesh is moving towards the Turkish border to secure an access route for
foreigners wishing to join its caliphate. Daesh is also trying to cut Syria in two, from
east to west, to gain access to the Alawite heartland of Bashar al-Assad and the
Mediterranean coast. President Obama's dilemma is how to stop Daesh from overrunning
the region without a collateral victory for al-Assad and his Iranian ally.
That the going will not be smooth was underlined at the NATO summit in Wales (Sept
4-5), where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointedly told UK Prime Minister
Cameron that the Islamic State is more popular in Western countries; "These people
were educated and raised in your country".
The Arab response, too, is reportedly half-hearted. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
Page 36
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has ordered his air force to stop strikes in civilian areas, even in towns controlled by
Daesh, so as to win the support of Sunni Muslim tribal leaders.
Dealing with barbarism
Sat, Aug 23, 2014
al qaeda, isis, The Hindu, international, Nouri al Maliki, iraq,
Foley was a freelance reporter who had been abducted many months ago in Syria. It
has now emerged that the IS had demanded $100 million to free him, and that the U.S.
government refused, but made a failed attempt to rescue him. It has said it executed
Foley in revenge for the U.S. airstrikes against it in Iraq . IS is determined to send out
the message to the world that it will stop at nothing to achieve its goal, which is to
establish its writ across the Islamic world. An offshoot of al-Qaeda, but more extreme
than its parent, the IS seems eager to prove its violent credentials. Yet, precisely in its
barbarity lies the hope that it can be stopped. Even most Sunni Muslims in Iraq, where
the IS burst on the scene in June, do not subscribe to its extremism or the violence that
it espouses.
The recent change of guard in Iraq, where Nouri al Maliki stepped down as Prime
Minister to make way for Haider al-Abadi, might be of help if the new government that
is still taking shape is inclusive of the country's minority Sunnis. The IS took birth in
the violence and chaos that gripped Iraq post-Saddam Hussain. Mr. Maliki was propped
up by the U.S., which helped it grow. But the jihadist group really came into its own
in the Syrian civil war, and there is no denying that contributing to its dramatic rise
was the U.S., which gave regional backing to all manner of extremists in the fight
against Bashar al Assad's regime.
US hits jihadists in Syria, Qaeda threatens coalition
Sun, Sep 28, 2014
isis, al qaeda, Syria, international, islamic state, Businessline,
The Al--Nusra Front, Al--Qaeda's Syrian franchise, has threatened reprisals against
nations participating in air strikes against the Islamic State group, denouncing them as
"a war against Islam."
The warning came as the US--led coalition widened its air strikes against the IS group
in Syria, as British warplanes flew their first anti--jihadist combat missions over
neighbouring Iraq.
The United States and its coalition partners aim to destroy the Islamic State group,
which controls a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, has murdered two US journalists
and a British aid worker and is locked in a brutal war with Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.
The IS campaign there has already driven 160,000 refugees into Turkey.
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NASA to make ISS an Earth-observing platform
Tue, Sep 9, 2014
nasa, The Hindu, ISS, science & tech, space,
In a bid to monitor Earth better, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) is adding a number of Earth-observing instruments to the International Space
Station (ISS) that will increase the leverage of the space station's unique vantage point
in space.
Scheduled to be launched this month, the first NASA Earth-observing instrument called
ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds for climate research as well as weather
predictions and hurricane monitoring.
The second instrument scheduled for a December launch is the Cloud Aerosol Transport
System (CATS), a laser instrument that will measure clouds and the location and
distribution of airborne particles such as mineral dust and smoke in the atmosphere,
the U.S. space agency said in a statement.
ISS-RapidScat and CATS follow the February launch of the Global Precipitation
Measurement Core Observatory, a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency, and the July launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
NASA to turn ISS into perfect Earth-observing platform
Tue, Sep 9, 2014
nasa, ISS, science & tech, space, Businessline,
In a move to monitor our planet better, NASA is adding a number of Earth-observing

instruments to the International Space Station (ISS) that will increase the leverage of
the orbital laboratory's unique vantage point in space.
ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds for climate research, weather predictions and
hurricane monitoring from the space station, NASA said.
The second instrument is the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS), a laser instrument
that will measure clouds and the location and distribution of airborne particles such as
pollution, mineral dust, smoke, and other particulates in the atmosphere.
CATS will follow ISS-RapidScat on the fifth SpaceX space station resupply flight,
planned for December.
The space station-based instruments join a fleet of 17 NASA Earth-observing missions
currently providing data on the dynamic and complex Earth system.
ISS-RapidScat and CATS follow the February launch of the Global Precipitation
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Measurement Core Observatory, a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency.
Page 39

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KI

ISIS - Islamic State

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The pendulum of the Islamic State

Obama to outline anti-IS strategy

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

Obama to convene UNSC meeting on foreign fighters: White House

Young western women among jihadis

Arab League chief: confront ISIS

IS, Frankenstein's monster unleashed

Kurds head to Syria from Turkey to fight IS

War chest of IS is growing

McCain exhorts India to join fight against Islamic State

Turkey vows to fight Islamic State

U.S. House approves Obama's Syria strike plan

Turkey, Kurd tensions worry US in fight for Kobani

War against the Islamic State

Turkey- Syrian border town about to fall to IS

After Syria and Iraq, AfPak on Islamic State radar

Kurds protest across Europe, seek help against IS

Germany may give weapons to Kurdish forces to fight jihadists

Islamic State jihadists turn their sights back on Syria

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

The ISIS has to be stopped

Need to build a good coalition to combat ISIS

Syria sees Turkish deployment inside its border as an aggression

Saudis join war against Islamic State; many sceptical

Turkey steps up border security to confront Islamic State

Obama confident of progress against Islamic State

Iraqi Forces pushed IS fighters back from Haditha Dam

Islamic State not invincible: Need to take Russia, China on board

Dealing with barbarism

US hits jihadists in Syria, Qaeda threatens coalition

NASA to make ISS an Earth-observing platform

NASA to turn ISS into perfect Earth-observing platform

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

Rouhani terms US led anti-ISIS coalition "ridiculous"

Thu, Sep 18, 2014

USA, iran, ISIS, The Hindu, international,

Kerry calls for global coalition to counter ISIS threat

Sat, Aug 30, 2014

isis, The Hindu, international, Iraq,

UN: Mass killings, enslavement widespread under Islamic State

Tue, Aug 26, 2014

Kurdistan, isis, international, kurds, Islamic state, Businessline,

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

A jihadist by any other name?

Thu, Sep 18, 2014

ISIS, The Hindu, international, islamic state, Iraq,

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com