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Run for the Hills: ISIL Fighters Fleeing Raqqa Amid Russian Air Campaign

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1024208916Islamic State fighters are fleeing Raqqa, the terrorist group’s stronghold in Syria, as Russia and France have intensified airstrikes on their positions, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

The terrorists have abandoned their positions and are fleeing toward the Turkish border, while some of them are hiding in civilian buildings, RIA Novosti news agency wrote, citing local eyewitness reports on Wednesday.

In Tel-Abyad, a town 100 kilometers north of Raqqa, ISIL fighters abandoned their strongholds under pressure from Kurdish self-defense forces.

The Islamic State group is coming under increased military pressure after claiming responsibility for last month’s bombing of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt and Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed more than 120 people.

Russia said on Tuesday that it had doubled the scale of its attacks on Syria.

The latest airstrikes are “the most intense” since world powers led by the US started targeting the group.

Russia deployed 37 new aircraft to carry out airstrikes after security officials said the passenger plane that crashed over Egypt’s Sinai on October 31 was caused by a bomb. ISIL Egyptian affiliate had claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 224 people.

Russia conducted 34 cruise missile strikes and deployed long-range Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers from its bases to hit ISIL’s de-facto capital of Raqqa as well as other targets.

Russia planned 127 sorties on 206 targets in the first 24 hours of the new campaign, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

France bombed Raqqa on Sunday night in its most aggressive strike against ISIL to date destroying a command center and a training facility used by the terrorists.

Source: sputniknews

Top UK School Defends ISIL by Banning Pro-Kurdish Speaker From Public Talk

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1029939273Britain’s University College London (UCL) banned a former student from speaking about his experience fighting alongside with Kurdish troops against ISIL in the Middle East, thus censoring the criticism of the notorious terrorist organization in public.

The UCL’s decision was called a controversial act and sparked accusations that one of the top British public universities acts like an ISIL PR-manager, not willing to spread the truth about the terrorist organization to the British public.

Macer Gifford, a former UCL student, joined the ranks of Kurdish fighting units who stopped the spread of ISIL in northern Syria. As Gifford returnd to Britain, Britain’s Kurdish society invited him to talk about his first-hand experience fighting against ISIL at UCL.

However, the university’s students’ union rejected the idea, banning Gifford’s planned talk, arguing that “in every conflict there are two sides, and at UCLU we want to avoid taking sides in conflicts.”
“Basically like everyone else I was watching the rise of Islamic State, utterly horrified… I was even more horrified that the British and the American governments weren’t doing much to help. They didn’t have a coherent and coercive policy then, and they don’t particularly have one now. So I decided to go out and join the YPG, and to fight myself,” Gifford told RT in an exclusive interview.
Well, it looks like the British institution decided not to take sides in the ongoing Syrian conflict and is in fact trying to censor the criticism of ISIL.
Of course, there are two sides of the story: one side is that the people of Kurdistan are fighting to resist the brutal ISIL regime; and the other side is Caliphate-seeking Islamic fundamentalists, who cut off the heads of their prisoners, burn people in cages, trade slaves, stone adulterers, and kill everyone who doesn’t agree with their crazy ideology. It looks like a pretty easy choice to pick a side on this one, eh? But apparently not for UCL officials, who chose to keep their moral “neutrality.”

Syrian Army Breaks 2-Year ISIL Siege of Airbase in Aleppo

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1029620794The Syrian Armed Forces have broken a two-year ISIL siege of the Kweiris airbase in the Aleppo province, a military source told RIA Novosti.

For two years, Syrian soldiers stationed at the airbase have been under an ISIL siege.

“The army managed to break through to Kweiris defenders, lifting the siege which had lasted over two years,” the military source said.

The source added that “this became possible after the liberation of Sheikh Ahmad [a village 2 km away from the airbase].”
Syrian government forces continue their offensive in the Aleppo province in the north of the country.
Over the weekend, the Syrian army supported by popular forces advanced in the area, leaving dozens of the militants dead or wounded.
In October 2015, the Syrian army, with support of Russian aircraft deployed in Syria at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad, started a military operation, trying to free territories controlled by the Islamic State and the Nusra Front militants.

Turkey Complicit in ISIL Funding by Involvement in Stolen Oil Purchase

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1029487593Turkey is complicit in funding the Islamic State militant group through purchase on the territory of Turkey of crude oil stolen from fields captured by ISIL.

MADRID (Sputnik) — Ankara is complicit in funding the Islamic State militant group through purchase on the territory of Turkey of crude oil stolen from fields captured by ISIL, a member of Confederal Group of the European United Left — Nordic Green Left told Sputnik.
“[Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has almost directly backed ways [of funding] the Islamic State and allowed purchasing oil stolen by IS, which is a source of funding for terrorists,” Javier Couso, also the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs vice-chair, said.
According to Couso, Erdogan is fighting Kurds despite their assistance in countering ISIL, and Brussels continues to support Ankara without paying attention to Turkey’s “destabilizing role.”
Couso stated that Turkey had failed to fulfill international resolutions and was seeking the overthrow of the Syrian government.
Islamic State has captured large areas in Syria and Iraq. Its advance is being countered by airstrikes of a US-led coalition, as well as an air campaign by Russia in Syria. Kurdish forces, as well as Syrian and Iraqi troops, are actively fighting extremists on the ground.

500 ISIL Militants Transported From Syria to Yemen – Syrian Army Turkish airlines

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1029191357Sputnik News Report: Over 500 ISIL militants have been transported from Syria to Yemen aboard planes arriving from Turkey to fight against Houthi rebels, a Syrian general said Tuesday.

Syrian Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Ali Maihub claimed that more than 500 ISIL militants had been transported from Syria to Yemen aboard 4 planes that had arrived from Turkey on October 26.

According to him, two of the planes belong to Turkish airlines, one is a Qatari aircraft and one is a UEA plane.

“According to the intelligence data, 4 planes arrived from Turkey at the airport of Aden [in Yemen] on October 26. Two of them [planes] belonged to Turkish airlines, one — to Qatar airlines and another aircraft was owned by an UAE airline. More than 500 militants of ISIL terrorist group were on board, they were transported from Syria to save them from Russian airstrikes,” Maihub said, according to RIA Novosti.
He further claimed Saudi-led coalition officers met ISIL militants at the airport in Yemen. The Syrian general said that the jihadists were supposed to take part in a ground operation against Houthi rebels.
“[ISIL] militants were met by officers from the Saudi-led coalition, who took them out of the [Yemeni] airport in three groups. The first group was taken to the town of al-Bab in the Mandeb province, the second — to Maariv, the third — to Saudi provinces Jazan and Asir,” he said.
“The militants are expected to take part in the ongoing ground operation where ground coalition forces have recently suffered serious losses in clashes with Houthi fighters,” the general said, adding that, based on intelligence data, similar transfers of ISIL militants from Syria would continue.
“According to available information, operations aimed to transport ISIL terrorists from Syria will continue in a short time,” he added.


Syria-Update: Russian Airstrikes Disrupt ISIL Supply Chains, Ammunition “lacking food and water”

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1027121892According to various information sources, terrorists are lacking food and water as result of the recent military operation, which destroyed most of their supplies.
The airstrikes affected basic food supply chains of the fighters, ammunition and medical supplies, RIA Novosti reported, citing representative of Syria’s military intelligence.

According to him, militants are experiencing serious difficulties with food and drinking water. In some terrorist units, the food will run out in less than a week, the source said.
He quoted imprisoned terrorists who reported that a “critical” situation for ISIL “has evolved with the medicines necessary to treat the wounded and injured fighters.”
“The shortage of medicines and medical supplies forced the militants to leave the wounded to the care of the local people. Moreover, in order to hide from the Russian aviation, fighters had to get rid of large trucks with material supplies, which slowed down the retreat of the forces,” he added.

Source: sputniknews.com

Terrorist State of Turkey arrests some 1300 PKK-linked suspects, less than 271 ISIL-linked suspects since late July

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AA Photo

AA Photo

While more than 1,300 suspects have been arrested for their alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and their affiliates since operations were launched following the deadly Suruç bombing on July 20, only 276 suspects have been arrested for their links to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to figures announced by Justice Minister Kenan İpek.

İpek, speaking to reporters on Oct. 20, provided a picture of Turkey’s ongoing operations against mainly the PKK, ISIL and the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which have intensified since the July 20 suicide bomb attack in border town of Suruç in southeastern Şanlıurfa province which killed 34 people.

“With effective work having been carried out since July 22 after the Suruç massacre up to today, 1,308 people who are members of the PKK, the KCK [the Kurdish Communities Union, the PKK’s umbrella group], the YGH [the Patriotic Youth Movement] and the YDG-H [the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, the youth wing of the PKK] have been arrested,” İpek said.

“From members of Daesh [ISIL] and al-Qaeda, 276 of them, and 89 members of the DHKP-C and other leftist organizations, have been arrested. In total, 1,673 arrests were made,” the minister said.

“As of today, 271 Daesh members have been imprisoned, with 264 of them under arrest and seven of them convicted,” he said. Among them, 212 suspects were arrested after July 22, he added.

He noted some 1,463 people were released on probation after July 22, without elaborating.

After months of wavering Turkey agreed on July 23 following the Suruç suicide bombing which was blamed ISIL – an arch-foe of the PKK and its U.S.-backed Syrian affiliate – to partner with the United States in launching joint air strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. The military operations against ISIL in Syria and the PKK in Iraq on July 23 and 24, in retaliation to their attacks in Turkey on July 20, 22 and 23, were accompanied by simultaneous police raids in Turkey where hundreds of people with suspected links to ISIL, the PKK and the DHKP-C were taken into custody.

Four people were killed in a bombing at a Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) rally in southeastern Diyarbakır on June 5, only two days before the June 7 parliamentary elections.

On Oct. 10, a peace rally, where the HDP was among the organizers, in the capital was attacked by two suicide bombers, killing at least 102 people. On Oct. 19, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that one of the two suicide bombers in the Oct.10 Ankara massacre was Yunus Emre Alagöz, the brother of Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, who was the perpetrator of the Suruç attack.
Soon after pounding ISIL positions in Syria, Ankara quickly turned its attention to strike the PKK in northern Iraq. More than 150 Turkish security personnel have been killed since July, leaving a three-year-old peace process in tatters and raising concern about the security of the snap parliamentary election set for Nov. 1. The government meanwhile claims to have killed more than 1,700 PKK militants in a relentless bombing campaign.

İpek, meanwhile, defended himself in the face of insistent calls from the opposition to resign due to his failure in the Oct. 10 attack and his behavior in the aftermath of the attack.

“A reflex of mine is still subject to debate. The main opposition party leader is still bringing to the agenda a reaction of mine upon the resignation question at the meeting,” İpek said.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has insistently called for the resignations or dismissals of both İpek and Interior Minister Selami Altınok following the attack.

During a joint press conference with Altınok and Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, İpek was recorded smirking after a Reuters reporter asked if he was considering resigning from his post. The press conference was arranged only a few hours after the explosions in the capital city

The justice, transportation and interior ministries are held by “impartial” ministers in the run-up to the Nov. 1 vote.

Syrian, Russian Forces Use ‘New Strategy to Battle ISIL’

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1028743961The actions of the Russian Air Force in Syria are very effective, making it possible that soon ISIL will be capitulated and the Syrian refugees will be able to return home, according to a political analyst at George Washington University.

Russia and Syria’s armed forces are utilizing new methods of conducting warfare against ISIL militants, political analyst Nabil Michael told Press TV in an interview.
“In the two [Persian] Gulf wars, the technique was one of a heavy bombardment campaign that would last for a month or six weeks and then ground troops would move in.”

“What we are seeing is a coincidence or a parallel effort between the air force and the ground campaign,” Michael told Press TV.
But in this case the “Syrian armed forces and the Russian advisors did not wait for five, six weeks to start a ground assault; quite the opposite. It took them a few days to follow up on what the air force has achieved in terms of cleaning up the landscape,” said Michael.
He further said that Russia has positioned its strategy and power structure in a way that it has made itself a magnet for other forces’ effort.

“Shia militias, the Kurdish militias, many Sunnis, Christians will all find the presence of the Russian military appealing. This is why I expect the surrender of ISIL troops, and forces soon will find many surrendering scenes on TV screens, and we will [hear] about this [on] the radio,” the analyst said, Press TV reported.
Michael further noted that there are coordinated efforts between different militias — Kurdish, Shias, Sunnis, Christians, with the Russian-Syrian/Iraqi troops, and that will help the campaign become more widespread.

Turkey: ISIL child training camp discovered in Istanbul: Report

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isan.thumbA total of 24 of around 50 suspects of Tajik and Uzbek origin, who were detained for having links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Istanbul on Oct. 18, have been revealed to be children being trained in basement apartments in Istanbul’s Pendik and Başakşehir districts, the Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing daily Vatan.

The suspects were reported to have trained children in basement apartments in Pendik and Başakşehir, using the apartments as militant training camps, according to physical and technical surveillance collected by Istanbul Police Department Counterterrorism Unit officers before raiding 18 separate homes in Pendik and Başakşehir’s Kayaşehir neighborhood.

The suspects, mostly Uzbeks, who were detained in the Oct. 18 raids were reported to have lectured children on the basics of ISIL as well as how to live in an Islamic state.

In August, the Uzbekistan Islamic Movement, an al-Qaeda offshoot based near the Afghan border, announced allegiance to ISIL.

Uzbek intelligence sources reported that more than 5,000 paid Uzbek militants were fighting in Syria alongside ISIL.

Turkey has stepped up anti-terror police operations against ISIL militants in the country, as the Oct. 10 twin blasts in the Turkish capital sent shockwaves through the country, with at least 102 civilians dead and hundreds of others injured.

Thirteen ISIL-linked suspects have reportedly been detained so far within the investigation launched into the Ankara bombing.

HDP Co-chair Demirtaş confirms allegation of ISIL plot against him

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Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş offers his condolences over bomb blasts that killed 97 people at a peace rally in Ankara. (Photo: DHA)

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş offers his condolences over bomb blasts that killed 97 people at a peace rally in Ankara. (Photo: DHA)

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chairman Selahattin Demirtaş has confirmed the allegations that a group of militants affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) recently infiltrated Turkey aiming to assassinate him.

“We received intelligence from reliable sources that there were plans to plot an assassination against me. We have tried to tighten security and of course share this information with the authorities. But it [the government] is busy protecting ISIL rather than us,” Demirtaş told the press on Wednesday.

According to several media outlets, HDP Deputy Chairman İdris Baluken submitted a petition to the Interior Ministry on Aug. 5 which claimed that a group of militants affiliated with ISIL infiltrated Turkey aiming to assassinate Demirtaş.

In the petition, the HDP stated: “According to reliable sources, a group of militants from ISIL entered Turkey in order to assassinate our co-chairman, Selahattin Demirtaş. Currently we do not have any further information regarding the identities of the militants. Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter.”

The Interior Ministry has reportedly failed to respond to the HDP’s petition.

Reporter who foresaw Ankara bombings: ISIL will assassinate Demirtaş

Terrorist organization ISIL is plotting an assassination against HDP Co-chairman Demirtaş, according to Hikmet Durgun, a reporter for Russian news agency Sputnik who foresaw the twin bomb blasts that killed at least 97 people in Ankara on Saturday, in tweets he posted a few days before the attacks took place.

“ISIL is going to assassinate Selehattin Demirtaş in order to get revenge for Kobani. The militant assigned this duty was sent to Turkey,” Durgun tweeted on Wednesday.

What makes his tweet important is that Durgun reported on Sept. 29 that a total of 100 militants had infiltrated Turkey to carry out attacks in major provinces including Ankara and İstanbul and to give military training to ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey.

The reporter also wrote that 100 militants had dispersed to the provinces of Adana, Adıyaman, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kilis, Konya and Şanlıurfa after crossing Turkey’s border from Syria in groups. The militants were instructed to avoid unnecessary communication by phone. In addition to arms training, ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey will also be taught to make bombs.

Durgun complained in a tweet he posted on Tuesday night that even though he reported the Ankara attack would take place, officials failed to take any security measures.

“I reported the infiltration of 100 ISIL militants into Turkey. But no security measure was taken. Terrifying! The ISIL threat still continues. I will continue to tweet about threats,” Durgun said.

A total of 97 people were officially pronounced dead on Sunday night, having lost their lives in the country’s deadliest terrorist attack in Ankara on Saturday. Over 500 people are among the injured, with dozens of them in critical condition. Initial indications suggest that ISIL is responsible for the twin bombings, two senior Turkish security sources told Reuters on Sunday.

The AK Party administration had long been criticized for allegedly turning a blind eye to the passage of foreign fighters, many coming from European countries, to war-torn Syria with intentions to join ISIL. Ignoring warnings from many experts that a lack of border security might one day spell trouble for Turkey, the AK Party government has long maintained its policy of neglecting the necessary measures of precaution at Turkey’s borders.

When a bomb attack shocked Turkey in the southeastern border town of Suruç on July 20, the AK Party shifted its stance regarding ISIL, which was held responsible for the attack that killed 34 civilians who were on their way to reconstruct a city that had been ravaged by the terrorist group.

Within a week of the Suruç bombing, Turkey agreed to grant the US expanded access to İncirlik Air Base, located in the southeastern province of Adana, close to Syria. By late August, Turkey had joined the air strikes being conducted on important ISIL targets in part of a US-led coalition, which Turkey had previously declined to participate in.