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ISIS putting price tags on Iraqi children, selling them as slaves – UN

February 7, 2015 By administrator

Iraqi-childrenISIS has stepped up the use of children in its bloody campaign of terror, the United Nations says — subjecting them to horrors that include putting price tags on them to sell as slaves, CNN reported.

A report released this week focused on children in Iraq, as well as the responsibility of that nation’s government for ensuring the safety and security of young civilians in the conflict. But it certainly doesn’t preclude similar things happening in Syria, where ISIS is also entrenched and also has been blamed for various atrocities.

In reference to Iraq, at least, the U.N. report found that the terrorist group is resorting more and more to brutal acts such as enslaving, raping, beheading, crucifying and burying people alive. Some of those affected are children.

“We have had reports of children, especially children that are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding what has happened or what they have to expect,” said Renate Winter, an expert with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Some as young as age 8 are getting training to become soldiers, she said.

“Children of minorities have been captured in places where the so-called ISIL has its strength, have been sold in market with tags, price tags on them, have been sold as slaves,” Winter said.

People of the Yazidi faith — which draws from Christianity, Judaism and the ancient monotheistic religion of Zoroastrianism, and which some Muslims consider devil worship — have long faced persecution, though by comparison ISIS’ cruelty to them has been extraordinary. Kurdistan Regional Government adviser Nazand Begikhani, for instance, has said Yazidi “women have been treated like cattle, … subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery.”

Yazidi children haven’t fared much better at the hands of ISIS. An earlier U.N. report described how militants rounded up all Yazidi males “older than 10 years of age at the local school, took them outside the village by pickup trucks, and shot them.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: children, Iraq, ISIS, slaves

Solidarity for the family of a Kurdish soldier Hujam Surchi, a Kurdish peshmerga beheaded by ISIS

February 5, 2015 By administrator

arton107795-480x320On 1 February, the journalist Saeed Yerevan, based in Washington, has launched crowdfunding site IndieGoGo, a campaign to help the family of Hujam Surchi, a Kurdish peshmerga décapitté by ISIS on 25 January.

The request is unusual for a journalist. But he said, “When the forces of darkness as the Islamic State threatens all of us, it makes us accountable to each other and call us to be grateful for those who protect us by their heroic actions. ” (article HERE)

The reason that pushed Saeed Yerevan to engage in this fundraising campaign, due to the situation of the family of Hujam Surchi. A family living below the poverty line, consisting of his wife and 10 children.

The journalist in his message ensures that every penny will go to the soldier’s family, in coordination with the Representation of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington DC. It also understand that the question of trust vis-à-vis itself, but relies on the public understanding since it is known – (see his blog here) . Besides, if you had to persuade, Aram Hamparian Suren, Executive Director of the ANCA Washington knows him and relayed the call itself Yerevan Saeed.

IndieGoGo visit HERE . The latter presents the collection of funds in dollars, which poses no problem. The amount will be debited from the bank in Euros.

Thursday, February 5, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: crowdfunding, décapitté, ISIS, Kurdish, soldier

Jordan Executes Two Prisoners to Avenge ISIS Murder of Pilot

February 3, 2015 By administrator

Jordan-hostageJordan executed two prisoners, including an Iraqi militant whom it had sought to trade with ISIS, on Wednesday morning to avenge the death of a Jordanian pilot who was purportedly shown being burned alive in an ISIS video, Jordanian state media and police sources said.

A police source told NBC News that the executions of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman whom ISIS had demanded be released, and Zyad al-Karbouli, an Iraqi Islamist who also had previously been sentenced to death, took place only a few hours after Jordanian King Abdullah met in Washington with President Barack Obama.

Abdullah then immediately set flight back home, his government having promised swift revenge for the apparent death of Lt. Muath al Kasasbeh.

A 22-minute video released Tuesday by the al-Furqan Media Foundation — one of the official media arms of ISIS — showed Kasasbeh with a black eye at a table and, later, standing in a cage as he is burned alive. He had been captured while on a bombing run over Syria in December when he was forced to eject.

Until the video’s release, Jordan had been trying to negotiate a swap of al-Rishawi, who was jailed for an attempted suicide attack in Amman in 2005, for Kasasbeh.

Earlier Tuesday, Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said Obama and the U.S. “stand in solidarity with the government of Jordan and the Jordanian people.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Burn, hostage, ISIS, Jordan

Kobane’s streets of death: Executed ISIS fighters are lined up

January 30, 2015 By administrator

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

2531A8A400000578-0-image-a-38_1422633368907Kurdish fighters have killed dozens of Islamic State militants in recent days as battles continue to rage around the strategic Syrian border town of Kobane. 

In one village, a Kurd was today pictured standing over the bodies of Islamic extremists after they were killed in Halimce, a village east of the town.

Around 20 jihadists also died in the hills west of Kobane days after it was recaptured following months of heavy fighting which has left the town in ruins.

Kurdish forces retook the town on January 26 in a symbolic blow to the jihadists who have seized large swathes of territory in their onslaught across Syria and Iraq. 

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said: ‘Nineteen ISIS members were killed in fighting against the (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the hills surrounding Manaz to the west of Kobane.

‘Another three jihadists died in fighting around villages to the east of Kobane, while the YPG also took one ISIS member prisoner,’ he told AFP.  

The YPG had also recaptured five villages around Kobane this week, according to Mr Rahman, whose Britain-based group relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Death, ISIS, kobane, streets

A Conversation With Bashar al-Assad “Erdogan belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood & the base of al Qaeda”

January 26, 2015 By administrator

By Jonathan Tepperman

AssadInterview2The civil war in Syria will soon enter its fifth year, with no end in sight. On January 20, Foreign Affairs managing editor Jonathan Tepperman met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to discuss the conflict in an exclusive interview.

I would like to start by asking you about the war. It has now been going on for almost four years, and you know the statistics: more than 200,000 people have been killed, a million wounded, and more than three million Syrians have fled the country, according to the UN. Your forces have also suffered heavy casualties. The war cannot go on forever. How do you see the war ending?
All wars anywhere in the world have ended with a political solution, because war itself is not the solution; war is one of the instruments of politics. So you end with a political solution. That’s how we see it. That is the headline.

You don’t think that this war will end militarily?
No. Any war ends with a political solution.

ISIS.

Kobani is a small city, with about 50,000 inhabitants. It’s been more than three months since the beginning of the attacks, and they haven’t finished. Same areas, same al Qaeda factions occupying them—the Syrian army liberated in less than three weeks. It means they’re not serious about fighting terrorism.

So are you saying you want greater U.S. involvement in the war against ISIS?

It’s not about greater involvement by the military, because it’s not only about the military; it’s about politics. It’s about how much the United States wants to influence the Turks. Because if the terrorists can withstand the air strikes for this period, it means that the Turks keep sending them armaments and money. Did the United States put any pressure on Turkey to stop the support of al Qaeda? They didn’t; they haven’t. So it’s not only about military involvement. This is first. Second, if you want to talk about the military involvement, American officials publicly acknowledge that without troops on the ground, they cannot achieve anything concrete. Which troops on the grounds are you depending on?

So are you suggesting there should be U.S. troops on the ground?

Not U.S. troops. I’m talking about the principle, the military principle. I’m not saying American troops. If you want to say I want to make war on terrorism, you have to have troops on the ground. The question you have to ask the Americans is, which troops are you going to depend on? Definitely, it has to be Syrian troops. This is our land; this is our country. We are responsible. We don’t ask for American troops at all.

So what would you like to see from the United States? You mentioned more pressure on Turkey …

Pressure on Turkey, pressure on Saudi Arabia, pressure on Qatar to stop supporting the rebels. Second, to make legal cooperation with Syria and start by asking permission from our government to make such attacks. They didn’t, so it’s illegal.

I’m sorry, I’m not clear on that point. You want them to make legal … ?

Of course, if you want to make any kind of action in another country, you ask their permission.

I see. So a formal agreement between Washington and Damascus to allow for air strikes?

The format we can discuss later, but you start with permission. Is it an agreement? Is it a treaty? That’s another issue.

Do you think you will eventually defeat the rebels militarily?

If they don’t have external support, and no, let’s say, supply and recruitment of new terrorists within Syria, there will be no problem defeating them. Even today we don’t have a problem militarily. The problem is that they still have this continuous supply, mainly from Turkey.

So Turkey seems to be the neighbor that you’re most concerned about?

Exactly. Logistically, and about terrorist financing from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but through Turkey.

Do you blame Erdogan personally? This is a man you once had a fairly good relationship with.

Yes. Because he belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, which is the base of al Qaeda; it was the first political Islamic organization that promoted violent political Islam in the early twentieth century. He belongs strongly and is a staunch believer in these values. He’s very fanatical, and that’s why he still supports ISIS. He is personally responsible for what happened.

Do you see any other potential partners in the region? For example, General el-Sisi in Egypt?

I wouldn’t talk about him personally, but as long as Egypt and the Egyptian army and the government are fighting the same kind of terrorists as in Iraq, of course, we can consider these countries eligible to cooperate with in fighting the same enemy.

Two final questions, if I may. Can you imagine a scenario in which Syria returns to the status quo as it was before the fighting started almost four years ago?

In what sense?

In the sense that Syria is whole again, it is not divided, it controls its borders, it starts to rebuild, and it is at peace and a predominantly secular country.

If you look at a military map now, the Syrian army exists in every corner. Not every place; by every corner, I mean north, south, east, west, and between. If you didn’t believe in a unified Syria, that Syria can go back to its previous position, you wouldn’t send the army there, as a government. If you don’t believe in this as a people, you would have seen people in Syria isolated into different ghettos based on ethnic and sectarian or religious identity. As long as this is not the situation, the people live with each other; the army is everywhere; the army is made up of every color of Syrian society, or the Syrian fabric. This means that we all believe Syria should go back to the way it was. We don’t have any other option, because if it doesn’t go back to its previous position, that will affect every surrounding country. It’s one fabric—it’s a domino effect that will have influence from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

If you were able to deliver a message to President Obama today, what would it be?

I think the normal thing that you ask any official in the world is to work for the interests of his people. And the question I would ask any American is, what do you get from supporting terrorists in our country, in our region? What did you get from supporting the Muslim Brotherhood a few years ago in Egypt and other countries? What did you get from supporting someone like Erdogan? One of the officials from your country asked me seven years ago in Syria at the end of a meeting, “How do you think we can solve the problem in Afghanistan?” I told him, “You have to be able to deal with officials who are not puppets, who can tell you no.” So for the United States, only looking for puppet officials and client states is not how you can serve the interests of your country. You are the greatest power in the world now; you have too many things to disseminate around the world: knowledge, innovation, IT, with its positive repercussions. How can you be the best in these fields yet the worst in the political field? This is a contradiction. That is what I think the American people should analyze and question. Why do you fail in every war? You can create war, you can create problems, but you cannot solve any problem. Twenty years of the peace process in Palestine and Israel, and you cannot do anything with this, in spite of the fact that you are a great country.

But in the context of Syria, what would a better policy look like?

One that preserves stability in the Middle East. Syria is the heart of the Middle East. Everybody knows that. If the Middle East is sick, the whole world will be unstable. In 1991, when we started the peace process, we had a lot of hope. Now, after more than 20 years, things are not at square one; they’re much below that square. So the policy should be to help peace in the region, to fight terrorism, to promote secularism, to support this area economically, to help upgrade the mind and society, like you did in your country. That is the supposed mission of the United States, not to launch wars. Launching war doesn’t make you a great power.

See More: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/discussions/interviews/syrias-president-speaks

Filed Under: Interviews, News Tagged With: Bashar-al-Assad, Erdogan, Interview, ISIS, Syria, Turkey

“Al Qaeda R Us”: John McCain’s “Moderate Rebels” in Syria are ISIS

January 24, 2015 By administrator

By Patrick Henningsen
Global Research, January 24, 2015

JohnMcCain-400x266Poor John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Washington’s original first couple. They only want to arm the ‘moderate opposition’ in Syria. Three years on, how come their master plan isn’t working, while ISIS has grown so strong?

Despite what media lauded as, “the largest demonstration in France’s history – bigger than liberation at the end of WWII!” (can you rightly compare the two), the Paris Attacks are fading fast into the rear view mirror. The media went to great lengths to reinforce the scary prospect of the ‘ISIS in Europe’, even though there is spurious, if any, real evidence to support that claim. Nonetheless, a lack of evidence has never stopped the media from conjuring up a frightening new trend.

In the light of the recent Paris Attacks it’s more important than ever to take a sober look, and perhaps shine a light on the fact that there are no real ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria, no more than there are in Iraq.

On Tuesday during his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touted great strides in “halting the advance of ISIS” with US-led airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. Today, US Ambassador Stuart Jones announced that “Coalition Airstrikes” (US airstrikes) have killed 6,000 ISIS byHow the US is able to conjure up such incredible Jack and the Beanstalk-style numbers (all but impossible to verify) is beyond anyone outside of Washington. You just have to take his word for it. Just like we just had to take US Ambassador to the Ukraine’s word for it – when Geoffrey Pyatt Tweeted a few random Digital Globe images claiming that the Russians invaded Ukraine, again.After six or so ‘Russian Invasion’ false starts, we’re still waiting for evidence beyond Twitter.

The lies and creative accounting have been palpable since the beginning of the US airstrikes in Syria. Early strikes weren’t actually against ISIS, but rather against a number of impressive empty buildings, and buildings which were curiously evacuated days before the US conducted the raids. How interesting.

This brings us to the issue of who ISIS really is, and how did ISIS build up to the level they are at today. It’s a particularly embarrassing thing to admit, because when you allow this fact out of the bag, then skeptics start asking more questions, and if there’s one thing that politicians hate more than anything, it’s facts and questions.

So, what happened to all of McCain’s “moderate opposition”? You know, the ones which President Obama, John Kerry, David Cameron and the rest of the ‘liberate Syria’ gang insist need our help with more weapons and cash? New Eastern Outlook geopolitical analysis and writer Tony Cartalucci explains:

Reported along the peripheries of the Western media, it was reported recently that some 3,000 so-called “moderate rebels” of the “Free Syrian Army” had defected to the “Islamic State” (ISIS).  While not the first time so-called “moderates” have crossed over openly to Al Qaeda or ISIS, it is one of the largest crossovers that has occurred. With them, these 3,000 fighters will bring weapons, cash, equipment, and training provided to them by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, the UK, and perhaps most ironic of all in the wake of the recent terror attack in Paris, France. Indeed, ISIS and Al Qaeda’s ranks continue to swell amid this insidious network of “terror laundering” that is only set to grow.

This means there’s no “moderate rebels” to speak of, so therefore ISIS is McCain’s Army. Washington’s nation-builders are banking on the fact that Americans are not smart enough, or too brain-dead to work this one out.

Since 2012, the war-obsessed Senator has dedicated a little too much of his valuable taxpayer-funded time to lobbying for more arms and more cash for his “freedom fighters” in Syria, fighters who are well-known outside of Washington to be all but ubiquitous with violent terrorist fighting groups al Qaeda, al Nusra, Front Victory and ISIS/ISIL/IS. Ten years of war theater in Iraq was time enough to cultivate and develop al Qaeda and Islamic State ‘death squads’ under US destabilization experts like John Negoponte and Robert Ford. Top ISIS fighting units grew directly out of Negoponte’s Death Squads from 2005 onwards. Death Suad recruits were hand-picked and drawn from the Shia, Kurdish, and some Sunni resistance militias, as well as foreign fighter insurgents and other ‘soldiers of fortune’ in Iraq. Death squads were designed to divide and disrupt communities and any remaining Sunnis and Shi’ite oppositions to the US occupation in Iraq. In addition, mythologies were erected, like the one surrounding actor-leaders like ‘al-Baghdadi’ (more on him below).

The first hint we had of Washington’s desert rat installment Operation Fast and Furious, came in September 2012, when a rented villa in Libya’s port city of Benghazi went up in flames. Later we find out that the makeshift ‘embassy’ was really part of a clandestine CIA complex where the US was organizing the shipment of ex-Gaddafi arms stocks over to Washington’s burgeoning new bloodbath in Syria.

Many Americans and other followers of this story may still be unaware that, Abdel Hakim-Belhadj (photo, left), the al Qaeda lieutenant who the US held at ‘Penny Lane’ in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) and then subsequently turned (or debriefed) by the CIA, and released back into the field as a double agent, leading the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group on behalf of NATO in their effort to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2010-2011. WNDreported this week that The Citizen’s Commission on Benghazi’s interim report, revealed how “the U.S. was fully aware of and facilitating the delivery of weapons to the Al Qaeda-dominated rebel militias throughout the 2011 rebellion”, an illegal operation carried out behind the back of Congress, andunder management of then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After toppling the Gaddafi gov’t, Washington rewarded Hakim-Belhadj with the position of Governor of Tripoli, after which time, he played a key roll in the continual recruitment and further redeployment of battle-hardenedLibyan jihadist fighters over to Syria. There is also the issue of Muslim Brotherhood members and their al Qaeda affiliations, embedded in NATO-backed Transnational Council (TNC) government in Libya, during and after, the fall of Gaddafi, which was explained by Dr Jerome Corsi in the WND story. Along with the fighters, more weapons, comprised of ex-Gaddafi arms stocks, also had to be moved from Libya, through Turkey and into Syria.

To clarify, Libyan Islamic fighting groups who worked hand-in-hand with US, British and French, and NATO intelligence agencies to topple Gaddafi in 2011 – were openly flying the al Qaeda and ISIS ‘black flag’ after Gaddafi’s gov’t collapsed, before and during the time they were shipped on to fight in Syria against Bashar al Assad’s gov’t forces – on behalf of those very same NATO-allied agencies.

WND’s report continues:

In early 2011, before Gadhafi was deposed, Christopher Stevens came to Benghazi in a cargo ship, and his title at the time was envoy to the Libyan rebels,’ which basically means Christopher Stevens was America’s very first envoy to al-Qaida,” explained Clare Lopez, a member of the commission who served as a career operations officer with the CIA and currently is vice president for research at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. At that time, Stevens was facilitating the delivery of weapons to the al-Qaida-related militia in Libya,” Lopez continued. “The weapons were produced at factories in Eastern Europe and shipped to a logistics hub in Qatar. The weapons were financed by the UAE and delivered via Qatar mostly on ships, with some possibly on airplanes, for delivery to Benghazi. The weapons were small arms, including Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and lots of ammunition.”

“This was about weapons going into Libya, and Stevens is coordinating with Abdel Hakim Belhadj, the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, other al-Qaida-affiliated militia leaders and leaders of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood that directed the rebellion against Qadhafi [Gaddafi] as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” Lopez said. “Many of the individual members of the al-Qaida-related militias, including the LIFG, and the groups that would later become Ansar Al-Sharia, were Muslim Brotherhood members first.”

To call it a scandal would be an understatement. What’s worst though, is how these events provided the catalyst for the ‘ISIS Crisis’ the world is facing today. Highly trained, well-armed, ruthless Islamic fighters do not grow on trees, and to think that many of the top ISIS generals and fighters were hand-picked, transferred, and equipped by the US and its NATO and Gulf allies – should be cause for grave concern.

Later on, NATO allies opted for a more consolidated effort to first be staged in Europe, and then on to Syria. The first major arms shipment on record was organized by the US, Britain and France in March 2013, in what is known as the Great Croatian Weapons Airlift, which comprised of 75 airplanes, and an estimated 3,000 tons of military weaponry – bound for Jordan.

Then we learned on Sept 13, 2013, how the CIA had openly announced financial and military aid to the “moderate rebels” (now ISIS recruits). US politicians were brimming with excitement at the time, proudly coming out of the closet on their brilliant new program. Mark S. Ward, the State Department’s senior adviser on assistance to Syria boasted, “This doesn’t only lead to a more effective force, but it increases its ability to hold coalition groups together.” Indeed. Look how effective ISIS has become. Nice work Mark.

It’s a cheap ploy: the idea that there’s some sort of “moderate rebel army” waiting in Syria and the surrounding western collaborator nations, like Jordan and Turkey. The reality is simply horrific – armed Salafist militants, whose true nature and existence is being shielded by lies and endless propaganda in the West – in an effort to wear down the media and then the public on this issue. ISIS is one giant mercenary army and organized crime organ – one which I have already referred to as 21st century ‘Sand Pirates’. For extra beer money, these privateers are targeting civilians, running kidnapping and sex rings, protection, extortion, ‘taxes’ and black markets for anything they can put their thumbs on; food, fuel, retail, property, transport and of course narcotics. They’re even collecting “international aid” and UN/NGO funds on the streets of Northern Syria. The CIA’s go-between in Syria is General Salim ‘Sam’ Idriss, leader of the ‘Free Syria Army’, which is merely a shop-front for the US State Department to conduct over-the-counter business and gain access, delivering kinds of  aid to terrorist fighting groups and Death Squads in Syria and Iraq – in the exact same way that TNC-linked Libyan ‘Rebels’ were a shop-front which linked NATO to Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and al Qaeda (AQIM) paramilitaries in Libya.

According to a New York Times story published in 2007, the feared ISIS leader, Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, never existed, according to Brigadier General Kevin Bergner – the chief American military spokesman at the time. Yes, ‘al-Baghdadi’, is a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.

A large number of McCain’s ‘freedom-lovers’ have been trained by the best – US and British special forces and contractors based in Jordan and Turkey. Weapons and funding have been steadily supplied by the US and its Gulf monarchs – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and others, Moreover, Israel has been consistently giving the “moderate rebels” aid and air support.

What’s the master plan? That’s debatable, as the opportunists of instability line up on all sides to accumulate what they can in chaos. Essentially what we are looking at is a US-led effort to over-run the region with the ISIS and ISIS-related scourge, killing all stability and ability for Syria, Iraq and Iran to coordinate any meaningful military, economic or political enterprise, like a major oil or gas pipeline connecting the Asian and European markets, for instance. To achieve this, a regionalsectarian bloodbath is required. This suits Saudi Arabia, as well as the US and Israel. A happy Axis. But it’s a raw deal for the region, and the damage being inflicted by this proxy disaster is certain to poison generations upon generations, destroying cities, villages, families and whole cultures in the process. For more background on the underlying policy and practice, it’s worth reading Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article, “”The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?”.

If this all sounds too much for you, then  it’s imperative to take a moment, and better understand exactly how you’re being programmed in this global, mass media psycho-drama…

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ISIS, mccain, Syria

Kurdish ISIS Recruits Threaten Identity and Security of Kurdish State

January 23, 2015 By administrator

By Rebecca Collard/Erbil

jaffar-mosque-erbil-iraqSome Kurdish Sunni Muslims prefer ISIS religious fanaticism to Kurdish nationalism

When Imam Shawan Kurdi disappeared in November, residents of his Daretu neighborhood of Erbil thought it was strange. The Friday before, Imam Shawan led prayers at the tiny Jaffer mosque but the next day, he, his wife and two daughters had vanished. Three days later, Kurdish intelligence confirmed that Imam Shawan had taken his family and two other young men from Daretu to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He is now in Mosul, the largest city under the control of ISIS. Report Time

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Imam Shawan is among hundreds of mostly young Kurds to cross the frontlines and join ISIS, who have been in battle with Kurdish forces since June. The Kurds are losing young men to the extremists and in Erbil many talk about fathers and sons fighting on opposite sides. Like ISIS, Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but nationalism has long trumped religious identity here. Residents in Daretu aren’t keen to talk about how they lost one of their own to the militants, but when pressed, they say there were signs Imam Shawan was leaning to toward ISIS.

“He always talked about…how we had to do things the way they did in the time of the Prophet Mohammed,” says Mohammed Jamil, a 54-year-old resident of Daretu who prayed behind the Imam for a year.

Imam Shawan was paid by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the body that runs the semi-autonomous Kurdish territory of northern Iraq. Officials here began to worry their youth were being radicalized in Kurdish government-funded mosques and religious schools.

“One of my employees, his son joined ISIS, and he was a student in one of our schools,” says Salam Sidan, an advisor at the KRG’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. Late last year Sidan’s ministry fired 80 government-paid religious teachers they felt weren’t “modern” enough for the job. “Some of the Imams and Mullahs were preaching that non-Muslims are infidels,” says Sidan. “It’s natural, in a place where you have 5 or 6 million people, you are going to have some voices calling the others infidels.”

Sidan stresses that the ministry is being diligent, ensuring new hires fit with the Kurds’ ideas of acceptance and tolerance. The ministry has no exact figures on how many Kurds have joined ISIS but Sidan’s estimates around one in 5,000, which would put the number as high as 1,000. Most of these men simply disappear, raising suspicions of family and neighbors. Some are never heard from again but others surface online. “You can’t hide anything with social media these days,” says Sidan. “Everything is on Facebook. And they post proudly that they joined ISIS.”

Some appear on social media encouraging their brethren to come join ISIS and threatening the Kurdish forces known as peshmerga. In one video, titled “A message to the Peshmerga,” a man who identifies himself as a Kurdish ISIS fighter promises attacks his own people. “By sword we will chop your heads and by Quran we will implement God’s rule, Sharia,” said the young man, standing with a motley crew of militants, a black ISIS flag flapping in the corner of the screen. He warns Kurds to stop supporting the “Crusader Coalition” referring to the US-led alliance that has been targeting ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.

The Kurdish ISIS fighters pose a serious threat to the security of the KRG. Kurdish speakers usually cruise through security checks with few questions and little searching. In November, a truck exploded in front of government buildings in Erbil. An ISIS-affiliated website posted a statement claiming the attack and saying it was carried out by a Kurdish recruit they called Abdel Rahman el-Kurdi and two others. “They were able to cross all these borders,” reads the statement. “And hit the heart of Erbil….We ask god to accept them as martyrs.”

But here they will not be accepted. Most families are ashamed that their kin have pointed weapons at fellow Kurds and intelligence officials have said those killed fighting with ISIS will not be allowed funerals in Kurdish territory.

Salar Salim contributed to this report

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ISIS, Kurdish, recruts

Erbil: $1 Million a day smuggling trade between Kurdistan officials and ISIS A committee investigating

January 21, 2015 By administrator

98542Image1A masked gunman guards an ISIS checkpoint in Iraq. AP file photo.

by Saeed Sahen Mufti

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A committee investigating Kurdish officials smuggling cars, food and fuel across territories held by the Islamic State (ISIS) said that the illegal trade amounted to $1 million a day. Report Rudaw.

According to a final report by the committee on the smuggling, a number of officials from the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Peshmerga have been involved in the illegal trade.

Firsat Sofi, a KDP member of the Kurdish parliament said the identities of people arrested for involvement in the smuggling had not been disclosed by the committee.

“We asked about the identity of those detainees. Some of them were tanker drivers, senior political members and merchants. Even if we knew the names we would not reveal them since that would be illegal, since the judiciary must deal with this issue and we will see the verdicts soon.”

Fakhraddin Qadir, another Kurdish MP who is from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) said:  “We believe that any kind of relationship with ISIS is treachery, and we will hold a meeting in the parliament concerning the smuggling cases if we are asked.”

The investigative committee includes the KRG’s interior minister and natural resources minister.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has warned that anyone caught smuggling with ISIS would be punished.

“Anyone caught smuggling with ISIS should be considered a traitor and the government must punish them,” he has said.

The autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq sits on a border with ISIS that is more than 1,000 kilometers long. The insurgent group blazed across Iraq’s mainly Sunni territories in June, capturing a third of the country.

According to US-based Foreign Policy magazine, ISIS has become the world’s richest terrorist group through oil smuggling, theft, human trafficking and hostage-taking.

Intelligence officials and private experts say the group has become a self sustaining financial force and is said to be earning more than $3 million from these activities.

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: erbil, ISIS, Kurdistan, smuggling, trade

Dutch opposition says has documents proving Turkey sent arms to Syrian jihadists

January 19, 2015 By administrator

202543_newsdetailThe Dutch opposition Christian Democratic Party (CDA) announced that it has confidential documents proving that Turkey had sent weapons to al-Qaeda militants in Syria and that it conveyed the documents to the Dutch government, according to a BBC Turkish report published on Sunday.

CDA deputy Pieter Omtzigt said his party acquired the confidential documents in November and shared them with Dick Schoof, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV). According to the report, the documents are duplicates from an ongoing criminal investigation in Turkey into the 2014 interception and search on three Syria-bound trucks that belonged to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Turkish gendarmes and several prosecutors are accused of unlawfully intercepting and conducting search on the MİT trucks, which, according to media claims, transported arms to radical Islamists in Syria.

The BBC Turkish report said former Adana Governor Hüseyin Avni Coş, who was in office at the time of the interception of the MİT trucks, said in a testimony that the arms-filled trucks belonged to MİT and were being sent to Syria upon orders from then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Omtzigt asked Dutch Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten whether he conveyed the documents to Foreign Minister Bert Koenders ahead of his recent visit to Turkey. Koenders visited Turkey on Jan. 5-7.

Meanwhile, CDA deputy Raymond Knops, a member of the Dutch Parliament Foreign Affairs Contact Group, accused the Dutch government of “playing ostrich” regarding Turkey’s relations with terrorist groups in Syria. Knops submitted a parliamentary question addressing Koenders regarding the claims of Turkey aiding al-Qaeda in Syria with weapons and ammunition. In his parliamentary question, Koenders cited the report by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.

Koenders stated that the UNSC report had highlighted that the weapons and ammunition held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the al-Nusra Front were largely transported via Turkey through secret ways. According to Koenders, this information has also been confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The Dutch lawmaker asked, “Do you find it disturbing that weapons and ammunition have been sent to terrorist organizations in Syria through the land of NATO member Turkey?” Koenders described launching air strikes on ISIL while Syrian jihadists receive arms via Turkey as “mopping the floor while the faucet remains open.”

Last Thursday, five Turkish prosecutors who investigated the claims of illegal arms shipments to opposition groups in Syria by the MİT trucks were suspended by a top judicial board.

The suspension of the prosecutors came a day after the government obtained a blanket gag order from Adana Fifth Criminal Court of Peace, preventing the Turkish media from reporting on documents that were leaked on Twitter on Jan. 12 by anonymous Twitter user @LazepeM, who claimed the information came from the General Staff and gendarmerie investigations.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Al Qaeda, Dutch, HOLLAND, ISIL, ISIS, jihadists, Netherlands, Syria, terrorism, Turkey

‘Islamic State’’ warriors execute Azerbaijani commander accused of treason

January 19, 2015 By administrator

Azerbaijan-terroristThe warriors of the terroristic organisation ISIS (“Islamic State”) executed the Azerbaijani commander, Siraj, accusing him of treason, Azerbaijani information portal “Minval.az” reads, with a reference on “Publik.az.”

As noted in the article, Siraj, who lived in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, previously fought in Afghanistan, and then joined the IS.
Note that on January 7, it became known that the IS militants declared about punishment of 4 Azerbaijanis who have been captured in the Syrian province of Raqqa, accusing them of desertion and treason.

Note that Azerbaijani Salafis or Wahhabis are fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groupings that operate in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the Azerbaijani news agency Vesti.az the total number of Azerbaijani terrorists in these countries equals to 300. Whereas according to FaktHeber Azerbaijani portal over the past three years only in Syria almost 200 Azerbaijani terrorists were killed.

The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originated in the early 1990s. That time, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey (“Grey Wolves”, etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.

Despite the involvement in of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists found ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. Recruitment was conducted among Azerbaijanis, who then were sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations. In recent years, the citizens of Azerbaijan are actively involved in terrorist and extremist activities in Russia, Afghanistan and Syria.

Source: Panorama.am

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Azerbaijan, executed, ISIS, treason

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