The UK is going to seize the passports of any citizen who joined jihadists in the Middle East to prevent them from returning home.
Prime Minister David Cameron outlined the government’s new regulations to seize regulations that would include landing bans on airlines that fail to comply with no-fly lists.
UK intelligence officials say that at least 500 radicalized Britons are fighting in Iraq and Syria.
“We will shortly be introducing our own new Counter-Terrorism Bill in the UK,” Cameron said. “New powers for police at ports to seize passports, to stop suspects traveling and to stop British nationals returning to the UK unless they do so on our terms. New rules to prevent airlines that don’t comply with our no-fly lists or security screening measures from landing in the UK.”
Leaks to British media say the new rules could include admission back into the country if they agree to face charges related to their jihadist actions or de-radicalization courses.
“The root cause of the challenge we face is the extremist narrative. So we must confront this extremism in all its forms,” Cameron said. “We must ban extremist preachers from our countries. We must root out extremism from our schools, universities and prisons.”
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been severely wounded in one of the airstrikes aimed at stopping the advance of the terrorist group.
Iraqi officials said Sunday that al-Baghdadi was struck during a U.S. airstrike on a convoy near the town of Qaim in western Iraq.
In addition to the wounding of the group’s leader, several key ISIS officials were killed in the attack including al-Baghdadi’s right hand man, Auf Abdulrahman Elefery. Twenty terrorists total were killed in the airstrike on the ISIS leader.
Baghdadi was an Islamic preacher who radicalized after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. He later received training from al-Qaeda and lead the ISIS breakaway from al-Qaeda with designs to be the main Islamic terrorist group in the world.
Officials say that airstrikes over the weekend killed over 50 ISIS terrorists in addition to the strike that wounded al-Baghdadi. President Obama has said he will send an additional 1,500 troops to the region to “train” the Iraqi army.
Nine out of ten Orthodox Christians in Iraq have been displaced by the terrorist group ISIS.
Ghattas Hazim, the Greek Orthodox Bishop for Baghdad, says he fears for the future of Christianity in Iraq and the surrounding region because of the terrorists. He says that of 600 Orthodox families remain in Baghdad because of fears the terrorists will take over the nation’s capital.
He said the only Christians left in Mosul are the ones who can afford to pay the “tax” levied on them by the terrorists or who are too ill or infirm to flee.
Hazim said that western nations, despite saying they are working to help the Christians displaced by the terrorists, have done nothing to help them.
“It is not true that the West is facilitating the emigration of Christians,” Hazim told The Christian Post. “I know many Christians and Orthodox in particular who went to embassies and did not get visas. Others resorted to the United Nations and other international organizations in order to emigrate and it did not work out.”
Hazim vowed to stay in Baghdad to keep the Word of God alive in the city no matter what may happen with the terrorists.
“I will carry the word of God to my parish in Baghdad and Kuwait: Fear not, little flock, for I am with you,” Hazim said. “If they persecute you, remember that they persecuted me before you. We will not fear, because this is not the first time in history that this has happened. We will stay, as long as faith remains and as long as our God exists, we will remain present.”
“They didn’t feed us much. I used to pass out a lot, but I would make trouble for him as much as possible and fight when I could,” a 15-year-old girl called Sara said. “Many times I thought of suicide but I kept thinking of my family and my brother. I lived only for them.”
Sara is one of a group of Yazidis captured by ISIS who were able to escape to safety in Iraq. She’s now speaking out about the conditions they experienced and the horrors of torment from their captors.
Sara, her brother, pregnant sister-in-law and other Yazidis were captured when trying to escape Sinjar. They had been hiding in a farmhouse.
Sara said all the women were loaded into trucks and then the terrorists gunned down all the men. Sara’s brother was among the men slaughtered.
She said she was sold to a pair of older ISIS terrorists who were living in a mansion taken from a local family. The men would regularly drain blood from her body; leaving her so weak she could barely handle daily activities such as eating or drinking.
She said that Christian women were forced to wear Muslim attire by the terrorist and were kept chained until they would renounce Christ and follow Islam.
Kurdish fighters were able to stop an advance by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS into the town of Kobani but could not stop suicide bombers from launching homicide bomber attacks in another Iraqi province.
The bombings happned in the Qara Tappah district in Diyala province. One bomber blew himself up at the gateway to the offices of the main Kurdish political party and two others blew themselves up in cars loaded with explosives minutes later.
The terrorists involved were reportedly foreigners who came to Iraq to fight with ISIS.
The CIA now reports ISIS has a total strength of 31,500 terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The attacks in Diyala follow 45 people being killed in similar attacks around Baghdad the prior day.
Kurdish fighters were able to top the advance into Kobani but ISIS has taken over at least 350 villages close to the main city. At least 150,000 people in the region have fled across the Turkish border.
The terrorist group ISIS has lost a key border crossing to Kurdish forces.
The capturing of the border crossing makes it harder for the terrorists to operate on both sides of the Iraqi/Syrian border and the victory against the terrorists was obtained by Kurds on both sides of the border. It was the first time Kurdish forces from both sides of the border worked together in a single assault on the terrorists.
It also marked the first time that a major Sunni group has fought against the terrorists. The Shammar tribe, one of the most influential in the region, proclaimed the terrorists as a group that had to be eliminated.
The leader of the tribe told Reuters they are in full cooperation with groups working to overthrow the terrorists.
“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar said.
The road that runs through Rabia is the major route between Syria and Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq.
The battle against Islamic terrorism is not going to end any time soon.
British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to Parliament on Friday about the situation with ISIS and said that the battle to eliminate the terrorist entity is going to be prolonged and difficult.
“Beheadings, crucifixions, the gouging out of eyes, the use of rape as a weapon, the slaughter of children. All these things belong to the Dark Ages,” Cameron said.
“Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member, with a declared and proven determination to attack our country and our people.”
Cameron is asking permission to send significant amount of British airpower to Iraq. Denmark is the latest country to join the coalition, sending seven F-16 fighter jets and pilots to Iraq for airstrikes.
Military analysts say the airstrikes have slowed ISIS progress.
A day after the Islamic terrorist group ISIS beheaded a French national, French warplanes struck multiple targets inside Iraq.
France’s air force made multiple bombing raids on oil fields that were under the control of ISIS in an attempt to keep the terrorists from using the oil to fund their activities. The strikes were part of a multinational coordinated assault.
The strikes by France were the country’s first since the start of the assault on ISIS.
The strikes took place as President Obama addressed the United Nations about the ISIS threat.
“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama said.
Britain is the next country believed to be joining the airstrikes. Prime Minister David Cameron will be seeking authorization from parliament on Friday.
ISIS is reportedly much larger than many world leaders had previously believed when decisions were being made to create an international coalition.
The CIA has released a new study showing that ISIS could have as many as 31,000 terrorist fighters, three times higher than previously thoughts by intelligence agencies.
“This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity, and additional intelligence,” CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani told the BBC.
The announcement comes on a day that 10 Arab countries formalized their pledges to help the U.S. stop the Islamic terrorist group. Ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates all pledged military support and humanitarian aid.
“The region recognizes the danger that has been unleashed and they are full-throatedly ready to deal with that and that is why they committed today to take the actions they have committed to,” Secretary of State Kerry said to reporters.
While the world is focusing on the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the terror unit is quietly working to help another extremist group set up their own “caliphate” in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Security Network has found connections between Boko Haram and ISIS that indicates the major terror network is helping the Nigerian outfit with military tactics, supplies and “spiritual” guidance.
“Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of ISIS’s lightning advances in Iraq,” the NSN said.
The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans is calling on President Obama to look beyond ISIS to the terror groups that are receiving their assistance as he builds a world coalition against terrorism.
“As the US President Barack Obama is articulating a strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS, we urge him not to forget Boko Haram as well. Every moment we leave Boko Haram alone empowers the terrorists to become even more devious and devilish,” CANA Executive Director Pastor Laolu Akande said in a statement.
Boko Haram followed in the footsteps of ISIS in declaring an Islamic Caliphate in northern Nigeria. Some local leaders are now calling Boko Haram the “Islamic State Nigeria Branch”.