Tag Archives: ISIS

Journalist Who Chronicled ISIS Atrocities Killed in Turkey

A Syrian journalist and filmmaker who chronicled the atrocities committed by Islamic State insurgents was brazenly gunned down on Sunday in Turkey, according to his organization.

Naji Jerf was “assassinated” in Gaziantep, according to a statement from Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which covers how the Islamic State treats civilians in its so-called capital.

Jerf was the group’s movie director and a father of two, according to the statement.

In its own statement, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) said Jerf was also the editor-in-chief of Hentah, an independent monthly publication. The EFJ statement indicated Jerf was killed in broad daylight near a building that is home to Syrian media organizations.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the Islamic State was behind the killing, though the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) notes that ISIS has claimed responsibility for killing two journalists, both of whom had worked for Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, in Urfa, Turkey, in October.

“Syrian journalists who have fled to Turkey for their safety are not safe at all,” Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement. “We call on Turkish authorities to bring the killers of Naji Jerf to justice swiftly and transparently, and to step up measures to protect all Syrian journalists on Turkish soil.”

According to the CPJ, Jerf had also recently helped create a documentary that highlighted the Islamic State’s actions against Syrian citizens when the group was occupying the city of Aleppo.

Iraqi Military Scores Big Victory Against Islamic State in Ramadi

The Iraqi military has scored another pivotal victory in the fight against the Islamic State insurgency, retaking control of a government complex in the important city of Ramadi.

Anbar Governor Sohaib Alrawi announced on Twitter on Monday that the Iraqi flag is now flying above the government compound in the city, which had been captured by Islamic State insurgents in May.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province in terms of land area.

Iraqi forces had been aggressively working to recapture Ramadi, and had made major inroads in recent weeks. But the Islamic State insurgency continues to put up a fight, and The Washington Post reported that a military leader said about 30 percent of the city remains under ISIS control.

The military victory drew a mixture of celebration and caution, as the fight is still ongoing.

Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State, issued a statement congratulating the Iraqi Security Forces for the “significant accomplishment” of clearing and recapturing the government center, which he called “a proud moment for Iraq.”

Warren noted the coalition has conducted more than 630 airstrikes supporting the Iraqi efforts, as well as provided training and equipment to the forces working to defeat the Islamic State.

Warren, who shared photographs of the flag over the complex, said the coalition would continue to support Iraqi forces as they “move forward to make Ramadi safe for civilians to return.”

U.N. Moves to Cut Off Funding for Terrorist Groups

The United Nations Security Council took another step toward bankrupting the Islamic State on Thursday, voting to approve several measures aimed at cutting off the group’s funding sources.

The vote, which was unanimous, calls for United Nations members to do more to ensure that funds don’t find their way to the terrorist organization. A U.S. treasury official has publicly said the Islamic State has acquired roughly $1.5 billion by selling oil on the black market and looting bank vaults, as well as extorting millions more from people living in cities that it has captured.

The new resolution calls for U.N. members to improve cooperation between themselves, as well as work more closely with the private sector, to snuff out suspicious transactions. It also calls for putting a stop to all ransom payments to anyone on the Islamic State or Al-Qaida sanctions list, along with updating those lists. The council also called for U.N. members to do more to “detect any diversion” of the components terrorists could use to make explosive or chemical weapons.

According to a news release, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said an increasing number of member states had ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, a U.N. treaty that criminalizes financing terrorism, but more needed to be done.

“They are agile and have been far too successful in attaining resources for their heinous acts,” Ban said of the terrorist groups in his opening remarks, noting that terrorists have exploited financial loopholes and forged destructive links with criminal and drug syndicates for income.

Ban noted that the Islamic State was running a multimillion-dollar economy in the territory it controlled, bringing in money through oil smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, racketeering and human and arms trafficking. The Islamic State also looted and sold cultural property for cash, Ban said, and other terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and the Taliban followed suit.

Ban also told the Security Council that terrorists are constantly finding new ways to diversify and conceal income, making it imperative the U.N. act to prevent them from doing more harm.

“Just as terrorist groups are innovating and diversifying, the international community must stay ahead of the curve to combat money-laundering and the financing of terrorism,” Ban said.

34 Islamic Nations Team Up to Fight Terrorism

A group of 34 Islamic nations have formed a military alliance to fight terrorist organizations.

​Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, confirmed the announcement at a news conference Monday night in Riyadh, where the alliance will be based.

Operating out of a room in the Saudi capital, the group will “coordinate and support efforts to fight terrorism in all countries and parts of the Islamic world,” according to a news release.

Perhaps the most notable Islamic terrorist group is the Islamic State, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria as it tries to spread its radical interpretations of the religion through violence.

At the news conference, Abdulaziz said the new military alliance won’t just fight the Islamic State, but will take action “against any terrorist organization (that) emerges before us.” He called Islamic extremism a “disease which infected the Islamic world first” and spread internationally.

The Saudi Arabian news release did not specify the 33 other nations that joined the anti-terrorism alliance. Reuters reported those countries included Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and multiple nations in Africa.

Abdulaziz said each country will contribute according to its capabilities and that he hoped more nations would join soon. While he offered concrete little details on how exactly the alliance would work, he stressed that collaboration and coordination would be important pillars.

“Today, every Islamic country is fighting terrorism individually,” Abdulaziz told reporters at the news conference. “The coordination of efforts is very important; and through this room, means and efforts will be developed for fighting terrorism all over the Islamic world.”

The United States is currently providing equipment and training to forces in Iraq and Syria that are fighting the Islamic State, and have urged for more help in the fight against the group. The U.S. also heads a 65-nation coalition that carries out airstrikes against ISIS-linked targets there.

Before Saudi Arabia’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was travelling to Turkey as part of a plan to get other countries to boost their efforts to defeat the Islamic State.

According to Reuters, Carter told reporters at the Incirlik airbase that he wanted to learn more about Saudi Arabia’s alliance, but more anti-ISIS involvement from Islamic nations generally appears to be “very much in line with something we’ve been urging for quite some time.”

U.S. Official: ISIS Has Acquired Some $1.5 Billion Through Oil Sales, Looting

The Islamic State has acquired about $1.5 billion dollars through black market oil sales and looting bank vaults, according to an official within the United States Treasury Department.

Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin spoke at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London on Thursday, providing insight into the Islamic State’s bankroll. In remarks prepared for delivery, Szubin said black market oil sales have netted the terrorist organization more than $500 million and militants have also looted between $500 million and $1 billion after seizing various bank vaults throughout Iraq and Syria.

The group has also extorted millions more from those living under its control, Szubin said. His prepared comments did not mention a specific window of time in which ISIS acquired the funds.

Reuters reported that Szubin said the Islamic State was “selling a great deal of oil” to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an astonishing revelation given that the Islamic State is currently entrenched in a war with Syrian government forces. Islamic State oil was also being shipped to Turkey and some Kurdish regions in the Middle East, though Reuters quoted Szubin as saying that a “far greater amount” winds up in the hands of al-Assad and his government.

Russian officials had previously accused Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and his family members of personally benefiting from the Islamic State’s black market oil trade, though Erdogan has publicly denied that and said he would resign if the allegations were proven true.
The two countries have been at odds since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border last month, with each side believing a different set of the circumstances about the event.

United States officials have called for Turkey to seal its border with Syria to disrupt the flow of oil and manpower into Islamic State strongholds, one of several tactics designed to combat ISIS.

The United States is leading a 65-nation coalition, which Britain recently joined, that is carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State interests in Syria. Those airstrikes have been known to target Islamic State-controlled oil fields, with the ultimate goal of choking off the group’s fund supply.

In his remarks prepared for delivery, Szubin said United States officials are also taking steps to prevent the Islamic State from spreading its money internationally. The U.S. is working with a at least 30 countries to prevent the group from performing tasks like wire transfers. The U.S. has also sanctioned at least 30 leaders and financiers of the Islamic State in 2015 alone, Szubin said.

U.S. Officials Fear ISIS Has Passport Printing Machine

United States officials fear people with ties to the Islamic State might have traveled to the United States using fraudulent Syrian passports, including some the terrorist organization printed itself, according to a recent Homeland Security Intelligence report obtained by ABC News.

The intelligence report, ABC News reported, says that ISIS has theoretically had the ability to print fake passports for more than 17 months, following their capture of the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor. The group could have theoretically gained access to the city’s passport office, the report indicated, and its “boxes of blank passports” and at least one passport printing machine. The Islamic State’s longstanding capital is the Syrian city of Raqqa, home to another passport office.

“Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.,” ABC News quoted the report as saying.

While not specifically mentioning the report, FBI Director James Comey testified before Capitol Hill lawmakers on Wednesday and mentioned concerns about ISIS forging travel documents.

“The intelligence community is concerned that they have the ability, the capability, to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting,” Comey told lawmakers.

It’s been widely reported that at least one of the men who carried out last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris had a fake Syrian passport. ISIS has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Iraqi Forces Recapture Portions of Ramadi from Islamic State

Multiple reports indicate Iraqi forces have scored a victory in the fight against the Islamic State, taking back important districts in a city that was captured by ISIS militants earlier this year.

Citing Iraqi counterterrorism officials, the BBC reported Tuesday that the Iraqi government has reclaimed parts of the city of Ramadi. The entire city had been taken by the Islamic State in May.

CNN reported the reclaimed territory works out to be about 60 percent of the city.

The move comes after government officials reportedly worked to seal off the city and prevent the Islamic State from bringing in supplies and manpower. Reuters reported ISIS’ final link to the outside was severed last month, and living conditions within Ramadi quickly went downhill.

Reuters quoted one resident as saying the Islamic State was “treating women like animals” and another as saying food rations were so scarce that he’d have to eat his family’s cat if they ran out.

The news agency reported somewhere between 1,200 and 1,700 families were pinned in the city.

CNN reported that Iraqi forces were trying to encourage Ramadi residents to evacuate before the siege, but Islamic State militants were threatening to kill anyone they caught attempting to flee.

It wasn’t immediately clear if any civilians were killed as the Iraqi forces reclaimed the districts.

The BBC reported Iraqi forces would also work to take back the center of Ramadi, though those efforts were complicated by the belief that ISIS likely placed bombs in roads and buildings there.

Islamic State Militants Reportedly Using U.S. Weapons

Islamic State militants are using some weapons that originally came from the United States, according to a new report from the human rights group Amnesty International.

The report, released Tuesday, provides a glimpse into how the Islamic State has stockpiled the weapons it is using to fight battles in Iraq and Syria and commit deadly terrorist acts worldwide.

Amnesty International found the Islamic State has amassed more than 100 kinds of weapons and ammunition from at least 25 countries, and most of its weapons were stolen from the Iraqi military. Amnesty reported a large number of these arms were obtained when the Islamic State captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June 2014 and looted military stockpiles there.

The Mosul haul, which Amnesty described as a “windfall,” included American-made weapons and military vehicles. The organization said both were subsequently used in Islamic State activities elsewhere in the country as the group successfully took control of additional territory.

The report comes days after President Barack Obama gave an address from the Oval Office and said one of America’s strategies to defeat the Islamic State terrorists was to continue providing training and support to local groups who were fighting the insurgents in the Middle East, rather than deploy large numbers of American soldiers there. But Amnesty’s report provides evidence that strategy seems to have, somewhat inadvertently, aided the Islamic State’s terror campaign.

“The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale,” Patrick Wilcken, a researcher on arms control, security trade and human rights at Amnesty, said in a statement. “Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the immense arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given (ISIS) and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower.”

Amnesty’s report said “a large proportion” of the Islamic State’s weapons were originally given to the Iraqi military by the United States, Russia and the former Soviet Union. They range from handguns and assault rifles to anti-tank weapons and shoulder-mounted missile launchers, most of which were manufactured between the 1970s and 1990s. But the Islamic State has also been crafting its own weapons, such as hand grenades, car bombs and other explosive devices.

Amnesty said the diverse nature of the Islamic State’s weapons “reflects decades of irresponsible arms transfers to Iraq,” a country that saw its military stockpile swell when at least 34 countries began sending it weapons around the time of the Iran-Iraq war. Amnesty said the country began bringing in fewer weapons after it invaded Kuwait in 1990, largely due to a United Nations embargo, but its weapons imports spiked again after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

Amnesty reported that 30 countries have sent weapons to Iraq in the past 12 years, but many were not properly tracked by the Iraqi military or the U.S. military forces occupying the nation.

“Hundreds of thousands of those weapons went missing and are still unaccounted for,” the report states. It goes on to note that “mass desertion” from the Iraqi military during the rise of the Islamic State in 2013-14 “left huge quantities of military equipment exposed to looting.”

While the Amnesty report says the majority of the Islamic State’s weapons were looted from those military stockpiles, the document notes the group also added arms by seizing them from Syrian soldiers on battlefields and from defectors who have brought firepower with them.

Speaking to CNN, a Pentagon spokesman said the United States monitors the technology that it gives to its partners to prevent any American weapons from ending up in the wrong hands, but conceded those monitoring programs don’t include any weapons lost on battlefields.

Amnesty’s report calls for countries to stop providing military equipment and arms to forces in Syria and stronger protocols for sending weapons to Iraqi authorities. It also calls for national laws and procedures to prevent arms from ending up in the hands of groups who will use them nefariously, and for more strict rules regarding stockpile management and record-keeping.

“The legacy of arms proliferation and abuse in Iraq and the surrounding region has already destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions of people and poses an ongoing threat,” Wicken said in a statement. “The consequences of reckless arms transfers to Iraq and Syria and their subsequent capture by (ISIS) must be a wake-up call to arms exporters around the world.”

Obama Vows U.S. ‘Will Destroy’ ISIS, Other Terrorist Groups

The United States “will destroy” the Islamic State “and any other terrorist organization that tries to harm us,” President Barack Obama said in a televised speech to the nation on Sunday night.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the president said the country faces new challenges in its 14-year war on terrorism but remains equipped to overcome the threat the ideology poses to America.

The speech came days after the husband-and-wife team of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and wounded 21 others in a mass shooting at San Bernardino, California. The brazen attack occurred during a holiday party for Farook’s coworkers on Wednesday.

“This was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people,” Obama declared in the speech.

Obama went on to say that other shootings at military installations in Fort Hood, Texas, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, were also acts of terrorism. The president said the nature of these attacks represent a fundamental shift in the face of terrorism, and the challenge it presents.

He said the country has been at war with terrorists since 9/11, when terrorists hijacked four airplanes in an elaborate plot that ultimately killed nearly 3,000 people. America has beefed up its security and intelligence operations and disrupted a host of terrorist plots in the years since.

“Over the last few years, however, the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase,” Obama said. “As we’ve become better at preventing complex, multi-faceted attacks like 9/11, terrorists turn to less-complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society.”

While noting there was no evidence that Farook and Malik were directed by a terrorist group or that they were part of a broader conspiracy in planning and executing Wednesday’s shootings, Obama said “it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West.”

The FBI echoed that statement on Monday, with an official saying at a news conference that the bureau had evidence that Farook and Malik had been radicalized “for quite some time.” The probe into the shootings and the circumstances around them continued Monday afternoon.

In his Sunday night speech, Obama reaffirmed the country’s commitment to fighting terrorism.

He said “our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary,” and noted that 65 countries have joined an American-led coalition that is carrying out airstrikes against ISIS interests. The United States is also providing training to forces in Iraq and Syria that are fighting ISIS militants on the ground, and deploying special ops in both countries. Coalition forces are working to disrupt ISIS in other ways, like cutting off its money supply (largely obtained through oil smuggling) and preventing it from adding manpower.

Obama noted global efforts to combat ISIS have increased since Nov. 13, when gunmen and suicide bombers linked to the group killed 130 people in multiple terrorist attacks in Paris. In particular, he said the exchange of intelligence between allies has surged since those attacks.

The president said technology has made it easier for groups like the Islamic State to corrupt the minds of people around the world. The terrorists are frequently able to use social media and the Internet to share their radical messages. Obama called for technology companies and law enforcement officials to make it more difficult for terrorists to hide behind computer screens.

He also called for the departments of State and Homeland Security to review the ‘fiancee visa’ waiver program that Malik, a Pakistani native who was living in Saudi Arabia, used to enter the United States. It’s been widely reported that she met Farook, a U.S. citizen, on an online dating site.

Obama also called for stricter gun laws, like making it more difficult to purchase assault weapons like the ones used in San Bernardino. He noted authorities simply can’t identify every potential mass shooter, but “what we can do — and must do — is make it harder for them to kill.”

While Obama outlined the steps America is taking against ISIS and to prevent future terrorist attacks at home, he also laid out a list of things that America should not do. Those included entering a ground war in the Middle East, which could be lengthy and ultimately play into the Islamic State’s hand. He also said the country shouldn’t fear or discriminate against Muslims, noting that the Islamic State “doesn’t speak for Islam” and was “part of a cult of death.”

“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” Obama said in his televised comments. “We will destroy (ISIS) and any other organization that tries to harm us.”

Leaked Document Claims ISIS Present, Planning Attacks in Thailand

Multiple published reports indicate police in Thailand have information claiming that a group of 10 people linked to the Islamic State allegedly entered the country to carry out terrorist attacks.

Reuters reported a leaked memo cites intelligence from Russia’s Federal Security Service that indicated 10 ISIS-linked Syrians traveled to Thailand in October to attack targets tied to Russia.

The BBC reported the document, which was marked “urgent,” said the Syrians did not travel together and at least six have gone to areas that are popular with Russian tourists.

A police spokesman confirmed to the Associated Press that the document was authentic, but he could not verify if the intelligence within it was accurate. Reuters quoted the commissioner of Thailand’s immigration bureau, Nathathorn Prausoontorn, as saying there isn’t any information that ties the 21 Syrians who entered Thailand in October and were still there to the Islamic State.

Russia has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria since late September, which intensified after ISIS bombed a commercial Russian plane in October and killed 224 people.