On the heels of losing the key city of Tikrit to Iraqi forced backed by U.S. airstrikes, intelligence experts say that ISIS is suffering from infighting that is causing overall weakening in the ranks.
“The key challenge facing ISIS right now is more internal than external,” The Washington Post quotes Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, as saying. “We’re seeing basically a failure of the central tenet of ISIS ideology, which is to unify people of different origins under the caliphate. This is not working on the ground. It is making them less effective in governing and less effective in military operations.”
One of the problems is that ISIS recruits in Iraq feel that preferential treatment is being given to the ISIS recruits in Syria. Also the living conditions of ISIS recruits in rural areas are considered to be much less favorable than those in urban centers.
Also, the group has executed 120 of its own members for various perceived failures in loyalty, which has caused dissention among the ranks.
ISIS was driven out of Tikrit by a force of 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia which has also delivered a blow to the morale of the terrorist army.
Assyrian Christians kidnapped by the terrorist group ISIS have been ordered to convert to Islam but all of them have rejected the order.
The news of the refusal was given by an Assyrian Christian who was released by the terrorist group on March 1.
The man, calling himself “Robert”, told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) that all the Christian residents of his town had been gathered by the terrorists and placed into a small room until the terrorists drove Kurdish forces from the town. At that point, they were taken to a location on Abdul Aziz Mountain.
“They asked us to convert to Islam. … Yes, that was their [first] idea that we should convert to Islam,” Robert said. “Many bearded people spoke to us, and everyone asked us to convert to Islam.”
“They kept pressuring us to convert to Islam. It was their constant focus. But we were not mistreated.” Robert continued. “We said we would not convert. They said you must then pay the jizya [a Christian poll tax] or leave the country. That was the option given to us. We said we would pay the jizya but we would not convert.”
Robert said that the terrorists provided them with all the basic necessities: food, water, bathing facilities.
Another released prisoner named “Peter” said they were tried in a Sharia court but ruled to be non-combatants.
Terrorist group ISIS is hanging dead bodies from the entrances to cities as a way to reinforce their control over the population.
Photographs from the city of Hawija show the bodies of men hanging upside down from the metal sign at the entrance to the city. The flag of the terrorist group is painted on the metal sign above the bodies.
Some of the bodies appear to be wearing the uniform of the Iraqi military.
The city is the same location where ISIS had been parading captives through the streets in metal cages similar to the one used to burn alive a Jordanian pilot. Intelligence officials say that the terrorist group is looking to make Hawija their new operational hub.
The group also released a photo of a young boy carrying around the severed head of an Iraqi soldier with the caption “this is how the cubs of the Caliphate are raised up.”
The head of the FBI is stating that ISIS has sympathizers in all 50 states.
“We have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” James Comey told a recent meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). “This isn’t a New York phenomenon or a Washington phenomenon. This is all 50 states and in ways that are very hard to see…”
“[I]t’s highly unlikely that it’s going to be a federal agent to first see or hear about someone acting in strange ways on social media, or acting in a strange way in a religious institution or educational institution, or in the community. It’s going to be a deputy sheriff; it’s going to be a police officer who knows that neighborhood,” he continued. “The Joint Terrorism Task Forces that we have set up all across this country are in some ways more important today than they were at 911 because of the nature of this threat.”
Comey went on to say that ISIS has been using a sophisticated social media campaign to try and pull disenfranchised youth into their web. He said that in their own twisted way, the terrorists are able to convince the youth there is a purpose in defending the terrorists supposed “state”.
“Those people exist in every state” the FBI director reiterated. “I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none, which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group, so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states.”
Long rumored to be happening, the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has pledged their allegiance to ISIS and is calling on Muslims around the world to do the same.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” leader Abubakar Shekau said in an audio recording posted to Twitter on Saturday. “We call upon Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph.”
Boko Haram, which has been attempting to form their own caliphate since 2009, has been releasing videos stating that Islam is commanded to take over the world and that they would not stop until every Christian in the world was killed.
“Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups,” Jacob Zenn with the Jamestown Foundation told CNN. “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into (French-speaking) West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.”
The announcement by Boko Haram marks the 31st terrorist group to pledge allegiance to ISIS.
A California man has been arrested for lying on a passport application as he attempted to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Adam Dandach, 21, has also been charged with obstructing justice by attempting to destroy records of his online activity before they could be seized by investigators.
Dandach was stopped at the Orange County airport while attempting to board a flight to Turkey. He carried an “expedited replacement passport” that he obtained after claiming he threw away his old passport by accident. Prosecutors say that the man’s mother confiscated the passport when she discovered his plan to join ISIS, so he knew the claim was false.
Court papers showed that Dandach was more disappointed in not being able to join ISIS than he was to be arrested for lying to officials.
If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison on a terrorism related count and 25 years on each of the other counts in the indictments.
A man engaged in human trafficking for ISIS forcing Syrian refugee children into prostitution has been arrested by Turkish authorities.
Ahmet Yumusak, 29, was captured by Turkish authorities who were investigating an attack on a soldier and police officer that took place last year. During the investigation, they had Yumusak approach them to discuss paying for sex with underage Syrian refugee girls that were under control of ISIS.
After this arrest, authorities discovered he was sending young girls into Syria to be abused and married off to ISIS terrorists.
Authorities say they are unable to determine the total number of young girls that were forced into ISIS control by Yumusak but the number is well into the hundreds.
Police say that Yumusak also worked as a conduit for western girls and women that wanted to join the terrorist group.
The terrorist who attacked a soldier and then stormed the Parliament before being killed by security forces left behind a video made moments before the attack explaining his intentions.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, said in the video that Canada had no business in Afghanistan and that Canadian troops were “not even safe in your own land.”
“Canada’s officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and our innocents,” Zehaf-Bibeau says in the video he made in his car, which was released by police on Friday. “So we [are] just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show you’re not even safe in your own land and you got to be careful.”
Police say that the terrorist had applied for a passport with the intention of fleeing Canada and joining ISIS in Syria.
Ironically, the killer had reconnected with his family just before the attack. He had lunch with his mother two days before the assault, the first time he had contacted her in five years.
“No words can express the sadness we are feeling at this time,” Susan Bibeau said in a statement on behalf of herself and Bibeau-Zehaf’s father, Bulgasem Zehaf, after the shooting.
“We are so sad that a man lost his life. He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow. We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless. We are both crying for them,” said Bibeau, who works as a federal public servant for the Immigrant & Refugee board and lives in Montreal.
A new release from the terrorist group ISIS claims that an American carried out a terrorist bombing earlier this week.
“The brother Abu Dawud al-Amriki (may Allah accept him) launched himself with his explosives-laden truck,” an ISIS bulletin read, according to AFP news agency.
CNN claims that U.S. government officials have not confirmed the identity of the bomber but did admit that at least 150 Americans have made their way to Syria and Iraq to fight with the terrorists.
However, two senior Iraqi officials confirmed the attack.
The news of the attack has further stirred up concern on Capitol Hill concerning potential domestic terrorists. Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said that Syria has the largest collection of Islamic terrorists in world history.
“I am worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home. I wrote to the president recently as part of my ongoing investigation and raised concerns that we have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies,” McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the time.
A CNN report says most Americans who joined ISIS are in their late teens or early 20’s who had expressed online and in conversations with friends conflict between western life and the teachings of Islam.
A man that the U.S. government has designated a terrorist has been found leading Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.
The man is Major General Qasem Suleimani, the Iranian spymaster and leader of the special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Photographs from the war theater around Tikrit showed Suleimani providing direction to senior Iraqi officials fighting to take the town back from ISIS. Analysis say the discovery shows the growing influence of Iran on the Iraqi government.
“I know we’re keeping our distance physically from them in Baghdad,” Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J said. “Have we ceded most of the governance of Iraq to Iranians?…And will the military operations that are undergoing, which we are watching, divide the country and require us in some ways to spend more of our resources?”
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that he shared the concern of the representatives about who would be influencing the region if the troops drive ISIS out of the major cities in the region.
Intelligence officials say that 2/3 of the Shiite militia fighting ISIS are loyal to Iran.