The leader of Boko Haram, who the Nigerian government claimed to have killed, has appeared in a new video that was posted to the social media site YouTube.
“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” Abubakar Shekau says in the video. “Nothing will kill me until my days are over. … I’m still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah.”
The video showed Shekau in the back of a pickup truck where he says they are running their Islamic caliphate. The video also showed them killing a man accused of adultery and lashing a woman for having sex outside of marriage.
Boko Haram also confirmed their alignment with ISIS, essentially spreading the terrorist group from the Middle East into Africa.
The executive director of the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans says that President Obama needs to stop focusing only on ISIS and realize that Islamic terrorism is spreading throughout the world.
“Obama will need to include other terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Hamas and Hezbollah,” Pastor Laolu Akande said.
The Rev. Canon Andrew White is speaking out for the Christians still inside Iraq and saying that most of them are hoping to escape to other countries.
“To be honest, every single Christian wants to leave,” White, the vicar of St. George’s Church in Baghdad, told the London Daily Telegraph. “I used to say to my people: ‘Don’t you leave. I’m not going to leave you, don’t leave me.’ But now every one of them wants to leave and the ones who are left tend to be the poorer ones who couldn’t get away earlier.”
White told the newspaper that for the first time in 2,000 years Christans could not take community last week in the Nineveh province.
White posted to his Facebook page Monday about the horrible conditions in the country.
“Greetings from Baghdad. People are very fearful the nation looks as if it has collapsed. The usual hectic and crazy streets were this morning almost empty,” White wrote.”The news from our friends in areas surrounding Baghdad is equally worry [sic] the Islamic State. ISIS or DAASH, as they are known locally, are very close to Baghdad.”
White told the newspaper that ground troops will be the only way to stop ISIS.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has begun a campaign of terror in individual towns within their control, beheading a group of 10 people including three women.
The move is to try and stop locals from resisting any actions by ISIS.
“I don’t know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They want to scare people,” Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
The beheadings took place in Kobani, near the Turkish border, where the Kurds have been frantically fighting against the terrorist group. All three women who were beheaded were Kurds.
Kurdish fighters killed 50 terrorists during fighting during the day. The other terrorists reportedly had to flee the sight of the fighting back into Syria or toward Mosul, Iraq.
Air strikes continued against ISIS during the battle including the first strikes from British forces.
In their first meeting since the 50-day Israel-Hamas war, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a cordial tone.
Netanyahu praised President Obama for his commitment to destroy the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and his willingness to stand with Israel against Islamic terror. Obama said that Israel was dealing with a “turbulent neighborhood.”
Obama said there needs to be new and different efforts to end violence in the region.
“We have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe … but also that we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well,” Obama said.
Netanyahu also took time to praise Obama and the U.S. Congress for their support of more funding for the Iron Dome rocket defense system. The PM said the system saved “so many lives” during the conflict with Hamas.
However, the PM took a more aggressive tone when he said that further steps need to be taken to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the hypocrisy of world leaders in condemning and attacking the Islamic terrorist group ISIS while not seeing the similarities between ISIS and Hamas.
Netanyahu spoke to the general assembly of the United Nations on Monday.
“Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS, and yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu laid out the similarities between the groups including their expressed desire to destroy the nation of Israel.
“As Hamas’ charter makes clear, Hamas’ immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered in 9/11, and that’s why its leaders condemn the United States for killing Osama bin Laden whom they praised as a holy warrior,’ Netanyahu explained.
Netanyahu said that ISIS must be destroyed and that Israel will back the effort to eliminate the extremist group.
A man who converted to Islam and idolized Islamic terrorists like Osama Bin Laden stormed his former employer and cut the head off a woman working there.
Police in Moore, Oklahoma say that 30-year-old Alton Nolen had “recently converted to Islam” and had been going around the workplace trying to get others to convert to Islam.
Nolen drove to his former employer and attacked Colleen Huffort, 54, with a knife he had with him. He chanted “allahu akbar” and other Islamic slogans during the attack where he beheaded the woman in the same manner ISIS terrorists have done to their hostages.
A reserve sheriff’s deputy that works at the factory shot Nolen.
The FBI has been called in to investigate the incident and has initially claimed it was an example of “workplace violence.” Conservative members of Congress, who point out that Nolen’s Facebook page showed him in full Islamic attire, professing extremist beliefs and posting admiration for Islamic terrorists, have denounced the FBI’s claim.
President Obama acknowledged the administration completely misjudged ISIS and the strength and will of the Islamic terrorist group.
However, the President put the blame on the former Iraqi government and U.S. intelligence services rather than accepting any of the blame himself. In January, the President called ISIS a Junior Varsity terrorist outfit.
“Our head of the intelligence community Jim Clapper has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” the president said.
Intelligence service officials say the President has been receiving daily briefings on ISIS and their rise for the last 18 months. The White House refused to act on those intelligence reports.
Sen. John McCain said he was “puzzled” by the President’s claim and underestimating the threat of Islamic terrorists.
“The intelligence comments — intelligence people are pushing back hard,” McCain said. “We predicted this and watched it. It was like watching a train wreck and warning every step of the way that this was happening … It is a direct result of our failure to leave a residual force behind.”
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.
The Prime Minister of Iraq says he has credible information regarding an ISIS plot to attack the United States.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi surprised intelligence and transit security officials in the U.S. who said they had no knowledge of the PM’s claims. New York City officials quickly took to the media to assure citizens the subway system was safe.
“They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.,” Abedi told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. “I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible.”
Iraqi intelligence officials would not specifically comment on the PM’s statements other than to say a full assessment of the plans discovered is ongoing. U.S. officials said they had not confirmed any “specific threat.”
“We want to increase the number of willing countries who would support this,” PM Abedi said. “This is not military. This is intelligence. This is security. The terrorists have a massive international campaign. Don’t underestimate it.”