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”.
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has posted a video online showing the brutal beheading of an American journalist.
James Foley, a reporter working for Agence France-Presse and Boston media company GlobalPost, was taken captive while reporting in Syria November 2012. He was passing through a zone that had been a focal point of Sunni rebel forces when four terrorists stopped his car.
The death of Foley is the first American to have been killed as a result of the Syrian conflict that began in March 2011.
A British man who had joined the terrorist group who spoke in the video using English conducted the killing. The group showed video of a second captured American journalist and said they would kill him if the U.S. continued to make airstrikes against their forces in Iraq.
Foley’s family released a statement saying they were proud of him.
“He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” said the statement, which was attributed to Foley’s mother, Diane Foley. She implored the militants to spare the lives of other hostages. “Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.”
A documentary released by VICE News shows Islamic terrorists training children to be homicide bombers and killers.
“What do you want to be? A jihadist or to execute a martyrdom operation?” Abdullah Al-Belgian of Belgium asks his young son Abdullah. “A jihadist,” he answers.
“Who do you fight with?” filmmaker Medyan Dairieh asks another child featured in the documentary. “The Islamic State,” the boy answers. “Where are you going after Ramadan?” Dairieh inquires. “To the camp … to have training,” the child replies. “What are you going to do after?” Dairieh asks. “Fight the Russians [and] Americans. The infidels.”
The video has interviews with various terrorist operatives that say children under 15 are sent to what is called “Sharia camp” to be brainwashed with the creeds of the terrorists and extreme Islam. When they turn 16, they are sent to the military camp.
Children taken to the city of Raqqa, Syria are shown dancing and singing for the caliphate celebration after terrorists obtained control of the city.
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has destroyed the tomb of the Prophet Jonah.
The terrorists gleefully went into the tomb with sledgehammers and took turns destroying the resting place of the Old Testament prophet. The terrorists filmed their efforts and posted them online saying it was the will of Allah for the tombs to be destroyed.
The members of the terrorist group say it is against the teachings of Islam to give special attention to tombs and it doesn’t matter if the tomb is for another faith. If the tomb is within their land, the group says they have the right to destroy it.
The tomb of the prophet Seth was also destroyed by the terrorists but no video of that destruction was posted online.
Iraqi authorities also announced the discovery of 53 bodies south of Baghdad who appear to have been executed by Islamic terrorists. An investigation is underway to determine who ordered the killings.
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has declared that the land they have taken from the Syrian and Iraqi government is now their own country ruled by Islamist law.
In an audio released for the first day of Ramadan, the group says the new nation runs from Aleppo in northwest Syria through Diyala province in northeast Iraq. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was named the “imam and khalifah for Muslims everywhere.”
The group said that all Muslim groups around the world should pledge allegiance to them.
Experts in the region say the declaration by ISIS could have a backfiring impact on their goal for an Islamic state.
“Now the insurgents in Iraq have no excuse for working with ISIS if they were hoping to share power with ISIS,” analyst Aymenn al-Tamimi, told The Associated Press. “The prospect of infighting in Iraq is increased for sure.”
Other middle east observers believe this is a tipping point in the power struggles among Islamic extremists groups worldwide, as the ISIS is now positioning itself to replace al-Qaeda. The two groups have a contentious relationship after al-Qaeda denounced al-Baghdadi in February.
A new CNN report shows that Islamic extremists are teaching kidnapped boys how to behead others “for the sake of God.”
CNN spoke to a young man who was able to escape his kidnappers from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the same group that is attempting to overthrow the governments of Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
The young man, called Mohammed, said that he was taken from his school when the terrorists stormed the building. The first thing they did was remove the female students from the room, saying it was forbidden for the young men to be in the same room with them. The terrorists then forced the boys into a truck and drove them into the desert.
“We were all so scared. On the way back, we were celebrating that we had finished our tests. We were excited to go home and see our families. We didn’t know why they took us,” Mohammed told CNN.
The terrorists then forced the children to watch videos of beheadings and were given instructions on how to kill prisoners by cutting off their heads. They were also trained in other methods of urban combat as if they were being prepared for the Iraq insurgency.
Mohammed escaped with other boys when classmates created a diversion.
“I was so happy when I got home. My mother had no idea that I had escaped. I was so excited to see her,” Mohammed said.
ISIS terrorists have told residents of the area there is now a bounty on Mohammed’s head.
In their latest round of terror and blasphemy against Christ, terrorist group al-Qaeda has taken to hanging murder victims on crosses for public display.
A Syrian opposition group said that al-Qaeda based Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed dozens in the Syrian city of Ar-Raqqah and then hung the bodies on crosses with messages warning against standing up against Islamists.
Abu Ibrahim Alrquaoui, the head of a group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Slowly, says the move is the latest attempt by the Islamists to control the region through fear tactics.
“They want to stay in control,” Alrquaoui told Fox News. “Everything they do is to scare people. That’s why they kill people publicly.”
Jihadists across Syria have been resorting to the tactic of hanging victims on crosses for the last few months. Most of the victims are not actually left to die hanging on the crosses but are rather shot in the head after being lifted up.
The head of terrorist group Al Qaeda is calling on members worldwide to kidnap Americans to use for bargaining chips for the release of Muslim terrorists.
Ayman al-Zawahiri told the As-Sahab news service that Muslims should kidnap Westerners, especially Americans, so that they can be exchanged for what he called “captives” in Western prisons.
Al-Zawahiri spoke specifically of Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the “blind sheikh”, that is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
“I ask Allah the Glorious to help us set free Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman and the rest of the captive Muslims,” al-Zawahiri said, “and I ask Allah to help us capture from among the Americans and the Westerners to enable us to exchange them for our captives.”
Al-Zawahiri also called on warring Muslim factions in Syria to come together in unity to overthrow the “criminal al-Assad regime.”
Islamic forces in Syria have killed a relative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who had been commanding troops protecting a Christian city.
A coalition of Islamic extremist groups overran the defenses of the Christian town of Kassat, killing Christians they found in their path and chanting & praising Allah as they took control of the town.
A student from the town that is now living in the United Arab Emirates told the Wall Street Journal that most of the Christians have fled to a church in the nearby village of Latakia.
“They receive food from the Armenians that are living there,” the unnamed student told the WSJ.
Islamic extremists in Syria have been attempting to exterminate the Christian population in Syria during the civil war. Christians had made up 8 percent of Syria’s population before the Civil War began.