Turkish officials are seeking an arsonist who attached a building that contained thousands of New Testaments and other Christian documents.
The fire was noticed at 7 p.m. on December 7th at the offices of Bible Correspondence Course in Istanbul, Turkey. The BCC was located in a multistory building that also housed the Kadikoy church.
BCC Turkey says that no one was injured in the blaze and because of the concrete construction of the building there was no structural damage. However, everything inside the building was burned to ash.
“I think whoever did it knew something about what happens up here, because they kind of knew to come on a Sunday afternoon, and that if they were going to have an opportunity where there weren’t going to be a lot of people around, that’s probably the one that was most likely,” Paul Weaver of BCC-Turkey said.
“I think the firemen were genuinely surprised that when they got there they didn’t find a bigger fire, and I call that providence,” he said. “I don’t know what else to call it because I would agree, I think it should have been a bigger fire than what they actually found.”
BCC Turkey officials say that multiple groups within the city have wanted to stop the group from distributing the Bibles.
A former ISIS member has testified that a member of NATO is considered an ally of the terrorist organization by ISIS leadership.
Turkey, which has been dragging its feet in joining the world coalition to stop the terrorist group, is reportedly allowing the terrorists to freely cross their border and move supplies and weapons into Iraq and Syria.
The terrorist, calling himself “Sherko Omer”, is a former communications tech for ISIS. He said that Turkey is working with ISIS because of a common hatred for the Kurds.
“ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria,” Omer said. “The Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey. Also, ISIS had to be a Turkish ally because only through Turkey they were able to deploy ISIS fighters to northern parts of the Kurdish cities and towns in Syria.”
Omer also said he has seen first hand the connection between the Turkish army and the terrorists.
“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable occasions,” Omer said. “I rarely heard them speak in Arabic, and that was only when they talked to their own recruiters, otherwise, they mostly spoke in Turkish because the people they talked to were Turkish officials of some sorts because ISIS guys used to be very serious when they talked to them.”
Three teenage girls from Colorado were arrested at a German airport during an attempt to travel to Turkey to join ISIS.
The three girls left their homes on Friday, telling their families that they were either late for school when the schools called to report them missing or that they were home sick. When the girls were gone later that day, her parents called police.
“Farah stated that he checked and found that his daughters’ passports were missing along with $2000 in cash,” a runaway report filed by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office states. “It is unknown what clothing they were wearing today, but they both wear headscarves as part of their religion.”
The FBI was notified after the discovery of the missing passport and flagged passports for all three girls. The girls were captured in Germany and put on planes back to the United States after telling FBI investigators that they were attempting to join ISIS.
Officials have not stated if the girls will be charged with attempting to assist a terrorist organization.
A North Carolina Muslim has admitted that he was going to fight with terrorist groups.
Akba Jihad Jordan was arrested earlier this year with his friend Avin Marsalis Brown when they talked with an undercover FBI agent about joining jihad. They told the agent about weapons they have in their possession and that they would use them against the United States.
Jordan was arrested on the same day Brown was arrested at Raleigh Durham International airport attempting to fly to Turkey. Jordan had an appointment scheduled to get his passport so he could leave the country.
“Akba Jordan turned his back on his own country and was willing to fight side by side with terrorist groups in Yemen and Syria who wish to do us harm,” John Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina, said in a statement following the hearing. “American citizens who offer support to terrorist organizations pose a grave threat to our national security and will face serious consequences for their actions.”
Jordan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He could face up to 15 years in prison.
Turkey reversed course Monday and said they would allow Iraqi Kurds to join Turkish Kurds in the battle for Kobani.
The news came as the United States air-dropped weapons to the Kurds for the first time to help them as they go forward in their battle against ISIS.
The move by Turkey comes at the request of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who asked the Turkish government to “get the peshmerga or other groups” into the Kobani area to make sure the terrorists were not able to seize control of the town.
Syrian Kurds, who have been making a bold stand against the terrorists, were allied with the PKK, which attempted to overthrow the Turkish government for decades. America considers the PKK a terrorist organization and said that the Kurds fighting the terrorists have no PKK affiliation.
“We understand fully the fundamentals of (Ankara’s) opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group, and particularly, obviously, the challenges they face with respect to the PKK,” Kerry told reporters. “We cannot take our eye off the prize here. It would be irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn your back on a community fighting ISIL.”
A woman who had been “duped” into joining the Islamic State terrorist group is speaking out in an attempt to keep other women from being deceived into joining the murderous organization.
The woman, a 25-year-old who had been an ISIS patrol officer and whose name has been kept secret by CNN to protect her, said she fled the group just before U.S. airstrikes in September.
“I don’t want anyone else to be duped by [ISIS],” the woman speaking under the alias of “khadija” told CNN. “Too many girls think they are the right Islam.”
Khadija said a Tunisian man that she met through an online dating service influenced her. He spoke glowingly about the terrorist group, saying they were not terrorists and that the media was slandering their group. He said they were just trying to “implement true Islam.”
She joined the man in Raqqa and was part of a women’s patrol unit that would beat any woman not wearing the correct Sharia clothing. She said that once she saw ISIS’ brutality first hand, she could no longer support the group.
She now is living in fear in Turkey that ISIS has her marked for death.
“A girl who is merry, who loves life and laughter… who loves to travel, to draw, to walk in the street with her headphones listening to music without caring what anyone thinks,” she said. “I want to be like that again.”
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.
The United States and Arab allies began a series of airstrikes on the terrorist group ISIS.
The strikes happened inside Syria near the town of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed “capital” for the terrorists.
“I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIS terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack missiles,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time.”
In addition to U.S. forces, aircraft from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Intelligence reports say that most of the 30,000 ISIS terrorists are inside Syria and without strikes inside that country it would be impossible to break the ISIS command structure.
The strikes come just days after 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled to Turkey because of advances from the terrorists.
Observers estimate at least 60,000 Kurds have fled from Syria toward Turkey over a single 24-hour period because of ISIS.
“ISIS came and attacked, and we left with the women, but the rest of the men stayed behind,” 24-year-old Abdullah of Shiran told Reuters. “They killed many people in the villages, cutting their throats. We were terrified that they would cut our throats too.”
Witnesses say that women, children and the elderly were seen fleeing in large groups on foot.
“Islamic State is killing any civilian it finds in a village,” Mustefa Ebdi, the director of local radio station Arta FM, added. “People prefer to flee rather than remain and die. [ISIS wants] to eliminate anything that is Kurdish. This is creating a state of terror.”
Turkish officials reportedly stopped the group at the border and refused to allow them to cross until they confirmed they were fleeing ISIS.
U.N. officials called on world charities to send food and supplies to the region to help the refugees.
Turkey has raised concerns about the number of al-Qaeda related terrorists in northern Syria.
Turkish officials say that the “indiscriminate terror” which is the normal tactics of the al-Qaeda related fighters could be turned north toward Turkish military troops and U.S. soldiers who are based their to help protect Turkish airspace.
The al-Qaeda fighters call themselves ISIS, which they translate into “Greater Syria”. They have aligned with the Free Syrian Army to oust President Bashir al-Assad. However, the group has stated a goal of turning the nation into a key piece of a radical Sunni Islamic empire.
The group sees Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as not a “real Muslim” because he is a moderate leader.
The group has also been fighting against rebel groups that are pro-west in nature. Last month they destroyed a pro-western rebel group called Northern Storm in the city of Azaz. ISIS has repeatedly torn down churches and Christian symbols.