ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

Associated Press

Islamic State group threatens to kill Japan hostages

An online video released Tuesday purported to show the Islamic State group threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless they receive a $200 million ransom in the next 72 hours.

The video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats it has made. The militant in it also directly addresses Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now on a six-day visit to the Middle East with more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies.

"To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,000 and 500 kilometers (5,280 miles) from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade," says the knife-brandishing militant in the video, who resembles and sounds like a British militant involved in other filmed beheadings by the Islamic State group. "You have proudly donated $100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims."

The video shows two hostages in orange jumpsuits that the militants identify as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa. Japan's Foreign Ministry's anti-terrorism section has seen the video and analysts are assessing it, a ministry official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

Abe was to appear at a news conference later Tuesday in Jerusalem.

Speaking in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to say whether Japan would pay the ransom.

"If true, the act of threat in exchange of people's lives is unforgivable and we feel strong indignation," Suga told journalists. "We will make our utmost effort to win their release as soon as possible."

In August, a Japanese citizen believed to be Yukawa, a private military company operator in his early 40s, was kidnapped in Syria after going there to train with militants, according to a post on a blog kept. Pictures on his Facebook page show him in Iraq and Syria in July. One video on his page showed him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle with the caption: "Syria war in Aleppo 2014."

"I cannot identify the destination," Yukawa wrote in his last blog post. "But the next one could be the most dangerous." He added: "I hope to film my fighting scenes during an upcoming visit."

Goto is a respected Japanese freelance journalist who went to report on Syria's civil war last year and knew of Yukawa.

"I'm in Syria for reporting," he wrote in an email to an Associated Press journalist in October. "I hope I can convey the atmosphere from where I am and share it."

The Islamic State group has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of captives — mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers — during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in extremely graphic videos. A British-accented jihadi also has appeared in the beheading videos of slain American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and with British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning.

The group also holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in other extremist propaganda videos, and a 26-year-old American woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S. officials have asked that the woman not be identified out of fears for her safety.

Tuesday's video marks the first time the Islamic State group specifically has demanded cash for hostages. Though the militant in the video links it to the Japanese funding efforts to counter the Islamic State group, it comes amid recent losses for the extremists targeted in airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition. Its militants also recently released some 200 mostly elderly Yazidi hostages in Iraq, fueling speculation by Iraqi officials that the group couldn't support them.

This is Abe's second Mideast hostage crisis since becoming prime minister. Two years ago, al-Qaida-affiliated militants attacked an Algerian natural gas plant and the ensuing four-day hostage crisis killed 29 insurgents and 37 foreigners, including 10 Japanese who were working for a Yokohama-based engineering company, JCG Corp. Seven Japanese survived.

http://news.yahoo.com/video-islamic-sta ... 03039.html

[Piling]

First Peshmerga killed in Kobani fighting


http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/200120153

[Anthea]

Associated Press

Car bomb explodes in central Syria's Homs, killing 6 people

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A car bomb exploded Wednesday in the central Syrian city of Homs, killing at least six people in a neighborhood frequently targeted by rebels because it is seen as a home of loyalists of the President Bashar Assad.

The rigged vehicle exploded among residential buildings and shops in the Akrama neighborhood, an area dominated by Alawites, the same sect as Assad. The explosion killed mostly women and children, Homs Governor Talal Barrazi said.

Barrazi said the blast killed at least six people and wounded 30. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast killed 10 people, basing its figure from a network of activists on the ground. Conflicting death tolls are routine after such attacks.

It was the third car bomb to target the street over the past year, Barrazi said. A twin suicide car bombing outside schools there in October that killed at least 32 people, including at least 10 children.

Wednesday's bombing came a week after Syrian rebels and government forces began observing a 10-day truce in the last rebel-held area of Homs.

Assad loyalists have been blockading the Waer neighborhood for some 20 months, only sporadically allowing in food. Barrazi said the truce would continue.

Syria's uprising and civil war has killed more than 220,000 people since it began in March 2011.

http://news.yahoo.com/car-bomb-explodes ... 13372.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Battles continue outside Syria's Kobani after Kurds claim victory
By Sylvia Westall

Kurdish forces battled Islamic State fighters outside Kobani on Tuesday, a monitoring group said, a day after Kurds said they had taken full control of the northern Syrian town following a four-month battle.

Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, the mainly Kurdish town close to the Turkish border has become a focal point in the international fight against Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has spread across Syria and Iraq.

There were clashes to the southeast and southwest of Kobani, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, although it added the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) had managed to recapture a village outside the town.

The YPG said on Monday Kobani had been "completely liberated" from Islamic State, which it referred to using the pejorative Arabic acronym "Daesh".

"The defeat of Daesh in Kobani will be the beginning of the end for the group," a statement on its website said.

Islamic State still has fighters in hundreds of nearby villages. The Observatory reported airstrikes around Kobani on Tuesday, and on Monday the Pentagon said the fight for the town was not yet over. Islamic State supporters denied the group had been pushed out.

Television footage aired on Tuesday from Kobani showed entire blocks levelled by bombardment, tangled steel and chunks of cement sprawled along muddy streets. Roads were littered with unexploded ordnance and mortar casings.

The militant group launched an assault on Kobani last year using heavy weapons seized in Iraq and forcing tens of thousands of locals over the border into Turkey. U.S.-led air strikes and Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have backed up the YPG, which called for international help during the siege.

Turkey is hosting around 1.5 million refugees from across Syria.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for more international attention to the besieged city of Aleppo.

"When it is about Kobani, the whole world stands up and cooperates. Those who flee Kobani come to us, 200,000 people.

"We tell them about Aleppo, nobody listens. 1.2 million people live there, there is economy, history and culture, why aren't you interested?" he said.

Ankara is wary of support for Syrian Kurds because of their links to the separatist PKK in Turkey, currently holding a ceasefire in a conflict that began in 1984.

Turkish police fired tear gas on Tuesday to stop people trying to cross back into Kobani to celebrate its retaking, a Kurdish politician and a journalist said.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and Ayla Jean Yackley, Dasha Afanasieva and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Dominic Evans)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/2 ... F020150127

[Anthea]

Reuters

Hopes of return muted in devastated Syrian Kurdish town
By Osman Orsal



Sheets meant to hide residents from snipers' sights still hang over streets in the Syrian border town of Kobani, and its shattered buildings and cratered roads suggest those who fled are unlikely to return soon.

Kurdish forces said this week they had taken full control of Kobani, a mainly Kurdish town near the Turkish border, after months of bombardment by Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has spread across Syria and Iraq.

Their victory, raising Kurdish flags where the black symbols of Islamic State once flew, prompted celebration among the more than 200,000 refugees who have fled to Turkey since the assault on the town began in September.

Cold weather, poverty and hunger have left many eager to return home and try to rebuild their livelihoods.

But months of intense fighting have hollowed out their town. Wrecked vehicles lie besides buildings reduced to piles of rubble and the roads are scarred by craters meters deep.

Tired and tense Kurdish fighters patrol near-deserted streets, and the risk of unexploded ordnance leaves the few civilians who remain fearful of where to tread.

"Coming back to Kobani will be even more difficult than leaving it," said one fighter from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), clutching a machinegun and standing in front of the ruins of a building.

"This city needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Everything is destroyed," he said, pointing to a pile of debris as tall as the single-story building next to it.

Kobani, nestled in hills and separated from Turkey by little more than a disused railway line, became a focal point for the international struggle against Islamic State, partly because of the heavy weaponry and number of fighters that the ultra-hardline Islamist group poured into the battle.

With the help of daily air strikes by U.S.-led forces, air drops of weapons and ammunition, and fighters from the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, Kobani's defenders managed to push out the insurgents and declare a tentative victory on Monday.

YPG fighters raised two fingers in victory signs for a group of journalists being escorted around Kobani, but behind the shows of pride a tense mood still hung over the town.

"Mortar shells keep landing here. Don't wander around, it's dangerous," cautioned one of the fighters, guarding a central square, as a group of his fellow combatants patrolled surrounding streets on motorbikes.

Battles have continued in villages to the southeast and southwest of Kobani since the Kurds declared victory. The Pentagon said on Monday the fight for the town was not over and a senior U.S. State Department official said it was too soon to declare "mission accomplished".

Turkey's Radikal newspaper said a mortar shell fired by Islamic State militants landed near the Turkish border inside Kobani on Thursday, wounding four civilians.

Islamic State supporters have denied the group has been pushed out.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has been wary of supporting Syrian Kurds amid concern about a push for Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria, questioned this week how much there was to celebrate.

"When it is about Kobani, the whole world stands up and cooperates ... Today they are dancing with happiness. What happened?" he told a meeting of local government officials in his palace in Ankara.

"(Islamic State) is out of there, fine. But who will repair all those places you bombed? Will those 200,000 who fled Kobani be able to go back? When they are back, where will they live?" he asked.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... ZV20150130

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syria battle between al Qaeda and Western-backed group spreads
By Oliver Holmes

Fighting between the Syrian arm of al Qaeda and Western-backed rebels in northern Syria spread from Aleppo province into neighboring Idlib on Friday, the rebel group and an organization monitoring the civil war said.

Clashes began on Thursday when the al Qaeda Syria wing, the Nusra Front, seized positions from the Hazzm movement west of Aleppo, threatening one of the few remaining pockets of the non-jihadist insurgency.

A Hazzm official said by telephone clashes had spread to Idlib and that his group had retaken some areas previously controlled by Nusra.

"There is now fighting in Idlib, in the Jabal al-Zawiya area," he said. He said in Aleppo province the two groups were also fighting in Atarib, a town 20 km (12 miles) from the Turkish border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy fighting overnight focused on the Regiment 46 base in western Aleppo and overlapping areas between Aleppo and Idlib province, where the Nusra Front pushed out rebels from many areas in October.

The Observatory, which monitors the war, said Hazzm had captured some small checkpoints in Idlib.

Hazzm is one of the last remnants of non-jihadist opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria, much of which has been seized by the Nusra Front and Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda that controls roughly a third of Syria.

The Nusra Front said it was forced to act after Hazzm detained two of its fighters and captured its weapons and offices. It said its forces had captured the Sheikh Suleiman base from Hazzm, about 25km west of Aleppo, on Thursday.

"It's probably most accurate to view this as the latest instance of Nusra efforts to expand their areas of dominance in Idlib and Aleppo at the expense of Western-backed factions, which they are gradually seeking to eliminate from the north," said Noah Bonsey, senior analyst on Syria with International Crisis Group.

The Syrian Islamist militant Ahrar al-Sham, which has worked with both groups, called for an end to the clashes and said the disagreement should be settled in an independent sharia court.

"We are ready to bring back the rights that our brothers in Nusra claimed (were taken) by Hazzm," the statement, posted on the group's Twitter account, said.

Both Hazzm -- part of the Free Syria Army collection of mainstream rebel groups -- and Nusra fight the government.

The Observatory said Nusra and other Islamist militants also fought the Syrian army in the al-Arbaeen mountain area of western Idlib on Friday. Syrian state television said the Syrian army repelled what it said were several terrorist attacks in the area.

Hazzm has received what it describes as small amounts of military aid from foreign states opposed to Assad, including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles. But it has lost ground to better armed and financed jihadists.

The weakness of the mainstream Syrian opposition has complicated diplomatic efforts to end the conflict that has killed around 200,000 people.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... 1Z20150130

[Anthea]

BBC News

Kenji Goto: Video 'shows IS beheading Japan hostage'



A video has been released online purporting to show the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto by Islamic State militants.

The video comes less than a week after news of the beheading of another Japanese man, Haruna Yukawa.

Mr Goto, 47, is a well-known freelance journalist and film-maker who went to Syria in October, reportedly to try to secure Mr Yukawa's release.

Japan said it was trying to authenticate the video.

The video, which bears the same symbols as previous IS videos, shows a militant with a British accent beheading Mr Goto.

Japanese officials had been working with Jordan to secure the release of Mr Goto and a Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

An IS video released on Tuesday said Mr Goto had "only 24 hours left to live" and Mr Kasasbeh "even less".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31075769

[Anthea]

Mail Online

British ISIS hostage John Cantlie appears in latest propaganda film which he ominously calls 'the last in this series' and in which militants are shown fishing and drinking tea
By John Hall

Documentary-style video sees the British journalist give a tour of Aleppo
He is seen visiting a market, Sharia law court and walking the city streets
At one point his crew allegedly come close to being hit by and airstrike
Cantlie claims US drone and Syrian regime warplanes were working together to carry out the raid
Cantlie later interviews a French fighter who said he was 'delighted' by the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris that left 20 dead
Then chillingly urges other Muslims to 'inflict mass carnage' in the West
Cantlie has now appeared in 10 videos released by Islamic State terrorists

The Islamic State has released a new propaganda video featuring John Cantlie in which the captured British journalist gives a guided tour of Aleppo.

The largest city in Syria has been on the frontline of ongoing battles between ISIS, the Free Syrian Army, various rebel groups and fighters loyal to the Assad regime for the best part of four years and the ancient architecture that saw Aleppo named a World Heritage Site is seen largely destroyed.

The expensively filmed and professionally edited footage is the 10th time Cantlie has appeared in a video released by ISIS and the third time he has been seen giving a tour of an ISIS-held territory, following previous videos inside the Iraqi city of Mosul and in the recently Syrian city of Kobane.

The documentary-style 12 minute film sees Cantlie wander the streets of Aleppo interviewing fighters, including a French militant who calls for further attacks on targets in his home country, stating: 'Muslims in the West number in the millions and are capable of inflicting mass carnage'.

Ominously Cantlie - who has previously claimed to have accepted that he is likely to be brutally murdered by the terrorists - has claimed the video is 'the last in this series'.



Slick: The documentary-style 12 minute film sees John Cantlie giving a guided tour of the city of Aleppo



Relaxed: The video shows Islamic State militants calmly fishing in the Euphrates River



ISIS fighters are seen laughing and drink tea in the terror group's latest video, which was filmed inside Aleppo

The latest Cantlie video is titled 'From Inside Halab' using an alternative name for the city of Aleppo. It follows similar documentary-style guided tours of Kobane and Mosul.

Full Disturbing Article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... g-tea.html

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule

US air strikes have damaged morale in Raqqa, Syria, but a local anti-Isis activist says no one is expecting the group to be driven out



When Isis took over Raqqa, a wave of black swept over the city. The group’s dark flags were raised where its members lived or worked, women were required to shroud themselves in black, and black paint was daubed on buildings and in public spaces.

When US air strikes started, though, activists warned families not to dry dark clothes outside or on their roofs, in case they were mistaken for Isis flags. Perhaps Isis was worried, too, as it has started repainting everything. One central square, where crucifixion and other gruesome punishments are carried out in public, has been decked out in candy colours – pink, green and white. Another is golden.

Apparently, the pressures of publicity and the mundane and expensive business of ruling a city have pushed even Isis to make some compromises.

Last summer, crimes like smoking or failing to shutter a shop during prayer time would have earned transgressors several dozen lashes, but some religious police have started to accept fines in place of punishment from those who can afford it. There are even reports that they have been forcing traders to stay open through prayers, so that they can collect more money from them – around 1,500 Syrian pounds (around £5) each time.

It is not just money that they are short of. They lack blood for fighters injured in air strikes or on the frontline. People don’t want to donate, so they compel them. Anyone with business at the Islamic court is told first to go to a certain hospital, donate a pint of blood, then return with the receipt. Only then will the case be processed.

You can’t pay your way out of that donation, even if you do have money, which not everyone does. They have shut down many companies, including legal firms, for instance. Isis doesn’t believe in the old legal system, claiming that it tries to replace Allah’s law with the law of men.

Isis doesn’t want people to work, it just wants them to suffer, so that the men will join the group, and the women will marry Isis fighters. The Isis men seem to be sex-mad. They are always confiscating Viagra from pharmacies, which people think they use themselves. Many take several wives and are still looking for captives to take as concubines, like the Yazidi women.

The city has become a prison for women under 45. The regime says they cannot leave because they may be raped in areas held by Isis or other rebel groups, but most people inside Raqqa think that it is because they are desperate for more wives for the fighters.

The female brigades have put out a notice saying that anyone who wants to marry an Isis fighter should wear a white veil under their black one, and they will be contacted. Girls don’t really like them, and don’t want to marry them, but some families have economic problems.

But when the women do marry they have other problems. Some don’t even know the true identity of their husbands, only the nom de guerre; one woman’s husband was killed in battle but all she knows is that he came from Tunisia. She has no way of contacting his family, or even finding out where they are.

Isis has banned men born after 1992 from leaving the city for regime areas, to take exams, collect salaries or anything else. That means that no one can go any more, because who wants to flee to Turkey without their wife or daughters and sons?

Also, people don’t want to leave because as soon as anyone goes, Isis seizes their house. It has confiscated many homes from Christians, members of the Free Syrian Army and any activists it has caught.

Before Isis took over, the population of Raqqa was 1 million; now it is 400,000. But people say, ‘Where will I go? What will I do? I have no money to live in Turkey. And they will take my house.’ So they just stay here, waiting for an unknown tomorrow.

With no work, they mostly just stay at home watching television or using the internet. Ordinary people cannot live without internet and Isis cannot live without the internet; it’s like the heroin trade here, everyone is addicted.

They just go on Facebook or WhatsApp, since they can’t really watch videos or Skype, and in any case people worry about causing trouble with Isis. They sometimes inspect your phone at checkpoints, and if they find un-Islamic pictures or messages, you are in trouble.

People are worried about their children. No children are being forced to join up, but they are bored. They have no school, and Isis bans anyone under 13 from working. All day children are surrounded by fighters with Kalashnikovs. It’s like the movies – they see these things and eventually they want to go to the recruitment camps, so it’s very dangerous.

After being closed for a year, the schools reopened this month, but teachers had to go and denounce themselves for using “infidel” textbooks in the past. No one is happy about the new Isis ones they have been given.

School goes only up to ninth grade (middle school) and parents are so worried that their children will be brainwashed that they mostly keep them at home. A few people run small schools at home to teach their children, but it is extremely dangerous. Isis says it will kill any teachers who it catches running private schools, particularly ones for girls.

No one thinks that Isis will be forced out soon, because there are so many of them. The number of foreign fighters in the city is shocking. There is no neighbourhood without them and dozens of houses have been taken over.

People don’t look at Kobani and see a defeat, because everyone had to leave and the Americans bombed it to rubble to win. There are too many people in Raqqa to leave, and Isis knows that no countries want to send in troops to fight on the ground.

The jihadis from other countries tend to stick in groups by nationality or language – the British together, the Dutch together – and they don’t have much to do with ordinary people here. Both sides are afraid of each other.

If someone tries to talk with the foreigners, the Islamic police are likely to turn up and ask why he is bothering them, or perhaps accuse him of being a spy. But the foreigners are also nervous, perhaps because their families or governments in their countries don’t know they are here. Maybe they are worried that their photos or real names might be published, and that this will cause problems if they want to go home.

In fact, though, there is little chance of them going back. It’s easy to get into Raqqa, but very hard to get out. When foreign fighters go to Raqqa the first thing they do is confiscate their passports, and in sermons at the mosques Isis has warned people against giving foreigners new IDs.

Some of them just get bored when they arrive here from London or New York. Raqqa was never an exciting city and now there is nothing to do at all, so they lose enthusiasm. Others just came to live a good life under the caliphate, but they don’t really want to fight, so when Isis needs men and tries to take them to the frontline they are unhappy.

Isis can’t afford news to get out of people defecting, so anyone attempting to sneak out is executed in secret. They killed several people in the west of the city and just dumped their bodies in a hole until the smell got so bad that they had to bury them.

■ As told to the Observer. Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi is an activist with the group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/f ... syria-isis

[Anthea]

BBC News

Islamic State 'abducts dozens of Christians in Syria'



Islamic State (IS) has abducted dozens of Assyrian Christians from villages in north-eastern Syria, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 90 men, women and children were seized in a series of dawn raids near the town of Tal Tamr.

Some Assyrians managed to escape and made their way east to the largely Kurdish-controlled city of Hassakeh.

It comes as Syrian Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes continue to advance into IS-held territory.

Hassakeh province is strategically important in the fight against IS because it borders both Turkey and areas controlled by the group in Iraq.

'Searching for news'

Activists reported that IS fighters swept through a string of villages along the banks of the Khabur river around dawn on Monday.


There has been heavy fighting between Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants in Hassakeh province


IS has forced Christians living in its territory to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the four-year conflict in Syria, said at least 90 Assyrians had been taken captive, most of them from the village of Tal Shamran, about 45km (28 miles) from Hassakeh.

The head of the group A Demand For Action, which focuses on religious minorities in the Middle East, said between 70 and 100 were seized.

Nuri Kino told the Associated Press that about 3,000 managed to escape and had sought refuge in Hassakeh and Qamishli, to the north-east.

He said his group had spoken to several villagers and their relatives.

An Assyrian woman from Tal Shamran who lives in Beirut told AP that she had been unable to make contact with members of her family.

"Landlines have been cut, their mobiles are closed," she said. "Have they been slaughtered? Are they still alive? We're searching for any news.

"My family visited me last month and returned to Syria. There were clashes but it was normal, nothing exceptional.

"I feel so helpless. I cannot do anything for them but pray."

The Syrian Observatory also said Tal Tamr had seen heavy clashes between IS and the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia.

On Monday, the group and Kurdish officials said IS militants had been forced back to within 5km (3 miles) of the town of Tal Hamis, to the east.

Ancient community

Christians are believed to have constituted about 10% of Syria's 22 million people before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began almost four years ago.

Assyrians, of whom there were about 40,000 in Syria, are Nestorian Christians and speak Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the language of Christ.


Hundreds of thousands of Christians, many of them Assyrians, have fled Syria to escape the violence

The largest concentration of Assyrians in Syria is in Hassakeh province, but there are also smaller communities in Aleppo, Homs and Damascus.

The Assyrian villages along the Khabur river were established by the French authorities during the mandate era for Assyrians who fled persecution in Iraq in 1933.

Many Assyrians are believed to have fled Syria not only to escape the conflict in the country but also violent attacks by extremist groups like IS, which has forced Christians living in the territory it controls to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death.

It was not clear what IS intended to do with its Assyrian captives.

Earlier this month, militants in Libya affiliated to the group released a video showing them beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31601451

[Anthea]

Al-Monitor

IS’ leader assassinated from within

It was expected that the disputes among the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) in Qalamoun would lead to the dismissal of its emir Abu Aisha al-Banyasi, as he was at odds with Abu al-Walid al-Maqdisi. However, the dismissal was not expected to come in the form of a killing.

As-Safir revealed in an article published days ago the brittleness of the internal structure of IS in Qalamoun. Disputes among commanders were escalating, leading to the dismissal of the previous emir Abu al-Huda al-Talli and the assignment of Banyasi instead.

As-Safir was able to secure information from a member of IS in Qalamoun’s media team who affirmed that the assignment of Banyasi did not solve the problem, and his dismissal was expected at any moment. However, and despite the gloomy situation the member depicted — describing it as a "crisis of hypocrisy" and saying that "disputes are not among individuals but are much deeper" — the dramatic escalation leading to the killing of Banyasi was not foreseen.

Disputes revolved around the stand vis-à-vis Jabhat al-Nusra, especially after the arrival of Maqdisi and the issuance of a statement accusing Jabhat al-Nusra of treason and betrayal. A number of IS commanders refused to follow the lead of Maqdisi. As a result, two camps emerged, and entered in fierce conflicts. After apologizing to the commander of Jabhat al-Nusra in Qalamoun, Abu Malik al-Talli, for Maqdisi's statement, Abu al-Huda al-Talli was the first to pay the price. Subsequently, Abu Malik al-Talli was dismissed and replaced by Banyasi.

Information indicates that Maqdisi was the one to name Banyasi as a replacement, based on his composure and neutrality toward the dispute that erupted over Jabhat al-Nusra. Easily convinced and influenced, Maqdisi believed Banyasi to be the best candidate. Maqdisi ended up surprised, however. Upon assuming the position, Banyasi proved no different than his predecessor, refusing to act against Jabhat al-Nusra and its commander. He also refused to take escalatory measures against the organization. This raised the ire of Maqdisi, who started to think about ousting Banyasi.

At the same time, an incident took place that may have pushed the personal sensitivity between the two men to its zenith, rendering any reconciliation impossible. Maqdisi had a quarrel with Jabhat al-Nusra checkpoint guards, which ended up with his arrest and that of his guards. Banyasi mediated with Abu Malik al-Talli to release them, and indeed, he responded and Maqdisi was released a few hours later. However, following the incident, the dispute between Maqdisi and Banyasi became further entrenched and a few days later, the killing of Banyasi came as a shock to everyone.

IS remained silent about the death of Banyasi and tried to keep it low profile. It was leaked that Banyasi was killed by a regime-led airstrike. However, it was not long until it was revealed that the killing resulted from internal disputes. Although some IS media figures are still trying to deny it, saying that the rumored news is yet another media propaganda barrage the organization has been facing since its inception, they were not able to give a clear answer about the true details of the killing. They hid behind the pretext that they were not able to communicate with their leadership to fact check the information.

According to information leaked a couple of days ago by Jabhat al-Nusra media spokespeople, who publicly celebrated the death of Banyasi, the dispute between Maqdisi and Banyasi reached a deadlock. This happened after Maqdisi issued a fatwa against Banyasi due to his amicable ties with Jabhat al-Nusra, which was clearly shown through the mediation he made with its commander to release Maqdisi. Some Jabhat al-Nusra spokespeople noted that Banyasi had a "calm temper and was loved by everyone." Such a personality did not match the aspirations of Maqdisi, who wanted a spiteful person who can be influenced by his takfiri penchants. This is why it was imperative to get rid of him.

Regardless of the details of the killing and who the perpetrators are, whether Maqdisi or Abu Balqiss (the military emir of IS), the incident will inevitably constitute a new twist of events not in the restructuring of IS but on the level of the developments in Qalamoun. This is particularly true concerning relations between IS and Jabhat al-Nusra and its repercussions on the battles fought against the Syrian army and Hezbollah. Will this incident constitute the first step toward the collapse of IS in Qalamoun or a catalyst for commanders to give up on Syrian nationals and hand the emirate over to "foreigners" with all the ensuing extremism toward other parties?

On another note, Turkish forces entered Syrian territory and went as deep as 30 kilometers (19 miles) under the pretext of moving the remains of Suleiman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

Relying on an agreement concluded with the French mandate as a pretext, Turkish authorities occupied Syrian land near the border to bury the remains before returning them to their initial location [at some future point in time]. However, it seems that the goal of Turkey is far from just restoring the remains and occupying the land. Such a move seems to be aimed at ending the aspirations of Kurds for an autonomous government in the areas under Turkish control. Moreover, Turkish authorities are preparing for the likelihood of IS launching an attack after Turkey signed an agreement with the United States to train "moderate" Syrian armed individuals in order to attack IS and other terrorist groups in Syria.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/securit ... usted.html

[Piling]

IS influence in different countries.

[Anthea]

The British media keep telling us that the Islamic State are on the point of collapse

Do you think that possibly the media are telling us terminological inexactitudes

Or in plain English:

Do you think the British media are a bunch of lying shitbags

[Anthea]

Devastation Awaits Kobani Returnees
By Joanna Paraszczuk

When 60-year-old Warda and her family fled the Islamic State group's advance on their hometown of Kobani in November, they could not take anything apart from the clothes on their backs.

"We left our houses, our belongings, our cars. The only things we managed to save were our children's souls," she said.

Warda's family owned several shops that sold televisions and phones, she said. The family also owned land and farms. All that was left behind when the family had to flee for their lives, crossing first into Turkey and then going on to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Warda's story, or part of it, is told in a video interview made in December by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).

Two million people were displaced by the Islamic State group in 2014, according to DFID. The offensive by the Islamic State group in Kobani caused some 150,000 people to leave the town and its surrounding villages to flee to Turkey. There are different figures circulating for the number of internally displaced Syrians from Kobani, with Kurdish politicians saying that more than 200,000 have entered Turkey since September 2014.

The flood of internally displaced people from the area came after Islamic State militants executed hundreds of local residents, saying that they were infidels, the IS term for anyone who is not a Muslim.

Many families, like that of Warda, fled with nothing except the clothes they were wearing.

"No one would flee their home for joy," Warda said.

The family now live in a refugee camp in northern Iraq.

"When we first arrived, there was nothing here. We were desperate for almost everything...When we first arrived we were going to starve," she recalls. The family needed food, clothes and mattresses to sleep on.

As she lights a small kerosene lamp, Warda describes the cold she and her family have felt in the camp during the winter months. "I think we could die from this cold. Without kerosene neither people nor animals could survive this cold," she says

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, supplied the family with the basics -- sugar, rice, lentils, soap, and shampoo, Warda says.

"At least we can feed our children now," she adds.

phpBB [video]

Since the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, pushed Islamic State militants out of Kobani in January, some refugees have started to return to the area.

An estimated 25,000 people have now returned to the region, but just as with the number of displaced persons, no one is certain of the exact number of returnees. What is certain, however, is that those who have returned have found their home town devastated by the fighting.

Anwar Muslim, the chairman of Kobani's city council, told Deutsche Welle on February 23 that over 70 percent of Kobani is destroyed and 40 percent is completely ruined, particularly in the southeast of the city.

http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-st ... 77293.html

[Anthea]

Kurdish forces arrest pro-ISIS cell near Syria’s Afrin

A member of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) told ARA News that on Monday, the Kurdish anti-terrorism units in the Jenders area near the city of Afrin in Aleppo province, northern Syria, arrested what they described as a “terrorist cell”.

The cell raised the flag of the Islamic State on a primary school and was reportedly preparing to detonate explosives within the school.

The source pointed out that the Kurdish security forces of the Asayish in Afrin received information about the suspects’ movements in the vicinity the school two days ago, before arresting them.

“The Kurdish forces arrested 30 pro-ISIS suspects, most of whom are members of one family, while the Kurdish counter-terrorism units discovered a number of weapons and explosive devices in the homes of the suspects,” the source told ARA News, pointing out that interrogations are still ongoing.

Noteworthy, a printed announcement was distributed in the streets of Jender days before the incident, under the banner of the Islamic State, urging people to rise up against the Kurdish forces in Afrin and its environs.

http://aranews.net/2015/03/kurdish-forc ... ias-afrin/