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US warship arrives in Gulf with Marines, aircraft IRAQ WAR III

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
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August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
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October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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« on: June 16, 2014, 11:25:04 am »

US warship arrives in Gulf with Marines, aircraft
6/16/14
http://news.yahoo.com/us-warship-arrives-gulf-marines-aircraft-143729784.html

Washington (AFP) - A US warship entered the Persian Gulf on Monday carrying hundreds of marines and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in case they are needed to protect Americans in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

"Its presence in the Gulf adds to that of other US naval ships already there -- including the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush -- and provides the commander-in-chief additional options to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, should he choose to use them," Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

The USS Mesa Verde, an amphibious dock ship, is carrying 550 Marines, as well as MV-22 Osprey aircraft capable of quickly moving up to 22 marines at a time over long distances.

The deployment comes in the wake of a stunning offensive by Islamist militants across Sunni areas of northern Iraq that has left Iraqi army forces in disarray.

President Barack Obama is weighing US options, including possible air strikes to halt the Islamist advance toward Baghdad, officials said.

The US embassy in Baghdad has begun reducing personnel in Iraq, and stepping up security

Kirby said the Mesa Verde has completed its transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

It followed the carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which entered the Gulf over the weekend with two warships armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles: the destroyer USS Truxton and the cruiser USS Philippines Sea.
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« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2014, 06:14:19 pm »

BREAKING NEWS: Obama says up to 275 U.S. military troops will deploy to Iraq @AP
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« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2014, 08:17:45 am »

IRAQSYRIAJORDAN borders crumble...
http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-lands-baghdad-press-maliki-insurgency-spreads-081007211.html

Jihadists now using American Humvees in Syria...
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-jihadists-now-using-humvees-seized-iraq-174644871.html

ISIS Hoodies, T-Shirts for Sale Online as Islamist 'Brand' Goes Global...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-hoodies-t-shirts-sale-online-islamist-brand-goes-global-1453715

AAA: Gas Prices Up 9 Days In A Row Amid Iraq Turmoil...

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/06/23/aaa-iraq-civil-war-pushing-up-gas-prices-in-us/

ISLAMIC LAW SPREADS IN IRAQ...
http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-militants-turning-back-clock-captured-mosul-133453638.html;_ylt=AwrBJR9J.qZTUTgAqznQtDMD

REPORT: Judge Who Sentenced Saddam to Death is Captured and Executed by ISIS...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/report-judge-who-sentenced-saddam-hussein-to-death-captured-executed-by-isis/

BLAIR: Removing him did not cause this crisis...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c288d8c-f898-11e3-815f-00144feabdc0.html

Insurgents capture fourth town...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/22/iraq-qaeda-sunni-syria/11232403/

Rand Paul blames crisis on Bush administration...
http://thehill.com/policy/international/210181-send-back-troops-to-iraq-cheney-says
 Cheesy

Cheney: 'We've got a hell of a problem'...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/22/cheney-middle-east-weve-got-hell-problem/

Where's Biden?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/06/20/231062/on-iraq-wheres-biden.html?sp=/99/104/244/106/

Kerry arrives on scene...
http://thehill.com/policy/international/210199-kerry-in-iraq-to-rally-factions
 Cheesy
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« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2014, 10:51:19 am »

Yeah, look how this Hegelian Dialectic game is really spinning out of control now - the "truth" movement has been pushing this "Obama the Hitler-esque Dictator" idea. The "truth" movement LOVES Ron/Rand Paul. Rand Paul points fingers at Cheney(and gives Obama a pass). Dick Cheney points fingers at Obama.

Is it just me, or is anyone else finding this little sideshow mildly entertaining?

As for Dick Cheney - I know these elections are pre-determined and rigged, but nonetheless the GOP voters SHOULD have SENSED something was WRONG when he was picked to be Bush's VP running mate in 2000(especially with alot of other attractive hot shot candidates to choose from).
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« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2014, 05:29:29 am »

THE RELIGIOUS CLEANSING OF IRAQ'S CHRISTIANS

....Iraq’s Christian community is hardly a western innovation or a colonial relic. It dates from the 1st Century, when two of Jesus’ disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) – preached the Gospel in what was then Assyria. In recent years, the Christian population has swelled, as refugees from Basra and Baghdad have sought protection. And now, as ISIS sweeps through Iraq, an estimated 150,000 have had to flee Mosul and their ancient Christian heartland, some for the second time in a decade.   

MORE: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/20/religious-cleansing-iraq-christians/

ISIS Forces Tax on Mosul Christians

 ISIS is demanding Christians in Mosul to pay a poll tax. The tax of at least $250 does not apply to Muslim citizens. Christian citizens may have to pay more depending on their profession.

Council of High Commission for Human Rights in Iraq member Salama Al Khafaji said, "The economic situation in Mosul is extremely difficult, and there are no financial resources or job opportunities except for vegetable shops, any other businesses are non-existent. Citizens are at a loss now as to how to make ends meet; how can they pay those amounts to ISIS?"

A previous decree from ISIS demanded that unmarried women of Mosul be presented to "jihad by sex."
"Therefore we request that the people of this state offer their unmarried women so that they can fulfill their duty of jihad by sex to their brotherly mujahideen. Failure to comply with this mandate will result in enforcing the laws of Sharia upon them," the order stated.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/isis-forces-tax-on-mosul-christians.html
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« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2014, 09:13:21 am »

Russia will not sit idly by as jihadists press Iraq assault
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Damascus on Saturday that his country "will not remain passive" as jihadists push an offensive in Syria's neighbour Iraq. 

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-not-sit-idly-jihadists-press-iraq-assault-133213933.html


The surprising appeal of ISIS

In trying to explain ISIS’s rapid success, alarmed observers have pointed to the extreme tactics that drew condemnation even from Al Qaeda: mass executions, beheadings, and crucifixions. Some see local conspiracies, believing Arab governments allowed the group to grow in order to justify their own heavy-handed crackdowns. 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/06/28/the-surprising-appeal-isis/l9YwC0GVPQ3i4eBXt1o0hI/story.html


Iraq 'receives Russian fighter jets' to fight rebels
Iraq says it has received the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help it as it fights an offensive by Sunni rebels. Iraqi security officials said five second-hand Sukhoi attack aircraft would enter service within a few days, and that more were on their way. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28077273


Without allies against ISIS, US finds itself in the same camp as Iran, its sworn enemy

From the start of the so called Arab spring, America has time and time again initiated moves which set it at odds with its traditional allies in the Middle East, to the extent that today it can only watch impotently developments in the region. Iraq is a case in point. ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – is a jihadist terrorist organization that has already taken large areas in Syria and made significant gains in Iraq.   

http://www.jpost.com/International/Has-America-painted-itself-into-a-corner-360880


Isis crucifies nine people in Syrian villages
A man has survived being crucified by Isis in Syria, after the jihadists raided his village and nailed him to a cross for eight hours. The unnamed man from Al-Bab, near the border with Turkey, was crucified as a punishment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. He managed to survive the ordeal.   

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10933851/Isis-crucifies-nine-people-in-Syrian-villages.html
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« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2014, 10:31:12 am »

Armageddon on the doorstep: the ISIS conquest of Iraq leads to Jerusalem – are you ready for the next world war?

As we witness the brutalization of Iraq by the ISIS terror organization consider this: this Islamic march of death leads to Jerusalem. The leading result of the call of the people in the Arab world for the overthrow of unsatisfactory leaders has been their cause being hijacked by insurgent jihadist terrorists.

We saw that in Libya with the fall of Gadhafi. We saw it in Egypt where Mubarak was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood, in this case an in-house jihadist movement. We see it in Syria where the people’s cry against Assad has led to an influx of Al-Qaida type groups vying for dominance. Now we witness the conquest of Iraq by a vicious Islamic terror regime against which Al-Qaida pales into moderation.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) is headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He transformed a few small terror cells into the most brutal and lethal terror group on earth. Mercy is not in this man’s vocabulary. Abu Bakr picked up the mantle after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in 2010. Al-Qaida in Iraq was under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who, in a 2005 letter to the head of Al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, put the aims of Al-Qaida in Iraq into four stages;

1. Drive America out of Iraq.

2. Create a Caliphate in Iraq.

3. Use that as a base to attack other countries.

4. Attack Israel.

When both al-Zarqawi and al-Baghdadi were killed by American forces it looked as if Al-Qaida was decimated in Iraq, but Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reformed a weakening terror group by leading it in battle, honing its fighters’ training and experience in Iraq and Syria, and by using political savvy to link his growing group to local and tribal demands and interests. It became both a fighting force and a social benefactor, winning local hearts and minds along a bloody path of victory. He absorbed the al-Nusra Front terror group in Syria into his ranks, demanding their obedience. Seeing the growing threat, Al-Qaida’s al-Zarqawi, from his hiding place somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan, criticized ISIS for not concentrating on Iraq. In response, a confident ISIS hit back, accusing the Al-Qaida chief of “Sheikh Osama (bin Laden) gathered all the mujahedeen with one word, but you divided them and tore them apart.”

ISIS has attracted thousands of foreign fighters to its ranks, increasing its power and size. The shockwaves caused by its Iraqi Blitzkreig in seizing the towns of Mosul, Tikrit, and Fallujah was met by a mocking response by ISIS.

    “The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. Put on your belts and get ready” as they contemptuously called Iraqi leader, Nouri al-Maliki, an “underwear salesman.”

Clearly, the battle for Iraq is along sectarian lines with the Sunni ISIS, representing the majority of Iraqis, challenging the Shia al-Maliki rule. Clear also was al-Maliki’s refusal to allow American forces to stay on in Iraq, but the ISIS victories were enhanced by the military vacuum in Iraq following the American pullout, and this responsibility can be put at Obama’s White House door.

Obama’s self-proclaimed foreign-policy “achievements” have been U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, and “Al-Qaida has been decimated and is on the run!” These two boasts have now come back to haunt him. Al-Qaida has morphed into a bigger monster that is about to take over Iraq. And what was President Obama’s response?

    “We don’t have the resources. Let the local leaders deal with them.”

This is shortsighted weakness, and dangerous. This was emphasized on Friday, June 13, when Obama, confronted by the deteriorating situation in Iraq, decided to head off to California for a fund-raising event and some golf. America spilled blood and treasure in Iraq including 4500 lives, $17 billion in military training to Iraqi forces, and $15 billion in military equipment. Now ISIS terrorists are seen driving around in American military Humvees.

The United States embassy in Baghdad is the largest global American embassy. It has 15,000 workers. It would be a mistake to think that they did not pick up intelligence on the gathering Islamic terror storm. They did, and it fed it up the chain to the State Department and the White House, for months. Neither of those bodies acted on the intel. As one staffer told Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters,

    “We couldn’t convince the President that this is serious!”

Now the Baghdad embassy could be under ISIS fire, making Benghazi look like child’s play. And the attack on Americans will not end there. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was captured, imprisoned, and then released by America in Iraq, just as Obama recently released the five top Al-Qaida/Taliban prisoners at Gitmo.

America, and others, will pay for both these foolish gestures. As Ken King, the commander of the Bucco Camp that was ordered to release al-Baghdadi, related on the Fox News “Kelly Files” program, as a parting shot the ISIS leader glared at King and warned:

    “I’ll see you in New York!”

In a strange twist on “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Republican lawmakers called for a partnership with Iran to stop ISIS from attacking Baghdad. Senator Lindsey Graham warned that ISIS “will eventually march on Jordan and Lebanon. They’re going to take the King of Jordan down.” The unspoken implication is that Israel will be next. ISIS is now pumping Iraqi oil. It grabbed half a trillion dollars when it seized Iraq’s central bank in Mosul making it the richest terrorist organization in the world. ISIS has been called too extreme for Al-Qaida with justification. Al-Baghdadi is being crowned “the next Bin Laden.”



ISIS is guilty of wholesale massacres in Syria, leaving the bodies to rot for all to see. It beheaded a top rival rebel commander, leaving his head in the middle of the market. Amnesty International listed a few of their atrocities in their 18-page report “Rule of fear;ISIS abuses in detention is northern Syria.”

    “They have conducted hundreds of executions, beheadings, even crucifixions in Mosul, Iraq. They destroy anything that is not Islamic, such as the Assyrian Church in Mosul. Hundreds have been slain for being “infidels.”

Once Islamic ISIS establishes its permanent presence in Iraq, as Hizb’allah has done in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, it will strengthen its grip on Syria. While looking down on Israel from the Golan Heights, it is likely to turn its attention to a militarily weak Lebanon, seeking to remove the Shiite Hizb’allah from power, taking over its armory of a hundred thousand rockets, and taking control of that country.

From its northern stronghold in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria it will target Jordan with the intention of deposing, or killing, the Hashemite king, as a preliminary step to taking over his country. If America, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia do not immediately move to strengthen the kingdom, King Abdullah will be exposed to mortal danger, granting ISIS control over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in their march to a global Caliphate, and Stage 4 of their original plan. Israel would be advised to keep a sharp eye on future moves by ISIS to attack or infiltrate Jordan via Syria.

Who is to say that radical Palestinians and Islamists in Jordan will not open the gates of that country to ISIS, just as Syrians reached out to them at their cost? When that scenario is achieved, Israel will be exposed to a threatening and powerful terror enemy stretching from Rosh HaNikra on the northern Mediterranean to Mount Hermon in the northeast of Israel, sweeping through the Golan Heights and down the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea and the Red Sea in the south. In the turmoil that is the Middle East, where regimes are falling and nations are toppling, who is to say that such a nightmare scenario is not possible unless ISIS is stopped in its tracks now?



- See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/armageddon-on-the-doorstep-the-isis-conquest-of-iraq-leads-to-jerusalem-are-you-ready-for-the-next-world-war_062014#sthash.nKprB7mM.dpuf

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« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2014, 09:22:33 pm »

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/rise-isis-heightens-threat-terrorism-west-experts-warn-n141661
Rise of ISIS Heightens Threat of Terrorism to West, Experts Warn
6/29/14

The military success of al Qaeda-inspired terrorists in Iraq is a propaganda coup for the recruitment of Western jihadists who could pose a domestic terror threat to countries including the United States, intelligence experts say.

The rapid advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is creating an online buzz that is “very attractive” to potential foreign fighters – and a national security headache for counter-terrorism officials around the world.

An estimated 12,000 foreign fighters are already believed to be helping ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Around 3,000 of those are believed to be from Western nations - including about 100 from America. The recent release of an ISIS propaganda video featuring English-speaking jihadists from Britain and Australia is aimed at boosting those numbers.

The already-slick ISIS online propaganda campaign targeting would-be Western fighters has exploded, experts say.

"Since the incursion of ISIS in Iraq, I don’t think I’ve ever seen jubilation this high," said Joseph Carter, research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at London’s Kings College. "The ISIS hashtag, which averaged about 1,000 hits before the Iraqi invasion, is now averaging 30,000 to 40,000 hits on some days. We are seeing Facebook pages of Western foreign fighters standing on top of Humvees on what used to be U.S. military equipment.”

Shiraz Maher, senior research fellow at ICSR, added: “These are very young men and it seems pretty cool when you see your buddies standing on tanks with Kalashnikovs - you want to be part of that. For that kid who thinks, 'This is cool, I want to be part of the winning team,' who’s attracted to that sort of thing and who is likely to go for the adventure, it’s a very attractive proposition right now.”

Richard Barrett, former head of counter-terrorism at Britain’s MI6 spy agency, said: “It’s potentially quite alluring because it’s an opportunity which won’t appear again and, if you are that age when you are attracted to go and do that adventurous unknown, and engage in a foreign war … it doesn’t get any better than this. I think more people will go and fight for whatever reason.”

He mentioned the case of a young Florida man, named by the State Department as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who was suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing in Syria last month.

Barrett, who is now senior vice president of the New York-based Soufan Group, added: “The fact is that Americans have gone [to Syria] and also quite recently we saw a young man from Florida. He seemed a perfectly normal guy, seemed well-socialized … seems very cheerful, enjoying himself … and blows himself up. So it’s really hard for the rest of us to understand what is driving that person to take that kind of action.

“So we can assume that, although it may be distant … there are going to be enough people who are seriously motivated by the thought of participation to see the number of Americans increase.”

Radicalized Westerners returning to their old lives are considered the biggest terror risk in many European countries. British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier this month described it as “the most serious threat to Britain's security that there is today."

A French national who fought in Syria is the suspect the killing of four tourists at the Jewish museum in Brussels on May 24 - the first deadly terror attack in Europe directly linked to the Syrian battlefield. In Spain, suspected militants were arrested on June 16 on suspicion of recruiting fighters for ISIS.

The increased online buzz is placing a huge strain on intelligence services in the West as they try to monitor and contain the threat from radicalized Muslims.

Britain’s former top counter-terrorism detective told NBC News that police in the U.K. are now being contacted “every day” by people concerned that family members or neighbors could be preparing to fight for ISIS.

“I think that number is going up and up and up as people are watching what's happening and the horrors of Syria and Iraq,” said Cressida Dick, who until last week was head of specialist operations for London’s Metropolitan Police. “Some people returning from Syria and Iraq will undoubtedly simply just return and carry on normal lives. A proportion, if they are not killed or arrested on the way back, may pose a threat here.”

About 300 fighters have already returned to Britain from Syria. “While not every one of them poses a threat, clearly there is potential for a large number of them to be of concern,” a senior British intelligence source said. “It’s simply not possible to monitor so many people for 24 hours a day for an unlimited amount of time. There just aren't the resources."

In the past 18 months, British authorities have arrested 65 people returning from Syria and government ministers say they are approving spy warrants every week to allow security services to monitor potential British-based terrorists. U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May warned on Monday that terrorists in Iraq were “just a few hours flying time” from Britain “and want to attack us.”

However, Dick said heightened concern about the risk of radicalized Muslims had also led to more proactive calls to police. “More and more people are saying: ‘I absolutely don’t want my brother, son, father, mother - whoever it is - to go out there and I will do everything to stop them, and that includes telling the police’.”

Michael Leiter, NBC News' counter-terrorism and national security analyst, said he was "flabbergasted" by the extent of the problem posed by jihadists travelling abroad to fight and then returning to the West.

"For the United States and Western Europe, this is a very significant threat –- probably as significant and complex a threat as we have faced since 9/11," Leiter said. "The numbers involved are vastly higher than in previous conflicts such as Afghanistan and Somalia or Yemen. ISIS advances in Iraq brings the problem of more Western recruits and access to resources in captured areas such as money and military-grade equipment."

He added: "They are very hard to track because the route in and out of Iraq and Syria is through mainstream Europe. All they have to do is travel through, for example, Turkey and we don’t know if they’ve joined in a war or gone on a summer break."
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« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2014, 05:43:45 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-weighs-strikes-on-hamas-in-west-bank--gaza-after-teenagers-found-dead-211214411.html

Israel weighs strikes on Hamas in West Bank, Gaza after teenagers found dead
Military experts say Netanyahu's options might be limited

The Israeli government is weighing a possible broad offensive against Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after soldiers on Monday discovered the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who went missing 18 days ago — though it appears to have few good options for dealing with the Islamic group.

A team that included infantry soldiers and civilian volunteers spotted the remains of young men during a search near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. They were buried near a dirt road, under a layer of brush and stones, according to people who participated in the search. The three appeared to have been shot.

The discovery ended a wrenching drama for Israel that began with the June 12 disappearance of the three young men, aged 16 to 19. Israel accused Hamas of abducting the teens, who studied at religious seminaries in settlements in the West Bank and had been hitchhiking when they were grabbed. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, but its top officials praised the kidnapping.

The ordeal prompted an Israeli sweep against the group in the Hebron area, where the youngsters had been last seen — the broadest incursion in more than a decade. Soldiers killed at least five Palestinians in and around the city over the past two weeks, including a 15-year-old boy, and arrested more than 300 people. It also triggered calls within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for an aggressive campaign against Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis over the years in suicide bombings and other attacks.

Netanyahu convened his security Cabinet after nightfall to hear what intelligence officials had pieced together regarding the kidnapping and discuss the range of possible measures against Hamas. Before it commenced, several members of his government said they sought a decision to destroy the group altogether.

“Israelis have the willingness and the fortitude necessary to endure the hardships of a long-lasting operation aimed at eradicating Hamas,” said Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon in a statement.

“We will not stop until Hamas is completely defeated. The homes of the terrorists must be demolished and their arms caches destroyed,” he said.

Danon is a member of Netanyahu’s own center-right Likud Party. His governing coalition also includes the far-right Jewish Home Party, whose representatives are expected to take an even tougher stand in the Cabinet meeting.

But while Netanyahu himself has made strong statements against Hamas, his options for dealing with the group appeared to be limited, according to military experts.

The group’s forces are concentrated in the Gaza Strip, a territory Hamas has controlled since 2007. Israeli warplanes have struck Gaza regularly over the years, usually in response to rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory. But a broader offensive against the Gaza Strip would entail certain complications for Israel.


For one thing, it would draw barrages of rocket fire on Israel’s big cities, including Tel Aviv. In Israel’s 2012 offensive against Gaza, Hamas fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel, killing four civilians.

And any real bid to destroy Hamas’ caches would require Israel to send ground troops to Gaza, an endeavor that would likely be bloody and unpopular.


“If the goal is to create large-scale damage to the infrastructure in Gaza, it can be done from the air,” says Shaul Shay, a retired colonel and former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council. “But if the goal is to change the strategic environment, you need boots on the ground.”

Shay said that even if Netanyahu was willing to fight a ground war in Gaza, soldiers would have to remain in the Gaza Strip for months or longer to ensure Hamas does not reconstitute its capabilities — a commitment few Israeli politicians are willing to make.

The Cabinet meeting was expected to run into the night.

Israeli media said the three teens — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16 — appeared to have been killed soon after their abduction. Fraenkel held both Israeli and American citizenship. Security officials initially assessed that Hamas would try to trade the seminary students for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, but no offer was made.

In 2011, Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinians in exchange for the return of Gilad Shalit, a soldier grabbed five years earlier near the Gaza border.

Israeli security officials had named two suspects in the current kidnapping, both Hamas activists from the Hebron area. Soldiers raided their homes several times over the past two weeks and detained family members for questioning.
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« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2014, 04:49:56 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-bombs-gaza-sites-hours-bodies-israeli-teens-055135800.html
Israel bombs Gaza sites hours after bodies of Israeli teens found
7/1/14

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the military said, and troops opened fire and killed a Palestinian during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medics said.

The raid came hours after Israel found the bodies of three Israeli teens in the occupied West Bank who went missing on June 12. Israel has blamed the Islamist Hamas group for their abduction near a Jewish settlement and has arrested dozens of the groups members in the past three weeks.

The air strikes, however, while numerous, did not depart radically from Israel's usual response to Palestinian rocket fire into its territory and as the Israeli cabinet weighed its actions against Hamas, there was no sign the Jewish state was poised to launch a major assault on the Palestinian enclave.

The military said that its aircraft bombed 34 Gaza sites, most of them belonging to Hamas, in response to 18 rockets fired into Israel since Sunday. Two people were lightly wounded, Gaza medical officials said.

In the West Bank, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, troops opened fire at a man, identified by Palestinian officials as Yousouf Ibrahim abu Zagha, 19, who threw an explosive device at soldiers who were attempting to arrest a militant in the Jenin refugee camp.

The military added that three Palestinians were detained in the West Bank on Tuesday. Palestinian officials said five were arrested.
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« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2014, 05:32:19 pm »

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/iraq-battles-isis-militants-tikrit-following-declaration-n144121
Iraq Battles ISIS Militants in Tikrit Following Declaration
7/1/14

the city of Tikrit on Monday after its leader was declared caliph of a new Islamic state in lands seized this month across a swathe of Iraq and Syria. Alarming regional and world powers, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) claimed universal authority when it dropped the local element in its name and said its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as leader of the Islamic State, was now caliph of the Muslim world - a medieval title last widely recognized in the Ottoman sultan deposed 90 years ago after World War One.

The move, which follows a three-week drive for territory by ISIS militants and allies among Iraqi's Sunni Muslim minority, aims to erase international borders drawn by colonial powers and defy Baghdad's U.S.- and Iranian-backed, Shiite-led government. It also poses a direct challenge to the global leadership of al Qaeda, which has disowned it, and to conservative Gulf Arab Sunni rulers who already view the group as a security threat. Tikrit was the home city of Saddam Hussein, whose overthrow by U.S. forces in 2003 ended a long history of domination by Sunnis over what is today a Shiite majority in Iraq.
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« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2014, 10:34:43 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-parliament-meet-early-next-week-113837889.html
Iraqi parliament to meet early next week
7/8/14

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament Tuesday officially rescheduled its next session for early next week after criticism over initial plans for a five-week break, amid pressure for political leaders to agree on a new government that can confront militants who have overrun much of the country's north and west.

Acting parliament speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh said in a statement that after considering the "national interests," the next session will be on Sunday instead of Aug. 12.

He warned that any delay in forming a new government "will jeopardize Iraq's security and democracy and will increase the suffering of Iraqis." He also called on all political rivals to "shoulder their responsibilities and set aside their differences to fight terrorism to put Iraq back on democracy path."

Al-Hafidh's statement made official what he had said late Monday was a "preliminary agreement" among political leaders to skip the long break and move the next session up to Sunday.

Lawmakers are under pressure to quickly form a new government that can unite the country and roll back the insurgents. The legislature held its first session since April elections last week, but failed to agree on a new speaker, president and prime minister.

Despite the decision to meet Sunday instead of next month, it still appears unlikely that political leaders will be able to bridge their differences in time to settle on names for the top leadership posts — particularly the prime minister, with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki resisting a campaign to replace him.

Al-Maliki's State of Law bloc won the largest share of seats in April's election, securing 92 out of parliament's 328 seats. But he is far short of the majority needed to govern, which means he needs allies to cobble together a coalition government.

His opponents — and many former allies — want him removed, accusing him of monopolizing power during his eight years in office and contributing to the current crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with Sunnis. But he has vowed he will not abandon his bid for a third consecutive term.
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« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2014, 11:46:48 am »

Shocking moment ISIS militants take sledgehammers to Mosul tomb of Prophet Jonah as more than 50 blindfolded bodies are found massacred south of Baghdad

    ISIS militants filmed taking sledgehammers to tombstones in Mosul, Iraq
    Donning balaclavas and black clothing, they swung weapons into tombs
    One grave belonged to Prophet Jonah, revered by Muslims and Christians
    Rebels believe special veneration of tombs is against teachings of Islam
    Comes as more than 50 bodies have been found in city south of Baghdad
    Most of the bodies were blindfolded with gunshot wounds, said authorities
    Investigation is underway to establish the circumstances of the killings


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2685923/Shocking-moment-ISIS-militants-sledgehammers-Mosul-tomb-Prophet-Jonah-50-blindfolded-bodies-massacred-south-Baghdad.html
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« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2014, 08:12:45 pm »

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/24/world/iraq-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
7/24/14
Officials: ISIS blows up Jonah's tomb in Iraq

(CNN) -- If you blink during the video, you might miss the moment Jonah's tomb in Mosul, Iraq, explodes.

The first few frames show the revered shrine towering over its landscape. There's a sudden burst of dust, fire and smoke.

Then, nothing.

CNN could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video, which was posted to YouTube.

The holy site is thought to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale or fish in both the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions.

Militants belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, planted explosives around the tomb and detonated the explosion remotely Thursday, civil defense officials there told CNN.

The tomb was inside a Sunni mosque called the Mosque of the Prophet Younis.

ISIS is waging war against the Iraqi government and has taken over several cities. It is seeking to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses parts of Iraq and Syria and has begun imposing Sharia law in the towns it controls.

The group has threatened to destroy any shrine it deems un-Islamic.

Christian families fled Mosul this month after the al Qaeda splinter group issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living there: either convert to Islam, pay a fine or face "death by the sword."

ISIS has blown up several Sunni holy sites in the last few weeks in Mosul.

Last month, it destroyed seven Shiite places of worship in the predominantly Shiite Turkmen city of Tal Afar, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Mosul, Human Rights Watch has reported, citing local sources.

The explosion at the tomb happened the same day eight people were killed and two others were wounded when Iraqi fighter jets bombed a store in the al-Dubat neighborhood, according to Dr. Mohammed Fadel, the director of Mosul's main hospital.

In central Baghdad, two car bombs exploded on a busy commercial street in the Karrada district. At least four people were killed and 14 others were wounded, police officials in the capital said.

Iraqi leaders elect a new president

Also Thursday, Iraqi lawmakers elected Fuad Masum to be the country's next president.

Masum is a veteran Kurdish politician and senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leadership council. He has been a member of the Iraqi parliament since 2005 and the head of the Kurdish alliance bloc there for the last four years.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Masum to congratulate him.

"They agreed on the importance of forming a new Iraqi government as quickly as possible and working to arrive at an agreed-upon road map for governance. President Masum expressed the importance of restoring trust and confidence among all of Iraq's communities and continuing to rebuild Iraq's relations in the region," according to the White House.

Meanwhile, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, was in Iraq on Thursday to meet with senior Iraqi officials.

"In our conversations I reinforced the importance of quickly forming a government that is inclusive and representative of all Iraqis.

"I also underscored the point that, in the absence of political movement, any support the U.S. Government might consider providing could have only limited, short-term effects," Austin said in a statement.
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« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2014, 07:18:23 am »

Islamic State torches 1,800-year-old church after expelling Christians

“Friday at noon was the deadline for Christian families to meet ISIS’s demands: Convert to Islam, pay an anachronistic Islamic tax for non-Muslims known as jizya, leave Mosul, or be killed. But the day before the final exodus, Christians were informed jizya was no longer an option. The order came to convert, leave, or die.”

This “anachronistic Islamic tax” is actually in the Qur’an, which no Muslim would describe as anachronistic: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29).

“ISIS Torches 1800-Year-Old Mosul Church After Expelling Christians,” by Adam Chandler, The Wire, July 22, 2014 (thanks to Darcy):

ISIS, which recently rebranded as the Islamic State, has solidified its control over Iraq’s second-largest city by imposing Sharia law and expelling Christians who won’t convert to Islam. The end of last month marked the first time a mass wasn’t held in the city in more than 1600 years.

 Then, matters got worse. From the Daily Beast:

Friday at noon was the deadline for Christian families to meet ISIS’s demands: Convert to Islam, pay an anachronistic Islamic tax for non-Muslims known as jizya, leave Mosul, or be killed. But the day before the final exodus, Christians were informed jizya was no longer an option. The order came to convert, leave, or die.

On the way out of town last week, the final 1500 families of Mosul’s Christian population reportedly robbed at ISIS checkpoints. And following Friday’s deadline, ISIS reportedly set fire to a 1800-year-old church.

#ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in #Mosul http://t.co/TA2hBFMyah pic.twitter.com/SK0F6jpQpX
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) July 20, 2014

Last month, ISIS shocked much of the world by swiftly capturing Mosul in an offensive that allowed the group to take control of major parts of northern and western Iraq. As Reuters reported, the group has managed to shore up its control over communities with a combination of force and fear. After meeting armed resistance in the town of al-Alam for nearly two weeks, here’s what the group did:

They kidnapped 30 local families and rang up the town’s most influential citizens with a simple message about the hostages: “You know their destiny if you don’t let us take over the town.”

Weeks later, according to the report, only a few gunman patrol the town at night “so comfortable is the Islamic State in its control through fear.” Since then, with Baghdad as the prize in mind, the group has grown in size from 3,000 by earlier estimates to 20,000 as last month’s offensive bolstered their standing.

http://unitycoalitionforisrael.org/uci_2014/?p=10378
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« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2014, 11:33:52 am »

Pope Francis calls for action as Iraqi Christians forced to flee

ope Francis appealed to world leaders on Thursday to help end the crisis in northern Iraq after a sweeping advance by radical Islamic state militants forced thousands of residents of Iraq's biggest Christian town to flee their homes.

"His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others," the Vatican said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/07/iraq-security-pope-idINKBN0G718P20140807
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« Reply #16 on: August 07, 2014, 11:34:53 am »

Islamic State pulls down church crosses in northern Iraq as 200,000 flee

Islamic State, the jihadist group formerly known as Isis, have occupied churches in Iraq, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts, witnesses report, having overrun Kurdish troops forcing 200,000 to flee


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11018298/Islamic-State-pulls-down-church-crosses-in-northern-Iraq-as-200000-flee.html
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« Reply #17 on: August 07, 2014, 11:36:13 am »

Looks like when the Pope talks Obama acts

Obama Weighs Airstrikes or Aid to Help Trapped Iraqis, Officials Say

President Obama is considering airstrikes or airdrops of food and medicine to address a humanitarian crisis among as many as 40,000 religious minorities in Iraq who have been dying of heat and thirst on a mountaintop after death threats from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, administration officials said on Thursday.

The president, in meetings with his national security team at the White House on Thursday morning, has been weighing a series of options ranging from dropping humanitarian supplies on Mount Sinjar to military strikes on the fighters from ISIS now at the base of the mountain, a senior administration official said.

“There could be a humanitarian catastrophe there,” a second administration official said, adding that a decision from Mr. Obama was expected “imminently — this could be a fast-moving train.”
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    People carried a wounded victim at the scene of a car bombing outside a Shiite prayer hall on Thursday in Kirkuk.
    Rebels Capture Iraq’s Largest DamAUG. 7, 2014
    Members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria paraded through Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, in June.
    Islamic Militants in Iraq Are Widely Loathed, Yet Action to Curb Them Is ElusiveAUG. 6, 2014
    Iraqi refugees on Wednesday arrived at a checkpoint controlled by Kurdish pesh merga forces after fleeing villages near Mosul.
    Sunni Extremists Repel Kurdish Forces in IraqAUG. 6, 2014

The administration official said that “the president is weighing both passive and active options,” defining passive action as dropping humanitarian supplies. He added, using an alternative name for ISIS, “More active, we could target the ISIL elements that are besieging the base of the mountain.”

The administration had been delaying taking any military action against ISIS until there is a new Iraqi government. Both White House and Pentagon officials have said privately that the United States would not intervene militarily until Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki stepped down.

But administration officials said on Thursday that the crisis on Mount Sinjar may be forcing their hand. About 40 children have already died from the heat and dehydration, according to Unicef, while as many as 40,000 people have been sheltering in the bare mountains without food, water or access to supplies.

The administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. One official said that any military action would be “limited, specific and achievable,” noting that Mr. Maliki’s political party was supposed to announce a new candidate for prime minister on Thursday, but had not yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-strikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html
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« Reply #18 on: August 07, 2014, 12:30:36 pm »

White House: 'There are no American military solutions to the problems in Iraq' - @Reuters

says it all right there. Thanx to all you vets who died or are missing limbs.




please read:
http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,2048.0.html
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« Reply #19 on: August 07, 2014, 02:58:09 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-says-gaza-war-not-over-until-demands-132742067.html
Hamas says Gaza war not over until demands met
8/7/14

GAZA CITY, Gaza City (AP) — Hamas held on Thursday its first public rally since a cease-fire with Israel, with an official vowing the militant group would never give up its arms and will continue to fight until the Gaza Strip blockade is lifted.

The uncompromising rhetoric of the official, Mushir al-Masri, comes on the third and final day of a truce in the monthlong Israel-Hamas war and at a time when Hamas and other Palestinian factions are in Cairo indirectly negotiating with Israel for a permanent cease-fire and steps to lift the seven-year-old blockade of the coastal strip by Israel and Egypt.

In Cairo, Egyptian security officials struggled to bring the two sides closer together, with one official saying that Hamas and other Gaza militants were refusing to compromise.

Unlike Hamas rallies on previous occasions, only several thousand showed up for the event in the heart of Gaza City. The modest turnout was not necessarily a sign of waning support for the group, but most likely a reflection of the fatigue felt by most of Gaza's 1.8 million residents after four weeks of a ruinous war, as well as anxiety over whether the three-day truce will be extended.

"Our fingers are on the trigger, and our rockets are trained on Tel Aviv, Lod and beyond," al-Masri told the rally.

Cairo is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on extending the 72-hour cease-fire that expires Friday morning. Hamas has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed on the coastal territory after the Islamic militant group seized power in 2007.

Israel has said the militants must disarm first, which al-Masri insisted was out of the question.

"The war is not over yet. Our men are still in the field, manning forward positions," he said. "It is out of the question that the weapons of the resistance should be on the negotiating table. They have not been put on the table and, God willing, they will never be."

Al-Masri insisted fighters are "in good shape" despite four weeks of fighting and still had tunnels extending into Israel that could be used for attacks if Hamas' demands are not met.

One of the Egyptian security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the Palestinian delegation's stance had hardened after the arrival in Cairo of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders from the Gaza Strip.

The war stemmed from the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of its members in the West Bank, as Hamas and other militants unleashed rocket fire from Gaza.

On July 8 Israel began an air campaign on the territory and nine days later it sent in ground troops it said would target rocket launchers and cross-border tunnels built by Hamas for attacks inside Israel.

Nearly 1,900 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, three-quarters of them civilians, according to the United Nations. Israel says some 900 Palestinian militants were among the dead. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and three civilians inside Israel have also been killed.
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« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2014, 08:55:22 am »

US aircraft strikes Islamic State targets in northern Iraq

US warplanes bombed Islamist fighters marching on Iraq's Kurdish capital on Friday after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent "genocide". Islamic State fighters, who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, have advanced to within a half hour's drive of Arbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a hub for US oil companies. 

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-aircraft-strikes-Islamic-State-targets-in-northern-Iraq-370513


Iraq conflict: Obama vows to stop jihadist state

US President Barack Obama has said he will not allow Sunni Muslim jihadists to carve out a "caliphate", or Islamic state, straddling Syria and Iraq. The US has been carrying out air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq. Mr Obama said there would be further air strikes if necessary but no US military operation on the ground.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28723050
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« Reply #21 on: August 11, 2014, 07:11:02 am »

Holy War Arrives in Germany

    "Never before have the sympathizers of Islamic terror appeared so openly in Germany." — Editorial, Westfalen-Blatt.

    "Anyone who thought the civil war in Syria or the barbarity of the Islamic State in Iraq does not affect us, you are wrong." — Editorial, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

    "IS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Boko Haram—these four groups are the linchpins of the attempt to bomb an unstoppable modernity back into the Middle Ages." — Editorial, Westfalen-Blatt.

    "The religions of the world are increasingly being misused for ideological struggles and excesses of violence between people of different faiths. Religions are never violent per se, but the market criers of violence are using them to promote their own interests." — Editorial, Neue Westfälische.

Supporters of the jihadist group "Islamic State" [IS] have clashed with Kurdish Yazidis in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state with the largest Muslim population in Germany.

The violence—which comes amid threats by a German jihadist to blow up an American nuclear weapons storage facility in Germany—has counter-terrorism officials concerned that radical Muslims are deliberately exploiting the ethnic and religious tensions in the Middle East to stir up trouble on the streets of Europe.

Police say the Muslim-Yazidi clash was triggered after six Islamists stormed a restaurant in the eastern Westphalian town of Herford at around 4 pm on August 7. The Muslims were attempting forcibly to remove a poster inviting people to join a demonstration in support of the Yazidis in Iraq.

Thousands of Yazidis, an ethnic Kurdish non-Muslim minority, were forced to flee their homes in northern Iraq in early August to escape advancing Islamic State fighters, who are forcing the Yazidis to convert to Islam or be killed.

The 30-year-old owner of the restaurant in Herford and two others, all Yazidis, were injured in the brawl, which police say was fought with knives and bottles.

Several hours after the restaurant attack, between 300 and 500 Yazidis gathered in the Herford town center, where they clashed with a large group of hooded Salafists.

More than 100 police reinforcements from across eastern Westphalia were called in to restore order. Police, who used pepper spray to disperse the two groups, confiscated makeshift weapons and one firearm, and questioned 86 people.

In the final tally, police arrested six individuals involved in the attack on the Yazidi restaurant: Five ethnic Chechen Salafists and one German convert to Islam. According to German media, two of the individuals are leading Salafist operatives who were already being monitored by German intelligence.

A German intelligence official was quoted as saying that one of the Chechens is a trained fighter who participated in guerrilla warfare against Russian troops and who is considered to be "highly dangerous."

German authorities have long warned of the threat posed by Salafism, a radically anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic sharia law in Germany and other parts of Europe.

Membership in Islamic extremist groups in Germany rose to 43,185 in 2013, up from 42,550 in 2012, according to German intelligence estimates. The number of Salafists in Germany rose to 5,500 in 2013, up from 4,500 in 2012, and 3,800 in 2011.

Although Salafists make up only a fraction of the estimated 4.3 million Muslims in Germany, authorities are increasingly concerned that most of those attracted to Salafi ideology are impressionable young Muslims who are susceptible to perpetrating terrorist acts in the name of Islam.

North Rhine-Westphalia is home to the largest concentration (about 1,500) of Salafists in Germany. The region is also home to most of the estimated 60,000 Yazidis who live in Germany.

The area around Herford has long been a magnet for Salafists, and mosques in the town are known to convert young people to Salafism. "Even the operator of a fitness center is suspected of wanting to inspire young Germans, under the guise of sports, for Salafism," an intelligence official was quoted as saying.

More than a dozen men from the Herford area have joined IS in Syria and Iraq, and at least one, a 22-year-old German convert to Islam, is known to have been killed in the fighting.

On August 7, a German jihadist from the Westphalian city of Essen, who is believed to be fighting in Syria, threatened to bomb the American nuclear weapons storage facility situated near the city of Koblenz. The 27-year-old convert to Islam, who is known as Silvio K., also threatened to attack churches, government agencies and transport networks across Germany.

A German Interior Ministry spokesperson said that although "the threat is abstract, it may become real at any time." He said it proves that Germany "is still the focus of jihadist terrorism," especially from jihadists returning from Syria with combat experience and contacts to jihadist groups.

German commentators have reacted to the events in Herford with a sense of foreboding, with some saying that the war in Syria and Iraq has now arrived on Germany's doorstep.

In an editorial entitled, "The Madness Reaches Eastern Westphalia," the newspaper Westfalen-Blatt states:

    "The Yazidis deserve our sympathy and support as do any other oppressed people in the world. The call for participation in a demonstration against genocide, which triggered the events in Herford, is perfectly legitimate in a democracy. It is to be hoped that many German flags will be flown at the rally to protest the misuse of religion for political purposes. Hopefully Herford is not the beginning of an escalation that could reach further levels of violence over the next few days….

    "And this is frightening: Never before have the sympathizers of Islamic terror appeared so openly in Germany. These are the circles in which European fighters are recruited for jihad. This is also the milieu in which the Salafist ultra-radicals develop when they are back in Europe again. Therefore, police and secret service are required to monitor the scene closely.

    "And no, we did not know that Chechen Muslims are such vehement supporters of the IS-terrorists in Iraq. The Chechens in the southern Russian Caucasus are themselves victims of repression and human rights violations.

    "IS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Boko Haram—these four groups are the linchpins of the attempt to bomb an unstoppable modernity back into the Middle Ages. The means to this end are Sharia, hatred and glorification of a supposedly "holy" war—what madness!"

The newspaper Neue Westfälische stated:

    "When—if as now in Herford—the Kurdish Yazidi religious community and the radicalized Islamist ideology of the Salafists collide, then a city in eastern Westphalia is in danger of going up in flames.

    "The conflict between the Yazidis and Salafists has arrived at our front door because it is part of a global conflict. The religions of the world are increasingly being misused for ideological struggles and excesses of violence between people of different faiths. Religions are never violent per se, but the agents of violence are using them to promote their own interests.

    "We should not be surprised by the tumult of Wednesday, as German intelligence has long warned that Herford is a center of Salafism. The Islamists, among them Russian Chechens, who have nothing to lose and are mainly driven by poverty and hopelessness, are in our midst. And the citizens react in disbelief and resignation... a silent horror."

In an editorial entitled, "No Battleground for Radicals," the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

    "Herford is not Mosul and North Rhine-Westphalia is not Iraq. Germany must not become an arena for clashes that take place beyond our borders, but that nevertheless are close to home, just because many people from the different ethnic groups involved live permanently among us.

    "The clashes in eastern Westphalia are a warning that radical tendencies are directed not only against 'infidels,' but also against the entire Western liberal democratic order. There are indications that the attack on a Yazidi restaurant in Herford by supporters of the Islamic State was specifically planned. Perhaps it was to serve as a blueprint for a wave of hate attacks that may soon occur elsewhere. Islamic jihadists are ready for anything. This was already proved by the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, with four victims."

In another editorial entitled, "Looking the Other Way Will No Longer Work," the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung summed it up this way:

    "Anyone who thought the civil war in Syria or the barbarity of the Islamic State in Iraq does not affect us, you are now wrong. No matter how far away Qaraqosh [Iraq's largest Christian city] and Sinjar [home to the Yazidis in Iraq] may be: What happens there also affects us here in Germany. Sympathizers of the Islamic State have attacked the Yazidi in Herford, which means that Qaraqosh, Sinjar and Herford are now inseparable.

    "For far too long, Germany's political leaders, and especially the leaders of German Muslim organizations, have sat by and idly watched the proliferation of the Salafist-jihadist hatred culture, in the purported belief that it poses no danger. It is absolutely outrageous that local politicians have played down the risk of Islamism, while the capabilities of the security authorities are increasingly being overstretched by the need to deal with this threat.

    "Muslim organizations should hang their heads in shame. Rather than bluntly stating that the barbarians in northern Iraq are 'not Muslims,' they whistle away to say that Islam is 'only peace.' In the future, this kind of obfuscation will no longer suffice, especially if German Muslims, who are subject to the German legal system, wish to avoid being held accountable for the killings in the name of Islam.

    "The Islamic State under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may not last very long; but the propaganda from his jihad certainly will survive him. This is because the seeds of hatred that 'Caliph' Baghdadi has sown are far more toxic than those of Osama Bin Laden. For disaffected youth, the Islamic State exerts great appeal, and not only in Herford."

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4590/germany-jihad#
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« Reply #22 on: August 11, 2014, 07:39:13 am »

Crucified by the Caliphate monsters: Iraq descends into apocalypse as Islamic State fanatics seize towns and tell terrified Yazidi 'Become Muslims by noon today... or we kill all of you'

    Mail on Sunday reporter Ian Birrell gives shocking despatch from Irbil
    Terrified residents see Islamic State (IS) jihadists capturing nearby towns
    Refugees speak of being offered sinister ultimatum by advancing horde
    IS has shocked the world again by capturing new swathes of Iraq
    Came as U.S. stepped in and started bombing IS artillery and convoys
    Meanwhile they surround Yazidi religious minority on barren mountainside
    Some of persecuted sect escaped today by helicopter and escort


They arrived bristling with heavy weapons and waving black flags from about a dozen Humvees, seized from the Iraqi army and supplied originally by the United States.

When the terrified residents looked out of their windows, they saw that Kosho, their traditional walled village in the mountains of northern Iraq, had been surrounded by jihadists. More than 200 bearded militants had besieged the village.

Then their leader – a local man from Mosul rather than the foreigners who make up more than a third of the ranks of the group now known as Islamic State – offered them a chance to save their lives.

Scroll down for video

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2720876/Crucified-Caliphate-monsters-Iraq-descends-apocalypse-Islamic-State-fanatics-seize-towns-tell-terrified-Yazidi-Become-Muslims-noon-today-kill-you.html#ixzz3A5R0pFeZ

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« Reply #23 on: August 12, 2014, 06:54:37 am »

UK Telegraph: ISIS Militants Say, 'Our Message To the Entire World Is
That We Are the Soldiers of the Caliphate State and We Are Coming'


Video released by the Islamic State (IS) group has shown militants celebrating and raising the black IS flag over buildings and facilities in a number of key Iraqi locations under their control. The militants took control of Mosul in June, and captured a string of towns and Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam and reservoir in recent weeks. In the video, armed militants of the Islamic State group stand by a tank, holding weapons as one declares to the camera: "Our message to the entire world is that we are the soldiers of the Caliphate state and we are coming."    MORE
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11024209/IS-militants-Our-message-to-the-entire-world-is-that-we-are-the-soldiers-of-the-Caliphate-state-and-we-are-coming.html


Bryan Fischer: Clueless Or Complicit?
Obama and Islam's War With America


One thing the brutal, inhumane march of ISIS through Iraq has made clear is that Islam is at war with the West. It is now plain: it's America vs. Islam, God vs. Satan, good vs. evil. This will be a war to the death.  ISIS has warned the Yazidi that they must "become Muslims...or we kill all of you." It is their intention to do the same thing to the United States. ISIS leaders have flatly stated, "We will raise the flag of Allah in the White House" – and, "If America attacks Iraq every American embassy in the world will be exposed and attacked with car bombs." Another communique vowed: "If the United States bomb Iraq, every American citizen is a legitimate target." Well, Obama has bombed Iraq. You do the math.   MORE
http://www.onenewsnow.com/perspectives/Bryan-Fischer/2014/08/11/clueless-or-complicit-obama-and-islams-war-with-america


ISIS Swallowing Iraq: 'They're Beheading Children'

Islamic terrorists in Iraq are beheading children and burying people alive, and it won't stop there. They have a message for America: "We're coming for you." Over the past week, the army of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also known as IS (Islamic State), swallowed up swaths of Iraq like a pervading darkness. In just one day, tens of thousands of Christians fled from towns like Qaraqosh and Bartilla, about 25 miles away. Most came to the town of Erbil with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. The choice was leave or die.    MORE
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/August/ISIS-Swallowing-Iraq-Theyre-Beheading-Children-/
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« Reply #24 on: August 14, 2014, 09:36:56 pm »

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/12/isis-members-threaten-to-attack-america/
8/12/14
ISIS Members Threaten To Attack America [VIDEO]

Even as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fights to expand the territory under its control in the Middle East, statements from members of ISIS suggest the terror group views America as a future target.

“Everywhere our camera went, there seemed to be a young man eager to extol the virtues of the newly formed caliphate,” VICE Media’s Medyan Dairieh narrated in part four of his video report from the ISIS-controlled Syrian city of Raqqa, which the terror group has proclaimed the capital of its newly declared Islamic caliphate.

“I swear to Allah we will divide America in two,” one child, who looked no older than 12, declared to VICE Media in an angry rant, speaking as if he was already a member of the terror group. “And we’ll destroy the enemies of the religion all of them, all who fight the Islamic State.”

“We promise car bombs and explosives,” he said earlier in his diatribe.

At an Islamic center, VICE Media captured a group of ISIS fighters holding guns and singing a song with lyrics containing declarative statements that the group had already destroyed America and Europe, perhaps imagining a future they hope to bring about.

“We have broken America in two and we’ve annihilated the countries of Europe,” the terrorists sang.


In a previous installment of VICE Media’s video report from Raqqa, IS spokesman Abu Mosa vowed to take the White House.

“We will humiliate [the Americans] everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House,” he said. (RELATED: ISIS To America: ‘Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones‘)

Touring Raqqa, VICE Media also witnessed a man being crucified, allegedly for murder.

Since capturing large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, the formerly al-Qaida-affiliated terror group now prefers to be known simply as the Islamic State (IS).

Last week, as ISIS approached the Kurdish city of Erbil in Iraq, President Barack Obama authorized American airstrikes against the group to stop its advance.


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« Reply #25 on: August 14, 2014, 09:55:48 pm »

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/375222.html
ISIL holds 7 oil fields, large supplies of wheat in Iraq

8/14/14

ISIL Takfiri terrorists are currently in control of seven oil fields in Iraq and large amounts of the country’s wheat supplies.

Iraqi officials said on Wednesday that the militants were holding government silos in five of Iraq's most fertile provinces, where the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says 40 percent of the country’s wheat is grown.

The output capacity of the ISIL-held oil fields amounts to 80,000 barrels a day, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a monthly oil market report on Tuesday.

The ISIL, which already held the Najma, Qayara, Himreen, Ajeel and Balad fields, managed to capture the Ain Zalah and Batma fields in Nineveh province earlier this month.

According to the IEA, the militants are currently about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from Bai Hassan, the country’s fourth-biggest field, situated near Kirkuk.

The potential oil flow from Iraq’s ISIL-held deposits is commensurate to about $8.4 million a day on international markets.

Iraq, which has the world’s fifth-biggest crude reserves, came under a massive blitz by the ISIL Takfiri militants in June.

Apart from oil, the militants have also grabbed large supplies of grain in government silos and the country’s biggest dam.

    "Now is the worst time for food insecurity," said Fadel al-Zubi, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative for Iraq.

According to the Iraqi Trade Ministry, the government bought 1.1 million tons of wheat from Iraqi farmers this harvest season, which yet remain in silos in the provinces where they are operating. The amount equals nearly 20 percent of the annual consumption in Iraq.

Hassan Ibrahim, the director general of the Grain Board of Iraq, said the militants had embarked on selling the stolen wheat back to the government in an attempt to make money for their ongoing assaults.

More than a million people have been displaced by the ISIL-led violence in Iraq so far this year, according to the UN.

Soldiers of the Iraqi army have been engaged in heavy fighting with the militants on different fronts and have so far been able to push them back in several areas.
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« Reply #26 on: August 20, 2014, 08:43:49 am »

AMERICAN JOURNALIST BEHEADED BY ISIS

Horrific video of American freelance photo-journalist James Wright Foley, 40, being beheaded by ISIS in revenge for US airstrikes in Iraq was posted to the internet Tuesday afternoon. Foley, has been missing since November, 2012, after being taken hostage while reporting from Taftanaz, in northern Syria, for the agency, GlobalPost. ISIS posted the extremely graphic video titled 'A message to America' to social media as proof of their barbaric actions. In a chilling warning at the end of grisly film, the executioner paraded another American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff, who went missing in August 2013, and said: 'The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.'     MORE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2729287/ISIS-beheads-journalist-James-Wright-Foley-warning-US.html
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« Reply #27 on: August 21, 2014, 07:33:51 am »

Destroying Churches Is Part of ‘Islamic Doctrine’

A campaign by ISIS, also known as Islamic State, to destroy churches across Mosul, one of the ancient seats of Christianity where the faith has been practiced for 2,000 years, complies with the teaching of the Quran, according to several analysts. The ISIS army of Islamic terrorists has been marching across Iraq, destroying Christians and evidence of their faith for months now. ISIS is blamed for the destruction of about 45 churches in Mosul. Robert Spencer, author and Islamic terror analyst at Jihad Watch, says the violent campaign “does seem to have been a coordinated, planned action.”   

MORE: http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/destroying-churches-part-of-islamic-doctrine/

also see : http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,2048.0.html
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« Reply #28 on: August 22, 2014, 01:59:45 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/islamic-state-executed-700-people-syrian-tribe-monitoring-013519820.html
Islamic State executed 700 people from Syrian tribe: monitoring group
8/16/14

By Oliver Holmes and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.

The conflict between Islamic State and the al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.

“Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested, judged and killed.”

Reuters cannot independently verify reports from Syria due to security conditions and reporting restrictions.

Proclaiming a 'caliphate' straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has swept across northern Iraq in recent weeks, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Muslims, Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes, prompting the first U.S. air strikes in Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.

The insurgents are also tightening their grip in Syria, of which they now control roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and east.

An activist in Deir al-Zor who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that 300 men were executed in one day in the town of Ghraneij, one of the three main towns of the al-Sheitaat tribal heartland, when Islamic State stormed the town earlier this week.

Another opposition activist from Deir al-Zor said residents of al-Sheitaat towns had been given three days to leave.

“Those who were executed during the storming of the al-Sheitaat area are around 300. The rest were killed in the course of the battles," he told Reuters on condition of anonymity to protect his identity.

Civilians fleeing al-Sheitaat towns had either taken sanctuary in other villages or travelled to Iraq, he said.

More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which pits overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority, backed by Shi'ite militias from Iraq and Lebanon.

The insurgency is split between competing factions in Syria, with Islamic State emerging as the most powerful.

Tribal powers in Syria and Iraq have had to make the choice between fighting Islamic State or pledging allegiance.

On Friday, a video posted on YouTube showed men who said they were from the al-Sheitaat towns of Kishkeih and Abu Hammam pledging full support for Islamic State.

“We say that what Islamic State stands for is justice,” a tribal member sitting in a room with dozens of other men said in a statement that was read out.

The head of the al-Sheitaat tribe, Sheikh Rafaa Aakla al-Raju, called in a video message for other tribes to join them in the fight against the militants.

“We appeal to the other tribes to stand by us because it will be their turn next ... If (Islamic State) are done with us the other tribes will be targeted after al-Sheitaat. They are the next target,” he said in the video, posted on YouTube.

Islamic State was condemned on Friday in a U.N. Security Council resolution for "gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law."
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« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2014, 05:18:26 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/06/26/Emboldened-ISIS-Threatens-Americans
6/26/14
Emboldened ISIS Threatens Americans on Twitter

Supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have launched a viral propaganda campaign on Twitter threatening to attack the United States and its interests if America acts militarily against the group in Iraq.

These threats have been delivered through messages on ISIS's #CalamityWillBefallUS hashtag and feature images of the 9/11 attacks; dead American soldiers; the body of slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens; a threatening message from Anwar al-Awlaki, the late leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP); and the Nick Berg beheading video, among others.

"We will kill your people and transform America to a river of blood Smiley!" a poster tweeting under the name "Miqdad remain #" said in a post on the #CalamityWillBefallUS hashtag.

The threats are posted in English as well as in Arabic. For example, the ISIS-linked Al-Battar Media Foundation sent out a tweet Wednesday night telling supporters that "Tweeting in English is preferred" in a Twitter campaign that it planned for Friday that it is calling a "Warning to American People."

The United States has sent military advisers to Iraq. There is talk of possible airstrikes, but Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to rule them out in the near term. Bombing now "would be a complete and total act of irresponsibility," Kerry said, because of Iraq's political environment, which offers "nothing there that provides the capacity for success."

In a separate interview, Kerry dismissed ISIS's threats, saying the group did not yet have the capability to carry them out.

ISIS's Twitter intimidation campaign, therefore, may be a combination of recruiting propaganda and an attempt to drive public support down for any future American strikes.

ISIS says it will target every American embassy around the world with car bombs should the U.S. attack Iraq, according to an image posted by a user @BZEAA.

"... EACH and EVERY #American is targeted, whether he lives in or outside the #US! …," the Al-Battar Media Foundation warned Wednesday. The foundation also warned of a pending 9/11-style attack, saying it would happen in an "UNEXPECTED PLACE."

Mohamed al-Jizrawi, an ISIS supporter with 2,000 Twitter followers, similarly warned that U.S. embassies, interests and citizens around the world would be targeted should the Obama administration increase American military involvement in Iraq.

Additionally, threats have been leveled against companies in the Arab world, stating they will be a "legitimate target for every Muslim" if they employ Americans.

Likewise, American doctors have also been threatened with a message bearing ISIS's logo stating, "Every American doctor working in any country will be slaughtered if America attack (sic) Iraq."

Social media tools have become essential for ISIS to obtain new recruits and funding, Western and Arab sources told the Wall Street Journal.

Besides threatening the United States, ISIS uses social media to find recruits and provide instant reports about its battlefield maneuvers. A slickly produced recruitment video tweeted by ISIS members last week telling Western Muslims to join their jihad exemplifies the terror group's social-media strategy. Thousands of Western Muslims already have answered the call – many of whom are fighting for ISIS.

Combating ISIS's use of social media is a bit like playing whack-a-mole because the terrorists replace closed social-media portals with new ones as soon as the old ones are closed.


One thing is for sure, ISIS's use of social media means jihadist propaganda has come out of the shadows and into the public eye.
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