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ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

A place to talk about domestic politics in Middle East (Iran, Iraq , Turkey, Syria) Also includes topics about Assyrian, Armenian, Chaldean .

Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:38 pm

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ISIS affiliates arrested in al-Hol

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the internal security forces (Asayish) have arrested several Islamic State (ISIS) suspects and affiliates in a large-scale ongoing military operation in al-Hol camp in Western Kurdistan, a conflict monitor reported on Saturday

The security forces have arrested several ISIS-affiliated men of different nationalities on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said, as the operation entered its fourth day.

SOHR did not disclose the exact number of those detained.

The SDF and Asayish launched a large-scale security operation at the camp after two ISIS-affiliated women escaped from the fifth section of al-Hol on Wednesday as the escape alerted the forces.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol, which is home to more than 60,000 people - mostly women and children of different nationalities.

Security forces arrested 14 Iraqis for committing violations at the camp in late November.

Al-Hol has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism, with human rights groups warning of squalid conditions at the camp.

There have been repeated calls from Kurdish and US officials asking the international community to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol, but only a few countries have responded positively as they are worried about security concerns.

Four Swedish nationals, including two children from ISIS families, were repatriated from the camp on Wednesday.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/19032022
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Mar 25, 2022 6:04 pm

What US doesn’t understand about ISIS

Following the US assassination of ISIS’s latest leader in a pre-dawn raid in Syria on Feb. 3, the White House issued a statement later that morning in the name of President Joe Biden, announcing that US forces had killed him

“We have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi,” it said, ponderously citing three Arabic names.

The latter two names—Hashimi and Qurayshi—are significant. They resonate in the history of Islam and have much meaning for pious Muslims.

The Prophet Mohammed came from the Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. No figure is more revered among Muslims, while a caliph properly comes from the family of the Prophet.

Yet neither of those two names are in the name of the dead ISIS leader. Rather, they are part of an alias that he adopted, meant to elevate his status among Muslims.

So why should US officials use an alias that ISIS invented? Doesn’t that reinforce ISIS’s narrative: a) this is a struggle about religion and b) ISIS’s goal is to promote a purer form of Islam?

There is an alternative explanation for ISIS’s violence. It is more credible, more informed, and better: this violence is, at its core, a struggle over power and resources. Islam is used as a cover and recruiting device for what is essentially a political conflict.

There is, however, a “stifling group-think to the contrary,” as Col. Norvell De Atkine (US Army, Retired), who long taught Middle Eastern political-military affairs to Special Forces at Fort Bragg, complained to Kurdistan 24.

“People don’t consider the possibility that a lot of what we call ‘Islamic’ terrorism is really about things like power, status, resources,” he said.

“Of course, I wouldn’t know, if they just don’t understand so much about the Middle East, or if they’re going along with the conventional wisdom, because that’s easiest, promotes their careers, etc.,” De Atkine continued. “Or, maybe, it’s some of both.”

The US has Two Different Ways of Dealing with Domestic and “Islamic” Terrorism

The US deals with domestic terrorism—which it generally understands—quite differently from Middle Eastern terrorism, which it does not.

The real name of the deceased ISIS leader was Amir Mohammed Sa’id Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla—as the US officially started in 2019, when it offered a $5 million reward for information about him.

Amir was his given name. He was the son of Mohammed, grandson of Sa’id, great-grandson of Abd al-Rahman, from the Mawla tribe.

Following a domestic attack, US officials make a conscious effort to avoid glamorizing those responsible. Thus, following a shooting in 2019 that killed 12 people in Virginia, authorities, quite deliberately, avoided mentioning the shooter’s name, as The New York Times explained in a report titled, “‘I Will Not Say His Name’: Police Try to End Notoriety of Gunmen on Mass Shootings.”

The idea is to avoid creating a hero for disturbed and violent individuals, who might imitate him, thinking they could also achieve a twisted kind of glory.

When it comes to “Islamic” terrorism, however, the US—officials, as well as media—do the reverse. They embrace the terrorists’ narrative and glamorize key figures.

Mawla’s name is very ordinary. Nothing suggests a special status in Islam—including a family link to the religion’s most revered figure. To use the Qurayshi/Hashimi alias to describe him is to buy into ISIS’ narrative.

What is ISIS?

The highly-regarded German news magazine, Der Spiegel, provided the best, most authoritative account of ISIS. Entitled “Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State,” the report, based on captured documents, is a leak from German intelligence.

ISIS was established in Syria in 2012, a year after the civil war there began, as Der Spiegel explained. Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khilifawi, a “former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein’s air defense forces,” was the brains behind it.

Known as “Hajji Bakr,” Khilifawi laid out a detailed plan for taking over swathes of Syria and Iraq by combining Saddam’s system of control through an intelligence state, with an appeal to religion.

“The nucleus of this godly state,” Der Spiegel wrote, “would be the demonic clockwork of a cell and commando structure designed to spread fear.”

Khilifawi and his closest colleagues, also former Iraqi intelligence officers, chose as “caliph,” an Iraqi, with a religious education: Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, who used the alias, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“They reasoned” that as “an educated cleric,” Samarrai “would give the group a religious face,” Der Spiegel said.

Samarrai was a figurehead. Like Mawla, who came from the Tal Afar area, Samarrai also came from northern Iraq: from Samarra, as his name suggests.

Both men were detained by US forces during the war in Iraq, formally known as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and they were subsequently released.

Samarrai was captured in Feb. 2004, eleven months after OIF began. But US forces decided that he was not a significant figure and released him in late 2004.

Mawla was detained by US forces in Jan. 2008, following military operations in Mosul. CENTCOM described him as the deputy leader of Al Qaida in Iraq (AQI.) As long as US forces remained in Iraq, Mawla remained in detention. When they left in Dec. 2011, they turned Mawla over to the Baghdad government—which subsequently released him.

In 2013, Samarrai became the face of ISIS, as Der Spiegel explained. In 2019, he was killed in a US raid in Syria’s Idlib Province. Mawla replaced him and, similarly, died in a US raid in Idlib Province two weeks ago.

ISIS Predecessors

ISIS emerged out of AQI, as the State Department has explained. AQI was supposedly headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, whose real name was Ahmad Fadil al-Nazal al-Khalayleh.

Some senior US officials recognized long ago that AQI was essentially the former Iraqi regime fighting to regain the status and power it lost with OIF. But their view never became the majority view.

“Almost no one says the real problem is that Saddam never surrendered. And even though he was captured, his people never surrendered,” Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, told The Atlantic Monthly in Oct. 2004, part of a series of exchanges published in 2005, as “The Exit Interviews,” after Wolfowitz left the Pentagon to become head of the World Bank.

Saddam’s “organization is still operating as though they have a chance to win,” Wolfowitz continued, “and they’re allied with people who want to help them win—by which I mean the jihadis on the one side and the Syrian Baathists on the other.”

A few months later, in early 2005, a prominent Iraqi politician visited Washington. Speaking at a small dinner that included figures from the Pentagon and Vice-President’s office, as well as two major Washington think-tanks, the Iraqi made a similar point.

Neocons: Outsize, Outlandish Expectations about OIF

Virtually everyone at the dinner (although not this reporter) believed the US could transform the Middle East through democracy. Some 17 years later, that sounds ridiculous—and it was.

That view was based on a misreading of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it, the collapse of communism. The neocons saw it as an end to Russian authoritarianism, as well as the end of conflict between the two superpowers, as embodied in Frank Fukuyama’s book, “The End of History.”

They followed that flawed assumption with a second flawed assumption: merely removing bad regimes would produce good ones.

No less a figure than US President George W. Bush was persuaded of this view, which was embodied in his Jan. 20, 2005, second inaugural address.

“It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world,” Bush affirmed.

Peggy Noonan was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, who did a lot to precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet Noonan wrote a blistering commentary on Bush’s speech—which she called “mission inebriation.”

“Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn’t expect we’re going to eradicate it any time soon,” she wrote. “This is not heaven, it’s earth.”

Indeed, one US official at the dinner would, two years later, tell this reporter, “I didn’t pay attention to what you said, because I thought we were going to do it all”—i.e., transform the Middle East through democracy.

The dinner’s host, a senior advisor to the Bush administration, would later complain to this reporter that his critics complained he had been frivolous about war. Unfortunately, they were right.

There are well-established principles about war-fighting—including “know the enemy.” But they were ignored while the counsel of sycophants was embraced.

More Accounts: Baathists behind “Islamic” Insurgency

At that dinner, the Iraqi politician complained the US had the relationship between terrorist states and terrorist groups “backwards.” Saddam’s regime was behind the insurgency, he said. Members of the deposed regime recognized that Iraqis had come to despise the Ba’ath party, so they adopted Islamic slogans and an Islamic appearance.

He was speaking about AQI, but a decade later, senior Kurdish officials described ISIS similarly.

The late Najmaldin Karim served as Governor of Kirkuk Province through most of the fight against ISIS. He spoke with Kurdistan 24 in late 2018 and was careful to limit his remarks to what he knew well: Kirkuk Province.

ISIS was “all local people,” Karim explained. “Peshmerga fought [ISIS] bravely, and hundreds of them were killed.”

“We have their pictures, their DNA,” he continued. “They’re all from the area.” They just grew beards, put on a dishdasha, and shouted Islamic slogans.

This reporter was earlier a cultural advisor to the US military in Afghanistan. In 2011, as I arrived, two men who had worked together over the previous year—a US Marine and British intelligence officer—briefed me, describing the enemy as “the losers in post 9/11 Afghanistan.”

That is very similar to Karim’s description of ISIS: the insurgent violence is driven by those who have lost power, status, and privilege.

In Afghanistan, I developed a good, working relationship with the officer who headed my unit. The army had difficulty understanding the population, and the contractors it employed were not much better.

Subsequently, this officer thought to establish a company to do that job, and I was to be his lead analyst. But a problem emerged: I said that ISIS was basically the former Iraqi regime with an Islamic cover. He strongly believed that was wrong.

So he arranged a meeting with the resident Middle East scholar at his base. The expert repeated the party line: ISIS was a religious movement, driven by an extremist ideology. But the expert’s knowledge was not greater than mine, and he was unconvincing.

In the end, this officer decided to re-enlist, rather than start a new business, and he deployed to Iraq to fight ISIS. When he returned, he said that I was right. He even suggested we write a book together.

A Better Way to Counter ISIS

One of the easiest ways to undermine and discredit ISIS is to describe it for what it is: a terrorist organization, established by the former Iraqi regime, which is using Islam to regain power—just as Der Spiegel explained.

In 2005, this reporter wrote a history of al-Qaida for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA) and then briefed Pentagon officials, including the head of SOLIC (Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict.)

Afterward, he asked an unusual question: How much of the appeal of al-Qaida and similar organizations involves the frustrations of young men in traditional, conservative societies?

Subsequently, this reporter visited Iraq to work on another ONA project. Baghdad was dangerous, and I stayed in a compound, closed off to outsiders. We regularly took our meals in the house of a businessman living in the compound, a Sunni Arab from Anbar Province.

He had sent his 18-year old son to Egypt for safety, but the son was visiting his father over the summer. One day, only the son and I were present as lunch began, and he said something quite annoying.

He told me that although Osama bin Ladin and others like him did many bad things, they also did some good things—such as fight people like Saddam Hussein.

Why say something like that? He didn’t speak English, and I wondered if this was his first opportunity to cock a snook at a Western woman.

I replied that if it weren’t for the likes of Saddam Hussein, bin Ladin and those like him, couldn’t do what they did.

Shortly thereafter, his father appeared, and I recounted the conversation. He responded, “Oh, I quite agree with you.”

The father, of course, was concerned that his son would say anything positive, in any way, about the jihadis.

So I decided to see what the father’s response would be to the question from the head of SOLIC and asked what he thought about it.

“I quite agree,” the father responded. Then turning to his son, he said, “Wasn’t it a good idea, when I took you to see a prostitute, for your sixteenth birthday?”

The father certainly knew how to deal with his son.

The young man turned red as a beet, and we never again heard of the virtues of Osama bin Ladin et. al.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/27 ... -in-a-name
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Mar 25, 2022 6:09 pm

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Peshmerga and French forces discuss ISIS
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Peshmerga Major General Sirwan Barzani, Commander of Sector 6, welcomed Col. Mathieu, Commander of French Forces in Iraq and Syria, on Thursday to discuss the fight against ISIS

“Today, we met with Col. Mathieu, Commander of French Forces in Iraq and Syria, with the presence of the commander of Unit 80 forces (Peshmerga forces linked to the Kurdistan Democratic Party) and the Zerevani forces,” he said in a Facebook post.

“The subject was coordination and further cooperation for facing ISIS, which are still a valid threat to the security and peace of the area,” he added. “We also discussed the reforms in the Ministry of Peshmerga and continuous cooperation between the Peshmerga, Iraqi Army, and Coalition.”

Major General Barzani has received several military delegations in the recent months near Makhmour to discuss the current fight against ISIS and cooperation between Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army.

    We met with Col. Mathieu w/ attendance of the commanders of Unit 80 & Zerevani forces. We discussed plans to face #ISIS, who are still a valid threat to the peace and security of the area. We also discussed reforms within #Peshmerga and cooperation with Iraqi Army and Coalition. pic.twitter.com/o3RN3FBOTH
    — Sirwan Barzani (@SirwanBarzani_) March 18, 2022
The Iraqi Army and Peshmerga increased cooperation against the group since November last year after it had launched a series of nighttime attacks that killed over 20 of the Kurdish forces and civilians.

Recently, Peshmerga forces have carried out several clearance operations against ISIS in the Garmiyan region.

The US-led coalition has supported the efforts of Iraqi and Kurdish security forces to fight ISIS.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/27 ... ainst-ISIS
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Mar 28, 2022 2:27 am

Iraq builds wall to keep out ISIS

Iraq is building a concrete wall along its border with Syria, a security official confirmed to AFP on Sunday as the hundreds of kilometers long border is mired by security threats due to attempted Islamic State (ISIS) infiltrations

A wall around “a dozen kilometers long and 3.5 meters high” was built in Shingal in western Nineveh province in the “first stage” of construction, the senior official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The step aims to "put a stop to the infiltration” of ISIS into the Iraqi territory, the official added.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with a ground network in Syria on Sunday said “Iraqi forces have begun building a concrete wall along the entire border.”

Iraq announced its intention to build a concrete wall and a military barrier along its border with Syria earlier in March.

"There is an intention to build a wall on the border, but the existing fortifications provide the necessary security," the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Operations Qais al-Mohammedawi said at the time.

Iraq shares an extensive border with Syria, one which spans over 600-kilometers.

ISIS attempted to break thousands of its affiliates and members from Ghweran prison in the Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province in Western Kurdistan in January, marking the most significant offensive since the terror group’s so-called caliphate was defeated in Syria.

The violence sparked fears of ISIS re-emerging in Iraq as several prisoners are thought to have escaped.

A US military official told Rudaw that Iraqi and Kurdish border guards are capable of preventing ISIS members from crossing the Iraqi-Syrian border.

ISIS controlled swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territories in 2014 but it was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/270320222
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:34 pm

Biden wants $541 million

US President Joe Biden on Monday requested over five hundred million dollars from the 2023 budget for the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, with the funds to be allocated to training and equipping local forces allied to America in both countries.

Out of the $773 billion budget, Biden proposed $541 million for forces in Iraq and Syria, according to details of the budget request published by the US Department of Defense.

Iraqi forces are to receive $358 million, with $183 million to be given to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Western Kurdistan.

The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces are considered part of the Iraqi forces and have received weapons, salaries, training, and equipment from the US.

The US coalition’s combat mission in Iraq ended in December but continues in Syria. The force continues its advisory mission with the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces.

The new budget request for 2023 is an increase of around $58 billion from 2022.

The amount dedicated to the fight against ISIS has risen by $19 million compared to the year before as ISIS still remains a threat in the region.

"These investments are as vital as ever, as we face a myriad of challenges," Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hick said regarding the $773 billion budget request at a press conference.

ISIS controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but it was territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively. However, the militants continue to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions on both sides of the border, particularly in areas disputed by Erbil and Baghdad.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/29032022
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:39 pm

ISIS mobilises in Western Kurdistan

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday that the Islamic State (ISIS) is mobilizing its cells in northeast Syria, Western Kurdistan, in a bid to destabilize the region

ISIS is “willing to create chaos by mobilizing its cells to hit stability & security after its great loss in Sina’a prison,” tweeted the SDF, adding that the local security forces are working hard to provide security and prevent ISIS attacks.

Minutes later, the SDF announced the arrest of a wanted member of ISIS near Raqqa city.

“The wanted individual was active in facilitating transportation, & was willing with his cell to hit security, stability, & threaten civilians,” it said.

ISIS attacked al-Sina’a prison in Hasaka on January 20 with explosive-laden vehicles and other weapons. This led to over a week of intense clashes between ISIS fighters and the SDF. Control of the prison was retaken by the SDF with the support of the global coalition against ISIS, with the recaptured prisoners transferred to another prison.

The SDF held over 4,000 ISIS prisoners, including minors, before the attack. The forces said that 121 of its fighters, prison guards and civilians as well as 374 ISIS members were killed in the clashes, without confirming the number of the alleged escapes.

Western Kurdistan security forces also arrested a suspect allegedly planning a suicide attack in the notorious al-Hol camp, a conflict monitor reported on Monday.

The SDF arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol, which is home to around 56,000 people – mostly women and children of different nationalities.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /290320221
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:27 pm

100 children missing since jail break

United Nations experts said on Friday that the fate of 100 children detained in Hasaka prison in northeast Syria (Western Kurdistan) is unknown following a jail break by the Islamic State in January

ISIS attacked al-Sina’a prison in Hasaka on January 20 with explosive-laden vehicles and other weapons. This led to over a week of intense clashes between ISIS fighters and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Control of the prison was retaken by the SDF with the support of the global coalition against ISIS, with the recaptured prisoners transferred to another prison.

“We are extremely concerned that since the January 2022 attack, the fate and whereabouts of at least 100 of those boys remain unaccounted for which raises serious concerns relating to their right to life,” the UN human rights experts said a statement. “Some of these cases might amount to enforced disappearance, and where children are concerned, States – and de facto authorities – must undertake special measures of protection that reflect their vulnerability.”

The SDF, which has made several calls on the international community for repatriation of their nationals, called on them to accelerate the process, following the prison break.

“The authorities in charge of the prison, who have been calling for the immediate repatriation of all foreign nationals, have been given an almost impossible humanitarian, human rights and security responsibility by third country states. Under international law, it is nonetheless incumbent on them to carry out a prompt, transparent, impartial and independent investigation relating to the circumstances in which these boys have disappeared, and to make the results public,” added the experts in their Friday statement.

The SDF arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol camp, which is home to around 56,000 people – mostly women and children of different nationalities.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /010420221
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Apr 14, 2022 6:32 pm

Entities funding ISIS will be punished

All groups, whether local or international, who fund the Islamic State (ISIS) and its activities will be held responsible and punished accordingly, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) coordinator for international advocacy told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman on Wednesday

A delegation from the Kurdistan Region in Berlin revealed the prevalence of entities that financially support the terror group, despite it having been devoid of all territorial control for around three years. In the meeting, light was also shed on the existence of groups in Erbil that fund the organization.

"We have arrested some groups in Erbil and the Kurdistan Region in the past who transferred funds to ISIS-controlled areas and funded ISIS through offices based in the Region," said Dindar Zebari.

"The UN [United Nations] Security Council has decided to punish those who supported ISIS financially," he said, adding that a UN team in Iraq has launched investigations on the case to be handed over to international courts.

According to Zebari, citing a UN report, ISIS receives up to $100 million annually from external funding.

The US-led coalition stated that ISIS "continued to raise funds via various means, including oil smuggling ... kidnapping for ransom, extortion, looting, and the possible operation of front companies," in their 2021 report.

The aforementioned report noted Turkey as a significant intermediary in ISIS's transfer of money between Iraq and Syria, saying that the group uses its trusted partners in Turkey as agents.

Private banks have also delivered funds to ISIS, Zebari noted.

Zebari stressed the issue of vast amounts of money being transferred from Gulf countries "in the name of charity, and the money has reached ISIS-controlled areas."

As the terror group's grasp on the region continues to decline, it resorts to other means to generate funds, including drug smuggling and kidnapping to collect ransom money.

ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across the country's provinces.

In January, Iraqi security forces arrested four civilians who were financing ISIS by means of collecting royalties.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/140420223
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Apr 16, 2022 12:27 am

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SDF arrests ISIS facilitator near Raqqa
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested an ISIS facilitator near Raqqa in coordination with the US-led coalition, the US-led Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF LEVANT) announced on Thursday.

"Daesh (ISIS) desperately continues their futile terror campaign while the #SDF and #Coalition remain committed to ensuring their enduring defeat," tweeted SOJTF LEVANT's official account.

    A joint operation by #SDF & #Int_Coalition in the east of #Raqqa city where a local #Daesh cell leader was arrested.
    The terrorist individual was active in transporting explosives, &weapons for cells in Raqqa and its countryside.
    Equipment, &documents were seized. pic.twitter.com/iXBQZdpdFd
    — Coordination & Military Ops Center - SDF (@cmoc_sdf) April 13, 2022
Moreover, the SDF's Coordination and Military Operations Center tweeted that the ISIS leader they arrested "was active in transporting explosives, and weapons for cells in Raqqa and its countryside. Equipment, and documents were seized."

The SDF liberated Raqqa from ISIS in October 2017 with support from the US-led coalition. The northeastern Syrian city was the de-facto capital of the group's self-styled caliphate, which was completely destroyed after the SDF captured the eastern town of Baghouz in March 2019.

The SDF rarely carries out operations against ISIS sleeper cells in Raqqa since most ISIS sleeper cell activity is in the eastern Arab-majority Deir al-Zor province. However, the SDF-affiliated Internal Security Forces (Asayish in Kurdish) captured a suspected ISIS member near Raqqa on Mar. 30.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/27 ... -coalition
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:21 am

Five ISIS members arrested

Five alleged prominent Islamic State (ISIS) members across numerous Iraqi provinces were arrested on Saturday and multiple stockpiles of equipment were seized, state media reported, citing a statement from Iraq's Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency

The agency said that operations "to follow up on terrorist elements to punish them and dry up their sources" continue in the country, amid an ongoing operation to clear Iraq's western provinces of ISIS remnants.

Two of the arrestees worked in the province of Kirkuk, while another two operated in Nineveh, with the fifth being arrested in Baghdad.

A cache of equipment belonging to the terror group was also seized in Tarmiyah district, located about 50 kilometers north of the capital. The agency reported that the stockpile "included Austrian projectiles, 486 explosive-laden lighters, and 2,000 bullets buried underground in plastic barrels."

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) said on Saturday that they had thwarted an ISIS attack in the town of Jurf al-Nasr in Babil province.

The aforementioned developments come on the same day that Iraq launched the second phase of an operation, dubbed Solid Will, to eliminate ISIS from its west. 12,000 PMF fighters alongside several other forces have partaken in the operation.

ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 28 attacks in Iraq from April 14 to April 20, killing and injuring 51 people.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/230420225
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:20 pm

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Search for weapons al-Hol camp

Internal security forces (Asayish) raided the infamous al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Western Kurdistan) and searched the area for weapons, a conflict monitor reported on Sunday amid a surge of crimes in the camp

With the recent increase of assassinations in the squalid camp and a destabilizing security situation, security forces on Saturday scouted "all sectors" of the camp in Syria's Hasaka province in an attempt to seize weapons, the UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The success of the raids is currently unclear, as the outcome has yet to be reported.

Al-Hol has infamously been branded a breeding ground for terrorism, with Kurdish and Iraqi authorities describing the sprawling camp as a "ticking time bomb," saying the situation in the camp is "very dangerous."

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group's last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most of these people are held at al-Hol, which is home to around 56,000 people – mostly women and children of different nationalities.

Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the camp's residents, where ISIS sleeper cells remain active. Multiple deaths have been reported at the camp over the past months.

SOHR reported that a displaced Syrian woman was shot dead by ISIS cells in the camp on Thursday. Two days prior, unidentified bodies of two women were found in one of the camp's sectors, and a day before the discovery of the bodies, an Iraqi refugee was shot dead in the camp.

The body of another Iraqi man killed by a silenced weapon was found by security forces in the camp earlier in the month.

There have been repeated calls from Kurdish, Iraqi, and US officials requesting the international community to repatriate their nationals from al-Hol, but most have gone unanswered as many countries are worried about security concerns.

The UK repatriated two orphans from the camp on April 5, with Russia taking back over 10 ISIS-affiliated children shortly after.

Around 450 Iraqi families returned to Iraq from the camp, an official told Rudaw earlier in April, despite the country being one of the world's top executioners.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/24042022
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Apr 28, 2022 2:07 am

Barzani discusses ISIS with US

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani received a senior US delegation in Erbil on Wednesday, with both sides affirming that the Islamic State (ISIS) remains a “serious threat” in Iraq and Syria, according to a statement by the Office of the President

The delegation, led by Dana Stroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, included a number of US diplomats and officials.

“During the meeting, Ms. Stroul reaffirmed the US commitment to continue supporting Iraq and the Kurdistan Region politically and militarily and also to continue expanding mutual cooperation and partnership between the two countries. Ms. Stroul expressed the United States’ appreciation for the role and sacrifices of the Peshmarga in the war against ISIS,” read a statement by the Office of the President.

“The meeting affirmed that ISIS movements and attacks across Iraq and Syria are serious threats, reaffirming the importance of cooperation and coordination between the Peshmarga and the Iraqi army, with the support from the international coalition, to confront terrorism and to eliminate ISIS, which poses threats to peace and stability in Iraq and the wider region,” it added.

    KRI President Nechirvan Barzani received #US @DeptofDefense DAS for ME Dana Stroul @USEmbBaghdad Matthew Tueller & the accompanying delegation to discuss govt. formation process, US-Iraq-KRI security cooperation, ISIS threat, #Peshmerga reform & #Sinjar agreement implementation. pic.twitter.com/dlDfZotP5o
    — Falah Mustafa (@FalahMustafa) April 27, 2022
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 28 attacks in Iraq from April 14 to April 20, killing and injuring 51 people.

The group has carried out a number of attacks against Iraqi forces. On Saturday, the second phase of a broad military operation was launched by the latter in the country's western provinces.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/270420222
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri May 06, 2022 12:14 pm

Peshmerga clash with ISIS in Erbil

A Peshmerga fighter was wounded northeast of Erbil’s Mount Qarachogh on Thursday while thwarting a suspected Islamic State (ISIS) attack on the Kurdish armed forces in the area, the Ministry of Peshmerga announced

An attack by suspected ISIS members targeted a Peshmerga infantry brigade in Qarachogh’s Dara Bzmara point on Thursday evening, resulting in the wounding of one of the Peshmerga fighters. The Peshmerga repelled the attack and pushed the militants away from the area, according to a statement from the Peshmerga ministry.

The statement added that the wounded fighter is currently receiving medical treatment for his injuries, and his health is stable.

Hours prior, another attack by suspected ISIS militants using snipers targeted Peshmerga forces in Pirde district on the Erbil-Kirkuk border. The attack was thwarted by the Kurdish armed forces and did not result in any damages or casualties, according to the ministry.

Pirde district is around 40 kilometres northwest of Kirkuk. Peshmerga forces there have been targeted by ISIS militants several times late last year. Over 20 members of Peshmerga forces were killed as a result of the assaults.

ISIS killed two Peshmerga fighters, Khalid Hameed and Ako Karim, on October 30 in Pirde’s Zorgazraw area.

ISIS was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but the group continues to carry out attacks in several provinces of Iraq, and is especially active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin.

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 37 attacks in Iraq from April 28 to May 4, killing and injuring 63 people.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/06052022
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue May 10, 2022 12:41 am

April the bloodiest month in Western Kurdistan
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – ISIS carried out 54 sleeper cell attacks across northeast Syria in April, killing 52 and injuring 32 as part of a campaign it launched during Ramadan, according to the latest monthly Rojava Information Centre (RIC) report published on Monday

On Apr. 17, ISIS spokesperson Abu Omar al-Muhajir claimed the group would avenge the killing of the previous ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi, who was assassinated in February alongside his spokesperson Abu Hamza al-Qurashi.

Since then, there has been a huge increase in ISIS attacks in northeast Syria, Iraq, and other countries.

Increase in attacks

"Following the spokesperson's statement, North and East Syria saw sleeper cell attacks (in April) rise to 54 – 36 of which were conducted on or after April 17th," read the RIC report. "ISIS claimed over a dozen more attacks, though RIC has not been able to independently verify them, and they are thus not reflected in this report's statistics."

"Of the 18 security forces and 34 civilians killed in April, 16 and 23, respectively, occurred after the campaign's declaration," the report added. "Excluding the January battle in Heseke (Hasakah), this is the highest monthly death toll since RIC began recording these statistics."

ISIS launched a large-scale attack on al-Sina'a prison in late January in an attempt to release the thousands of ISIS militants imprisoned inside.

The report said ISIS has also ramped up its attacks against civilians working for local AANES (Autonomous Administration for Northeast Syria) councils, killing three council members in April alone.

For instance, seven people were killed and four injured in an ISIS attack in Syria's Abu Khashab in the Deir al-Zor countryside on Apr. 27 during an attack on a tribal leader and former official in the Deir al-Zor Civil Council.

Shock over ISIS capacity

Therefore, the increase in attacks shocked observers since many ISIS fighters were killed and arrested during and after the Hasakah prison battle.

"One reason for this is the perceived diminished capacity to stage such attacks following January's bloody battle in Heseke (Hasakah), in which over 370 ISIS fighters were killed," the RIC said.

"Additionally, broad-sweeping raids by the SDF and the International Coalition arrested over 200 suspects last month, leading some to believe that ISIS could not possibly possess the manpower to ramp up their operations," it added.

al-Hol

The RIC report also said that nine residents of the notorious al-Hol camp were killed in April, six of whom were Iraqis.

"This is more than double the casualties of last month (four), though far from the deadliest month in the camp's history," it noted.

"Despite worrying news about ISIS' shift towards attempting to launch a large-scale assault on the (al-Hol) camp in the aftermath of the failed attack on Sina'a Prison, al-Hol has not seen a major breakdown in internal security. Precisely because camp security is on high alert, ISIS cells inside al-Hol may have less room to maneuver," the report added.

The report underlined that while more than half of the attacks in April transpired in the region of Deir al-Zor, Raqqa and Hasakah also endured more attacks than usual.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/
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Re: ISIS growing stronger and more organised in Middle East

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon May 16, 2022 10:31 pm

7 ISIS killed in Erbil

Several alleged Islamic State (ISIS) members were killed when an Iraqi airstrike targeted their location in southwestern Erbil province on Monday following a fresh operation conducted to eliminate remnants of the group

Iraqi warplanes launched an airstrike in the mountains of Makhmour in Erbil province on Monday, resulting in the deaths of six suspected ISIS members, Iraq's top military spokesperson Yehia Rasool said in a tweet.

The Peshmerga and Iraqi army conducted a joint operation against ISIS hideouts in Mount Qarachogh on Sunday, an area synonymous with ISIS activity situated in the security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad.

The aforementioned operation led to the deaths of two ISIS members after caves and tunnels that the organization sheltered in were destroyed.

Rasool said the strikes "came in conjunction with the heroes of the Peshmerga, and this operation is a continuation of the series of joint efforts undertaken by the Iraqi forces to combat the remains of terrorism."

The militants are particularly active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by the Kurdish and Iraqi governments, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.

Iraqi army and Peshmerga have formed joint brigades to combat ISIS in the disputed territories, but their work has been prevented from materializing due to government formation turmoil.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/160520221
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