The Islamic State Thread

CHINA SAYS MUSLIM UIGHURS HAVE JOINED ISLAMIC STATE GROUP

Chinese officials say members of the country's Muslim Uighur ethnic minority have gone overseas to fight with the Islamic State group and returned to take part in plots at home.

They said Tuesday that authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang, which has seen repeated violence, would strengthen their crackdown on terrorism and extremism as a result.

The Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, said authorities discovered that some who have fought abroad have returned to Xinjiang to participate in terrorist plots. He gave no details.

Beijing has previously blamed Xinjiang violence on Islamic militants with foreign connections, but has offered little evidence and ignored calls for independent investigations. Uighur groups say police have used indiscriminate deadly force against people protesting the government's policies in the region.


Source : Sapa-AP /mm
Date : 10 Mar 2015 12:21
 
IRAQI ARMY READY FOR ASSAULT ON TIKRIT, OFFICIALS SAY

Government forces are ready for an assault on the Sunni Arab city of Tikrit, the main target of a major offensive launched eight days ago against the Islamic State extremist group, Iraqi officials said Tuesday.

Troops have surrounded the city on all sides after capturing the centre of al-Alam, located a few kilometres north of Tikrit on the opposite bank of the Tigris river, provincial security committee head Jasim al-Jabbara said.

The army commander in the Salah al-Din region, meanwhile, said all preparations for the assault on Tikrit were ready with US-made Abrams tanks and armoured personnel carriers in position.

"We don't expect combat in the city because most members of Daesh [Islamic State] have fled to Kirkuk province and on to Nineveh province," General Abdul-Wahhab al-Sa'idi said.

But he warned that progress into the city would be slow because of "thousands" of bombs planted by the jihadists in the city and on its approach roads.

Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias last week started a major push to clear Tikrit and nearby areas of Islamic State militants, who have held them since overrunning much of Sunni Arab northern and western Iraq in June last year.

The city is symbolic as the home of former dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq's last Sunni ruler before he was ousted in a US-led invasion in 2003.

The offensive also meets a key demand made by the Shiite forces, who are seeking revenge for the apparent mass execution by Islamic State of up to 1,200 Shiite army recruits whom it captured as they sought to flee a nearby army base last year.

The United States estimated that Shiite militias make up two-thirds of the government force.

Their prominent role in the campaign has raised concerns because of repeated allegations that they have previously committed atrocities against Sunni civilians.

The offensive, however, has also been welcomed by Sunni leaders in the region.

Unlike previous government offensives, the current operation has not received air support from the US-led coalition against Islamic State.


Source : Sapa-dpa /mm
Date : 10 Mar 2015 13:14
 
DOZENS KILLED AS ISLAMIC STATE LAUNCHES MAJOR ASSAULT ON SYRIAN KURDS

The Islamic State jihadist group launched a major assault on Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria overnight, with "dozens" of fighters killed on both sides, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

About 1,000 Islamic State fighters moved on Kurdish positions near the town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The jihadists took the village of Tel Khanzir from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and were clashing with them in al-Manajir, Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman told dpa.

Al-Manajir lies between Ras al-Ain and the mainly Assyrian town of Tel Tamr, a focus of recent fighting after an Islamic State offensive during which over 200 Assyrian Christians were kidnapped by the extremists.

Activists in the provincial capital, al-Hassakeh, said 40 fighters from both sides were killed in the clashes.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said their forces were engaged in a "fierce fight" at the outskirts of al-Manajeer.

The assault came a day after the US-led coalition against the Islamic State hailed Kurdish advances in the region and said they were "postured to retake additional territory from ISIL in the region."

The statement said that a two-week offensive around Tel Hamis, east of al-Hassakeh, had cut Islamic State's main supply routes from Syria to its Iraqi strongholds of Mosul and Tel Afar.

The YPG and its allies - referred to in the statement as "anti-ISIL [Islamic State] forces" - had also seized key terrain locally, with coalition air support, the statement added.

"This operation demonstrated the ability of anti-ISIL forces to further degrade Daesh influence in this region," Combined Joint Task Force commander Lieutenant General James Terry said in a statement.

The YPG captured Tal Hamis on February 27 with the help of allied Arab fighters.

The dominant Kurdish political party has declared the north-eastern region an autonomous canton, called Cezire - although government forces remain in the main cities of al-Hassakeh and Qamishlo.


Source : Sapa-dpa /aw
Date : 11 Mar 2015 12:48
 
SADDAM'S TOMB SUFFERS EXTENSIVE DAMAGE IN IRAQ FIGHTING
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

The tomb of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein was virtually leveled in heavy clashes between militants from the Islamic State group and Iraqi forces in a fight for control of the city of Tikrit.

Fighting intensified to the north and south of Saddam Hussein's hometown Sunday as Iraqi security forces vowed to reach the center of Tikrit within 48 hours. Associated Press video from the village of Ouja, just south of Tikrit, shows all that remains of Hussein's once-lavish tomb are the support columns that held up the roof.

Poster-sized pictures of Saddam, which once covered the mausoleum, are now nowhere to be seen amid the mountains of concrete rubble. Instead, Shiite militia flags and photos of militia leaders mark the predominantly Sunni village, including that of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general advising Iraqi Shiite militias on the battlefield.

"This is one of the areas where IS militants massed the most because Saddam's grave is here," said Captain Yasser Nu'ma, an official with the Shiite militias, formerly known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. "The IS militants' set an ambush for us by planting bombs around" the tomb.

The extremist Islamic State group has controlled Tikrit since June, when it waged its lightning offensive that saw Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, come under their control. The Islamic State was helped in its conquest of northern Iraq by Saddam loyalists, including military veterans, who appealed to Sunnis who felt victimized by Baghdad's Shiite-dominated government.

The Islamic State group claimed in August that Saddam's tomb had been completely destroyed, but local officials said it was just ransacked and burned, but suffered only minor damage.

Saddam was captured by U.S. forces in 2003 and was executed by hanging in December 2006 after an Iraqi special tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity for the mass killing of Shiites and Kurds. His body has been kept in the mausoleum in his birthplace, Ouja, since 2007. The complex featured a marble octagon at the center of which a bed of fresh flowers covered the place where his body was buried. The extravagant chandelier at its center was reminiscent of the extravagant life he led until U.S. forces toppled him in 2003.

Iraqi media reported last year that Saddam's body was removed by loyalists amid fears that it would be disturbed in the fighting. The body's location is not known.

Recapturing Tikrit, a Sunni bastion on the Tigris River, would pave the way for an assault on Mosul, which U.S. officials have said could come as soon as next month.

Concerns are mounting that Iraq's Shiite militias, of which an estimated 20,000 are fighting in Tikrit, will carry out revenge attacks on this and other areas that are home to predominantly Sunni residents.

Amnesty International last year said the militias wear military uniforms but operate outside any legal framework and without any official oversight, adding that they are not prosecuted for their crimes. Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch echoed those concerns, calling on the Iraqi government to protect civilians in Tikrit and allow them to flee combat zones. Its statement noted "numerous atrocities" against Sunni civilians by pro-government militias and security forces.

Shiite militants are increasingly being accused of leveling the Sunni towns they capture from the Islamic State group, making it impossible for residents to return. Tikrit has already been heavily damaged in months of violence. A satellite image of Tikrit, released last month by the United Nations, observed that at least 536 buildings in the city have been affected by the fighting, with at least 137 completely destroyed and 241 severely damaged.

Local Sunni tribal fighters have formed uneasy alliances with the Iraqi army and Shiite militias in the battle for Tikrit, which Iraqi and U.S. officials believe is essential for defeating the Sunni militant group.

Yazan al-Jubouri, a Sunni from Tikrit fighting alongside the Shiite militias, said that the Islamic State militants killed 16 of his relatives and kept his family living in horror.

"We want to take revenge on those IS militants who killed our children," he said.

------------------------------------

Associated Press writer Vivian Salama in Baghdad contributed to this report.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 16 Mar 2015 01:52
 
UN AND RUSSIA WORRY THAT ISLAMIC STATE IS IN AFGHANISTAN

The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan says recent reports indicate the Islamic State group has established a foothold in Afghanistan, a view echoed by Russia which urged the Security Council to stop the extremists' expansion.

Nicholas Haysom told the council Monday the U.N. mission's assessment is that the Islamic State hasn't stuck "firm roots" in Afghanistan, but it has the potential "to offer an alternative flagpole to which otherwise isolated insurgent splinter groups can rally."

Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said Moscow is worried about the rise of the terrorist threat in Afghanistan, especially in the formerly quiet north bordering countries that are its friends and allies.

At Monday's meeting, the Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan until March 17, 2016.


Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 17 Mar 2015 00:32
 
SYRIA KURDS YET TO BE FULLY EMBRACED BY US IN ANTI-IS FIGHT
By RYAN LUCAS

For four months, Syrian Kurdish fighters battled the Islamic State group in the rubble-strewn streets of Kobani as U.S. aircraft pounded the extremists from the skies, a joint effort that ultimately expelled the militants from the town and marked their bloodiest defeat in Syria since the air campaign began in September.

The Kurds earned praise from the Pentagon, which said they had demonstrated the importance of having "a reliable, willing, capable partner on the ground."

And yet, two months later, Syria's Kurds remain largely on the outside looking in on the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against the Islamic State group. Unlike Syrian rebels, they are not included in a new U.S.-training program. And unlike their Kurdish brethren in Iraq, they have not been tapped to receive American weapons.

Instead, the Syrian Kurds' relationship with the U.S. remains loose and ad hoc, at the mercy of Washington's relationship with Turkey - a NATO ally that has a long and fraught relationship with its own Kurdish minority and is deeply suspicious of Syria's Kurds.

For now, Kurdish leaders say their ties with the U.S. are limited to sporadic coordination on coalition airstrikes. The Kurds, who are led by the Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD) and its armed wing known as the YPG, welcome the help, but want more.

"The YPG for more than two years has proven it is the most effective force in Syria fighting terrorism and especially ISIS," said chief YPG spokesman Redur Khalil, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. "But until now, the YPG has not been supplied with any weapons, contrary to other forces in Iraq, which the coalition is arming."

On the battlefields of Syria, the YPG gives the Americans "coordinates and information about the whereabouts" of Islamic State militants, he said, but the cooperation with the coalition doesn't extend beyond that. "We don't plan military operations together," he said.

Khalil said that even the air support is erratic.

He said U.S. airstrikes perfectly complemented a YPG assault last month that captured the IS-held town of Tel Hamees in Syria's Hassakeh province. But Kurdish forces defending the predominantly Kurdish town of Ras al-Ayn on the Turkish border from a large IS offensive saw no U.S. airstrikes for five days.

The coalition often shrugs off the inconsistent cooperation, Khalil said, by saying "there are military operations in Iraq, and they are busy there."

YPG fighters hunkered down on the front lines say they pay for the absence of air support in blood.

"It affects us a lot," said Hussein Kochar, a local YPG leader in Ras al-Ayn. "With the airstrikes, it would be much easier and we would suffer fewer casualties."

Syria's Kurds have performed a high-wire act of sorts in their country's civil war. They have carved out an autonomous zone in predominantly Kurdish areas since President Bashar Assad's forces largely withdrew from them in 2012, and have reached out to Christians and some Arabs to help govern them. In the battle for Kobani, they even fought alongside a small contingent of mainstream Syrian rebels against the Islamic State group -a rare instance of cooperation that could provide a model for the future.

But the government still maintains small garrisons in Kurdish-controlled areas, leading many in the Syrian opposition to accuse the Kurds of working with Damascus - charges the Kurds deny.

For the U.S., the YPG has proven a willing and capable partner, but not one worth damaging Washington's relationship with Turkey.

One American military officer said the U.S. is not committed to partnering with the Syrian Kurds, but also does not rule out future cooperation depending on circumstances and taking into account their human rights record and Turkish government concerns. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

"I think that's one of the main problems for the YPG still: Turkish-U.S. relations are more important than YPG-U.S. relations," said Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Middle East analyst at the Jamestown Foundation.

That dynamic is unlikely to change anytime soon, if ever.

Turkey is a strategically located country of 70 million people with a lot to offer in the fight against the Islamic State group. It has clamped down on its border with Syria to stem the tide of foreign fighters, and is set to host a new program with the U.S. to train up to 4,000 mainstream Syrian rebels.

Ankara is wary of the Syrian Kurds and the YPG, which it believes is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in southeast Turkey that has waged a 30-year insurgency.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now pursuing peace talks with the PKK, and there are signs of warmer relations with the Syrian Kurds.

A senior Turkish official said the atmosphere is better. He pointed to last month's operation that saw hundreds of Turkish troops smoothly travel through YPG-controlled territory in Syria to evacuate soldiers guarding an Ottoman tomb located on the Euphrates River.

Turkey's main concern now is that the Syrian Kurds make a clean break with Assad's government and unite with mainstream rebels, which doesn't seem to be happening yet, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to brief the media.

Syria's Kurds are aware of the influence Turkey wields over their relationship with Washington.

Saleh Muslim, the president of the PYD, appealed to the U.S. to "listen to us with their own ears and see us through their own eyes, not through those of others" - a clear reference to Ankara. Despite those obstacles, Muslim expressed optimism that the limited relationship could grow and develop.

"If you deal with each other, you get stronger over time," he told The Associated Press. "I think maybe in the future we can have very tight relations."


Source : Sapa-AP /dm
Date : 23 Mar 2015 10:20
 
ISLAMIC STATE RECRUITMENT PLUMMETING, WATCHDOG SAYS

Recruitment to the Islamic State extremist group in Syria has plummeted in recent months, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that its sources - a network of activists across the war-torn country - reported a total of 120 new recruits joining the organization in the last two and a half months.

That contrasts with monthly figures reaching 1,200 last year, Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman told dpa.

At the height of the militant group's success last summer, after it captured Iraq's second city Mosul and declared its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi caliph and leader of all Muslims worldwide, the Observatory said 6,300 new fighters joined up in the cities of Aleppo and al-Raqqa.

Abdel Rahman said the group's recruitment of both Syrian nationals and foreign fighters was slowing.

The foreigners were being obstructed by western countries monitoring the departure of Islamists more closely.

Islamic State, which controls much of north-eastern and eastern Syria as well as adjoining Sunni-dominated areas of western and northern Iraq, was also hampered by financial problems, Abdel-Rahman said.

US-led airstrikes, which started last August, have repeatedly targeted small oil wells in Syria, which provided one of the group's main sources of funding.

The organization also appears to be suffering internal difficulties, with repeated reports from both Syria and Iraq of members being executed for breaches of discipline or attempts to evade combat.

Abdel-Rahman said that while the recruitment of adult fighters was dropping, the group was stepping up its attempts to enlist children, 400 of whom have joined up since the beginning of the year.

Islamic State has opened offices to recruit children to its youth wing, called the "Lion Cubs of the Caliphate," he said.

Two videos published by Islamic State in recent months have purported to show alleged spies - two Russians and a Palestinian - being executed by child members of the organization.


Source : Sapa-dpa /dm
Date : 24 Mar 2015 13:20
 
ISLAMIC STATE GROUP BEHEADS 8 SHIITES IN SYRIA'S HAMA

A new video released by the Islamic State group on Sunday shows its fighters cutting off the heads of eight men said to be Shiite Muslims. The video posted on social media said the men were beheaded in the central Syrian province of Hama.

The video could not be immediately independently verified, but it appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that the video was authentic.

IS has beheaded scores of people since capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria last year in a self-declared caliphate.

In the video, the men, wearing orange uniforms with their hands tied behind their backs, were led forward in a field by teenage boys. They were then handed over to a group of IS fighters. A boy wearing a black uniform hands out knives to the fighters, who then behead the hostages.

An Islamic State fighter speaks in the video, using a derogatory term for Shiites and calling them "impure infidels." The IS fighter said in the video that the current military campaign against IS will only make the militant group stronger.

"Our swords will soon, God willing, reach the Nuseiries and their allies like Bashar and his party," the man said referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group that is fighting on his side. The word Nuseiry is a derogatory term to refer to Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

In Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency quoted the family of Younes Hujairi, who was kidnapped from his hometown of Arsal near the Syrian border in January, as saying he had been beheaded. NNA quoted members of Hujairi's family as saying they have seen pictures of an IS fighter carrying his severed head on social media.

It was not clear if Hujairi was one of one of the men beheaded in the video. Hujairi is a Sunni, while the video states that all the beheaded men were Shiites.

The border town of Arsal, where Hujairi was kidnapped, was also the site of a bold joint raid by the Islamic State group and Syria's al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front last August that captured two dozen Lebanese soldiers and policemen. Four of those hostages have been killed so far, two of them beheaded by IS. The remaining 20 soldiers and policemen remain hostages.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 30 Mar 2015 06:24
 
Islamic State fighters push towards Damascus

Beirut - Islamic State fighters on Wednesday staged their most significant push yet into the Syrian capital Damascus while Syrian rebels took over the only functioning border outlet with Jordan, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told dpa.

Rebels led by the Al Nusra Front took over the Nassib crossing to Jordan, Abdel Rahman said. Jordan had earlier closed the crossing from the Jordanian side following heavy clashes between Syrian government troops and rebels near the outlet.

"The rebels managed to take the Syrian side of the Nassib crossing, while regime forces withdrew from the area," Abdel Rahman said.

The crossing mainly serves as a transit point for trucks transporting goods to Jordan and the Gulf market.

Refugee camp overrun

Throughout the day, a Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus was the scene of a chaotic struggle between Islamic State and another faction fighting in Syria.

Islamic State fighters overran the sprawling Yarmuk refugee camp, entering from the nearby district of Hajar al-Aswad and controlling most of the camp, Abdel-Rahman said.

They targeted the offices of the Palestinian faction Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis (Environs of Jerusalem) in the camp, according to witnesses.

By late in the day, Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis managed to take back a few of the posts from Islamic State. The group is reportedly made up of members of Hamas, the Islamist group in control of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

But it appeared that the Islamic State was still in control of most of the camp.

There was no official comment in Damascus.

Before the Syrian uprising that started in 2011 against the regime of Syrian preisdent Bashar al-Assad, some 150 000 Palestinian refugees lived in the Yarmuk camp.

According to the UN refugee agency, some 18 000 Palestine are still living there.

Border crossing

The Nassib border crossing, located 14km south-east of Syria's Daraa province, was the last operational border crossing between Syria and Jordan which was still held by the regime forces.

Jordanian Interior Minister Hussien al-Majali said its country's closure of the Nassib crossing was a temporary precautionary measure aimed at protecting travellers' safety.

Islamic State, which is also active in neighbouring Iraq, has grabbed large parts of Syrian territory in recent months.

Hardline groups have recently featured prominently among the rebels fighting to oust al-Assad.

Meanwhile, the head of the al-Qaeda linked Al Nusra Front called in an audio message for Islamist groups fighting in Syria to unite and join forces "for the victory of Islam and Muslims."

Abu Mohammad al-Julani warned four days after Islamic rebels led by his group took control of Idlib city in northwestern Syria that "maintaining the control of the whole city is harder than seizing it".

He vowed in his message that Idlib's residents would be treated well and that a council from various fanctions would be formed to serve the needs of the people.

Idlib, located near a highway linking the Syrian capital Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo, is the second provincial city captured by jihadists from regime troops.

In 2013, the Islamic State militia seized the north-eastern city of Raqqa from Syrian President al-Assad's troops and turned it into a de facto capital in the war-torn country. The Jihadist group has imposed strict Islamic rules on the people in Raqqa and have used abusive means to implement it.

'Liberation' from extremists

In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in the northern town of Tikrit on Wednesday, a day after he announced the "liberation" of the strategic town from the Islamic State extremists.

Al-Abadi toured the town, holding the national flag, and said that his government would work hard for the return of residents displaced by Islamic State's takeover of Tikrit around nine months ago.

The Iraqi Defence Ministry confirmed that Tikrit, the hometown of late dictator Saddam Hussein, had been "liberated".

"All terrorists who had tried to escape from the troops' advance were killed," the ministry said in a statement without giving casualty figures.

The ministry said the "victory" in Tikrit would mark a new start for wresting back other areas controlled by militants in northern and western Iraq.

Tikrit is strategically situated between Baghdad and the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.

Last week, Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militiamen, backed by US-led airstrikes, started the last phase of regaining Tirkit from the radical Sunni group.

Establishing full control over Tikrit should make it easier for Iraqi forces to regain Mosul, the country's second-largest city.

Islamic State forces captured Mosul and Tikrit last June after Iraqi government troops suffered a stunning collapse.

DPA
Source: http://www.news24.com/World/News/Islamic-State-fighters-push-towards-Damascus-20150402
 
Abu Sayyaf, key ISIS figure in Syria, killed in U.S. raid

U.S. Special Operations forces killed a key ISIS commander during a daring raid in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday -- securing intelligence on how the terror organization operates, communicates and earns money, U.S. government officials said.

The ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf, was killed in a heavy firefight after he resisted capture in the raid at al-Omar, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement.

Sayyaf's wife, an Iraqi named Umm Sayyaf, was caught and is being held in Iraq.

The ground operation was led by the Army's Delta Force, sources familiar with the mission told CNN. There were about two dozen members of Delta Force involved, sources said. They were part of a multi-branch force of about 100, the sources told CNN's Barbara Starr.
Carter said he had ordered the raid at the direction of President Barack Obama. All the U.S. troops involved returned safely.
National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Obama had authorized the raid "upon the unanimous recommendation of his national security team" and as soon as the United States was confident all the pieces were in place for the operation to succeed.
"Abu Sayyaf was a senior ISIL leader who, among other things, had a senior role in overseeing ISIL's illicit oil and gas operations -- a key source of revenue that enables the terrorist organization to carry out their brutal tactics and oppress thousands of innocent civilians," she said in a statement.
"He was also involved with the group's military operations."
Abu Sayyaf was a Tunisian citizen, a senior administration official said.

A U.S. official with direct knowledge of the intelligence and the ground operation described Sayyaf as "CFO of all of ISIS with expertise in oil and gas" who played a increasing role in operations, planning and communications.
"We now have reams of data on how ISIS operates, communicates and earns its money," the official told CNN, referring to some of the communications elements, such as computers, seized in the raid.
Umm Sayyaf, his wife, is currently in military detention in Iraq. A young woman from the Yazidi religious minority was rescued.
"We suspect that Umm Sayyaf is a member of ISIL, played an important role in ISIL's terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in the enslavement of the young woman rescued last night," said Meehan. ISIL is an alternative acronym for ISIS.
Meehan said Umm Sayyaf was being debriefed about ISIL operations, including any information she may have on hostages held by the terror group.

Abu Sayyaf and his wife are suspected to be involved in or have deep knowledge of ISIS hostage operations, a U.S. official with knowledge of the operation told CNN. A team from the FBI-led High Value Interrogation Group is expected to interrogate the wife, the source said. They will seek to figure out what she may know about the capture, movement and treatment of hostages.
But Michael Weiss, author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," said Abu Sayyaf was largely unknown to close observers of the organization.
Weiss said he's skeptical the United States would risk lives to capture the head of ISIS's oil operations. ISIS hasn't made significant money from captured oil fields since U.S. bombers began striking its infrastructure, he said.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed in February that oil is no longer a main source of revenue for ISIS.
"It may be the case that he wasn't the primary target in this operation," Weiss said. "The U.S. might have been trying to kill or capture a higher-value ISIS leader who was thought to be at the same location. But it'd make sense to play up Abu Sayyaf's prominence after the fact since U.S. soldiers' lives were at risk here."
But risking American lives to capture Abu Sayyaf makes sense to Derek Harvey, a former U.S. Army colonel, intelligence officer and the director of the Global Initiative for Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida.
"The most important thing about the raid is not getting Abu Sayyaf; it's getting his records," Harvey said.
Harvey asserted that Sayyaf was one of ISIS's top financiers, with likely access to the group's contacts with banks, donors, Turkish and Lebanese business interests as well as links to criminal and smuggling networks.
Sayyaf might not have been the intended target, Harvey acknowledged. But he had undeniable value as a target because ISIS is also a business.
"They're meticulous record-keepers," he said.
Meehan's statement added that Obama is "grateful to the brave U.S. personnel who carried out this complex mission as well as the Iraqi authorities for their support of the operation and for the use of their facilities, which contributed to its success."
There is reason to believe that Abu Sayyaf may have been in contact with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sources familiar with the operation told CNN.

Although he was not taken alive, U.S. forces did capture some of his communications equipment, the sources said.
More details are starting to emerge of how the overnight raid deep in ISIS-controlled territory was carried out.
There was hand-to-hand combat during the operation, which was helicopter-borne, the sources told CNN.
About a dozen ISIS fighters were killed in the firefight at a residential building in Deir Ezzor, the sources said.
A senior administration official told CNN the purpose of the mission was to capture the target, but he engaged U.S. forces so was killed. While the purpose was to capture the forces had the option to kill if they deemed it necessary, the official said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said at least 19 ISIS militants had been killed by coalition bombing targeting ISIS' location in al-Omar oil field in eastern Deir Ezzor in the early hours of Saturday.

Preliminary information indicates that the U.S.-led coalition airdropped forces following the bombardment, it said.
There are six oil and gas fields in Deir Ezzor, all of which fell into ISIS hands in July last year. They include al-Omar oil field, Syria's largest oil facility.

Abu Sayyaf is not a name familiar to many ISIS watchers and may well be a pseudonym. Sources familiar with the operation said he also was known by the names Abu Muhammad al Iraqi and Abd al Ghani.
But the fact that the United States clearly had him under close watch and was ready to put its forces at risk to carry out a ground raid, rather than ordering a drone strike, suggests the target was seen as very valuable.

CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the decision to send in U.S. Special Operations forces into Syria was unusual but not unprecedented.
"Taking out the guy who runs effectively the most important financing stream is obviously significant, but what's really significant is the computer records and all the materials that he would have with him as the head of this financing arm, if indeed that is the case that he is really that important," said Bergen.
The potential to seize valuable intelligence material and documents may have been what led the U.S. government to opt for a high-risk ground operation rather than a bombing mission, he said.
Such targeted operations push ISIS to be more careful about how they organize themselves and run their operations, he said. "They are going to be looking over their shoulder."
Interrogation of Umm Sayyaf may also yield valuable information.

For weeks, unconfirmed reports have been circulating that al Baghdadi was seriously injured in an airstrike back in March in northern Iraq. That has led to speculation over who might emerge as his successor if he is incapacitated.

Iraqi authorities have said Abu Alaa al-Afari, his top deputy, and a senior ISIS security figure named Akram Qirbash were recently killed in an airstrike.
Click to expand...
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/16/middleeast/syria-isis-us-raid/
 
ISIS takes 'full control' of Syria's historic Palmyra city, activists say

ISIS militants seized "full control" of the ancient city of Palmyra after Syrian government forces retreated from the area Thursday, activists said.

The reported gains by the Islamist group, which rules large parts of Iraq and Syria, will only intensify fears for Palmyra's residents and its archeological riches.

The Sunni jihadists made their advance early Thursday, said the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation.
ISIS fighters stormed the modern city, which is also known as Tadmur, on Wednesday. The city is just a few hundred meters from the ancient ruins of columns, temples and arches, which have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

U.N. and Syrian officials expressed fears that ISIS plans to destroy the ruins, just as it flattened the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and smashed statues in Iraq's Mosul Museum.
The apparent seizure of the Palmyra area is ISIS' second significant conquest across its sprawling battlefronts in less than a week. Over the weekend, it kicked Iraqi security forces out of the key city of Ramadi, a defeat acknowledged by a U.S. State Department official as a major blow.
A clear picture of who controlled what in and around Palmyra, which lies roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Damascus, remained elusive Thursday.
Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, reported late Wednesday that popular defense groups had pulled out of some Palmyra neighborhoods amid a large assault from ISIS, which it said was trying to get into the archeological sites.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday that Syrian security forces were present in the east and west of Palmyra but were preparing to withdraw to another area.

At least 100 Syrian regime troops were killed overnight fighting against ISIS in and around Palmyra, said the monitoring group's Rami Abdulrahman.
So far there has been no claim by ISIS that it has taken the city or any of the strategic military sites and oil resources surrounding it.
SANA reported that Syrian government forces had on Wednesday repelled ISIS fighters who attacked positions surrounding the Jizel oil field in the countryside near Palmyra.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has said she is deeply concerned about reports of the clashes in the area.
"The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East, and its civilian population," she said.
"I reiterate my appeal for an immediate cessation of hostilities at the site," Bokova said. "I further call on the international community to do everything in its power to protect the affected civilian population and safeguard the unique cultural heritage of Palmyra."
Between the first and second centuries, Palmyra "stood at the crossroads of several civilizations," with its art and architecture mixing Greek, Roman and Persian influences, UNESCO says.
The city already was a caravan oasis when Romans overtook it in the mid-first century. Its importance grew as a city on the trade route linking the Roman Empire to Persia, India and China, according to the U.N. agency.

British historian and novelist Tom Holland has described Palmyra as "an extraordinary fusion of classical and Iranian influences intermixed with various Arab influence as well."
The destruction of Palmyra wouldn't just be a tragedy for Syria, it would be a loss for the entire world, he told CNN this month.
"Mesopotamia, Iraq, Syria, this is the wellspring of global civilization," he said. "It really couldn't be higher stakes in terms of conservation."
The Syrian government says it has moved many artifacts, including hundreds of statues, to safer locations.
But it couldn't relocate an entire archeological site.
"Palmyra is this massive, sprawling, spectacular city," CNN's Arwa Damon said from Baghdad. "And now it is at the mercy of ISIS."
Relics left at the site could end up being used to fund ISIS' campaign of terror across the region.
"They have networks that allow them to traffic in cultural treasures." said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East studies at The London School of Economics.
"They have made tens of millions of dollars selling artworks," said Gerges, the author of the forthcoming book "ISIS: A Short History."

This is not the first time an ancient site has come under threat during Syria's brutal four-year civil war, in which ISIS is one of the warring sides.
Notable casualties include 11th century crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers; its walls were severely damaged by regime airstrikes in 2013.
Aleppo's covered market, a formerly thriving part of Syria's economic and social life, was severely damaged in a fire in 2012.

"What is distinctive and horrendous about (ISIS') mode of operation is that they are deliberately going out of their way to destroy (ancient artifacts)," Holland said.

ISIS propaganda claims the Islamist militants are destroying idols or false gods and following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammed, who smashed statues in Mecca.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/21/middleeast/isis-syria-iraq/
 
There was an article heading on the street poles yesterday about "ISIS message to SA muslims", what was that about? You seem to be someone who gets the paper delivered.
 
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