Omar Mateen’s Path to Radicalized Islam

Omar Mateen, the Islamic terrorist responsible for at least 50 deaths after attacking a gay club in the Orlando, Florida area, has been linked to a radical Islamic school and individual by law enforcement. According to Fox News and their law enforcement source, Omar Mateen was reportedly a follower of Marcus Dwayne Robertson. “It is no coincidence that this […]

What ISIS Really Wants

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it. What is the Islamic State? Where did it come from, and what are […]

Florida Shooter was body builder, guard; once wanted to be cop

He was a body builder and a security guard, a religious man who attended the local mosque and who at one point expressed interest in becoming a police officer, though he never pursued it. Early Sunday, 29-year-old Omar Mateen gunned down 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, police said. Mateen was the son […]

Libyan forces taking back ISIS stronghold

Libyan forces have retaken parts of Sirte from ISIS militants, gaining ground in the extremist group’s most significant stronghold outside Syria and Iraq, according to a Libyan military group. In the ongoing offensive, forces supporting the U.N.-brokered government gained control of a port late Friday after fierce clashes with ISIS militants and are in complete […]

American who fought for ISIS charged

An American who joined ISIS was charged in federal court Thursday with providing support to the terror group. Mohamad Jamal Khweis, 26, who grew up in Virginia, is the first ISIS-affiliated American to have been captured on the battlefield. He appeared in court in Alexandria, Virginia, with family members and heard the charges he is […]

Iraqi troops in southern Fallujah for first time in 2 years

A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah on Wednesday, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by the Islamic State group. The counterterrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighborhood, and the operation to retake […]

Iraqi special forces are relying on locals to betray ISIS — but there’s one big problem

One of the biggest challenges facing Iraqi special forces as they try to recapture territory from the Islamic State comes in persuading local communities with a deep distrust of the Iraqi government to reveal any ISIS sympathizers living among them. That challenge was clearly exposed in a recent Vice News documentary produced by two journalists who embedded […]