This City Could Be the Next Big Battle of the ISIS War

The Iraqi government is putting the ISIS-controlled city of Fallujah as next on its target list. That’s not because of increasingly dire reports that the citizens of Fallujah are suffering from starvation and torture under ISIS’s cruel grip. Nor do Iraqi officials see the city as key to dislodging ISIS from its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul. Rather, Iraqi […]

Iraq’s Sadr pulls out forces from Baghdad districts hit by bombs

Powerful Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his armed followers to withdraw from the streets of Baghdad districts that have been hit by deadly bombings claimed by Islamic State, an aide said on Wednesday. Sadr’s Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Brigades, had deployed hundreds of militiamen in Sadr City and five other mainly Shi’ite areas of […]

ISIS carrying out ‘crucifixions,’ atrocities in Libyan city of Sirte, rights group says

CAIRO –   A leading international rights group on Wednesday released a report documenting atrocities by Libya’s Islamic State affiliate — including instances of “crucifixions” and shooting a man to death for “cursing God” — in the coastal city of Sirte, a stronghold of the militants. Human Rights Watch recounts “scenes of horror” that followed […]

ISIS is even recruiting on dating websites

ISIS has taken advantage of technology in many ways, from spreading its message on Twitter to using encrypted messaging apps like Telegram. And one place the internet has been of particular help to ISIS is in recruitment, allowing the organization to scour for new supporters in all corners of the globe. This recruitment has even […]

Escape from ISIS: Former prisoners tell of life in terror army’s dungeons

By day, they faced torture and the constant threat of execution at the hands of their ISIS captors. At night, they used a stolen piece of jagged metal to scrape the crumbling wall of their prison until last week, when they had fashioned a hole big enough to squeeze through. A 30-year-old man who was […]

Pentagon: Secretive Space Unit in the Fight Against Daesh [ISIS/ISIL]

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter sees a variety of missions for the Pentagon’s new, secretive space center — and that includes fighting the Islamic State. The Pentagon chief said Thursday that the new Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center established by the Defense Department last fall has a role not only in preparing for potential […]

Battles Across Iraq Call Into Question U.S. Strategy

Political and ethnic rivalries in Iraq are threatening the ongoing campaign to eject the Islamic State from the northern and western portions of the war-torn country. A large battle for the majority-Christian village of Tel Asqaf north of Mosul began at dawn on May 3, as more that 100 ISIS fighters launched a surprise attack that […]

France’s Weird Jihadi Re-Education Camps Could Become ISIS Incubators

Young men from the northern districts of this most Muslim city in France are expected be among the first to be called up when the government in Paris kicks off its Orwellian new plan to fight the so-called Islamic State. The idea is to herd suspected extremists into mysterious “deradicalization centers” all over the country. There are an estimated 9,000 […]

America is Determined to Arm Libya in Fight Against Daesh [ISIS/ISIL]

The US and other world powers have said they are ready to arm Libya’s UN-backed unity government to help it fight the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group. Speaking in Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry said world powers would back Libya in seeking exemption from a UN arms embargo. He said IS was a […]

Liberating Mosul will not solve Iraq’s problems

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC based think tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States army. The liberation of Mosul is in the early days of execution, but as the […]