Watch: ISIS truck blown apart by Syrian Kurds in viral video

An explosives-laden pickup truck driven by an Islamic State suicide bomber was turned into a rolling fireball by Syrian Kurdish fighters – and dramatic video footage of the attack released Monday has gone viral. “A suicide bomber tried to attack us but my comrades managed to kill him,” one fighter says in the video obtained […]

ISIS Sex Slave Trade in Gaziantep, Turkey

ISIS has been generating millions of dollars through the sale of women and children abducted from the regions it has conquered. While the Yazidi slave trade is well publicized in the West, we also chillingly learned through our ISIS Defectors Interview Project, that ISIS has not only enslaved Yazidi women (who they claim as devil worshippers), […]

Pentagon adopts Israeli tactic in bombing ISIS

The U.S. has adopted a unique Israeli battlefield tactic in its fight against ISIS: exploding a missile above a building to warn civilians inside that it’s about to be bombed. Israeli forces have widely used the so-called knock-on-the-roof operations in Gaza attacks in recent years to try to get civilians out before they are hit. […]

U.S. Fears New Missile Race in Syria Would Help ISIS

With an already tenuous ceasefire in Syria on the brink of collapse, U.S. officials are concerned that rebel groups could make a new push to acquire shoulder-fired missiles, which could then fall into the hands of ISIS and threaten U.S. and coalition aircraft. The lightweight missiles, which are easy to use and transport, also could […]

We just got the clearest sign yet that the Assad regime helped make ISIS very, very rich

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime negotiated deals with the Islamic State’s oil tycoon that at one point contributed up to 72% of the militant group’s profit from natural resources, The Wall Street Journal reported this past weekend. That is according to documents uncovered during a raid on the home of Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic State “oil minister” […]

Sweden Is Warned of Possible ISIS Attack Plot Targeting Stockholm

The Iraqi government has warned Sweden that the terror group ISIS may be targeting that country’s capital of Stockholm, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iraq found intelligence “about an ISIS plan to target the Swedish capital Stockholm,” involving seven or eight Iraqi […]

U.S. Cyberattacks Target ISIS in a New Line of Combat

The United States has opened a new line of combat against the Islamic State, directing the military’s six-year-old Cyber Command for the first time to mount computer-network attacks that are now being used alongside more traditional weapons. The effort reflects President Obama’s desire to bring many of the secret American cyberweapons that have been aimed elsewhere, notably […]

WATCH: JSOC Operators in Syria, Obama announces 250 more troops to deploy to Rojava

In a scenario eerily reminiscent to US Special Forces deployments to Central America in the 1980’s, Obama announced today that 250 more Special Operations troops would be deployed to Syria to help fight ISIS.  In the 80’s the numbers of Special Forces troops allowed in countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua was capped around 50, […]

Document trove reveals how ISIS oil man ran terror group’s operations

Islamic State oil man Abu Sayyaf was riding high a year ago. With little industry experience, he had built a network of traders and wholesalers of Syrian oil that at one point helped triple energy revenues for his terrorist bosses. His days carried challenges familiar to all oil executives—increasing production, improving client relations and dodging directives from […]

Amended ROE Expands Air War Against Daesh

We’ve talked about the ultra-restrictive ROE hampering Operation Inherent Resolve in the past, and how the allowable level of civilian casualties has been “zero.” Since the fall timeframe, the airstrikes have picked up significantly, thanks to fewer restrictions in place and what seems to be a greater willingness to go after Daesh. That is also […]

ISIS claims downing of Syrian regime jet near Damascus

ISIS claims it shot down a Syrian air force jet east of Damascus on Friday and captured the pilot, according to Amaq, the media agency affiliated with the terrorist group.  The claim appeared to be at least partially corroborated by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is opposed to both ISIS and the […]

Watch: The Bundeswehr (German Military): Train the Peshmerga in Iraq

In February 2015, the Bundeswehr (German military,)  began training the security forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Peshmerga. A contingent of 150 German soldiers is stationed in northern Iraq to train the Peshmerga in the face of the threat of Daesh [ISIS/ISIL]. The Bundeswehr camp located in Erbil, the largest city in the Kurdish areas […]