Terrorist group ISIS is hanging dead bodies from the entrances to cities as a way to reinforce their control over the population.
Photographs from the city of Hawija show the bodies of men hanging upside down from the metal sign at the entrance to the city. The flag of the terrorist group is painted on the metal sign above the bodies.
Some of the bodies appear to be wearing the uniform of the Iraqi military.
The city is the same location where ISIS had been parading captives through the streets in metal cages similar to the one used to burn alive a Jordanian pilot. Intelligence officials say that the terrorist group is looking to make Hawija their new operational hub.
The group also released a photo of a young boy carrying around the severed head of an Iraqi soldier with the caption “this is how the cubs of the Caliphate are raised up.”
Long rumored to be happening, the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has pledged their allegiance to ISIS and is calling on Muslims around the world to do the same.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” leader Abubakar Shekau said in an audio recording posted to Twitter on Saturday. “We call upon Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph.”
Boko Haram, which has been attempting to form their own caliphate since 2009, has been releasing videos stating that Islam is commanded to take over the world and that they would not stop until every Christian in the world was killed.
“Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups,” Jacob Zenn with the Jamestown Foundation told CNN. “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into (French-speaking) West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.”
The announcement by Boko Haram marks the 31st terrorist group to pledge allegiance to ISIS.
A man that the U.S. government has designated a terrorist has been found leading Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.
The man is Major General Qasem Suleimani, the Iranian spymaster and leader of the special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Photographs from the war theater around Tikrit showed Suleimani providing direction to senior Iraqi officials fighting to take the town back from ISIS. Analysis say the discovery shows the growing influence of Iran on the Iraqi government.
“I know we’re keeping our distance physically from them in Baghdad,” Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J said. “Have we ceded most of the governance of Iraq to Iranians?…And will the military operations that are undergoing, which we are watching, divide the country and require us in some ways to spend more of our resources?”
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that he shared the concern of the representatives about who would be influencing the region if the troops drive ISIS out of the major cities in the region.
Intelligence officials say that 2/3 of the Shiite militia fighting ISIS are loyal to Iran.
ISIS terrorists shocked man by releasing 19 Assyrian Christians out of the hundreds they captured during raids last week.
The terrorists at the last minute kept a 6-year-old girl and a negotiator told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) the terrorists likely plan to use the girl as a bargaining chip.
AINA estimates that over the last week, ISIS has captured up to 373 Christians from various villages.
The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday that a Sharia court ordered the release of 29 captives, not 19, and ISIS is now showing they will ignore their own courts.
“ISIS has claimed for a long time to follow rules, and it claims that these Sharia courts will impose limits,” Graeme Wood of The Atlantic told CNN. “They can attempt to get credibility by showing that they follow rules and that they have some kind of transparent process that follows their particular implementation of Sharia law.”
Witnesses say that at least 15 of the Christians have been killed by the terrorists.
A group of Israeli divers are being hailed as heroes after uncovering what one government agency calls the “biggest ancient coin find in the nation’s history.”
The divers said they first found what looked like a toy coin from a children’s game on the ocean floor. Curious to see how it came to rest there, they discovered that the coin was part of a treasure trove of coins with Arabic writing.
The coins were dated to the 11th century when the Fatimid Islamic dynasty was the dominant power of the Middle East.
“(This is) a great treasure from a (vessel) that was probably taking the hoard, possibly tax revenue, to Cairo but sank in Caesarea harbour,” Jacob Sharvit of the Israel Antiquities Authority told Reuters during a visit to the site.
“Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city,” Sharvit added.
The value of the gold is around $240,000.
Archaeologists that have studied the coins say they have found tooth marks and bent edges that indicate the coins were tested as part of trading.
A report before the House Homeland Security Commission says that a estimates show over 20,000 foreign fighters sympathetic to ISIS have gone to the middle east to join the group or attempt to join them.
Nick Rasmussen, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center said that fighters are joining at a rate never seen in previous conflicts of similar nature like Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Supporters from 80 countries are believed to be in Syria.
The report says that approximately 150 Americans have attempted to travel to the war zone to join ISIS. Officials say that while some have been caught, a majority were able to make it to ISIS territory.
The new estimate is double the previous and experts say it could top 30,000 in the next few months.
“This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity and additional intelligence,” an unidentified CIA official told CNN this week.
The chairman of the Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, said the report brings him serious concerns.
“I am worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home,” he said. “I wrote to the president recently as part of my ongoing investigation and raised concerns that we have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies. I am also concerned that the few programs we do have in place are far too small to confront a challenge that has grown so quickly.”
A report from a former vice chief of staff for the Army regarding ISIS that was mostly negative had one bright spot from a military standpoint: the top chemical weapons expert for the terror group was killed in an airstrike.
Retired General Jack Keane told new members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Abu Malik was killed last Saturday in an airstrike near Mosul. Malik was a chemical weapons engineer for Saddam Hussein who joined al-Qaeda and then ISIS after the fall of Saddam.
“His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people,” US Central Command said in a statement.
But the news was tempered by Gen. Keane’s view that ISIS has begun to “dominate” in multiple countries.
“After U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011, ISIS emerged as a terrorist organization in Iraq, moved into Syria in 2012. Is it possible to look at that map in front of you and claim that the United States policy and strategy is working? Or that al-Qaeda is on the run? It is unmistakable that our policies have failed,” Gen. Keane said.
“In my view, we became paralyzed by the fear of adverse consequences in the Middle East after fighting two wars,” he added. “Moreover, as we sit here this morning, in the face of radical Islam, U.S. policymakers refuse to accurately name the movement as radical Islam. We further choose not to define it, nor explain its ideology, and most critical, we have no comprehensive strategy to stop it or defeat it.”
A man who was seen as a major stabilizing figure in the turbulent Middle East is dead at the age of 90.
Saudi King Abdullah died early Friday after what palace sources called “a short illness.” Abdullah had ruled Saudi Arabia since 2005 after the death of King Fahd.
Many residents of the nation saw Abdullah as a reformer. He allowed women the right to vote and to compete in the Olympics. He maintained close relationships with the United States and Britain, buying most of the nation’s defense equipment from the two nations.
He also made domestic violence against women a crime for the first time in the nation’s history.
He was also a major opponent to Islamic terrorism and called it not only a threat to the region but also to Islam. He launched education programs that were aimed at stopping Al-Qaeda from gaining a foothold with youth. He also took actions to keep the most extreme parts of Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment from being able to spread their message in the nation.
King Abdullah was found through diplomatic messages published by Wikileaks to have asked the United States to implant microchips on all terrorists at Guantanamo Bay to allow world governments to track their movements. He also privately urged the U.S. to attack Iran to destroy their nuclear program.
Former Crown Prince Salman became King. He appointed officials to new roles within hours of the death of King Abdullah, unusual in the Saudi succession pattern, which usually took months. Reportedly King Salman wanted to “show strength to Islamic extremists” that “Saudi Arabia is united.”
HarperCollins is on the defensive after the discovery they were selling an atlas of the Middle East that did not include Israel.
The Tablet, an international publication of the Catholic Church, discovered the atlas eliminating Israel. The atlas was sold to English speaking schools in Muslim-majority countries in the Persian Gulf.
HarperCollins recalled the atlas after the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said they were harming the peace process.
“HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offence caused,” HarperCollins posted on their website.
“The publication of this atlas will confirm Israel’s belief that there exists a hostility towards their country from parts of the Arab world. It will not help to build up a spirit of trust leading to peaceful co-existence,” Bishop Declan Lang told The Tablet.
“Maps can be a very powerful tool in terms of de-legitimising ‘the other’ and can lead to confusion rather than clarity. We would be keen to see relevant bodies ensure that all atlases anywhere reflect the official UN position on nations, boundaries and all political features,” added Dr. Jane Clements, director of the Council of Christians and Jews.
ISIS is now the world’s biggest user of children as forces for their terrorist army.
ISIS calls the children forced into fighting “cubs of the Islamic State” and see them as key to taking over the Middle East. They believe that using social media to promote the use of child fighters is a way to gain more young teens into the extremist groups.
ISIS is taking the children to special “indoctrination camps” where they are forced to convert to Islam, learn the details of the ISIS brand of Islam and then be trained on weapons and war tactics.
The children are also forced to attend executions and torture of people who violate ISIS version of Sharia Law.
ISIS recently sent on social media pictures of two children they described as “martyrs” for the cause after they were killed in U.S. airstrikes on ISIS bases. One of the children, identified as Abu Ubaida, was described as the “youngest fighter in Islamic State.”
They also shared videos of children re-enacting the beheading of American journalist James Foley and changing “Allahu Akbar” while carrying about the “head” of their fake Foley.
