Islamic terrorist group ISIS has captured key natural gas fields near the city of Homs in Syria.
While ISIS has been losing battled and ground to the northern part of their captured areas, the group has been pushing south in an apparent attempt to overthrow the Syrian government.
“So after the Sha’ar company and the positions surrounding it became part of the land of the Caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah,” the Islamic State said in a message.
The terrorists also posted with the message pictured of slaughtered and tortured Syrian troops.
Syrian activists say that the terrorists appear to be targeting Tayfur military airbase. If the terrorists were to capture the airbase, it would be seen as a major blow to the Syrian government.
Foreign fighters who have grown disillusioned by the truth of ISIS once they begin fighting for the group are finding it hard to leave as the terrorist outfit threatens to kill anyone who leaves.
British newspaper The Observer quotes a source in Syria as saying dozens of British citizens who became radicalized and joined ISIS want to come home to Britain but are being held against their will.
“There are Britons, who, upon wanting to leave have been threatened with death, either directly or indirectly,” the source said.
Moazzam Begg, who had been a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, told the newspaper that when someone joins ISIS they swear an allegiance to the caliphate, which is in essence saying you are a citizen of that “state”.
“When it becomes solidified as an Islamic State, a caliph, and you swear allegiance, thereafter if you do something disobedient you are now disobeying the caliph and could be subject to disciplinary measures which could include threats or death,” said Begg.
The article in the Observer comes days after 19-year-old Mehdi Hassan, a British man who had tried to return to Britain, was killed in battle fighting for ISIS. Hassan was caught trying to leave and imprisoned for four days by ISIS leaders until he agreed to stay with the terrorists.
ISIS reportedly has captured three fighter jets and is training former Iraqi military pilots to fly them.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the planes were taken when the terrorists captured the al-Jarrah airport east of Aleppo. The pilots have been making training flights around the airport in preparation for attacks on western aircraft that has been targeting terrorist strongholds.
“They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein,” Rami Abdulrahman of the SOHR told Reuters. “People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back.”
U.S. Central Command would not confirm the reports of the ISIS pilots.
“We’re not aware of (Islamic State) conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere,” U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said. “We continue to keep a close eye on (Islamic State) activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centres of gravity, wherever they may be.”
Social media accounts connected to ISIS have shown captured aircraft.
Kurdish fighters were able to stop an advance by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS into the town of Kobani but could not stop suicide bombers from launching homicide bomber attacks in another Iraqi province.
The bombings happned in the Qara Tappah district in Diyala province. One bomber blew himself up at the gateway to the offices of the main Kurdish political party and two others blew themselves up in cars loaded with explosives minutes later.
The terrorists involved were reportedly foreigners who came to Iraq to fight with ISIS.
The CIA now reports ISIS has a total strength of 31,500 terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The attacks in Diyala follow 45 people being killed in similar attacks around Baghdad the prior day.
Kurdish fighters were able to top the advance into Kobani but ISIS has taken over at least 350 villages close to the main city. At least 150,000 people in the region have fled across the Turkish border.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has conducted another beheading of a westerner.
The terrorists released a video called “Another Message to America and Its Allies” where it showed news footage of the British Parliament voting to send troops against ISIS. Then the video cuts to UK citizen Alan Henning kneeling on the ground.
“I am Alan Henning,” he says. “Because of our parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic state, I, as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision.”
The video cuts to black during the actual beheading and then shows the body of Henning on the ground after the murder.
“Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment of Shams (Syria), which keeps on striking our people,” the terrorist who committed the murder says, “so it is only right that we continue to strike the neck of your people.”
The group then threatens to kill U.S. Army veteran Peter Kassig.
British Prime Minster David Cameron said the video highlights the depravity of the killers.
“The brutal murder of Alan Henning by ISIL shows just how barbaric and repulsive these terrorists are,” Cameron remarked in a statement following the release of the video. “Alan had gone to Syria to help get aid to people of all faiths in their hour of need. The fact that he was taken hostage when trying to help others and now murdered demonstrates that there are no limits to the depravity of these ISIL terrorists.”
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has begun a campaign of terror in individual towns within their control, beheading a group of 10 people including three women.
The move is to try and stop locals from resisting any actions by ISIS.
“I don’t know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They want to scare people,” Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
The beheadings took place in Kobani, near the Turkish border, where the Kurds have been frantically fighting against the terrorist group. All three women who were beheaded were Kurds.
Kurdish fighters killed 50 terrorists during fighting during the day. The other terrorists reportedly had to flee the sight of the fighting back into Syria or toward Mosul, Iraq.
Air strikes continued against ISIS during the battle including the first strikes from British forces.
The terrorist group ISIS has lost a key border crossing to Kurdish forces.
The capturing of the border crossing makes it harder for the terrorists to operate on both sides of the Iraqi/Syrian border and the victory against the terrorists was obtained by Kurds on both sides of the border. It was the first time Kurdish forces from both sides of the border worked together in a single assault on the terrorists.
It also marked the first time that a major Sunni group has fought against the terrorists. The Shammar tribe, one of the most influential in the region, proclaimed the terrorists as a group that had to be eliminated.
The leader of the tribe told Reuters they are in full cooperation with groups working to overthrow the terrorists.
“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar said.
The road that runs through Rabia is the major route between Syria and Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq.
A Syrian aircraft has been shot down over the Golan Heights by Israeli defense systems.
The shooting down of the aircraft is the first time since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War that the battle has crossed into Israeli territory in a major way. Until this point, only stray mortar fire had struck Israeli territory.
Israeli Defense Forces say that the plane was a MiG-21 fighter jet and a surface-to-air missile took the plane down. The wreckage of the plane landed in Syria and the pilot reportedly was able to eject and land in Syrian territory.
Syrian government spokesman tried to claim the shooting down of the plane meant Israel was supporting the terrorist group ISIS. World leaders immediately dismissed the Syrian claim as “absurd.”
The United States and Arab allies began a series of airstrikes on the terrorist group ISIS.
The strikes happened inside Syria near the town of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed “capital” for the terrorists.
“I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIS terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack missiles,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time.”
In addition to U.S. forces, aircraft from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Intelligence reports say that most of the 30,000 ISIS terrorists are inside Syria and without strikes inside that country it would be impossible to break the ISIS command structure.
The strikes come just days after 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled to Turkey because of advances from the terrorists.
Observers estimate at least 60,000 Kurds have fled from Syria toward Turkey over a single 24-hour period because of ISIS.
“ISIS came and attacked, and we left with the women, but the rest of the men stayed behind,” 24-year-old Abdullah of Shiran told Reuters. “They killed many people in the villages, cutting their throats. We were terrified that they would cut our throats too.”
Witnesses say that women, children and the elderly were seen fleeing in large groups on foot.
“Islamic State is killing any civilian it finds in a village,” Mustefa Ebdi, the director of local radio station Arta FM, added. “People prefer to flee rather than remain and die. [ISIS wants] to eliminate anything that is Kurdish. This is creating a state of terror.”
Turkish officials reportedly stopped the group at the border and refused to allow them to cross until they confirmed they were fleeing ISIS.
U.N. officials called on world charities to send food and supplies to the region to help the refugees.
