EU-DIGEST: ISIS

Showing posts with label ISIS. Show all posts

11/3/20

Austria: Islamic State group claims responsibility for Vienna terrorist attack, without providing evidence

The ISisterrorist group group's statement was accompanied by a picture of a bearded man, named "Abu Dagnah Al-Albany", saying he attacked crowds in central Vienna on Monday with a gun and a machine gun, before he was killed himself by Austrian police.

Read more at: Islamic State group claims responsibility for Vienna terrorist attack, without providing evidence

1/12/20

European Troop Deployment in Iraq: 3,000 troops from 19 EU states in Iraq. Will they stay?

Around 3,000 soldiers from 19 EU states were deployed in Iraq, plus another 200 from 10 EU states stationed under Nato command, as of late 2019, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a global think tank.

With tensions flaring following the killing of general Qassem Suleimani in a US drone attack last week, the EU is scrambling to use diplomacy to de-escalate the brewing conflict and possible ensuing war.

Read more: 3,000 troops from 19 EU states in Iraq. Will they stay?

12/3/19

French-Turkish Relations: France’s Macron accuses Turkey of ‘sometimes working with IS group proxies’

French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey on Tuesday of working with Islamic State proxies and said Ankara’s ambiguity towards the group was detrimental to its NATO allies fighting in Syria and…

Read more at: https://www.france24.com/en/20191203-france-s-macron-accuses-turkey-of-sometimes-working-with-is-group-proxies-at-nato-summit

11/23/19

Netherlands-Court decission: Netherlands does not have to help kids from ISIS parents trapped in Syria

The Netherlands will not have to retrieve children of Dutch citizens awaiting their fates in Syrian detention and displacement camps, the kids of Dutch women who left the Netherlands to enter conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. The Appellate Court in The Hague overturned a lower court's ten-day old order on an emergency appeal filed on behalf of the Dutch government.

Read more at:
https://nltimes.nl/2019/11/22/netherlands-help-kids-trapped-syria-appellate-court

11/11/19

The Netherlands: Court orders Netherlands to bring back kids from Dutch ISIS mothers, but not mothers, stuck in Syria

A court in Den Haag ordered the Netherlands to quickly bring 56 children of Dutch parents back to the country from Syrian detention and displacement camps. The case was filed on behalf of 23 mothers living in the camps. In its verdict, the court noted that "the children have not chosen to go to Syria or to stay in Syria. They are sitting there now because their parents have been involved in ISIS.

Read more at:Court orders Netherlands to bring back kids, but not mothers, stuck in Syria | NL Times:

11/9/19

ISIS: Turkey threatens to send foreign Isis suspects home from Turkey soon

Interior minister said repatriation of alleged terrorists would include those rendered stateless.

Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/turkey-isis-suspects-repatriation-islamic-state

11/2/19

ISIS: Turkey has said it will return "Islamic State" prisoners to their own European countries

Turkey has said it will return "Islamic State" prisoners to their own countries, after several European nations refused to take back terror suspects. Ankara said it would not be a "hotel" for foreign militants.

https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-vows-to-return-is-suspects-to-europe/a-51090924

11/1/19

Two Dutch ISIS women, three children escaped Syrian camp, fled to Turkey | NL Times

Two Dutch women and three children escaped a Syrian prison camp in Al Hol and reported to the Dutch embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara with a request to return to the Netherlands, the government said in a letter to parliament on Thursday. "The women and children are currently in Turkish detention, awaiting prosecution and/or deportation by the Turkish authorities".

Read more at: https://nltimes.nl/2019/11/01/two-dutch-isis-women-three-children-escaped-syrian-camp-fled-turkey

3/4/19

ISIS: Danish parties want to strip foreign fighters of citizenship – but US Trump Administration threatening the EU they will release them in Syria if they don't take them back

This week it emerged that the UK had decided to revoke the British citizenship of Shamima Begum, a so-called Islamic State (IS) bride who wants to return to the UK after leaving London four years ago to join ranks of the jihadist organisation in Syria.

Now, several parties in Denmark are looking to follow suit following a proposal from Dansk Folkeparti (DF) that aims to strip the Danish citizenship of people who travelled abroad to fight alongside IS.

So far, government parties Venstre and Konservative have supported DF’s proposal, although they are not in favour of doing anything that might be in breach of international conventions.

But despite this, the justice minister Søren Pape Poulsen said today that Denmark would likely have to accept the foreign fighters back.

“This is a complex problem and there is no perfect or simple solution. The fact is we can’t deny Danish citizens returning to Denmark,” said Poulsen.

The news comes after the US president Donald Trump urged European countries to bring back its foreign fighters the US are detaining in Syria. Otherwise, the US would have to simply release them.

But despite this, it looks as if some areas of the political spectrum will be doing their best to avoid such a scenario.

“We don’t want to breach conventions, but we will take it to the limit. We must send a clear signal that they are not welcome and we don’t want them back in Denmark – they also present a serious security risk,” Michael Aastrup Jensen, Venstre’s spokesperson on foreign affairs issues, told DR Nyheder.

Note EU-Digest: It is unbelievable how subservient the EU and its member states seem when reacting to US threats, even if it goes against their own principles. Aren't they all aware by now that the US Trump Administration has no respect for the EU, or cares about anything the EU does or says. Come on EU show some backbone.

2/20/19

USA: To be or not to be? Pompeo says Alabama woman who joined ISIS can't return to US even though US wants other countries to do so

Pompeo says Alabama woman who joined ISIS can't return to U.S.

11/18/18

Weapons Industry: How Did ISIS Get Its Weapons? Europe Wants to Limit U.S. and Saudi Arabia Arms Sales Because Guns Went to Militant Group - by Tom O'Connor

The European Union's top legislative body has issued a call to control arms exports in order to avoid perpetuating human rights abuses and allowing weapons to fall into the wrong hands.

The European Parliament warned that "member states have systematically failed to apply" EU rules when selling arms abroad, and called for "a mechanism to enforce sanctions on EU members that break the rules," according to a press release issued Wednesday. The document cited specific examples of taking measures to cut weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and the United States in order to ensure they were not acquired by banned organizations such as the Islamic State militant group, commonly known as ISIS or Daesh.

The document quoted parliamentarians as saying they were "shocked at the amount of EU-made weapons and ammunition found in the hands of Da’esh, in Syria and Iraq." The lawmakers highlighted EU protocols designed to prevent arms intended for a legitimate customer from then being transferred to a restricted one, but called out Bulgaria and Romania specifically for not adhering to them.

Due to the risks associated with such sales, the lawmakers said member states should "refuse similar transfer in the future, notably to the US and Saudi Arabia."

Note EU-Digest: Almost half of the total US Weapons Industry sales end up in the Middle East

Read more: How Did ISIS Get Its Weapons? Europe Wants to Limit U.S. and Saudi Arabia Arms Sales Because Guns Went to Militant Group

8/15/18

Afghanistan: is the US ready to give up on fighting the Taliban as the Russians did before them ?

US changing its tune in Afghanistan as 'barbaric' Taliban becomes bulwark against ISIS

2/3/18

Middle East - Iraq: After ISIS, Two Iraqs Emerge in Iran's Shadow

In describing the three years he spent fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group from the banks of the Tigris to the Makhoul mountains and Iraq’s desert frontier with Syria, Mohammed Jassem did not call himself a soldier.

Fresh from battle, flush with victory, Jassem is a Shiite holy warrior, a mujahid.

On his battered mobile phone, Jassem played a grainy video from November 2017 of fighting in the deserts around al-Qa’im, the last ISIS-held town in Iraq, before the vital strategic link in the militants’ once expansive supply network was liberated.

As ISIS overran vast swathes of the country and appeared poised to take the capital, Baghdad, the leader of Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority, Ayatollah Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, compelling all the faithful to protect their homeland from ISIS.

The militias were joined by Sunnis, Yazidis, Christians and other minorities, but in far fewer numbers. As ISIS was pushed back from Tikrit and then from Sunni strongholds in Fallujah, Ramadi and finally Mosul, it was Shiite fighters—prominently backed by Iran—who led the way. Many Shiites now view the victory not only as a force of will but as an act of God.

Iraq’s Kurds also criticized Iran. Before the battle to defeat ISIS was over, the coalition against the militants—the Hashid, government soldiers, the international community and the Kurdish Peshmerga—imploded, with Iraqi forces driving the Kurds from Kirkuk, a contested city seized by Kurdish forces early in the war. Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government accused Iran, and Soleimani in particular, of orchestrating the attacks.

Alkareem explained that the majority of the what he termed “interference” predominantly involved Shiite militiamen and Sunni residents. As far as he is concerned, in the Sunni heartlands that fueled and supported the ISIS advance, the hashid must be removed unless history is to repeat itself.
“The federal government, for their part, needs to strengthen the security forces,” he said. “We don't want people from the south coming and guarding our places. We can do that on our own.”

Read more: After ISIS, Two Iraqs Emerge in Iran's Shadow

1/23/18

Syria - Turkish Invasion: Turkey and Russia run rings around Trump - by Jennifer Rubin

While the United States has been absorbed with a government shutdown and a debate about President Trump’s mental stability, Turkey — a NATO partner — has invaded Syria and is attacking our Kurdish allies, who have assisted greatly in the war against the Islamic State.

The Associated Press reports: Turkey’s air and ground offensive against Kurds in northwestern Syria has distracted from international efforts to finish off the Islamic State group and has disrupted humanitarian relief work, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.

Mattis raised the matter in an exchange with reporters after unrelated meetings in the Indonesia capital with senior government officials. He made clear that while the U.S. sympathizes with Turkey’s concerns about border security, Washington wants the Turks to minimize their military action inside Syria.

Read more: Turkey and Russia run rings around Trump - The Washington Post

11/20/17

Middle East: Transition in the Middle East: Transition to what?- by Dr. James M. Dorsey

Transition is the name of the game in the Middle East and North Africa. The question is transition to what?

Dominating the answer is an Arab autocratic push for a Saudi-led regional order that would be based on an upgraded 21st century version of autocracy designed to fortify absolute rule. To achieve that autocrats have embraced economic reform accompanied by necessary social change that would allow them to efficiently deliver public goods and services. It is an approach that rejects recognition of basic freedoms and political rights and is likely to produce more open and inclusive political systems that ensure that all segments of society have a stake.

At the core of the volatile and often brutal and bloody battle that could take up to a quarter of a century to play out is the determination of Arab autocrats to guarantee their survival at whatever cost. Geopolitics play a major role in Arabic autocratic ambition. To compensate for their inherent weakness and lack of the building blocks needed for sustainable regional dominance, Arab autocrats except for Egypt, the one Arab state with the potential of being a dominant, long-term regional player, need to contain first and foremost Iran, and to a lesser degree Turkey.

It is a geopolitical struggle, dominated by the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, that has enveloped the Middle East and North Africa for almost four decades and progressively undermined regional stability; fuelled the rise of extremism and jihadism; encouraged supremacist, intolerant and anti-pluralistic tendencies far beyond its borders in countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia; and turned it into the most volatile, repressive, and bloody part of the world.

Littered with the bodies of the dead and the dying, countries like Syria, Iraq and Yemen have been scarred for generations to come and are struggling to ensure territorial integrity against potential secessionist ethnic, regional and religious challenges. Possible US-backed Saudi efforts to destabilize Iran with attempts to stir ethnic unrest risk the Islamic republic and Pakistan becoming the next victims. Countries such as Lebanon teeter on the brink.

Restive populations meanwhile hang in the balance, hoping that their continued surrender of political rights in new social contracts unilaterally drafted by autocratic leaders will bring them greater economic opportunity. In some countries like Egypt expectations have been dashed, in others such as Saudi Arabia expectations are unrealistic and poorly, if at all, managed.

The successful and brutal Saudi and UAE-led counterrevolution has killed hopes and popular energy that exploded onto the streets of the Arab cities during the revolts of 2011 and produced tyrants and mayhem. For now, it has all but erased popular will to risk challenging autocratic rule that has failed to deliver or that has created expectations that may prove difficult to meet.

That is not to say that like in the period prior to the 2011 revolts, popular anger and frustration is not simmering. Like in the walk-up to the uprisings, popular sentiment remains ignored or unrecognized by officials, scholars and pundits, who, if it explodes are likely to be caught by surprise. No one knows whether it will explode and, if so, in what form and what might spark an explosion.

It was the self-immolation of a fruit vendor in Tunisia in late 2010 that set the Middle East and North Africa alight. While history may not repeat itself literally, events six years later in the Rif, a rebellious region of northern Morocco, sparked by the death of Mouchine Frikri, an unemployed street merchant, suggest the writing may be on the wall.

Mr. Fikri was crushed to death in a trash compactor while trying to retrieve fish confiscated by the authorities. A year of protests since Mr. Fikri's death suggests that the effectiveness of King Mohammed VI's constitutional reforms in an initially successful bid to co-opt the demonstrators as well his support for the Rif's indigenous Berber culture and promises of state investment that would turn the region into a manufacturing hub have either run their course or fallen short.

Nasser Zefzafi, a 39-year-old unemployed man with an understanding of the power of social media, has despite the government's use of security forces, succeeded with online videos and fiery speeches denouncing corruption and dictatorship, to not only keep the protests alive but also encourage their intermittent spread to other parts of the country. The Moroccan capital of Rabat witnessed in June its largest anti-government protest since the 2011 revolts.

"Regimes have closed off channels for political expression, and responded to popular protests with increasing brutality. The governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and, to some extent, Morocco, epitomize Arab regimes' seeming inability to escape the autocracy trap – even as current circumstances suggest that another popular awakening is imminent," said Moroccan-born former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

Mr. Ben-Ami's timeline may be optimistic, but the underlying message remains valid. Regime survival-driven, government-controlled economic reform that seeks to ensure that private enterprise remains dependent on the public sector, limited social reforms, exclusionary rather than inclusionary policies, and rejection of political change may buy time, but ultimately will not do the trick.

Autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa are, for now, riding high buffeted by the ability to divert public attention with promises of economic change, the spectre of Iran as a foreign threat, US support for regional autocrats and containment of Iran, and the fuelling of ethnic and sectarian tension.

At best, that buys Arab autocrats time. The risk is festering and new wounds that are likely to come to haunt them. Four decades of global Saudi propagation of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservativism to counter what initially was Iranian revolutionary zeal but later transformed into Iranian strategy in a long-standing covert war has turned Arab Shiites and their militias into potent political and military forces. The spectre of the Houthis organizing themselves on the border of Saudi Arabia on the model of Lebanon's Hezbollah is but the latest example.

Autocratic self-preservation and the Saudi-Iranian rivalry, coupled with disastrous US policies, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, have wracked countries across the region and fostered a generation of Syrians and Yemenis that is likely to be consumed by anger and frustration with their human suffering and what is likely to be a slow rebuilding of their shattered countries, whose existence in their current form and borders is at best uncertain.

In short, transition, in the Middle East and North Africa has deteriorated into a battle for retention of political control. It constitutes a struggle for the future of a region that with near certainty will produce more conflict as well as black swans that could create even more havoc long before it yields sustainable solutions that ensure equitable economic development and transparent and accountable rule of law.

Transition in the Middle East: Transition to what?

11/3/17

USA -Chicago: At Least 3 Shot, 1 Dead After Shooting At Chicago Starbucks - by Shreesha Ghosh

One man was killed and two others were wounded, including a 12-year-old boy, in a shooting Thursday night at a Starbucks in the Uptown neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, authorities said.

The shooting happened around 8:10 p.m. EDT at Broadway and Lawrence at a Starbucks outlet located at 4753 N. Broadway, according to Chicago police and fire officials.

The deceased was shot in the body and was declared dead at the scene, police said adding that the 12-year-old was shot in the groin and was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center by ambulance immediately. Fire officials said the boy was in serious-to-critical condition.

Another adult male who was also shot and he self-transported himself to Weiss Memorial Hospital, police said. His condition is not yet known.

A witness told CBS local in Chicago that he heard gunfire and saw a suspect wearing a ski mask escape the scene after the shooting, reportedly running west on Lawrence.

Note EU-Digest: When will politicians in America get it into their head that some kind of gun control is needed in America, regardless how much money the NRA gives them for their political campaigns? Even ISIS is now telling their "followers and admirers" how easy it is to get guns in America.....Come on Political America, get with the program - We need Gun Control legislation in America.

Read more: At Least 3 Shot, 1 Dead After Shooting At Chicago Starbucks

6/28/17

ISIS Members From Europe Can't Get Jobs When They Return Home

The first thing an employer will ask about a resume is any gaps between jobs. But they probably wouldn't suspect that an applicant for a certain role who seems to have been unemployed for a few years was busy fighting for the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

Jihadis returning to their home countries in Europe are now finding out the hard way, and many cannot get a job as they try to reintegrate into western society.

Swedish daily newspaper Expressen interviewed former jihadis about life after ISIS and they discussed the challenges of finding work. As many as 150 have returned to the Scandinavian country to try and rebuild their lives
Read more: ISIS Members From Europe Can't Get Jobs When They Return Home

6/24/17

Middle East: US military should get out of the Middle East - Jeffrey D. Sachs

It’s time to end US military engagements in the Middle East. Drones, special operations, CIA arms supplies, military advisers, aerial bombings — the whole nine yards. Over and done with. That might seem impossible in the face of ISIS, terrorism, Iranian ballistic missiles, and other US security interests, but a military withdrawal from the Middle East is by far the safest path for the United States and the region. That approach has instructive historical precedents.

America has been no different from other imperial powers in finding itself ensnared repeatedly in costly, bloody, and eventually futile overseas wars. From the Roman empire till today, the issue is not whether an imperial army can defeat a local one. It usually can, just as the United States did quickly in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The issue is whether it gains anything by doing so. Following such a “victory,” the imperial power faces unending heavy costs in terms of policing, political instability, guerilla war, and terrorist blowback.

Terrorism is a frequent consequence of imperial wars and imperial rule. Local populations are unable to defeat the imperial powers, so they impose high costs through terror instead. Consider the terrorism used by Jewish settlers against the British Empire and local Palestinians in their fight for Israel’s independence and territory; or Serbian terrorism deployed against the Hapsburg Empire; or Vietnamese terrorism used against the French and United States in Vietnam’s long war for independence; or American terrorism, for that matter, that independence fighters used against the British in America’s war of independence.

This is of course not to condone terrorism. Indeed, my point is to condemn imperial rule, and to argue for political solutions rather than imperial oppression, war, and the terror that comes in its wake. Imperial rulers, whether the British in pre-independence America; the Americans in Cuba and the Philippines after 1898; the French and Americans in Vietnam; and the United States in the Middle East in recent decades, foment violent reactions that destroy peace, prosperity, good governance, and hope.

The real solutions to these conflicts lie in diplomacy and political justice, not in imperial rule, repression, and terror.

Indirect rule has been the more typical US approach, for example when America overthrew the elected government of Iran in 1953 in order to impose the autocratic Shah of Iran. Similarly, America toppled the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan in 2001, and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003, in order to install regimes friendly to the United States Easier said than done. In all of these cases, the American imperial vision proved to be a fantasy, and the US-led violence came to naught in terms of US interests.

The United States is trapped in the Middle East by its own pseudo-intellectual constructions. During the Vietnam War, the “domino theory” claimed that if America withdrew from Vietnam, communism would sweep Asia. The new domino theory is that if the United States stops were to stop fighting ISIS, Islamic terrorists would soon be at our doorstep.

The truth is almost the opposite. ISIS is a ragtag army of perhaps 30,000 troops in a region in which the large nations — including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey — have standing armies that are vastly larger and better equipped. These regional powers could easily drive ISIS out of existence if they chose to do so. The US military presence is actually ISIS’s main recruiting tool. Young people stream into Syria and Iraq to fight the imperial enemy.

Empires trapped in regional wars can choose to fight on or more wisely to acknowledge that the imperial adventure is both futile and self-destructive. King George III was wise to give up in 1781; fighting the Americans wasn’t worth the effort, even if it was possible militarily. The United States was wise to give up the war in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in 1975. America’s decision to cut its losses saved not only Southeast Asia but the United States, as well.

The United States was similarly wise to curtail its CIA-led coups throughout Latin America, as a prelude to peace in the region.

The United States should immediately end its fighting in the Middle East and turn to UN-based diplomacy for real solutions and security. The Turks, Arabs, and Persians have lived together as organized states for around 2,500 years. The United States has meddled unsuccessfully in the region for 65 years. It’s time to let the locals sort out their problems, supported by the good offices of the United Nations, including peacekeeping and peace-building efforts. Just recently, the Arabs once again wisely and rightly reiterated their support for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians if Israel withdraws from the conquered territories. This gives added reason to back diplomacy, not war.
We are at the 100th anniversary of British and French imperial rule in the Mideast. The United States has unwisely prolonged the misery and blunders. One hundred years is enough.

Read more: Jeffrey D. Sachs: US military should get out of the Middle East - The Boston Globe

5/26/17

Middle East: Egypt strikes Libya after deadly bus attack against Coptic Christians

Egypt's president says his air force struck bases in Libya where militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained, but gave no details.

Senior officials said that the bases are in eastern Libya. They said the warplanes on Friday targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al-Qaeda.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in Egypt, wherever they may be. He also directly appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after at least 28 Coptic Christians, including two children, were killed by militants south of Cairo, el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries that finance, train or arm extremists be punished.

Read more: Egypt strikes Libya after deadly bus attack against Christians - World - CBC News

Egypt: 28 Coptic Christians killed in bus attack just before Ramadan begins

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others, officials say.

The bus was travelling to the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor, 135km (85 miles) south of Cairo, from Minya province when it came under fire.

No group immediately said it was behind the attack.

But Islamic State (IS) militants have targeted Copts several times in recent months, and vowed to do so again.

Two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta on 9 April left 46 people dead.

Another suicide bombing at a church in the capital in December killed 29 people, while a Christian community was forced to flee the town of el-Arish in the northern Sinai peninsula after a series of gun attacks in February.

Read more: Egypt Coptic Christians killed in bus attack - BBC News

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