ISIS leaders transfer by 24 bus their families from Mosul into Syria
Media official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Saeed Mamouzini revealed on Wednesday, that ISIS has transferred 75 families of the leaders of the organization from Mosul into Syria.
Mamouzini said that “75 leaders from ISIS transferred their families from Mosul to Syria,” noting that “those families have been moved by 24 bus.”
Mamouzini added:”Up till now, the reasons for this decision have not been known,” indicating to ” the escape of 23 elements of the organization to Syria last week.”
Iraq says would welcome Russian air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday he would welcome Russian air strikes against Islamic State in his country and had been receiving information from both Syria and Russia on the militant group.
“Not yet,” Abadai told France 24 television when asked if he had discussed with Russia air strikes in his country. “It is a possibility. If we get the offer we will consider it and I would welcome it.”
He said Baghdad had also been receiving “massive information” from Syria on Islamic State and also from Russia.
‘Malaysians with Islamic State are turning snipers, suicide bombers’
Malaysians, who earlier served as cleaners and guards at the Islamic State camps in Syria, are now being trained to become snipers and suicide bombers in Iraq as the dreaded terror group is trying to regain its hold over the war-torn country, a senior officer has said.
Malaysians, who fell prey to IS’ false promise of “jihad” and began serving as cleaners and guards, are being trained to become snipers and suicide bombers with the specific goal of regaining its grip in Iraq, Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Senior Asst Comm Ayub Khan said.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS and ISIL, now counted on some Malaysians to carry out its special ops missions all over Iraq.
“The presence of the IS in Syria is quite solid but the group is losing control over Iraq as many territories have fallen back to Iraqi government.
“Our intelligence show that they are relying more on Malaysians now to carry out strike missions against several key structures in Iraq,” he told The Star newspaper yesterday.
The new development came to light following the deaths of three Malaysians in Iraq, believed to be on special ops missions, Ayub was quoted as saying by the paper.
The latest deaths bring the number of Malaysians killed in Syria and Iraq to 14.
“As with some deaths involving Malaysians in both countries, it was hard to get a DNA sample to completely verify and identify the militants involved,” he said, adding that they relied on their intelligence gathering network.
At present, he said police have identified 69 Malaysians who are fighting along the IS in Syria.
“Previously, there were militants who joined other terror groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria. However, this trend has stopped as all of them have joined the IS,” he added.
Turkey court slaps secrecy order on ‘arms to Syria’ trial
Four former senior Turkish prosecutors and an ex-military commander went on trial on Thursday over the interception last year of an alleged consignment of arms bound for Syria, with the court immediately imposing a secrecy order on the hugely controversial case.
The case goes to the heart of claims — repeated on occasion by the West but denied by Turkey — that Ankara has worked far too closely with Islamist rebels in the hope of ousting Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
The five, who were arrested earlier this year, are charged with seeking to overthrow the government and revealing state security information. They could face life in prison if found guilty.
The trial opened at a criminal court within Turkey’s Supreme Court in Ankara under heavy security, with the judge immediately imposing the secrecy order, the official Anatolia news agency reported.
The order means the trial will be held behind closed doors and its proceedings with not be made public.
The trial relates to the stopping and searching of trucks near the Syrian border in January 2014 which were suspected of smuggling arms into Syria.
Local security forces found the trucks were taking not only a consignment of arms but also Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) personnel.
Documents published by Turkish opposition media claimed the seized trucks were vehicles delivering weapons to Syrian Islamist rebels fighting Al Assad.
Turkey has vehemently denied aiding Islamist rebels in Syria, such as Daesh, although it wants to see Al Assad toppled.
The four prosecutors on trial – including former federal prosecutor for the Adana region Suleyman Bagriyanik — issued orders for the search of the vehicles.
Also standing trial is former Turkish military gendarmerie colonel Ozkan Cokay, who is believed to have implemented the search order on the ground.
Dozens of rank-and-file soldiers and police have also been arrested in the investigation but it is not immediately clear when they will go on trial.
The Turkish authorities have sought to link the affair to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of running a parallel state through supporters in the judiciary and police with the aim of usurping him.
But in May, Turkish opposition daily Cumhuriyet published footage of the alleged arms delivery showing mortar shells, grenade launchers and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Erdogan threatened Cumhuriyet’s editor in chief Can Dundar after over the story, vowing he “will pay a heavy price.”
Austria jails 3 Chechen asylum-seekers for trying to join ISIS
An Austrian court on Thursday handed down jail sentences to three Chechen asylum-seekers – a man, his wife and his mother – for seeking to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremists in Syria.
The 20-year-old man, his 21-year-old wife and the man’s 39-year-old mother were intercepted in Turkey. They said they were there to obtain medical treatment for the mother, who suffers from depression and panic attacks.
But presiding judge Daniel Rechenmacher ruled that their arguments were “completely implausible” and “disproved by objective evidence material”.
The man was given two years’ jail and the mother, 21 months.
The man’s wife was sentenced to 19 months’ jail
She was heavily pregnant at the time of her arrest, and gave birth in custody to a boy whom she then called Osama.
All the sentences can be appealed.
Peshmerga undertake massive operations in western Kirkuk against Islamic State
In a major operation against Islamic State (IS) militants on the southern and western Kirkuk frontlines September 30th, Kurdish Peshmerga, backed by international coalition jets, killed hundreds of jihadists.
Director of Kirkuk police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir confirmed to BasNews that the Peshmerga, police and security forces of Kirkuk took control of several villages on the outskirts of the city.
He revealed that hundreds of IS insurgents were killed during the offensive but their nationalities remain unknown.
Peshmerga engineering teams are now disabling improvised explosive devices (IED) planted by IS militants escaping the area, Brig. Gen. Qadir said.
At least seven villages were cleared of the jihadists yesterday, and situation in the area is now calm.
Islamic State gaining ground on Golan border and Free Syrian Army on verge of collapse in southern Syria
As Russian airstrikes on Wednesday and Thursday targeted rebel groups in central and northern Syria, many of them reportedly unaffiliated with the Islamic State, Islamist groups in the south are growing stronger, with IS fighters now operating openly near the border with Israel, an opposition spokesman said on Thursday.
Speaking to The Times of Israel from Jordan, where he serves from within the joint Western-Arab command center in Amman known as MOC, the spokesman of Free Syrian Army units active in the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra said that an estimated 500-700 Islamic State fighters are currently active in the towns of Jamlah and Ash-Shajarah, adjacent to the Israeli border in the southern Golan Heights.
Further east, moderate forces are attempting to push back IS fighters trying to occupy al-Lajjah, an area north of the town of Basr al-Harir.
Western training for moderate rebel fighters in Jordan has not taken place in five months, he added, and no ammunition or weaponry has reached the Free Syrian Army on the southern front in three months.
“The current situation is very bad,” the spokesman said. “No battles are taking place [with Assad forces] in our sector because there’s no ammunition.” While the Assad regime is maintaining its hold on the city of Daraa, near the Jordanian border, the surrounding villages are largely held by rebel forces.
In addition to the decline in ammunition, salaries have also been cut by 60 percent to Free Syrian Army fighters, the spokesman noted. An average FSA combatant earns just $70 a month, as compared to $300 earned by Islamist Nusra Front combatants or the salary of IS fighters, which can reach $500. The latter two organizations are classified as terror groups by the US and other Western states.
“The more Western states fall short in providing support to us, the more they help ISIS and Nusra,” he said. “If the donor states do not take a firm stand, within two months most fighters in the southern front will switch to Nusra or ISIS. The lack of salaries and ammunition is humiliating them, and they won’t take it much longer.”
Last year, an entire fighting faction, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, owning 40 tanks and armored vehicles, pledged allegiance to IS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he noted.
The Times of Israel could not independently confirm the information provided by the FSA spokesman.
The spokesman speculated that the cut in funds was a Western reaction to the failure of moderate rebels to capture the city of Daraa and complete a military drive northward towards Damascus as part of Operation Southern Storm in June and July this year.
“The young fighters are attracted by these organizations, which claim to represent religion,” he said. “They believe that anyone speaking for religion is truthful and wants to liberate the country, when in fact the opposite is true. They merely use Islam as a guise but have no connection to it.”
Large majority of French people approve of strikes in Syria against ISIS and alliance with Assad: survey
A large majority of French people endorsed Socialist leader Francois Hollande’s decision to strike Islamist fighters in Syria as part of his plan to battle terrorism at home and abroad, a poll showed on Thursday.
An Elabe poll for the news channel BFMTV showed 67 percent of the respondents approved of France’s military offensive against Islamic State in Syria with 82 percent of the Socialists said supporting the strike.
In the right camp, 71 percent of conservatives backed strikes while two thirds of followers of the far-right National front backed the move.
Asked whether Paris should negotiate with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, 54 percent of 1,002 respondents said they are in favor of being in alliance with the Syrian leader to end the conflict in Damascus.
Assad’s Army, Hezbollah and Iranian troops, prepare ground attack in Syria
Hundreds of Iranian troops arrived in Syria with weapons to take part in ground operations in rebel-held areas of northern Syria, and Lebanon’s ally Hezbollah is preparing to join the operation, Lebanese sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The ground operation together with the Syrian army would accompany air strikes mounted by the Russian air force, the sources who were briefed on the matter said. “The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advance by the Syrian army and its allies,” one of the sources said.
The sources said the operation is aimed at recapturing territory lost by President Bashar al-Assad to rebels.
