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Afghanistan: pro-ISIS militants attack a shrine and homes in Logar province

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A group of militants who are apparantly supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group have attacked a historic shrine and residential houses in Logar province.

The incident has reportedly taken place in Charkh district of Logar province with the local tribal elders saying that a resident of Charkh was also publicly assassinated by the group.
The provincial council chief Hasibullah Stanikzai confirmed that a pro-ISIS militant group has recently launched operations in parts of Charkh district where they carry black flags and are giving speeches in favor of ISIS group.
Stanikzai called on the government to take immediate actions in tackling the activities of the group in Logar province.
District administrative chief for Charkh Khalil Kamal confirmed that the government’s control in remote districts of Logar province is relatively weak.
He said such groups are normally operating during the night time and are even involved in looting the house of the people and their belongins.
In the meantime, provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said the Afghan security forces will soon launch an operation to tackle the activities of such groups.
Logar is among the relatively volatile provinces in central Afghanistan which is located around 60km in south of Kabul province.
Source:  khaama
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Islamic State creates military Brigade for children

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The Islamic State (IS) militants have established a special force of youths in Syria who are receiving military training at the “Faruq Institute for Teenagers”.
In a videotape widely circulated on social networks, the jihadists describe the workings of the facility and the brigade, based in the IS stronghold province of Raqqa.
The film shows a number of young people dressed in uniforms, wearing the familiar black headband baring an IS slogan.
Those receiving the training are residents of Raqqa and displaced youngsters from other parts of Syria.
According to international law, children are not allowed to participate in war.
Source: BasNews
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Libya: Benghazi catholic church ‘used as Isis arms depot’

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The Chief of staff of the Libyan Air Force, Maj al-Jaroushi, has claimed that Isis in Libya uses Benghazi’s Catholic Church and the Commonwealth War Cemetery as ‘arms depots’.

The claim was made on Libya Awalan TV and tweeted by Good Morning Libya last night.

Coincidentally, the Maltese bishop of Benghazi, Mgr Sylvester Magro, recently arrived in Malta for a break. He will also be going to Rome to brief the Pope about the situation in Libya.

Source:  timesofmalta

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ISIS is ready to declare Emirate in Lebanon

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The Islamic State (IS) militant group is ready to declare declare an Islamic emirate in Lebanon soon as part of its geographical extension. The group started preparations to establish a military organizational committee for Lebanese affairs.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group is set to declare an Islamic emirate in Lebanon soon as part of its geographical extension, The Daily Star reported, citing security sources.
 Arrangements to form an IS command for Lebanon is reportedly taking place under the guidance of a Syrian commander who played a crucial role in the IS offensive against Syria’s Raqqa region.

The group has already started preparations to establish a military organizational committee for Lebanese affairs, according to the newspaper.

However, the idea of setting up an Islamic emirate in Lebanon has not received a green light from “powers backing” the Islamic State, security sources said.
 The group is allegedly also struggling to choose a Lebanese commander for the operation.

IS militants have in recent weeks been carrying out training exercises in the strategically important Qalamun Mountains near the Lebanese border. The notoriously brutal group has already seized vast territories of Syria and Iraq, and has several foreign branches.

IS already clashed with Lebanon’s army in August 2014 near the city of Arsal, on the border Syria.

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Mediterranean under threat from Somali-style piracy from fighters loyal to Islamic State

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The Mediterranean could see a return of Somalia-style piracy from fighters loyal to ISIS, experts warned last night.

A report by the Italian Ministry of Defence warned that ISIS had already taken control of Libyan ports and boats and, “could repeat the scenario that has dominated the maritime region between Somalia and Aden for the last ten years”.
It added: “Speed boats could attack fishing boats, cruise ships, small merchant ships, as well as coast guards in this case more to capture prisoners to exhibit in orange jumpsuits.”
Chris Parry, Rear Admiral, has warned ISIS pirates would pose a greater danger to shipping and yachting than the Somalis because they are more sufficiently armed.
He said: “You are going to get them turning up with surface-to-air missiles. Helicopters are going to come down if you are not careful.”
He added that Isis would hold an “endless supply” of fighters and weapons from Syria and Libya.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the Mediterranean constitutes about 15 per cent of global shipping activity.
Piracy could end leisure sailing, damage the cruise industry and increase living costs for Europeans, with cargo forced to travel by road and rail. In 2014, over 17,000 ships passed through the channel.
Gerard Batten UKIP MEP has spoken out about the latest threat, voicing concern about Britain’s defences. “In the past, the royal navy eradicated piracy,” he said.
“Now, our defences have been so run down that it’s doubtful we could ever mount a serious, independent action against them.”
“Even when the royal navy combated piracy off Somalia, the captured pirates were treated with kid gloves and protected by the Court of Human Rights.”
“They should be destroyed at sea,” Mr Batten added.
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ISIS seeks to attract more foreign fighters by opening two English-speaking schools for their children

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Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Syria are seeking to attract more foreign recruits by opening two English-language schools in the terror group’s de facto capital city.
Activists working undercover in the ISIS stronghold Raqqa uncovered plans for two schools – one for boys and one for girls – where most lessons will be taught in English, not the local Arabic dialect.
The plans are just ISIS’ latest attempt to build establish a fully-functioning state within the vast swathes of Syria and Iraq it controls through a campaign of rape, massacre and brutal oppression.
Last summer the terror group declared the territory a so-called caliphate and said it as the duty of all Muslims around the world to live under the regime. Since then tens of thousands of foreigners have done just that, with English becoming a lingua franca among the militants and their families.
Details of the two new English language schools were revealed by a local activist named Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, whose group ‘Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently’ operate undercover in the city to expose ISIS atrocities and report on local developments in the terror stronghold.
He uploaded a photograph to Twitter showing a typed-poster that had been put up informing local fighters that the two schools are soon to open.

The poster reads: ‘By the grace of Allah we have opened schools for English speaking children. The boys school is named Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi School (formally known as Al Qadhim School) and the girls school is called Aisha School and is located next door’.
It then goes to say that the schools cater for children aged between six and 14, and lessons are run between 9am and midday between Saturday and Wednesday. The children therefore have Thursday and Friday as a weekend.
Religious lessons, Mathematics and English Language are all taught in English and take up the majority of the day, although a minority of lessons, such as the teaching of Arabic Language and the reading of the Koran are conducted in Arabic.
The poster gives a phone number for parents to call if they are interested in enrolling their children and instructs them to ask for a militant named Abu Muhammad.
The purpose of opening English language schools in Raqqa is two-fold – firstly to stop English-speaking families leaving the territory over concerns about their children’s education, and secondly to raise a generation of bilingual young men to continue the ISIS reign of terror for years to come.
The news comes as Syrian Kurdish forces advanced against Islamic State fighters in two separate attacks in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border on Sunday, an organisation tracking the war reported, compounding recent losses for the militant group in Syria.
The Kurdish YPG militia has been one of Islamic State’s toughest enemies in Syria and last month flushed the group out of the town of Kobani with the help of U.S. and allied air support and Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements on the ground.
Hasaka province in the northeastern corner of Syria is strategically important in the fight against Islamic State because it borders areas controlled by the group in Iraq.
In an attack backed by U.S.-led air strikes, the YPG advanced to within 3 miles of Tel Hamis, an Islamic State-controlled town 22 miles southeast of the city of Qamishli, Kurdish official Nasir Haj Mansour said.
The YPG had decided to launch the attack after Islamic State reinforced its positions in the area with foreign fighters.
It is the latest example of coordination between the U.S.-led alliance and the YPG in the fight against Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of Syria and Iraq and declared them part of a cross-border ‘caliphate’.
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Yazidis battle ISIL: Disaster ‘made us stronger’ 

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A 600-strong Yazidi militia force has been fighting back against ISIL at Iraq’s Mount Sinjar.

Beritan Soza barely has to lower her head when she climbs out of the mud-caked tent she calls home. The 18-year-old clutches a Kalashnikov rifle that hangs off her shoulder, gripping it tightly so the strap does not slip. The gun, she tells Al Jazeera, was given to her three months ago by the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), and she has not let it out of her sight since.

Soza says volunteering to fight with the YBS – an all-Yazidi militia force of 600 fighters based on Mount Sinjar – has given her a feeling of control. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been displaced since last August, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) advanced on Sinjar in Nineveh province.

“I’m not a victim,” Soza says. “The disaster that happened to the Yazidi people just made us stronger. We know we don’t need anyone to help us now, because we are helping ourselves.”

The Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority in Iraq, follow an ancient Mesopotamian religion with roots in Zoroastrianism. Yazidis, referred to as “devil worshippers” by ISIL, have been targeted by the group’s fighters.

Soza and her family, along with thousands of others, fled to Mount Sinjar on the first day of ISIL’s assault on the area. Local Kurdish Peshmerga forces put up a weak defence before pulling back, leaving the Yazidi population unprotected.

Determined not to rely solely on outside powers for protection, the people on the mountain began to organise their own defence force. YBS fighters train alongside the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia based in northern Syria, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish militia known for its clashes with the Turkish state.

About 10,000 Yazidis live in erratic rows of tents stretching across the mountain, looking down on swaths of ISIL- controlled territory below. Among them is Roghar Habaabi, who watches the plumes of smoke from Sinjar rise above the mountain from his family’s tent. Deep explosions reverberate from below, but they do not bother him – this is normal, he says.

When not fighting in the streets of Sinjar below, Habaabi says, he and his fellow YBS fighters patrol the mountain.

“They [ISIL] are barbarians,” Habaabi tells Al Jazeera. “They depend on car bombs and suicide attacks.”
The YBS is an unconventional presence. Young men and women in mismatched military fatigue ensembles move between tents. A young man with a belt of ammunition strapped across his torso carries cases of water back to a tent, a machine gun hanging off his back.

Young YBS fighters gather between the tents under the direction of Said Hassan Said, a leader of the Yazidi Democratic Movement (TEVDA), a political group that sponsors the militia.

Said, who also lives on the mountaintop, believes the YBS is just the first step towards a better future for Iraq’s Yazidi community. He says the Yazidi people need their own government, and is calling for an autonomous Yazidi region in Sinjar, with the YBS as its defence force.

“We want a Yazidi area, and we want the YBS to be the protector of it,” Said says. “What we are seeing now with the YBS, it will be bigger than this. This is all we have, and they will be here to protect the Yazidi people and Sinjar in the future. We want an army to protect this land and our religion.”

According to Thomas Schmidinger, a professor at the University of Vienna, the movement for an autonomous Yazidi region has gained traction in response to the ISIL crisis and in the wake of the Peshmerga’s abandonment of Sinjar last August.

“There are a lot of different lines of conflict within the Yazidi community about the question of an autonomous Yazidi region,” Schmidinger told Al Jazeera. “But what is obvious is that since August, many Yazidis consider themselves more distant to the Kurds, and would like to have an autonomous region, either within the [Kurdish Regional Government] or a separate entity within Iraq.”

The presence of the YBS is a step towards being able to defend the community, Schmidinger added – and a significant step towards autonomy. Habaabi says he would be willing to fight for this ideal.
“I was a student before, but I’m a fighter now,” Habaabi says. “I never imagined this, but I will stay a fighter as long as my people need me.”

Source: Al Jazeera

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Iran studies Russian offer of new missiles Antey-2500 instead of S-300

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The head of Russia’s Rostec conglomerate, Sergei Chemezov, said on Monday Moscow has offered Iran its latest Antey-2500 anti-aircraft missiles instead of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, and Teheran is weighing the decision, TASS news agency reported.

“As far as Iran is concerned, we offered Antey-2500 instead of S-300. They are thinking, no decision has been made yet,” Chemezov was quoted as saying.

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Sisi: arabs must have united army force against ISIS

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Creation of a united Arab armed force is crucial in the struggle against terrorism in the Middle East, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi said in a televised statement.
“It is necessary to create a united Arab military force to counter terrorist threat in the region,” Sisi said.
The president also commented on the airstrikes Egypt conducted on the so-called Islamic State fake jihadist group targets in Libya, after the insurgents executed 21 Egyptian nationals.
“The Egyptian air force has conducted airstrikes on 13 targets on Libyan territories, they were all very precise,” Sisi said.
Last week, the so-called Islamic State militants beheaded 21 Egyptian Christian Copts in Libya, and published the video of the execution online. After the video publication, Egypt and Libya conducted a series of joint airstrikes on the ISIL positions in Libya, killing between 40 and 50 militants.
The so-called Islamic State is a fake jihadist group notorious for its human rights abuses, multiple kidnappings and killings. In 2014, it took vast territories in Iraq and Syria under its control and proclaimed an Islamic caliphate.
A US-led international coalition of more than 60 countries have been making attempts to hinder ISIL advances by conducting airstrikes against the militants’ positions in both Syria and Iraq.
Source:  abna24.com
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France deploys Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier against ISIS in Iraq

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France has deployed one of its aircraft carriers against the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq, AFP reports citing government officials.

France announced sending Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier for use in military operations against Islamic State in Iraq in mid-January.

French President Francois Hollande told military personnel back then that that the Charlie Hebdo massacre carried out by Islamic extremists “justifies the presence of our aircraft carrier.”

The carrier is the largest Western European warship currently in commission, and is France’s only nuclear-powered surface vessel. The ship can carry 20 to 25 aircraft, including Super Etendard strike fighter jets, Rafale M multirole fighter jets and Aster missiles.

The ship’s deployment, during which it will provide airstrikes against Islamic State militants, is expected to last until May at the earliest.

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