La brigata “Al Battar”, composta da centinaia di libici che hanno combattuto in Siria e in Iraq nei mesi scorsi sotto le bandiere del Califfato dell’Isis, si è costituita in Cirenaica e nell’est del deserto libico ai confini con l’Egitto.

Ormai le bandiere nere del Califfato sono arrivate sulle spiagge del mediterraneo…

Islamic State (IS) militants have appeared in the eastern Libyan city of Derna for the first time, shouting out extremist slogans and displaying IS flags, Sky News Arabia reported Monday.

A photograph published by Sky News Arabia shows IS militants driving in a car along a city street, with the militants sitting in the trunk waving black IS flags.

Libya is currently facing its worst wave of violence since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent civil war. After the conflict, the country has seen violent clashes between numerous militias, armed with weapons seized from government ammunition depots.

The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq.

The IS extremist group has proclaimed a caliphate on the vast areas it had seized across Iraq and Syria. The United States has been carrying out airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq since August.

In September, US President Barack Obama announced his strategy aimed at defeating the IS and preventing it from spreading across the Middle East. A US-led coalition started conducting airstrikes against the IS in Syria the same month, while simultaneously continuing airstrikes in Iraq.

Source: ria.ru

Australian and Belgian fighter jets have flown their first armed combat mission in Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), official sources said on Monday.

“The Super Hornet aircraft conducted an air interdiction and close air support mission over northern Iraq overnight,” the Australian Defence Force said in a statement.

“The Super Hornets were on-call to attack targets as identified.

“On this occasion the aircraft did not use their munitions and have returned to base to disarm and prepare for future sorties.”

The flights are the first since the Australian government on Friday authorized strikes on ISIS militants in Iraq.

Canberra is also deploying 200 soldiers to Iraq, including special forces, to advise Iraqi and Kurdish troops but has yet to receive the final approval from the Iraqi government.

Australia is part of the international coalition conducting an air campaign against IS that the United States has been building since first launching air strikes in August.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has spoken strongly against IS, saying the decision to support international operations is in Australia’s national interest.

“The beheadings, the crucifixions, mass executions, ethnic cleansing and sexual slavery that are occurring in northern Iraq and Syria, are only the beginning if ISIL has its way,” he said on Saturday.

Belgium campaign

Meanwhile, an F-16 fighter jet on Sunday carried out Belgium’s first bombing raid in the fight against ISIS group in Iraq, the defense ministry said.

Belgium has contributed six F-16 bombers to the U.S.-led air campaign against ISIS militants, backing up Iraqi and Kurdish troops on the ground.

Two of the Belgian jets were flying their first reconnaissance missions over Iraqi territory on Sunday when they were called to action.

“After the positive identification of a terrorist element attacking Iraqi security forces”, one of the war planes was asked to launch an air strike, the ministry said in a statement.

“The Belgian aircraft intervened with a GPS-guided bomb, resulting in the immediate neutralization of the enemy threat,” it added.

Belgium’s parliament overwhelmingly approved joining the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in late September, but limited its operations to Iraq — as have France, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Britain and France have joined the strikes in Iraq and five Arab nations have taken part in Syrian raids.

Netherlands weighs in

Extremist militants ISIS have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, declaring a “caliphate” and imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
Dutch F-16 fighter bombers on Sunday also began flights over Iraq and are ready to join the campaign against ISIS, the defense ministry said on Sunday.

“Dutch F-16s flew today over the conflict zone in Iraq for the first time,” the ministry said in a statement.

The planes are now “completely ready to be deployed over Iraq”.

Source:  alarabiya.net

La guerra contro i jihadisti del Califfato islamico è arrivata anche in Libano…

Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah said Sunday that at least two of its fighters were killed along with “dozens” of gunmen in clashes in the Syria-Lebanon border area.

A Hezbollah official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the clashes occurred on Syrian territory, just over the border from Lebanon.

But a Hezbollah source on the ground and local residents said the clashes erupted outside the town of Nabi Sbat, in Lebanese territory, after gunmen from Syria attacked Hezbollah posts.

“Hezbollah posts in the mountains around Nabi Sbat, east of Baalbek, were attacked by armed groups who came from Qalamun” in Syria, the Hezbollah source in the region said.

“Hezbollah returned fire, inflicting heavy losses among the attackers.”

Lebanon’s official National News Agency also reported the clashes took place in Lebanon, saying they began after an attack launched by gunmen from Asaal al-Ward in Syria’s Qalamun province.

Residents from Nabi Sbat who fled the fighting told AFP they saw Hezbollah convoys picking up several wounded fighters from the group during the clashes.

Lebanon’s border with Syria is not officially defined and much of it is porous and unpatrolled, with local residents, smugglers and others moving freely across it.

Hezbollah maintains several military posts along inaccessible parts of the border, and it rarely gives official details on clashes with jihadists or other fighters.

The fighting could be heard in the city of Baalbek, several kilometers (miles) away, an AFP correspondent said.

Lebanese army forces were also seen deploying towards the area where the clashes were taking place, the correspondent added.

The clashes come two months after jihadists from the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front attacked Lebanese security forces in Arsal, which also lies on the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon.

The jihadists withdrew into the mountains around Arsal after a ceasefire, but took with them around 30 soldiers and policemen as hostages.

Three of them have since been executed, contributing to rising anxiety in Lebanon over the encroachment of jihadists and spillover from the war in neighboring Syria.

Hezbollah has dispatched fighters to bolster President Bashar al-Assad’s troops against an uprising that many of Lebanon’s Sunnis support.

The conflict has exacerbated existing tensions in Lebanon, and made Hezbollah and strongholds of its support a target for extremists who have detonated bombs in several areas of Lebanon.

Source:  alarabiya.net

L’Algeria – per il momento – interviene “politicamente” tra le fazioni libiche e l’esercito, con la benedizione di Teheran…

The Iranian Foreign Ministry welcomed Algeria’s initiative for settlement of the crisis in Libya, and expressed the hope that it can create national reconciliation in the North African country.

The Pakistan Taliban pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Saturday and ordered militants across the region to help the jihadi group in setting up a global Islamic caliphate, a report said.

In a message released by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), marking the Muslim holy festival of Eid al-Adha, the group said that it backs the  Islamic State goals fully and will provide the group with fighters and every possible support. It exhorted them to put the rivalries behind and maintain patience and stability as the group’s enemies join hands to defeat the  Islamic State. The message also said that all the Muslims in the world have great expectations from the group, reported the Dawn.

The Islamic State, which controls large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into South Asia, which has been dominated by Taliban so far. Although there is little evidence that suggests an alliance between Islamic State and Taliban, yet Islamic State activists have been spotted distributing pamphlets applauding the group in Peshawar.

Source: DNA India

Sorgono dubbi sull’intervento militare turco in Siria e sul suo eventuale obiettivo: il regime o Daish?

Due giorni fa il parlamento turco ha approvato una mozione che autorizza il governo di Ankara a dispiegare truppe in Paesi stranieri e alle forze armate straniere di dispiegarsi su territorio turco. È più probabile che il governo intenda quest’autorizzazione per provare il suo legame indistruttibile con l’alleanza occidentale e per servire da deterrente per combattere, piuttosto che una scusa per violare la sovranità siriana.

Il primo ministro turco Ahmet Davutoglu ha dichiarato che il presidente siriano Bashar al-Assad rimane la prima minaccia alla sicurezza nazionale. Eppure questo è in diretto contrasto con la missione della coalizione contro Daish (conosciuto in Occidente come ISIS) guidata dagli Stati Uniti.

“La distruzione causata dagli attacchi del regime siriano diventa sempre più grave. La sua politica aggressiva continua a prendere di mira il nostro Paese”, recita il testo della mozione parlamentare. È ovvio che la motivazione centrale di questa mozione si concentra sul regime Assad e su come esso costituisca una minaccia per la Turchia e per la stabilità regionale.

Tuttavia, l’ex ambasciatore Faruk Logoglu, membro del principale partito di opposizione turco (il Partito Repubblicano Popolare, CHP) durante la sessione del 2 ottobre aveva avvertito che “se questa mozione verrà approvata, la Turchia diventerà il Paese pirata della regione”. Logoglu ha sostenuto che, a partire dal 2011, le politiche turche hanno interferito con la sovranità siriana minacciandone l’integrità territoriale, sottolineando che la Turchia dovrebbe mettere al primo posto l’integrità territoriale di Iraq e Siria in ogni sua mossa.

Sebbene la mozione del governo citi le Risoluzioni 2170 e 2178 del Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU, nessuna delle due risoluzioni è diretta al regime Assad. Entrambe le risoluzioni fanno appello alla comunità internazionale affinché rispetti l’integrità territoriale siriana e prenda tutti i provvedimenti per evitare che combattenti stranieri penetrino in Siria per condurre attività terroristiche.

Nonostante la smentita del governo turco, la comunità internazionale avverte che sia il presidente Erdogan che il premier Davutoglu hanno cambiato direzione – all’ultimo momento – quando questi combattenti stranieri hanno liberamente attraversato il confine turco-siriano, peggiorando una situazione già grave.
Sebbene la NATO abbia dichiarato che l’alleanza non lascerà sola la Turchia, nella sua dichiarazione dello scorso 5 settembre al Summit in Galles (nello specifico, i paragrafi dal 35 al 37) afferma di essere pronta a fornire assistenza al governo iracheno su richiesta. Eppure il governo iracheno non ha chiesto un simile aiuto – non ancora. In poche parole, nessuna risoluzione NATO o ONU rende legittima una qualsiasi azione militare in questi Paesi.

Diversi ufficiali militari turchi in pensione hanno identificato le sfide che la Turchia si prepara ad affrontare, tra cui quella di venire considerata una potenza occupante senza l’approvazione degli USA. Gli ex ufficiali hanno inoltre sottolineato che non importa quanto sia sbagliata la politica sulla Siria di Erdogan e Davutoglu: il punto è che la Turchia non può permettere a un terrore come quello di Daish di prendere il controllo delle sue frontiere, in quanto questo non fa che aumentare le possibilità di uno scontro.

Molti nei circoli di Ankara invitano alla prudenza, benché si continui a ragionare sul tempismo di una tale azione. Intanto, il generale John Allen, l’inviato di Obama alla coalizione globale anti-Daish, visiterà Ankara a breve: questo potrebbe essere il punto decisivo per plasmare il piano d’azione turco dei prossimi giorni.

Source:  Al-Monitor