Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Special Correspondent | Niqash.org | – – An increase in air strikes on Mosul is causing more civilian casualties. Ordinary people live in fear, the Islamic State uses deaths for propaganda and Iraqi authorities say nothing. A still from video released by the extremist IS group, showing the aftermath of coalition air strikes. A still […]

Featured

Trump’s and ISIL’s Gray Zones: Radicals’ Terrorism sign of Syria, Iraq Defeat

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It is no accident that Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) is using Donald Trump in its new recruitment video. Although Trump hasn’t killed anyone to our knowledge and can’t be compared to Daesh in most ways, his political strategy actually mirrors that of the phony caliphate in some […]

Iraq

Remember: Refugees are fleeing ISIL; they aren’t ISIL

contributors

Kamal al-Ayash | (Niqash.org) | – – Getting from Turkey to Europe was a cakewalk compared to escaping the [so-called] Islamic State-run city of Fallujah, says one Iraqi. Fleeing families must cross a reservoir, in a ten-passenger boat, on an active battlefield. “Life had become impossible in the city of Fallujah,” Hamid Abu Ziad says. […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam Captured in Brussels Firefight

contributors

Euractiv.com | – – The most-wanted fugitive from November’s Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was wounded and caught in a shootout in Brussels on Friday (18 March), according to the Belgian minister for asylum and immigration. Local media reported two people had been arrested, after one of Europe’s longest and biggest manhunts. Television footage showed masked, […]

Democracy

Machiavelli: To combat Muslim Extremism, see Prophet Muhammad as bringer of a Constitution

contributors

Miguel Vatter | (The Conversation) | – – Everyone wants to die for Allah. We all want to live the best life in the hereafter and we want to make it to the top of the seven levels of Jannah – heaven. So thinks a young “anonymous Islamic State supporter” who was friends with the […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

How to Empower the Women and Girls rescued from ISIL

contributors

Leanne K Simpson | (The Conversation) | – – Violence against women, especially in war, is so pervasive around the world it’s often not considered news. But the barbaric treatment of women by the group known as Da’esh or Islamic State [group] (IS) has for once managed to attract some specific attention. When IS overran […]

Afghanistan

As ISIL goes Global, Will the ‘War on Terror’ extend for Decades?

contributors

By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The war against ISIL has seen 18 months of of airstrikes by United States-led coalition forces in both Iraq and Syria. An even more concentrated period is now under way, with signs of greater use of special forces by western militaries and pledges of ground troops […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Do Drug Profits actually drive Terrorism in the Muslim World?

contributors

Robert Rotberg | (The Conversation) | – – Terrorists are in it as much for the loot as for the ideology. . . . ISIS, could hardly exist, whatever its Islamist fervor, without hard cash from sales of pilfered petroleum, taxes on its subject population and kidnappings for ransom. Likewise ISIS- and al-Qaida-linked groups in […]

Iraq

Confirmed: ISIL used Mustard Gas Against Kurds in Iraq

contributors

TeleSur | – – A chemical weapons investigator confirmed earlier reports that the extremist group used the banned chemical weapon. [ISIL] used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants last year, Reuters reported Monday. The August 2015 attack occurred near Erbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdish Iraq. About 35 Kurdish troops were attacked with mustard gas, according […]