Some of the countries in it, either in major or minor roles:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea, Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt, Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Mexico, Gambia, Haiti, Cameroon, Chad, Algeria, Venezuela, Thailand, Argentina, Vietnam, Myanmar, Georgia, Burundi, Senegal, Macedonia, Armenia, Dominican Republic
From Reuters
Exclusive: In turf war with Afghan Taliban, Islamic State loyalists gain ground
Fighters loyal to Islamic State have seized substantial territory in Afghanistan for the first time, witnesses and officials said, wresting areas in the east from rival Taliban insurgents in a new threat to stability.
Witnesses who fled fighting in Nangarhar province told Reuters that hundreds of insurgents pledging allegiance to Islamic State pushed out the Taliban, scorching opium poppy fields that help to fund the Taliban's campaign to overthrow the Afghan government.
They also distributed directives purportedly from Islamic State's Middle East-based chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, although it was not clear whether he issued them for the Afghan theater or if previous edicts may have been translated......
From WSJ
To Many Iraqis, U.S. Isn’t Really Seeking to Defeat Islamic State
American military response is criticized as too weak.
In a tent city under a highway overpass in Baghdad, refugees from Iraq’s Sunni province of Anbar were unanimous about whom to blame for their misery.
“I hold Americans responsible for destroying Anbar,” said former policeman Wassem Khaled, whose home was taken over by Islamic State, or ISIS, after the Iraqi army fled from Anbar’s provincial capital of Ramadi last month.
“We all know that America is providing ISIS with...
Warmonger Samantha Powers' song and dance routine continues to continue.
From NBC
ISIS Anniversary: The Year Since Caliphate Was Declared
One year after a caliphate was declared spanning Syria and Iraq, there is little to celebrate — unless you're ISIS.
Despite a massive international campaign to defeat the the brutal militants, ISIS has not only managed to hold onto the territory but has expanded its reach beyond those borders over the last 12 months.
"It's been a great year for ISIS," according to Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center. "This would be close to a best-case scenario for them."
Majeed Al-Hamadani, a 43-year-old high-school teacher in Baghdad, agreed. "Nothing was changed during the past year," he told NBC News. "ISIS lost some territories but they were able to take over other areas. The Iraqi soldiers do not have the will to fight."
The group burst onto the international stage when fighters bearing the black flag of ISIS seized control of Mosul, Iraq, in early June 2014. The Sunni militants had been mostly fighting in Syria before then, but the fall of Iraq's second city signaled the militants had bigger plans. ............
From Independent
Tunisia attack: Essex nurse claims second gunman was firing at the height of hotel shooting
An Essex woman shot in both legs during the Tunisia beach attack has claimed a second gunman opened fired during the massacre.
Nursery nurse Kirsty Murray, 25, said she and her fiancé, Radley Ruszkiewicz, 29, were shot at by an attacker who was not Seifeddine Rezgui – the gunman who was eventually killed by police.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from the hospital where she is currently being treated, Ms Murray’s father, Neil Murray, spoke about the moment the attack happened and said: “She was swimming in the pool and she said she heard people shooting. She was with Radley and they started running toward the hotel.
“They both ran down the same corridor and then a grenade went off in a really confined space.”..........
Unbelievable stuff is happening in the Dominican Republic, but hey ...you won't find the powers-that-be being too concerned nor our MSM losing sleep over the dirt poor of the DR who happen to be of Haitian origin. No rich Arabs in the DR nor any precious Israelis are being threatened ... just some thousands of blacks who were unfortunate enough to be born so and are either Christian or into voodoo .... so all's fine and dandy, let them eat dirt.
more here from Democracy Now and
vid 2 here from VICE
From ABC
Militant Bombings Kill 2 Soldiers in Southern Philippines
Two Philippine soldiers have been killed and three others wounded in bomb attacks by Abu Sayyaf militants in a southern province, the military said Wednesday.
The bombings came a week after a pipe bomb killed a soldier and wounded eight others on Basilan, one of the southern island provinces where the militants operate.
The first blast Tuesday morning killed two soldiers and wounded two others while they were on a road patrol in Sumisip township, a military report said. Another soldier was wounded during a gunbattle between troops and about seven militants following the second blast in Tipo-Tipo municipality. No one was hurt in the third blast in Lamitan city close to midnight.
The military believes those involved in the bombings belong to an Abu Sayyaf faction led by Furuji Indama, who is suspected of providing refuge to Malaysian terror suspect Abu Anas, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc........
From SaharaReporters
Chad Arrests Boko Haram Leader In N’Djamena
A Chadian Public Prosecutor, Alghassim Khamis, said on Tuesday that one of the key Boko Haram leaders, Baana Fanay, who has been coordinating trafficking of weapons in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad was arrested on Sunday in N’Djamena. ....
.....Khamis said Fanay alias Mahamat Moustapha, was arrested by security forces after a fierce resistance.
He said Fanay, who was arrested with two other terrorists, was responsible for the purchase of weapons and recruitment of fighters for Boko Haram.
The prosecutor said the a search in the suspect’s house led to the seizure of different weapons and documents written in Arabic by Boko Haram leader, Aboubakar Shekau, targeting the sect’s recruits.....
A viral picture of how powerful the bomb attack on the Egyptian general prosecutor's convoy was. #Egypt pic.twitter.com/CM5iF9l3yI
— Menna منّة (@TheMiinz) June 29, 2015
From Independent
Isis recruiting 'highly trained foreigners' to produce chemical weapons
The extremists had already used deadly gases in attacks in Iraq and Syria
The terrorist group Isis is recruiting “highly trained professionals” to make chemical weapons – and has already used them in an attack.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, said the group was now undertaking "serious efforts" to develop their chemical weapons arsenal.
Speaking to the Australia Group, which is composed of nations against chemical weapons, she said: “Da’esh [Isis] is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons,” Ms Bishop added.
Ms Bishop’s speech is the latest concern that Isis is attempting to acquire nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, after India warned the extremists could obtain a nuclear weapon from Pakistan. .....
BREAKING: Clashes at prison in central #Yemen lead to escape of around 1,200 prisoners, among them al Qaeda suspects, officials say
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 30, 2015
From BBC
Kuwait Shia mosque attack: Bomber 'was Saudi'
Kuwait says the attacker who carried out Friday's suicide bombing at a Shia mosque was a Saudi citizen.
The interior ministry named the bomber as Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a, according to state media.
The ministry said he flew into Kuwait on Friday just hours before he detonated explosives at the mosque, killing at least 27 people.
The Islamic State group - which regards Shia Muslims as heretics - says it was behind the attack.
Last month, an IS branch in Saudi Arabia carried out bombings on consecutive Fridays on Shia mosques there.
These attacks have brought home the growing threat posed by the jihadists to the Gulf, says the BBC's Sebastian Usher.
Arrests
More than 200 people were injured in Friday's bombing at Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City - the bloodiest ever attack on Shia Muslims in the country's recent history.
Kuwaiti officials said the Saudi suspect was in Kuwait illegally.
Several people have been arrested in connection with the attack - including both the owner and driver of the car in which the bomber arrived at the mosque..........
First #photos of #USA Howitzer heavy artillery (12 pieces captured from 8th Brigade in #Ramadi) in #ISIS hands #Iraq pic.twitter.com/cGfymjxUCO
— Rami (@RamiAlLolah) June 30, 2015
From Telegraph
Tunisia attack: gunman's links to Britain
Seifeddine Rezgui was inspired by a fanatic who ran a global terror network from London, it emerges
The gunman who massacred British tourists on the beach in Sousse was inspired by a fanatic who ran a global terror network from London, it has emerged.
Seifeddine Rezgui’s mentor was Saifallah Ben Hassine, a founding leader of Ansar al-Sharia, the main terror group in Tunisia, it was reported.
Ben Hassine, 49, arrived in Britain in the late 1990s and became a follower of hate preacher Abu Qatada, who was then also based in London. ....
#SYRIA:
#ISIS Bombers Came From #Turkish Side Of #Kobanê, Where 15 Killed & 70 Wounded: Witness. Turkey Denies Claim pic.twitter.com/TVIie6nbwl
— Terrormonitor.org (@Terror_Monitor) June 25, 2015
From GlobalVoices
Bahrain Takes Security Measures Following ISIS Threat
Bahrain announced it is taking precautions to thwart an ISIS threat targeting the country's Shia community next Friday. Observers are skeptic and wonder how will the same regime which has continued to wage a fierce crackdown on the country's Shia population for the previous four years following anti-government protests be entrusted to protect them today.
Following two separate attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia last month and an attack in Kuwait two days ago, the Al-Qaeda affiliate which has carved itself its own state which spans across Syria and Iraq, promises its next target will be Bahrain on July 3, 2015.......
NEWS: $300 million worth of antiquities are flooding the market through Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. http://t.co/OikpWXxGzD
— artnet (@artnet) June 29, 2015
From Independent
Bradford fathers of missing children beg wives to come home amid fears they have joined Isis
The husbands of two women who are feared to have taken their children to Syria have begged their families to come home during an emotional press conference in Bradford.
With the ordeal of the last eight sleepless days since they last spoke to their children etched on their faces, Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib used the conference to tearfully urge their wives - both sisters - to get in touch after arriving in Turkey six days ago, from where they are feared to have travelled to Syria and territory controlled by the Islamic State.........
From Wikileaks
Today, 29 June 2015, WikiLeaks continues "Espionnage Élysée", our ongoing publication of a collection of TOP SECRET documents from United States surveillance operations against France.
Today's publication comprises seven top secret documents detailing how the US has had a decade- long policy of economic espionage against France, including the interception of all French corporate contracts and negotiations valued at more than $200 million. The documents demonstrate that the US National Security Agency, far from being a rogue organisation, is carrying out an economic espionage policy created by the US Director of National Intelligence. The documents detail the intelligence process, from the tasking of the NSA with collection of desired economic information to the production of developed intelligence reports, which are sent to "Supported Elements" of the US government, including the US Department of Commerce, the US Trade Represenative, the US Treasury and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Central within the cache of documents are two long-term spying orders ("collection requirements") which define the kinds of intelligence the NSA is tasked with collecting in its surveillance operations against France. The documents make clear that the NSA has been tasked with obtaining intelligence on all aspects of the French economy, from government policy, diplomacy, banking and participation in international bodies to infrastructural development, business practices and trade activities. The documents establish that the US economic intelligence operations against France have run for more than a decade and started as early as 2002. Some of the documents are authorised for sharing with the "Five Eyes" partners – the group of Anglophone countries in close intelligence co-operation with the United States: Canada, New Zealand, Australia and France's fellow member state of the European Union, the United Kingdom, strongly suggesting that the United Kingdom has also benefited from the United States' economic espionage activities against France.
The cache also includes five TOP SECRET intelligence summaries from US spying on the conversations and communications of French officials. The documents show US spying on the French Finance Minister, a French Senator, officials within the Treasury and Economic Policy Directorate, the French ambassador to the United States, and officials with direct responsibility for EU trade policy. The intercepts reveal internal French deliberation and policy on the World Trade Organization, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the G7 and the G20, the 2013 French budget, the decline of the automotive industry in France, and the involvement of French companies in the Oil for Food programme in Iraq during the 1990s.........
#Kobane documented so far by M.Ebdi: 290 martyrs, incl. 22 whole families,79 women/girls,100 children. Deaths by knife,gun,bomb,bleeding out
— sylezjusz (@sylezjusz) June 28, 2015
From Reuters
Islamic State kills at least 145 civilians in Syria's Kobani
Islamic State fighters killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobani and a nearby village, in what a monitoring group described on Friday as one of the worst massacres carried out by the hardline group in Syria.
Islamic State pressed a separate assault to capture government-held parts of the northeastern city of Hasaka, blowing up a security building and triggering a government appeal for all residents to take up arms. The United Nations said 60,000 people were reported to have fled the attack.
Islamic State's twin attacks which began on Thursday showed the group returning to the offensive in Syria after two weeks of defeats at the hands of Kurdish-led forces, supported by U.S.-led air strikes. Earlier this week the Kurds advanced to within 50 km (30 miles) of Raqqa city, the group's de facto capital......
From Yahoo
French beheading selfie 'sent to Syria'
The gruesome "selfie" taken by a man who has confessed to beheading his boss during an attack on a gas factory in France was sent to Syria, sources close to the investigation said Sunday.
The news emerged as Yassin Salhi, 35, was being transferred from France's second city of Lyon to Paris for questioning by specialised anti-terrorist police.
Salhi confessed to the grisly crime earlier Sunday and has also given "details about the circumstances" surrounding the killing, according to sources close to the investigation.....
From DailyStar
In first, ISIS beheads two Syria women for 'sorcery': activists
BEIRUT: ISIS has beheaded two women in eastern Syria accused of "witchcraft and sorcery," activists said Tuesday, in the jihadis' first decapitations of female civilians.
The extremist group has become infamous for gruesome executions and mass killings, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the two women were the first female civilians to be beheaded by ISIS.
"The Islamic State group executed two women by beheading them in Deir al-Zor province, and this is the first time the Observatory has documented women being killed by the group in this manner," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The Britain-based activist group that monitors the war said the executions took place Monday and Sunday and involved two couples.
In both cases, the women were executed with their husbands, with each pair accused of "witchcraft and sorcery.".......
Foundation playing key role in Armenia protests funded by US embassy and USAID http://t.co/hIatm45c0V http://t.co/o5u3bMFfUI
— Richard Wellings (@RichardWellings) June 28, 2015
From Ahram
Car bomb kills 3 near police station in Egypt's 6 October city
Two were killed inside the car, while the third was a passerby
Two explosive devices detonated inside a private car in greater Cairo's 6 October city on Tuesday, killing three people inside the car, next to the Nakheel shopping center near the 6 October police station, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told private channel CBC Extra.
The ministry announced that three people were also injured during the blast, state-news agency MENA reported.
Eye witnesses said the car was on its way to the police station, 1.1 km away from the Nakheel shopping centre.
According to security investigations, the car was blocked by a fight between two tok-tok drivers in Gamal Abdel-Nasser street. They then drove faster, triggering the explosion as the bomb went off after being shaken by the car's sudden move, according to Ahram's Arabic news website.
When it went off, a passerby approached the car and was killed by the second device's explosion, according to eyewitnesses........
Just yesterday ISIS attacked #Kobani city. They killed more than 100 Kurds. Here some of faces of victims @akhbar pic.twitter.com/TdXaGEf2hL
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) June 26, 2015
From WarOnTheRocks
The Islamic State’s Varying Fortunes in North Africa
The jihadist group that calls itself the Islamic State has increasingly set its sights on expanding into North Africa. The eighth issue of the group’s English-language magazine Dabiq was suggestively titled “Shari’ah Alone Will Rule Africa,” with the cover displaying a photograph of the Great Mosque in the Tunisian city of Kairouan. This signaling left no room for doubt about the Islamic State’s designs on the region.
The Islamic State has devoted considerable resources to its expansion, whether through mergers and acquisitions with existing jihadist groups or by encouraging splinter groups and defections from rival jihadist entities. Several reasons exist for the Islamic State to expand its territorial holdings outside of Syria and Iraq. First, expansion serves its propaganda needs, as it blunts any territorial losses that the group may experience in Syria and Iraq, and allows the Islamic State to maintain the image of momentum and strength that is so integral to its recruitment strategy. Second, expansion improves the group’s resilience. Just as al-Qaeda’s affiliate strategy has complicated U.S. counterterrorism efforts, the Islamic State’s movement into new arenas allows the group to withstand counter-network operations against one of its nodes. Abu Arhim al-Libi, an Islamic State propagandist, acknowledged this in a long analytical piece posted in January 2015 discussing the group’s expansion into Libya. Al-Libi noted that “the strategic location of Libya means that it could relieve the pressure being felt by the State of the Caliphate in Iraq and ash-Sham.” Third, the Islamic State’s expansion into North Africa and other arenas legitimizes the group’s claim to be a caliphate. Its defining and most appealing characteristic (to jihadists) is its control over, and governance of, territory. This is evidenced by the group’s slogan, baqiya wa tatamaddad, or remaining and expanding. Fourth, expansion into new theaters strengthens the Islamic State’s hand against al-Qaeda in the competition for leadership of the transnational jihadist movement. With every new gain, the Islamic State reinforces the perception that it is ascendant while al-Qaeda stagnates and declines.
North Africa is among the most promising theaters for the Islamic State’s expansion, with an appealing location at the ..............
From AlMonitor
Did Ankara-backed group attack Turkish Kurds?
In January, a deputy from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) submitted an intriguing parliamentary question to the interior minister. Ali Ozgunduz wanted to know whether militants from Syria and Iraq were being trained in Turkey to be used in crackdowns on anti-government protest movements.
The written question, shown to Al-Monitor, began with the following introduction: “At a time when Turkey is already the subject of international debate … for [allegedly] providing weapons, logistical support and training to radical elements in the Middle East, among them the Islamic State [IS], allegations are being made through various platforms that certain militants have been brought to Turkey as well. Allegedly, those people are being given military training with the purpose of thwarting popular opposition movements like the Gezi Park resistance and violently suppressing such protests. The media have recently reported that Jamal Maarouf, a Free Syrian Army [FSA] leader who fought in Aleppo and had the complete support of the [Turkish] government, has crossed into Turkey together with most of his 14,000 armed elements. This lends credibility to the allegations.”
The former lawmaker then posed the following questions:
Is it true that civilian and armed elements, who came or were brought in ..........
Isis vandalism has Libya fearing for its cultural treasures http://t.co/RvRp4aSAum Hey #BlackLiveMatters Your inspiration?
— Stephen Stephan (@stephenstephan) June 24, 2015