Moaz al-Kasasbeh

[ADK]

No not really.

[Merging Cultures]

Looks like they are knocking on the door of a US Marine base. Ooops. I think that would be a mistake.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/13/islamic-state-militants-seize-parts-of-strategic-iraqi-town-of-al-baghdadi/

[Bellend Sebastian]

ISIS - what's it all about and what are these daft ****s actually after?

This is a very long and detailed article but worth a read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

[Guest MattP]

Still amazed at the complacency shown towards these, group now appears to have a fairly strong foothold in Libya and it's shocking they can behead 21 Christians on a beach so openly.

I think we might see some sort of Mumbai style attack from them this summer on one of the Mediterranean islands. Could easily do it by boat and could cause utter carnage and chaos on a crowded beach.

Hope the authorities are watching that, wonder how many holidaymakers realise just how close they'll be to these people?

[bovril]

It could happen any place any time. If it happens in a Southern or Eastern European country that has experienced historical tensions with Muslims the situation could get very messy very quickly.

[ADK]

Bulgaria has had a few hasn't it?

 

We get what we deserve.

 

Blair was a maniac with Iraq but at least he left Gaddaffi and Assad alone.

 

Obama/Hollande/Cameron/Merkel leave us with two massive threats in the form of spreading Islamic fundamentalism and resurgent nationalism in Russia.

 

At least we only have to worry about it if we go on holiday, I feel sorry for the people who have to live it every day.

[bovril]

Bulgaria has had a few hasn't it?

 

We get what we deserve.

 

Blair was a maniac with Iraq but at least he left Gaddaffi and Assad alone.

 

Obama/Hollande/Cameron/Merkel leave us with two massive threats in the form of spreading Islamic fundamentalism and resurgent nationalism in Russia.

 

At least we only have to worry about it if we go on holiday, I feel sorry for the people who have to live it every day.

 

Yeah I have an emergency box of hobnobs in case the Ruskis or Turks ever invade.

[GaelicFox]

Kadryov is a ****ing nutter, in all. Can't imagine him not rising to threats.

I have met him in person !!!!! And spent two days in his company

[bovril]

I have met him in person !!!!! And spent two days in his company

 

Did he know Leicester?

[MikeyT]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-beheading-of-coptic-christians-on-libyan-beach-brings-islamists-to-the-doorstep-of-europe-10049769.html

 

 

Isis beheading of Coptic Christians on Libyan beach brings Islamists to the doorstep of Europe

The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya has brought Isis to the doorstep of Europe.

The mass murder, which provoked a volley of Egyptian air strikes on the group’s Libyan stronghold of Derna, realised long-held fears of militants reaching the Mediterranean coast.

Isis started in Iraq and now controls swathes of adjoining Syria, including along the Turkish border, as part of its so-called Islamic State.

Its ideology has spread much further, with pledges of allegiance from terrorist groups in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen and now Libya.

Days before Isis released its gory video depicting the Egyptians’ beheadings, Libya’s former Prime Minister warned that the group would soon reach the Mediterranean and even Europe if order was not restored in the country.

Ali Zeidan said Libya’s fractured government and easy access to weapons seized during the fall of Colonel Gaddafi made it more susceptible to the activities of jihadists, according to The Times.

“(Isis) are growing. They are everywhere,” he added.

“In Libya, the situation is still under control. If we leave it one month or two months more I don’t think you can control it.

“It will be a big war in the country and it will be here in Europe as well.”

Libya has seen fierce fighting between rival militias since Gaddafi was overthrown during the 2011 Arab Spring.

Mr Zeidan, who fled to Europe after losing a parliamentary vote of confidence, reported that Isis had a growing presence in some of the bigger cities and was trying to recruit fighters from rival Islamist groups.

Aref Ali Nayed, Libya’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, also said Isis’s presence in Libya was increasing “exponentially”.

Its military gains last summer sparked a rush by other Islamist groups in the Middle East and North Africa to ally themselves with the group by pledging allegiance and changing their names.

The jihadists behind the beheadings in Libya call themselves the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State.

As the turmoil in Libya continued last year, they gained control of the port city of Derna and nearby Sirte, where Isis seized the murdered Coptic hostages in December and January.

The location of their murders could not be confirmed but footage showed them dressed in orange jumpsuits kneeling on a beach. Behind each of them were masked militants who wielded their knives to kill the bound hostages simultaneously.

Isis affiliates have also claimed responsibility for attacks on the Egyptian military and police in the Sinai Peninsula, further along the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Gaza.

 

[MikeyT]

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/islamic-state-planning-to-use-libya-as-gateway-to-europe/ar-BBhH95q

 

Islamic State militants are planning a takeover of Libya as a "gateway" to wage war across the whole of southern Europe, letters written by the group's supporters have revealed.

The jihadists hope to flood the north African state with militiamen from Syria and Iraq, who will then sail across the Mediterranean posing as migrants on people trafficking vessels, according to plans seen by Quilliam, the British anti-extremist group.

The fighters would then run amok in southern European cities and also try to attack maritime shipping.

The document is written by an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) propagandist who is believed to be an important online recruiter for the terror in Libya, where security has collapsed in the wake of the revolution that unseated Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.

The group has already established Libyan-based cells, who on Sunday released a video showing a mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Christian guest workers .

The video, which prompted Egypt to launch retaliatory bombing raids on Isil positions in Libya, included footage of a khaki-clad militant pointing a bloodstained finger northwards, declaring: "We will conquer Rome, by Allah's permission."

The Isil propagandist, who uses the alias Abu Arhim al-Libim, describes Libya as having "immense potential" for Isil. He points out with relish that it is awash with weapons from the Libyan civil war, when large quantities of Col Gaddafi's arsenals were appropriated by rebels. Some of those weapons came from Britain, which supplied the Gaddafi regime with machine guns, sniper rifles and ammunition during his final years in power, when he was seen as an ally against Islamist terrorism.

Mr Libim also points out that Libya is less than around 300 miles from parts of the nearest European mainland.

He writes: "It has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat."

He also cites "the number of trips known as 'illegal immigration' from this coast, which are huge in number ... if this was even partially exploited and developed strategically, pandemonium could be wrought in the southern European states and it is even possible that there could be a closure of shipping lines and targeting of Crusader ships and tankers."

The propagandist's comments come amid growing concerns in the West about the collapse of security in Libya, which has a large diaspora population in the UK.

On Monday, Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, said that Britain should consider putting ground troops there to stop the country "being exploited by fanatics".

Security officials also share Isil's view about the possibility of using people trafficking boats to smuggle fighters into Europe.

Thanks to its vast, porous desert borders with Sub-Saharan Africa, Libya has long been a key operating hub for trafficking boats heading into Europe, but numbers have escalated dramatically since the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.

Italy's interior ministry estimates that at least 200,000 refugees and immigrants are poised to make the crossing from Libya to Sicily or the tiny island of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost territory.

Last year more than 170,000 arrived in Italy by boat, including tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the civil war in their home country.

Search and rescue efforts entered a dangerous new phase this week when an Italian coast guard vessel rescuing migrants 50 miles off the Libyan coast was threatened by smugglers armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

While the gang were concerned only with retrieving their boat for another smuggling trip, the incident demonstrated the potential threat were Isil to adopt similar smuggling tactics.

There are also fears that an increased Isil presence in Libya would encourage existing migrants there to flee north in far greater numbers.

Yesterday, Nasser Kamel, Egypt's ambassador to London, warned Britain brace itself for 'boats full of terrorists' unless action was taken in Libya. He spoke after 2,164 migrants were rescued at sea in a 24-hour period over the weekend in what has been described as an 'exodus without precedent'.

"Those boat people who go for immigration purposes and try to cross the Mediterranean ... in the next few weeks, if we do not act together, they will be boats full of terrorists also," he said.

Security in Libya has been on the slide due to the inability of the various militias that helped oust Col Gaddafi to agree a shared agenda. Its internationally recognised government is currently operating from the eastern city of Tobruk after being forced out of Tripoli by a rival government loosely allied with a range of Islamist factions.

Most of these groups do not share Isil's extremist vision, although some are believed to have links to the al-Qaeda faction that killed the US Ambassador, Chris Stevens, during an attack on a diplomatic compound in the eastern city of Benghazi in 2012.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Isil's leader, has since laid claim to Libya as part of his "Caliphate".

Whilst on the whole that remains more rhetoric than reality, support for the group in this war ravaged state is growing.

In September, Abu Nabil, an Iraqi and key leader within Isil, travelled to the country to build support for the group. His men took control of much of Derna, a traditionally conservative city in the east of the country, that is now being run according to the extremist group's strict Shariah law.

Hundreds of Libyans who had travelled to fight alongside Isil in Syria have started to return to fight for the group on home turf, residents say. They have expanded the group's influence into the east of the country, taking controlling of parts of Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold.

In late January, a group of gunmen invoked Isil's name in an attack on the Corinthia, a five-star hotel in downtown Tripoli, killing at least eight people.

Whilst The Telegraph cannot independently verify the identity of Mr Libim, the propagandist, analysts believe that his writing on Libya is widely read and influential online.

"Twitter has shut down Libim's accounts several times and each time he starts a new one he gets thousands of followers very quickly, which is typical of an influential Isil affiliate," said Charlie Winter, a researcher with the Quilliam Foundation .

Mr Winter added: "In terms of the demographics of Isil support in Libya, we see a lot in common with its base of support in Iraq and Syria – many of its fighters are young, disfranchised men who have only bought into Isil's brand of Islamist zealotry because they are looking to forcibly empower themselves in the penetrating absence of the state.

"The risks Europe faces from Isil pre-eminence in Libya are substantial."

David Cameron has condemned the "barbaric" executions of the Egyptian Christians, who were kidnapped by Isil while working in Sirte. He added last night that he did not regret British efforts to oust Col Gaddafi, despite the threat from terrorists, insisting that it was the 'right thing to do".

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt called for an international coalition to defeat Isil in Libya on Tuesday, saying: "We will now allow them to cut the heads of our children".

[MikeyT]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2957471/ISIS-burn-45-people-death-captured-Iraqi-town-Baghdadi-Islamists-attack-homes-security-forces-families.html

 

 

Militants from Islamic State have burned 45 people to death in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, according to the local police chief.

Col Qasim al-Obeidi said the motive was unknown but he believed some of the victims were members of the security forces.

He has pleaded for help from the government and international community and said the compound, which houses the families of security personnel and local officials, was now under attack. 

It follows the capture of al-Baghdadi, near Ain al-Asad air base, by ISIS fighters last week.

 

The unconfirmed reports have haunting similarities to the video published earlier this month, showing militants burning alive a Jordanian air force pilot, whose plane crashed in Syria in December.

Al-Baghdadi had been besieged for months by Islamic State fighters before its fall. It had been one of the few towns to still be controlled by the Iraqi government in Anbar province, where IS and allied Sunni Arab tribesmen launched an offensive in January 2014.

 

On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby, played down its capture, telling reporters it was the first time in the last couple of months that the jihadist group had taken new ground.

But with 320 US Marines stationed just five miles away at the Ain al-Asad air base, training members of the Iraqi army's 7th Division, it will cause concern.

The base was attacked by several suicide bombers, on Friday with the militant repelled by Iraqi troops backed by US-led coalition aircraft.

 

In a separate development on Tuesday, the influential Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr announced he was withdrawing his forces from an umbrella group of Shia militia fighting IS alongside the Iraqi army.

He cited what he called the bad behaviour of other militia within the Popular Mobilisation Forces, whom he accused of 'wreaking havoc through murdering, kidnapping and violating sanctuaries'.

Shia militia have been accused of kidnapping and killing scores of Sunni civilians since Islamic State launched an offensive in northern Iraq last June that saw it seize large swathes of the country.

 Elsewhere, there are reports at least 35 more Egyptian Christians are feared to have been kidnapped by jihadists in retaliation for air strikes on targets in Libya.

Militants from the Islamic State and Ansar Al-Sharia are understood to have rounded up dozens of farm workers in the wake of bombings by Cairo, it was reported by local media.

The move is believed to be a direct response to strikes by Egyptian warplanes yesterday which came after fanatics released a horrific video showing the beheading of 21 Christians on a beach.

 

 

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Life inside the Islamic State 'capital'. Looks shit, if I'm honest:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/21/islamic-state-capital-raqqa-syria-isis

[bovril]

Life inside the Islamic State 'capital'. Looks shit, if I'm honest:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/21/islamic-state-capital-raqqa-syria-isis

 

As my Gran would say, "nothing a lick of paint wouldn't solve".

 

Why do I always think of the Clash when I see this thread bumped?

[Bellend Sebastian]

As my Gran would say, "nothing a lick of paint wouldn't solve".

 

Why do I always think of the Clash when I see this thread bumped?

 

TUNE

 

Never done that before.

 

The thing that made me snigger a bit in that article, that amidst all the horror and arbitrary injustice, the bloke finds the time in his account to say that it was a boring place to live even before Islamic State came and now there's even less to do

[MikeyT]

Jihadi John named.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/uk-man-behind-isis-beheadings-named-as-mohammed-emwazi-jihadi-john?CMP=fb_gu

 

Emwazi, a 26-year-old west Londoner and university graduate, was given the monicker ‘Jihadi John’ by a group of his hostages

 

A British man has been named as the knife-wielding militant who appears inIslamic State (Isis) videos claiming responsibility for the beheadings of US, British and other hostages.

The Guardian understands that Mohammad Emwazi, a 26-year-old west Londoner and university graduate, is the militant. He had been given the monicker “Jihadi John” by a group of his hostages, who described him as part of an Isis cell they named the “the Beatles”.

The name was first published by the Washington Post on Thursday morning.

Emwazi guarded western hostages and handled negotiations with their families. By all accounts he is a ruthless killer who has shown little compunction about his gory, on-screen murders.

Emwazi arrived in Britain as a young boy, aged six, after being born in Kuwait. He grew in up west London and was known as a polite, mild-mannered young man.

Those who knew him say he had a penchant for wearing stylish clothes but remained an observant Muslim. The Post describes him as bearded and as careful not to make eye contact with women.

He graduated in 2009 in information technology and is also fluent in Arabic. .However, instead of a computing career, Emwazi ended up on MI5’s radar.

Over the course of a year he claimed to have been harassed and intimidated by the security services. In 2010 he went as far as to file a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission over his treatment.

The security services declined to confirm or deny that Emwazi was the knife wielding killer.

According to people who have moved in jihadist circles in west London, Emwazi began to be noticed about five or six years ago. “That’s when he emerged, so to speak,” said one. Among his associates at that time was Bilal el-Berjawi, a Londoner of Lebanese origin, who was killed by a drone strike in Somalia three years ago.

A clearer picture emerged in August 2009 when Emwazi went on a safari holiday in Tanzania.

Once he landed in the Tanzanian capital, he said he was detained by police and held overnight.

In a series of statements to Cage, the group that campaigns on behalf of victims of the war on terror, he alleged he was threatened with beatings by gun-toting members of Tanzania’s security forces.

After being refused entry to Tanzania he was put on a plane to the Netherlands, where he said he was questioned by an MI5 agent named “Nick” who accused him of wanting to fight in Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabaab operates in the southern part of the country.

The Independent in 2010 profiled a number of similar incidents and also identified Emwazi as Muhammad ibn Muazzam.

In emails seen by the Guardian, Emwazi said the British agent knew “everything about me; where I lived, what I did, and the people I hanged around with”. He then it is claimed attempted to “turn” Emwazi, asking: “Why don’t you work for us?”. When he refused MI5 said “life would be harder for you”.

Emwazi remained entangled with MI5. Over the next few months, he was again detained and interrogated.

Emwazi decided to move to Kuwait, where he landed a job working for a computer company, according to the emails he wrote to Cage. He came back to London twice, the second time to finalize his wedding plans to a woman in Kuwait.

In June 2010, however, counterterrorism officials in Britain detained him again – this time fingerprinting him and searching his belongings. When he tried to fly back to Kuwait the next day, he was prevented from doing so. In his final interrogation he claimed to have been strangled by a police officer.

Emwazi is thought to have been incensed by the decision to bar him from Kuwait, the land of his birth, and where he had worked and planned to marry.

“I had a job waiting for me and marriage to get started,” he wrote in a June 2010 email to Cage. But now “I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London. A person imprisoned & controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace & country, Kuwait.”

Close friends of Emwazi’s told the Post that his situation in London had made him desperate to leave the country. It’s unclear exactly when he reached Syria or how.

One friend said he believed Emwazi wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012 but was unsuccessful. Soon afterward, the friend said, he was gone.

“He was upset and wanted to start a life elsewhere,” one of the friends said. “He at some stage reached the point where he was really just trying to find another way to get out.”

By 2010 he told friends he wanted to go to Syria. Almost all advised him against it.

[Fox92]

Why are they all named after Beatles? So strange.

[Head Honcho]

Why are they all named after Beatles? So strange.

[Fox92]

 

Why do you think he's called "Jihadi John".

[ADK]

Probably because it rolled off the tongue better than Jihadi Ringo.

[Fox92]

Probably because it rolled off the tongue better than Jihadi Ringo.

 

Ringo and Paul work 'behind the scenes'. George is the leader of the group apparently... I was reading it all this morning, so weird.

[Head Honcho]

Why do you think he's called "Jihadi John".

 

Jihadi John is the media's pseudonym for John. He's not called Jihadi John back at Camp ISIS!

 

They were named after Beatles because of their English accents and most probably to make it easier for the hostages to identify each terrorist should the need ever arise.

 

Having to remember four terrorists called Mohammeds wouldn't have been easy at a later date.

[Guest MattP]

Is anyone watching this bloke on Sky News now from the charity CAGE? It's enough to make me want to cry.

 

If Jihadi John is Mohammed Enwazi, it's the security services fault for following him and making his life a misery even when they had no cause to. (I'd say given what's he done they were probably right in hindsight to follow him)

 

He also says if we are going to stop people like him, we have to change British society so people like him don't feel outcast.

[ADK]

He could have had a flourishing career in a slaughterhouse.

[Head Honcho]

He could have had a flourishing career in a slaughterhouse.