The Nation Newspaper

Tag: IS

  • Iraq ‘seizes districts from IS’ in Tikrit advance

    Iraqi government forces say they have retaken some districts around Tikrit in their fight to recapture the city from Islamic State (IS).

    A force of about 30,000 troops and militia are said to be attacking on different fronts, backed by air strikes from Iraqi jets.

    A commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is taking part in the operation, a Shia militia commander told the BBC.

    Tikrit, north of the capital Baghdad, fell to IS militants last June.

    Security sources told the BBC that pro-government troops had seized control of the two districts of al-Tin, near Tikrit university north-east of the city, and the district of al-Abeid, in the west.

    Earlier, fighting was also reported in al-Dour, south-east of Tikrit, as well as in al-Alam, north of the city, and nearby Qadisiya.

    There were few details of the operation but army and medical sources were quoted as saying that five soldiers and 11 militia fighters had been killed.

    The Pentagon said that the US was not providing any air power in support of the operation.

    A senior official told reporters: “This is Iraq, this is their country, their military, their fight against Isil (IS).”

    Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the start of the operation late on Sunday, as tens of thousands of troops and militia massed in the central town of Samarra.

    Tikrit, in Salahuddin province, lies on the road to Mosul – Iraq’s second city which was also seized by IS last year.

    Correspondents say the current operation is crucial to any Iraqi plans to retake Mosul.

     

  • Seven killed in Egyptian air strikes on Libyan city

    Seven civilians were killed when Egyptian jets attacked suspected Islamist militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna last week, Amnesty International has said, citing eyewitnesses.

    Egypt carried out air strikes last Monday against Islamic State targets, a day after the militant group released a video showing the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians, Reuters says.

    On Sunday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the air force had hit 13 targets selected after a careful study and reconnaissance “with precision” to avoid civilian casualties.

    But London-based Amnesty said in a report “new eyewitness testimonies indicate that the Egyptian Air Force failed to take the necessary precautions in carrying out an attack which killed seven civilians in a residential neighborhood in the Libyan city of Derna on February 16.”

    “Egypt has now joined the ranks of those placing civilians at risk in Libya,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “The killing of seven civilians, six of them in their own homes, must be investigated, as it appears to have been disproportionate.”

    Amnesty said Egyptian jets had mostly hit military targets in Derna but witnesses had said that two missiles had struck densely populated residential areas near the city’s university.

    “One missile struck a four-storey house belonging to the al-Kharshoufi family, killing a mother and her three children aged between three and eight, and injuring their father and another child,” Amnesty said.

    “A second missile hit a street in between civilian houses, causing three other deaths,” the group added.

    Egypt’s foreign ministry and army spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment.

     

  • Taliban expresses support for IS

    The Pakistani Taliban has expressed its support for Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq.

    In a statement marking the Muslim festival of Eid, the group appealed to Islamists there to unite against the “enemy” – the United States-led alliance.

    IS has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq, but has also been battling al-Qaeda-linked rival militant groups.

    The Pakistani Taliban has been waging its own insurgency against the Islamabad government since 1997.

    Saturday’s statement was issued by the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulana Fazlullah, sent by his spokesman.

    Addressing IS in Syria and Iraq, he said: “We are proud of your conquests against the enemies. We are with you in good and bad times.”

    “In these troubled days, we call on you to be patient and stay united as your enemies are now united against you. Forget rivalries.”

    The statement said the global Muslim community would “stand by you in these tough times and help with what we can.”

    The BBC reports there had been little evidence so far of an agreement between IS and the Pakistani Taliban.

  • British taxi driver beheaded by IS

    British taxi driver beheaded by IS

    A video purportedly showing the United Kingdom hostage, Alan Henning, being beheaded has been released by Islamic State militants.

    The Salford taxi driver was delivering aid to Syria in December when he was kidnapped and then held hostage by IS, the BBC reports.

    IS threatened to kill him in footage last month showing the death of Briton David Haines, and in this video they threatened United States aid worker Peter Kassig.

    Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would do all it could “to hunt down these murderers and bring them to justice.”

    The prime minister said the killing of father-of-two – Mr. Henning, 47, showed “how barbaric and repulsive” IS was.

    “My thoughts and prayers tonight are with Alan’s wife Barbara, their children and all those who loved him,” he said.

    “Alan had gone to Syria to help get aid to people of all faiths in their hour of need.”

    Mr. Henning’s wife Barbara had this week appealed for her husband’s release, saying: “He is innocent.”

    Volunteer Mr. Henning was on his fourth aid mission to Syria when he was captured within minutes of arriving in the country last December.

     

  • U.S underestimated IS threat – Obama

    U.S underestimated IS threat – Obama

    United States President, Barack Obama, has acknowledged that U.S agencies underestimated the threat posed by the Islamist insurgency in Syria.

    In a frank TV interview, he said that al-Qaeda had been beaten in Iraq by U.S forces working with Sunni tribes.

    But they took advantage of the power vacuum in neighbouring Syria to emerge as ISIS, later called Islamic State.

    Meanwhile, there has been fierce fighting to the west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

    Air strikes helped Iraqi fighters repel an attack at Ameriyat al-Fallujah, a strategic town 40km (25 miles) outside Baghdad.

    In a separate development, the BBC gathered that in some areas around Baghdad, insurgents were less than 10km (six miles) from the city.

    In an interview with the CBS TV programme 60 Minutes, Mr. Obama said Syria had become a “ground zero” for militants who had been able to take advantage of the chaos in that country.

     

  • IS ‘beheads’ another Lebanese soldier

    A second Lebanese soldier taken hostage by Islamic State militants has been beheaded.

    Photos of the killing of the soldier – named as Abbas Medlej – were posted on social media networks, the BBC reports.

    The Lebanese military said it was investigating the reports.

    Medlej was among the Lebanese soldiers seized by IS in August, after the militants launched an incursion into the Lebanese town of Arsal, near the Syrian border.

    Some of the hostages are reportedly being held by IS and others by the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

    IS had threatened to kill a soldier every three days if the Lebanese government did not agree to release the group’s members detained in Lebanese jails.

    Medlej’s mother, Zienab Noun, said the pictures showing the beheading appeared to be real.

    “My son was sacrificed,” she was quoting as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

    IS issued a statement on Saturday, saying the soldier had been beheaded after he tried to escape.

  • Beheading of journalists won’t intimidate U.S – Obama

    Beheading of journalists won’t intimidate U.S – Obama

    President Barack Obama has vowed the United States will not be intimidated, after Islamic State militants released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

    Obama warned: “Our reach is long and justice will be served.”

    Another U.S journalist, James Foley, was similarly killed last month.

    Separately, the United Kingdom held a meeting of its emergency Cobra committee after threats to kill a British hostage who was also shown in the latest video, the BBC reports.

    Islamic State has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring a new caliphate, or Islamic state, under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

    The U.S has launched more than 120 air strikes in the past month to try to help Kurdish forces curb the IS advance.

    After the latest video emerged, Obama ordered the deployment of another 350 troops to Baghdad to protect U.S diplomatic facilities.

    U.S National Security Council spokesperson, Caitlin Hayden, said America intelligence agents had “analysed the recently released video showing Sotloff and has reached the judgment that it is authentic.”

    Speaking in Estonia, Obama said the beheading was a “horrific act of violence and we cannot begin to imagine the agony everyone who loves Steven is feeling right now. Our country grieves with them.”

  • IS beheads another U.S journalist

    IS beheads another U.S journalist

    An Islamic State video has released a video showing the killing of Steven Sotloff, a United States journalist being held hostage by the militants.

    Mr. Sotloff, 31, disappeared in Syria in 2013. He appeared at the end of a video last month which showed fellow U.S journalist James Foley being killed.

    A militant in the video also threatened to kill a hostage said to be British.

    After Mr. Foley’s death, Mr. Sotloff’s mother appealed to IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to save her son’s life.

    White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said U.S officials were checking the reports.

    The U.S has recently carried out dozens of air strikes against IS targets in Iraq.

    The BBC reports the apparent beheading is a way for IS to get back at the U.S for its actions.

    The video shows a masked figure together with Mr. Sotloff, who is dressed in an orange jumpsuit, the report says.

    The masked man described the beheading as retribution for the U.S air strikes.

    “I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State despite our serious warnings,” the man said.

    “We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.”

  • IS: Cameron warns of possible threat to UK

    IS: Cameron warns of possible threat to UK

    Islamic State militants could grow strong enough to target people on the streets of Britain unless action is taken, David Cameron has warned.

    The British Prime Minister, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said a “humanitarian response” to IS was not enough and a “firm security response” was needed.

    The BBC says it comes as Church leaders expressed concern that the United Kingdom had no “coherent” approach to tackling Islamic extremism.

    IS has seized large parts of northern Iraq and Syria over the summer.

    Kurdish forces, supported by United States air strikes, are currently battling to retake Mosul dam from IS fighters in northern Iraq.

    There are also continuing reports of massacres of non-Muslims by the extreme Sunni group, which is seeking to build a new Islamic state spanning Iraq and Syria.

    Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr. Cameron said: “True security will only be achieved if we use all our resources – aid, diplomacy, our military prowess – to help bring about a more stable world.

    “If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain.”

    He warned that if IS was able to “carve out its so-called caliphate,” the UK would be “facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member.”

  • U.S sends more advisers to Iraq

    The United States has sent 130 more military advisers to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, has said.

    The marines and special operations forces will assess the humanitarian situation and will not be engaged in combat, a U.S defence official said.

    The U.S has been carrying out air strikes against fighters from militant group Islamic State (IS), the BBC reports.

    IS fighters have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

    “This is not a combat boots on the ground kind of operation,” Mr. Hagel said, in remarks made at Camp Pendleton in California.

    The “assessment team members” had arrived in the northern city of Irbil and would “give more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help,” he said.

    The personnel are in addition to about 250 military advisers already in Iraq.

    A U.S defence official said the government would continue to explore ways to support “Iraqis affected by the ongoing fighting in Sinjar”, and to prevent “potential acts of genocide” by IS.

    The United Nations has said that tens of thousands of civilians, including members of the Yazidi sect, are trapped on Sinjar mountain by IS fighters and need “life-saving assistance.