Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

By Robert J Downes and Daniel Salisbury | (The Conversation) | – – Belgium’s counter-terrorism efforts are once again being called into question following the recent tragedies in Brussels. The attacks were carried out against soft targets – the public check-in area of Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station – but a series of unusual […]

After Brussels, the Strategy of ISIL/ Daesh

Juan Cole

By Paul Rogers | (OpenDemocracy) | – – Tunisia, Paris, and now Brussels: escalating attacks on western targets reflect a shift of focus by ISIL. The security consultancy IHS Jane’s has just completed an assessment on the risk of an armed attack in Europe. Its report was published a few days before the assaults in […]

Featured

Fall of Palmyra: Syrian regime races to take ISIL’s ‘Berlin’ and forestall ‘Partition’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – That massive Russian air strikes and a determined infantry and armor assault by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the ancient city of Palmyra could dislodge from it a few hundred or at most a couple thousand Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters is not all that surprising. […]

Belgium

What would effective Counter-Terrorism look like after Brussels?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The various nostrums proposed to counter Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorism in Europe and North America by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (armed patrols by police of putative “Muslim neighborhoods”, a Muslim exclusion act, etc.) are of course complete non-starters. So too are killing the children of […]

Iraq

Mosul: Are Civilian Deaths in Coalition Airstrikes Reinforcing ISIL’s Hold?

contributors

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 […]