Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

US admits that Hellfire Strike on Kabul, killing 10, was a “Mistake” – But US often does not know Whom it is Droning

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Associated Press reports that the survivors of family members killed in a U.S. hellfire missile strike on a civilian vehicle after US troops and Afghan evacuees were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul are not satisfied with the apology issued by the U.S. military. They want compensation. […]

al-Qaeda

Facing Hostility from most of World’s 1.8 bn Muslims, Al-Qaida, Islamic State group find few recruits

The Conversation

By Charles Kurzman | – Al-Qaida was planning two sets of terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. On Sept. 11, 2021, as Americans commemorate and mourn the lives lost that Tuesday morning 20 years ago, it is important to remember the second plot as well – the attacks that didn’t happen. Khalid Sheikh […]

Afghanistan

What is ISIS-K, the Organization that Bombed Kabul Airport?

The Conversation

By Amira Jadoon and Andrew Mines | – An attack on a crowd gathered outside Kabul’s airport on Aug. 26, 2021, has left at least 60 people dead, including at least a dozen U.S. Marines. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the coordinated suicide bomb and gun assault, which came just days after President Joe Biden warned […]

al-Qaeda

What will be the Mideast Crises facing Biden in the Coming Year? US Intelligence Threat Assessment

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community is out. It has a Middle East section and a report on Afghanistan in the South Asia section. Although the threat assessment aims at highlighting potential threats to the US and US interests, I am struck by how little their analysis […]

al-Qaeda

Vanilla ISIL: Social Media is forced to Treat Trump and Trumpists Like Terrorists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Not everyone who mobbed the Capitol on 1/6 was a terrorist, but there were many terrorists among them. Some people came armed, or with ties for taking congressional representatives and senators hostage. Some were desperately looking for Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi in order to assassinate them for, in their […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

From the KKK to Europe’s new “Jihadis”: The Hidden Logic of seemingly Random Acts of Terror

Glenn E. Robinson

By Glenn E. Robinson | – Prior to his November 2 shooting rampage in Vienna, Kujtim Fejzullai’s affinity for ISIS was known to Austrian police, given his earlier unsuccessful attempt to cross Turkey’s border to join the ‘caliphate.’ But as far as is known, Fejzullai never actually made contact with ISIS before he swore his […]

al-Qaeda

Trump’s Falsehoods about Election Fraud give Aid and Comfort to Russia, ISIL Extremists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s meltdown on Thursday evening in which he alleged a vast Democratic conspiracy to stuff ballot boxes and steal an election he believed himself to have won, along with the gun-toting, menacing MAGA crowds gathering outside vote-counting facilities, have embarrassed America before the world. Worse, they have given hope to […]

Barack Obama

Who really defeated the Islamic State – Obama/Biden or Trump/Pence?

The Conversation

By Brian Glyn Williams | – One common claim by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has been that his administration beat IS, or what’s formally known as the Islamic State terrorist group. It came up most recently in the vice presidential debate, when Mike Pence boasted, “We destroyed the ISIS caliphate. … You know when […]

Barack Obama

Six Years later, remembering how Socialist Kurds and the US Air Force defeated the ISIS Siege of Kobani

Brian Glyn Williams

By Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Troy Souza | – Dartmouth, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – Six years ago, in October, 2014, the brutal ISIS terorist group came for the Kurds in the Syrian enclave of Kobani. It would have been a gateway for them into Turkey, on which it bordered. The US intervened […]