Terrorism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC) is the news that he plans to subject all of Aleppo. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, or at least it used to be, […]

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Syria: Key ISIL Smuggling city, Manbij, falls to Kurd-Arab Force

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely leftist Kurds of the YPG but includes a small Arab auxiliary faction, has taken almost all […]

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ISIL Captures Thousands trying to flee it in Iraq, Executes a Dozen

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Oman Daily’s Jabbar al-Rubaie reports that Iraqi security sources announced yesterday that Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) had executed a number of the residents of the city of Hawija near Kirkuk in northern Iraq because they attempted to escape the city, over which Daesh holds sway. Hawija […]

al-Qaeda

Top Five Ways to tell if a Terrorist is still al-Qaeda despite name Change

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leftist Beirut newspaper al-Safir comments scathingly on the name-change of the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front led by Abu Muhammad al-Julani, to the Syria Conquest Front. Here are some reasons that the name change isn’t going to work: 1. Al-Julani got permission from 9/11 […]

Iraq

Will Iraq’s next Government be . . . Iran-backed Shiite Militias?

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – The [so-called] Islamic State [IS] group has caused a realignment of Iraq’s political map. Next year’s provincial elections will signal who will rule the land after the security crisis has passed – and it may not be to everyone’s liking. In April 2017 Iraq will […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

The West Under Attack: What we can Learn from the Roy vs Kepel Debate

contributors

By Mustafa Gürbüz | (Informed Comment) | – – The ax attack on a train in Würzburg, Germany, sparked the latest controversy on lone wolf radicalization in the West. Recently, just days before the attack in Nice, two prominent French academics on terrorism, Olivier Roy and Gilles Kepel, were covered in the New York Times […]

Iraq

Iraq: As ISIL loses land, it is Terrorizing to provoke Sectarian Fighting

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – It is slowly becoming clear that the extremist Islamic State group is returning to its roots, setting off bombs to kill innocents in crowded places, to cause chaos. Then it plans to take advantage of the unrest. The extremist group known as the Islamic State […]

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Nice, France, Attack: A Gandhian Response to Serial Killers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has extended the French state of emergency, which suspends key civil and human rights, in the aftermath of the gruesome truck attack on Bastille Day in Nice, which at this writing has left 80 dead and over a dozen in intensive […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Kerry Proposing Joint US-Russian Airstrikes against Extremists in Syria

contributors

TeleSur | – – According to a leaked U.S. plan, Washington and Moscow would merge their respective air campaigns against non-state armed groups in Syria. The United States will propose increasing military cooperation and sharing intelligence with Russia to identify and target Islamic State group and al-Qaida headquarters, training camps and supply routes in Syria, […]