Over
the past three months, 1250 wounded ISIS terrorists were hospitalized
in Turkey
Many
Turkish physicians and nurses are disgruntled and tired of treating
savage Islamist terrorists who are responsible for ultimate brutality
and horrible bloodshed in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
15
November, 2014
Jiar
Gol,
BBC’s Kurdish service correspondent in Turkish Kurdish-populated
provinces, reported that the injured high-ranking ISIS commanders
escaping the war-ravaging Syria are entering the Turkish territory
through the porous Syria-Turkey border and later being admitted into
Turkish army’s military hospitals and rehabilitation centers
in Gaziantep, Mardin and Adana southern
provinces.
Dr.
Othman Bayraktar, a well-known neurologist in southern city
of Kilis near
the border with Syria divulged that the hospitals in which he works,
have so far received near to 1200 severely injured terrorists whom
have been treated for a long time in heavily guarded hospitals and
after a while they return to Syria to resume their barbaric and
heinous crimes against the innocent civilian populations. Dr.
Bayraktar further added that many hospital staffs are seriously
distressed and “ashamed” of offering medical treatments for
criminal and thuggish Islamist fighters.
Turkey,
a Muslim member of NATO and a U.S. close ally has importuned the West
to prepare groundwork for establishing a buffer-zone stretching along
the Turkey –Syria border areas to host and support all sort of
Syrian militants.
Earlier,
Kurdish officials in Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region had warned
about Turkey’s dangerous agendas and said that Ankara
by creating a buffer-zone would eradicate all independent Kurdish
political parties to cement its grip over Kurdish-populated northern
Syria and Iraq.
ISIS
has 200,000-strong force, says Kurdish leader
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants have an army of about 200,000 fighters, over six times larger than previous CIA estimates, a senior Iraqi Kurdish leader has claimed.
17
November, 2014
"I
am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are
able to mobilize young Arab men in the territory they have taken,"
Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud
Barzani, told the UK Independent in an exclusive
interview.
Controlling
roughly one third of Iraq and Syria, Hussein says the 250,000 square
kilometer territory has provided IS a 10 to 12 million-large
population from which to attract potential fighters.
He
said this sizeable force explains how the Islamic State had been able
to wage successful campaigns on multiple fronts in Iraq and Syria.
"They
are fighting in Kobani," he said. “In Kurdistan last month
they were attacking in seven different places as well as in Ramadi
[capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad] and Jalawla [an
Arab-Kurdish town close to Iranian border]."
‘They
will fight to the death’
Hussein
believes previous US
intelligence estimates, with an upward range of 31,500 militants, may
have been referring strictly to a “core” force of fighters. But
with a sophisticated propaganda effort, coupled with a strong
military and ideological core, IS has developed into a sophisticated
fighting force that has caught Western governments off guard.
"We
are talking about a state that has a military and ideological
basis," said
Mr Hussein, "so that
means they want everyone to learn how to use a rifle, but they also
want everybody to have training in their ideology, in other words
brainwashing."
In
their blistering 5-month offensive, Islamic State militants have
counted suicide bombings, mines, snipers and deployment of captured
US armored fighting vehicles among their tactics.
That
the Islamic State was able to seize and use tanks, heavy artillery
and other US hardware, with such speed following the fall of Mosul on
June 10, likely signifies the group has successfully identified and
incorporated former Iraqi and Syrian soldiers.
The
militants proved equally adept at using Russian-made equipment
appropriated in Syria.
Hussein
told the daily his Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are impressed by the
militants level of competence, grit and discipline.
"They
will fight until death, and are dangerous because they are so
well-trained," said
Mr Hussein. "For
instance, they have the best snipers, but to be a good sniper you
need not only training on how to shoot, but discipline in staying put
for up to five hours so you can hit your target."
That
the war-torn and impoverished region leaves few opportunities for
young men, the group’s $400-a-month salary also provides a strong
incentive for locals to take up arms.
The
Islamic State’s horrific acts show that they are willing to go as
far as it takes to win, UK-based Middle East expert Catherine Shakdam
told RT.
“They
are willing to commit horrific, you know, murders and massacres to
achieve their goals, I think, this is...propaganda. And I think that
is what they are trying to achieve, they are trying to prove a point
and demonstrate that they are willing to go to the other extent, to
claim victory over the foreign powers and the region. They are trying
to coerce people into joining them out of fear, and the sense of
helplessness,”Shakdam
said.
‘Pulling
Iraq back from the precipice’
Washington’s
recognition of the threat IS poses can be explained by a series of
recent moves pointing to broader US engagement in the region.
During
a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday, General Dempsey, chairman of
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Iraqi officials and American
troops to assess the situation on the ground.
Dempsey
sounded a note of optimism, saying the US military had helped Iraqi
and Kurdish forces “pull Iraq back from the precipice,” Reuters,
whose journalists accompanied the general on the trip, said.
“And
now, I think it's starting to turn. So well done," Dempsey
told a group of Marines at the US embassy in Baghdad.
Earlier
in the week, Dempsy told congress that an 80,000-strong ground force
would be needed to defeat IS. Despite retaking the town of Baiji,
which houses the country’s largest refinery, Iraqis have little
faith their army is capable of triumphing over IS.
Last
week, US President Barack Obama authorized more
than doubling the number of American ground forces in Iraq. Around
1,400 US troops are currently in Iraq, with Obama's signing off up to
3,100 troops.
On
Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told
Congress that
American troops might have to assume a new role to expedite the
anti-extremist campaign.
Hagel
insisted, however, that Americans “will
not be engaged in a ground combat mission.”
US
security guarantees have given Kurdish fighters much needed breathing
space, after the Islamic State routed Peshmerga forces in Iraq and
nearly captured the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Irbil.
The
siege of the Syrian city of Kobani, which has become the epicenter of
both Kurdish resistance and Washington’s campaign to “degrade and
destroy” IS, similarly saw the Kurds on the brink of being crushed
before US-led airstrikes turned the tide.
Despite
the relative gains, the Kurdistan Regional Government is tasked with
defending a 650-mile long front line, which extends across Northern
Iraq between Iran and Syria.
While
Hussein expressed appreciation for US air support that had allowed
the Kurds to hold out, he told the Independent they would need Apache
helicopters and heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery to combat
the jihadists effectively.
Ramping
up CIA involvement, opposition forces
Meanwhile,
reports have indicated the US is planning to ramp up support for the
moderate Syrian opposition in a bid to both stem the IS tide and
bolster less radical forces seeking to overthrow the government of
President Bashar Assad.
On
Friday, the
Washington Post,
citing senior US officials, reported the Obama administration is
weighing plans to ramp up the CIA’s involvement in arming and
training fighters in Syria.
Currently,
the CIA is on track to train 5,000 fighters a year, a figure that
echoes previous Pentagon aims.
The
following day, reports surfaced in the Turkish Daily Hurriyet that
the US and Turkey had agreed on plans to train 2,000 members of the
Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Turkish territory.
The
two sides, however, failed to agree on the question of training
members of Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), an affiliate of
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey has called a
terrorist organization.
Last
month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “the
PYD is equal with the PKK for us.”
Obama
confirms death of US hostage Peter Kassig after Isis releases video
Briton
thought to have killed four other western hostages shown standing
over a severed head
16
November, 2014
A
desperate two-month campaign by the parents of American hostage Peter
Kassig failed after a video showing his beheading was released by
Islamic State (Isis) militants.
A
statement from US president Barack Obama on Sunday night confirmed
that Kassig had been killed after Isis released the video showing the
black-clad British executioner thought to have murdered four other
western hostages standing over a severed head. Obama offered prayers
and condolences to Kassig’s family and said their son “was taken
from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world
rightly associates with inhumanity.”
The
Isis video was uploaded after an impassioned campaign by the
26-year-old’s parents for Isis to spare their son, who recently
became known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig after he converted to Islam. The
family did not immediately acknowledge Kassig’s death. Instead they
urged that the 16-minute video should not be disseminated to deny his
captors “a chance to further their cause”. Friends of Kassig said
they had little doubt he had been killed.
The
video was strikingly different to the four others uploaded to the
internet since mid-August, which depicted the killings of US
reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers
David Haines and Alan Henning.
A
body is not shown, and nor was Kassig filmed making a final
statement. Instead, his apparent death is revealed at the end of a
potted history of the group’s evolution over the past decade and
the grisly, unedited slaughter of up to 18 captured Syrian soldiers
and airmen said to be near the north-east Syrian town of Dabiq.
The
hooded man with the east London accent known as “Jihadi John” was
again centre stage, narrating a warning to the British prime
minister, David Cameron and US president Barack Obama after sawing
off the head of a captured Syrian.
“To
Obama, the dog of Rome, today we are slaughtering the soldiers of
Bashar [al Assad] and tomorrow we’ll be slaughtering your
soldiers,” he says. “With Allah’s permission we will break this
final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon, like your
puppet David Cameron said, begin to slaughter your people on your
streets.” Unlike the killings of other western hostages, the camera
does not pan away, as the killer moves a knife over his victim’s
throat. Instead it shows him fixing a defiant stare.
Alongside
him, 17 men in military fatigues, their faces showing, follow the
Briton’s lead. British intelligence officials have known for at
least a month the identity of the left-handed masked killer. The
officials have focused their attention on former rapper Abdel Majed
Abdel Bary, 23, who is known to have travelled to Syria to join Isis.
In
the Raqqa region where the executioner is believed to be based, he is
known by the nom de guerre Abu Abdullah al-Britani.
The
video is shot near pasture land and a hamlet, which is identified as
Dabiq – a small town near the Turkish border where Isis fighters
believe a pre-apocalyptic showdown will take place.
In
recent weeks, the threat to Kassig’s life had drawn condemnation
from jihadi leaders in Syria and Jordan who are not aligned to Isis.
A senior member of the al-Qaida-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra tweeted this
month that Kassig had treated him for a battle wound and said there
was no justification under Islam to kill him.
After
being deployed in Iraq as a US army ranger, Kassig set up a medical
charity to run aid to Syrian refugees in 2007.
He
moved to Beirut from where he made regular trips to Syria via Turkey.
On 1 October last year he was captured near the eastern Syrian city
of Deir el-Zour and then held with a group of western hostages that
at one point numbered at least 23.
At
some point during his time in the region he converted to Islam and
adopted the name Abdul Rahman. His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig,
repeatedly used his new name in their pleas to his captors.
Kassig’s
family released a letter from him in October, which read in part:
“Mentally I am pretty sure this is the hardest thing a man can go
through, the stress and fear are incredible but I am coping as best I
can. I am not alone.”
Ed
and Paula Kassig said yesterday: “We are heartbroken to learn that
our son, Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig, has lost his life as a result of
his love for the Syrian people and his desire to ease their
suffering. Our heart also goes out to the families of the Syrians who
lost their lives, along with our son.
“Fed
by a strong desire to use his life to save the lives of others,
Abdul-Rahman was drawn to the camps that are filled with displaced
families and to understaffed hospitals inside Syria. We know he found
his home amongst the Syrian people, and he hurt when they were
hurting.
“As
he wrote in March 2012, in a letter announcing he was taking a leave
of absence from Butler University to serve the Syrian people: ‘Here,
in this land, I have found my calling … I do not know much. Every
day that I am here I have more questions and less answers, but what I
do know is that I have a chance to do something here, to take a
stand. To make a difference.’
“We
are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his
humanitarian calling. We will work every day to keep his legacy alive
as best we can.
“We
remain heartbroken, also, for the families of the other captives who
did not make it home safely. The families of James Foley, Steven
Sotloff, David Haines, and Alan Henning remain in our daily thoughts
and prayers, and we pray for the safe return of all remaining
captives held by all sides of the Syrian civil war.
“We
remain eternally grateful for the many, many words of support and
prayers from all over the world on our son’s behalf. We ask people
to continue to pray for the safe return of all captives being held
unjustly and all people being oppressed around the world, and
especially for the people of Syria, a land our son loved.”
Earlier
the family had asked “that the news media avoid playing into the
hostage-takers’ hands and refrain from publishing or broadcasting
photographs or video distributed by the hostage-takers. We prefer our
son is written about and remembered for his important work and the
love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the
hostage-takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their
cause.”
The
family had been unable to raise a ransom demanded by Isis and would
have faced stern opposition from the US government even if they had.
Washington, like the UK, sticks strictly to a policy of not paying
ransoms, in the hope that it will deter kidnappers from seizing their
citizens in the future.
Without
a ransom though, the Kassigs had next to nothing to offer Isis, which
had shown utter inflexibility in negotiations carried out via email.
European governments and private donors paid ransoms for at least six
of their citizens this year.
In
a statement, the National Security Council spokeswoman, Bernadette
Meehan, said: “We are aware of a video that claims to show the
murder of US citizen Peter Kassig by [Isis]. The intelligence
community is working as quickly as possible to determine its
authenticity.If confirmed, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an
innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences
to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it
is available.”
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