Coalition Air Strikes Wipe Out More ISIS Oil Assets In Syria

Coalition military forces have carried out 10 air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, destroying five supply routes, oil well heads and oil tanker trucks, the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said on Friday.

ISIS feeds on Iraq’s political instability and oil

For 15 years, Iraq has been under constant media attention. From the suspicions of hidden weapons of mass destruction to the high level violence of the Islamic State (ISIS), a lot has been said on what is happening in Iraq, why it is happening, and how it got there. However, since 2014, the increase in opinions, debates, and experts on terrorism has only contributed to a lack of meaning.

Iraq has been in a constant state of political chaos, of which the 2003 US-led intervention was the starting point. Driven by the idea of American idealism and transforming the intervention into an ideological war, the US goal behind the invasion of Iraq was to establish democracy in the Middle East. But at what price for Iraq?

Morocco’s war on terror and the threat of ISIS

With much of the world´s attention focused on Western Europe and the threat of ISIS, North African states such as Morocco are also facing a difficult internal battle against groups who declare their loyalty to the Islamic State.

Over the past three years, authorities in Morocco have been working vigorously to stamp out the internal threat posed by ISIS and its affiliates. The country is no stranger to terror.

Who is funding ISIS?

While Al-Qaeda-like groups are relying on donations and convincing Muslim opinion worldwide, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is exploiting both the local population and resources on their controlled territory.

In 2015, the media headlines were unanimous. Business insider declared ISIS the “World’s Richest Terrorist Group”, The Independent questioned “How ISIS became the wealthiest terror group in history” while Forbesranked ISIS the “richest terrorist organization the world has known”.

How Much of Libya Does the Islamic State Control?

The world is waking up to the threat posed by the Islamic State’s expansion in Libya over the past year. The renewed Western focus on combating the group is related to the Nov. 13 Paris attacks — although they had nothing to do with Libya — and the increasing recognition that the U.N.-brokered Libyan Political Agreement signed on Dec. 17 is, for the moment at least, unimplementable. Therefore, a national unity government able to take on the Islamic State will not be in place any time soon. But the urge to act, or to be seen acting, against the Islamic State should not be a reason to embark on a new large-scale military adventure in Libya — one that would have unpredictable results and likely worsen the situation on the ground by making the Libyan conflict harder to resolve.

The Billion-Dollar Caliphate

Last month, U.S. fighter jets unleashed airstrikes against oil fields, refineries, and hundreds of tanker trucks near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. Dubbed Operation Tidal Wave II, the attacks were the latest phase in a campaign to bomb the Islamic State into bankruptcy, striking at the heart of the black-market economy and extortionist tax system that have underwritten the salaries of tens of thousands of extremist fighters.

Is this really our conflict?

There isn’t one war, the West versus Isis. Not even after last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. There are layers of Middle Eastern conflicts, all linked to international intervention, of which the most intractable are heightened by the Sunni-Shia divide.

The Iranian revolution of 1979 established the world’s first officially Islamic regime, but being exclusively Shia, it resurrected memories of the age-old conflict between Sunni and Shia. On coming to power, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini demanded that the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina be managed collectively. In Saudi Arabia this demand was seen as an intolerable challenge. (A young Sunni jihadist, Khaled Kelkal, involved in bombings in France in 1995, said he thought “Shiism was invented by the Jews to divide Islam” (1).) Violence against Shia by Saudi Wahhabis is nothing new: in 1802 the sack of Karbala (now in Iraq) led to the destruction of Shia shrines and tombs including that of the Prophet’s son-in-law Hussein, and the killing of many of the city’s inhabitants.

ISIS lucrative economy and its donators

“ISIS is a huge financial package to support more 8 million people—which is now the size of the population living in territories under ISIS control... it is also supporting tens of thousands of militants who have been at war for months, with new recruits coming in every day. Yet it keeps all these people answerable to them, seems to have incredible cross-border mobility and shows no signs right now of running out of money or fuel.” says Luay al-Khatteeb, visiting fellow of the Doha Brookings Center and director of the Iraq Energy Institute in Baghdad[1].

Today ISIS controls an area almost as big as then United Kingdom. Having amassed more than two billion dollars[2] since its appearance in 2003[3] it is now the wealthiest terrorist organization. Although, lucrative donations and private contributions started up ISIS, the group has managed to become self funded within a couple of years. It has even put in place the beginnings of quasi-state structures - ministries and law courts. This unpresented pace of income compilation  is based on the following sources of income[4]:

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

 Illustration by Eva Bee

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

Isis profits from destruction of antiquities by selling relics to dealers – and then blowing up the buildings they come from to conceal the evidence of looting

So why is Isis blowing to pieces the greatest artefacts of ancient history in Syria and Iraq? The archeologist Joanne Farchakh has a unique answer to a unique crime. First, Isis sells the statues, stone faces and frescoes that international dealers demand. It takes the money, hands over the relics – and blows up the temples and buildings they come from to conceal the evidence of what has been looted.

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

 Illustration by Eva Bee

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

The Company Getting Rich Off the ISIS War

For the Middle East, the growth of the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been a catastrophe. For one American firm, it’s been a gold mine.

Photo Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast

The war against ISIS isn’t going so great, with the self-appointed terror group standing up to a year of U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

The Jihadist Trap of Here and Now

In recent weeks, I have found myself spending a lot of time thinking about the jihadist strategy of al Qaeda and how it compares to that of the Islamic State. Earlier this month, I wrote about the possibility that the al Qaeda brand of jihadism could outlast that of the Islamic State. Last week, I wrote about how ideologies are harder to kill than individuals, focusing on the effect that the death of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Nasir al-Wahayshi will have on the group and the wider global jihadist movement.

But beyond the impact of leaders like al-Wahayshi, there are other facets of strategy that will influence the war for the soul of jihadism. Specifically, I am talking about time and place. Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State seek to establish a global caliphate, but both differ quite starkly in how to accomplish this task and how soon it can be achieved.

How Islamic State Victories Shape the Syrian Civil War

Forecast

• The Islamic State will prioritize the defense of its core supply lines, used to provide equipment and much-needed recruits.
• The Islamic State will continue to demonstrate considerable flexibility in its offensive operations. 
• The Syrian government and rebel forces will have to increasingly devote their attention and resources to fighting the Islamic State, rather than prioritizing battles with each other. 

The ISIS March Continues: From Ramadi on to Baghdad?

Once again, in less than a year, Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions en masse and fled in the face of advancing Islamic State forces. The fall of the city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, leaves no doubt about the jihadi group’s capabilities: Despite U.S. attempts to paint it as a gravely weakened organization, the Islamic State remains a powerful force that is on the offensive in several key fronts across Syria and Iraq.

Islamic State: Adding Franchises, Not Capabilities

Fears of an expanding Islamic State have again emerged, though perhaps unnecessarily. On March 7, Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group formally pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State in a video purportedly released by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. Reports emerged simultaneously that Somalia-based al Shabaab is now divided over whether to align with the Islamic State or remain loyal to al Qaeda. The Islamic State will likely next formally acknowledge Boko Haram's pledge through a prominent spokesman, as it has done in the past with similar realignments.

Boko Haram's move has provoked a great deal of international concern that the Islamic State is extending its global reach, but that would be an exaggeration. The Boko Haram announcement — and other recent pledges — neither increases the Islamic State's capabilities within its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria nor directly increases the threat of Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Islamic State

Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram group, newly weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from a score of northeastern towns, reportedly pledged formal allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Bombs kill dozens in Nigerian city of Maiduguri(0:44)

Blasts in Nigeria's Maiduguri target busy markets and a bus station. (Reuters)

The pledge to IS came in an Arabic audio message with English subtitles alleged to have come from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and posted Saturday on Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service.

ISIS Burn Iraqi Oil Fields To Hold Off Iraqi Offensive

Thick black smoke billowing from oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit is obstructing Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers attempts to drive ISIS from the Sunni Muslim city after militants set them on fire. Reuters reports a witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters. As we noted previously, the battle for Tikrit is key as it will determine whether and how fast the Iraqi forces can advance further north and attempt to win back Mosul, the biggest city under Islamic State rule.

As Reuters reports,

Islamic State militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit to obstruct an assault by Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them from the Sunni Muslim city and surrounding towns, a witness said.

Is Libya the Next Stronghold of the Islamic State?

Exactly four years after the protests that kicked off the Libyan revolution, the country has again found itself in the spotlight. On Feb. 15, a Libyan affiliate of the Islamic State released a sordid video showing the group’s militants marching a group of 21 prisoners whose only crime was being Christians, and foreigners. After a short speech from one of the jihadis, the Egyptian Coptic prisoners were simultaneously beheaded before the video panned to a scene of the blood-soaked Mediterranean Sea.

In Britain, a heated debate over Jihadi John’s path to radicalization

After the unmasking of Islamic State executioner “Jihadi John” as a West London computer programmer named Mohammed Emwazi, Asim Qureshi looked into the television cameras here and made an explosive assertion: Britain, he suggested, had created its own monster.

How The Post identified 'Jihadi John'(2:07)

Foreign policy reporter Adam Goldman explains who Mohammed Emwazi is and how The Washington Post discovered his identity. (Gillian Brockell and Alice Li/The Washington Post)

A senior member of a rights group that had sought to advise Emwazi before his transformation into a now-infamous killer, Qureshi insisted that the pressure tactics of overzealous secret service agents bent on turning him into an informant had contributed to the metamorphosis of a person who had once been a “kind,” “gentle” and “beautiful young man.” And he was not the first case. British intelligence had used similar tactics, Qureshi charged, on one of the men who had beheaded a British soldier on a London street in broad daylight in 2013.