The terrorist group ISIS has lost a key border crossing to Kurdish forces.
The capturing of the border crossing makes it harder for the terrorists to operate on both sides of the Iraqi/Syrian border and the victory against the terrorists was obtained by Kurds on both sides of the border. It was the first time Kurdish forces from both sides of the border worked together in a single assault on the terrorists.
It also marked the first time that a major Sunni group has fought against the terrorists. The Shammar tribe, one of the most influential in the region, proclaimed the terrorists as a group that had to be eliminated.
The leader of the tribe told Reuters they are in full cooperation with groups working to overthrow the terrorists.
“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar said.
The road that runs through Rabia is the major route between Syria and Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq.
A man who converted to Islam and idolized Islamic terrorists like Osama Bin Laden stormed his former employer and cut the head off a woman working there.
Police in Moore, Oklahoma say that 30-year-old Alton Nolen had “recently converted to Islam” and had been going around the workplace trying to get others to convert to Islam.
Nolen drove to his former employer and attacked Colleen Huffort, 54, with a knife he had with him. He chanted “allahu akbar” and other Islamic slogans during the attack where he beheaded the woman in the same manner ISIS terrorists have done to their hostages.
A reserve sheriff’s deputy that works at the factory shot Nolen.
The FBI has been called in to investigate the incident and has initially claimed it was an example of “workplace violence.” Conservative members of Congress, who point out that Nolen’s Facebook page showed him in full Islamic attire, professing extremist beliefs and posting admiration for Islamic terrorists, have denounced the FBI’s claim.
President Obama acknowledged the administration completely misjudged ISIS and the strength and will of the Islamic terrorist group.
However, the President put the blame on the former Iraqi government and U.S. intelligence services rather than accepting any of the blame himself. In January, the President called ISIS a Junior Varsity terrorist outfit.
“Our head of the intelligence community Jim Clapper has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” the president said.
Intelligence service officials say the President has been receiving daily briefings on ISIS and their rise for the last 18 months. The White House refused to act on those intelligence reports.
Sen. John McCain said he was “puzzled” by the President’s claim and underestimating the threat of Islamic terrorists.
“The intelligence comments — intelligence people are pushing back hard,” McCain said. “We predicted this and watched it. It was like watching a train wreck and warning every step of the way that this was happening … It is a direct result of our failure to leave a residual force behind.”
Reverend Franklin Graham is making a call to Christians across America to shake off their apathy and begin to work to help persecuted Christians around the world.
“I don’t think we’re doing enough. No, I don’t. There is much more we can do,” Graham told The Christian Post.
“The greatest thing we can do is to pray — to pray for the Christians who are suffering. Saeed Abedini is on the poster behind us, but there are thousands upon thousands of Christians in Syria and Iraq who are suffering because of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Graham spoke at the Washington vigil for Saeed Abedini, whose plight has been largely ignored by the State Department and Obama administration.
Graham was also critical of Muslims around the world that have not taken steps to stop Islamic extremism. Graham believes if they truly are against the movements of groups like ISIS or Boko Haram, they would be taking action.
“Followers of a peaceful religion do not cut off the heads of innocent people in the barbaric action the world has been watching,” said Graham before those gathered.
“Believers in a peaceful religion do not kidnap 300 young school girls as Boko Haram did in Northeastern Nigeria in April. … Men who practice a peaceful religion do not detonate bombs on American streets during a marathon race to kill and to maim.”
The Prime Minister of Iraq says he has credible information regarding an ISIS plot to attack the United States.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi surprised intelligence and transit security officials in the U.S. who said they had no knowledge of the PM’s claims. New York City officials quickly took to the media to assure citizens the subway system was safe.
“They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.,” Abedi told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. “I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible.”
Iraqi intelligence officials would not specifically comment on the PM’s statements other than to say a full assessment of the plans discovered is ongoing. U.S. officials said they had not confirmed any “specific threat.”
“We want to increase the number of willing countries who would support this,” PM Abedi said. “This is not military. This is intelligence. This is security. The terrorists have a massive international campaign. Don’t underestimate it.”
A Syrian aircraft has been shot down over the Golan Heights by Israeli defense systems.
The shooting down of the aircraft is the first time since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War that the battle has crossed into Israeli territory in a major way. Until this point, only stray mortar fire had struck Israeli territory.
Israeli Defense Forces say that the plane was a MiG-21 fighter jet and a surface-to-air missile took the plane down. The wreckage of the plane landed in Syria and the pilot reportedly was able to eject and land in Syrian territory.
Syrian government spokesman tried to claim the shooting down of the plane meant Israel was supporting the terrorist group ISIS. World leaders immediately dismissed the Syrian claim as “absurd.”
It’s a little victory but a victory nonetheless.
Police and parents of a girl who had been kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria say she was freed earlier this week.
“She was found running in a village. She was in the bush for about four days. She’s still receiving medical attention,” a parent told Reuters news agency. The girl was found about 60 miles from the village of Chibok where she had been kidnapped with hundreds of other girls.
She is reported in stable condition at a hospital.
The military also reported they had killed a man who had been posting in videos as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. The man was seen in videos threatening to sell the girls into slavery and mocking the United States. The military claims Shekau has been dead for a year but that Boko Haram leadership to keep rank and file in line has used lookalikes.
At least 200 girls remain captive and missing.
A day after the Islamic terrorist group ISIS beheaded a French national, French warplanes struck multiple targets inside Iraq.
France’s air force made multiple bombing raids on oil fields that were under the control of ISIS in an attempt to keep the terrorists from using the oil to fund their activities. The strikes were part of a multinational coordinated assault.
The strikes by France were the country’s first since the start of the assault on ISIS.
The strikes took place as President Obama addressed the United Nations about the ISIS threat.
“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama said.
Britain is the next country believed to be joining the airstrikes. Prime Minister David Cameron will be seeking authorization from parliament on Friday.
Islamic State issued a call to its members in the United States, France and other countries that are connected to the coalition against ISIS to commit attacks.
The call from Islamic State included direct attacks on world leaders, including President Obama.
“O mule of the Jews, you claimed today that America would not be drawn into a war on the ground. No, it will be drawn and dragged … to its death, grave and destruction,” ISIS leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in the video.
ISIS leadership also dismissed the pending airstrikes from coalition countries and said they will have no impact on their reign of terror.
“It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated,” Adnani said.
Observers estimate at least 60,000 Kurds have fled from Syria toward Turkey over a single 24-hour period because of ISIS.
“ISIS came and attacked, and we left with the women, but the rest of the men stayed behind,” 24-year-old Abdullah of Shiran told Reuters. “They killed many people in the villages, cutting their throats. We were terrified that they would cut our throats too.”
Witnesses say that women, children and the elderly were seen fleeing in large groups on foot.
“Islamic State is killing any civilian it finds in a village,” Mustefa Ebdi, the director of local radio station Arta FM, added. “People prefer to flee rather than remain and die. [ISIS wants] to eliminate anything that is Kurdish. This is creating a state of terror.”
Turkish officials reportedly stopped the group at the border and refused to allow them to cross until they confirmed they were fleeing ISIS.
U.N. officials called on world charities to send food and supplies to the region to help the refugees.
