Group items tagged

The United States is beginning to make their presence known in the middle east. A special operations force captured an ISIS operative who has been described as a "significant" member of the terror group.

In the week leading up to 9/28/14 the Egyptian army has killed 26 terrorists and arrested 84 others. The operations took place mainly in and around the Sinai peninsula and include the destruction of 18 cross border tunnels between Egypt and Gaza and thwarting illegal immigration of 148 people. This was part of a larger ongoing operation against unknown militants in Sinai that rose up after the ousting of Mohamed Morsi last summer.

Eni SpA, an Italian energy company, has been operating in Libya for fifty years. They are the only international oil company operating in the increasingly hostile and destabilized country. The article suggests that the company's long-term presence has allowed it to make alliances with some of the militant groups responsible for overthrowing Qadafi.

After the ousting of the Gaddafi regime the country pivoted into civil chaos. Because of the deficiency of structure and state autonomy, armed militias have become the dominant force in determining Libya's future governmental system. While the UN has internationally recognized the NTC as the interim government to ultimately turn the country into a democratic one, militias have taken things into their own hands tipping the country towards the brink of civil war. General Khalifa Haftar launched his Operation Dignity campaign accusing congress of allowing terrorists flourish in Libya and vowed to wipe them out, gaining much support from the regular armed forces and nationalist militias. The opposition to Haftar insist that his attacks are aiming for a military coup. This article was helpful in highlighting the armed groups and dividing them by Pro-Haftar and Pro-Congress sections. 

The Turkish government recently went into an extremist-controlled territory in order to evacuate a tomb of a major historical figure, and the soldiers who guarded it. The safe passage of this mission has shown that the relations between Turkey and Syria have gotten a bit better. 

The loss of the intelligence networks, in addition to the escalating conflict, contributed to the Obama administration's decision to halt drone strikes in Yemen for two months, to vacate the U.S. Embassy in Sana last month and to evacuate U.S. special operations and intelligence teams from a Yemeni air base over the weekend.

The DEA caught Lebanese militant organization, Hezbollah, in an international drug operation that was helping to finance the terrorist network's operations in Syria. Hezbollah worked with South American drug cartels to smuggle the drugs via the bodies of expensive foreign sports cars being shipped internationally.

The U.S. Army's elite Delta Force operations to target, capture or kill top ISIS operatives have begun in Iraq, after several weeks of covert preparation. The official said the group has spent the last several weeks preparing, including setting up safe houses, establishing informant networks and coordinating operations with Iraqi and Peshmerga units. It's the same strategy that Special Operations forces have used in previous deployments to combat zones. This is a strong move shown by the United States that says ISIS is the main priority in the Syrian War. Many officers of high rank have said that this has taken weeks of planning and scouting out enemy positions so that it would be swift missions that would demand very accurate precision.

Iran's secret nuclear work? Iranian dissident group claims it now has evidence of "an active and secret parallel nuclear program" operated by Tehran.

Two girls ages 15 and 17, who fled to Syria to join the ISIS movement are not wishing to return to their home countries. The problem, under Austria's laws they are forbidden to return for participating in a foreign war. An interesting aspect of the story is it said to have been ISIS members who were operating their social media accounts for propaganda purposes.

US special forces were able to take an ISIS member into custody. Through questioning, the military men were able to learn that ISIS is now beginning to make plans to use mustard gas as a chemical weapon. The Red Cross has been identified because of the possible use of chemical weapons.

An Islamic State detainee currently in American custody at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, is a specialist in chemical weapons whom American military officials are questioning about the militant Sunni group's plans to use the banned substances in Iraq and Syria, Defense officials said. The member of ISIS who is probably dead at this point reports say, told the miltants that they were planning on using mustard gas with upcoming attacks planned.

"Four jihadi commanders from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) were killed in northwestern Iraq as a result of airstrikes by the US-led coalition's warplanes and ground operations by the Iraqi army"

This article discusses the growing suspicions that have risen from the Muslim Brotherhood. According to many, the Muslim Brotherhood has an active influence on the Obama Administration.

Ironically, the Muslim Brotherhood has come to be seen by some in the State Department as a force of moderation in contemporary Islamist politics. You should look at the recent New York Times op-ed criticizing Sisi for cracking down on the Brotherhood.

Threats from ISIS extend to twitter as it threatened to assassinate the CEO Dick Costolo for deactivating ISIS held accounts. ISIS has also called upon citizens within the countries of twitter's operating facilities to attack Twitter employees on, currently Twitter has offices in the US, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Canada.

BBC discusses the effect of IS and the current political state of Libya.