Tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden used to fund ISIS activity.

Tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden used to fund ISIS activity. (NE).

A terrorist network has used tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden to fund terrorist activity, Swedish Radio reported on Wednesday.

An investigation of Swedish Radio, Danish Radio, and the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, reveals that a network has used the proceeds of VAT scams to generate just over €100 million. The proceeds have apparently been used to fund terror groups, including a cell in Spain whose main mission was to recruit Islamic State fighters.

From its base of operations in Malmö, Sweden, the network used a Swedish and a Danish company to transfer larger sums of money, involving the sale of mobile phones, dodging VAT charges. In time, both companies filed for bankruptcy.  In 2014, Spanish police raided an address in Melilla, the Spanish enclave in North Africa. Six men were arrested for their role in recruiting 26 jihadi fighters, who were sent to conflict zones.

One of the men detained was a Danish man, officially a resident of Sweden, who was apparently in frequent contact with a homegrown terrorist cell, suspected of financing the recruitment operation. This was the beginning of a transnational investigation, which begun with intercepted phone and e-mail conversations addressing recruitment tactics and objectives. Read the full story here.

ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (IBtimes). HT: TracTerrorism.

The Ugandan-led Islamist armed group Allied Democratic Forces, known as ADF-Nalu, may be looking to establish a caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it has operated since the late 1990s.

The merger between puritanical Muslim Ugandans from the Sunni Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Nalu), was masterminded by Ugandan rebel leader Jamil Mukulu in western Uganda after they found themselves marginalised following the fall of the dictator Idi Amin.

Pushed out of Uganda, the religious crusaders settled in the dense forest of DRC's eastern borderlands during former President Mobutu Sese Seko's reign (1965-1997).

Three decades down the line, the mysterious rebel group is reported to be using terror tactics - abductions and killings - to establish a caliphate in the eastern province of North Kivu, where fighters claim to own land.

"They told us that these lands belong to them, that they have documents proving that they had bought [the lands] around Beni during the Mobutu era," Adam Kyala Lungalunga, 59, who was kidnapped in November told IBTimes UK. "They want to claw back the authority of these lands."

Beni-based Nicaise Kibel Bel Oka, editor of the newspaper Les Coulisses recently claimed the ADF were exercising "barbarity in the name of sharia law" - the Islamic law. "Islamic terrorism is already very fierce [in the region]," Bel Oka said, adding that the rebels refer to their base as 'Medina'

Like many Islamist sub-groups operating in East Africa and across the Sahel, Bin Hangi confirmed ADF also recruit children. "In their ranks we know that there are children. When they can't recruit them using deceit, they kidnap them by force. We have documented how pupils are kidnapped on their way to school or in the schools. That's how children are enrolled in these groups."Read the full story here.

Indonesia : Children Injured During Church Attack by 'Alleged' Islamic state member .

Indonesia: Children Injured During Islamist Church Attack. (voiceofthe persecuted).

Voice of the Persecuted contacts in Indonesia are sending in reports that 4 children were wounded after a suspected terrorist threw molotov cocktails at the Oikumene Church in the city of Samarinda around 10am following the Sunday service. The injured children were immediately rushed to a hospital for treatment. Samarinda is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

Witnesses said a man passing on a motorbike threw a bag containing molotov cocktails that caused the explosion. The bombing is also reported to have caused damage to motorbikes in the parking lot.

Police have arrested the man, named Joh, alias  Jo Juhanda Aceng Kurnia bin Muhammad, 32, who threw who explosives. He was also wearing a t-shirt with the word ‘jihad’ on it.  The man had been staying at a mosque in the village Sengkotek, near Church Oikumene.

In 2012, the suspect had been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for terrorist bombings of the Research Center for Science and Technology in Tangerang in 2011. He was released in 2014.

Indonesian news sources report Juhana had joined the group Jemaah Ansyarut Tauhid (JAT) established by Abubakar Ba’asyir—convicted of terrorism cases that have been pledged to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

Their is much concern about the rapid rise of radicalism with a large number of Islamic State sympathizers in Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. More 'Graphic' images here.

Update: Child injured in Samarinda church bomb attack has died

Video - French Woman Who Escaped from the IS atrocities in Syria Recounts Her Ordeal.

Life inside the Caliphate ain't all sunshine and rainbows. - 'Dissent in the Islamic State'.

Life inside the Caliphate ain't all sunshine and rainbows. - 'Dissent in the Islamic State'. (ctc.usma.edu). HT :Tracterrorism.

No one can reasonably expect any jihadist organization to be a total monolith in outlook among members, and the Islamic State is no exception. The idea of dissent in the Islamic State is foremost associated with the issue of takfir (declaring people to be non-Muslims, even those who self-identify as Muslim). Indeed, the group’s application of this idea has been publicized both in propaganda as well as in leaked material. However, the Islamic State’s championing of takfir is not without its criticisms.

Some critics are extreme, even going so far as to proclaim takfir on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Others are less virulent in their response and are reluctant to fight people they see as fellow Sunni Muslims, especially other jihadis in groups like Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra). This reluctance to fight flows in part from their hesitancy to accept the doctrine of takfir as espoused by the Islamic State. Read the full story here.

Islamic State Claims over 7,000 fighters are ‘ready to defend Mosul’.

Islamic State Claims over 7,000 fighters are ‘ready to defend Mosul’. (AraNews).

The US-led coalition said that the Islamic State (ISIS) has between 3,000 and 4,500 fighters in Mosul and that there are no signs that the group is leaving its de facto capital in Iraq.

“We think anywhere from 3,000 to 4,500 [ISIS] fighters are in Mosul, somewhere in that ball park. It’s a mixture of Iraqi and foreign fighters,” Colonel Dorrian, a coalition spokesman said.

Abu Azzam al-Muhajir, an ISIS militant from Saudi Arabia, disagreed telling ARA News there are at least 7,000 militants “ready to defend Mosul.” “Also, there are still 500,000 civilians living in Mosul, and they will not accept [their] return to the central government’s authority and rule by the Shia,” al-Muhajir told ARA News.

The US-led coalition said it will continue to attack ISIS in Mosul. “[ISIS] shows no sign of really trying to leave Mosul at this point. Really, what they’ve done is they’ve continued to dig in, build elaborate defenses and so we’re really ready for a tough fight there,” Col Dorrian said.

“The Iraqi security forces have been well trained to do urban style warfare. That’s one of the things that we’ve done for refit. We are expecting [ISIS to have] a mixture of Iraqi and foreign fighters,” he added.

An ISIS source told ARA News that group has cordoned all the roads to Nineveh Governorate and has completed almost 80 percent of their field works around Mosul.

Those field works include a row of trenches, which are reportedly filled with crude oil. The trenches can be set alight to obscure visibility. ISIS has also erected concrete barriers near neighborhood entrances and key road junctures.

The coalition’s Col Dorrian said that at least 8 brigades of the Iraqi Army will march on Mosul. “We also expect the Iraqi Police to be involved, because they’re going to be a part of the effort to maintain security once areas have been liberated. [The police need] to hold those areas so [ISIS] can’t re-infiltrate.”

“We think it’s going to be a very large battle. We do expect the [Kurdish] Peshmerga to be involved, although the details of their involvement are still being worked out,” Dorrian said. ”We also expect there to be tribal forces involved.”

Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg and Chalak Haji

Video - Captured ISIS Fighter Talks about Use of Slave-Girls as Rewards for Fighters

Abubakar Shekau Gravely Wounded, Other Boko Haram Commanders Killed, Nigerian Army Claims.

Abubakar Shekau Gravely Wounded, Other Boko Haram Commanders Killed, Nigerian Army Claims. (Saharareporters).

The Nigerian Army has claimed that Abubakar Shekau, a factional leader of Islamist insurgent group, Boko Haram, was “fatally wounded” in an air attack carried out by the Nigerian Air Force.

In a statement released late yesterday, Army spokesman, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, said Mr. Shekau was wounded in an “unprecedented and spectacular air raid,” adding, “some key leaders of the Boko Haram terrorists have been killed while others were fatally wounded.”

“The air raid took place last week Friday 19th August 2016, while the terrorists were performing Friday rituals at Taye village, Gombale general area within Sambisa forest, Borno State,” Colonel Usman stated.

He added that the confirmed casualties among the Boko Haram commanders included Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman.

The military spokesman added that the Islamist group’s “leader, [the] so-called ‘Abubakar Shekau,’ is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders.”


SaharaReporters was unable to reach Colonel Usman to clarify what he meant by “fatally wounded,” since the phrase is confusing.

Video - Syrian Imam claims ISIS cut of his ear and tried to Force Him to Eat It.

Video - Syrian Imam claims ISIS cut of his ear and tried to Force Him to Eat It. (IranFrontpageNews).

According to a report by Al-Alam News Network, as covered by Mizan, in part of his speech, the Sunni Imam of the Umayyad Mosque Sheikh Ma’moun said that ISIS elements had cut his ear and forced him to eat it.

Here is IFP’s translation of what he says in this video clip:

“He [an ISIS commander] ordered him [another ISIS element] to cut his [the Imam’s] ear, because he doesn’t listen to us. And they cut my ear. He cut it and asked me to eat it. Take it and eat. 

I told him, ‘this is not mine. My body is for God, and Allah is the one who has created it. If you are a Muslim, I should remind you that mutilation is prohibited by Islam.’ He once again said, ‘eat it’. He tried to open my jaw, but he couldn’t do it, even though my jaw was hurting. He wanted to force me into eating it. Imagine your ear is cut and someone is trying to force you to eat it. Is there any human being that cuts his or her own body organ and eat it? It’s really strange.”

Yezidi Women the forgotten IS Victims: Rescuing Yezidi women from ISIS becomes almost impossible.

Too difficult and expensive: Rescuing Yezidi women from ISIS becomes almost impossible. (Rudaw).

Two years after militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) kidnapped over 6,000 Yezidis from their towns and villages in the Shingal region, the chance to get them back is diminishing fast, says Yezidi activist and medical doctor Mirza Dinnayi. In the past two years around 3,000 people were rescued from the extremist group, but recently the number has declined. Some of the captives are so damaged and indoctrinated that they no longer think escape is possible, while rescuing missions in general have become too difficult and too expensive for many families to afford. Dinnayi who has helped many Yezidi victims reach Germany for treatment, says that as it becomes almost impossible to rescue more captives, his focus is on getting former ISIS victims, especially women and young girls out of refugee camps to Europe where they could recover and start a normal life again.

Rudaw: How many people are still captive in ISIS (Daesh) territories? Both 3,200 and 3,700 figures have been mentioned?


The correct figure is about 3,700 and the difference between the figures is the men, the rest are women and children.

What should be done to get them out?


I am afraid it is too late. I think most of the men could be dead. When in April 2015 we had the option to rescue 3,500 of them from Talafar, neither the Iraqis, Kurdish nor the allied forces did anything even though they knew their situation there. There was a possibility to make a quick attack because the distance with the Peshmerga troops was no more than ten kilometers. You could release them within days. I do not know why they did not do anything. ISIS, after this, divided all the people. We do not know what happened to the 500 men since then. There were some reports that they were killed. And ISIS separated the women from the children and distributed the women all over their territories. Now it is very difficult to get them back.

In the past some 2,600 people were able to escape one way or another. Did that stop?


In the past our girls escaped and through smuggling networks were brought out. That was not expensive as you only had to pay these people. But escape is no longer possible. The girls are now completely destroyed psychologically. Most have been told that all Yezidis were killed or Islamized. They are brainwashed, and cannot escape. Also, ISIS has in the last year established special Sharia Courts to register all slaves under the name of their owners. So if a girl escapes, any checkpoint would know who to return her to.

The only way is to pay ISIS and that is now very expensive. The smugglers are asking money because it is a dangerous job now, and next to that you pay the ISIS fighter. He does not know that he is selling the woman to the outside, because it is forbidden, he thinks he sells her to another fighter. Three weeks ago I met a girl who was liberated this way. Her brother paid $22,000 for her. $12,000 to the ISIS fighter, about $3,000 to a middleman and $7,000 to the smuggler. He had borrowed the money from his neighbors, who are also living in the camp and are also poor.

Now the number of girls being bought back is very small, as money is the main problem. People cannot pay, and the government is not paying. The special office for Yezidi Affairs is treating people badly. I heard from the families of survivors that they are told there to negotiate about the price, even if they say they cannot. And even though the regulations are different, the office will only pay back afterwards. So the people have to find the money first themselves.

The only other way is to swap them for fighters. The PKK did it two or three times, and with every fighter exchanged they got back 30 to 50 girls.

How many girls or women were found in the towns that were liberated from ISIS?


Hardly any. Just a few from Falluja. That means ISIS takes them when they move, as they have become a commodity. Just like if you have gold, and there is a war, you take it. They do not leave the girls behind, who are in the main cities, and not in the villages.

You have organized, with KRG and your organization Luftbrücke Irak (Air bridge Iraq) the operation that brought girls and women who were saved from ISIS for treatment to Germany. Will this program be extended for more victims?


We transferred 1,100 victims, and would support the most vulnerable who want to leave, especially the victims of ISIS staying in the camps. We now have 1,643 of these survivors in Iraq, who are staying in tents, with all their traumas. Nobody takes care of them, although we have some NGOs trying to. I respect that, but it is not enough. Imagine a girl, woman or child, who lost everything and has been more than a year with ISIS, and with such bad experiences now lives in a tent. She is taken to a psychotherapist for 20 to 25 minute sessions and then sent back, and given some drugs to keep her clam… That is not a solution. A girl like that has no social or economic existence, no family left, and you try to solve her problems with drugs – that, by the way, she has to even buy herself?

Are you planning to get them out of Iraq for treatment?


Yes, I am working to find a way to get at least 90 percent of them out. I recognize what the NGO are trying to do, but I am not convinced that this will help them. Even so, they will not be happy outside either, as they have a lot of problems not related to migration. But I see our girls and women when they come over for a holiday, and then they cannot even stay here for the whole period, as here they have no existence, no health service…

How are the victims coping in Germany?

Till now we have seen nine or ten marriages of victims who went outside. About 60 percent of the group were children, and they go to school. All young girls are visiting the schools, some are trying to study, but many had little education. Their mothers are happy to see that, but it is not easy for them after what they have lost. Not easy, but much better than it would be here.

Will these victims ever be able to live a normal life again?

Our duty is to help them to live with their pain. But life will never be normal for them. The only hope is for their children: they will recover. The women feel stronger now, but normal it will never be for them again.        Hmmm.....Canada took NINE Yezidi out of 25,000 MUSLIM refugees.            

Philippines - Christians threatened in Jolo by Abou Sayyaf.

Philippines - Christians threatened in Jolo by Abou Sayyaf. (Fides).

One Christian was killed and others are threatened by radical Islamic groups in Jolo, a small island in the southern Philippines.

This is what the missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) Fr. Sebastiano D'Ambra said to Agenzia Fides, who lives in Zamboanga, on Mindanao island, not far from Jolo, urging "all good Muslim leaders on the island to find appropriate solutions and to isolate those who commit crimes in the name of Islam".

"Many are now living in fear in Jolo, are afraid to talk, afraid even to go to church, even if the military are in front of the cathedral in the city center", says the missionary.

"Many Chinese Christians have left their homes and other Christians are planning to leave the island after these events: bad news for a society like that of Jolo which in the past lived in Islamic-Christian harmony".

The missionary launches an appeal to all those who have attended the "Silsilah" center for dialogue founded by him "so that all of us take care of Jolo: help build a future of peace in Jolo, where everyone is respected and free to pray following their religion. Let us not allow the destruction of Islam's goodness and Muslim and Christian friendship", he continues.

Fr. D'Ambra denounces that some radical elements have also killed Muslims, calling them "infidels" because proponents of dialogue and coexistence, and calls to start from the concept of mercy, central for Christians and Muslims. "I am convinced that if we start from here, the situation will improve and Jolo can again become a nice place where everyone can experience harmony", he concludes.

What led IS to select a new Boko Haram leader?

What led IS to select a new Boko Haram leader? (africanarguments). By Omar S. Mahmood.

Before this week’s announcement of a leadership change, IS had already begun to increase its focus on Boko Haram. And the specifics of its shift in communication could reveal some of the motivations behind the decision to replace Abubakar Shekau, who has led the group since 2009.

On the one hand, there are some indications that some in Boko Haram objected to the relationship with IS from the start, and since the pledge, Shekau has overseen many attacks that IS has chosen not to promote – even during its recent increase of statements.

These assaults have included those committed by female suicide bombers – a trend that has generally declined but continued – along with violence against civilians and mosques. Furthermore, a US army official recently said that Shekau faced internal dissent over his refusal to adhere to an IS directive to halt the use of child suicide bombers.

By contrast, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the man announced as the new leader, clearly stated in his al-Naba interview that attacks against Muslim civilians, mosques, and markets will not be a staple of his leadership – he said he would focus more on Christian targets – though he remained silent on the issue of female suicide bombers.

The announcement therefore was likely to have been partly motivated by a desire to replace Shekau – who has quickly responded to the interview, insisting that he is still in charge – with a figure whose attack methodology may better facilitate IS propaganda.

On the other hand, however, there may also be wider strategies at play too. In addition to concerns about Boko Haram’s attack patterns under Shekau, another reason behind IS’ increased messaging and leadership change may be to challenge the broader narrative regarding the status of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province.

Since its admission into IS in March 2015, Boko Haram has lost the vast majority of its territory in the face of a renewed push by Nigerian security forces following the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The effects of this have been seen on many fronts. The group’s attack radius has shrunk amid an overall decline in large-scale violence. There have been rumblings of food shortages. Low morale has reportedly led to surrenders. And some displaced people have been repatriated to areas formerly under militant control.

In this sense, reinvigorated IS involvement in Boko Haram over the past two months may be aimed at presenting a contrasting story to this tale of decline, one in which the group is still capable of confronting and defeating conventional security forces.

This narrative has been enhanced by the visual depictions of the “spoils of war” – such as weapons, ammunition, and vehicles – as well as of fallen soldiers in IS publications.

And in his interview, al-Barnawi acknowledged that while the group has lost territory, this should not be considered a defeat and that it will return to a stronger position. Read the full story here.

HT & Source:

What led #IS to announce new #BokoHaram leader? Here are two clues from its communications.https://t.co/vCQxKUpEYu pic.twitter.com/p7zTTZJnlR

— Jasmine Opperman (@Jasminechic00) August 6, 2016

Islamic Balkans Failing to Counter ISIS’s Appeal to Women.

Islamic Balkans Failing to Counter ISIS’s Appeal to Women. (Balkan insight)

Belgrade think tank says Balkan states must understand the reality of Islamic State’s appeal to Muslim women - if they want to stem to outflow of women there.

Women from the Western Balkans and elsewhere are as attracted to the Islamic State as much as men, a paper published by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy think tank, says.

The presence of women in the Islamic State is dangerous—although women currently do not participate in violent jihad, they are responsible for raising the next generation of jihadists, for performing professional functions while the men engage in violent jihad, and for the recruitment of more individuals to populate the caliphate.

Women who migrate tend to feel marginalized in the societies where they live, and also may have psychological problems, which will only be exacerbated by their experiences in the Islamic State.

While violent extremist groups are often thought to be the domain of men, the numbers of wom en migrating to Syria and Iraq from the Western Balkans and around the world are proving otherwise.

As numbers of foreign fighters traveling from the Western Balkans to Islamic State-held territory
continue to increase, there is a corresponding problem of women from the Western Balkans being recruited to join the Islamic State.

Current evidence shows that there are visible numbers of women who have already migrated — in particular, from Bosnia-Herzegovina (36), Kosovo (42), and Albania (13-29). Estimates show that around 10-15% of total Islamic State recruits are women.

There is no single profile of the typical female recruit, however two distinct groups are evident:

1.) young women (as young as 15) who travel to ISIS territory to marry a jihadist and 

2.) women who are already married and travel with their husband. For young women still living with their parents, evidence from the Western Balkans and elsewhere shows that parents had little to no prior indication that their daughters were being radicalized or had the intention of departing for Islamic State-held territory.

The paper notes that “the women who migrate have taken on a variety of roles, and although they are predominantly expected to keep to the domestic sphere, their participation is still critical for developing the Islamic State‘s ‘Caliphate’ into what they believe will be a Muslim utopia”.

They also help expand the Islamic State‘s network by recruiting other women. Women are barred from taking up combat, and while they do not pose a security threat to European countries at present, they could be trained to become suicide bombers or fighters in future, the paper say.
Read the full story here.

Kamel Abderrahmani, a young Algerian univ student on murder of Priest: "Islamism is the disease of the century".

Kamel Abderrahmani, a young Algerian univ student on murder of Priest: "Islamism is the disease of the century". (AsiaNews).

The terrorist attack on the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, close to Rouen; in which the throat of the elderly priest who was celebrating Mass, Fr. Jacques Hamel, was slit; the taking of hostages in a sacred place, has caused great pain within the French Muslim communities. Already yesterday, a few hours by the attack, the French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned the act as "vile and barbaric", pleading for cohesion and unity among all the French.

Of all the messages sent to AsiaNews, we have decided to publish those of two long time friends: that the imam of Nimes, Hocine Drouiche, vice president of Imams of France; and of Kamel Abderrahmani, a young Algerian university student in France.

With courage, they are not afraid to accuse Islamism of being the "disease of the century", which "is taking Islam hostage” or call on all Muslims to "move" and make gestures of unity with other French and other religions.

This co-existence is precisely the element that Islamic radicals want to destroy. An editorial published in Dabiq (the Islamic State magazine), at the beginning of 2015, called for the "extinction of the gray zone", the area where many Muslims live in the West, between light and darkness, between the caliphate and the infidel world.

According to the IS all Muslims must leave the Western world and belong solely to the caliphate, destroying any possibility of dialogue. This is the context in which the actions of 19 year old Kermiche Adel, one of the church attackers killed by police, matured. The churches, with their welcome to all, the grief of Muslims for Christian victims, are part of this "gray area" that IS want eliminated, but are also the basis for the reconstruction of society, an element of resistance to a barbarism preached in the name of God.

Young Algerian university student in France.   Kamel Abderrahmani:

Again the forces of darkness have struck and this time a priest has been killed. With such savagry, he was beheaded in the name of God.

Only a fundamentalist could commit such an act, a fundamentalist, a madman ... I am not be afraid to say so. Islamism is the disease of the century. It is a disease that is not only capable of adapting its murderous techniques, but even "improve" them to kill even more people.

As a young Muslim, I appeal to all Muslims who do not subscribe to this ideology, to fight this ideology with all possible means. It is an ideology that is above all a danger to ourselves. Recently in Afghanistan, the mercenaries of this ideology committed genocide: 70 Muslims were killed . In Iraq, a few days before, more than 200 people were massacred. This ideology has exceeded all limits. It has also affected Islam's holy places: Medina, before it targeted a Christian church. It is time for Muslims to take action.

All my condolences to the Christian families in mourning.

Imam of Nimes, Hocine Drouiche, vice president of Imams of France: Hocine Drouiche:                                                                                                                                                          

I have heard of the odious attack that our Catholic brothers have suffered, as well as the assassination of our brother priest of Rouen. I express my condolences to the bereaved families and to the Catholic community in France and throughout the world.

It is an attack against our fellow Catholics, against France, against national unity and against Islam and against Muslims ... I firmly condemn this horrible attack on a holy place respected by the Muslim religion and all religions. The situation is becoming increasingly tragic and difficult.

I ask all French people to be vigilant, aware and remain united. I ask all imams and Muslim leaders, without exception, to come together, put aside their conflicts, to respond forcefully, clearly and strongly condemning this inhuman act, and remain vigilant so that Islam is no longer held hostage in the hands of extremists and the ignorant.

Iraq: ISIL sources claim Omar al-Shishani killed in air strike

Iraq: ISIL sources claim Omar al-Shishani killed in air strike. (AlJazeera).

Omar al-Shishani, a top commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been killed in Iraq, a website affiliated with the armed group said.

Citing a "military source", ISIL's website on Wednesday said that Shishani was killed "in the town of Sharqat as he took part in repelling the military campaign on the city of Mosul".

Amaq, the ISIL-linked website, did not specify when Shishani was killed, but the loss of the commander is a significant blow to the group, which has suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq this year.

Mosul is the last ISIL-held city in Iraq. Read the full story here.

The announcement of the death of Omar alShishani is not convincing. Usually #ISIS announces w/ "Gazwa" not via media pic.twitter.com/NiRJn5yUY0

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) July 15, 2016

Amaq News #IS confirms Omar #Shishani's death in #Shirqat pic.twitter.com/fp8Pnrtgw7

— TRACterrorism.org (@TRACterrorism) July 13, 2016

Pentagon Admits 'Omar The Chechen' Died This Week, Not Earlier https://t.co/DKUHfXOJVK

— Gilles N. (@VegetaMoustache) July 15, 2016

In #Georgia's #Pankisi, #ISIS Omar al Shishani's relatives don't confirm his deathhttps://t.co/nYWtg5CSK9 pic.twitter.com/cg5DE5vb7O

— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) July 15, 2016

HT & Source:

1. Pro-ISIS tweeps and Telegram users are flooding channels with soliloquies to Omar al-Shishani, whom ISIS says was killed near Mosul

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

2. See channel below, which now bears his image and garnered 1260 members overnight pic.twitter.com/RmD02qXkx4

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

3. People have asked me is ISIS reliable when claiming death of senior leaders? Generally yes. And they usually take a long time to confirm

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

8. Sometimes confirmation is but a whisper. I didn't know senior leader Abu Atheer was dead until the meticulous @DanieleRaineri noticed it

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

Next, six less-known-yet-interesting pictures of Umar al Shishani, killed south of Mosul a few days ago pic.twitter.com/qJd0OdAULt

— Daniele Raineri (@DanieleRaineri) July 14, 2016

Young Algerian Muslim student: "We Muslims are hypocrites: Daesh, it is us."

We Muslims are hypocrites: Daesh, it is us. (AsiaNews).

Sharia "invented" by Ulemas and taught in Islamic schools is the same law practiced by the Islamic State militants. The "religious jurisprudence, founded more than 10 centuries ago," has “chained and rusted our brain and that of our children." It is urgent to modernize the Muslim religion and free it from the ambiguities linked to the past. The courageous appeal of a young Algerian Muslim student.

After the massacre at the hands of Daesh or some Islamic terrorist, then comes the time of the game for the attributions of responsibilities. Many Western people accuse the Muslim religion; the Islamic world tries to ward off all ties between violence and Islam saying immediately: "This is not Islam." The same happened in these days, after the terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Baghdad and Dhaka, claimed by the Islamic State in a more or less official form. Just hours after these massacres, we received this short reflection on behalf of a young Algerian (Muslim) student. He is 27-year-old and lives in France. He accuses the Islamic world of hypocrisy as on one hand they reject the work of Daesh, while on the other they dream of establishing the Sharia in the entire world. The young author stresses the need for Muslims to reform and modernize their faith, abandoning those elements related to the historical past of the Islamic community, and (unfortunately) usually "preached in our mosques and taught in our schools."

Read the letter of a young 'enlighted' Muslim here.

Video - Bangladesh, Hindu priest beheaded; Christian community living in fear.

Video - Bangladesh, Hindu priest beheaded; Christian community living in fear. (AsiaNews).

Gupal Ganguli was a priest in the Hindu temple of Noldanga. His body was found this morning and investigations do not exclude the case of another murder of Islamic origin. The Christians of the village of Bonpara, where two days ago a Catholic merchant was killed, live in fear. Bishop of Rajshahi: "It is unacceptable to be forced to live in fear."

This morning Bangladesh police found the lifeless body of Gupal Ganguli, the Hindu priest of the Noldanga temple, in Jhenaidah district (in the southwestern part of the country). The priest was lying on the ground with his throat cut and his head almost severed from  his  body. Investigations are still ongoing, and investigators do not rule out the hypothesis that this is another murder of Islamic origin, such as the recent murder of the Christian shop owner in Bonpara (video). Now Christians of the village live in constant fear of fresh violence.

The last attack against a member of the religious minorities in Bangladesh occurred today around 9 am (local time). The priest is the latest victim of a long trail of blood left in recent months by various groups of Islamic extremists linked to the militants of the Islamic Caliphate and al-Qaeda.


For months Islamic extremists have been targeting activists, bloggers, professors, members of the LGBT community for their liberal ideas. Only two days ago in the village of Bonpara radicals killed Sunil Gomes, 71, a Christian known among the residents for its commitment to the local Catholic church. The murder was claimed by ISIS and the police arrested Md Sabuj Ali, who is suspected of involvement.

Stalla Rozario, a neighbor of Sunil, the first to find his body, says he cannot forget the image of his murdered friend. Speaking to AsiaNews he said: "I do not want to remember, but my memory keeps returning to that moment. Now we do not open the windows of the house and we keep the door shut before nightfall. We are afraid".

Like him, other Christians of Bangladesh fear for their lives. A woman of the same village, anonymous for security reasons, said: "Who can guarantee security? As soon as we see a new person around here, we feel insecure. "

Fr. Bikash Rebeiro, the pastor of Bonpara, reports: "Police officers were guarding the church, but we do not want to live under guard. We want to live in a free country, and we want everyone to be guaranteed security against fundamentalists. "

The priest adds that "the government should be tougher with groups that seek to destroy peace". Msgr. Gervas Rozario, Bishop of Rajshahi, complains: "We Christians are in danger. It is unacceptable to feel so insecure".

Update!

@Jasminechic00 Second Hindu priest murdered in #Bangladesh in suspected Islamic militant attack https://t.co/WsoDmZR3Du

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) June 7, 2016

#ISIS affiliated media claims that ISIS operatives have assassinated a #Hindu monk in #Jhenaidah District, western #Bangladesh.

— Laith Alkhouri (@MENAanalyst) June 7, 2016

Moscow calls on Turkey to prove Russia supplied arms to Kurdistan Workers’ Party

Moscow calls on Turkey to prove Russia supplied arms to Kurdistan Workers’ Party. (Tass).

Turkey should prove its claims that Moscow allegedly supplies weapons to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Russian president’s special envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told journalists on Monday.

"When somebody alleges anything, he must present the evidence," he said, answering a corresponding question.

Earlier on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan accused Moscow of attempts to supply air defense systems to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that is outlawed in Turkey.

According to the diplomat, Turkey has no legal grounds to take part in an antiterrorist operation in Syria jointly with the United States.

"On what grounds?" he said, answering a corresponding question. "It’s interference in the affairs of sovereign states."

Belgian Muslim Terrorist who admitted beheading set free by Brussels court.

Belgium Muslim Terrorist who admitted beheading set free by Brussels court. (Emmejihad).

Iliass Khayari is a 25 year old Muslim born in Brussels. In December 2012, he left for Syria, apparently sent by Jean-Louis Denis. Khayari stayed only half a year in Syria. He returned to Belgium in June 2013 after being hit by a bullet, causing him a pneumothorax and a fractured upper arm.

But his stay in Syria was long enough to commit a cruelty there. In a phone call to a friend at home, which was tapped by the police, he told on the 3rd of May 2013 how he had beheaded a man. “I swear I did”, he said, according to a transcript obtained by the Belgian newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’. “We ripped his head off!” When asked which crime the victim had committed to deserve a treatment like that, Khayari responded: “He was a taghut, my friend. An enemy of Allah.”

At last week’s terrorism trial in Brussels, the man who has admitted a beheading in Syria was sentenced to five years in jail. But the judge didn’t listen to the plea of the public prosecutor to arrest him on the spot. So the man could freely walk out.Read the full story here.

Indian-Origin ISIS Recruiter Neil Prakash Killed In Iraq' Australian Sources.

Indian-Origin ISIS Recruiter Neil Prakash Killed In Iraq' Australian Sources. (NDTv).

Australia's most wanted ISIS terror recruiter Neil Prakash a.k.a. Abu Khaled , who is of Indian-origin, has been killed in a US military airstrike in Iraq, according to officials.

Melbourne-born Prakash, who was linked to several Australia-based attack plans and calls for lone-wolf attacks against the US, was killed in an airstrike in Mosul on April 29, Attorney-General George Brandis said, citing American inputs.

"Neil Prakash was the highest value target from an Australian point of view in the Middle East. He was the individual more than any other who had been actively inspiring and inciting domestic terrorism attacks within Australia," the Senator said yesterday.

Brandis said Australian authorities were instrumental in providing US allies with the location of Prakash - the Australian of Fijian-Indian and Cambodian background - in Mosul.

"Australia did cooperate with United States in relation to the identification and location of Prakash," he said. Brandis said Prakash was "the most prominent and dangerous Australian" and had networks in both Melbourne and Sydney. "He was very actively involved in terrorism recruitment."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called Prakash's death as a "very, very positive development".

"Neil Prakash's death is a very, very positive development in the war against Daesh and the war against terror," Turnbull was quoted as saying, using another acronym for the dreaded Islamic State (ISIS).

US officials also reportedly informed that an Australian woman Shadi Jabar, the sister of the 15-year-old western Sydney boy Farhad Jabar who shot dead police accountant Curtis Cheng in October last year, was also killed in a separate airstrike in Syria.

Prakash was killed in the ISIS stronghold in northern Iraq, while Jabar died seven days earlier in the Syrian city of al Bab along with her husband Abu Saad al-Sudani, AAP news agency said.