Iraq Christian Leader: People Are Being Slaughtered

BBC: The UN Security Council has held an emergency meeting on Iraq, after the largest Christian town was seized by Islamic State militants.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis have fled their homes following a warning by the militants to renounce their faiths or face death.

Canon Andrew White, who is the vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq, says the international community must do more to help Christians and other minorities. He says people are being "slaughtered". (+ BBC video) » | Friday, August 08, 2014

Inside Story: Who Can Stop the Islamic State's Advance?

Concern as the Islamic State continues expanding its territories under its control in Iraq.

Islamic State Terrorists Claim First Stake in Lebanon

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The rebel group, which has carved out a vast swathe of territory across Syria and Iraq, launched attack on border town after follower was seized

The jihadists of the Islamic State have seized their first territory inside Lebanon, a long-feared strike that hits at the heart of the country’s uneasy sectarian balance.

A Syrian rebel group which has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State’s leader has set up check-points in the town of Arsal on the two countries’ border, though it has stopped short of declaring it part of the organisation’s “Caliphate”.

Lebanese army troops have moved up to attack the town, firing shells and putting at risk not only the 40,000 local inhabitants but the estimated 120,000 Syrian refugees who have taken shelter there.

The crisis brought a rare show of unity from Lebanon’s competing political factions, with the Sunni prime minister Tammam Salam standing alongside the rest of the cabinet to give a statement. “The attack on Lebanese national dignity will not go unpunished,” he said, calling Islamic State’s behaviour “sick”. » | Carol Malouf in Arsal and Richard Spencer, Middle East correspondent | Monday, August 04, 2014

Iraq: Isis Warns Women to Wear Full Veil or Face Punishment

'Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by
glamour will be subject to accountability.'

THE GUARDIAN: Sunni insurgents issue guidelines in mosques on how clothes should be worn to prevent women 'from falling into vulgarity'

Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida offshoot that seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, has warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment.

The Sunni insurgents, who have declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria and have threatened to march on Baghdad, also listed guidelines on how veils and clothes should be worn, part of a campaign to violently impose their radical brand of Islam.

"The conditions imposed on her clothes and grooming was only to end the pretext of debauchery resulting from grooming and overdressing," the group said in a statement.

"This is not a restriction on her freedom but to prevent her from falling into humiliation and vulgarity or to be a theatre for the eyes of those who are looking."

A cleric in Mosul told Reuters that Isis gunmen had shown up at his mosque and ordered him to read their warning on loudspeakers when worshipers gather.

"Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by glamour will be subject to accountability and severe punishment to protect society from harm and to maintain the necessities of religion and protect it from debauchery," Isis said. » | Reuters in Baghdad | Friday, July 25, 2014

Convert, Pay Tax, Or Die, Islamic State Warns Christians

Islamic insurgents in Mosul are consolidating control over
the civilians, warning any Christians remaining in the
city to agree to certain terms – or face death.

THE GUARDIAN: Insurgents issue ultimatum to Iraq's dwindling Christian population to abide by 'dhimma' contract or face the sword

Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement issued by the Islamic State (Isis) and distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul. The al-Qaida offshoot that led last month's lightning assault to capture swathes of northern Iraq said the ruling would come into effect on Saturday.

In the statement, Isis said Christians who wanted to remain in the "caliphate" declared earlier this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a "dhimma" contract – a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as "jizya". "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword," the announcement said.

A resident of Mosul said the statement, issued in the name of the Islamic State in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, had been distributed on Thursday and read out in mosques. It said that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which the group has now named Caliph Ibrahim, had set a Saturday deadline for Christians who did not want to stay and live under those terms to "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate". "After this date, there is nothing between us and them but the sword," it said. Read on and comment » | Reuters | Friday, July 18, 2014

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Emerges from Shadows to Rally Islamist Followers

THE GUARDIAN: Most wanted man in Middle East lays down challenge not only to Baghdad and the west but also jilted mothership al-Qaida


For a man so mysterious that there are only two known photographs of him, it was a brazen public debut. The most wanted man in the Middle East, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is also one of the most elusive, an evanescent figure behind the Islamist insurrection sweeping the Syrian and Iraqi interior.

And yet according to jihadist websites at the weekend, here he was on video openly rallying the adepts of the new Islamic state he had just pronounced in the largest city that his fighters had taken. Clad in black robes that invoked a distant, almost mythical phase of Islamic history, Baghdadi gave a half-hour sermon during Friday prayers in Mosul and led worship inside one of the most important Islamic sites in Iraq in open defiance of the US intelligence officials who have put a $10m bounty on his head.

In doing so, he laid down a challenge not only to the authorities in Baghdad and the foreign powers that want stability in the country, but to the radical Islamist mothership from which the Isis movement broke – al-Qaida, and its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Those present at the grand mosque in Mosul had no idea who would be preaching on Friday. But as the bearded figure made his entrance, he was introduced to them simply as "your new caliph Ibrahim".

"I am not better than you or more virtuous than you," Baghdadi says in the video. "If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God." » | Martin Chulov in Baghdad | Sunday, July 06, 2014

Saudi Arabia: Sandwiched by Jihadists in Iraq and Yemen

Saudi Arabia believes it may be next in the Isis firing line

BBC: Along Saudi Arabia's long, lonely desert border with its northern neighbour Iraq, the Ministry of Interior guards have every reason to stay alert.

Isis, the well-armed and well-funded jihadist army that has seized control of most of western Iraq, is now effectively at the kingdom's doorstep.

Nearly half the 900km (560 mile) Saudi-Iraq border is with Iraq's Anbar province where The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), now rebranded as simply "The Islamic State", is largely able to move its fighters around at will.

Saudi Arabia may not yet be directly in its sights but officials fear this is only a matter of time.

Isis backlash

Many of its most violent frontline fighters are believed to be Saudi nationals who may eventually come home, radicalised and brutalised by the conflict.

King Abdullah has ordered "all necessary measures to secure the kingdom from terrorist groups or others who might disturb the security of the homeland". » | Frank Gardner | BBC security correspondent | Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Islamic State Seizes Key Oil Fields after Defections from Al-Qaeda Ally

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Syria's largest oilfield has fallen under control of Islamic State as the Jihadist group attracts support from al-Qaeda backed rivals


The extremist Sunni jihadist group that declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq has seized control of one of Syria’s most important oil fields after rebel fighters from other factions switched their allegiance to support it.

In a crucial strategic advance for Islamic State, the organisation that is tearing Iraq apart, anti-government rebels in Syria who had been loyal to the rival Jabhat al-Nusra switched sides - handing over the Al-Omar oilfield, which has the potential to produce up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day.

The development represents a huge step up for the Islamic State in its struggle against al-Nusra, which is backed by al-Qaeda but regards the new grouping as dangerously extremist.

It means that the caliphate proclaimed by the Islamic State now controls a stretch of Syria from the town of Deir al-Zour in the middle of the country to Abukamel on the Iraqi border. Within neighbouring Iraq, to the east, it holds the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, has free rein in Anbar province and is threatening to attack Baghdad. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Thursday, July 03, 2014

Inside ISIS and the Iraq Caliphate

Russian View: The Murky Side of Exceptionalism: US Military Footprint All over Arab World

After declaring captured Iraqi territory an Islamic State, ISIS reveals its plan to take over a dozen countries. They call on jihadist fighters to help build an Islamic caliphate. What is Washington's role in this story? RT's Marina Portnaya finds out.