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The Islamic state

Odd little story - including the claim that al-Shishani is just the media face for his elder brother Tamaz who is the one really pulling the strings.

The Secret Life of an ISIS Warlord

The name that Abu Omar al-Shishani grew up with was Tarkhan. And because we are here in his hometown talking to the people who once loved him, and perhaps still do, we’ll use that name, too. Tarkhan’s father, Temur, a grizzled, eccentric, well-read old Christian with a bitter sense of self-irony, tells his sons’ story in an extensive—almost bizarre—interview with The Daily Beast at his small gray house in the village of Birkiani, where his boys grew up.
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These Cantlie videos are increasingly ambitious & strange. Fuck knows what it's like for his family & friends, scouring the clips for glimpses of their boy peeping out from behind the mask. I worked with him a few times, fifteen years or so ago (motorcycle stuff), and it's very weird seeing his 'too cool for Christmas' bike journalist persona transformed into a Jihadi mouthpiece. I haven't watched them all, but he seems different again - at times relaxed, other times under pressure - & there's an unusual repetition of certain words & phrases. It's also interesting just how much attention elements within IS pay to international press coverage - there's a narcissism to it, a concern with others' opinions that seems at odds with the external image of the Caliphate.

Also - piece by Kobane commander Narin Afrin in the New York Times - nothing especially revelatory (apart from an explicit desire for peace with Turkey, perhaps), but it's good to see a resistance representative from Kobane speaking for herself, not through intermediaries.
 
Patteran said:
These Cantlie videos are increasingly ambitious & strange. Fuck knows what it's like for his family & friends, scouring the clips for glimpses of their boy peeping out from behind the mask. I worked with him a few times, fifteen years or so ago (motorcycle stuff), and it's very weird seeing his 'too cool for Christmas' bike journalist persona transformed into a Jihadi mouthpiece. I haven't watched them all, but he seems different again - at times relaxed, other times under pressure - & there's an unusual repetition of certain words & phrases. It's also interesting just how much attention elements within IS pay to international press coverage - there's a narcissism to it, a concern with others' opinions that seems at odds with the external image of the Caliphate.

Also - piece by Kobane commander Narin Afrin in the New York Times - nothing especially revelatory (apart from an explicit desire for peace with Turkey, perhaps), but it's good to see a resistance representative from Kobane speaking for herself, not through intermediaries.
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The behaviour of Turkey is totally reprehensible but also very shortsighted, do they think they would be able to control IS if it consolidated its position on the border?
 
They want it to push to the borders. They want it to then get taken out and a UN patrolled/ran buffer zone put across all the area of the autonomous cantons. Thus destroying what they see as a base for kurdish 'separatism' in turkey.

edit: i say they, i mean the currently dominant elements of the turkish state and the longer term always there interests, the deep state.
 
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Some interesting suggestions about stay-behind YPG fighters busy attacking beardies in the south-east rear today. Been hints at this for some time but today seems to have brought some stuff out into the open.
 
butchersapron said:
They want it to push to the borders. They want it to then get taken out and a UN patrolled/ran buffer zone put across all the area of the autonomous cantons. Thus destroying what they see as a base for kurdish 'separatism' in turkey.

edit: i say they, i mean the currently dominant elements of the turkish state and the longer term always there interests, the deep state.
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Did you see the declaration of autonomous independence in Cizre? I don't know what sort of traction the announcement had in the area, whether it's symbolic or sustainable, but the idea is growing.
 
Patteran said:
Did you see the declaration of autonomous independence in Cizre? I don't know what sort of traction the announcement had in the area, whether it's symbolic or sustainable, but the idea is growing.
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Bit confusing, have they taken over these places ) Nur and Sur) or did they attempt to, but were repressed by the police?
 
coley said:
Bit confusing, have they taken over these places ) Nur and Sur) or did they attempt to, but were repressed by the police?
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I really don't know, details are scant in English - a couple of pictures & the announcement were doing the rounds on twitter last night (coming from the CNT in Madrid on my feed - I tried and failed to embed the tweet). But I've no idea whether this was a gesture of symbolic solidarity, or a genuine attempt at local autonomy.

Cizre.jpg
 
Patteran said:
I really don't know, details are scant in English - a couple of pictures & the announcement were doing the rounds on twitter last night (coming from the CNT in Madrid on my feed - I tried and failed to embed the tweet). But I've no idea whether this was a gesture of symbolic solidarity, or a genuine attempt at local autonomy.

View attachment 63046
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Ta, don't do FB or Twitter, so having to spoach around various on line sources to find out what's going on, few days ago I thought IS had largely been driven out of Kobane now reports of heavy fighting in the centre?
 
coley said:
Whey, they haven't managed to 'crush' the PKK, big well trained army's are good for some types of warfare but the last couple of decades has shown how fallible they can be, unless they are prepared to be utterly ruthless, even then they can fail.
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They could certainly sweep around and encircle the beardies in and around kobane. In a matter of hours i expect.
 
butchersapron said:
They could certainly sweep around and encircle the beardies in and around kobane. In a matter of hours i expect.
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They could, and I would love to see them do it, but they won't, they see IS as doing their dirty work for them,, but if Kobane falls then they will see some fireworks.
 
J Ed said:
More here on non-Kurds going to fight with the YPG
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"19-YEAR-OLD HERISH ALI, a British-Kurd, said he requested to join the YPG along with five other European Kurds in August but YPG border guards rejected them on the Iraq-Syria border."
Interesting that the YPG, unlike their adversaries, won't take anyone just bowling up, presumably because of the potential problem of disaffected adventurists with no military training diluting the frontline & taking up scarce resources. Poor Ali must be gutted, though - knocked back by the YPG then Peshmerga. Maybe there's something he can help with in the border refugee camps instead.

(ETA - I wasn't being snide about the kid - I'm sure there's other ways to show willing & express solidarity over there without joining the cutting edge of the armed resistance)
 
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Patteran said:
"19-YEAR-OLD HERISH ALI, a British-Kurd, said he requested to join the YPG along with five other European Kurds in August but YPG border guards rejected them on the Iraq-Syria border."
Interesting that the YPG, unlike their adversaries, won't take anyone just bowling up, presumably because of the potential problem of disaffected adventurists with no military training diluting the frontline & taking up scarce resources. Poor Ali must be gutted, though - knocked back by the YPG then Peshmerga. Maybe there's something he can help with in the border refugee camps instead.
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TBF, they are fighting for survival they haven't the luxury of having the time to 'train up' idealistic teenagers, the more I read about this lot,the more impressed I am, they seem to value life, as opposed to their adversaries.
 
coley said:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ghters-fly-turkey-kobani-peshmerga-syria-isis
Don't know what to make of this, though the heavy weapons should make a big difference, the YPG said peshmerga weren't needed and should deploy on other fronts. Who's behind the change in attitude? Who's command will the Pershmerga come under?
And I don't trust Turkey's sudden change in attitude.
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It's the FSA they wanted to fight on other west of kobane fronts. How long ago was this peshmerga promised - it was def there 24 hours a week ago. And all that internal shit i talked about has happened. I'll believe that heavy gear when i see it.
 
butchersapron said:
It's the FSA they wanted to fight on other west of kobane fronts. How long agai was this peshmerga promised - it was 24 hours a week ago. And all that internal shit i talked about has happened. I'll believe that heavy gear when i see it.
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Supposed to be anytime now,any idea of what this heavy gear consists of? but the YPG seems wary of any bugger coming in and expecting to have some degree of the 'political' control, and TBF I don't blame them, anybody Turkey allows in has to be viewed with some degree of suspicion, given their stated position re; the Various factions in Kobani?
 
The heavy gear the YPG were requesting were i believe TOW missiles, it was what they were most bitterly complaining about being omitted from the Airdrops and what the Peshmerga were offering up as a carrot in the assembly deal, lost the source for that so usual caveats apply.

The peshmerga do have heavier artillery both 122mm and 150mm howitzers but to me it seems 200 men wouldn't be enough to protect it from encirclement/ambush a much wider front would be needed to open a Kurdish corridor wide enough to move that sort of equipment which would risk alienating the Turks who they rely on for import/exports.
 
http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/south-kurdistan/peshmerga-to-leave-for-kobane-today.html

Turkish intransigence it seems to be behind the delay
The force, consisting of 150 Peshmergas, will be a heavy weaponry battalion. While the fighters will leave from Erbil airport, the weapons will be transported to Kobane by road.
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I really hope this imformation is part of a wider misinformation campaign because
does this plan make any sense to anyone? ISIS have been given free reign to ransack refugee columns up to the turkish boarder fence offering ample opportunities to plant ieds and more conventional mine fields,and given the heavy risk of intelligence leaks emanating from the Turkish Miliitary to ISIS the potential for handing the initative back to ISIS after weeks of being on the backfoot is imense.
 
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coley said:
TBF, they are fighting for survival they haven't the luxury of having the time to 'train up' idealistic teenagers, the more I read about this lot,the more impressed I am, they seem to value life, as opposed to their adversaries.
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If they let any well meaning kid join them on the frontline they'll probably have a lot of well meaning kids to bury.
 
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