Maybe I'm missing something here but have either ISIS or al-Qaeda and its associates ever attacked Israel?
Verbally they have. But it's quite difficult to attack Israel physically. Do you mean to suggest that they don't want to attack Israel?
Maybe I'm missing something here but have either ISIS or al-Qaeda and its associates ever attacked Israel?
who does have a solution?
Could you explain that in the context of the photo asThe area shown on the map is about 20km from east to west.
So IS can set up its 'caliphate' without interference?For a start, the US/uk should stop interfering in the region.
That's not a solution in itself, but it's certainly a prerequisite for a solution.
No,I don't agree with his conclusions or his opinions just the general overview.That's an excellent article.
I'm surprised that you'd agree with it though. It's sympathetic to Turkey, strongly opposes US intervention and calls the Peshmerga "a big part of the current problem."
All of which is fine by me. But it contradicts everything you've previously said on this thread.
So IS can set up its 'caliphate' without interference?
Debatable, what isn't is that IS would be further along its road if it wasn't for the coalition and the Kurds.The one thing absolutely guaranteed to bring success to IS is Western intervention.
thanks for posting that up."There is no commercial activity in the city. The only business still open is the bakery. The bread produced here is distributed free among the people."
Interesting piece here from Kurdish journalist & Rojava Report contributor Ersin Caksu for the BBC, about daily life for the civilians trapped in Kobani.
thanks for posting that up.
saw an article from Foreign Policy here about the Yezidis trapped in the Sinjar mountains. It sounds like it is still a very grim situation with the combination of heading into winter and the effects of the siege. A couple of quotes from it:
""We are living off of figs from the mountain and leftovers from abandoned villages," Asaf tells them. "We need weapons, food, vehicles -- we need a road. There's no way out.""
"There are 1,300 families trapped across the wide swathe of the Sinjar mountain range, Babir said, with no humanitarian aid. Many of those he treated suffered from diarrheal and food-borne diseases, as well as malnutrition and cold."
I did read (might have been in the article I linked) that the Iraqi government has been sending some aid by helicopters, I don't know about anything else though. If the FP piece is anything to go by it doesn't sound as if its enough in any case.Thought the coalition were doing aid drops?
Was a while ago,when they fled into the mountains the RAF was using Hercules from Cyprus to drop aid don't know if or why it's been stopped?I did read (might have been in the article I linked) that the Iraqi government has been sending some aid by helicopters, I don't know about anything else though. If the FP piece is anything to go by it doesn't sound as if its enough in any case.
did a bit of googling and it sounds like they ended that in August:Was a while ago,when they fled into the mountains the RAF was using Hercules from Cyprus to drop aid don't know if or why it's been stopped?
thanks for posting that up.
saw an article from Foreign Policy here about the Yezidis trapped in the Sinjar mountains. It sounds like it is still a very grim situation with the combination of heading into winter and the effects of the siege.
Partisan aye, but not too much so, seems more 'in touch' than some of the other feeds,who seem to have gone quiet or have shifted their attention to Israel, which is beyond frustrating.There seems to be movement around Sinjar that could mean some relief for the trapped civilians. More airstrikes reported today (by Centcom), & this article about Peshmerga reinforcements, published a couple of days ago, seems confident (but it is a partisan news source). I guess that even with the siege lifted, it will still be a grim winter for a community displaced and decimated by killings & kidnappings.
Christ. They're talking to him in Arabic - 'What's your name?'
ETA - There's a longer version of the video above - FSA (not YPG) talking to him under the rubble. He states his name & where he's from while a fighter holds his hair. I'll post a link if asked, but it's unpleasant.
Despite being almost completely unaccountable to any official ministry, the Shiite militias have been tasked by the government with a key role in the war against the Islamic State. Yet what we saw in Yengija laid bare the costs of relying on these groups. Beyond the main road, an entire neighborhood of two-story homes was razed and flattened, with concrete slab roofs heaped atop piles of rubble. Personal belongings, children's toys, and furniture peeked out from under the debris, a poignant reminder of the Sunni Arab families who, until recently, had lived there. All these families had fled in August when the militia started battling the Islamic State fighters in the surrounding area.
Residents of al-Alam, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, said the Islamic State has detained as many as 500 men and boys from the Sunni Jubouri tribe since Sunday. The seizures began after youths tore down the jihadists’ black banner from a square in the town center and replaced it with an Iraqi flag.
Sources said the Islamic State has demolished many Jubouri family homes in al-Alam and are forbidding shopkeepers from doing business with the tribe’s members.
Christ that was a migraine not a headache, seems the US foreign policy is even more stupid than I thought, but at least the FSA knows it cant trust JaN and can possibly build up/strengthen alliances with some of the more 'reliable' groups, though their reliability can switch at the drop of a hat.Prepare to get a headache Coley...a new piece from Karajlis dealing with the infighting and suggesting it's been encouraged as a counter-revolutionary initiative by the US led coalition hand in hand with assad
As Nusra plays at ISIS-lite, the US excels as Assad’s airforce
- The defeat of and expulsion from much of Idlib province of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF), a component of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), by Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN) has led to vastly different responses among supporters of the Syrian revolution. This article will argue that it is an important setback for the Syrian revolution, though how significant remains to be seen as facts are unclouded.
- Meanwhile, the subsequent US bombing of JaN in regions of northern Idlib not affected by the fighting, and the extension of US bombing to Ahrar al-Sham, a component of the Islamic Front (IF), which had opposed the in-fighting and had tried to separate the sides, further indicates the reactionary nature of the US intervention (indeed, as I will argue below, the US bombing was part of the background to JaN’s aggressive moves), while also highlighting again the long-term US strategy of trying to incite civil war within the ranks of the anti-Assad forces to bring about mutual suicide. However, the US push has been attempting to cajole the FSA into launching such a war, a push that has been entirely unsuccessful, whereas instead it is JaN that is, unwittingly, carrying out this strategy.
- Meanwhile, this open US attack on non-ISIS and even non-JaN forces, along with the fact that regime warplanes have been attacking rebel positions in Idlib (eg Binnish) at the same time that US warplanes bombed northern Idib towns, only further underlines the fact that the US has intervened in Syria on the side of the Assad genocide-regime and against the revolution, as the latter coordinates with the US and steps up its own war on its people to simply incredible heights.
So he has one instance to back up this claim ie. the removal of the ISIS flag from two churches in Raqqa. I'm trying to work out how that says anything at all. If you trace the links back we see that this story was relayed by an activist (back in January), who of course has his own agenda.In addition, due to having lots of money and arms from the oppositionist bourgeoisie in the Gulf, JaN has been more effective than many FSA units, which, despite the media’s Orwellian obsession with calling them “Western-backed rebels,” have barely ever got a bone from “the West.” This has meant that many former FSA fighters, or fighters with little ideological commitment that would otherwise have been in the FSA, have joined JaN, without supporting its reactionary Sunni sectarian ideology. This has also helped moderate the practice of JaN on the ground. For example, when JaN and AaS briefly liberated Raqqa from ISIS in January, they liberated two churches and removed the black jihadist flags that ISIS had put on their spires – because JaN in Raqqa was by then largely composed of FSA entryists.
http://eaworldview.com/2014/01/syria-daily-114-killed-amid-concerns-evacuees-near-damascus/Abu Maya also said that two churches held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were “liberated” by Nusra Front fighters on Monday, adding, “God willing, the churches will be restored and used again by Christians in Raqqa.”
Christ. They're talking to him in Arabic - 'What's your name?'
ETA - There's a longer version of the video above - FSA (not YPG) talking to him under the rubble. He states his name & where he's from while a fighter holds his hair. I'll post a link if asked, but it's unpleasant.
Nutters in the Sparts back IS...... http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1055/isis.html
Protests called by Kurdish nationalist groups in Germany, Australia and elsewhere have backed U.S. airstrikes in Syria and demanded that the imperialists supply the Syrian Kurds with arms. These calls have been echoed by many reformist leftists around the world, giving credence to the “humanitarian” cover for the imperialist onslaught. Thus, the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France and some leaders of the Left Party in Germany (not to mention the bourgeois German Greens) have called on their respective capitalist governments to arm the Kurds in Kobani.
Christ that was a migraine not a headache, seems the US foreign policy is even more stupid than I thought, but at least the FSA knows it cant trust JaN and can possibly build up/strengthen alliances with some of the more 'reliable' groups, though their reliability can switch at the drop of a hat.
I thought Obama not taking action when Assad started using CWs was weakness but mebbes part of a long range strategy to prop up a weakened regime?