Islamic State

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US Hit 90 Targets in Mosul Dam Fight: Pentagon

President calls recapture of dam a 'major step forward'

(Newser) - President Obama hailed the recapture of Mosul dam today as a "major step forward" as a barrage of US airstrikes helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces score the biggest victory of its counteroffensive against the Islamic State militants. Obama also urged the badly fractured and largely dysfunctional Iraqi government to...

Pope Backs Action in Iraq, Wants UN OK

Pontiff says Islamic State militants must be stopped

(Newser) - Pope Francis, the guy probably least likely on the planet to come out in favor of military action, today did precisely that, telling reporters aboard his plane that he had no problem with the use of force to stop Islamic State militants in Iraq from slaughtering the Yazidi minority. "...

Iraq: We've 'Fully Liberated' Critical Dam

US airstrikes backed troops in big blow to Islamic State

(Newser) - In a major victory against the Islamic State, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have retaken control of the Mosul Dam, an Iraqi military spokesman tells the AP . The success comes after two days of US airstrikes aimed at helping recapture the site north of Iraq's second-biggest city. The troops have...

US Strikes Iraq With Land-Based Bombers

President Obama updates Congress with a letter

(Newser) - The US has expanded its air campaign in Iraq with attacks aimed at helping Iraqi forces regain control of the strategic Mosul dam. The White House said President Obama notified Congress today that the widened mission would be limited in duration and scope. The administration's letter to Congress said...

Militants Massacre 80 Yazidi Villagers

Women, children are abducted by Islamic State

(Newser) - The Yazidis who managed to escape to the mountains seem to be protected from Islamic State militants, but those who stayed in their villages clearly are not. Reports from the village of Kocho in northern Iraq say that extremists executed about 80 Yazidi men yesterday and took away about 300...

New Jersey Home's Islamic Flag Riles Up Twitter

Muslim Mark Dunaway takes it down after critics equate it with terrrorism

(Newser) - "Jihadists are now in Garwood." Well, not exactly. New Jersey resident Mark Dunaway has removed an Islamic flag he's flown outside his home for 10 years after a photo of it was posted to Twitter and garnered comments like that one, AP reports. The black flag—which...

US: Airstrikes Worked, Iraqi Rescue Not Needed

Military advisers find 'far fewer' Yazidis on mountain than expected

(Newser) - It looks like the US won't have to launch a mass evacuation of Iraqis trapped on a mountain after all. A small team of American military personnel who spent 24 hours on Mount Sinjar said US airstrikes seem to have done the trick—most of the trapped Yazidis who...

Helicopter Overloaded With Rescued Iraqis Crashes

Pilot appears to be only fatality; 2 journalists among those injured

(Newser) - An Iraqi helicopter that brought supplies to tens of thousands of Yazidi minorities still trapped on Iraq's Mount Sinjar crashed today because too many refugees clambered on board, an Iraqi military spokesman tells the AP . The pilot is apparently the only fatality. New York Times journalist Alissa Rubin, 56,...

'Barbaric': Terrorist's Boy Poses With Severed Head

Photo from Syria outrages world leaders

(Newser) - "Horrendous," "barbaric," and "depraved" are just a few of the words being used to describe an image posted on Twitter and in the Australian of an Aussie terrorist's young son appearing to tightly and cheerfully grasp the head of a decapitated Syrian soldier. "...

Islamic State Stones 2 Women to Death for Adultery

Locals refuse to throw rocks

(Newser) - Two women were stoned to death by Islamic State militants within a 24-hour period last month, the AP reports. Their alleged crime: adultery. "People were shocked and couldn't understand what was going on," says an activist witness to one of the stonings in northern Syria. Militants called...

Pete King: Islamic State 'More Powerful Than Qaeda on 9/11'

Other politicians point to growing threat

(Newser) - With the United States today dropping a fourth round of airstrikes on Iraq's Islamic State militants, the pope expressing outrage over the humanitarian situation, and Iraq claiming that militants had slaughtered some 500 Yadizis , naturally our elected lawmakers felt compelled to offer up their two cents on the situation...

Iraq: Militants Killed 500 Yazidis, Buried Some Alive

Some were women, children in mass graves: human rights minister

(Newser) - The Islamic State's assault on the Yazidi minority community is every bit as horrific as might be expected, with Iraq's human rights minister telling Reuters today that the militant group has killed at least 500 Yazidis—and buried some of those alive. " We have striking evidence obtained...

Sword-Swinging 'Hipster Jihadi' Is New ISIS Mascot

Well-educated Egyptian with black-rimmed glasses tweets support for militants

(Newser) - Islam Yaken is a law school graduate who comes from an affluent Egyptian family, speaks three languages, and sports a trendy haircut and thick-rimmed glasses that make him look more like an extra on Portlandia than a Sunni insurgent. But Yaken's vocal support for the Islamic State, or ISIS,...

US Launches Airstrikes on Iraq Militants

American jets hit Islamic State artillery near Irbil

(Newser) - The US launched airstrikes against Iraq's Islamic State militants this morning. "US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery," tweeted Rear Adm. John Kirby. "Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending (Irbil), near US personnel." He confirms that F/A-18 jets dropped a pair of laser-guided...

Why Obama Approved Airstrikes in Iraq

Extremists' rapid push north forced his hand, say analysts

(Newser) - President Obama gave the green light last night for the US military to launch airstrikes in Iraq, but why now? Some explanations:
  • Twofold mission: The US has already dropped food and supplies to Iraqis trapped on Mount Sinjar by extremist fighters from the Islamic State, or ISIS, and it may
...

Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Iraq

US also begins humanitarian aid drops to trapped Iraqis

(Newser) - President Obama said tonight he has authorized the US military to carry out airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic militants if necessary to protect American personnel in northern Iraq. He emphasized, however, that no ground troops would be sent back to Iraq. Obama also said the US has begun humanitarian aid...

Thousands of Iraqis Trapped on Mountain by Extremists

Yazidis running out of water, face beheadings by militants if they descend

(Newser) - The Islamic State regards Iraq's Yazidi minority as devil worshippers, so when militants captured the village of Sinjar this weekend, 60-year-old Yazidi farmer Kareem Sido fled to the mountains with thousands of others. What he found there were people dying of thirst in conditions so dire that he risked...

New Islamic State Leader Issues First Video

Asks Muslims to obey him, advise him

(Newser) - The leader of the group trying to overrun Iraq and Syria in order to form a new Islamic state has made what is believed to be his first public appearance. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a video of a sermon he delivered at a mosque in Mosul amid reports that he...

'Islamic State' Leader: Next We Take Rome

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi calls on Muslims worldwide to join the fight

(Newser) - A self-proclaimed "caliph" of the Middle East is urging Muslims worldwide to join the fight in Iraq and one day conquer the world, "if Allah wills." Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the newly named Islamic State (formerly ISIS) that has grabbed swaths of northern Iraq, issued his...

ISIS Crucifies 8 'Moderate' Militants

Meanwhile, Russia sends jets to Iraq

(Newser) - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—or as the group now apparently prefers to be called, just the Islamic State —sent a grisly message to other Islamist militants this weekend in Syria by crucifying eight rebel fighters it deemed too moderate, according to a report from the Syrian...

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