ISIS

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Why Hasn't ISIS Destroyed This Ancient City?

No looting or widespread damage in Syria's Palmyra ... yet

(Newser) - The ancient Syrian city of Palmyra was overrun by ISIS last week, but while most expected the militants to loot and destroy, the group has been uncharacteristically calm, the New York Times reports. According to residents, ISIS members started "acting like municipal functionaries" after taking over the city, the...

Iraq Begins Fight to Retake What ISIS Grabbed

New operation begins in Anbar province

(Newser) - Details remain scarce, but Iraq today announced that it has started a military operation aimed at pushing ISIS out of Anbar province, home to the provincial capital of Ramadi—which ISIS seized less than two weeks ago even as coalition airstrikes rained down around them. In high-profile comments Sunday, Defense...

Pentagon Boss: Iraqis Had 'No Will to Fight' ISIS

Forces weren't outnumbered, just didn't try hard enough: Ash Carter

(Newser) - Last week's fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State was more a reflection of Iraqi weakness than ISIS' strength, says the US defense secretary. "What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter tells CNN in an interview today. "...

ISIS Pegs First Lady's Worth at $40

Propaganda writer disses Michelle Obama

(Newser) - An ISIS provocateur writing in a propaganda magazine for the group declares that the first lady is worth about $40, reports the Daily Beast . The piece by a supposedly female writer defends the Islamic State's practice of trafficking in human slaves and predicts slave markets will come to pass...

ISIS&#39; Ruin of Palmyra Would Be &#39;Genocide&#39;
What Humanity Would Lose
If Palmyra Is Destroyed
OPINION
May 22, 2015 10:33 AM CDT

What Humanity Would Lose If Palmyra Is Destroyed

Expert: 3.8K-year-old city is 'mirage out of a fairy tale'

(Newser) - The ancient city of Palmyra, housing a 3,600-foot-long colonnade, marketplace, amphitheater, castle, and numerous tombs, is an archaeological treasure. "It makes Rome blush," says archaeologist Stephennie Mulder. "When you approach the site, it rises out of the desert like some sort of a mirage out of...

Pentagon: Syria Strike 'Likely' Killed 2 Kids

Civilian casualties acknowledged for first time

(Newser) - For the first time, the Pentagon has acknowledged that one of the thousands of airstrikes the US-led anti-ISIS coalition has carried out since last August probably killed civilians. After a monthslong investigation, Central Command released a statement saying two children were "likely" killed in a November strike in Syria...

Report: ISIS Now Controls 50% of Syria

Destroying priceless artifacts in Palmyra may be a top priority

(Newser) - Two big ISIS headlines this morning: The first, an assertion by the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the militants "now control 50% of Syria." The group estimates ISIS holds about 37,000 square miles, an area about the size of Indiana . The Guardian reports...

ISIS Takes Ancient City, Putting Ruins at Risk

Palmyra falls in Syria to the Islamic State

(Newser) - It's the second major victory for the Islamic State within a week, this time in Syria instead of Iraq . ISIS fighters have taken control of the ancient desert city of Palmyra, reports Reuters . The city is important not only as a military target—for one thing, ISIS now controls...

ISIS on Killing Spree in Captured Iraqi City

Fall of Ramadi 'indeed a setback,' White House says

(Newser) - ISIS militants searched door to door for policemen and pro-government fighters and threw bodies in the Euphrates River in a bloody purge yesterday after capturing the strategic city of Ramadi , their biggest victory since overrunning much of northern and western Iraq last year. Some 500 civilians and soldiers have died...

US Raid Netted 'Treasure Trove' of ISIS Intelligence

Sources say slain militant kept US hostage as slave

(Newser) - The Syria raid that resulted in the death of ISIS commander Abu Sayyaf has yielded some priceless intelligence, lawmakers say, even though Sayyaf ended up dead instead of in custody, the Guardian reports. House Homeland Security committee chief Michael McCaul tells Fox News the Friday raid netted "a treasure...

As ISIS Swarms, Iraq PM Orders Fleeing Troops to Dig In
 Key Iraqi City 
 Falls to ISIS 
updated
May 17, 2015 2:26 PM CDT

Key Iraqi City Falls to ISIS

Iraqi forces flee hold-out neighborhood in Ramadi

(Newser) - ISIS militants have seized a key Iraqi city while coalition airstrikes continued raining down around them, officials say. The militants had already taken most of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, placing their flag at the city's government headquarters on Friday—but Iraqi special forces still held out in...

US Tries to Capture ISIS Honcho, Kills Him

Abu Sayyaf helped direct ISIS' oil, gas, financial operations

(Newser) - Last night, US Special Operations attempted to capture a senior ISIS commander and his wife in Syria. The rare raid didn't go as planned. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter today said that Abu Sayyaf fought back and was killed; the US troops involved were unharmed. They did manage to...

ISIS Claims Its First Attack on US Soil

Garland, Texas, shooters 'soldiers of the caliphate'

(Newser) - ISIS is claiming responsibility for an attack at a center near Dallas that was exhibiting cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. An audio statement on the extremist group's al-Bayan radio station says that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out the Sunday night attack; both men, identified yesterday...

Report: ISIS Leader So Hurt, He's Not Running Things

But the Pentagon isn't so sure

(Newser) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is in rough shape after a March 18 airstrike near the Syrian border in western Iraq, sources tell the Guardian , but there are conflicting reports on the matter. The leader of ISIS initially faced life-threatening injuries as a result of the strike by the US-led coalition but...

'We Have a Terror Recruiting Problem in Minnesota'

6 men from the state arrested following year-long investigation

(Newser) - A yearlong FBI investigation into alleged ISIS-related activities resulted in the arrest of six Somali-American men in Minnesota and California yesterday, officials tell CNN . KSTP reports all hail from Minnesota, and it has the US attorney for the state, Andrew Luger, putting the situation in blunt terms: "We have...

New Wave of Christians Massacred in ISIS Video

2 groups reportedly killed in Libya

(Newser) - A video released by the Islamic State today appears to show the killing of two different groups of captured Ethiopian Christians by the group's Libyan affiliates. The 29-minute online video purports to show militants holding two groups of captives. It says one group is held by an ISIS affiliate...

Australia: 5 Teens Plotted Attack on WWI Ceremony

They were arrested today over alleged plot involving 'edged weapons'

(Newser) - Five Australian teenagers were arrested today on suspicion of plotting an Islamic State group-inspired terrorist attack at a Veterans' Day ceremony next Saturday that included targeting police officers, officials said. Police said they believe the plot was to have involved "edged weapons." "At this stage, we have...

Pentagon: ISIS Is Losing Serious Ground

In Iraq, anyway; Syria's a different story

(Newser) - Iraqi forces have retaken about a quarter of the territory ISIS seized last year, according to an encouraging Pentagon analysis—some 5,000 to 6,500 square miles in the country's north and center, reports USA Today . "[ISIS] is no longer the dominant force in roughly 25% to...

ISIS Again Destroying Ancient Ruins

Video shows militants wrecking ancient city of Nimrud

(Newser) - Islamic State militants hammered, bulldozed, and ultimately blew up parts of the ancient Iraqi Assyrian city of Nimrud, destroying a site dating back to the 13th century BC, an online video purportedly shows. The destruction at Nimrud, located near the militant-held city of Mosul, came amid other attacks on antiquity...

Feds: Army Enlistee Plotted Attack at US Base

John Booker of Kansas is accused of supporting ISIS

(Newser) - Another American accused of trying to join up with ISIS has instead got caught in an FBI sting. Feds today arrested John Booker, a 20-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, and accused of him plotting a suicide bombing at Fort Riley in Kansas, reports the Topeka Capitol-Journal . He'd been under surveillance...

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