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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

UN report sees no active ties between al-Qaeda and Islamist group led by Syria’s Sharaa

2025-07-13

[IsraelTimes] Despite Russian and Chinese skepticism, finding could bolster US bid to lift sanctions on new regime, which is led by the former al-Qaeda affiliate that ousted Assad in December

United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
sanctions monitors have seen no "active ties" this year between al-Qaeda and the Islamist group leading Syria’s interim government, an unpublished UN report said, a finding that could strengthen an expected US push for removing UN sanctions on Syria.

The report, seen by Rooters on Thursday, is likely to be published this month.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
is al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria but broke ties in 2016. The group, previously known as al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front, led the rebellion that toppled Syrian President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
in a lightning offensive in December, and HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria’s interim president.

The report comes as diplomats expect the United States to seek the removal of US sanctions on HTS and Sharaa, who has said he wants to build an inclusive Syria with equal rights for all.

"Many tactical-level individuals hold more extreme views than ... Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab, who are generally regarded as more pragmatic than ideological," the UN report said. It covered the six months to June 22 and relied on contributions and assessments from UN member states.

Since May 2014, HTS has been subject to UN sanctions including a global assets freeze and arms embargo. A number of HTS members also face sanctions like a travel ban and asset freeze — including Sharaa, who has been listed since July 2013.

The UN monitors wrote in their report to the US Security Council: "Some member states raised concerns that several HTS and aligned members, especially those in tactical roles or integrated into the new Syrian army, remained ideologically tied to al-Qaeda."

US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
announced a major US policy shift in May when he said he would lift US sanctions on Syria. He signed an executive order enacting this at the end of June, and Washington revoked its foreign terrorist organization designation of HTS this week.

The US said then that revoking the designation was a step towards Trump’s vision of a peaceful and unified Syria.

Washington is "reviewing our remaining terrorist designations related to HTS and Syria and their placement on the UN sanctions list," a US State Department spokesperson told Rooters.

Diplomats, humanitarian organizations and regional analysts have said lifting sanctions would help rebuild Syria’s shattered economy, steer the country away from authoritarianism and reduce the appeal of radical groups.

Trump and his advisers have argued that doing so would also serve US interests by opening opportunities for American businesses, countering Iranian and Russian influence and potentially limiting the call for US military involvement in the region.

Trump said this week that many countries, including Israel, had requested that Washington lift the sanctions on Syria, though reports to date have indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught off guard by the White House’s decision to end the sanctions.

Israel had been taking a much harder stance on Syria, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Defense Minister Israel Katz initially branding Sharaa a "terrorist in a suit."

Following Assad’s ouster, Israel also moved troops into the Syrian side of the two countries’ agreed-upon demilitarized buffer zone, and carried out massive strikes on military infrastructure there, citing fear they would fall into the wrong hands.

As the US policy on Syria continued to warm in recent weeks, Israel has abandoned its harsh rhetoric against Sharaa.

Last month, Sa’ar said Israel would like to normalize relations with Sharaa’s Syria, among others, and Israeli officials have confirmed holding direct talks with the regime. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
Syrian state media said this month that it was "premature" to discuss a peace deal with Israel.

Israel and Syria have been officially at war since 1948, when Israel was established.

OBSTACLES TO US EFFORTS
Washington faces diplomatic obstacles to get the support of the UN Security Council to lift the sanctions on Syria. The US will also need to win support from Russia — which was an ally to Assad — and China for any Syria sanctions relief at the UN, diplomats said.

China and Russia are particularly concerned about foreigners who joined HTS during the 13-year war between rebel groups and Assad. The UN experts said there were estimated to be more than 5,000 imported muscle in Syria.

The status of imported muscle has been one of the most fraught issues hindering Syria’s rapprochement with the West. But the US has given its blessing to a plan by Syria’s new leaders to integrate imported muscle into the army.

"China is gravely concerned about such developments. The Syrian interim authorities should earnestly fulfill their counter-terrorism obligations," China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong told the Security Council last month.

He said Syria must combat terrorist organizations including "the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party." Uyghur fighters from China and Central Asia are members of the Turkistan Islamic Party. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of the mainly Moslem ethnic minority.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council last month that it was essential Syria’s "army and police are staffed exclusively by professional personnel with untainted track records," apparently referring to irregular fighters from various militias.

The UN monitors said some imported muscle rejected the move to integrate them into the military. "Defections occurred among those who see Sharaa as a sell-out, raising the risk of internal conflict and making Sharaa a potential target," the UN experts said.

Link

Fifth Column

Asra Nomani: How Socialist Muslims pulled off a 20-year takeover of the Democratic Party

2025-06-30

Long, information dense, lots of names to remember and correlate. Here’s a taste:

[FoxNews] The rise of Zohran Mamdani is the product of a strategy partly funded by the House of Soros, uniting socialism (red), political Islam (green), and the Democratic Party (blue)

Many people are wondering how Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist Muslim who wants to defund the police, globalize the intifada, and destroy capitalism, has emerged as the Democratic Party's nominee for New York City mayor, with leaders like former President Bill Clinton fawning over him.

To understand Mamdani’s political ascent, you have to trace the red-green-blue spider’s web that brought him here. This isn’t a complete map — I've written a book, "Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Undermining America’s Freedom," to document that story — but it is a snapshot of key turning points over two decades of strategy, narrative manipulation, and activist training.

A critical moment traces back to a Friday night in 2008, according to investigative reporting I’ve done at the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative. It reveals how socialists (red) and Muslims (green) seized the Democratic Party (blue) over a long 20-year campaign. At 9:28 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2008, former ACLU civil rights lawyer Ann Beeson sent an email to former Clinton administration senior advisor John Podesta.

Beeson was executive director of U.S. Programs at George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, where she said she oversaw $150 million in annual grants to "promote human rights, social justice and accountability nationwide."

In her email, publicly discussed here for the first time, Beeson wrote, "I’m writing to follow up on one topic we discussed — what the incoming Administration could do to address domestic national security policies and practices that unfairly target Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities in America."

She attached a memo from Farhana Khera, then executive director of Muslim Advocates, a group based in San Francisco, and Aziz Huq, then the director of the "liberty and national security project" at the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, both Open Society "grantees."

As a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has investigated the convergence of radical leftist politics and Muslim political activism for decades, I have followed a paper trail of tax returns, grant lists and confidential memos, and this email represented the culmination of a decades-long ideological drive that began with Muslim international students arriving in the U.S. in the 1960s, not just to study, as my father did at Rutgers University, but to lay the institutional groundwork for political Islam, or Islamism, in the United States. By the 1980s, they had established a strategic base at 500 Grove Street in Herndon, Va., later investigated by the FBI for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both groups seeking to destroy Israel and America and build a global caliphate.

The transformation accelerated after December 2005, when Muslim governments convened at an "Extraordinary Islamic Summit" of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. There, they launched a campaign to weaponize the term "Islamophobia" to silence critics of extremist Islam. American Muslim leaders seized the moment to re-engineer the national security narrative, using American philanthropic networks, like the House of Soros, as a Trojan horse to racialize Islam, frame Muslims as the "oppressed" and embed illiberal ideologies within America’s liberal institutions, including the Democratic Party.

By January 2008, with Soros pumping money into Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his philanthropy staff launched a "National Security and Human Rights Campaign" with D.C.-based Atlantic Philanthropies, committing at least $20 million to "dismantle" Bush-era counterterrorism policies. One grantee, the Proteus Fund, based in Waltham, Mass., ballooned in revenue from $9.5 million in 2008 to $73 million in 2023. Soros dollars flowed to groups including Muslim Advocates, the Brennan Center, the ACLU and many others who set their sights on targets, including the New York Police Department. Today, Mamdani says he wants to "defund the police."

A Pearl Project analysis of 38 documents detailing the operations and funding of the National Security and Human Rights Campaign revealed the coordinated efforts of progressive and Islamist activists to reframe post-9/11 narratives. The aim: clear the path for red-green candidates like Mamdani.

Muslim Advocates grew nearly 10-fold, from $76,331.03 in annual revenues in 2005 to $992,892 in 2023. The Brennan Center’s revenue exploded from $6.6 million to $57.9 million during the same period.

Soros soon funded a new "Security and Rights Collaborative" at Proteus Fund to "restore civil liberties and human rights lost in the name of the ‘war on terror.’" Headquartered in a one‑story building off Research Drive in Amherst, Mass., the new "collaborative" was run by Shireen Zaman, a Muslim activist previously at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Washington, D.C., group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their focus: America’s "Muslim, Arab and South Asian community," called "MASA." Zaman now works at the Ford Foundation.

Their strategy went beyond policy to narrative warfare.

Starting in late 2008, Soros pumped some $20 million into a "fieldwide communications hub" to arm Muslim groups and leftist media allies with messaging tools. The recipient: ReThink Media, a nonprofit in Berkeley, Calif., co-founded by "progressive" political operatives Peter Ferenbach and Lynn Fahselt, then a consultant to Democratic donors, including Open Society, Proteus Fund, Ploughshares Fund, Carnegie Corporation, Piper Fund, Atlantic Philanthropies, and others "progressive" donors that have since pumped money into ReThink Media.

ReThink Media became the loudspeaker for the red and the green. Last year, Proteus Fund paid ReThink Media $643,000 as a "communications consultant." Soros also backed Media Matters, run by ex-conservative-turned-Democrat David Brock, to shape media narratives about Muslims attacked by Republicans.

Over the years, ReThink Media has hired and trained alumni of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, including staffers Zainab Chaudary and Corey Saylor, to promote an "echo chamber" for liberal groups. One narrative: Muslims were under attack in the West, and the Democratic Party would defend Muslims.

This storyline took hold in the post-Obama political landscape.

In late 2010, Open Society staffers in Beeson’s U.S. Programs division distributed an internal memo, "Extreme Polarization and Breakdown in Civic Discourse," announcing they were giving Podesta’s Center for American Progress $200,000 for a new "Examining Anti-Muslim Bigotry Project" that would "document structures underlying the Islamophobia movement."

The memo detailed plans to do "opposition research" on groups like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Middle East Forum, which track Islamic extremism.

The project description noted that "progressives were caught off guard" earlier that year when New York City residents opposed the building of a "Ground Zero mosque" near the site of the former World Trade Center.

"Progressives" were in "urgent need of high-quality opposition research so that they can switch from playing defense to develop a proactive strategic plan to counter anti-Muslim xenophobia and to promote tolerance," protecting "progressive counter-terrorism policies," they wrote.

Related by Daniel Greenfield:

Only 5% of New Yorkers Voted for Mamdani

Who are those 5%? They aren’t New Yorkers because polls showed us Mamdani performing poorly with anyone over 50, with African-American, Latino and working class white voters. What’s left? White hipsters and Muslim immigrants.

Link

Iraq

Iraqi army details anti-ISIS operation in Kirkuk

2025-06-28

[Rudaw] A prior operation by Iraqi counterterrorism forces in Kirkuk led to the killing of two suspected Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) operatives, including a leader in the province, the Iraqi army said on Thursday.

The Wednesday ambush in southwest Kirkuk’s Riyadh district killed two ISIS suspects in the Zghitun Valley, an area infamous for ISIS activity but recently declared devoid of jihadist cells by the army.

"One of the bully boyz was the so-called ’governor of Riyadh,’ and the other the ’soldier of Riyadh.’ The force carrying out the duty succeeded in seizing their weapons, equipment, technical materials, devices, and criminal evidence," the army’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.

It labeled the targets as "important elements" of ISIS, adding that the operation involved thorough intelligence-gathering for four consecutive days before it was executed.

Zghitun Valley, located east of Hawija district — another former ISIS stronghold — was declared emptied of ISIS cells by the Iraqi army on June 10.

ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called "caliphate."

While the group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2019 respectively, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert and several Iraqi provinces situated in a security vacuum between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region.

Kirkuk province in particular has been a hotspot for ISIS activity, lying in a security vacuum exploited by murderous Moslems to launch attacks on both civilians and members of the security forces.

Despite the threats, Iraqi authorities stress that attacks by ISIS have largely simmered down.

Earlier this month, the US military said that an ISIS leader was arrested and two operatives killed in numerous partnered operations with Iraqi forces.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Two members of Basayev's gang were sentenced to 21 and 24 years in prison

2025-06-26

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Southern District Military Court sentenced two members of Shamil Basayev's gang,

…Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, also known as Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idrisand by his kunya, “Abu Idris” (1965-2006). Basayev was a Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Spetsnaz hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria — those that survived the reconquest and the SDF prison camps are about to become the property of the HTS government of Syria, which will be educational, one way or another. Some of Basayev’s projects were the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis (the Nord-Ost siege)…

Vakhit Khamzatkhanov and Takhir Begeldiev (both are included in the Russian Federation's list of terrorists and extremists), to 21 and 24 years in a strict regime penal colony for participating in an attack on Russian servicemen in Chechnya in 1999. The court hearing was held on June 25.

The investigation established that the convicted men joined the gang of Basayev and Amir Khattab in 1999. In October, as part of a detachment of about 400 militants, they ambushed Russian fighters in the village of Chervlennaya in the Shelkovsky district. In the shootout, 15 Russian soldiers were killed and another 28 were wounded.

Begeldiev and Khamzatkhanov were found guilty under Article 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer or military serviceman." Cases were also brought against them under Article 209 ("Banditry") and Article 279 ("Armed rebellion"), but they were dropped due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, in May the FSB published a video of the arrest of four members of the Basayev and Khattab gang, involved in attacks on Russian servicemen in 1999-2000. The operations took place in Stavropol Krai, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Astrakhan Oblast. The detainees were also in an ambush in the village of Chervlennaya. In addition, they participated in a battle with Pskov paratroopers near the village of Ulus-Kert in February 2000.

In October 2024, security forces detained three members of the Basayev and Khattab gang in Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia and the Volgograd region. They participated in the militants' attack on the Pskov paratroopers.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

St. Elijah Church Massacre: Who is Behind the Attack on Christians in Damascus

2025-06-24

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] On June 22, a terrorist attack occurred in the Church of St. Elijah in the suburbs of Damascus. As a result of the attack, representatives of the Christian denomination, including several foreigners, were killed.

The attack on the Greek Orthodox diocese was far from the first terrorist attack on religious sites in Syria, but it was the first major attack on Christians since the change of power in Damascus. And how the Syrian government responds to this challenge will largely determine its future relations with local minorities.

ATTACK ON THE CHURCH
According to information from Syrian security forces, a lone radical belonging to ISIS* attacked parishioners during a Sunday service, opening fire on them with small arms.

Some time later, when the scene of the terrorist attack was cordoned off by police, he entered into a shootout with them and then blew himself up.

According to various sources, between 30 and 100 people died in the attack. Of these, at least a dozen died on the spot. Another ten died on the way to hospitals and on operating tables.

At the same time, the attacker, as noted, did not take hostages and did not make any demands on the security forces, which allows the attack to be characterized as an act of intimidation without a clear political subtext.

DELAYED REACTION
Although the Syrian government almost immediately blamed ISIS* for the attacks, the group only claimed responsibility for the attack 10 hours later, calling it a "contribution to the defeat of the apostates."

According to terrorist media resources, the attack highlighted Damascus's inability to protect its citizens even near the capital, let alone the outskirts, where ISIS* activity is many times higher.

However, radical propagandists described the terrorist attack in extremely general terms, without naming the attacker or his motives.

This is noticeably different from their usual tactics, when a broad ideological basis is provided for the actions of the adherents of the "caliphate" in Syria, and the "semantic roots" of the attack are linked to the plots of Islamic history. Here, the information was presented in the most routine manner and tied exclusively to the events of the present day.

Such uncharacteristic stinginess in details allows us to assume that the radical who attacked the church was a lone wolf and acted without instructions “from above,” although he could well have shared the ideas of ISIS* or its allied groups.

However, the ambiguities did not prevent the radicals from ultimately taking credit for the attack and presenting it as one of the signs of their own growing power in the fight against the new Syrian authorities.

COUNTER-ACCUSATIONS
The attack on the Christian minority has once again stirred up discussions about the ability of the new authorities to fulfill their promises and “return Syria to peaceful life”; to protect the “suffering” national and religious minorities.

Some Syrian leaders, out of old habit, tried to convert tensions into political points and blame the tensions on the “surviving supporters of the old regime.”

For example, the country's Minister of Culture, Mohammed Yassin Saleh, stated that the destabilization of minorities is beneficial to "those parties that suffered the most from the fall." Thus hinting at the participation in the attack of representatives of the defeated republic, of whom there are still many in both the security and civilian agencies.

The placement of former associates of ousted President Bashar al-Assad on the same level as radicals suggests that the search for compromise between yesterday's opponents is still complicated, and not all of the new Syrian elite agree to peacefully coexist with the vanquished.

However, opponents of the current Syrian authorities also did not remain in debt and recalled Damascus' controversial management decisions. Among them, for example, the integration of Uyghur militants from the "Islamic Party of Turkestan"* (IPT*) into the ranks of the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Considering that many IPT* leaders still have close ties with terrorist cells, their inclusion in government structures significantly simplifies the radicals' planning and execution of operations.

The version that was spread on emigrant resources (especially on the X network) was that the person who attacked the church had previously served in the ranks of the “Security Service” of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* group, from whose leadership part of the current Syrian cabinet “grew” – including the country’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Thus, the opposition placed responsibility for the terrorist attack directly on the country's leadership. However, this version was not confirmed.

KEEPING BALANCE
However, even taking into account the sharp rhetoric, neither side of the conflict is interested in elevating the voiced accusations to absolutes. Excessive pressure on Damascus could provoke the authorities to expand repressive measures against the internal opposition.

In this case, the al-Sharaa government risks repeating the same scenario as earlier with the Druze and Alawites.

Damascus does not want to create another hotbed of tension in the country, and therefore quickly shifted the emphasis in its accusations from the “Assad camp” to the terrorist underground.

Former supporters of the republic also agreed to “shift the blame” to ISIS*, due to the fact that the camp of supporters of ex-President Assad is still segmented. Most of its leaders are either in exile or do not have sufficient authority to challenge Damascus and “take” minorities under their protection.

One way or another, today's Damascus will have to seriously reconsider the model for preventing terrorist attacks, especially since the strategy for fighting ISIS, with an emphasis on destroying cells in border areas, has weakened attention to the capital region. The radicals have not failed to take advantage of this.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Kurdish-led forces report increased ISIS attacks in east Syria

2025-06-22

[Rudaw] Kurdish-led security forces (Asayish) on Saturday said that they repelled an Islamic State (ISIS) attack in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province and warned of an increase of attacks in the area.

“On Friday at 10:30 pm, using a motorcycle and machine guns, an ISIS terrorist cell attacked the al-Atal roundabout checkpoint in the town of al-Shuhail. Our forces repelled the attack and forced the attackers to flee, without sustaining any casualties or damage,” the Asayish said in a statement.

It added that there has been an “intensification” of ISIS attacks in the area, particularly in and around the towns of al-Shuhail, Dhiban, and al-Busayrah on the Euphrates River about 90 kilometres from the Iraqi border.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), has carried out numerous operations this year to counter what they say is a resurgence in ISIS activity targeting both their forces and civilians.

ISIS and its so-called “caliphate” was territorially defeated in 2019, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, taking advantage of instability in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Earlier in June, the United States killed an ISIS official “who was involved in planning external operations threatening US citizens, our partners, and civilians” in an airstrike in northwest Syria.

Link

Terror Networks

Islamic State reactivating fighters, eyeing comeback in Syria and Iraq

2025-06-13

[IsraelTimes] Western and Middle Eastern authorities see terror group making moves to fill power vacuums, but claim security forces have effective countermeasures in place

Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where the turban group once imposed a reign of terror over millions.

Islamic State (IS) has been attempting just that, according to more than 20 sources, including security and political officials from Syria, Iraq, the US, and Europe, as well as diplomats in the region. The group has started reactivating fighters in both countries, identifying targets, distributing weapons, and stepping up recruitment and propaganda efforts, the sources said.

So far, the results of these efforts appear limited. Security operatives in Syria and Iraq, who have been monitoring IS for years, told Rooters they foiled at least a dozen major plots this year.

A case in point came in December, the month Syria’s Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
was toppled.

As rebels were advancing on Damascus, IS commanders holed up near Raqqa, former capital of their self-declared caliphate, dispatched two envoys to Iraq, five Iraqi counter-terrorism officials told Rooters. The envoys carried verbal instructions to the group’s followers to launch attacks. But they were captured at a checkpoint while traveling in northern Iraq on December 2, the officials said.

Eleven days later, Iraqi security forces, acting on information from the envoys, tracked a suspected IS jacket wallah to a crowded restaurant in the northern town of Daquq using his cell phone, they said. The forces shot the man dead before he could detonate an explosives belt, they said.

The foiled attack confirmed Iraq’s suspicions about the group, said Colonel Abdul Ameer al-Bayati, of the Iraqi Army’s 8th Division, which is deployed in the area. "Islamic State elements have begun to reactivate after years of lying low, emboldened by the chaos in Syria," he said.

Still, the number of attacks claimed by IS has dropped since Assad’s fall.

IS grabbed credit for 38 attacks in Syria in the first five months of 2025, putting it on track for a little over 90 claims this year, according to data from SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors bad boys’ activities online. That would be around a third of last year’s claims, the data shows.

In Iraq, where IS originated, the group claimed four attacks in the first five months of 2025, versus 61 total last year.

Syria’s government, led by the country’s new Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, did not answer questions about IS activities. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Rooters in January the country was developing its intelligence-gathering efforts, and its security services would address any threat.

A US defense official and a spokesperson for Iraq’s prime minister said IS remnants in Syria and Iraq have been dramatically weakened, unable to control territory since a US-led coalition and its local partners drove them from their last stronghold in 2019.

The Iraqi spokesperson, Sabah al-Numan, credited preemptive operations for keeping the group in check.

The coalition and partners hammered bad boy hideouts with ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s and raids after Assad’s fall. Such operations captured or killed "terrorist elements," while preventing them from regrouping and carrying out operations, Numan said.

Iraq’s intelligence operations have also become more precise, through drones and other technology, he added.

At its peak between 2014 and 2017, IS held sway over roughly a third of Syria and Iraq, where it imposed its extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law, gaining a reputation for shocking brutality.

None of the officials who spoke with Rooters saw a danger of that happening again. But they cautioned against counting the group out, saying it has proven a resilient foe, adept at exploiting a vacuum.

Some local and European officials are concerned that imported muscle might be traveling to Syria to join jihadi groups. For the first time in years, intelligence agencies tracked a small number of suspected imported muscle coming from Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
to Syria in recent months, two European officials told Rooters, though they could not say whether IS or another group recruited them.

EXPLOITING DIVISIONS
The IS push comes at a delicate time for Sharaa, as he attempts to unite a diverse country and bring former rebel groups under government control after 13 years of civil war.

US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s surprise decision last month to lift sanctions on Syria was widely seen as a win for the Syrian leader, who once led a branch of al Qaeda that battled IS for years. But some Islamist hardliners criticized Sharaa’s efforts to woo Western governments, expressing concern he might acquiesce to US demands to expel imported muscle and normalize relations with Israel.

Seizing on such divides, IS condemned the meeting with Trump in a recent issue of its online news publication, al-Naba, and called on imported muscle in Syria to join its ranks.

At a May 14 meeting in Saudi Arabia

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
, Trump asked Sharaa to help prevent an IS resurgence as the US begins a troop consolidation in Syria it says could cut its roughly 2,000-strong military presence by half this year.

The US drawdown has heightened concern among allies that IS might find a way to free some 9,000 fighters and their family members, including foreign nationals, held at prisons and camps guarded by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). There have been at least two attempted jailbreaks since Assad’s fall, the SDF has said.

Trump and President Tayyip Erdogan of neighboring ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
member, but not the most reliable...
want Sharaa’s government to assume responsibility for these facilities. Erdogan views the main Kurdish factions as a threat to his country. But some regional analysts question whether Damascus has the manpower needed.

Syrian authorities have also been grappling with attacks by suspected Assad loyalists, outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, Israeli airstrikes and festivities between Ottoman Turkish-backed groups and the SDF, which controls about a quarter of the country.

"The interim government is stretched thin from a security perspective. They just do not have the manpower to consolidate control in the entire country," said Charles Lister, who heads the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, a US think tank.

Responding to a request for comment, a US State Department spokesperson said it is critical for countries to repatriate detained nationals from Syria and shoulder a greater share of the burden for the camps’ security and running costs.

The US defense official said Washington remains committed to preventing an IS resurgence, and its vetted Syrian partners remain in the field. The US will "vigilantly monitor" Sharaa’s government, which has been "saying and doing the right things" so far, the official added.

Three days after Trump’s meeting with Sharaa, Syria announced it had raided IS hideouts in the country’s second city, Aleppo, killing three bad boys, detaining four and seizing weapons and uniforms.

The US has exchanged intelligence with Damascus in limited cases, another US defense official and two Syrian officials told Rooters. The news agency could not determine whether it did so in the Aleppo raids.

The coalition is expected to wrap up operations in Iraq by September. But the second US official said Baghdad privately expressed interest in slowing down the withdrawal of some 2,500 American troops from Iraq when it became apparent that Assad would fall. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the request.

The White House, Baghdad and Damascus did not respond to questions about Trump’s plans for US troops in Iraq and Syria.

REACTIVATING SLEEPER CELLS
The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
estimates IS, also known as ISIS or ISIS, has 1,500 to 3,000 fighters in the two countries. But its most active branches are in Africa, the SITE data shows.

The US military believes the group’s secretive leader is Abdulqadir Mumin, who heads the Somalia branch, a senior defence official told news hounds in April.

Still, SITE’s director, Rita Katz, cautioned against seeing the drop in IS attacks in Syria as a sign of weakness. "Far more likely that it has entered a restrategizing phase," she said.

Since Assad’s fall, IS has been activating sleeper cells, surveilling potential targets and distributing guns, silencers and explosives, three security sources and three Syrian political officials told Rooters.

It has also moved fighters from the Syrian desert, a focus of coalition airstrikes, to cities including Aleppo, Homs and Damascus, according to the security sources.

"Of the challenges we face, ISIS is at the top of the list," Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab told state-owned Ekhbariya TV last week.

In Iraq, aerial surveillance and intelligence sources on the ground have picked up increased IS activity in the northern Hamrin Mountains, a longtime refuge, and along key roads, Ali al-Saidi, an advisor to Iraqi security forces, told Rooters.

Iraqi officials believe IS seized large stockpiles of weapons left behind by Assad’s forces and worry some could be smuggled into Iraq.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was in contact with Damascus about IS, which he told Rooters in January was growing and spreading into more areas.

"We hope that Syria, in the first place, will be stable, and Syria will not be a place for terrorists," he said, "especially ISIS terrorists."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

SDF captures two suspected ISIS members in Raqqa

2025-06-12

[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Wednesday announced that two suspected Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) members were captured in an operation in the northern Raqqa province.

"Our forces raided the hideout of the terrorist cell and successfully captured two terrorists, Abdul Sattar Abdul Fattah al-Muhammad, known as "Abu Amira," and his brother, Muhammad Abdul Fattah al-Muhammad, known as "Abu al-Baraa," the SDF said in a statement.

The operation, supported by the US-led international coalition, was carried out in al-Mansoura, a large town some 25 kilometers southwest of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of ISIS’s so-called "caliphate."

"The two forces of Evil were involved in the manufacture of improvised bombs (IEDs) and operated a facility specialized in producing weapon silencers and bombs," the statement added.

On Tuesday, another SDF operation captured an ISIS operative in Hasaka province’s Til Kochar area, near the Iraqi border. The operative managed ISIS-affiliated Telegram accounts and recruited youth to join the bully boy group, according to the SDF statement.

The operations come amid an escalation of ISIS attacks in the area, particularly targeting Kurdish-led forces and civilians, with the ~~bandidos~~ hard boyz seeking to exploit a security vacuum sparked by increased instability following the fall of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
’s regime.

ISIS and its so-called "caliphate" was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, two years after its defeat in Iraq, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, especially after the fall of the Assad regime.

The SDF, backed by the United States, is the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), and has fought to prevent the ~~bandidos~~ hard boyz from reestablishing a foothold in the shifting security landscape.

Earlier in June, an SDF operation in the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasaka captured another ISIS operative.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

SDF announces capture of suspected ISIS member in Hasaka

2025-06-12

[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Tuesday that a suspected Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) member was captured in an earlier operation with US-led coalition forces in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) Hasaka province.

Waddah Marwan Taisan, also known as al-Awdah, was captured in Hasaka’s Til Kochar area, near the Iraqi border, in a "special security operation" with US-led coalition forces on May 22, the SDF said in a statement.

"He managed several Telegram accounts affiliated with the terrorist organization, through which he promoted its bully boy ideology and encouraged youth to join its ranks using fabricated narratives and false claims," the statement added.

The operation came amid an escalation of ISIS attacks in the area, particularly targeting Kurdish-led forces and civilians, with the murderous Moslems seeking to exploit a security vacuum sparked by increased instability following the fall of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
’s regime.

ISIS and its so-called "caliphate" was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, two years after its defeat in Iraq, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, especially after the fall of the Assad regime.

The SDF, backed by the United States, is the de facto army of Rojava, and has fought to prevent the murderous Moslems from reestablishing a foothold in the shifting security landscape.

Earlier in June, an SDF operation in the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasaka captured another ISIS operative.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran says it executed 9 Islamic State group members detained after a 2018 attack

2025-06-11

[IsraelTimes] IS members captured during clash with paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in west of country; rights watchdog says executions done without fair trials

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
said Tuesday it executed nine holy warriors of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group detained after a 2018 attack.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced the executions, saying that the death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s had been upheld by the country’s top court.

It described the holy warriors as being detained after they were in a clash in the country’s western region with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several IS fighters were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the bully boys’ hideout.

Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights.

He said Tuesday’s executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack.

IS, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, was ultimately beaten back by US-led forces.

It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran’s neighbor Afghanistan, for instance, IS is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban
Taliban

...Arabic for students...
in 2021.

The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and maimed more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide kabooms in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 US dronezap. That assault killed at least 94 people.

The clash with Revolutionary Guardsmen in 2018 marked a point of heightened tensions between Iran and the bully boy group. Iran launched ballistic missiles at parts of eastern Syria, vowing Dire Revenge after holy warriors disguised themselves as soldiers and shot up a military parade in the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s southwest. That attack killed at least 25 people and was claimed by both IS and local separatists.

But Tehran’s hand in Syria was weakened with the fall last year of President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, a key ally. Analysts say IS could take advantage of the security vacuum to stage a comeback while Syria’s new leaders are still consolidating their control over the country and forming a national army.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

ISIS ambushes Kurdish-led forces in east Syria

2025-06-09

[Rudaw] A number of suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Saturday ambushed a police station in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province with a grenade and subsequently opened fire, leading to no casualties, Kurdish-led forces said.

“Armed ISIS cells targeted the al-Sabha police station in eastern Deir ez-Zor with a hand grenade, then opened fire on the first protection point as they fled. Our forces returned fire, and no casualties were reported among our members,” the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) said in a statement.

Another ISIS attack targeted a patrol en route from the town of Busayrah to support the first convoy, which again resulted in no casualties.

The attack is the latest in an escalation of ISIS attacks in the area, particularly targeting Kurdish-led forces and civilians, with the militants seeking to exploit a security vacuum sparked by increased instability following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

ISIS and its so-called “caliphate” was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, two years after its defeat in Iraq, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, especially after the fall of the Assad regime.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, is the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), and has fought to prevent the militants from reestablishing a foothold in the shifting security landscape.

In late May, three Asayish members were killed when an ISIS landmine struck their patrol vehicle on the Raqqa-Hasaka road, days after an operation by the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in Busayrah led to the arrest of ten ISIS members.

Link

Iraq

First plane lands at Mosul airport highlighting rebirth of former ISIS capital

2025-06-07

[Rudaw] Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s northern Nineveh province and once the declared capital of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) so-called caliphate, marked a major milestone in reconstruction efforts on Thursday as an aircraft successfully completed the first test landing at Mosul International Airport in over a decade.

Nineveh Governor Abdulqadir al-Dakhil, who was on board the test flight, described the moment as “historic” and “long awaited by the people of the province.”

Speaking to the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA), Dakhil underlined that “the preparations for the inauguration of Mosul International Airport have been complete.”

In comments to INA, Dakhil confirmed that “preparations for the inauguration of Mosul International Airport have been completed,” adding that the facility’s navigational systems have been fully modernized. “A cargo section has been added, and the runway has been extended and equipped with advanced night lighting systems,” he noted.

“The airport will officially open soon.”

Originally established in 1920, Mosul International Airport spans approximately 1,600 dunams. Its recent reconstruction began in August 2022, when then-Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi laid the cornerstone of the project.

The total cost of the rehabilitation project is estimated at 200 billion Iraqi dinars (approximately $142.8 million), with half of the funding drawn from previously frozen provincial funds dating back to the war with ISIS.

Speaking to Rudaw, Ahmed Dubardani, a member of the Nineveh Provincial Council, confirmed that following Thursday’s test flight, the airport will begin “experimental operations” on June 10.

“Once fully operational, the airport is expected to become a major international gateway and to handle up to 550,000 passengers annually,” according to Al-Dobardani.

Mosul fell to ISIS in June 2014 during the group’s rapid territorial expansion across Iraq and Syria. The city became the epicenter of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate, with the airport among the many critical infrastructures rendered inoperable.

During its occupation, ISIS enforced a brutal and extremist interpretation of Sharia law, committing widespread human rights abuses, targeting religious and ethnic minorities, and destroying historical and cultural landmarks.

A large-scale operation to retake Mosul was launched in October 2016, led by Iraqi forces with vital support from the US-led Global Coalition. Kurdish Peshmerga forces also played a crucial role in the battle, securing key eastern and northern fronts, clearing surrounding areas, and severing ISIS supply lines into the city.

Mosul International Airport was recaptured in February 2017, and the city was officially declared liberated in July of that year.

Link

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