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Terror Networks
The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi and Syrian Editions
2017-02-08


ISIS member found strangled in western Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State has put its members in western Mosul on alert on Tuesday after one of its members was found dead from an apparent smothering action.

A local source in Nineveh told Alsumaria News that the group imposed a curfew in three residential areas in Tal Afar after the dead militant’s body was found, and arrested more than ten people suspected of involvement, taking them to an unknown destination.

Iraqi joint government forces recaptured the whole of the eastern section of Mosul on January 24th after three months of battles with IS militants, and are preparing for a ground invasion of the west which U.S.-led coalition jets have built up for with airstrikes over the past two weeks.

Islamic State has lost at least 3300 members until the recapture of eastern Mosul, according to Iraqi military officials. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told France 24 on Tuesday that the extremist group’s supreme commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been located and was isolated after many of his fellow commanders were killed.

The group has been ravaged with personnel and financial losses as well divisions within its ranks since security operations to retake Mosul launched.

“ISIL is militarily on the defensive in several regions, notably in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Syrian Arab Republic,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report early Tuesday.

ISIS kidnaps 60 in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An indefinite number of security personnel died and sustained injuries Tuesday in a booby-trapped car explosion west of Anbar as Islamic State militants kidnapped many for exposing planned suicide bombings.

Nazem al-Jugheifi, a senior leader at the pro-government al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), said in statements the trapped vehcile exploded near a security checkpoint in al-Sakkar, a region in al-Rutba, west of the province. He said there were reports of casualties among security troops.

He also added that Islamic State militants had kidnapped 60 civilians accused of uncovering group plans for suicide attacks at the western region.

Jugheifi said the kidnapped individuals had exposed plans to carry out the attacks with four suicide bombers in the town of Haditha, but pointed out that no attacks have been reported yet there, and that security was searching the city for the potential bombers.

Islamic State has stepped attacks across Iraq coinciding with defeats in Mosul, its largest stronghold in Iraq of which Iraqi government troops have recaptured a half since October. The group has maintained smaller strongholds in western Anbar towns since 2014, but no official campaign has been declared yet by the government to drive militants out of those regions. Anbar’s security command, backed by tribal troops, launched early January a brief onslaught against the Islamic State in western Anbar. The campaign, which, unlike that in Mosul, was not officially declared by the cabinet, managed to retake a few villages before halting again.

ISIS executes 15 in Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have executed 15 civilians in northern Mosul, news reports quoted an local official on Tuesday as the group braces for a new, decisive round of battles with Iraqi government troops.

Sidu al-Tatani, a member of the Nineveh province council, was quoted as saying that the extremist group executed 15 civilians in the village of Sheikh Mohamed, north of the city.

The report did not quote him telling of the reasons of the reason, the method or the exact timing of the massacre.

Islamic State took over several Iraqi cities in 2014 to establish a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”. But Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and popular troops, managed from mid October to January 24th to recapture the eastern section of the city from the group. The militants are currently holding a majority of territories in western Mosul, and security forces are preparing for an invasion of that region to consummate the liberation of the group’s largest urban stronghold in Iraq.

The group has regularly carried out heinous executions of civilians and security captives over diverse charges that range from violation of its extreme religious views to collaboration with security authorities. It has posted several movies of the executions via its media outlets. IS’s reign of terror has forced 191.000 civilians to flee to refugee camps since the start of confrontations with government troops. There are at least 750,000 stranded inside its western strongholds.

Islamic State shifts to ‘dark web’ amidst mounting military pressure

[ARA News] Damascus – The Islamic State (ISIS) radical group has been on the defensive across Syria and Iraq over the past few months.

Amidst mounting military pressure by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian and Iraqi ground troops, ISIS reportedly started to resort to covert methods of communication and recruitment, such as the ‘dark web’.

“ISIS is adapting in several ways to military pressure – resorting to increasingly covert communication and recruitment methods, including by using the ‘dark web,’ encryption and messengers,” senior UN official Jeffrey Feltman said on Tuesday.

“Although its income and the territory under its control are shrinking, ISIS still appears to have sufficient funds to continue fighting,” said Feltman, the United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.

The official pointed out that ISIS now mainly relies on income from “extortion and hydrocarbon exploitation, even though resources from the latter are on the decline.”

The United Nations on Tuesday stressed the need to develop “sustained, coordinated responses” to the grave threat posed by ISIS and affiliated groups.

The UN’s political affairs official warned that foreign jihadist fighters leaving the conflict “could pose a grave risk to their homeland or to the countries they are travelling to or transiting through, such as Iraq and Syria’s neighbours, as well as countries in the Maghreb.”
Posted by:badanov

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