Contents: Russian troops may take control of Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan; European Union agrees to terms in exchange for Turkey’s help with refugees; Hungary closes the border with Croatia; Polls show British voters more willing to leave European Union; Turkey’s president Erdogan ridicules Europe over refugee crisis
In the face of heavy Russian airstrikes, a number of ISIS militants have reportedly fled to Turkey from Syria by shaving off their beards and dressing as women to pass unnoticed.
A spate of Islamist graffiti in the multiculturalist Swedish city Gothenburg has been compared to the harassment of the Jewish community in Germany in the 1930s, with Christian business owners being told to “convert or die”.
A Finnish journalist has been accused by pro-Turkish government media of being linked to the terrorist group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after asking Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whether or not he is a dictator, as some have claimed.
Turkey has grown increasingly vocal, and even belligerent, in criticizing the Kurds and U.S. military support for their cause in Syria and Iraq. The situation took a disturbing turn when Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened to attack Kurdish fighters in Syria, if they are found to be passing American weapons back to Kurdish insurgents in Syria.
Between 40-60 worshippers at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria were killed Friday by a trio of female suicide bombers believed to have been sent by the ISIS-affiliated terror group Boko Haram.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Thursday that he believes the October 10 bombing of a peace rally in Ankara was a collaborative attack organized by the Islamic State (ISIS), the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
“They are not simply satisfied with controlling Afghanistan, or Syria or Iraq, they want to conquer the world,” Marco Rubio explained about ISIS in an interview with Fox News. “They initially want to go after our allies, they want to destroy Israel but ultimately they want to come after us here in the United States and they are actively trying to do it now.”
Iraqi and Kurdish officials have met to plan the long-delayed Battle of Mosul, an effort to push ISIS out of the city they have been using as their base of operations in Iraq.
The U.S.-led coalition has been unable to interrupt the organized and sophisticated oil industry in areas in Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), which generates an average of $1.5 million daily, reports the Financial Times (FT), citing
United Kingdom charity Aid to the Church in Need issued a report to the House of Lords this week warning that Christianity could be extinct in Iraq in only five years.
American officials have confirmed a report from the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies that Cuban special forces are operating on the ground in Syria in defense of dictator Bashar al-Assad, and are expected to operate Russian tanks in battles against anti-Assad rebels.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram islamists have reached out to the Somali jihadist organization al-Shabaab, urging it to switch its loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
A British woman who fled the Islamic State group with her five children after travelling to Syria described the experience as “not my cup of tea” in an interview on Wednesday. Shukee Begum, 33, travelled to Syria with her children
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has scored military gains as it battles the Taliban for territory in Afghanistan, securing their hold with a brutality that is considered shocking even by the standards of the Afghan insurgency, reports the New York Times (NYT).
Iranian troops, allied Hezbollah fighters, and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s army have reportedly joined forces to launch a ground offensive, backed by Russian airstrikes, to seize key areas from rebels in Syria.
Ömer Çelik, a senior official in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned Wednesday that “Kurdish militia in northern Syria appeared intent on creating a de facto zone of control in the region.”
The Islamic State has confirmed the Pentagon’s August claim that it killed ISIS’ deputy commander, Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi. “America is rejoicing over the killing of Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi and considers this a great victory,” a spokesman for the Islamic State named Abu Mohamed al-Adnani declared, in an audio recording posted to Islamist websites, as reported by AFP.
Yazidis who suffered under the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Sinjar have filed a genocide case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Netherlands.
Assyrian Christians living in Sweden have been targeted with a string of threatening messages linked to the Islamic State, including demands that they “convert or die.”
Cuban military operatives reportedly have been spotted in Syria, where sources believe they are advising President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers and may be preparing to man Russian-made tanks to aid Damascus in fighting rebel forces backed by the U.S.
The Nigerian military is warning residents in the rural northeast of the nation to beware of unexploded cluster bombs left in shrubbery by ISIS affiliate Boko Haram. Experts contend that it is likely Boko Haram members acquired these bombs by stealing them from the Nigerian army.
The Archbishop of Aleppo has called on the West to act to save Syria from the “fundamentalist, jihadist mercenaries” who threaten his country, “killing anyone who would speak of freedom, citizenship, religious freedom and democracy.”
A cholera outbreak that had affected a reported 100 Iraqis in late September has now spread to over 1,400 patients, Iraq’s health ministry warned this week. The disease, carried through unclean water, has spread throughout the country, though the Iraqi government can only monitor cases in regions not controlled by the Islamic State.
Turkish media is reporting the first arrests directly in relation to Saturday’s twin bombings in the capital, Ankara: two suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who tweeted about the event before it occurred.
