By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 20, 2014
Maysar al-Jiburi (Abu Mariya al-Qahtani) [source]
Al-Qaeda in Syria Condemns Al-Qaeda in Yemen’s Softness on the Islamic State
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: jihadism
The Balkan Front of the Jihad in the Fertile Crescent
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 14, 2014
Bilal Bosnić, the Islamic State’s lead recruiter in Bosnia
A week after the American-led airstrikes inside Syria began, it was reported that two women from the Balkans, Dora Bilic and Fatima Mahmutović, had been hit in ar-Raqqa, and that Ms. Mahmutović had been killed. Ms. Bilic, born in Croatia, converted to Islam two years ago and moved to Gornja Maoca, north-east Bosnia, which is in effect a Wahhabi commune, where she met her husband with whom she travelled to Syria for jihad. Ms. Mahmutović is from a village in Bosnia not far from the infamous Srebrenica, and she moved herself and her young son to Syria late last year. As is so often the case, it seems that the Croatian intelligence services were aware of Ms. Bilic but had done little about it. Even less surprising was the follow-up report that Ms. Bilic had been radicalised in London. Continue reading
Obama’s Abandonment of Kobani Isn’t Just A Disaster For The Kurds
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 9, 2014
Syrian Kurdish refugees at the Turkish frontier
After three-and-a-half years of resistance, the United States finally intervened in Syria on September 23 with airstrikes against the Islamic State (I.S.). The I.S. had begun an attack on the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Aleppo along the Turkish border on September 15/16. By October 5, the Kurdish forces had been driven back into the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani (a.k.a. Ayn al-Arab), and I.S. had them surrounded. The desperate scenes of Syrian Kurds fleeing over the Turkish border in the face of the takfiris’ recalls the Iraqi Kurds making a run for the hills after the March 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein was crushed. Then as now the Kurds believed they had stronger American backing than turned out to be the case. Continue reading
A Syrian Rebel Commander Accuses Iran of Helping The Islamic State
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 25, 2014
Is there anything Hajji Qassem can’t do?
Middle East Monitor Online (MEMO) has published an article by Yvonne Ridley that consists of an interview with Hassan Abboud just a few hours before he and most of the Ahrar a-Sham leadership were killed on September 9. The accusations Ridley records Abboud levelling against the Islamic State (I.S.) are deeply upsetting to the conventional view of the Syrian conflict. Continue reading
Has Hillary Clinton Become A Hawk?
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 21, 2014
The next American President?
Last month, Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic published an interview with Hillary Clinton. At 8,000 words it can be off-putting to plough through, but I have now finally got around to it, and it is rather interesting. The interview focusses on the three areas where President Obama’s foreign policy has so conspicuously failed—Syria, Iran, and Israel—and also includes sections on Egypt and Libya, where the administration’s failure has been somewhat less in the news. Continue reading
Obama Declares War On The Islamic State … Kind Of
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 13, 2014
On Wednesday night, President Obama gave a speech, the purport of which was to be a war plan to defeat the Islamic State (I.S.). Indeed in the speech the President committed to a “roll back” of the territory the I.S. had conquered, and to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Takfiri Caliphate. But as to how he was going to do that, the details were few. Continue reading
What Now For Ahrar a-Sham?
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 10, 2014
Ahrar a-Sham’s leader, Hassan Abboud
A mysterious explosion decapitated the Syrian rebel group Ahrar a-Sham on September 9. This could have major implications for the rebellion as a whole.
Continue reading
Indonesia: Islam, Terrorism, and Democracy
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 1, 2014
Pro-ISIS demonstration in Indonesia, March 16, 2014
Early last month, Indonesia announced:
“The government rejects and bans the teachings of [the Islamic State] from growing in Indonesia. It is not in line with State ideology, Pancasila, or the philosophy of kebhinekaan [diversity] under the unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.”
This was a welcome change of tune. Continue reading
Film Review: The Islamic State (2014) by Vice News
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on August 25, 2014
Abu Mosa, the Islamic State’s press officer
This is an extraordinary piece of work from Vice News. Earlier this month they released a five-part film after one of their journalists, Medyan Dairieh, embedded with the Islamic State (I.S.), formerly ISIS, in Raqqa City, the de facto headquarters of I.S. in north-eastern Syrian. It’s an extraordinarily brave thing to do given the number of journalists I.S. has kidnapped, the number of journalists killed in Syria (at least sixty), and of course the penchant of the Zarqawi’ites for beheading Westerners on video, as gruesomely underlined again with the murder of James Foley. Continue reading
Do Not Let The Murder of James Foley Distract From The Assad Regime
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on August 20, 2014
James Foley
Last night the Islamic State released a revolting video in which they beheaded the American journalist James Foley, who has been missing since Thanksgiving Day (November 22) 2012. Continue reading
Kyle Orton's Blog 