- #946
Dotini
Gold Member
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One has to wonder how much Saudi money and weaponry has found its way to Daesh.nsaspook said:
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
One has to wonder how much Saudi money and weaponry has found its way to Daesh.nsaspook said:
Meanwhile - Fallujah is surrounded by Iraqi forces while Daesh members run wild in the city“The Islamic State has executed Sunni clerics in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen, as part of an effort to kill any religious figures who pose a threat to the group’s narrative or ideological control,” noted an intel brief from the Soufan Group, . . .
Krylov said:Former Dutch soldier may face charges for killing IS jihadis:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/83438-2/
Quote from the article:
‘Dutch law does not allow citizens to use violence – apart from in extreme circumstances – and certainly not to use deadly force. Killing IS fighters can, therefore, result in a criminal prosecution for murder,’ the prosecution department statement said.
I sleep a lot better knowing that the Dutch authorities are watching over IS fighters' precious lives.
‘According to Amnesty International, the YPG may have been involved in driving civilians from their homes in the north of Syria last year and then destroying them,’ the statement said.
Of course. As I wrote, I'm delighted the Dutch justice authorities have their priorities set straight.jack476 said:Well...yeah, that's a war crime. If you're not an active-duty soldier you're not allowed to just appoint yourself as one and go out and kill. YPG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Protection_Units) is not a formal part of the Dutch military.
I didn't read anywhere that he is personally under investigation for, what seem to me from your Amnesty quote, still rather tentative accusations.jack476 said:More to the point though, he's also being investigated for acts of brutality against civilians:
Krylov said:Of course. As I wrote, I'm delighted the Dutch justice authorities have their priorities set straight.
I didn't read anywhere that he is personally under investigation for, what seem to me from your Amnesty quote, still rather tentative accusations.
jack476 said:So what you're saying is, anyone can just go pick up a gun, fly themselves to Syria, and decide that they don't need to obey any sort of chain of command or due process at all?
That mentality is not how you fight terrorists, that's how people become terrorists. It doesn't matter if the vigilantes are right, if everyone decided to take things into their own hands society wouldn't be able to function.
Yes, it is. I did not suggest that it was not.jack476 said:The Amnesty quote is actually from your article.
I don't think that is what the Dutch justice department is primarily after. In any case, at least part of the investigation is based on the suspicion that Jitse killed IS fighters, see the quote from the article that I gave in post #943jack476 said:The group itself is being investigated for killing civilians in Syria. He was a member of the group, in Syria, when that happened. Ergo it's not unreasonable to wonder if he may have been involved or, if not, whether he knows anything about the people involved.
as well asKrylov said:'Dutch law does not allow citizens to use violence – apart from in extreme circumstances – and certainly not to use deadly force. Killing IS fighters can, therefore, result in a criminal prosecution for murder,’ the prosecution department statement said.
Civilians are caught between homicidal Daesh and apparently equally homicidal Syrian government, which has support from Russia.Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city.
Krylov said:There is no society in IS country. There is just death, destruction and misery.
The West is relying on groups like YPG (and their chain of command!) to do the dirty work on the ground for them.
If they are so concerned about these groups' supposed lack of ethics, why don't they send their own terrestrial forces?
There is no law in IS territory, except for the sharia.jack476 said:Right, and that's exactly the problem. If we stoop to their level and decide that vigilante justice and moral outrage trump due process of the law, then that's where our society is also headed.
I believe there is a big and very essential difference between contributing to halting IS and starting to do things their way.jack476 said:It doesn't matter that IS are overwhelmingly in the wrong. If we start to do things their way, then we're going to end up like them.
Jitse Akse is a former Dutch commando, well-trained and with experience that goes back to the Yugoslavian civil war. This is also written in the source article.jack476 said:It's also extremely unethical to be sending civilians who may not have any formal military training and whose preparation no one can be certain of into combat. That could interfere with actual military interventions, or we could just be sending well-meaning civilians to their deaths.
As far as I understand, the presence of Western forces is restricted to the airspace, with only a limited number of special forces, "advisors" and intelligence officers on the ground. Most of the actual combat on the ground against IS is done by groups like YPG, among others, often in cooperation with the West.jack476 said:
Krylov said:There is no law in IS territory, except for the sharia.
I believe there is a big and very essential difference between contributing to halting IS and starting to do things their way.
Jitse Akse is a former Dutch commando, well-trained and with experience that goes back to the Yugoslavian civil war. This is also written in the source article.
As far as I understand, the presence of Western forces is restricted to the airspace, with only a limited number of special forces, "advisors" and intelligence officers on the ground. Most of the actual combat on the ground against IS is done by groups like YPG, among others, often in cooperation with the West.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35556783World powers have agreed to seek a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria to begin in a week's time, after talks in Munich, Germany.
The halt will not apply to the battle against jihadist groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front.
The 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) also agreed to accelerate and expand aid deliveries.
The announcement comes as the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advances in Aleppo province.
The move threatens to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in rebel-held parts of the major city of Aleppo.
The Syrian government has not yet responded, though a key rebel coalition welcomed the announcement.
The Syrian government and the main opposition umbrella group say they accept the terms of a deal to cease hostilities from Saturday.
The government said it would halt "combat operations" in line with the plan announced by the US and Russia.
But the opposition said its acceptance depended on government forces ending sieges and air strikes of civilians.
The deal will not apply to the two main jihadist groups in Syria, Islamic State (IS) and the rival al-Nusra Front.
Things seem too fragile for anyone to be optimistic.Do all parties agree with the exclusion list?
No. Russia, Iran and the Syrian government regard Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam as terrorist groups.
Ahrar al-Sham is likely to be excluded from the ceasefire, given its alliance with al-Nusra in Aleppo and Idlib.
But Jaish al-Islam, which controls large areas of the Damascus countryside, has closer ties to the broader Syrian opposition, and any attack on its positions might therefore endanger the ceasefire.
The Libyan branch of ISIS staged a gruesome attack Wednesday on government-security headquarters in the western city of Sabratha. According to the AP, the group beheaded 12 officers before taking control of the complex.
At least some elements of the Kurdish YPG, the militant arm of the main Kurdish political body in Syria, are now operating with the Russian military in support of the regime of Bashar Assad and his Iranian backers.
Apparently not Kurdish.ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's interior minister on Sunday identified the suicide bomber who killed four foreign tourists in Istanbul as a militant with links to the Islamic State group.
Minister Efkan Ala said the bomber was Turkish citizen Mehmet Ozturk, who was born in 1992 in Gaziantep province, which borders Syria. He said Ozturk wasn't on any list of wanted suspects and five other people were detained as part of the investigation.
naima said:The problem in our democracies is that the candidates are allowed to lie before. I am not sure to vote anymore.
naima said:But in the reality those who will decide for you will always belong to the same priviligied clan.
No family in politics, but many US Presidents meet that standard, including all three GOP candidates. Otherwise, Obama's background includes elite private prep school, Ivy League college and law school, Chicago machine politician and organizer.nikkkom said:Obama is a counterexample...
Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach."One of the main lessons was that I never saw any Islam in this affair. No will to improve the world. Only lost, frustrated, suicidal, easily manipulated youths.
"They had the misfortune of being born in the era that the Islamic State exists. It is very sad. They are youngsters who are looking for something and that is what they found."
Astronuc said:Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach.
Like the leadership of many cults.Astronuc said:...
Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach.
Daesh and their affiliates achieve new lows in depravity.Their targeting of Jews is as clear as it is for any other terror group from Hamas to al-Qaeda to the mullahs in Tehran: they want to wipe Israel off the map and seize Al-Aqsa for Muslims. ISIS’ war in the Sinai, infiltration in Gaza and its goal of carving “pathways” through Jordan and Lebanon are critical cogs in their strategy to be the ones to “liberate” Jerusalem. According to an ISIS e-book, “Black Flags from Palestine,” they think the final confrontation with the antichrist will be at Ben Gurion International Airport.
When noting ISIS’ broader attacks against Christians, recent events have grimly underscored the group’s special targeting of Catholics.
The sacking of Rome and the Holy See, after all, is essential to their apocalyptic game plan.
TheAustrian said:Maybe the best solution would be to split Iraq in three. One piece for Kurds, one piece for Sunnis, and one piece for the Shi'ite people. Of course I think it should happen at an international negotiation table with the involvement of: Kurds, Sunni Iraqis, Shi'ite Iraqis, Iran, Syria, USA, Russia and China.
Yes, bloody. One could just as well say the partition of India "is", but that it did not "work".klimatos said:It worked in India, but it was very, very bloody...
Estimates of the dead vary from 200,000 (the contemporary British figure) to two million (a later Indian estimate) but that somewhere around a million people died is now widely accepted.
Pro-government forces aided by Russian air support, make life even more difficult for the 300,000 Syrians still living there.The bloodied, dust-covered face of Omran Daqneesh, the five-year-old Syrian boy recovered from the rubble left by an airstrike this week, has shocked the world.
Omran has become a symbol of the ongoing civil war in Syria, but he is just one of an estimated 75,000 children fighting to survive in eastern Aleppo, the divided and once-great city at the heart of the struggle between the regime of Bashar Assad and the rebels attempting to oust him.
The unrest in Iraq and Syria can be attributed to a combination of factors, including political and religious divisions, economic disparity, and external influence. The invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, and the ongoing Syrian Civil War have all contributed to the current state of unrest in the region.
ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh are all acronyms for the same extremist group that has gained control over parts of Iraq and Syria. ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, while ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Daesh is an Arabic term that is used to refer to the group in a derogatory manner. The group has also been referred to as the Islamic State (IS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
ISIS/ISIL/Daesh has been able to gain power in Iraq and Syria due to a combination of factors, including the power vacuum created by the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the ongoing civil war in Syria, and the group's ability to exploit sectarian and ethnic divisions in the region. Additionally, the group has been able to gain resources and recruits through its control of oil fields and its use of social media to spread its message.
The unrest in Iraq and Syria has had a significant impact on the region and the world. It has resulted in the displacement of millions of people, destabilized neighboring countries, and led to a humanitarian crisis. The rise of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh has also posed a threat to global security, with the group carrying out terrorist attacks in various countries.
The international community has taken various measures to address the situation in Iraq and Syria, including military intervention, providing humanitarian aid, and supporting diplomatic efforts to find a resolution to the conflicts. The United Nations has also been actively involved in efforts to provide aid and facilitate peace talks. However, the situation remains complex and ongoing efforts are necessary to achieve stability and peace in the region.