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And that’s not a good sign, in case readers wonder. The initial air strikes in Syria ordered by Barack Obama included a number of targets near Aleppo that focused on the Khorasan group, chartered by so-called core al-Qaeda to refocus attacks on Western aviation in particular. US intelligence sources tell Eli Lake at the Daily Beast that the bombmakers of Khorasan had worked to develop non-metallic bombs, including clothing seeped in explosive compounds, that could pass through airport detection systems. In the weeks [see update] before the airstrikes, however, the terrorist group “went dark,” just as intelligence officials thought...

Abu Yousef al-Turki, a key al-Nusra Front leader, has been killed in Syrian airstrikes, the group said in a statement. In the statement, which initially was posted on Twitter, the group says al-Turki (i.e. “the Turk”) was killed in U.S.-led airstrikes Tuesday. The statement was accompanied with an alleged proof-of-death photo, CNN reported.

For the last three days, United States and French warplanes have shelled the Sinjar city center and the surrounding areas in northern Iraq. According to sources from Peshmerga forces in the area, as a result of Tuesday night airstrikes on the Yezidi majority town, sixteen Islamic State (IS) militants have been killed along with the destruction of ten IS-stolen Humvees. The Peshmerga source also told BasNews that after the attacks, as an act of revenge, the Islamic insurgents burned about 60 houses in Sinjar. The source also revealed that the Jihadi group has planted IEDs in some neighborhoods in Sinjar....

The U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria hit suspected extremist sites near the country's border with Iraq Wednesday, local residents and a monitoring group said. At least 13 air raids were carried out by non-Syrian aircraft against sites on the outskirts of the town of Albukamal, near the Syrian-Iraqi frontier, the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Purported Islamic State positions also were hit overnight near Menbej, in the northeastern province of Aleppo, the Observatory said. The airstrikes near Albukamal began at 10 a.m. local time and the buzz of reconnaissance aircraft flying overhead could...

The US launched another round of airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, but the diplomatic action may shift to the UN, where Barack Obama is looking to add to his coalition of the willing. The Pentagon announced the new strikes by proclaiming that the US and its current partners are on offense — and like ISIS, aren’t paying much attention to the border between Iraq and Syria: “It’s an offensive campaign now,” Rear Admiral John Kirby said Wednesday morning on CNN. “We’re not going to be constrained by that border between Iraq and Syria.”Two strikes targeted an ISIS staging area...

See if you can spot it. He never mentions the Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL…at all. Is this letter an admission that he has yet to find legal justification to back up the airstrikes on ISIS targets? Or is this letter depending on the Authorization for Use of Military Force — which he wanted to repeal — to strike Khorasan, which is a more direct offshoot of al Qaeda than ISIS is? h/t Weasel Zippers

In his appearances this weekend on BBC and on CNN's State of the Union, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed the need to deploy ground troops in the West's military campaign to drive ISIS (or ISIL if you prefer) from Iraq and/or Syria. Blair was adamant that air strikes alone could not defeat the ISIS insurgents, "You certainly need to fight groups like ISIS on the ground." These words will not be received well by those of the political left, who have adopted a drive-by mentality to war over the past few decades, deluding themselves into believing airstrikes alone...

A brief but important follow-up to Ed’s item this morning. You probably don’t recognize the name in the headline; until recently, I didn’t either. In fact, the name of the Khorasan Group itself wasn’t leaked to the media until last week, although James Clapper had alluded months ago to unnamed AQ operatives inside Syria wanting to hit the U.S. from afar.Turns out al-Fadhli has been on U.S. intel’s radar for a loooong time, though. And now he’s dead — maybe. Among the Al Nusrah Front positions targeted in the bombings are locations where members of the so-called “Khorasan group”...

MOSCOW — As the United States launches airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, Russia is condemning the move, and hedging support for the attacks so long as they proceed without the Syrian government’s consent. The Kremlin has no trouble with the intended target — like the United States, Russia wants the Islamic State destroyed and thinks it must be defeated in Syria and Iraq. But as Syria’s unofficial patron and interlocutor in international discussions about how to confront the Islamic State, Russia is insistent that U.S. measures to target militants in Syria lack authority without buy-in from Syrian President...

No link now, they are just announcing it now.

merican airstrikes against ISIS targets are under way in Syria, according to a Pentagon official. "I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL [ISIS] terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time. The decision to conduct theses strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. We will...

.... Dozens of insurgent militants have been killed and wounded in the clashes, the source said, adding that in a single incident, a warplane bombed a position of IS militants in Sicher area, leaving 13 militants killed, including their local leader. In Salahudin province, heavy air strikes continued against positions of the Islamic State militants in and near the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The air strikes, which some believed to be carried out by U.S. warplanes, started after midnight and continued to the...

BAGHDAD: France carried out its first air strike against the Islamic State group in Iraq on Friday, boosting US-led efforts to unite the world against the growing threat posed by the Jihadists. More than a decade after Paris famously refused to back the invasion of Iraq, France became the first nation to join the US campaign of air strikes in the war-torn country. “This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorist organisation (IS),” President Francois Hollande said. His office said the target was in northeastern Iraq, without specifying exactly...

French military planes have killed a large number of Islamic State (IS) insurgents west of Mosul. An intelligence source near Mosul told Iraqi local media that on Saturday, 75 IS militants were killed in an attack by the French warplanes. The source said that French planes have been shelling IS air defense bases. According to the source, IS insurgents have started to transfer their military bases to protect themselves from US and French air strikes. On Friday, French military planes launched their first air strikes against IS militants in Mosul. This followed orders from French President Fracios Hollande’s for his...

Brett LoGiuratoSeptember 19, 2014France's military conducted its first airstrike in Iraq, becoming the first foreign country in addition to the US to strike the extremist group calling itself the Islamic State (also ISIS or ISIL) in the country. French President Francois Hollande said in a statement the strike, which was conducted around 9:40 a.m. local time Friday, destroyed a logistics depot held by ISIS in northeastern Iraq. He promised more operations would continue "in the coming days." Rafale fighter jets "conducted a first strike against a supply depot terrorist organization Daech in north-eastern Iraq. The goal was reached and destroyed,"...

AFP file photo of an entryway to Mosul. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Major military preparations are underway by Islamic State (IS) militants in their stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq in anticipation of a major assault by US and Kurdish forces, according to sources inside. The militants are in full military gear and seen digging trenches and building barriers, said a source in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province. They are also reinforcing defenses on major roads connecting Iraq’s second-largest city to Kurdish-held areas.  Fighters – particularly foreign jihadis – are believed to have been deployed around the city, said...

PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Friday its jets had launched strikes inside Iraq for the first time since the country promised to join military action against Islamic State insurgents who have taken over parts of the country. "This morning at 9:40 (0740 GMT) our Rafale jets launched a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorists," said a statement from President Francois Hollande's office on Friday shortly after the raids.

Baghdad: Over 100 people were killed and 79 others wounded in Iraq Thursday in US air strikes and clashes between the Iraqi security forces and insurgent militants, including those with the Islamic State(IS), officials and security sources said. In Iraq`s northern province of Nineveh, US airstrikes hit an IS training centre at the college of agriculture in Hamam al-Alil area, some 25 km south of Nineveh`s provincial capital Mosul, leaving 59 militants dead and some 70 others wounded, according to the head of the security committee of Nineveh`s provincial council. "Some of the dead and wounded were recruits who...

WASHINGTON (CNN) —The U.S. military has everything it needs to strike ISIS inside Syria and is awaiting President Barack Obama's authorization to do so, U.S. military officials tell CNN. For weeks, intelligence and military targeting specialists have been working around the clock on a list of targets. It's expected the list will be presented to the President one more time, with some analysis of the risks of bombing inside Syria, as well as possible rewards in terms of destroying and degrading ISIS, according to the officials. It is most likely that the target list will be broadly described to the...

A man who’s a better speechwriter than his speechwriters, a better political director than his political directors, and who knows more about policy than his policy advisors must surely also be a better general than his generals, no? The U.S. military campaign against Islamist militants in Syria is being designed to allow President Barack Obama to exert a high degree of personal control, going so far as to require that the military obtain presidential signoff for strikes in Syrian territory, officials said.The requirements for strikes in Syria against the extremist group Islamic State will be far more stringent than...