Free Republic

Iran’s Supreme Leader has accused the U.S. of creating and supporting ISIS as a means of creating conflict among Muslims and promoting a false form of Islam in the world. In an English language Twitter account affiliated with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the country’s highest authority, tweeted: US aim of making & backing DAESH is to sow discord in Islamic Ummah, defame true Islam & promote Wahabbi Islam which is far from true Islam.

In its latest issue of Dabiq magazine, “Break the cross,” the Islamic State is encouraging attacks against Christians, urging its “hidden soldiers” in the West to unleash attacks “without delay.” In opening, Dabiq 15 references recent attacks by jihadis in the United States (Orlando), France, Germany and Bangladesh, before suggesting the “cross-worshipers and democratic pagans of the West” should contemplate the “reasons behind the animosity and enmity held by Muslims for Westerners,” and should therefore repent by abandoning Christianity and “accepting Islam. Attacking Christians: A general anti-Christian theme continues throughout the publication, with interviews from American, Canadian, Finnish, Trinidadian and...

The Islamic State has confirmed the death of Omar al-Shishani, a senior ISIS commander who was mistakenly reported dead in March. In a posting on its Amaq newswire, the militant group said Shishani was “martyred in #Shirqat as he participated in clashes to repel the campaign against the city of #Mosul.”

In a celebratory infographic posted online, the Islamic State is claiming major victory in killing and injuring up to 5,200 people over the holy month of Ramadan. The infographic, lauding the "results" of a bloodthirsty Ramadan, published by ISIS’ Al Naba weekly magazine notes the 14 terror attacks around the globe attributed to ISIS including the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida and the Dhaka, Bangladesh bakery attack. They also mention the Magnanville, France stabbing of a police officer and his wife and a suicide bomb attack that killed 14 Nepalese soldiers who worked at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul,...

ISIS is now issuing its own currency referred to as the ‘Golden Dinar,’ with engravings bearing the words “Islamic State.” The coins, currently being released in limited quantity, are to primarily be used by traders in the oil industry in areas under Islamic State control, according to reports on jihadi online forums. Activists in Deir ez-Zor, Syria reported oil traders have been ordered to use the new Dinar when purchasing from ISIS-held oil fields. Reports from the Iraqi city of Mosul have indicated the Golden Dinar is being introduced to the currency market as part of a serious attempt to...

Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has published a guide urging jihadis to carry out more ‘lone wolf’ operations in the U.S. following the deadly terror attack in Orlando earlier this month and to set their sights on the targeting of white Americans. The publication, “Inspire guide: Orlando operation,” which seeks to capitalize on the terror attack carried out by gunman Omar Mateen who pledged allegiance to ISIS, plainly encourages extremists to attack Americans. While Mateen chose to target what the guide refers to as a “homosexual nightclub,” noting that killing gay people is “the most binding duty and...

A mob of over a thousand Islamic extremists attacked a Christian village destroying property and setting the homes of over 80 families ablaze over rumors that a Coptic man was converting a home into a church. The attacks, which took place Friday in Egypt’s Qaryat Al-Bayda village, near Alexandria, left two Copts seriously injured and resulted in thousands of dollars worth of damage, according to a Coptic activist. "A great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in front of the new house of my cousin," Mousa Zarif, a Christian who witnessed the events, told Christian advocacy group International Christian Concern.

An elderly Christian man living in Raqqa, Syria, faced forced conversion to Islam as he can no longer afford to pay the minority or jizya tax, a penalty enforced by the Islamic State to minorities living under its jurisdiction. In a video posted by the terror group’s Amaq news platform, a man identifying himself as Mostafa Abu Alzer recites the “Shahada,” the declaration required to enter the Islamic faith, while also stating that his conversion is of his own free will.

An angry war of words has erupted between Greece and Turkey after Turkish authorities permitted a daily Koran reading to be broadcast from Turkey’s famous Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral. Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began Monday. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move in a statement calling it “bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”

Iran is using a commercial airliner with ties to the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to ferry fighters and weapons to Syria. Sanctioned by the United States for its support of terrorism, Mahan Air operates regular flights from Tehran to Dusseldorf and Munich. But now German politicians are seeking to ban the airline for its alleged ties to Iran's regime. With a fleet of over 50 aircraft, Mahan Air has been making secret trips to Syria since August 2015 and has been delivering weapons and fighters from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon to support and reinforce Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s...

There are some resemblances to a traditional children’s carnival. The children are dressed in beautiful, bright colors. Young girls are bearing flowers in their hair, and the children moving around to loud, fun music, waving flags and singing songs. The one exception at this children’s festival in Gaza is that the songs, musical acts and dances are about guns, bombs and killing Israeli soldiers. It’s the eighth annual Khan Yunis festival and hundreds of young children seated in a stadium watch the show—one in which other children dance around role playing the killing of Israeli citizens, the waving of guns...

An American husband and wife team who traveled to Syria to join ISIS and recruit Westerns have been killed in an airstrike, according to jihadi social media accounts. The bodies of Abu Isa al-Amriki and Umm Isa al-Amriki, as they were referred to, were discovered in the rubble of their home in Aleppo province Friday. The couple actively recruited and communicated with potential recruits, answering questions and guiding others traveling from the West to join ISIS. The Foreign Desk previously reported on the wife’s activities, focusing on mentoring only young women, writing on her social media account, “My account is...

Islamic State militants in Iraq have blown up the remnants of the prestigious Latin Church, dubbed the "Clock Church" for its prominent clock tower in central Mosul, according to the Patriarch of the Chaldeans, Louis Raphael Sacco. Militants cordoned off areas surrounding the church and looted the building for profitable artifacts and antiquities before destroying the remaining parts with explosives, an Iraqi Christian community leader confirmed to The Foreign Desk. The Clock Church, which had its clock tower gifted in 1873 to Iraqi Christians by Napoleon III’s wife, French Empress Eugénie, became a target of ISIS attacks in February 2015,...

An app featuring news from outlawed terror group The Afghan Taliban is available for download on The Google Play Store, The Foreign Desk has discovered. It offers users access to the latest news, official statements, propaganda videos and songs from the authorized website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The app is labeled with an “Everyone 10+” content rating, one that Google categorizes as “generally suitable for ages 10 and up, and could contain "fantasy or mild violence.” It appears to have been uploaded in the past day, and although there are currently no statistics on downloads, the Google Play...

Hamas has removed all traces of Muslim Brotherhood signage and banners from the streets of Gaza in an attempt to repair relations between the terror group and one-time supporter Egypt, according to Saudi media sources. It is believed that removing all Muslim Brotherhood slogans and visible propaganda, including pictures of the terror group’s founder Hassan Al-Banna and former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, indicate a further distancing of Hamas from the core of the Sunni Islamist movement and are connected to an agreement made last week between the group and Egyptian leaders. Logos and images, some that had been there for...

A detachment of U.S. Marines is on the ground in Iraq to support U.S. and coalition efforts against Islamic State, the U.S. military said on Sunday. A group of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, will add to the U.S. forces already in Iraq battling Islamic State, it said.

North Korea's supreme court sentenced American student Otto Warmbier to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state, China's Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was detained by the North in January for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in Pyongyang and had confessed to crimes against the state, North Korean media said previously.

Pressure is mounting on the Obama administration to take action following a unanimous Congressional vote Monday approving a resolution to designate the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Mid East by the Islamic State as “genocide.” The resolution, which passed in the House in a 383-0 vote, comes ahead of a March 17 deadline requiring Secretary of State John Kerry to announce a final decision. The designation would legally categorize the targeting, torture, uprooting and slaughtering of Christians, Yazidis and Kurds as "genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity." For the executive branch to officially take a position...

If Western countries were ever in denial about their citizens going abroad to fight alongside the Islamic State, as the old saying goes, “The devil is in the detail.” Details- lots and lots of personal details of at least 22,000 ISIS recruits who have joined the terror organization in Syria and Iraq from 51 countries including the U.S., have been leaked in a series of documents. The information, including extremists’ names, dates of birth, citizenship, phone numbers, addresses and even blood types, comes from forms that serve as admission applications foreign fighters are obligated to fill out before they are...

Jihadis in Syria are using Facebook as a marketplace to buy, sell and barter a wide variety of American-made weapons and munitions ranging from rocket launchers to machine guns. A Facebook page called "The first weapons market in the Idleb countryside" showcases posts with photographs of weapons, claimed to be CIA-supplied, inviting buyers to contact page administrators privately using popular messaging application Whatsapp to discuss sales and transactions. An AGS-17 Soviet-era grenade launcher is listed for $3,800 and below that a thermal camera made by Oregon-based company FLIR, is listed alongside posts advertising the sale of 105mm cannon shells.