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Full Title:Tied to a bed, injected with morphine to stay 'silent' and beaten so badly she couldn't walk for two months: Two Yazidi sex slaves relive the unspeakable cruelty they suffered at hands of ISIS fighters Two Yazidi women have told of the unimaginable cruelty they suffered at the hands of ISIS fighters who kept them as their sex slaves after raiding their homes in Iraq. One, a 19-year-old mother, says she allowed her first captor who 'bought her' to rape her 'whenever he wanted' because he would beat her one-year-old baby son if she resisted. Her son was the...

An oil-sales deal between Iraq and the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government is close to collapse about six months after it was signed, undermining the country’s unity as it struggles to fight Islamic State and contain an escalating financial crisis. Months of acrimony between Baghdad and Erbil, the KRG’s capital, came to a head in June, when the Kurdish side reduced the amount of oil it sold through Iraq’s state-owned Oil Marketing Company, known as SOMO, and began ramping up its independent sales of oil through the Turkish port at Ceyhan. The sales undercut an agreement struck in December that gave...

A captured ISIS “bride” has revealed the inner workings of a women’s network that’s responsible for recruiting, spying, and enforcing sexual slavery in the so-called caliphate. The U.S. military campaign against self-proclaimed Islamic State may be focused on the male fighters conducting attacks across Iraq and Syria. But the richest human intelligence source to fall into U.S. hands to date is the widow of a senior ISIS member. She is revealing details about the terror group’s inner workings—including the existence of a parallel women’s network within ISIS that’s responsible for recruitment, retention, intelligence, and sexual slavery in the so-called caliphate....

An unnamed senior Gulf official told The Telegraph “There is simply no strategic approach, ”that western powers have “a lack of coordination in selecting targets, and there is no overall plan for defeating ISIL.” America’s Middle East allies are getting frustrated that Western leaders, Obama and David Cameron, aren’t showing leadership in the fight against ISIS. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states are upset that they are being blocked by the US–aka State Department–from attacking legitimate military targets. The coalition members believe that team Obama does not have clear purpose for conducting a war against ISIS. The Arab countries...

<p>A North Carolina mother of three young children has traveled to Iraq to join the Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against ISIS terrorists.</p> <p>Samantha Johnston, 25, of Emerald Isle, N.C., is the only known American woman on the ground assisting in the fight against ISIS.</p>

Kurdish fighters and leaders are intent on carving an independent state out of Northern Iraq after they wrest back vital territory from the Islamic State "whether the U.S. likes it or not," according to American and international security forces on the ground.

When Sergeant Major Michael Jarnevic finally retires from the Army on July 8, it will be the end of a career that began in 1973 when he enlisted as a Marine and was deployed to Vietnam. He is now nearing his 60th birthday and has spent three quarters of his life fighting for his country. In fact, Sgt Major Jarnevic appears to be the last Vietnam veteran on active duty in the whole of the Army. During his 42 years of service he has served in Honduras during the Contra wars in the 80s and Kuwait in the 90s during...

By Jeff Gardner -Last August, Joseph received the news he had feared for weeks: The armies of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, had invaded the region of Sinjar in western Iraq, the place where he and tens of thousands of Yezidis had lived for centuries. When Joseph got word that ISIS fighters were headed towards his home village of Tillqasab, he panicked — although he had left years ago, his elderly father still lived in the village. Arriving at the outskirts of town, Joseph realized that he was too late — Tillqasab had already fallen...

The United States has blocked attempts by its Middle East allies to fly heavy weapons directly to the Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq, The Telegraph has learnt. Some of America’s closest allies say President Barack Obama and other Western leaders, including David Cameron, are failing to show strategic leadership over the world’s gravest security crisis for decades. They now say they are willing to “go it alone” in supplying heavy weapons to the Kurds, even if means defying the Iraqi authorities and their American backers, who demand all weapons be channelled through Baghdad. High level officials from Gulf...

<p>U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the world should be ashamed that three years after major powers approved a blueprint in Geneva to bring peace to Syria the suffering of its people is reaching new depths and the country is "on the brink of falling apart."</p>

A long-standing refugee welcoming center in conservative Idaho has found itself at the center of a campaign by adversaries seeking to force it closed, citing fears that the immigrants it hosts could include Islamist extremists. The backlash comes amid an uptick in anti-Islamic protests and advertising campaigns in the United States, including a high profile May rally outside an Arizona mosque that saw more than 200 protesters, some armed, berate Islam and its Prophet Mohammad. The newly formed Idaho group, whose 100 members plan a door-to-door information drive in July to win support for closing the refugee center in Twin...

Reports have emerged that ISIS has executed one of its top administrative officials in Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul for planning a coup against the extremist group. The Iraq Press news outlet first reported the incident on Monday, saying ISIS had executed Abu Usman al-Hassan — one of the group's commanders and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's representative in the city — on charges of conspiracy, prompting a number of Syrian and Arab fighters to withdraw toward Raqqa in protest of the execution.

A senior Israeli defense official said President Bashar al-Assad controlled just a fifth of Syria and may end up in charge of a rump state dominated by his minority Alawite sect. Israel and its neighbor Syria are long-term enemies, but the remarks by Amos Gilad, strategic adviser to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, reflect concerns by states across the region that Syria is undergoing a de facto partition after four years of civil war. "Syria is gone. Syria is dying. The funeral will be declared in due time. This Bashar Assad, he will be remembered in history textbooks as the...

We have been saying for the last two years that Turkey will invade Syria and now the media is all over the issue of a serious possible invasion by the second most powerful army in NATO: Turkey. The spark and excuse for this invasion is simple. As Kurdish rebels in northern Syria rack up wins against ISIS, Turkish media is abuzz with talk of military intervention guised under the claim to push ISIS back from the Turkish border. Erdogan vowed that Turkey would not accept a move by Syrian Kurds to set up their own state in Syria following gains...

While Islamic State was once associated with Al Qaeda, the atrocities it has committee have now banned its members from paradise, a prominent Al Qaeda terrorist warned in a publication released Monday. “While no one can deny the considerable strength and prowess of the Islamic State group [ISIS] in military terms, at the same time, the crimes it has committed against Muslims cannot simply be overlooked or forgotten with time, because in Islam there is no statute of limitations,” Adam Gadahn, the American citizen also known as Al Qaeda leader Azzam the American, stated before his death in an Al...

David Cameron today called on the BBC not to use the phrase 'Islamic State' when referring to the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria. The Prime Minister - who calls the group 'ISIL' - said Muslims would 'recoil' at the phrase being used to justify the 'perversion of a great religion'. He insisted that the battle against extremists targeting Britons around the world can be won but will require 'extraordinary resolve and patience'. Gunman Seifeddine Rezgui targeted tourists at the Tunisian beach resort of El Kantaoui near Sousse on Friday morning, killing 38 people including up to 30 British...

The Turkish military is not enthusiastic and Washington may have its doubts, but President Erdogan appears determined to set up a buffer zone.ISTANBUL—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning a military intervention into northern Syria to prevent Syrian Kurds from forming their own state there, despite concerns among his own generals and possible criticism from Washington and other NATO allies, according to reports in both pro- and anti-government media. In a speech last Friday, Erdogan vowed that Turkey would not accept a move by Syrian Kurds to set up their own state in Syria following gains by Kurdish fighters against...

Israel's embassy in France has formally complained to the French government, following an Arutz Sheva report which revealed Paris is funding at least one of the extremist organizations involved in coordinating the anti-Israel "Freedom Flotilla III" to Gaza. The flotilla is attempting to breach the IDF's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, which the 70-odd anti-Israel activists taking part claim is "illegal." In 2011, however, the UN's Palmer Report ruled that the blockade was in fact an entirely legal means for Israel to prevent weapons and rocket-making equipment from being smuggled into Gaza. Last week Arutz Sheva revealed that among the...

After MK Basal Ghattas (Joint Arab List) sent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu several letters protesting the IDF’s intention to prevent the Freedom Flotilla III, the Prime Minister is sending back letters to members of the flotilla. In his letter, Netanyahu says to flotilla members that they apparently “got lost.” “Welcome to Israel, but if it’s freedom you have in mind, maybe you meant to sail to another destination not far from here—Syria. There, the government is murdering and slaughtering its citizens daily, with the support of Iran,” the letter says. The letter lists the large amount of medical and other...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — June 28, 2015 … In response to a PR stunt using a flotilla of boats to illegally enter Gaza, paid activists supporting Hamas in Gaza will be welcomed to Israel with a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office. The letter will be given to 50 people on the boats as they are legally detained in Israeli waters and escorted to Ashdod. The letter, which will be distributed with food and drinks, reads: “Welcome to Israel! Perhaps you meant to set sail for a place not far from here – Syria.” “There the...