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Isis has “fully operational branches” in 18 countries, a leaked briefing document received by the White House has revealed. The briefing map suggests a three-fold increase in the number of areas the terror group are operating in around the globe. Previous US State Department documents from 2014 stated Isis were only active in seven nations….. ….It identifies the Isis “core” states of Syria and Iraq along with nations where it has “official branches”, including Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Caucasus area to the south of Russia. The map also shows “aspiring branches”...

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, speaking at a discussion with all the service chiefs before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, told the crowd that ISIS “looked an awful lot like something much more than a terrorist group.” August 2014, the United States looked at ISIS only as a terrorist group and developed a military strategy to take on ISIS as a terrorist group. The Obama Regime--or its Ghost writer Ben Rhodes--mistakenly called ISIS the JV squad, ignoring the possibility that the group was developing an infrastructure and a government. Obama advisors also failed to...

Zafaran roundabout in the Libyan city of Sirte used to be one of the best spots for local businesses to advertise. Today, however, the message that they carry is not one that passing motorists care to linger over. With Colonel Gaddafi's home city now firmly in the grip of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants, the billboards' rusting black gantries are now used for crucifixions of anyone accused of "spying" against the regime. The corpses of murdered suspects are strung up as a graphic warning to others, with the victims' families then prevented from retrieving their bodies...

The full scale of Islamic State's influence can today be laid bare as it's revealed dozens of terror groups worldwide have pledged their allegiance to the barbaric extremists. From militia lurking in the jungles of the Philippines to sleeper cells training in the deserts of Libya, a vast array of groups are now claiming to be operating alongside the jihadis' notorious black and white banner. It is clear the groups have little in common except their desire to establish their own kingdoms governed by a traditional interpretation of Sharia law. But they are united by one other common principle -...

Islamic State fighters have captured swathes of eastern Afghanistan in a drive to establish a new province of the group's self-styled caliphate on territory straddling the border with Pakistan. Up to 1,600 fighters pledging allegiance to Isis are ruling much of four districts south of Jalalabad with the same ruthlessness that characterises the group's regime in Syria and Iraq: public beheadings, strict adherence to Koranic teachings foreign to Afghanistan, and extortion.

The Islamic State's caliphate turns one year old on June 29, and few inside its domains, aside from the true believers who have traveled all over the world to live in the Islamic promised land, are likely to be celebrating. Like all totalitarian states, it has swiftly established for its citizens an environment of oppression and fear, supported (in a new twist) not by a personality cult centered upon the specter of a ubiquitous, all-seeing, all-knowing leader, but by the guilt-manipulation of religious duty. Obey the Islamic State's dictates, no matter how egregious, or else you'll not just be tortured...

Speaking via telephone to the summit he was scheduled to attend before his bike accident scrubbed those plans, Kerry forcefully pushed back against any notion that ISIS is a state, despite the group's broad territorial gains. Kerry spoke about the need to "maintain momentum in the battle of ideas," according to excerpts from the call provided by the State Department. "One way is to expose at every opportunity the false nature of Daesh's claim to be the Islamic State. In reality, Daesh is no more a state than I am a helicopter," Kerry said, using another name for ISIS widely...

It is hardly surprising that many Americans see ISIS as a vastly more brutal, more threatening version of Al Qaeda -- especially given the many Republican presidential candidates climbing over each other with plans to obliterate the group. But the perception is mistaken. While Al Qaeda’s strategy focuses on catastrophic attacks against the United States, ISIS seeks to capture and hold territory for its caliphate and to stoke a sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia. The group has no known experience carrying out long-distance covert operations, and no senior federal official has yet pointed to any ISIS plotting against the...

WASHINGTON — THE fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday, and of the Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, is a big gain for the Islamic State, but not an utter disaster, as many observers fear. Rather than inducing panic in Western capitals, it should lead to a realistic assessment of the Islamic State’s strengths and weaknesses. One setback in a long war must not trigger hasty strategic shifts that lead to foreign countries’ becoming mired in Iraq once more. Palmyra has economic and cultural significance, as it sits among gas fields and is home to renowned ruins....

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Almost a year after Islamic State's shock capture of Mosul, Iraq's second city, the black flags of the jihadis have been raised over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, seat of IraqÂ’s increasingly theoretical central government. Nobody talks of Mosul or recapturing it from Islamic State. It is a forgotten city. Now it is all about the fall of Ramadi, the neighbouring ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in central Syria and beyond - the Libyan city of Sirte, hometown of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. To the eyes of many in the region,...

US President Barack Obama has said he will not allow jihadists to carve out a "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq. On Friday, the US began launching air strikes on fighters of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq. Mr Obama said there would be further air strikes if necessary but no US military operation on the ground.