Free Republic

Syria's army has been pounding for 24 hours major bases of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in coordination with the Baghdad government, a monitor said Sunday. The strikes against ISIL -- which has spearheaded a week-long jihadist offensive in Iraq -- have been more intense than ever, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "The regime air force has been pounding ISIL's bases, including those in the northern province of Raqa and Hasakeh in the northeast," which borders Iraq, said the Britain-based group.

The jihadist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has become a powerful military force, wreaking havoc throughout Iraq. But ISIS is more powerful than just its estimated 10,000 fighters and ever-expanding weapons cache: It is also believed to control $2 billion in total assets. The Guardian reports that the group, whose actions in Iraq could derail the world economy, began its sizable cash reserves with the acquisition of oilfields in eastern Syria. From there, ISIS grew its treasury by smuggling antiquities and resources out of the embattled state. The Guardian said the details were discovered from a trove...

Syrian and Iraqi terrorist forces obtained significant numbers of tanks, trucks, and U.S.-origin Humvees in recent military operations in Iraq and those arms are being shipped to al Qaeda rebels in Syria, according to U.S. officials. U.S. intelligence agencies reported this week that photos of the equipment transfers were posted online by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, the ultra-violent terror group that broke away from al Qaeda but shares its goals and philosophy.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)One U.S. lawmaker firmly believes the United States should keep its sons and daughters out of Iraq's increasingly tangled and bloody conflict. "I'm not willing to send my son into that mess," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on Sunday. Appearing on "State of the Union," Paul acknowledged that while the chaos in Iraq intensifies by the day, he believes advances by jihadist Sunni militants on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite government forces do not pose an immediate threat to U.S. national security. Though he refused to rule out some kind of U.S. assistance, Paul...

Sunni militants have reportedly captured two more key border crossings, to Jordan and Syria, in western Iraq. The rebels, who include Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) fighters, now control three border crossings in Anbar province, Iraq's largest. Meanwhile, in the north, reports say the airport in the town of Tal Afar has also fallen to the rebels. The militants' gains in large parts of western and northern Iraq have alarmed the international community. They have taken four strategically important towns in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province - Qaim, on the Syrian border, and Rutba, Rawa and Anah...

(If you go to the site, you might want to mute the sound on the first VIDEO, it is accompanied by Islamic song.) The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) doesn’t have designs on just Iraq and Syria. It has published maps in which its envisioned Islamic state encompasses not just those two countries, but also Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Cyprus, parts of Turkey, and (of course) Israel. But it doesn’t stop there, either. Clearly ISIS plans to mount jihad terror attacks in the United States – and there are numerous indications that such an attack could come sooner rather...

Tensions mount in Iraq as Mahdi Army put on show of force in Baghdad featuring missiles, bazookas and assault rifles while Isis seize key Syria border crossing. Baghdad's biggest Shia Muslim faction staged a show of force in face of the Isis threat to the Iraqi capital on Saturday, in a parade that stretched for several miles, featuring missiles, bazookas, hi-tech assault rifles and artillery. As tens of thousands of uniformed men marched through the streets, loudspeakers proclaimed how they would defend Iraq from the Sunni jihadists rampaging through the north of the country. This pageant of armed might, however,...

Lost in the flurry of rambling threats to Iraq’s Shiite community during its surprise military blitz last week, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) issued an even bolder statement: a call to arms in Jordan. Emboldened by its impressive gains in Iraq and southern Syria, the former Al Qaeda affiliate took to social media to announce that it would “soon bring the Islamic state” to “brothers in Jordan”. According to senior ISIL-linked Jordanian jihadists, the former Al Qaeda affiliate has reportedly pumped $3 million (Dh 11m) into Jordan in the past month for “recruitment purposes” and to...

CW Punches Itself: How great can the Dems' Latino-based demographic lock on White House be if they're doomed if Hillary doesn't run?

Iraq's Shi'ite rulers defied Western calls on Tuesday to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the uprising in the north of the country, declaring a boycott of Iraq's main Sunni political bloc and accusing Sunni power Saudi Arabia of promoting "genocide". Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for supporting militants in the past, but the severe language was unprecedented. On Monday Riyadh blamed sectarianism in Baghdad for fuelling the violence.

JERUSALEM – Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials. The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq. The Jordanian officials said all ISIS members who received U.S. training to fight in Syria were first vetted for any...

President Barack Obama told Congress on Monday the United States was deploying up to 275 military personnel to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the country's embassy in Baghdad after militants seized control of the north of the country.

State Department counterterrorism officials warned in late April that Iran had “trained, funded, and provided guidance” to ethnic Iraqi terror groups bent on destabilizing the country. The April warning appears to directly contradict and undermine comments last week by a State Department spokeswoman claiming that the United States and Iran have a “shared interest.” As Iraqi militants continue to wage attacks and seize territory, the State Department has signaled that it is willing to work with neighboring Iran to stabilize the country. They have even raised the idea of discussing Iraq on the sidelines of the ongoing nuclear discussions taking...

Men young and old piled into taxis, trucks, police vehicles and minibuses and drove noisily through the streets, honking horns and waving an assortment of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, high-powered sniper rifles, Kalashnikov assault rifles and handguns. “Daiish we will never surrender,” chanted a group of young men piled on the back of a pick-up truck, using an acronym for the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which carried out a stunningly swift seizure of large swaths of northern Iraq last week. “We want to show the world that we can protect ourselves,” said Khodr al-Tamimi, a turbaned...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Oil industry analysts are warning a brewing civil war between Islamic militants in Iraq could potentially send gas prices soaring here in the Southland. KNX 1070′s Pete Demetriou reports the price of crude oil has shot up to $107 per barrel – the highest in 10 months – on reports that soldiers with the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria captured two towns in an ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad.

As America looks on in a state of paralyzed shock, Muslims are slaughtering Muslims in Iraq, with reports that the heads of those decapitated are literally piling up in the streets. A headline to an article in the Daily Mail reads, “‘They lined the streets with the decapitated heads of police and soldiers’: Iraqi refugee reveals the horrors of the jihadi takeover as Baghdad vows to fight back.” In response to this report, and with sarcastic guns ablaze, Robert Spencer quotes the Quran and then adds his comments, “‘So when you meet those who disbelieve, strike necks…’ (Qur’an 47:4) But...

Many residents of Mosul say they prefer life under ISIS to that under Iraqi army control Less than one week ago the jihadists seized control of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, where they have set to work imposing the hardline rules and summary justice of their “Islamic State”. In the Sunni dominated city, the removal of the Iraqi army by ISIS has been interpreted as a local victory; as a means of empowering Mosul residents against ...the Shia dominated national government who they feel has kept their people “oppressed”. But the crises in northern Iraq is now less one of a...

Every time I think Obama hits a new low, he seems to slink lower, even hours later. As Obama pursues “intense” diplomacy, which will probably includ at least 36 holes of golf this weekend, Iran is sending troops into Iraq to fight alongside our supposed Iraqi government allies. “In recent days,” reports CNN, “Iran has sent about 500 Revolutionary Guard troops to fight alongside Iraqi government security forces in Diyala province, a senior security official in Baghdad told CNN.” Contrast that with the administration’s actions: They evacuated three planeloads of contractors that were supposed to be supporting the Iraqi military....

Iraq's prime minister on Saturday threatened his nation’s troops with execution if they had abandoned their posts in the face of a blitz attack by Islamic militants who swept through northern provinces this week. Speaking to a group of army officers in a televised address from the central city of Samarra, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised accountability and punishment for any soldiers who had contributed Tuesday to the swift fall of Mosul, one of the nation’s largest cities, as well as other areas in the country.

ISTANBUL — The likely breakup of Iraq into feuding ethnic and sectarian bastions accelerated Friday as Iraq’s senior Shiite Muslim cleric broke years of support for the central government and decreed that every able-bodied Shiite man had a religious obligation to defend the sect’s holy sites from rebellious Sunni Muslims led by fighters from the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In answer to the call, thousands of Shiites many with militia experience from the sectarian war that pitted Sunnis against Shiites and killed thousands from 2006 to 2008 flooded the cities of Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala to receive...