Free Republic

A Minnesota man serving 20 years of supervised release for conspiring to join the Islamic State has been released from his federal halfway house. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis granted 21-year-old Abdullahi Mohamud Yusuf’s release to his family Thursday. While at the halfway house, Yusuf received counseling, mentoring and an award for being a role model to other residents. […] Yusuf was among nine Minnesota men sentenced last year for conspiring to join the militant group in Syria. …

This morning, the Islamic State’s semi-official news agency, Amaq, took credit for the Las Vegas massacre, which killed 58 and wounded another 515. The likely killer, identified by police as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, was not known to be a supporter of the Islamic State, or indeed a Muslim of any type. For now, the only evidence that the Islamic State was involved is its own assurance—first a press release announcing that a “soldier of the Islamic State” executed the concertgoers, and a follow-up for the baffled, explaining that he converted to Islam months ago. The FBI has...

The chief of the Swiss Guards, the force that protects the Vatican, has said it is only “a matter of time” before an attack that is inspired or directed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) against the home of the Catholic church. Commander Christoph Graf, speaking to Swiss Catholic news website cath.ch, said that the security force for Pope Francis is prepared for any act of extremism. “Perhaps it is only a matter of time before an attack like that happens in Rome. But we are ready also for this,” he said. Created in the 16th century, the force...

The Vatican has called an ISIS terrorist video from the Philippines threatening the life of the pope "worrying" and made vague statements about security being in ready to halt the potential attack. Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's No. 2 official, said he has seen the video of militants desecrating Christian statues and threatening the pope by saying they'll come to Rome, as they tear in half photos of him and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The video was mostly filmed in the Philippines, where ISIS has been clashing with government forces for control of the city...

The Islamic State’s (ISIL) leadership has called on its supporters in Europe to carry out attacks against Christian civilians. ISIL referred to the Christian civilians as “crusaders” and told its supporters via its social media wing that killing these people will benefit them during the month of Ramadan. The terrorist group encouraged its supporters to carry out attacks against Christian civilians using vehicles, guns, or knives. This is not the first time that the terrorist group has encouraged its supporters to carry out attacks during holidays; however, this has certainly raised security concerns in Europe, especially after the Manchester attack.

A former Obama administration official at the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that when it comes to the Islamic State slaughtering Egyptian Christians, “what goes around, comes around.” In a tweet posted Sunday, Mohamed Elibiary, who formerly served as senior member of the DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council, stated, “Reading ISIS’s latest mag ‘otherizing’ Egypt’s Copts. Subhanallah how what goes around comes around. Coptic ldrs did same to MB Egyptians.” “Subhanallah” is Arabic for “Glory to Allah,” and so in this tweet, Elibiary is expressing praise to Allah for the fact that ISIS is killing Egyptian Christians as apparent...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he does not see a role for the United States in Libya apart from defeating Daesh militants. “I do not see a role in Libya. I think the United States has right now enough roles. We’re in a role everywhere. So I do not see that,” Trump said during a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “I do see a role in getting rid of ISIS [Daesh], we’re very effective in that regard … I see that as a primary role and that’s what we’re going to do, whether it’s in...

ISIS jihadis have reportedly launched an attack on a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) base just 20 miles away from the air base targeted by US president Donald Trump. Trump’s strikes saw 59 Tomahawk missiles rain down on the airbase – believed to have been used for chemical weapon attacks by the Syrian government which killed at least 80 people. ISIS, also known as Daesh, has attempted to take advantage of the chaos caused by the President’s strikes, launching a powerful offensive on a military base in Al Furqlus, pro-Syrian news site Al-Masdar claimed. Homs governor Talal Barazi claimed the airbase...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has released a list of 78 attacks it describes as “executed or inspired by” the Islamic State group.</p> <p>The White House says most did not get sufficient attention.</p> <p>The list includes incidents like a truck massacre in Nice, France, that killed dozens and received widespread attention, as well as less high-profile incidents in which nobody was killed.</p>

AMMAN — Royal Air Force jets on Friday destroyed various targets of the Daesh terrorist group in southern Syria, a Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army statement said Saturday, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra. One of the targets was a military site that previously belonged to the Syrian army and was seized by Daesh, the statement said, adding that the attack was dedicated to the memory of those who died in the line of duty in the war against terrorism. The Royal Air Force’s unmanned jet fighter planes destroyed ammunition warehouses, a structure designated to customising and booby-trapping vehicles and...

Trump has hit back after two sentaors criticised his executive order on travel The President took to Twitter to criticise Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham after they released a statement warning about the potential counterproductive effects of Trump’s executive order on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump tweeted: “The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong - they are sadly weak on immigration. “The two Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.”

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Pentagon to submit a plan for the defeat of Daesh to him in the next 30 days. The order, signed the afternoon of January 28 in the Oval Office, calls for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to present the new president with a plan to defeat the terrorist organization in 30 days. 

Egypt announced that 151 ISIS terrorists are behind bars, after conspiring to kill the country’s president and other prominent figures. Failed video link You tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijWHPZrG7m4

Islamic State group may be teetering on the brink of collapse but the jihadists are creating an entire new generation of would-be terrorists, according to a book written by a French Catholic priest describing the daily lives of three young boys. The Yazidi children -- forced into training camps by IS -- spend their days studying the Koran and learning to fire automatic weapons and even have their own custom-made bomb belts. "The Daesh (another term for IS) training camps are machines that crush children until they forget where they come from" and "feel close to their torturers, ready to...

A tomb had been desecrated and statue of the Virgin Mary was decapitated at the St Addai Chaldean Catholic churchThere were gasps, followed by tears at a small church in northern Iraq as a group of Christians returned to their parish Sunday to find that everything had been destroyed, including the statue of the Virgin Mary, which ISIS militants had decapitated before they left. A confessional had been turned into a closet, a tomb had been desecrated, red prayer benches were burned. As Fr Thabet Habib recited prayers at the St Addai Chaldean Catholic Church, the sound of broken glass...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went on state television early Monday to announce that the crucial battle to end Islamic State’s ruinous reign of terror in Mosul and western Iraq had finally begun. “Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh,” al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL. Shortly before the prime minister told Iraqis that “God willing, we will win,” two Canadian generals who are privy to the battle plans said they were convinced the end of the hardline jihadists in Iraq was inevitable and fast approaching....

ISIS previously has used commerical, off-the-shelf drones for surveillance and to deliver ordnance, and now it is is using drones to deliver explosives, Colonel John Dorrian, the spokesman for U.S. military operations in Iraq, told reporters on Wednesday. He confirmed that one enemy drone exploded after it was shot down: “We know that there was an improvised device on a — on a — a drone. And when that was brought back to the camp, it exploded. So, the reason or the way or the manner in which that happened — still digging into that.” Dorrian said the drones have...

According to a report from Iraqi News, the Islamic State staged the public execution of six youths from a “resistance faction” in Mosul by handcuffing them and then killing them with a welding machine, before a large crowd of onlookers. “This came in order to create a state of fear and panic among the people,” said a source from within Mosul. The Toronto Sun explains that the Islamic State often uses the term “resistance group” to describe groups of young people who spray graffiti on the walls of occupied cities. Fox News reported the six boys, whose exact ages are...

Frightening footage has emerged purporting to show Kurdish security forces removing an explosive belt from an alleged Islamic State teenage suicide bomber moments before it was about to be detonated in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday. The chilling scene, caught on camera and uploaded to YouTube by Kurdish channel Kurdistan24, shows the boy’s hands being held by two law enforcement officers as another member of the security establishment attempts to disarm the device. Wearing a Barcelona football shirt before it was cut off, the boy, believed to be 12 or 13 years old, according to Kurdish media...