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Jihadi Cleric Justifies IS Beheadings: “Islam Is A Religion Of Beheading”

August 25, 2014

Jihadi Cleric Justifies IS Beheadings: “Islam Is A Religion Of Beheading,” MEMRI, August 25, 2014

(This Islamic cleric seems to understand Islam. He rejects the notion that Islam is the “religion of peace,” often touted by his fellow Islamic clerics to shield non IS Islamist jihad groups from comparison. Islam is as Islam does. — DM)

After clarifying that he is opposed to killing Muslims, bin Mahmoud continues: “As for beheading infidel Jews, Christians and ‘Alawites, as well as apostate Shi’ites, who commit crimes against the Muslims, they must be terrorized, filled with fear and beheaded without any respect. Cutting off heads is part of the tradition of the [Prophet’s] Companions. In the Koran Allah ordered to smite the infidels’ necks and encouraged the Muslims to do this. He said [in Koran 47:4], ‘When you meet those who disbelieve on the battlefield, smite at their necks until you have killed and wounded many of them…

**************

In a recent article, jihadi cleric Hussein bin Mahmoud, a prominent writer on jihadi forums, expressed support for the beheading of American journalist James Foley by a member of the Islamic State (IS). Bin Mahmoud wrote that beheading was an effective way to terrorize the enemies of Islam, and stressed that, under Islamic law, Foley was a harbi, i.e. a non-Muslim whose life was not protected by an agreement of protection. He argued further that Islam allows and encourages such acts, since it is a religion of war and fighting.

The following are excerpts from the article, as posted August 21, 2014 on the Shumoukh Al-Islam forum.

“All Scholars… Agree On The Permissibility Of Killing A Harbi Infidel”

“I don’t know what to say. My mind is perplexed by words I have read and heard from people whom I do not know how to describe!! Millions of Muslims have been killed, tortured and driven from their homes; tens of thousands of Muslim women have had their honor violated and have been sexually abused by the Americans – yet people are weeping over a Christian American harbi infidel who entered the Islamic State, knowing full well what the Islamic State is, and without a pact [of protection]. Were the soldiers of the Islamic State supposed to pat this American harbi on the back and smile at him? All scholars, without exception, agree on the permissibility of killing a harbi infidel, and agree that his blood and property are fair game. Most of them [also] agree on the permissibility of killing him if he is taken prisoner. So where does this condemnation of the IS come from?… Let it be known to all people that when a harbi enters the land of Islam without a legal pact [of protection], his property, life and progeny are fair game.

“Many Muslims are influenced by the West’s false views and its repulsive ideas, which are exported to the Islamic nation in order to weaken it and change the perception of its youth so that [the youth] become cowardly and subdued and abandon the means of power and terror, and thus create a generation that does not know fighting or the cutting of necks. Recently we saw some who are considered scholars mixing things up and deceiving the nation, changing the concepts of Islamic law to fit the plans of the enemies. We don’t know if they did this out of ignorance about some of the tenets of Islamic law, or were [simply] lying…”

“Beheading A Harbi Infidel Is A Blessed Act For Which A Muslim Is Rewarded”

“Chopping off the heads of infidels is an act whose permissibility the [Muslim] ummah agrees on. Beheading a harbi infidel is a blessed act for which a Muslim is rewarded. The [only] matter scholars disagree about is the question of transferring the head from one place to another, traveling with it and carrying it around…”

Bin Mahmoud: Jews, Christians, Shi’ites And ‘Alawites Who Committed Crimes Against The Muslims Must Be Beheaded

After clarifying that he is opposed to killing Muslims, bin Mahmoud continues: “As for beheading infidel Jews, Christians and ‘Alawites, as well as apostate Shi’ites, who commit crimes against the Muslims, they must be terrorized, filled with fear and beheaded without any respect. Cutting off heads is part of the tradition of the [Prophet’s] Companions. In the Koran Allah ordered to smite the infidels’ necks and encouraged the Muslims to do this. He said [in Koran 47:4], ‘When you meet those who disbelieve on the battlefield, smite at their necks until you have killed and wounded many of them…

“How many hadiths [relayed by] the Prophet’s Companions have we read in which they demanded that he strike the necks of certain men, and the Prophet did not condemn the striking of necks… Striking necks was a well-known matter that did not elicit any condemnation in the eras of the Prophet, the rightly-guided caliphs and their successors,  right until the time of the Christian occupation of the Muslims’ lands in the [20th] century. Those crusaders fought the Islamic legal concepts, distorted the religion, and convinced the Muslims that their religion is a religion of peace, doves, love and harmony, and that there is no blood in it, no killing and no fighting. The Muslims remained in this state until Allah revived the tradition of beheading by means of the mujahid and slaughterer Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, may Allah have mercy upon him and accept him as a martyr.”

“Islam Is A Religion Of Bloodshed”

Bin Mahmoud goes on to quote a long list of texts which, according to him, prove that Islam condones beheading as a means of terrorizing the enemy, and then emphasizes once more that Islam is not a peaceful religion, since its essence is jihad and martyrdom. He concludes that “Islam is a religion of beheading”:

“The truth is that what distorts the image of Islam is not the beheading and terrorizing of infidels, but rather those who want [Islam to follow the path of] Mandela or Ghandi, with no killing, fighting, brutality, bloodshed or the striking of heads or necks. That is not the religion of [the Prophet] Muhammad son of ‘Abdallah who was sent [to fight] with the sword [until]   Judgment Day. The only Koranic surah that is named after him, Surah Muhammad, is [also] called ‘The Surah of Fighting’…

“Islam is a religion of power, fighting, jihad, beheading and bloodshed, not a religion of turning the left cheek to whoever slapped you on the right cheek. On the contrary, it is a religion of breaking the hand that is stretched out to humiliate the Muslim. [Any Muslim] who fights for his property, blood or honor is a martyr.

“In Islam, tourism [means] jihad for the sake of Allah… There is no true life for its believers except through jihad, [and] the goal of its fighters is to die for the sake of their religion…”

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Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says

August 25, 2014

Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says

By HERB KEINON 08/25/2014 18:14

The Israeli official’s comments came a day after the “New York Times” published an op-ed piece by Israel’s ambassador to the UN calling Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”

via Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says | JPost | Israel News.

 A MUST READ !

President Mahmoud Abbas, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal arrive for a meeting in Doha. Photo: REUTERS
 Israel has not launched a full-court diplomatic campaign against Qatar for aiding and abetting terrorism because of concern that the closeness of US-Qatar ties would render such a campaign futile, according to a senior diplomatic official.

The official’s comments came a day after the New York Times published an op-ed piece by Israel’s ambassador to the UN calling Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”

“In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza,” Prosor wrote. “Every one of Hamas’s tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read ‘Made possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar’.”

Even though that is the case, and even as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to raise Qatar’s negative role in private meetings with US Congressman and world leaders, the senior diplomatic official said that there is no concerted campaign that has been accompanied by directives to Israel’s representatives abroad to underline Qatar’s singularly negative role in supporting terrorism and in the Gaza crisis.

Prosor’s piece, he said, was the envoy’s own “improvisation” and not part of a bigger Israeli diplomatic push against the Persian Gulf country.

Qatar is too big an ally of the US and the West, the official said, and any such campaign would be tantamount to “banging our heads on the wall.” He said Jerusalem is not interested in going “toe-to-toe “with Washington over the issue.

Qatar is the home of the US Central Command’s Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center, and is the location of three US air bases, including its largest one in the Middle East. It also recently signed contracts to purchase some $11 billion in US arms and weapons systems.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu – in a meeting last week with US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) – did raise the subject of Qatar’s support of Hamas. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa is in a prime position to put Qatar’s role high on the agenda in Washington.

However, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, in an interview earlier this month with The Post, cautioned against exaggerating the leverage Qatar has over the terrorist organization.

Qatar was hosting Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Doha, and funding them handsomely, to ensure that they only operate outside Qatar, Liberman said. He characterized this as Qatar paying “protection money” to the terrorist organization.

“It is paying protection money in order to ensure security and quiet and calm inside Qatar, so they would work only outside,” he said. “I don’t know how much they are able to influence Hamas. I think Hamas has more influence on Qatar, than Qatar does on Hamas.”

Prosor, known for his sarcasm, wrote in the Times, after mentioning the tiny country’s petrol billions, that “it is time for the world to wake up and smell the gas fumes. Qatar has spared no cost to dress up its country as a liberal, progressive society, yet at its core, the micro monarchy is aggressively financing radical Islamist movements.”

He said that the “petite petrol kingdom” needed to be isolated internationally.

“In light of the emirate’s unabashed support for terrorism, one has to question FIFA’s decision to reward Qatar with the 2022 World Cup,” he said, stopping just short of launching a campaign to strip Qatar of the right to host the marquee soccer event.

Given Qatar’s alliances and influence, Prosor wrote, the prospect for many western countries of isolating Qatar is “uncomfortable.” Yet, he added, “they must recognize that Qatar is not a part of the solution but a significant part of the problem. To bring about a sustained calm, the message to Qatar should be clear: Stop financing Hamas.”

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IDF Strikes Al-Qaeda-linked Gaza Terror Cell

August 25, 2014

lBy: Hana Levi JulianPublished: August 25th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » IDF Strikes Al-Qaeda-linked Gaza Terror Cell.

 

IAF aircraft targeted numerous terror targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours as rockets continue to rain down on Israel.
Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s OFfice
 

Israeli fighter pilots bombed operatives in Gaza from the Jaish Al-Islam terrorist organization on Monday afternoon.

The air strike, which resulted from a joint Shin Bet – IDF operation, eliminated a terror cell that was planning an attack on Israel in the near future, according to security sources.

The IDF also targeted a concealed rocket launcher placed within a school in the Shujaiyya neighborhood in Gaza City, used to fire missiles at Israel earlier in the day.

Jaish al-Islam, also known as the ‘Army of Islam’ terrorist organization, is called the ‘Tawhid and Jihad Brigades’ as well — the name used by the Doghmush clan in Gaza. The Salafi Muslim terror group appears on the official United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Its base is located in the Tzabra neighborhood at the very heart of Gaza, in the center of the region.

The Army of Islam is best known for having led the abduction of former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006.

The group also kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston in March 2007, and held him hostage until July of that year, when he was handed to rival Hamas officials in exchange for the release of captured Jaish al-Islam spokesman.

Although the group once challenged Hamas for control over the region, Hamas is now working closer together with Jaish al-Islam and is offering financial and other support to the group, Israeli intelligence sources said Monday.

Since midnight, nearly 90 rockets and missiles have been fired at Israel; a total of 823 projectiles have been launched at civilians in the Jewish State since Hamas violated the most recent temporary cease-fire eight hours before it was due to expire.

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GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS

August 25, 2014

GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS

via GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS.

 


Rep. Mike Rogers. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Monday, 25 Aug 2014 09:16 AM

By Sandy Fitzgerald

 

President Barack Obama returned from his two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday night to a rising chorus of demands from Republicans wanting to know what strategy he plans to use for defeating the Islamic State before more American lives are lost to the terrorist group.

Republicans have been demanding answers about the IS situation for some time, but after the president’s much-maligned response to the beheading of American journalist James Foley, the questions dominated most of the Sunday morning news programs.

While Obama has been roundly criticized for being on vacation during the Foley murder and the rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, many lawmakers commenting Sunday said they didn’t really begrudge the president taking some time off.

New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is from Foley’s home state, told CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer  that she does not mind that the president took a vacation with his family, but said he needs to examine the perception he caused when he went golfing the day after he addressed the nation about Foley’s killing.

“What I want from him is a strategy to defeat ISIS,” Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said of the terrorist group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “A containment strategy is not going to cut it: we need a strategy to defeat ISIS.”

And South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham  told CNN “State of the Union” host Candy Crowley that Obama and lawmakers should be looking at ISIS “as a direct threat to the United States, a threat to the region that cannot be accommodated. The strategy has to meet the threat.”

But still, Graham said that he wants a full explanation from Obama if he decides to spread the U.S. action to Syria.

“My concern is that the president’s strategy of leading from behind and [having a] light footprint has failed,” Graham told Crowley. “He has to realize, as President George W. Bush did, that his strategy is not working. President Bush adjusted his strategy when it was failing, and he brought about a surge that worked. President Obama has to admit to himself, if no one else, that what he’s doing is not working.”

Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers,  who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, called ISIS a “a very real threat” that is “one plane ticket away from U.S. shores.”

“One of the problems is it’s gone unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain to across Europe, even the United States, to go and join the fight,” Rogers said on NBC’d “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“They see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy, and they want to be a part of it,” he explained to NBC’s Senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing. “And that’s what makes it so dangerous.”

Meanwhile, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also on “Face the Nation,” said that he gets the sense that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey “understand the gravity of the situation,” reports The Hill.

However, the onetime vice presidential nominee said that he doesn’t necessarily want to hear the president’s response to victories such as the retaking of the Mosul Dam, which had been captured by ISIS earlier this month.

“What I want to hear from our commander in chief is that he has a strategy to finish ISIS off. To defeat ISIS,” Ryan said. “If we don’t deal with this threat now thoroughly and convincingly, it’s going to come home to roost.”

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain also demanded Sunday that Obama expand his airstrike plan to Syria, so that ISIS will not have a base of operation, reports The Hill.

“There is no boundary between Syria and Iraq,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday,” telling host Chris Wallace that “one of the key decisions the president is going to have to make is air power in Syria. We cannot give them a base of operations. And we have got to help the Free Syrian Army.”

He said Foley’s killing would hopefully push the Obama administration to define its strategy not only for Iraq, but other parts of the world.

“This is an administration, which the kindest word I can use is ‘feckless,’ where they have not outlined a role that the United States has to play. And that is a leadership role,” he said. “No more ‘leading from behind,’ no more ‘don’t do stupid stuff,'” he added.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, now a CBS national security analyst, said the ISIS threat is “the most complex terrorism problem that I have ever seen,” but “there are no magic bullets,” CBS News reports.

“We have to take away their safe haven, their territory. That requires a political solution in Iraq, which is going to require us to continue to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, our Gulf Arab allies to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, Iran to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, and then we need to get a solution in Syria to take that territory away,” Morell said. “The other thing we need to do is take the leadership off the battlefield. We need to identify them through intelligence and then either capture or kill them.”

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the Obama administration has “been watching this group for quite a long time.”

The White House has been “assessing its strength and working with partners on the ground, particularly in Syria, the moderate opposition, to help them develop capabilities to go against ISIS … we are actively looking at what other options we have, what other tools we can use now to try to degrade this terrorist group’s capability,” Harf said.

Meanwhile, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that should Obama decided to expand the United States’ attacks against ISIS into Syria, he should consult with Congress. House here has been a call to expand the United States’ efforts against ISIS, and McCaul said that if President Barack Obama is considering that action, his administrations should be in consultation with Congress.

“So far, they have, under the War Powers Act,” said McCaul. “Once that period of time expires, we believe it’s necessary to come back to Congress to get additional authorities and to update, if you will, the authorized use of military force.”

Whatever Obama’s strategy is, McCaul said, the United States should not try to act alone when it comes to defeating ISIS, as “we have allies that can bring a lot of pressure.”

Meanwhile, the ISIS fight can’t be won with Obama’s containment plans.

“His administration, thus far, has only dealt with containment,” said McCaul. “We need to expand strikes to ultimately defeat ISIS. I would rather eliminate them there than in the United States.”

Washington Post correspondent Bob Woodward, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,”  said nobody knows just what Obama plans to do.

“One key point about Obama is he doesn’t like war, and he’s trying to avoid the next one,” said Woodward. “But let’s not kid ourselves. There’s an inconsistency here. I mean, Hagel and the chairman of the joint chiefs have said — and [John] Kerry, the secretary of state, made it very clear, all options are on the table, and the president has said no boots on the ground.”

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Secret Hamas Handbook Seized by Israel in Gaza Raid

August 25, 2014

Secret Hamas Handbook Seized by Israel in Gaza RaidIsrael says it found Hamas training manual in Gaza

BY:
August 25, 2014 9:49 am

via Secret Hamas Handbook Seized by Israel in Gaza Raid | Washington Free Beacon.

 

Hamas militants grab Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel,
before executing them in Gaza City August 22 / Reuters
 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli army has released what it says is a page from a seized Hamas training manual that would appear to support its case that Palestinian militants deliberately use the cover of residential areas for combat operations.

Hamas, which denies it puts civilians at risk by storing and firing weapons from built-up areas, dismissed the document as a forgery intended to justify Israeli attacks that have killed hundreds of children, women and other non-combatants.

Israel has been criticized by the United Nations and others for its tactics during the war, including the shelling of densely populated areas and attacks on several U.N. schools, which Israel says militants were using for cover.

While many legal experts say Hamas is operating outside of international law by firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli towns and cities from built-up areas in the Gaza Strip, they stress that does not absolve Israel of responsibility to comply with the laws of war itself, notably on endangering civilians.

The Israeli army said the training manual was found in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun at the end of July, when troops were operating inside the enclave. The full manual is 102 pages long, the army said, but it released just one page of it.

That page appears to set out guidelines on how to hide weapons and ammunition in civilian areas, how to transport them into buildings and how to conceal or camouflage explosives.

It is marked at the bottom with “Izz-el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Training and Guidance Branch, Engineering Corps”. The al-Qassam Brigades are the military wing of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. Unlike other Hamas documents, the page bears no Hamas logo.

“The process of hiding ammunition inside buildings is intended for ambushes in residential areas and to move the campaign from open areas into built up and closed areas,” reads the document, written in Arabic.

“Residents of the area should be used to bring in the equipment,” it continues, adding: “For jihad fighters, it is easy to operate inside buildings and take advantage of this to avoid (Israeli) spy planes and attack drones.”

The guidelines also explain that “the action of hiding weapons inside a building must be carried out secretly and shouldn’t have a military character”.

An Israeli army spokesman would provide no further details about the document, only to say that the army was “extremely confident it is a Hamas training manual”.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: “This is a fabricated paper and neither Hamas nor Qassam has anything to do with it.”

He added: “Israel circulating this is aimed at justifying the mass killings of Palestinian civilians and massacres committed by the occupation army.”

NARRATIVE OF WAR

While it may be impossible to verify whether it is a genuine Hamas manual, the Israeli military’s decision to release it underscores the efforts both sides in the conflict are making to justify their actions and support their narrative of events in a war that has drawn international condemnation of each party.

Israel launched its offensive on Gaza on July 8 in response to intense Hamas rocket fire from the narrow coastal enclave. In the seven weeks of conflict since, 2,110 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed, while 64 Israel soldiers and 4 civilians in Israel have also died.

In an interview with Yahoo News last week, Khaled Meshaal, the exile political leader of Hamas, denied that the group fired its rockets indiscriminately at Israel, saying it tried to aim the low-tech munitions at military installations or army bases.

There is little evidence that is the case – nearly all the 2,500-3,000 rockets and mortars Hamas has fired at Israel since the start of the war seem to have been aimed at towns. On Friday, one hit a synagogue and another killed a four-year-old boy in a kibbutz collective farm close to the Gaza border.

Israel has frequently accused Hamas fighters of taking cover among civilians and operating from residential areas, but it has not always been able to present clear evidence of that.

Some journalists in Gaza during the war captured video footage of rockets being fired from built-up areas, including around Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital. Hamas has sought to dismiss those as isolated, one-off incidents or attacks carried out by rogue groups not under its control.

For its part, Israel drops leaflets on residential areas before any attack and makes phone calls to residents telling them to leave the area. On Saturday, the Israeli air force warned residents to leave a 13-storey apartment building before it was destroyed in an air strike. Israel said the building was a Hamas base. No one was killed, 17 were wounded.

The U.N. human rights council has already appointed a commission to look into the Gaza war, and other investigations will no doubt be conducted once the conflict is over.

Bill Schabas, the head of the U.N. commission, emphasized that even if one side in a conflict is operating outside of international law, that does not relieve the other side of responsibility to act within the law.

“There are some very fundamental obligations in international humanitarian law that have to be respected regardless of whether the other side respects them,” he told Reuters last week.

“In short, it’s not a defense to a war crime to say that the other side was committing a war crime.”

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Anna Willard)

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/captured-hamas-handbook-preaches-you-must-use-residents-area

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Syria could work with West against ‘terror’

August 25, 2014

Syria could work with West against ‘terror’

Syrian FM says Damascus open to co-operation at both regional and international level to combat Islamic State fighters.

Last updated: 25 Aug 2014 13:34

via Syria could work with West against ‘terror’ – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

 

Muallem said Syria must be involved in co-ordinating any air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria [AP]
 

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said that his country is ready to work with the international community to battle against “terrorists” within the framework of a recent UN resolution.

In a news conference in Damascus on Monday, he also warned that Syria must be involved in co-ordinating any air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, after the US said it was considering extending operations into Syrian territory.

“Syria is ready for co-operation and co-ordination at the regional and international level to fight terrorism and implement UN Security Council resolution 2170,” Muallem said.

He confirmed, in response to a question, that the country’s willingness to do so would extend to co-operating with the US and the UK.

Muallem added that Syria was willing to participate in such efforts as part of a regional or international coalition, or on the basis of bilateral cooperation.

However, he noted: “We must feel that the co-operation is serious and not double standards.

“Any violation of Syria’s sovereignty would be an act of aggression.”

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Akkar, in neighbouring Lebanon said the successes of the Islamic State group were pushing old rivals into allies.

The self-declared jihadist Islamic State group has made advances in several parts of Syria, including most recently Raqqa province, where it seized the army’s last provincial outpost on Sunday.

The UN Security Council passed a rare unanimous resolution on August 15 intended to weaken armed groups in Iraq and Syria by choking off their funding and stemming the flow of foreign fighters.

The resolution targeted both the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Syria’s government considers not only these two groups, but all those fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad to be “terrorists”.

Meanwhile on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged Western and Arab governments to overcome their distaste for Assad and engage with him to fight the Islamic State.

“I think Western politicians are already realising the growing and fast-spreading threat of terrorism,” Lavrov said, referring to Islamic State advances in Syria and Iraq.

“And they will soon have to choose what is more important: a [Syrian] regime change to satisfy personal antipathies, risking deterioration of the situation beyond any control, or finding pragmatic ways to unite efforts against the common threat.”

Russia has been Assad’s most prominent international backer in the civil war that broke out in early 2011 and in which the US and the West, as well as many Gulf and Arab states, backed the rebels seeking to oust him

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Israel News – Report: 3 killed in Gaza liquidation

August 25, 2014

Report: 3 killed in Gaza liquidation

The Palestinian report that IDF attacked a vehicle in Shuja’iyya, killing three

Aug 25, 2014, 04:08PM | Yael Klein

via Israel News – Report: 3 killed in Gaza liquidation – JerusalemOnline.

Hamas is getting desperate, no more arguments , just screaming nazi and holocaust !

 

The targeted liquidation in Gaza, today Channel 2 News
 
 

The Palestinian report that IDF attacked a vehicle in Shuja’iyya, killing three. IDF deny Hamas’ claims of Israeli drone captivation. Meanwhile, a Palestinian source says that all the factions agreed to a month-long ceasefire. Israel confirms the existence of such an offer.

Fire at the South continues along with IDF bombings in Gaza: the Palestinians report that IDF carried out a targeted liquidation around noon, hitting a vehicle in Shuja’iyya. According t the reports, three people were killed in the attack.

In an additional airstrike, IDF say, a number of terrorists were hit near Jabalian in Northern Gaza. IDF additionally attacked a launching pit in a school yard in Gaza out of which rockets were fire at Israel today.

Earlier today Hamas claimed they caught an IDF drone. IDF rushed to deny the report claiming it to be wrong.

Meanwhile, the new Egyptian version of a ceasefire draft awaits the sides’ approval. According to the Egyptian proposal, an immediate fire will take place in the course of one month, upon which the Gaza crossings will be opened immediately.

Israeli officials say that they are familiar with the agreement and that Egypt has applied pressure on Hamas to accept its proposal. A Palestinian source told AFP news agency that all the Palestinian factions in Gaza have accepted the Egyptian proposal.

Hamas’ head of political bureau Khaled Mashal demanded the president of the US to interfere immediately in the ongoing crisis between Israel and Hamas, calling out to him to end the “holocaust against the Palestinians”, as he put it.

In an interview he provided under heavy security to news website Yahoo, Mashal addressed Obama asking him to display his responsibility in favor of stopping Israel. “I ask of you, as the leader of the world’s most powerful country, to speak out and end the Israeli aggression in Gaza”, Mashal said in English. “I ask you to call out to Israel to remove the blockage, open the crossings and rebuild Gaza. Those are our demands”.

Mashal later defined IDF’s action in Gaza as a “holocaust”, and even compared the heads of the Israeli leadership to those of Nazi Germany. “The kill thousands of civilians, children, women, destroy entire neighborhoods, mosques and hospitals”, Mashal claimed aggressively. “What is the difference between what they do and what the Nazis did in the 30’s and 40’s?”

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Morning Roundup: Missile Barrage Continues + Update

August 25, 2014

Terror attacks continue unabated as rockets slam southern region; stray missile hits Golan Heights

By: Meir Halevi Siegel

Published: August 25th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Morning Roundup: Missile Barrage Continues.

comment  removed by me, it is working again

red alert map

http://redcolormapweb.azurewebsites.net/english

 

An Iron Dome Missile launch near Ashdod on July 14, 2014.
Photo Credit: David Buimovitch/Flash90
 

Rocket fire continued unabated at Israeli civilians Monday as Hamas terrorists fired more than 60 salvos over the Gaza border. The vast majority of missiles landed in open fields, and Iron Dome missile defense batteries downed four missiles.

Residents of Ashkelon sustained five Code Red sirens in just five minutes and an Iron Dome battery downed a rocket over the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Further south, 15 missiles were fired at the Sdot Negev Regional Council; five rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles

In central Israel, false alarms sounded in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu and Ramat Hasharon. In the Eshkol Regional Council, one man was lightly wounded by shrapnel, and a home and soccer field sustained light damage.

In response to the attacks, the Israel Air Force attacked terrorist targets near a mosque in Gaza City.

 

Update :

 

Breaking News: A Hamas rocket landed this afternoon in an open field in the city of Ashkelon this afternoon, near a main road with heavy traffic. Reports from the city indicate that the Code Red missile alert system did not sound.

The attack occurred sometime after four o’clock as Hamas rocket fire continued unabated at Israeli civilians Monday. By 4 pm terrorists had fired more than 60 salvos over the Gaza border. The vast majority of missiles landed in open fields, and Iron Dome missile defense batteries downed four missiles.

Residents of Ashkelon sustained five Code Red sirens in just five minutes and an Iron Dome battery downed a rocket over the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Further south, 15 missiles were fired at the Sdot Negev Regional Council; five rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles

In central Israel, false alarms sounded in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu and Ramat Hasharon. In the Eshkol Regional Council, one man was lightly wounded by shrapnel, and a home and soccer field sustained light damage.

In response to the attacks, the Israel Air Force attacked terrorist targets near a mosque in Gaza City.

Missile Lands In Ashkelon; No Injuries

 

Update 2

Heavy rocket barrage on the south, more info will follow

 

Tel Aviv Yafo is under attack !

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UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State”

August 25, 2014

UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State”

Robert Spencer Aug 25, 2014 at 7:42am

via UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State” : Jihad Watch.

 

 

This will be interesting. Will these forces actually do what they have to do to topple the Islamic State, or will they be hampered by impossible politically correct rules of engagement that hamstring their ability to do much of anything beyond act as a shooting gallery for local jihadis, as in Afghanistan?

And will Muslim Brotherhood groups in the U.S. such as Hamas-linked CAIR that have issued vague and pro-forma denunciations of the Islamic State applaud this attempt to “smash” it, or will they start whining about the victimization of Iraqi civilians and disproportionate force?

“SAS and US special forces forming hunter killer unit to ‘smash Islamic State,’” by Aaron Sharp, Mirror, August 23, 2014:

Elite British and US special forces troops are forming a hunter killer unit called Task Force Black – its orders: “Smash the Islamic State.”

The undercover warriors will aim to “cut the head off the snake” by hitting the command structure of the Islamist terror group responsible for a trail of atrocities across Iraq and Syria, reports the Sunday People.

PM David Cameron has told the SAS and UK spy agencies to direct all their ­resources at defeating IS after a video of US journalist James Foley being beheaded shocked the world.

British special forces will work with America’s Delta Force and Seal Team 6. The move sees a rebirth of top secret Task Force Black, which helped defeat al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq .

This time the counter-terrorist ­experts will be targeting Abu Bakr ­al-Baghdadi, leader of IS and now the world’s most wanted terrorist.

A source said: “We need to go into Syria and Iraq and kill as many IS members as we can. You can’t ­negotiate with these people.

“This is not a war of choice. They are cash rich and have a plentiful ­supply of arms. If we don’t go after them, they will soon come after us.

“In Iraq, Task Force Black was carrying out strike operations every night.

“It was an unrelenting, intelligence-led assault on al-Qaeda. It took a lot of hard work and no small amount of sacrifice – but it worked.

“Defeating IS cannot be done by air strikes alone. You have to get on the ground and take out the commanders – cut off the snake’s head.

“The organisation will then begin to collapse. IS targets civilians and has yet to get into a real fight with a ­modern Western military.

“The SAS and US special forces will do untold damage to them.

“They’ll focus on the high command. This is going to be a long campaign, probably lasting years.

“And it will be like nothing the West has ever had to confront before.”

The new task force will comprise a squadron of the SAS, special forces aircrews from the RAF and agents from MI5 and MI6.

The operation will be led by America’s CIA spy agency….

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Minister Admits Gov’t Should be Tougher on Hamas

August 25, 2014

Security Minister Admits Gov’t Not Tough Enough Against Hamas

Internal Security Minister calls on gov’t to deal ‘more violently’ with Hamas after meeting family of 4-year-old killed in mortar attack.

By Ari Soffer First Publish: 8/25/2014, 12:51 PM

via Minister Admits Gov’t Should be Tougher on Hamas – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

 

Yitzhak Aharonovich Flash 90
 

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) has called on the government to take a much firmer hand with Hamas, just hours before a ceasefire is rumored to go into effect Monday.

Aharonovich made his comments following a “difficult” visit to the Tragerman family, whose four-year-old son Daniel was killed in a mortar attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel on Friday.

Relating to criticism by residents of southern Israel towards the government’s dealing with incessant rocket fire by Hamas and other terrorists, Aharonovich said “I understand these things and accept them,” according to Channel 10.

“They expect us to reach a decision, and I agree with them,” he said. “With a terrorist group you need to deal in a far more violent and harsh way, to defeat it. I have said this already a number of times in the past.”

“What is important to us is to return security to the residents of the State, with an emphasis on the south,” he continued, adding that the government was committed to “taking care of the residents” of southern Israel, and was preparing additional aid and benefits to help them cope with their difficult situation.

Meanwhile, amid increasing talk of an imminent ceasefire, terrorists continue to pound southern Israel with rockets. 25 struck in the Eshkol Region alone, with five landing inside communities and the rest in open areas around them. At least 37 rockets have been fired on Israeli civilians since Monday morning, following six hours of quiet overnight.

Sirens were also heard in central Israel, but later revealed to have been a false alarm.

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