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ISIS Has Lost 98 Percent of Its Territory – Mostly Since Trump Took Office

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ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once held — with half of that terror group’s so-called “caliphate” having been recaptured since President Trump took office less than a year ago, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

The massive gains come after years of “onerous” rules, when critics say the Obama administration “micromanaged” the war and shunned a more intensive air strategy that could have ended the conflict much sooner.

“The rules of engagement under the Obama administration were onerous. I mean what are we doing having individual target determination being conducted in the White House, which in some cases adds weeks and weeks,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence. “The limitations that were put on actually resulted in greater civilian casualties.”

But the senior director for counterterrorism in former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council pushed back on any criticism the former president didn’t do enough to defeat ISIS.

“This was a top priority from the early days of ISIS gaining the type of territorial safe haven in particular, there was recognition that safe havens for terrorist groups can mean terrorist plots that extend — not just into the region — but to Europe and conceivably into the United States,” said Joshua Geltzer, author of “US Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View,” now a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School. (Read more from “ISIS Has Lost 98 Percent of Its Territory – Mostly Since Trump Took Office” HERE)

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ISIS Threatens Holidays in US, Europe

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By CBN News. Islamic State terrorists are threatening Christmas and New Year’s attacks in major cities across the US and Europe.

The terror group has released a series of chilling posters depicting holiday attacks.

The latest show two armed terrorists with the grammatically incorrect words, “Wait for us on your year parties.” (Read more from “ISIS Threatens Holidays in US, Europe” HERE)

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Christmas Returns to City Liberated From ISIS

By The New York Times. For more than two years, 300 militia fighters waited to retake from the Islamic State the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh, the country’s largest Christian enclave. Then, in October of last year, the photographer Quentin Bruno accompanied these civilians turned soldiers as they approached the city that was once home to 50,000 people. He remembered their excitement, as well as the mortars that rained down upon them, a few days after the Iraqi Army had launched the Battle of Mosul.

Hope and excitement turned to surprise as they went into town and arrived at the ruins of a church. “When we entered, nothing exploded,” Mr. Bruno explained. “Everybody was expecting booby traps everywhere.”

Some of the men lit candles, Mr. Bruno recalled, until a sniper took aim and forced them to flee to another church. Once there, he said, a poet and writer named Jamil made a cross from two pieces of wood and hoisted it aloft. (Read more from “Christmas Returns to City Liberated From ISIS” HERE)

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New York Muslim Terrorist Wanted Revenge on US

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A Bangladeshi immigrant is in custody after an explosive vest he was wearing detonated and injured four people, including himself, during the height of rush hour Monday morning near New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal.

The blast went off in an underground tunnel at 7:20 a.m. near 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, two blocks from Times Square, police said . . .

The suspect’s name, Akayed Ullah, means “Allah’s doctrine enforcer” in Arabic, a native Arabic speaker told WND . . .

Ullah told authorities in sum and substance from his hospital bed: “They’ve been bombing in my country and I wanted to do damage here,” sources told the New York Post.

The U.S. is not doing any bombing in Bangladesh, but Ullah presumably was referring to the Islamic State, which has seen its strongholds in Iraq and Syria crushed since President Trump took office. (Read more from “New York Muslim Terrorist Wanted Revenge on US” HERE)

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Trump, Mattis Turn Military Loose on ISIS, Leaving Terror Caliphate in Tatters

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Hundreds of ISIS fighters had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city and were fleeing through the desert in long convoys, presenting an easy target to U.S. A-10 “warthogs.”

But the orders to bomb the black-clad jihadists never came, and the terrorists melted into their caliphate — living to fight another day. The events came in August 2016, even as then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was vowing on the campaign trail to let generals in his administration crush the organization that, under President Obama, had grown from the “jayvee team” to the world’s most feared terrorist organization.

“I will…quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS,” Trump, who would name legendary Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, promised. “We will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism.”

Just over a year later, ISIS has been routed from Iraq and Syria with an ease and speed that’s surprised even the men and women who carried out the mission. Experts say it’s a prime example of a campaign promise kept. President Trump scrapped his predecessor’s rules of engagement, which critics say hamstrung the military, and let battlefield decisions be made by the generals in the theater, and not bureaucrats in Washington.

At its peak, ISIS held land in Iraq and Syria that equaled the size of West Virginia, ruled over as many as 8 million people, controlled oilfields and refineries, agriculture, smuggling routes and vast arsenals. It ran a brutal, oppressive government, even printing its own currency. (Read more from “Trump, Mattis Turn Military Loose on ISIS, Leaving Terror Caliphate in Tatters” HERE)

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Islamist Suicide Plot to Assassinate Prime Minister Foiled

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A terror plot to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May has been foiled, Sky sources have confirmed.

Sky’s Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: “It’s the latest in a number of terror plots that police and MI5 believe they’ve foiled this year.

“I understand that the head of MI5, Andrew Parker, briefed Cabinet ministers today, such is the seriousness of what they believed they have uncovered.

“It is in essence an extreme Islamist suicide plot against Downing Street. Essentially police believe that the plan was to launch some sort of improvised explosive device at Downing Street and in the ensuing chaos attack and kill Theresa May, the Prime Minister.

“This is something which has been pursued over several weeks at least by Scotland Yard, MI5 and West Midlands Police. (Read more from “Islamist Suicide Plot to Assassinate Prime Minister Foiled” HERE)

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Mass Graves Discovered in Former ISIS-Controlled Territory Could Contain 400 Bodies

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Mass graves discovered at an Iraqi airbase that was previously under the Islamic State group’s control could contain up to 400 bodies, an Iraqi official said Sunday after local residents described the atrocities the terror group carried out.

The bodies were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, Kirkuk governor Rakan Saed said, adding that the place was “turned into an execution ground.” Hawija, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, was under ISIS control since 2013 until last month.

Officials discovered torn clothing and possible human bones and skulls in the area. It’s unclear when the bodies, which include civilians and security forces, will be exhumed.

Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd, led troops to the mass graves and said ISIS brought captives to the area, shot and killed them or poured oil over them and lit them on fire. Other residents also gave “witness accounts” of the atrocities ISIS carried out when it held control of the area, the BBC reported. (Read more from “Mass Graves Discovered in Former ISIS-Controlled Territory Could Contain 400 Bodies” HERE)

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Progress: Trump, Putin Reportedly Agree to Defeat ISIS in Syria

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By Fox News. President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement on Saturday vowing to continue the fight against ISIS in Syria until the militants are completely defeated, Reuters reported, citing the Kremlin.

The statement was released after the two leaders chatted briefly during the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam, Reuters reported, citing the Kremlin.

The statement reportedly said both Washington and Moscow agree that there is no military solution to the conflict and both countries expressed a commitment to Damascus’ sovereignty.

The two leaders chatted on Saturday while they walked to a “family photograph” at the summit and donned matching silk button-down shirts the day before, holding true to the tradition of wearing local attire at annual display of cooperation among world leaders.

The White House and the Trump administration earlier appeared to downplay Trump’s possible meetings with Putin during the summit. (Read more from “Trump, Putin Reportedly Agree to Defeat ISIS in Syria” HERE)

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Trump and Putin on Fighting ISIS

By BBC. US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed to defeat so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, the Kremlin says.

It said a statement was prepared by experts after they met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam on Saturday.

There has been no official confirmation from the US about the statement so far.

The Kremlin say they also agreed there was no military solution to the conflict in Syria.

A meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin was widely expected at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, but few details have emerged. (Read more from “Trump and Putin on Fighting ISIS” HERE)

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Chilling ISIS Vow to Kill Children

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A pro-ISIS group that threatened “more bitter and greater” Manhattan attacks after last week’s deadly ramming on the West Side bike path urged more attacks on the West today with a propaganda poster showing the Eiffel Tower extending upward as a rifle.

Monday is the two-year anniversary of coordinated attacks on Paris in which nine terrorists killed 130 people.

The Wafa’ Media Foundation titled the PR poster “The Specter of Terrorism,” stating in English, “You will pay very expensive price for your war on Islam.”

The message adds: “We will take revenge for the blood of Muslims on your land, we will kill the young before the older watch this.”

Wafa’ issued a justification for the bombing of British teens at a May concert in Manchester, UK. As ISIS has placed a heavy focus on training youths, they’ve also encouraged targeting them: the first issue of their Rumiyah magazine justified killing civilians including “the young adults (post-pubescent ‘children’) engaged in sports activities in the park.” (Read more from “Chilling ISIS Vow to Kill Children” HERE)

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New York Attacker a Muslim Immigrant From Uzbekistan

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By Leo Hohmann. A male immigrant from Uzbekistan in his late 20s drove a rented Home Depot truck into a group of pedestrians on a busy bike path in lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, killing at least eight people and injuring nine as he shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which in English means “Allah is Greatest!”

The terror suspect’s name has not been released by authorities, but several news outlets are reporting it as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. He is a native of Uzbekistan who entered the U.S. around 2010 and was here on a green card, meaning he was a legal permanent resident, possibly a refugee.

He had once worked as an Uber driver.

Translated into English, the name Sayfullo means “”Sword of Allah,” and Habibullaevic means “Lover of Allah.”

Uzbekistan is a country in central Asia dominated by Islam with a Muslim population of more than 90 percent. (Read more from “New York Attacker a Muslim Immigrant From Uzbekistan” HERE)

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Suspect Claimed He Committed NYC Truck Attack for ISIS: Sources

By NBC New York. The 29-year-old man detained after a flatbed truck zoomed down a popular lower Manhattan bike path, killing at least 8 people and injuring nearly a dozen more, left a note in the vehicle claiming he committed the attack for ISIS, according to law enforcement sources.

Authorities said the man — identified by sources as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, an Uber and truck driver living in Paterson, New Jersey, — is thought to be a “lone actor” in the attack in the Hudson River Greenway on Tuesday afternoon. U.S. counterintelligence officials added that no group has taken responsibility for the attack.

Sources said he rented the truck from a Home Depot in Passaic, drove over the George Washington Bridge and sped down the greenway for more than a dozen blocks before deliberately ramming into a school bus for children near Stuyvesant High School and P.S. 89.

The Uzbek national who is a permanent U.S. resident then shouted “Allahu Ackbar,” got out of that truck and was seen running through traffic on West Street with a pellet gun and a paintball gun before being shot in the abdomen by a police officer on patrol and taken into custody. He’s being treated at Bellevue Hospital. (Read more from “Suspect Claimed He Committed NYC Truck Attack for ISIS: Sources” HERE)

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Almost All American ISIS Fighters Unaccounted for, Sparking Fears They Could Slip Through Cracks and Return

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When it came to recruiting foreigners to flee the comforts of home for the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, ISIS succeeded like no other — encouraging more than 40,000 fighters from more than 110 countries to travel to the fighting fray both before and after the declaration of the “caliphate” in June 2014. Subsequently, authorities have warned about the threat of returning jihadists to their homeland and since the falls of Mosul, Raqqa and the rapidly receding footprint of ISIS, such fears have come to the forefront.

According to a new report, “Beyond the Caliphate: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees,” released this week by the Soufan Center — a Washington-based security intelligence consultancy — there are now at least 5,600 citizens or residents from 33 countries who have returned home — accounting for about 15 percent of the fighters.

The report asserts that for the United States, 129 fighters succeeded in leaving the country and only seven have returned.

Of the 5,000 residents of the European Union who flocked to Iraq and Syria, a quarter are alleged to have returned home. But in the U.K., that figure was closer to half, with some 425 of the 850 fighters who left Britain to join the self-styled caliphate back on home soil. Around 5,000 left from Central Asia, of which just 500 — 10 percent — too have returned. (Read more from “Almost All American ISIS Fighters Unaccounted for, Sparking Fears They Could Slip Through Cracks and Return” HERE)

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