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Parents of ISIS Hostage Relieved by Terrorist Leader’s Death, Slam Obama

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By USA Today. Terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who the president said was killed during a special forces raid in Syria, had reportedly been the captor and tormentor of Arizona’s Kayla Mueller, who was taken hostage in 2013.

“What this man did to Kayla — he kidnapped her,” her father Carl Mueller, his voice choking, told The Arizona Republic on Sunday morning, shortly after President Donald Trump announced al-Baghdadi had died. . .

On Sunday, the Muellers praised President Donald Trump and the soldiers who pulled off the mission.

“We are so grateful for them … we are so grateful,” Marsha Mueller said. They were glad there was no loss of life on our side. They are grateful their daughter and the others who were tortured and killed by ISIS have not been forgotten.

“I still say Kayla should be here, and if Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” Marsha Mueller said. (Read more from “Parents of ISIS Hostage Relieved by Terrorist Leader’s Death, Slam Obama” HERE)

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Four Americans Killed by the Islamic State Under Al-Baghdadi

By Breitbart. President Donald Trump celebrated the killing of Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces on Sunday. Still, many high profile Americans died under al-Baghdadi’s reign before U.S. forces were able to kill him. . .

1. James Foley, a Celebrated American Journalist Who Relied on His Catholic Faith

2. Kayla Mueller, a Humanitarian Who Was Kept Captive by al-Baghdadi

3. Steven Sotloff, a Hardcore American Journalist with a “Gentle Soul”

4. Peter Kassig, an American Aid Worker and Army Ranger Who Converted to Islam

(Read more from “Four Americans Killed by the Islamic State Under Al-Baghdadi” HERE)

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Persecuted Journalist: ‘Turkey Has Been Hosting ISIS for Years’

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Turkish journalist Can Dundar, onetime editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, on Sunday accused the Turkish government of “hosting ISIS for years” and “releasing their guerrillas” from captivity.

He urged Turks truly concerned about terrorism to “come together” with the Kurds and fight the Islamic State in a way the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan never will.

Dundar was arrested by the Erdogan government in 2015 for a Cumhuriyet expose that claimed Turkish intelligence was covertly supplying weapons to ISIS in Syria. He and his colleague Erdem Gul were charged with espionage and accused of being terrorists themselves, spending three months in prison before they were released on the orders of a Turkish constitutional court.

Dundar wisely departed for Germany after his release and lives there in exile. Turkish courts eventually changed their minds and retroactively sentenced him to 15 to 20 years in prison for espionage, while Gul was acquitted of his own charges. Turkey issued an arrest warrant for him in absentia and Erdogan demanded his extradition from Germany as a “spy.”

Dundar spoke with Kurdistan 24 news while visiting Washington, DC, to collect a Carnegie Endowment democracy award. He expressed grave doubts that Erdogan’s government could be trusted to respect the Kurdish population of Syria or fight effectively against the Islamic State, pointing to his work at Cumhuriyet to illustrate that Turkey has used ISIS as an instrument of policy in Syria, and is currently allied with Syrian militia groups that are not easy to distinguish from ISIS militants themselves[.] (Read more from “Persecuted Journalist: ‘Turkey Has Been Hosting ISIS for Years’” HERE)

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Report: U.S. Bombs Own Headquarters in Syria; Senator Defends Trump’s Decision to Pull U.S. Troops (VIDEO)

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By Daily Wire. On Wednesday, after Turkish forces moved toward them, the U.S. launched airstrikes to destroy the headquarters in Syria where the American campaign to destroy ISIS was located, according to U.S. officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. The base included warehouses where the Kurdish-led fighters fighting Turkey and ISIS were trained and quipped. The airstrike reputedly was launched to prevent Turkish forces from nearing the base.

The Journal noted that despite the assault on Kurdish forces from Turkey, President Trump on Wednesday would only say that the Turkish attack had “nothing to do with us.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence flew to Turkey to meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and on Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution opposing the withdrawal of U.S troops from Syria and leaving the Kurds open to an assault. . .

Kurdish fighters reportedly sought aid from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, prompting Trump to aver, “Syria is protecting the Kurds, that’s good. Syria may get help from Russia and that’s fine. … There’s a lot of sand to play with … I wish them all a lot of luck.” (Read more from “Report: U.S. Bombs Own Headquarters in Syria” HERE)

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Rand Paul: Pulling U.S. Troops from Syria ‘May Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Kurds’

By Daily Caller. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued Wednesday that pulling the remaining U.S. troops from northern Syria “may be the best thing that ever happened to the Kurds.”

Paul’s comments came during a Wednesday interview on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” as Vice President Mike Pence travels to Turkey to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss a potential ceasefire to the country’s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters.

“This was [President Donald Trump’s] decision. … It was the best thing not only for our troops, but it’s also the best way to adhere to the Constitution,” Paul said. “The Constitution says you don’t declare a war unless Congress votes on it, and who are we going to declare a war against — our ally, Turkey, the Free Syrian Army that used to be our ally, [Syrian President Bashar] Assad?”

(Read more from “Rand Paul: Pulling U.S. Troops from Syria ‘May Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Kurds’” HERE)

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Hundreds of ISIS Supporters Escape Camp in Syria; Media Begin to Acknowledge: Some Kurdish Forces Are a Problem

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By Fox News. Hundreds of people affiliated with the Islamic State escaped a camp where they were being held on Sunday after Turkish forces approached the Kurdish-held town, Kurdish officials said.

About 950 ISIS-connected foreigners managed to leave the camp, located in Ain Eissa, roughly 20 miles south of the border, after detainees apparently attacked the camp’s guards and gates and fled, the Kurdish-led administration said in a statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said Turkish warplanes struck villages near the camp on Sunday. They didn’t provide the exact number of residents who fled the camp, but said clashes broke out between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and Kurdish forces. . .

The Kurdish forces, who partnered with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS, say they may not be able to maintain detention facilities holding thousands of militants as they struggle to stem the Turkish advance.

Turkish forces have been pushing toward the town as part of their offensive against Kurdish-led forces — fighters which Turkey believes are terrorists because of their links to the insurgency in its southeast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey won’t stop until the Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw at least 20 miles from the border. (Read more from “Hundreds of ISIS Supporters Escape Camp in Syria” HERE)

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Media Begin to Acknowledge: Some Kurdish Forces Are a Problem

By Breitbart. The mainstream media have begun to acknowledge that some Kurdish forces in the Turkey-Syria border region are a legitimate national security concern for Turkey, after a week of criticism of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal.

On Sunday, the New York Times published an article about how Kurdish forces, apparently out of spite, were no longer allowing U.S. forces to take control of detainees linked to the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) — though the Times headline cast the issue as America’s fault (“U.S. Forces Leave ‘High-Value’ ISIS Detainees Behind in Retreat From Syria”):

The Kurds refused, the officials said, to cooperate in permitting the American military to take out any more detainees from the constellation of ad hoc wartime detention sites for captive ISIS fighters. These range from former schoolhouses in towns like Ain Eissa and Kobani to a former Syrian government prison at Hasaka.

The prisons hold about 11,000 men, about 9,000 of them Syrian or Iraqi Arabs. About 2,000 come from some 50 other nations whose governments have refused to repatriate them.

Later in the article, the Times acknowledged: “The Turkish government sees the Kurdish military presence so close to its border as a serious security threat, because the Kurdish forces have close ties with a guerrilla group that has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey itself” (emphasis added). (Read more from “Media Begin to Acknowledge: Some Kurdish Forces Are a Problem” HERE)

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Three-Dozen ISIS Fighters Killed in Series of U.S. Strikes

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The U.S. military killed 36 ISIS militants in a series of three airstrikes in Libya over the past eight days, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced Friday.

“This ongoing campaign against ISIS-Libya demonstrates that U.S. Africa Command persistently targets terrorist networks that seek to harm innocent Libyans,” read a statement from AFRICOM’s director of intelligence, Navy Rear Admiral Heidi Berg. “We will continue to pursue ISIS-Libya and other terrorists in the region, denying them safe haven to coordinate and plan operations in Libya.”

Seventeen ISIS members were killed in an airstrike on Thursday in southwest Libya. That strike followed a strike Tuesday near Murzuq that killed eleven jihadis, and a previous strike in the same area late last week that killed eight alleged fighters, AFRICOM said. (Read more from “Three-Dozen ISIS Fighters Killed in Series of U.S. Strikes” HERE)

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U.S. Man Who Joined ISIS Says He Is Sorry, Wants to Come Home (VIDEO)

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A Minnesota man who joined ISIS and was captured fighting in Syria says he is sorry for his actions and wants to come home, even if it means facing federal charges.

Abdelhamid Al-Madioum grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and graduated from high school in suburban Minneapolis. According to WCCO-TV reporter Holly Williams, who found him in a prison in Northeastern Syria.

According to United States authorities, Al-Madioum slipped away from his family while he was on vacation in Morocco and took a solo flight to Istanbul, where he then traveled to Iraq, where he joined up with ISIS.

Al-Madioum says he was shown ISIS propaganda films via an ISIS twitter recruitment program where they promised to help refugees fleeing Syria. He claims, implausibly, that he joined ISIS for humanitarian reasons. “I will be very honest with you, I thought I was going to come and help people,” Al-Madioum told Williams. . .

According to Williams, Al-Madioum expressed a desire to return home to the United States, even though he is aware that he faces federal charges and a potentially lengthy prison sentence in the United States upon his return. He also had a message for his parents: “Mom and Dad, I am really, really sorry for hurting you guys, and you guys came to America seeking a better life, not for yourselves, but for me. I hope that you will be able to forgive me.” (Read more from”U.S. Man Who Joined ISIS Says He Is Sorry, Wants to Come Home” HERE)

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Airline Mechanic Accused of Sabotaging Plane Had ISIS Video on His Phone

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. . .Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani was accused earlier this month of inserting an object into the navigational system of the airplane that would tamper with airspeed readings. The plane detected the mechanical error shortly before taking off from Miami to the Bahamas and was promptly taken out of service, forcing 150 passengers to deplane and seek out other methods of travel.

Alani, who was reportedly seen on video tampering with the airplane, alleged that he was motivated to do so because he was dissatisfied with employment contracts and hoped the mechanical issue could translate to more overtime pay for himself.

Prosecutors in federal court on Wednesday, however, allege that Alani had downloaded an ISIS propaganda video to his cellphone, which he sent to other unnamed individuals. Prosecutors also alleged during the Wednesday bond hearing that Alani confided to coworkers that his brother was involved in ISIS.

The U.S. attorney further stated that Alani had traveled to Iraq earlier this year, a fact which he had confided to his roommate, because his brother had been kidnapped. He also reportedly transferred $700 to an unidentified recipient in Iraq this past July. Alani’s phone is said to contain a news article about Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, killing all 189 on board. (Read more from “Airline Mechanic Accused of Sabotaging Plane Had ISIS Video on His Phone” HERE)

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Watch It: Video Shows U.S. Bombing ISIS-‘Infested’ Island; Military Leaders Warn of ISIS Insurgency in Iraq

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By Fox News. U.S. jets bombed an ISIS-“infested island” in northern Iraq Tuesday, according to new video and a statement from the U.S.-led coalition battling the terrorist group.

More than 80,000 pounds of laser-guided bombs were dropped on the island located on the Tigris River south of Mosul, according to U.S. Army Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, based in Baghdad.

U.S. officials called the island a “major transit hub” for ISIS fighters going in and out of Syria.

“We’re denying [ISIS] the ability to hide on Qanus Island,” said Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, the commander of the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve. “We’re setting the conditions for our partner forces to continue bringing stability to the region.”

A tweet from OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins, which aired the video, said: “Here’s what it looks like when @USAFCENT F15 and F35 jets drop 36,000kg of bombs on a Daesh [ISIS] infested island.”

(Read more from “Watch It: Video Shows U.S. Bombing ISIS-‘Infested’ Island” HERE)

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Military Leaders Tell David Muir There Is an ‘Isis Insurgency’ in Iraq, Warn of Breeding Ground Across Syria Border

By ABC News. . .Nearly 16 years since the United States went into Iraq to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir got exclusive access with American troops now fighting an enemy intent on resurging: ISIS.

Mere months after losing their territorial hold across Syria and Iraq — and after President Donald Trump declared ISIS had been “defeated” — the reality on the ground paints a still grim picture of recalcitrant ISIS fighters forming an enduring insurgency.

“We have seen, since the collapse of the caliphate, that ISIS has repositioned a lot of its capabilities,” U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Alex Grynkewich told Muir.

“They’re trying to garner resources, extort the population, do low level attacks. There’s certainly an insurgency going on, on the ground right now,” said Grynkewich, the deputy commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, the joint coalition fighting ISIS on the ground. . .

For months, there have been warnings of a resurgence — at least two Pentagon reports this year, including one from August, cautioned ISIS was far from eradicated. A report from the lead inspector general for Operation Inherent Resolve, which fights ISIS, warned that from April to June, ISIS “solidified insurgent capabilities in Iraq” and established “resurgent cells” in Syria to “expand its command and control nodes in Iraq.” (Read more from “Military Leaders Tell David Muir There Is an ‘Isis Insurgency’ in Iraq, Warn of Breeding Ground Across Syria Border” HERE)

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Trump Had Secret Meeting Planned with Taliban

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President Donald Trump revealed on Saturday that he had a secret meeting planned with leaders of the Taliban to try to bring peace to the country, and that he canceled at the last minute when he learned that they were responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier.

“Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday,” Trump tweeted. “They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?”

“The Pentagon announced Friday that Sgt. 1st Class Elis Angel Barreto Ortiz was killed in Afghanistan,” CNN reported. “Barreto, a 34-year-old paratrooper from Morovis, Puerto Rico, died when a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint near NATO headquarters and the US embassy in Kabul. Barreto is the 16th US service member to be killed in Afghanistan in 2019, and three other American service members have been killed in recent weeks.”

(Read more from “Trump Had Secret Meeting Planned with Taliban” HERE)

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Alleged ISIS Sniper Indicted, Came to U.S. on ‘Visa Lottery’

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An alleged sniper for the Islamic State (ISIS) has been indicted, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday, years after he was able to obtain American citizenship by arriving in the United States on the “Diversity Visa Lottery.”

Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 43-years-old, was indicted in federal court on five counts of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS; providing personnel, training, expert advice, assistance, and weapons to ISIS and ISIS fighters; as well as receiving military training from ISIS fighters.

Asainov, according to federal prosecutors, traveled to Istanbul, Turkey in December 2013 with the intention of going on to Syria to fight for ISIS. After arriving in Syria, Asainov is accused of joining ISIS by becoming a sniper for the terrorist organization.

While sniping for ISIS, Asainov moved up the ranks within the terrorist organization and was put in charge of training newcomer ISIS fighters. Asainov is also accused of trying to recruit other terrorist sympathizers living in the U.S. to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.

Asainov’s traveling to Syria to allegedly snipe for ISIS came 14 years after he was first allowed to legally immigrate to the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Lottery program — which randomly gives out about 55,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Uzbekistan. (Read more from “Alleged ISIS Sniper Indicted, Came to U.S. on ‘Visa Lottery’” HERE)

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