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White House Releases Statements on ISIS Attack Against U.S. Troops in Syria

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By Townhall. The White House released a series of statements Wednesday afternoon condemning the ISIS attack on U.S. troops in Syria.

“Our deepest sympathies and love go out to the families of the brave American heroes who were killed today in Syria. We also pray for the soldiers who were wounded in the attack. Our service members and their families have all sacrificed so much for our country,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

(Read more from “White House Releases Statements on ISIS Attack Against U.S. Troops in Syria” HERE)

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U.S. Troops Killed in Syria Suicide Attack Claimed by ISIS

By CBS News. Four Americans, including two U.S. service members, were among those killed in an attack in northern Syria Wednesday, the same day Vice President Mike Pence said ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the attack, “has been defeated.”

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Wednesday that an apparent explosion killed two service members, a Department of Defense civilian and a Pentagon contractor while they were “conducting a local engagement in Manbij, Syria.” Three service members were also injured.

“Initial reports indicate an explosion caused the casualties, and the incident is under investigation,” the statement said.

The attack comes just weeks after President Trump declared ISIS defeated and said U.S. troops were coming home. Speaking to a gathering of U.S. ambassadors at the State Department on Wednesday, after the Pentagon confirmed the deaths of American troops in Syria, Pence repeated both of Mr. Trump’s assertions. (Read more from “U.S. Troops Killed in Syria Suicide Attack Claimed by ISIS” HERE)

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ISIS Video Warns ‘Flames of War Will Burn’ U.S.

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By PJ Media. An ISIS-linked group declared that “the flames of war” will “come to America” following U.S. withdrawal from Syria in the same way that ISIS’ power was ignited by President Obama deciding to pull U.S. forces from Iraq.

The eight-minute video, “It’s Still Burning,” was released online by al-Asawirti Media, which has produced films in support of ISIS since the caliphate was declared in 2014. . .

“We tell the Americans, the protectors of the Jews and the Crusader protector, whether you withdrew or not our victory is in our continuation,” a narrator says over footage of ISIS battlefield scenes. “Even if you withdraw, you will return soon. If you cannot turn back, we will invade you from everywhere and you will hear our footsteps on the ground. The fighting has just begun and we are confident of victory from Allah.” ISIS won’t stop, the narrator vows, until jihadists can “pray in Rome.” . . .

The video directly threatens the United States, depicting the country ringed in fire and warning, “Remember: It’s only a matter of time before the flames of war burn you.”

“The Flames of War” were a pair of key propaganda films released by official ISIS media, beginning with the first video in September 2014. Just over a year ago, ISIS released “Flames of War II: Until the Final Hour,” narrated by an American-accented jihadist who has voiced other ISIS productions. (Read more from “ISIS Video Warns ‘Flames of War Will Burn’ U.S.” HERE)

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Iraqis Fear Defeated Islamic State Could Make a Comeback

By NBC News. A little more than a year after Baghdad declared victory over the Islamic State group, many of its former supporters still walk the streets freely and Iraqis fear the militants might attempt a comeback.

President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq Wednesday amid criticism of his decision to withdraw American troops from neighboring Syria, a move which prompted the resignations of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition to defeat ISIS.

Trump said that he had no plans to remove U.S. troops from Iraq but warned “the United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously assured Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi that the U.S. is still committed to supporting the fight against ISIS in the country.

But the White House has also ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, officials told NBC News last week. (Read more from “Iraqis Fear Defeated Islamic State Could Make a Comeback” HERE)

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ISIS Video Allegedly Showing Murder of Student Is Likely Authentic

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By Fox News. A video that has been circulating across social media purportedly showing the killing of a Scandinavian university student in a remote part of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains is likely authentic, Norwegian police said Friday.

Officials said they were investigating the footage that appeared to show a woman yelling while a man decapitated her with a knife, Deutsche Welle reported. There wasn’t any immediate evidence to conclude the video was inauthentic, Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service said in a statement. . .

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were murdered while camping in the Atlas mountains. The women were found in and outside their tent, located about two hours walking distance from the village of Imlil. Deutsche Welle reported the two women were found decapitated by tourists. . .

Four men have been detained in Morocco, and authorities consider the killings of the two women to be a terrorist act. Moroccan authorities said the four men pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Morocco is generally considered safe for tourists but has been rooting out Islamic extremists for years. (Read more from “ISIS Video Allegedly Showing Murder of Student Is Likely Authentic” HERE)

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Bodies of Murdered Scandinavian Hikers Flown Back From Morocco

By AFP. The bodies of two women from Denmark and Norway murdered by suspected jihadists while hiking in the High Atlas mountains in Morocco were flown back to Scandinavia on Friday.

The remains of Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were put on a plane that left Casablanca for the Danish capital, a police spokesman said.

Moroccan authorities said Thursday that four suspects arrested following the murder of the two tourists had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The bodies of the two women were found Monday after they had pitched their tent at an isolated mountain site two hours’ walk from the tourist village of Imlil.

One of them was beheaded, according to a source close to the investigation. (Read more from “Bodies of Murdered Scandinavian Hikers Flown Back From Morocco” HERE)

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CNN Says Trump Has Radicalized More People Than ISIS

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There’s media bias, and then there’s total insanity. We caught a taste of that today on Jake Tapper’s program this afternoon. Julia Ioffe of GQ decided to drop the hottest of hot takes in a long, long time: President Donald Trump has radicalized more people than ISIS. Yeah, you read that right.

The panel was discussing the latest string of politically motivated acts of violence. Cesar Sayoc was arrested in Florida after sending explosive devices to top Democrats, former presidents, and celebrities. Robert Bowers committed one of the worst hate crimes in recent memory in Pittsburgh, killing eleven people in a synagogue. Of course, the elite news media is blaming Trump and conservative news media, which formed the crux of today’s discussion. Oh, and Ioffe was one of the ones who seemingly tried to blame American Jews for this shooting for their push to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Did Tapper push back? Nope. No…he did not:

(Read more from “CNN Says Trump Has Radicalized More People Than ISIS” HERE)

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ISIS Sex Trafficking Victim and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tells Harrowing Story of What She Endured

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By The Blaze. Nadia Murad was living a quiet life in Northern Iraq in 2014 when an unimaginable terror suddenly took it all away. ISIS jihadists kidnapped Murad and forced her into sex trafficking.

Murad, now 25, was recently awarded the 2018 Noble Peace Prize jointly with Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege. He is also an activist against sexual violence and specializes in treating women who were raped by rebel forces. Murad received the award for her activism against sex trafficking. . .

Following her year-and-a-half ordeal as a sex trafficking victim, Murad was able to escape while she was being transported out of Iraq. In early 2015, she went to Germany seeking refuge. A few months later, Murad began campaigning to raise awareness about human trafficking, the Guardian reported.

Speaking before a United Nations panel, Murad explained the part of the levity of what she witnessed:

“…the children who died of dehydration fleeing Isis, the families still stranded on the mountain, the thousands of women and children who remained in captivity, and what my brothers saw at the site of the massacre. I was only one of hundreds of thousands of Yazidi victims.”

(Read more from “ISIS Sex Trafficking Victim and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tells Harrowing Story of What She Endured” HERE)

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Nobel Peace Prize: I Was an ISIS Sex Slave. I Tell My Story Because It Is the Best Weapon I Have

By The Guardian. The slave market opened at night. We could hear the commotion downstairs where militants were registering and organising, and when the first man entered the room, all the girls started screaming. It was like the scene of an explosion. We moaned as though wounded, doubling over and vomiting on the floor, but none of it stopped the militants. They paced around the room, staring at us, while we screamed and begged. They gravitated toward the most beautiful girls first, asking, “How old are you?” and examining their hair and mouths. “They are virgins, right?” they asked a guard, who nodded and said, “Of course!” like a shopkeeper taking pride in his product. Now the militants touched us anywhere they wanted, running their hands over our breasts and our legs, as if we were animals. . .

“Calm down!” militants kept shouting at us. “Be quiet!” But their orders only made us scream louder. If it was inevitable that a militant would take me, I wouldn’t make it easy for him. I howled and screamed, slapping away hands that reached out to grope me. Other girls were doing the same, curling their bodies into balls on the floor or throwing themselves across their sisters and friends to try to protect them.

While I lay there, another militant stopped in front of us. He was a high-ranking militant named Salwan who had come with another girl, another young Yazidi from Hardan, who he planned to drop off at the house while he shopped for her replacement. “Stand up,” he said. When I didn’t, he kicked me. “You! The girl with the pink jacket! I said, stand up!” . . .

Attacking Sinjar [in northern Iraq] and taking girls to use as sex slaves wasn’t a spontaneous decision made on the battlefield by a greedy soldier. Islamic State planned it all: how they would come into our homes, what made a girl more or less valuable, which militants deserved a sabaya [sex slave] as incentive and which should pay. They even discussed sabaya in their glossy propaganda magazine, Dabiq, in an attempt to draw new recruits. But Isis is not as original as its members think it is. Rape has been used throughout history as a weapon of war. I never thought I would have something in common with women in Rwanda – before all this, I didn’t know that a country called Rwanda existed – and now I am linked to them in the worst possible way, as a victim of a war crime that is so hard to talk about that no one in the world was prosecuted for committing it until just 16 years before Isis came to Sinjar. (Read more from “Nobel Peace Prize: I Was an ISIS Sex Slave. I Tell My Story Because It Is the Best Weapon I Have” HERE)

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Imam Who Recruited for ISIS Is About to Get Released From Prison Early

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In September 2016, infamous and dangerous Imam Anjem Choudary was sentenced to five years in prison for recruiting individuals to join ISIS and carry out jihad against “infidels” in the west. Before his loyalty to ISIS, Choudary praised Osama bin Laden for carrying out the September 11 attacks.

Next week Choudary will be released from prison early on a technicality. He’s served less than half of his sentence and is still considered a serious threat.

(Read more from “Imam Who Recruited for ISIS Is About to Get Released From Prison Early” HERE)

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U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS

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According to the Department of Justice, Hawaii-based U.S. Army Sergeant Ikaika Erik Kang, 35, became radicalized by watching Islamic State group propaganda and training videos at least as early as 2016.

On Wednesday, Kang pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of attempting to aid the Islamic State group.

During a year-long investigation by the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division, Kang was caught trying to provide sensitive and classified military materials and documents to undercover agents who Kang thought were Islamic State sympathizers.

He was arrested in July 2017.

“The documents included, among other things: classified air traffic control documents that describe call signs, aircraft types, route points, directives, mission procedures, and radio frequencies; the US military’s ‘weapons file,’ which describes all the armament capabilities of the US armed forces; details about a sensitive mobile airspace management system used by the US military; and documents containing personally identifiable information of US service members,” read a statement by the Justice Department.

He also provided the undercover agents with “a commercially purchased small aerial drone, a military chest rig, and other military-style clothing and gear,” according to the Justice Department.

During a fake ceremony created by the agents, Kang swore his allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Army sergeant also met with two agents posing as a high-ranking Islamic State leader and a fighter within the group.

“Kang led the undercover agents in a hand-to-hand military combat session in order to train the supposed ISIS member in fighting techniques. The sessions were video recorded and Kang believed the video would be used to train other ISIS fighters,” CNN reported.

Kang had planned to eventually move to the Middle East and become an Islamic State member, according to court documents. He also allegedly planned to launch a suicide attack on his Schofield Barracks station in Hawaii.

An FBI affidavit released last year said Kang had told a Confidential Human Source that he had been researching torture methods on YouTube.

“Kang added that he was still angry at a civilian who had taken away his air traffic controller’s license, and that he wanted to torture him. Kang said that if he ever saw him again, he would tie him down and pour Drano in his eyes,” the affidavit reads.

Kang reached a plea deal on Wednesday and will serve 25 years in prison followed by the possibility of a lifetime of supervised release.

“Kang swore to defend the United States as a member of our military, but betrayed his country by swearing allegiance to ISIS and attempting to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers. “With today’s plea, he will be held accountable for his crimes.”

Special Agent in Charge Sean Kaul of the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office released a statement following Kang’s court appearance.

“This is the first case in the State of Hawaii where someone was convicted of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” Kaul said. “This should serve as reminder that even though we are 2,500 miles from the US Mainland, these crimes can and do happen everywhere.” (For more from the author of “U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS” please click HERE)

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Disappointing: A Super Concerning Development Was Just Made in the Muslim Extremist Compound Case

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A judge dismissed child neglect charges Wednesday against three of five people arrested at a New Mexico desert compound where 11 children were found living in filth and the body of a 3-year-old boy was discovered.

Judge Emilio Chavez ruled that he could not keep the three in custody because prosecutors missed a 10-day deadline for a court hearing to establish probable cause for the neglect charges.

Prosecutors have other options for pursuing charges against the three — Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahhaj. That could include refiling the charges or asking a grand jury to indict them.

Prosecutors had pressed to keep them behind bars and planned to present new evidence of an anti-government plot and talk of jihad and martyrdom among some members of the extended Muslim family that settled at the compound last winter.

Defense attorneys say their clients have no record of criminal convictions and pose no risk to the public.

Authorities are pushing ahead with other charges against the dead boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and his partner, Jany Leveille.

They were due in court Wednesday on charges of child abuse resulting in death, which could carry life sentences in connection with the death of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj. The severely disabled boy’s badly decomposed remains were found this month inside a tunnel at the high-desert compound near the Colorado state line.

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials have accused Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Leveille of denying the boy proper medicine and health care as the boy died in December 2017 during a religious ritual aimed at casting out demonic spirits. They have not yet entered pleas.

The boy’s mother initially reported him missing last year from Jonesboro, Georgia, after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj said he was taking the child to a park and didn’t return. Forensic medical investigators have not identified the cause and manner of the boy’s death as they continue their analysis.

Chavez ruled that the other three defendants could be released as early as Wednesday depending on what action prosecutors take. Prosecutor John Lovelace said he respects the judge’s ruling and that no decisions have been made yet on how the district attorney’s office will proceed.

Defense attorneys said the state Supreme Court put in place the rule on an evidentiary hearing as a fundamental protection of individual liberty and the right to due process.

“We’re talking about a month that someone was in custody, it’s an absolute deprivation of liberty and that is very precious,” said Aleks Kostich, who is representing Morton.

Prosecutors had planned to present as evidence a hand-written document called “Phases of a Terrorist Attack” that was seized from the compound and includes vague instructions for “the one-time terrorist” and mentioned an unnamed place called “the ideal attack site.”

Prosecutors wrote in court documents that new interviews with some of the children removed from the compound revealed that one of the adults, Morton, stated he wished to die in jihad as a martyr and that Leveille and Subhannah Wahhaj joked about dying in jihad.

The new charges of child abuse resulting in death against Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Leveille are tied to an extensive account of Abdul-ghani’s death in a journal that prosecutors attribute to Leveille.

Federal immigration authorities say Leveille, a native of Haiti, has been in the United States unlawfully for 20 years after overstaying a visitor visa. (For more from the author of “Disappointed but Not Surprised: A Concerning Development Was Just Made in the Muslim Extremist Compound Case” please click HERE)

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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Deadly Attack Near Paris

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A man with severe psychiatric problems killed his mother and sister and seriously injured another woman in a knife attack Thursday in a Paris-region town, officials said.

Police shot and killed the man soon afterward.

The Islamic State group, which has a history of opportunistic claims, swiftly claimed responsibility.

French prosecutors weren’t treating the attack in Trappes, west of Paris, as a terrorism case, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. He noted the attacker suffered from serious mental health issues although he had also been flagged for glorifying terrorism.

Collomb said that the man killed his mother at her home and stabbed the other women outside.

Still wielding the knife, he then ignored police warnings and was shot and killed, the minister said after meeting officers and prosecutors in Trappes.

He described the man as “unstable, rather than someone who was engaged, someone who could respond, for example, to orders and instructions from a terrorist organization, in particular from Daesh.” Daesh is another name for IS.

A long-time friend of the attacker identified him as Kamel Salhi, 36.

The friend, Said Segreg, said Salhi had no obvious problems, didn’t abuse drugs or alcohol and wasn’t fervently religious.

A government official confirmed Salhi’s name and age. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss such details publicly.

Salhi was divorced and living with his mother, said Adama Traore, another of his acquaintances in Trappes.

The Islamic State group, via its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility.

The agency said the attack was motivated by calls from the IS leadership to attack civilians in countries at war with the extremist group.

Hours earlier, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers to attack enemies everywhere.

The Islamic State group, which has lost most of the territories it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, has been known to make opportunistic claims in the past, even when there was no established link between an attacker and the extremist group. (For more from the author of “ISIS Claims Responsibility for Deadly Attack Near Paris” please click HERE)

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American Couple Dies Tragically While Biking Through ISIS Territory Trying to Prove Evil Does Not Exist

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An American couple decided to bicycle around the world in an attempt to prove evil does not exist. They chose to bicycle through ISIS territory and ISIS killed them.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan left their D.C. government jobs nearly two years ago to embark on a worldwide bike tour. The wide-eyed, optimistic couple kept track of their trips on a website where they posted stunning photos of their travels and whimsical musings on evil, the media and the goodness of people.

In one post, Austin — who is a vegan — said he worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Obama’s presidency explained how he and his girlfriend were planning to bike around the world with hopes to meet “generous” and approachable people. . .

The couple chose to bike through the Muslim country of Tajikistan with another group of cyclists. They met a gruesome fate when confronted by five members of ISIS.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a video featuring the killers posing with an ISIS flag and pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. According to the New York Times, the men vowed to kill the “disbelievers.” (Read more from “American Couple Dies Tragically While Biking Through ISIS Territory Trying to Prove Evil Does Not Exist” HERE)

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