Tag Archives: fighters

Editor’s Pick, Foreign Policy, International, Politics, US

ISIS Seized 2,300 U.S. Armored Humvees, Possibly Worth 1 Billion Dollars

89 Comments

Mosul, Iraq- When ISIS fighters seized the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, with the city came over 2,300 U.S. military armored humvees.  That, according to Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

In an interview with state run Al Iraqiya television, the Prime Minister admitted “In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons… We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.”

This issue is nothing new to Truth in Media.  Months ago in our Origins of ISIS report, we explained how thousands of armored military vehicles left by the U.S. military in Iraq, had been seized by ISIS fighters.

In that report we explain, “One of the most important facts that mainstream media ignores time and time again is that ISIS was able to grow so fast, because of all the U.S. military equipment they were able to seize – equipment that our military left in Iraq,” said Swann. “Truckloads of Humvees, tanks and weaponry that instead of taking or destroying, the U.S. government simply decided to leave behind.”

On Monday, a Humvee was used in an IS suicide bombing on a military base north of Fallujah that killed 42, a military source told Al Jazeera.

The value of the lost vehicles is unknown. But in December 2014, the US State Department approved a possible sale of 1,000 Humvees armed with machine guns, and grenade launchers to Iraq at an estimated cost of $579 million.

Watch the full Origins of ISIS report here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Related:
US-Trained Foreign Special Forces Commander Joins ISIS
Ron Paul: New Evidence US Backed ISIS
Confirmed Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” in a Proxy War Against Assad

 

International, US

FBI calls for Americans to identify ISIS fighters

2 Comments

While the intelligence community has been working on trying to identifying the infamous ‘Jihadi Joe’ from previous ISIS beheading videos, the FBI is now asking for the American public to help them identify any people who have traveled to the Middle East or are planing to travel there in order to fight for ISIS.

The call for the American people’s help and support started after the release of an ISIS propaganda video titled “Flames of War.”  The video features a fighter who speaks to the camera in Arabic, but then switches to fluent English.  While he talks to the camera, men behind him are  seen “digging their own graves in the very place they were stationed.”  Eventually, all of the people digging their graves are killed in the video.

What is significant about this video is the fighter’s ability to effortlessly switch from Arabic to English. CNN reports the English dialect of the ISIS fighter is a North American accent, and this prompted the FBI to ask for help identifying the fighter and any others who might want to fight for ISIS.

Officials are saying the man on film could be a Middle Eastern man educated in the west, or they could be from North America and traveled to the area to aid ISIS.

One security analyst says this video was clearly meant for a western audience.  Frank Cillufo, the analyst from George Washington University, said, “Clearly ISIS had a calculated step to be able to put this guy on camera… Why? Because he seems American. The message is aimed at a Western audience.”

Michael Steinbach, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said on the FBI’s webpage, “We are hoping that someone might recognize this individual and provide us with key pieces of information… No piece of information is too small.”

Steinbach also said, “We need the public’s assistance in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas.”

As of now, top US security officials have estimated about 100 Americans have traveled to the Middle East in order to fight for ISIS.

International, US

UN passes resolution to stop foreign fighters and terrorists

Leave a comment

As the world begins to respond to the growing threat of ISIS, the United Nations Security Council met Wednesday and unanimously approved a resolution which forces member states to stop terrorist recruiting and movement within their territories.

President Obama chaired the committee saying, according to the Hill, “I called this meeting because we must come together as nations and as an international community to confront a real and growing threat of foreign terrorist fighters… The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our commitment to meet this challenge.”

The resolution not only calls for states to stop recruiting and movement within their borders, but also requires states to take precautions to ward off potential terrorist attacks from foreign fighters within their borders.

Foreign fighters, in this instance are defined, according to the International Business Times, as, “Individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts…”  An estimated 12,000 fighters who fit into this definition have already traveled from at least 74 countries to the Middle East to fight on behalf of ISIS.

In addition, the resolution calls for all member states to share information concerning any domestic terrorist concerns with other members.  However, there was no definition given as to what constitutes a domestic terrorist, leaving it up to each state to make up their own definition of a “domestic terrorist.”

In order to show how serious the US takes the issue at hand, the US Treasury Department put immediate sanctions in place against 11 individuals and one Indonesian organization.  The people and group in question are thought to be sending foreign fighters and funds to Islamic terrorist groups, such as ISIS.

In a statement after the sanctions were passed, David Cohen, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said, according to RT, “These steps, taken the same day as the adoption of a new United Nations Security Council Resolution, affirm the commitment of the United States and our partners to degrade and destroy terrorist access to financing.”