ISIS AND THE CRUSADERS 2.
- I got into a conversation with a friend of mine and we got to talk about a lot of issues until we got to the issues of Israel and Palestine and then to the ISIS(IS) war on civilization or whatever you want to call the conflict going on in Iraq and Syria..well my friend likened the ISIS to the Crusaders but I disputed this notion...now...WHO ARE THE ISIS...? The Islamic State (IS)[5][7][55] (Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية ad-Dawlah l-ʾIslāmiyyah), commonly referred to by Western media sources as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ˈaɪsɪl/) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/),[a] is a jihadist group in the Middle East. In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world[56] and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its direct political control,[57] beginning with territory in the Levant region, which includes Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and an area in southern Turkey that includes Hatay.[58][59] It has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States,[60] the United Kingdom,[61] Australia,[62] Canada,[63] Indonesia[64] and Saudi Arabia,[65] and has been labeled by the United Nations [66] and Western and Middle Eastern media as a terrorist organization.[67][68][69][70][71]
ISIS grew significantly owing to its participation in the Syrian Civil War and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Allegations of economic and political discrimination against Arab Iraqi Sunnis since the fall of the secular Saddam Hussein also helped it to gain support. At the height of the 2003–2011 Iraq War, its forerunners enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Nineveh, Kirkuk, most of Salah ad Din, parts of Babil, Diyala and Baghdad, and claimed Baqubah as a capital city.[72][73][74][75] In the ongoing Syrian Civil War, ISIS has a large presence in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib and Aleppo.[76][77]
ISIS had close links to Al-Qaeda until February 2014, when, after an eight-month power struggle, Al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group, reportedly for its brutality and "notorious intractability."[78][79][80]
In June 2014, ISIS had at least 4.000 fighters in its ranks in Iraq[81] who, in addition to attacks on government and military targets, have claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of civilians.[82] In August 2014, the group claimed to have increased its strength to 50,000 fighters in Syria and 30,000 in Iraq.[17]
ISIS compels people in the areas it controls, under the penalty of death, torture or mutilation, to declare Islamic creed, and live according to its interpretation of Sunni Islam and sharia law.[83][69] It directs violence against Shia Muslims, indigenous Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans in particular.[84]
ISIS’s original aim was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni-majority regions of Iraq. Following its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, this expanded to include controlling Sunni-majority areas of Syria.[85] A caliphate was proclaimed on 29 June 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—now known as Amir al-Mu'minin Caliph Ibrahim—was named as its caliph, and the group was renamed the Islamic State.
History
As Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
Origins
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (abrreviated JTJ or shortened to Tawhid and Jihad, Tawhid wal-Jihad, sometimes Tawhid al-Jihad, Al Tawhid or Tawhid) was started in about 2000 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a combination of foreigners and local Islamist sympathizers. Al-Zarqawi was a Jordanian Salafi who had traveled to Afghanistan to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but he arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops and soon returned to his homeland. He eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat.Al-Zarqawi started the network with the intention of overthrowing the Kingdom of Jordan, which he considered to be un-Islamic according to the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. For this purpose he developed numerous contacts and affiliates in several countries. Although it has not been verified, his network may have been involved in the late 1999 plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations in the United States and Jordan. However, al-Zarqawi's operatives were responsible for the assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan in 2002.[184]
Following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he reportedly received medical treatment in Baghdad for an injured leg. It is believed that he developed extensive ties in Iraq with Ansar al-Islam ("Partisans of Islam"), a Kurdish Islamic militant group based in the extreme northeast of the country. Ansar allegedly had ties to Iraqi Intelligence; Saddam Hussein's motivation would have been to use Ansar as a surrogate force to repress secular Kurds fighting for the independence of Kurdistan.[185] In January 2003, Ansar's founder Mullah Krekar denied any connection with Saddam's government.[186]
The consensus of intelligence officials has since been that there were no links whatsoever between al-Zarqawi and Saddam, and that Saddam viewed Ansar al-Islam "as a threat to the regime"[187] and his intelligence officials were spying on the group. The 2006 Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq concluded: "Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward al-Zarqawi."[187] According to Michael Weiss, Ansar entered Iraqi Kurdistan through Iran as part of Iran's covert attempts to destabilize Saddam's government.[188]
Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, JTJ developed into an expanding militant network for the purpose of resisting the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. It included some of the remnants of Ansar al-Islam and a growing number of foreign fighters. Many foreign fighters arriving in Iraq were initially not associated with the group, but once they were in the country they became dependent on al-Zarqawi's local contacts.[189]
Goals and tactics
The stated goals of JTJ were: (i) to force a withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq; (ii) to topple the Iraqi interim government; (iii) to assassinate collaborators with the occupation regime; (iv) to remove the Shia population and defeat its militias because of its death-squad activities; and (v) to establish subsequently a pure Islamic state.[114]JTJ differed considerably from the other early Iraqi insurgent groups in its tactics. Rather than using only conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics in ambushes against the US and coalition forces, it relied heavily on suicide bombings, often using car bombs. It targeted a wide variety of groups, especially the Iraqi Security Forces and those facilitating the occupation. Groups of workers who have been targeted by JTJ include Iraqi interim officials, Iraqi Shia and Kurdish political and religious figures, the country's Shia Muslim civilians, foreign civilian contractors, and United Nations and humanitarian workers.[189] Al-Zarqawi's militants are also known to have used a wide variety of other tactics, including targeted kidnappings, the planting of improvised explosive devices, and mortar attacks. Beginning in late June 2004, JTJ implemented urban guerrilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. They also gained worldwide notoriety for beheading Iraqi and foreign hostages and distributing video recordings of these acts on the Internet.
Activities
The group took either direct responsibility or the blame for many of the early Iraqi insurgent attacks, including the series of high-profile bombings in August 2003, which killed 17 people at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad,[189] 23 people, including the chief of the United Nations Mission to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad,[189] and at least 86 people, including Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, in the Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf.[192] Included here is the November truck bombing, which killed 27 people, mostly Italian paramilitary policemen, at the Italian base in Nasiriyah.[189]
The attacks connected with the group in 2004 include the series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala which killed 178 people during the holy Day of Ashura in March;[193] the failed plot in April to explode chemical bombs in Amman, Jordan, which was said to have been financed by al-Zarqawi's network;[194] a series of suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf in April, for which al-Zarqawi took responsibility in a statement published by the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist website; the May car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council president Ezzedine Salim at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad;[195] the June suicide car bombing in Baghdad which killed 35 civilians;[196] and the September car bomb which killed 47 police recruits and civilians on Haifa Street in Baghdad.[197]
SOURCE:WIKIPEDIA.
- Islamic State stands with al-Qaeda as one of the most dangerous jihadist groups, after its gains in Syria and Iraq.
It has since been disavowed by al-Qaeda, but has become one of the main jihadist groups fighting government forces in Syria and Iraq.
Its precise size is unclear but it is thought to include thousands of fighters, including many foreign jihadists.
The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Little is known about him, but it is believed he was born in Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971 and joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion.
This rare image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released by the Iraqi interior ministry
Baghdadi is regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician, which analysts say makes his group more attractive to young jihadists than al-Qaeda, which is led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Islamic theologian.
Prof Peter Neumann of King's College London estimates that about 80% of Western fighters in Syria have joined the group.
IS claims to have fighters from the UK, France, Germany and other European countries, as well as the US, the Arab world and the Caucasus.
Unlike other rebel groups in Syria, IS is seen to be working towards an Islamic emirate that straddles Syria and Iraq.
The group has seen considerable military success. In March 2013, it took over the Syrian city of Raqqa - the first provincial capital to fall under rebel control.
In January 2014, it capitalised on growing tension between Iraq's Sunni minority and Shia-led government by taking control of the predominantly Sunni city of Fallujah, in the western province of Anbar.
It also seized large sections of the provincial capital, Ramadi, and has a presence in a number of towns near the Turkish and Syrian borders.
The group has gained a reputation for brutal rule in the areas that it controls.
However, it was its conquest of Mosul in June that sent shockwaves around the world.
Iraqi security forces fled as IS advanced into the city of Mosul
Initially, the group relied on donations from wealthy individuals in Gulf Arab states, particularly Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, who supported its fight against President Bashar al-Assad.
Today, IS is said to earn significant amounts from the oil fields it controls in eastern Syria, reportedly selling some of the supply back to the Syrian government. It is also believed to have been selling looted antiquities from historical sites.
Prof Neumann believes that before the capture of Mosul in June 2014, IS had cash and assets worth about $900m (£500m). Afterwards, this rose to around $2bn (£1.18bn).
The group reportedly took hundreds of millions of dollars from Mosul's branch of Iraq's central bank. And its financial windfall looked set to continue if it maintains control of oil fields in northern Iraq.
Inter-rebel tension
The group has been operating independently of other jihadist groups in Syria such as the al-Nusra Front, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in the country, and has had a tense relationship with other rebels.
Baghdadi sought to merge with al-Nusra, which rejected the deal, and the two groups have operated separately since.
Zawahiri has urged IS to focus on Iraq and leave Syria to al-Nusra, but Baghdadi and his fighters openly defied the al-Qaeda chief.
Hostility to IS grew steadily in Syria as regularly attacked fellow rebels and abused civilian supporters of the Syrian opposition.
In January 2014, rebels from both Western-backed and Islamist groups launched an offensive against IS, seeking to drive its predominantly foreign fighters out of Syria.
Thousands of people are reported to have been killed in the infighting.
IS strongholds in Syrian rebel-held and contested areas.
SOURCE:BBC.What is your opinion?Are they comparable?
