The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has lost 12 percent of the territory it already held in Syria and Iraq in the first half of 2016, a British think tank says.
According to a report released by the IHS Conflict Monitor on Sunday, the territories under the control of Daesh, which started its reign of terror in Iraq and Syria in 2014, are increasingly shrinking due to a string of setbacks it suffered last year and in the past months.
In 2015, Daesh territory “shrunk by 12,800 square kilometers to 78,000 square kilometers, a net loss of 14 percent,” the IHS said, adding, “In the first six months of 2016, that territory shrunk again by 12 percent. As of July 4, 2016, it controls roughly 68,300 square kilometers in Iraq and Syria.”
On December 22, 2015, the IHS reported that the terror group had lost control over more than 13,000 square kilometers of the territory it controlled in the two Arab countries since January, a net loss of 14 percent.
In another report on March 16, the think tank said that Daesh had lost a further eight percent since the beginning of January.
“Over the past 18 months, it has continued to lose territory at an increasing rate,” said Columb Strack, a senior analyst at the IHS and lead analyst for the IHS Conflict Monitor.
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A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more remote than ever, with the risk of generations of violence and radicalism unless leaders act, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said on Wednesday.
In his first public comments since the publication on July 1 of a report by the Quartet of Middle East mediators, Mladenov said the situation was approaching a point of no return.
“(The two-state solution) is perhaps the furthest away it’s ever been, and in fact it is really worse than that—it is slipping away as we speak,” he told Reuters in an interview, citing Israeli settlement building and Palestinian violence and incitement as among the most troubling obstacles.
“It’s time for the international community and the leadership on both sides to wake up.”
Rabbi Eyal Karim permitted soldiers to refuse an order if it was ‘at odds with Jewish law,’ determined that wounded terrorists must be killed and that homosexuals, who are ‘sick or deformed’ should be ‘helped to escape their situation, with a lot of sensitivity and patience.’
Answering readers’ questions on the religious website “Kipa,” Rabbi Karim ruled that when a military order is at odds with Halachic (Jewish) law, a soldier is allowed to refuse an order.
“Sometimes, there are questions about the ethics of war that are enshrined in Halacha. An order that is at odds with the Halacha—must not be followed,” he wrote. “An order to commit a sin or prevent the fulfillment of a mitzvah (commandment) should certainly not be followed. Just as there is operational alertness, there should be mitzvah alertness.”
The US-led alliance will be giving more support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa to fight Islamic extremism, with special attention given to countries such as Jordan, Iraq, and Libya; Also promises to increase defense of countries which border Russia
WARSAW- NATO allies agreed to provide increased military support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are targets of Islamic extremism on Saturday including using NATO surveillance planes in the fight against ISIS.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance leaders also agreed to launch a new naval mission in the Mediterranean, and made commitments to maintain a stable military presence in Afghanistan and to fund Afghan security forces through 2020.”Today we have taken decisions to strengthen our partners and to project stability beyond our borders,” Stoltenberg told reporters on the second day of a crucial NATO summit in Warsaw. He said millions of people in Africa and the Middle East have been rendered “homeless and helpless” by radical organizations like ISIS, and that the extremist groups are also to blame for organizing terrorist attacks in Europe and America.
WASHINGTON – ISIS’s Twitter traffic has plunged 45 percent in the past two years, the Obama administration says, as the US and its allies have countered messages of jihadi glorification with a flood of online images and statements about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organization.
Among the images: A teddy bear with Arabic writing and messages saying IS “slaughters childhood,” ”kills innocence,” ”lashes purity” or “humiliates children.” A male hand covering a female’s mouth, saying ISIS “deprives woman her voice.” A woman in a black niqab (veil), bloody tears coming from a bruised eye, and the caption: “Women under ISIS. Enslaved. Battered. Beaten. Humiliated. Flogged.”
WASHINGTON (JTA) – They’re elusive, but show up in the right place at the right time — and you might find one!
No, we’re not talking about the latest iteration of Pokémon Go. This is about tracking prominent Jewish GOPers and Jewish organizational representatives attending the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland.
They’ll be barely visible, and the reason has everything to do with the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
The Republican Jewish Coalition usually rolls out major shebangs at party conventions, starting with a news conference where you can count on director Matthew Brooks to confidently project growth in the GOP share of the Jewish vote.
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After EU criticizes legislation, State Department says newly passed law could ‘have chilling effects’ on groups’ activities
July 12, 2016, 11:28 pm
The US State Department on Tuesday expressed concern that a law recently passed by the Knesset to brand foreign-funded NGOs could impinge free speech and association in Israel.
The law — approved by Knesset late Monday night — mandates that non-government organizations that receive more than half their funds from foreign governments or state agencies disclose that fact in any public reports, advocacy literature and interactions with government officials, or face a NIS 29,000 fine ($7,500).
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing that some of Washington’s concerns regarding the bill were alleviated by amendments made before it was finally passed by Israeli legislators.
Nonetheless, he expressed the White House’s concerns “not just about free expression but association and dissent.”
“We are deeply concerned that this law can have a chilling effect on the activities that these worthwhile organizations are trying to do,” he said.
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Government move aims to nip neo-Nazi attraction to site in the bud
July 12, 2016, 11:13 pm
Austria’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the government has drawn up a draft law that would allow it to take ownership of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.
Tuesday’s move follows steadfast refusal by owner Gerlinde Pommer to sell the empty building in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. The government has sought possession so it can take measures to lessen its draw as a shrine for admirers of the Nazi dictator.
The draft still must be approved by parliament, where the government is in the majority and can rely on the support of most opposition parties.
Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck says he expects a parliamentary vote sometime this year. Government considerations range from tearing down the house to making it into a museum documenting Nazi horrors.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
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Fraud probe against Netanyahu to go public: Israeli official
Source Article from http://davidduke.com/possible-clinton-vp-choice-ex-nato-chief-slammed-iran-deal-close-israel-ties-zio-watch-july-13-2016/
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