Turkey has the second biggest army in Nato. If it wanted to take out ISIS, it could, without any help from anyone else.

Turkey has not sent ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS, and probably won't enter Syria, unless ISIS attacks its special monument.

The U.S. (hopefully) will continue to reject the the use of ground force against ISIS in Syria.

The end result, according to news headlines, is that it would be a travesty if Kobane falls to ISIS. Perhaps to Turkey, where the Kurds and Turks might return to fighting each other. But not to us. And if it would be a travesty for Turkey and the Kurds, why aren't Turkey and other countries in the region offering ground troops to prevent it?

Abu Wahib, as I've written before, is the most recognizable, telegenic and frightening looking ISIS fighter. He is the military commander for the Anbar province in Iraq. He has falsely been declared dead several times, including within the past year.

Yesterday, there were reports by pro-Kurdish tweeters saying he had been killed in Kobane. Others said he was killed in Ramadi.

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On October 1 and 2, 2014, ISIS attacked the Kurds at the south border entrance to Kobane, also called Ain al Arab. There are several buildings manned by Kurdish guards who fled. The empty station is littered with liquor bottles. (None of the following videos contain graphic images or dead bodies.)

The attack by ISIS is in this video. The fighters appear to be Chechen, and for a few seconds, starting at 1 min 04 sec in, I think you can see ISIS military commander Omar al Shishani, as he talks into a radio and barks commands, which the others then repeat and relay to the other fighters.[More...]

ISIS, through al Furqan Media, released a video of the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. The same black-clad executioner in the Foley, Sotloff and Haines videos appears with him. (Not a link to video, just to article describing it.)

The videos seem to be getting shorter. This one is only 1 minute and 11 seconds, and the first 30 seconds or so is a tv reporter announcing Britain's intent to conduct air strikes.

The video ends with American Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger and aid worker in Lebanon, in the kneeling position and clad in orange. The killer says he is next. He says to Obama, since he keeps striking ISIS with airstrikes, ISIS will strike the necks of "your people." Here is a 2013 interview of Kassig by Time Magazine. CNN published this article in Kassig in 2012. From an article published in Sept. 2013:

SERA was founded in late 2012 by Peter Kassig, a 24-year-old Army Ranger and Indiana native who returned from Iraq intent on mitigating the carnage of war. Kassig, who’s an EMT, lives with Eliot in Gaziantep and frequently forays into war-torn Syrian towns like Deir Ezzor to lead training sessions, distribute supplies, and provide basic medical care.

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Jean Moussa, a reporter with Arabic Al Aan TV, got a crew inside the the bombed out buildings at Al Reef Muhandeseen Aleppo, which the U.S. says were the headquarters for the Khorasan Group. Killed in the blasts were 50 Jabhat al Nusrah fighters, including Jabhat al Nusra's chief sniper, trainer and al Qaida veteran, Abu Yousuf al Turki, who the U.S. says was a leader of the Khorasan Group.

Moussa's crew found a document in the rubble with the names of 14 fighters, 13 of whom were with the "Wolf Unit" of Jabhat al Nusra. [More...]

Al Furqan Media has released the second episode of British hostage John Cantlie's video series today. You can view it here (If You Tube removes it, you can get it here.)

The topic is President Obama's speech on 9/11 against ISIS. These propaganda videos are becoming redundant. What's new in this one? A flat-out denial of Obama's claim that ISIS kills innocent women and children. He says it's an undeniable fact that ISIS did not kill the Yazidi women and children of Mosul and Sinjar (whom he refers to as Christian). He says ISIS does not regard the Shia as Muslims and thinks they are worse than Americans. He says Isis regards the Shia as apostates claiming to be Muslim while worshiping the dead.

After disparaging the ground forces Obama says will be assembled from reconstituted Iraqi soldiers and syrian rebels, he ends with, "For their part, the Islamic State states they welcome meeting Obama's under-construction army."

I'm always interested in how countries halfway around the world say they would address a problem here. I'm not talking about legal problems since laws in other countries vary too much, but in hands-on tackling of a problem that affects society. Like ISIS.

Here's three articles I recommend, all from the same paper in the Middle East. Two are op-ed's and one is an editorial.

The bottom line for all three is that military force cannot solve the problem of ISIS. They come up with other suggestions, which read like something I might have written. If the answer is so obvious to them (and me), why is our Government so obtuse? War is usually never the answer. Links to the articles belos: [More...]

Well, that didn't take long. Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaida's branch in Syria, has been fighting with ISIS for months, refusing to pledge allegiance to the self-declared Caliphate State. But now that the U.S. has targeted it in air strikes, resulting in the loss of its headquarters, a leader or two and some civilians, the gap between the two groups is quickly closing. Nusra spokesman Abu Firas al-Suri published a video statement threatening retaliation against the U.S. and any allies involved in the bombing.

So far, ISIS is not weakened by the strikes. It is fighting hard in Kobane against the Syrian Kurds, who are still trying to flee to Turkey. Turkey's President is now saying Turkey might provide military support to the U.S. led coalition, but it doesn't seem to mean boots on the ground fighting ISIS. [More...]

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said at a press conference today the Pentagon is spending $7 to $10 million a day in the fight against ISIS.

"We're generally spending roughly, since this effort started, $7 million to $10 million a day. That's being funded out of OCO, overseas contingency operations," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said at a Friday press conference. Commonly referred to as war funds, the money isn't subject to congressional budget caps.

He said the Pentagon will ask Congress for more funding.

Yesterday, the U.S. added additional suspected terrorists and groups on its designated terror list. More than one are connected to kidnappings and beheadings.

Among the new names I recognize: Amru al-Absi

As of mid-July 2014, Amru al-Absi was selected as ISIL’s provincial leader for Homs, Syria, in the Aleppo region. As a principal leader of ISIL in Syria, he has been in charge of kidnappings.

I wrote about him here, but check the source articles I relied on, here and here. [More...]

FBI director James Comey says the U.S. has identified the black clad executioner of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines. It is not releasing the information, hoping to capture or kill him. The FBI is still working identifying the two English speakers in the Flames of War video, believed to be American or Canadian.

Update: Here's a You Tube video of civilians being pulled out of the rubble (you can't see faces.) Multiple reports on Twitter say ISIS was not around, the strikes hit a Jabhat al Nusra headquarters in Kafrdiyan, and a munitions factory near near Sarmada. There are also reports of dead JaN militants in Aleppo. The communications tower was hit so there aren't any tweets coming from official ISIS sources yet. ISIS has been anticipating the strikes in Raqqa for days and moving their heavy equipment elsewhere. A lot of fighters also went to fight the Kurds in Kobane. They aren't stupid, so I'm taking the news reports of massive ISIS casualties with more than a grain of salt. There are also reports and a photo of a plane being shot down, but it does not seem not to be a U.S. plane. No confirmation yet.

Original Post

The U.S. and partners launched airstrikes in Raqqa, Syria tonight, where ISIS has its headquarters. The photo above is a shot from them. There are reports civilians were killed. Power just came back on after a 2 hour outage. [More...]