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Defeating the Islamic State Militarily Is Only Half the Battle
In his speech on September 10 President Obama characterized the Islamic State (ISIS) as a terrorist group. [1] There were clear political benefits to using this label, not the least of which was to...
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US-Led Airstrikes Produce Few Gains
BAGHDAD—After two months, the U.S.-led aerial campaign in Iraq has hardly dented the core of the Islamic State group’s territory. The extremist fighters have melted into urban areas when needed to...
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Airstrikes Not End Threat From Syrian Terror Cell
WASHINGTON—The barrage of U.S. cruise missiles last month aimed at a Syrian terrorist cell killed just one or two key militants, according to American intelligence officials who say the group of...
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Worried Iraqi Capital Sees Militants Siege Take Shape
BAGHDAD—On the western edge of Iraq’s capital, Islamic State group militants battle government forces and exchange mortar fire, only adding to the sense of siege in Baghdad despite airstrikes by a...
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London Mayor Warns of Terror Threat
LONDON—British counter-terrorism forces are monitoring “thousands” of potential extremists in the capital’s metropolitan area, London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a newspaper interview published...
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Obama, Allies Plot Anti-ISIS Strategy
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered Tuesday in a show of strength against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria. But the alliance faced a fresh...
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Pentagon Names Syria-Iraq Operation: ‘Inherent Resolve’
WASHINGTON—It may be less punchy than previous nicknames for U.S. conflicts in the Middle East—remember Operation Desert Storm and its thunderous attacks on Saddam Hussein’s occupation army—but the...
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Kurds Hold Position Against ISIL Advance in Syria
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—Intensified U.S.-led airstrikes and a determined Kurdish military force on the ground appear to have had some success in halting advances by Islamic State fighters on a strategic...
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Hard-Pressed Between Turkey and ISIL, Kurds Essential to Regional Peace
BAGHDAD—The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focal point in the war against the Islamic State group, with Kurdish populations in both countries coming under significant threat by the...
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Obama’s Legacy in the Middle East: Passing the Baton in 2017
In a period of about six weeks spanning August and September 2014, President Obama dramatically revamped his Middle East policy to put degrading and destroying the Islamic State (ISIS) at its center....
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Islamic State Militants Seize US Airdropped Weapons Cache Meant for Kurds
BEIRUT—Islamic State group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by U.S.-led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border...
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Syrian Leader Exploits Coalition War Against ISIS
BEIRUT—Syrian President Bashar Assad is taking advantage of the U.S.-led coalition’s war against the Islamic State group to pursue a withering air and ground campaign against more mainstream rebels...
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Iraqi Kurdish Lawmakers Authorized Its Peshmerga Fighters to Help Syrian Kurds
IRBIL, Iraq—Lawmakers in Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region Wednesday authorized peshmerga forces to go to neighboring Syria and help fellow Kurds combat Islamic State militants in the key...
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Iraqi Kurdish Fighters to Head to Syria
IRBIL, Iraq—Dozens of Iraq’s Kurdish peshmerga fighters will fly to Turkey on Tuesday and from there cross into the Syrian border town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds fight Muslim militants, a spokesman...
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ISIS Extremists Execute 50 Men, Women in Iraq
BAGHDAD—Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen and women in Iraq’s Anbar province, officials said Saturday, the latest mass killing committed by the group. The...
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Islamic State Kills 50 Tribesmen, Women, Children Execution Style in Iraq
BAGHDAD—Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 Iraqi men, women and children from the same tribe on Sunday, officials said, in the latest targeting of the group by militants....
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Coalition Airstrikes in Syria Have Killed at Least 860
BAGHDAD—U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria have killed more than 860 people, including civilians, since they began in mid-September, a...
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Pentagon Says More Ground Troops Possible to Fight ISIS
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon warned Congress on Thursday that the long, drawn-out military campaign against Islamic State militants is just beginning and could expand to include modest numbers of U.S....
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US Gen. Martin Dempsey in Iraq to Assess Campaign
BAGHDAD—America’s top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State...
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West-Backed Syria Rebels Shaken on Multiple Fronts
BEIRUT—During a key battle in the rugged mountains of a northern province earlier this month, U.S.-backed Syrian rebels collapsed before an assault by al-Qaeda fighters. Some surrendered their weapons....
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UN: Islamic Terrorists Ideology Must Be Undermined
UNITED NATIONS—The U.N. human rights chief called Tuesday for a campaign led by Muslims to undermine the ideology of the Islamic State terrorist group, saying this may ultimately be more effective than...
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Islamic State Cuts Phones in Iraqi City, Mosul Residents Say
BAGHDAD—Militants from the Islamic State group blocked all mobile phone networks in the largest Iraqi city they control, Mosul, accusing informants in the city of tipping off coalition forces to their...
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Lebanon Says It Has Detained Wife of Islamic State Leader
BEIRUT—Lebanese authorities detained a woman and young boy believed to be the wife and son of the reclusive Islamic State group leader, and were questioning the woman and conducting DNA tests on the...
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Iraqi Official: Arrested Woman Not Islamic State Leader’s Wife
BAGHDAD—An Iraqi official denied Wednesday that a woman detained in Lebanon is a wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, adding that she is the sister of a terror suspect...
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Global Coalition Stepping Up Against Islamic State
BRUSSELS—Islamic State militants invaded Iraq’s west almost a year ago and overran the nation’s second-largest city in June, threatening death and torture to opponents in their way. But the world has...
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Islamic State Battle in Iraq Kills 30 Kurds
BAGHDAD—Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake a town in northern Iraq held by Kurdish peshmerga forces have killed at least 30 Kurds, an Iraqi military spokesman said Sunday. The battle for...
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Caliphate, a Disputed Concept, No Longer Has a Hold Over All Muslims
According to the Arabic lexicon, khilāfa (caliphate) literally means taking the position of others in order to perform the legal and religious rights behalf on them. It is also used in the meaning of...
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Who Are Syria’s Anti-Assad Forces?
When the Arab Spring hit Syria in 2011, few would have predicted that a simple uprising in Deraa would lead to full-blown conflict with over 250,000 dead and millions fleeing the country. The original...
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France Seeks United US-Russia Assault on ISIS
PARIS—France wants to bring the United States and Russia together in a grand coalition dedicated to smashing the Islamic State (ISIS), President Francois Hollande told lawmakers Monday in a rare joint...
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A Look at the Rivalry Between Al-Qaida and ISIS
CAIRO—The attack on a Mali hotel claimed by al-Qaida may have been partly aimed at asserting the global terror network’s relevance as it faces an unprecedented challenge from the Islamic State (ISIS)...
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Syria’s Al-Qaida Branch Releases Captive Lebanese Soldiers
BEIRUT—Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria released more than a dozen Lebanese soldiers and police it has held for more than a year on Tuesday as part of a Qatar-brokered deal in which Lebanon freed at least...
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The Post-Colonial Caliphate: Islamic State and the Memory of Sykes-Picot
Ever since Islamic State (ISIS) spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani announced the establishment of a caliphate on June 29, 2014, analysts have been busy trying to explain its aims and origins. Much of the...
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Islamic State Kills Dozens of Its Own in Hunt for Spies
BAGHDAD—In March, a senior commander with the Islamic State (ISIS) was driving through northern Syria on orders to lead militants in the fighting there when a drone blasted his vehicle to oblivion. The...
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