An attack on the Shia Muslim community by ISIS has left 9 people dead, and 20 others injured on Monday. The blast went off near a hospital in the city’s Karradah district.
An affiliate news of ISIS, Amaq news agency, has released a statement that claimed ISIS was responsible for the attack.
The death toll from the attack will rise according to police and rescue officials.
Nicholas Young, a 36 year old Washington, D.C. Metro Transit Officer was arrested on Wednesday afternoon by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after attempting to send money via an app used by ISIS in recruiting its soldiers.
Young was trying to send $245 to an undercover FBI agent, who disguised as a link from the terrorist group, ISIS.
Young joined the service in 2003, but has been in security offiicial radar since 2010 after multiple ties to suspected terrorist links.
In 2011, Young admitted to travelling to Libya to join forces that were trying to overthrow Gaddafi government. He travelled twice to the region, and in one of his trips, Young was said to be carrying body armour, a Kevlar helmet, and “several other military-style items.”
Young is also an acquaintance to Zachary Chesser, a man that was sent to 25 years in prison for supporting Al-Qaeda terrorist group.
Security official also connected Young to a Moroccan national, Amine El Khalifi, who was arrested in 2012 on his way to US Capitol with explosive belts.
A search into this home revealed a large cache of firearms, including various types of rifles and handguns. Despite his arrest, the US justice department said that Young was not looking into carrying out any attack or anything that would disrupt the metro he was protecting.
Chief Ron Pavlik, Metro Transit Police, thanks the FBI and other security agencies who worked together for Young's arrest.
Young will appear before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, his state of residence on Wednesday, and if found guilty, can face up to 20 years in prison time.
In a recent video published by the Daesh group, ISIS, the terrorist group has threatened the Russian president of homicide and also threatens its citizens too in the 9-minute video.
The video shows the terrorist launching attacks on vehicle, and tents. Towards the end of the video, a masked terrorist then said;
Listen, Putin. We will come to Russia and kill you in your homes.
The video later ends with a man driving through the desert and yelling, while wagging his finger;
Oh Brothers, carry out jihad and kill and fight them.
ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the video, but the video was published on a telegram account used by the group in the past.
ISIS have released six reasons while they are hell bent on destorying Western countries, and will continue fighting the western world in their new periodical magazine, Dabiq, 15th edition.
In an article in the new edition of the magazine, titled "Why We Hate you and Want to Fight You", the terrorist listed their different reasons for attacking the Wstern world, and some of the listed reasons are:
1. Because you are disbelievers
"We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not – by making partners for Him in worship, you blaspheme against Him, claiming that He has a son, you fabricate lies against His prophets and messengers, and you indulge in all manner of devilish practices."
2. Because you are liberal
"We hate you because your secular, liberal societies permit the very things that Allah has prohibited while banning many of the things He has permitted, a matter that doesn’t concern you because you Christian disbelief and paganism 32 separate between religion and state, thereby granting supreme authority to your whims and desires via the legislators you vote into power."
3. Because some of you are atheist
"In the case of the atheist fringe, we hate you and wage war against you because you disbelieve in the existence of your Lord and Creator."
4. For your crimes against Islam
"We hate you for your crimes against Islam and wage war against you to punish you for your transgressions against our religion."
5. For your crimes against Muslims
"We hate you for your crimes against the Muslims; your drones and fighter jets bomb, kill, and maim our people around the world, and your puppets in the usurped lands of the Muslims oppress, torture, and wage war against anyone who calls to the truth."
6. For invading our land
"We hate you for invading our lands and fight you to repel you and drive you out. As long as there is an inch of territory left for us to reclaim, jihad will continue to be a personal obligation on every single Muslim."
The article concludes that while foreign policy is an issue, the main reason they are hell bent on destruction is because they don't like the Wet very much.
It reads: "What’s important to understand here is that although some might argue that your foreign policies are the extent of what drives our hatred, this particular reason for hating you is secondary, hence the reason we addressed it at the end of the above list.
"The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam."
Not fewer than 85 people, including children, have been killed in a US led airstrike's targeting ISIS fighters in the Northern Syria. According to a report by a monitoring group, some eight families were all wiped out after the coalition forces attacked a village of Tokhar near Manbij on Tuesday (19 July) known to be controlled by ISIS.
The Turkey-based Syrian Institute for Justice has said the number of casualties could be more as rescuers are still pulling out bodies from the rubble, including children. Some of the photos revealed at the scene of the airstrike showed several half-buried children pulled out from the rubbles.
The US military confirmed it conducted a military action in the area, and it is currently investigating civilian death. This is the deadliest civilian death since the coalition forces started their operation in Syria.
Another monitoring group, UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believed the bombing was an error after the pilot mistook civilians for IS fighters. The group also reported that another 6 civilians (a woman with four of her children and an old man) were killed last Sunday in Manbij.
The coalition forces have been helping the Kurdish-led ground forces retake Manbij and surrounding villages after ISIS took over the location since 2014.
The forces have had a hard time entering the city as IS fighters have been using snipers and mines to counter attack the forces, and while thousands of civilians have fled the city, the other civilians are used as human shield.
ISIS terrorists are trying to hold down Manbij as loosing the city would affect their supplies between the Turkish border and the capital of the self-declared Islamic State, Raqqa.
The recent bombings at Medina, Qatif and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, killing four people might have been done by the Riyadh government. According to a prominent Palestinian journalist, Abdel Bari Atwan, the bombings were done so that the Saudi government can also claim to be a victim of ISIS and use that to push forward its own political agendas.
According to Atwan, unlike most bombings done by ISIS in the past, the group never claimed responsibility for the attack in Medina, or any of the other 2 cities. We saw how the group was fast to claim responsibility for the bombings in Belgium, Bangladesh, France and other part of the world, it had bombed, a move which raises a bigger question on why it never claimed responsibility for Saudi attack.
Saudi Arabia has always opposed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and had asked for a green light to deploy its troops into Syria to fight ISIS, but was never given the green light by Washington, and when the bombing occurred, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir went to Washington to once again offer to send troops to Syria to fight ISIS.
Atwan has said that the US secretary of state is currently looking at Jubeir offer, and the recent "planned bombing" might have been done to soften the ground to lay good points on Jubeir offer.
The next wave of attack in the Muslim world this week is Saudi Arabia. Three different cities in Saudi Arabia were hit in the last 24 hours and four people have been reported dead from the attack.
The city of Medina has recorded the worst attack after four people died and another one injured. Medina is a major spot and respected town by Muslims as it was where Prophet Muhammaed (S.A.W) was buried.
The bomber was targeting security officials, but at the time of report, we are not sure of the people killed in the attack.
Qatif, a city in Eastern Saudi Arabia was attacked by a bomber who attempted to launch an attack at a Shiite mosque, but failed, killing himself in the process, according to official report, no injuries were recorded.
Near a US Consulate in Jeddah, a bomber killed himself after detonating an explosive, policemen were injured when the explosives went off.
An unconfirmed report is saying that the leader of Radical Islamic terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might have gone to get his own 72 virgins earlier than planned, as he is being reported to have been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike in Raqqa.
According to Turkish local media, Yenisafak, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed on Sunday morning in Raqqa, but there is no report or statement from Pentagon or any of the coalition forces yet.
According to official news agency of the Daesh group, a statement reads;
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed by coalition airstrikes on Raqqa on the fifth day of Ramadan.
A 12-year old girl had touched the heart of many after he forgave ISIS thugs who burnt her alive in Mosul, Iraq, after her family was shaken down for not paying the Jaziya — a religious tax.
The Jaziya is paid by non-Muslims in the ISIS stronghold in Mosul, and any refusal to pay will lead to a grisly death of the victim. The current state of Iraq towards Christians make it the second most dangerous place to live in the word, the first being North Korea. Both countries are known to treat Christians as apostates and are often tortured by terrorists or thrown in Jail for even keeping the bible in their houses in North Korea.
According to local media, the terrorist sect was doing house-to-house search when they approached the family and asked her to pay or leave, but when she told the group to wait while her daughter finish at the shower, the thugs lost it, and lit her house.
Human right activist, Jacqueline Isaac, said according to the Express:
The ISIS foreign fighters were at her door and they told her 'you have two choices, you are to leave now or you are to pay the Jaziya'. She said 'I will pay, give me a few seconds my daughter is in the shower'.
They said 'you don't have a few seconds' and they lit the house with a torch from the bathroom the daughter was showering in.
As the flame engulfed the building, the woman tried saving her daughter, but before she could do that, the daughter had suffered a fourth degree burn. According to Isaac;
The daughter had fourth degree burns and the mother took her daughter, scrambling, doing anything to save her. Rushed her to the hospital and her daughter died in her arms. The last thing her daughter said: "Forgive them".
The war on Christians in Iraq had turned the once 2million Christians in the country to 200,000 today.
As the fight against ISIS keeps getting tougher each day, another prominent member of the group, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, considered as number 2 of the group have been killed in a raid by the US forces.
The operation of the raid was to catch him alive by the special operations forces, but at the last minutes, the whole plan was modified, and the car ripped apart by bullets instead. Confirming the news of the death is the Defence minister, Ash Carter at a news conference on Friday morning.
Speaking at the conference, Carter said;
We are systematically eliminating ISIL's cabinet,the second senior ISIL leader we've successfully targeted this month. We've taken out the leader who oversees the funding for ISIL's operations, hurting their ability to pay fighters and hire recruits.
Like Paris, Brussels is a strong reminder of why we need to hasten the defeat of ISIL wherever it exists in the world. Our enemies are one and the same,and together we continue to do more and more to bring the full weight of our vast military capabilities to bear in accelerating the defeat of ISIL.