"Comparing the GOP candidates' ISIS strategies with Obama's"
When Abu Ali joined Islamic State, he thought he had nothing left to lose. Once he had crossed the border into Syria, he quickly realised it was the last place he wanted to be. By Robert F Worth
Tuesday 12 April 2016 15.00 AEST
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The Akçakale border crossing into Syria. Photograph: Jamie Wiseman/Rex/Shutterstock
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One night the emir in charge of the training course, a bald Syrian with pale skin who, in his previous life, had been a history teacher in Homs, said there was a special event in store. Once the men were all seated on the cave floor, the emir turned on the projector and a video flickered on the cave wall: an Arab man in an orange jumpsuit in a cage. Flames licked towards the cage, following a trail of petrol, and engulfed the man. A voiceover intoned that this was the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, who had been captured after his plane crashed.
On the last day of the course, the men were summoned from their cave in the morning and asked to recite an oath of loyalty. As soon as the oath was over, the men were split up into groups. Abu Ali found himself standing with about three dozen other men near a bus. A Syrian commander in battle fatigues told them they were going to the frontlines in Iraq. “Sir, I don’t want to go to the frontline,” Abu Ali told the commander. “They said I could do administration in Raqqa.” The commander looked at him, stone-faced. “You swore an oath,” he said. “You must listen and obey now. The penalty could be death.” Abu Ali stood for a moment, registering the shock, then he walked towards the bus.
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Pro-government fighters in Garma, outside Baghdad, where Abu Ali was sent with Isis forces to attack the Iraqi army. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
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They got along well. Abu Hassan was a former thief who had joined Isis in the hopes of making some money. As it turned out, Isis paid him a monthly salary of $150 at first, and then stopped. Abu Ali told me he was repeatedly promised a salary for months, and paid a grand total of $50.
The two conscientious objectors were in luck: there was electricity in the house, and even better, a television. They spent hours watching news updates and movies. They knew this was strictly forbidden by Isis, so they kept the windows shut. This made it almost unbearably hot and stuffy inside, but it was better than boredom. At one point Rambo came on. “I wish Rambo would join us here,” Abu Ali said. “We really need him.”
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A displaced Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community. Isis sold hundreds of Yazidi women and girls into sex slavery. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images
[ the obscenities of ISIS rival most anything we have seen or read of .. WARNING! even though we have read of them before, the descriptions of murders and massacres here are still shockingly vivid .. ]
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Tal Abyad in northern Syria, where Abu Ali was picked up by the group who helped him escape Isis. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
.. that said there are some funny little bits, like early on his trip he had some sensible doubts about his venture, which he promptly resisted as being words of the devil .. heh, when you attribute your own good common sense thoughts to the devil, you could think you have problems .. oh, and the Rambo one .. one endearing feature is in a description 'he seems constitutionally unable to not speak his mind' .. lol .. :) .. i like that .. anyway, BE AWARE there is tough to read reality stuff in there .. on balance it's a interesting read .. hope you enjoy.
The offensive on the city of Jarabulus began hours before Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was set to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara to discuss tensions raised by the failed coup in Turkey .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/world/europe/as-the-coup-in-turkey-unfolded-the-whole-night-felt-like-doomsday.html .. last month. The joint operation in Syria seemed intended to send a message that the countries are still cooperating in the fight against the militant group.
Turkish officials said the operation started at 4 a.m. with Turkish and United States warplanes pounding Islamic State positions in Jarabulus. The special operations troops entered Syria to clear a passage for a ground operation by Turkish-backed rebel groups, the state broadcaster TRT reported.
The assault comes days after Turkey vowed to “cleanse” its borders of the Islamic State following a deadly suicide attack at a Kurdish wedding .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world/europe/turkey-wedding-bombing.html , which killed at least 54 people. The militants were blamed for the attack.
Jarabulus is a vital supply line for the Islamic State and one of its last remaining strongholds on the border.
Before Wednesday’s operation, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, pledged to give “every kind” of support for operations against the Islamic State across the border. Turkey’s NATO allies have long sought its greater involvement in Syria.
“Daesh should be completely cleansed from our borders, and we are ready to do what it takes for that,” Mr. Cavusoglu said on Tuesday at a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
Turkish officials are also concerned about the growing influence of United States-backed Syrian Kurds across the Syrian frontier because of their links to Kurdish insurgents that Turkey considers a national security threat. The Kurdish militias have captured large portions of land across the border, and analysts say that a Kurdish advance toward Jarabulus could lead to a confrontation with Turkey.
“Turkey is determined for Syria to retain its territorial integrity and will take matters into its own hands if required to protect that territorial unity,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara on Wednesday. “We have only ever sought to help the people of Syria and have no other intentions.”
About 500 Syrian rebels have amassed on the Turkish side of the border in preparation for a land offensive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said in a statement.
The Turkish counterterrorism police carried out dawn raids targeting those suspected of being Islamic State militants in Istanbul on Wednesday, the local news media reported. The militant group has been blamed for a string of major assaults on Turkish soil over the past year, including a suicide attack at Istanbul’s main airport in June .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/world/europe/turkey-istanbul-airport-explosions.html .. that killed over 40 people.
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