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Syria
US Special Forces assist Peshmerga on Bashiqa mountain east of Mosul, May 14, 2016. File photo: Fazel Hawramy / Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Just two hours after US President Donald Trump sent a flurry of tweets telling the world the Islamic State (ISIS) had been “100 percent” defeated and that US troops were coming home from northeast Syria, the jihadist group released a “news bulletin”.
In an audio file published Monday via the popular messaging app Telegram, a familiar voice heralded the return of Al-Bayan Radio – the extremist group’s infamous broadcaster – which appears to have been resurrected in recent weeks.
The station played a crucial role in propagating the group’s extremist message during its blitzkrieg of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
“They think the countries are without defenders. Come and see an army being wiped out. Fight with whatever you like to fight [us], but we are soldiers and our logic is the trigger in the pursuit of this religion,” a famous ISIS religious chant (nasheed) rang out in Arabic before the anchor read the headlines.
“The soldiers of the Caliphate attacked Nigerian forces in Borno state, an IED killed four Afghan soldiers in Jalalabad, in Yemen two al-Qaeda fighters were killed and the positions of the Huthi militias were shelled,” the male voice said, compounding the message that the jihad was very much alive and happening everywhere.
ISIS used multimedia to devastating effect at the height of its power, producing highly polished films, magazines, and audio programs, which were shared worldwide via social media and web forums.
Western intelligence services poured in vast resources to muzzle these ISIS media networks, which were responsible for the mass recruitment of foreign fighters and jihadi brides and the dissemination of brutal hostage execution tapes.
Telegram’s end-to-end encryption, which protects the identity of the sender and receiver, makes it a popular platform for sharing such material.
Al-Bayan Radio’s return to the airwaves comes just as US President Trump claims ISIS has been “100 percent” defeated, thereby justifying a US withdrawal from northeast Syria, where the group’s last territorial holdout of Baghouz was retaken by America’s Kurdish allies in March.
Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw, following a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, has caused outrage on both sides of the aisle in Washington, who believe the Kurds are being left vulnerable to Turkish attack.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement late Monday urging President Trump to “exercise American leadership” and prevent a significant conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) while warning Ankara that any major move against the Kurds “would seriously risk damaging Turkey’s ties to the United States and causing greater isolation for Turkey on the world stage”.
“A precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the [Bashar al-] Assad regime. And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup,” he added.
Trump, who on Monday said the Kurds would have to “figure the situation out” for themselves, appeared to change his tune when he later met with top military officials, indicating he would not give Turkey a free hand to attack the Kurds of northeast Syria.
“Turkey has been fighting them for many years. Somebody said hundreds of years. You had just mentioned to me yesterday, 200 years, maybe more,” Trump said of the Kurdish struggle as he sat with his generals.
“But we’ll see what happens with respect to a lot of different things. We’ve told Turkey – I spoke with President Erdogan of Turkey, and I said, ‘Got to treat them good, and you got to take care of ISIS’.”
He also took to Twitter on Tuesday morning (US time) to insist the US is not abandoning the Kurds and that Turkey would be “economically devastated” if any “unnecessary fighting” occurred.
“We may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters,” Trump tweeted, with his signature random caps.
“Likewise our relationship with Turkey, a NATO and Trading partner, has been very good. Turkey already has a large Kurdish population and fully understands that while we only had 50 soldiers remaining in that section of Syria, and they have been removed, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency. We are helping the Kurds financially/weapons!” he added.
Regardless of Trump’s stance on Turkey and the Kurds, critics suggest he has seriously misread the situation concerning the defeat of ISIS. Although the group has been territorially defeated, it is widely acknowledged that ISIS remnants and sleeper cells continue to pose a threat both in Syria and Iraq.
In one incident in late September, several ISIS widows held in the Al-Hol camp in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province reportedly armed themselves and fired on female SDF guards.
Meanwhile in Iraq, ISIS remnants are regrouping in the security vacuums left in the disputed territories between federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
SDF security officials have repeatedly called on the international community to shoulder its share of responsibility and repatriate foreign fighters and their families who are currently held in makeshift camps and prisons.
“This is a very big problem, nobody has helped in this regard,” the overall commander of SDF, General Mazloum Kobani Abdi told NBC just hours after Trump announced the withdrawal of US forces.
Abdi said the forces under his command are holding 12,000 suspected terrorists, 2,000 of which are foreign fighters and the rest Iraqis and Syrians. Abdi told the network that watching over the ISIS prisoners is a “second priority” as Turkey amasses troops and heavy guns on the border.
The SDF have warned that any attack by Turkey could result in ISIS prisoners being turned loose.
Former US officials like Brett McGurk, who resigned last December as the top US envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS over Trump’s initial plan to pull out troops, also believes the move would cause irreparable damage to America’s reputation worldwide.
“The value of a handshake from the United States of America, whether from the President or from diplomats who are all over the world trying to advance US national security interests is depreciating by the week,” McGurk told MSNBC.
“Nobody can believe anything we say.”
In an audio file published Monday via the popular messaging app Telegram, a familiar voice heralded the return of Al-Bayan Radio – the extremist group’s infamous broadcaster – which appears to have been resurrected in recent weeks.
The station played a crucial role in propagating the group’s extremist message during its blitzkrieg of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
“They think the countries are without defenders. Come and see an army being wiped out. Fight with whatever you like to fight [us], but we are soldiers and our logic is the trigger in the pursuit of this religion,” a famous ISIS religious chant (nasheed) rang out in Arabic before the anchor read the headlines.
“The soldiers of the Caliphate attacked Nigerian forces in Borno state, an IED killed four Afghan soldiers in Jalalabad, in Yemen two al-Qaeda fighters were killed and the positions of the Huthi militias were shelled,” the male voice said, compounding the message that the jihad was very much alive and happening everywhere.
ISIS used multimedia to devastating effect at the height of its power, producing highly polished films, magazines, and audio programs, which were shared worldwide via social media and web forums.
Western intelligence services poured in vast resources to muzzle these ISIS media networks, which were responsible for the mass recruitment of foreign fighters and jihadi brides and the dissemination of brutal hostage execution tapes.
Telegram’s end-to-end encryption, which protects the identity of the sender and receiver, makes it a popular platform for sharing such material.
Al-Bayan Radio’s return to the airwaves comes just as US President Trump claims ISIS has been “100 percent” defeated, thereby justifying a US withdrawal from northeast Syria, where the group’s last territorial holdout of Baghouz was retaken by America’s Kurdish allies in March.
Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw, following a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, has caused outrage on both sides of the aisle in Washington, who believe the Kurds are being left vulnerable to Turkish attack.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement late Monday urging President Trump to “exercise American leadership” and prevent a significant conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) while warning Ankara that any major move against the Kurds “would seriously risk damaging Turkey’s ties to the United States and causing greater isolation for Turkey on the world stage”.
“A precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the [Bashar al-] Assad regime. And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup,” he added.
Trump, who on Monday said the Kurds would have to “figure the situation out” for themselves, appeared to change his tune when he later met with top military officials, indicating he would not give Turkey a free hand to attack the Kurds of northeast Syria.
“Turkey has been fighting them for many years. Somebody said hundreds of years. You had just mentioned to me yesterday, 200 years, maybe more,” Trump said of the Kurdish struggle as he sat with his generals.
“But we’ll see what happens with respect to a lot of different things. We’ve told Turkey – I spoke with President Erdogan of Turkey, and I said, ‘Got to treat them good, and you got to take care of ISIS’.”
He also took to Twitter on Tuesday morning (US time) to insist the US is not abandoning the Kurds and that Turkey would be “economically devastated” if any “unnecessary fighting” occurred.
“We may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters,” Trump tweeted, with his signature random caps.
“Likewise our relationship with Turkey, a NATO and Trading partner, has been very good. Turkey already has a large Kurdish population and fully understands that while we only had 50 soldiers remaining in that section of Syria, and they have been removed, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency. We are helping the Kurds financially/weapons!” he added.
Regardless of Trump’s stance on Turkey and the Kurds, critics suggest he has seriously misread the situation concerning the defeat of ISIS. Although the group has been territorially defeated, it is widely acknowledged that ISIS remnants and sleeper cells continue to pose a threat both in Syria and Iraq.
In one incident in late September, several ISIS widows held in the Al-Hol camp in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province reportedly armed themselves and fired on female SDF guards.
Meanwhile in Iraq, ISIS remnants are regrouping in the security vacuums left in the disputed territories between federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
SDF security officials have repeatedly called on the international community to shoulder its share of responsibility and repatriate foreign fighters and their families who are currently held in makeshift camps and prisons.
“This is a very big problem, nobody has helped in this regard,” the overall commander of SDF, General Mazloum Kobani Abdi told NBC just hours after Trump announced the withdrawal of US forces.
Abdi said the forces under his command are holding 12,000 suspected terrorists, 2,000 of which are foreign fighters and the rest Iraqis and Syrians. Abdi told the network that watching over the ISIS prisoners is a “second priority” as Turkey amasses troops and heavy guns on the border.
The SDF have warned that any attack by Turkey could result in ISIS prisoners being turned loose.
Former US officials like Brett McGurk, who resigned last December as the top US envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS over Trump’s initial plan to pull out troops, also believes the move would cause irreparable damage to America’s reputation worldwide.
“The value of a handshake from the United States of America, whether from the President or from diplomats who are all over the world trying to advance US national security interests is depreciating by the week,” McGurk told MSNBC.
“Nobody can believe anything we say.”
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