Teen girls in Western Europe—and some in the United States—have been trying to join Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria in increasing numbers as ISIS gains control over the region. Today, two Austrian girls, ages 14 and 15, were returned to their parents by authorities after attempting to travel to the Middle East.
Officials say ISIS's social media consultant is a 33-year-old Boston man who made the Dean's List at Northeastern University before becoming a Most Wanted Terrorist.
New evidence collected by Human Rights Watch shows that the mass executions ISIS committed in June were on a larger scale than anyone imagined. Previously, ISIS bragged that it executed 1,700 soldiers near Tikrit around June 14. Only about 160 of those deaths were confirmed by HRW then, but now the group says 560 to 770 Iraqis were mass killed.
The National Security Council has confirmed the authenticity of the video released by ISIS yesterday depicting the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, the second such video in two weeks. "Whatever these murderers think they'll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed," President Obama, speaking from Estonia, said Wednesday. "We will not forget, and our reach is long and justice will be served."
Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who was convicted of murdering 13 people in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, has written a letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi requesting his acceptance into the group's self-declared caliphate. "I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State," Hasan apparently wrote in the letter, first obtained by Fox News.
According to reports from KSMP-TV in Minneapolis and Fox News, a second American man has died fighting for ISIS in Syria. Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, was reportedly killed in the same battle as American ISIS fighter Douglas McAuthur McCain. U.S. officials haven't publicly confirmed Muhumed's death, but they reportedly contacted his family.
After capturing the Tabqa military base in northeastern Syria, ISIS militants reportedly killed at least 65 Syrian soldiers on Wednesday. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, "some were shot to death, while others were killed with knives." ISIS also bragged on Twitter about killing "about 200" government prisoners, though the Associated Press couldn't immediately verify that claim.
ISIS is demanding a $6.6 million ransom for an unidentified 26-year-old female hostage in Syria. She was reportedly kidnapped a year ago while doing humanitarian aid work. According to ABC News, ISIS is also requesting that the U.S. release prisoner Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in 2010 of trying to kill U.S. officials.
The United Nations' top commissioner for human rights argued Sunday that the Islamic State was committing "crimes against humanity" and offered proof of a prison massacre in which ISIS militants separated the inmates into Sunni and Shia groups and killed all the Shias.
In a move that brings the U.S. closer to military action in Syria, President Obama approved manned and unmanned air surveillance of ISIS in the country. According to AP sources, the flights have already begun. While Obama has avoided military action in Syria for the past three years, ISIS militants' increased threat to Americans in the region is pushing the president towards authorizing airstrikes.
Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group that has been kidnapping women, girls, and boys and capturing territory in northern Nigeria, has declared an Islamic caliphate. The Nigerian army already rejected the claim as "empty," noting that the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact."
The clip depicting American James Foley's beheading at the hands of an ISIS jihadi may have been staged, according to forensic video analysts commissioned by the UK Times. The experts don't dispute that Foley was murdered, however, and believe his death may have occurred after the camera stopped rolling.
ISIS forces captured the Tabqa airbase in northern Syria on Sunday, the last remaining military defense in the region, bolstering the Sunni militants' control on the Raqqa Province. The province's capital, Raqqa, has long served as the group's headquarters, the New York Times reports; according to the BBC, the city "is believed to hold dozens of warplanes, helicopters, tanks and artillery."
