The terrorist group that is wreaking havoc in Iraq has claimed the second largest Oil Refinery of Iraq, near Baji.
The Group is more deadly than Al-Qaeda.
“The recently seized city of Mosul lies in northern Iraq, and there are reports that ISIS is also moving south towards Kirkuk.
After the intial break with al-Qaeda’s central authority, which was eventuallyformalized in January of this year, ISIS quickly accumulated power. As Liz Slyreports in her excellent profile of the group for the Washington Post, the group’s rapid rise was in no small part due to their ability to recruit thousands of militant volunteers who had flocked to Syria in recent months.
Sly also notes that the ascendant ISIS began to hold a unique position within Syria, establishing itself not only as a group that fought against government forces but one that established control over its seized territory. In the areas under its control, ISIS carried out a number of atrocities, imposing radical Islamic laws and sometimessharing the evidence of their brutalizing on social media.
Reportedly commanding thousands of fighters and freed of al-Qaeda’s bureaucracy, ISIS has seemingly set its sights on controlling cities in Iraq. In January of this year the group’s militants assaulted the city of Fallujah and seized its government buildings. Despite a government offensive to retake that city, ISIS remains essentially in control.
Now the fighters have seized Mosul in a massive assault that has already caused over hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and will likely result in more insecurity for a country that saw over 800 killed in May alone.”
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General Najim al-Jabouri, a former mayor of Tel Afar, which is a little more than 31 miles from Mosul, told The Daily Beast the bases seized by ISIS this week would provide the group with even more heavy weapons than they currently control. “The Iraqi army left helicopters, humvees, cargo planes and other heavy machine guns, along with body armor and uniforms,” the general, who is now a scholar at the National Defense University, said. He said he was able to learn about the equipment from soldiers and other politicians in and around Mosul with whom he keeps in touch.
General Najim is not alone in this assessment. Jack Keane, a retired four-star Army general who was a key adviser to General David Petraeus during the counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 known as the surge, said ISIS has now established itself as a formidable military force.
“This organization has grown into a military organization that is no longer conducting terrorist activities exclusively but is conducting conventional military operations,” he said. “They are attacking Iraqi military positions with company- and battalion-size formations. And in the face of that the Iraqi security forces have not been able to stand up to it.”
ISIS Robs 500 Million Dinars from Central Bank.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars – the equivalent of $429m (£256m) – from Mosul’s central bank, according to the regional governor.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish televison reports that Isis militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen.
Following the siege of the country’s second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Falkland Islands.
Richest Terror Factions in the World (as of 2011)
1) Taliban – $70m – $400m
2) Hezbollah $200m – $500m ($120m from Iran)
3) Farc – $80m – $350m
4) Hamas – $70m
5) Al-Shabaab – $70m – 100m
Source: Money Jihad
News Source.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/isis-mosul-iraq_n_5481290.html
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