isis

Shia Muslims burn an effigy of the leader of the ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a protest in New Delhi, India, June 9, 2017. (AP/Manish Swarup)
The Russian military announced on Friday that they may have killed the leader of the Islamic State Group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after an airstrike destroyed a meeting at which the terrorist group leader was believed to be in attendance, although official confirmation has not yet been received.

Unlike Iran which has the mightiest military in the wider Middle East, arguably even more disciplined than that of Turkey, the military might of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, for all the money they lavish on arms, is broadly incompetent and incapable. The average citizens of the small State of Qatar let alone the larger Saudi Kingdom are simply not equipped for serious, let alone long term military combat.
The United States just completed a sale of military hardware, including fighter jets to the pseudo-isolated Qatari state in a deal worth $12 billion.

Members of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard march during an annual military parade marking the anniversary of outset of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war in Tehran, Iran.
Last Wednesday’s twin terrorist attacks in Tehran shattered a more than three- decades-long sense of security in the Iranian capital.
The last time there were major terrorist incidents in Tehran was way back in the early 1980s during the turbulent immediate post-revolutionary period.

Russian claims to have killed ISIS leader Ibrahim Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi (the self-styled “Caliph Ibrahim”) in an air strike in May would be a devastating blow to the organisation if true.
The core part of ISIS’s attraction to that part of the worldwide Muslim community which is attracted to violent Jihadism is that it claims to be the ‘Islamic State’ and that its leader is the Caliph.
Westerners in my experience do not fully understand the colossal implications of this claim.

The Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian aerospace forces’ strike that was conducted on May 28, allegedly killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi south of Raqqa, Syria.
Sputnik reports:

US paratrooper on security duty during a mission to train Iraqi forces (Photo: US Department of Defense. Source: Wikicommons)
21st Century Wire says…

(ANTIMEDIA) — Defense Secretary Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis told Congress on Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan, Reuters reports.
The United States has been formally at war with (or within) Afghanistan since 2001, with little to no tangible progress to show for it. In that context, Mattis’ admission should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.

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One of the most striking turnarounds in the Middle East is the sudden close rapprochement between Syria and Iraq, who in their moves along the Syria-Iraqi border are increasingly coordinating together against both ISIS and the US.
To be clear, this is a major turnaround.  Since the Second World War Syria and Iraq have more often been in bitter conflict with each other than allied with each other.

A mosque destroyed by bombardment by the U.S.-led coalition in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. (Aamaq News Agency via AP)
According to a U.N. Commission of Inquiry tasked with investigating violations of international war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria, the intensification of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition has led to a “staggering loss of civilian life,” the Guardian reports.