Wars and Rumors

BREAKING NEWS: IRAQ TELLS U.N. THAT ‘TERRORIST GROUPS’ SEIZED NUCLEAR MATERIALS. REUTERS

Islamist plot to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre and nuclear power plant foiled, say French police - French police stumbled on terror plans after decrypting coded messages between Algerian butcher living in southern France and high-ranking members of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb

"With heavy grief, this evening we found three bodies. All signs indicate that they are the bodies of our three abducted youths –- Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frankel," Netanyahu said before the start of an emergency cabinet meeting. "They were abducted and murdered in cold blood by human animals. On behalf of the entire Jewish people, I would like to tell the dear families –- the mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, and brothers and sisters –- we are deeply saddened, the entire nation weeps with you. We will give the boys a proper burial."

Then the prime minister quoted Israeli poet Hayim Nahman Bialik. "'Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created,'" he said. "[N]either has vengeance for the blood of three pure youths, who were on their way home to meet their parents, who will not see them anymore. Hamas is responsible –- and Hamas will pay. May the memories of the three boys be blessed."

Jihadist militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria. It also proclaimed the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and "leader for Muslims everywhere".

A former Mexican cartel soldier who turned against the narco terrorists and joined the burgeoning Mexican militia movement has been found shot and tortured along with his wife and children in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

…as part of its blitz-campaign to take over northern Iraq, ISIS found and the promptly executed Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman, the judge who sentenced Saddam to death: a death which to many was the crowning moment of the second US invasion of Iraq, and the confirmation of successful US foreign policy.

The wars in Iraq and Syria have effectively merged into one sprawling conflict, especially in light of the massive blitz across northern and central Iraq by militant group ISIS and its affiliates. The multi-country crisis has taken on increasing complexity as Iraq and Syria fragment along sectarian and ethnic lines. … Twitter user @deSyracurse has put together a fascinating and impressively granular map of the spreading chaos throughout the two countries.

A Royal Navy patrol ship tracked down and intercepted two Russian landing craft in the English Channel yesterday.

HMS Severn, a 1,700-tonne River-class patrol ship armed with three machine guns, headed off the two military vessels sailing east through the Channel.

The ship 'closed and tracked' the Russian craft as they, which are thought to have been moving from the Mediterranean back to their home bases.

The Islamist group "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) is celebrating their successes against the Iraqi army, proudly displays captured military vehicles. And the terrorists mock the internet Michelle Obama (50)! They spread via Twitter and on Internet sites a photomontage of the U.S. First Lady, show it with the saying "Bring back our Humvee" (Eng. "brings back our Humvee"). Only two days ago the ISIS terrorists had spread videos in which they pose on a captured "Humvee" SUV. [Translated by Google.]

From the first outbreak of the crisis in the southern city of Deraa to apocalyptic forecasts of a Middle East soaked in blood, many combatants on both sides of the conflict say its path was set 1,400 years ago in the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers.

Among those many thousands of sayings, or hadith, are accounts which refer to the confrontation of two huge Islamic armies in Syria, a great battle near Damascus, and intervention from the north and west of the country.

The power of those prophecies for many fighters on the ground means that the three-year-old conflict is more deeply rooted - and far tougher to resolve - than a simple power struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his rebel foes.

More British citizens joined the jihad in Syria and Iraq than signed up for the Army Reserves over the last twelve months

'My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head' …

In the space of just three days:
Images of Iraqi men being rounded up at gunpoint, beaten, herded like cattle into lorries and shot dead in a ditch by a row of masked ISIS fanatics sent shockwaves across the world.
Taliban insurgents sliced off the fingers of 11 people as punishment for voting in Afghanistan’s democratic presidential election while 60 people were killed in a series of rocket barrages and scattered attacks
The desperate search continued for three Israeli teenagers allegedly kidnapped by Hamas militants as more than 150 suspects were arrested in relation to the abduction.
Nigeria's former president admitted that the 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants two months ago may never be found.
Pakistani jets killed 37 militants in retaliatory airstrikes today, a week after Taliban insurgents stormed Karachi airport and opened fire in a commando-style attack that left 38 people dead.

Over the past month, the world's media has been awash with gruesome images depicting insurgent barbarism whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Palestine or Syria.

Judge Jeanine: Tonight I'm Worried… You Need to Be Afraid [about consequences of Iraq. Video]

Mosul Islamist take-over: Up to 1,000 Christian families have reportedly fled Iraq's second biggest city "This could be the last migration of Christians from Mosul." [War News Updates editor comments, "From a historical perspective this is an incredible depressing event. Mosul has had a Christian community for almost 1,800 years .... and today .... they are now all gone."]