A Virginia woman is under arrest after she lied to authorities about her connections to ISIS.
Heather Elizabeth Coffman, 29, has been a big supporter of the terrorist group on social media and worked to help those in the United States connect with the group.
The FBI says that Coffman told an undercover agent that she could help them join the terrorist group. She claimed that she had a husband who traveled to Turkey to meet with ISIS agents that could get him to the front lines in Syria. She then claimed the “husband” left her and never made the move.
Coffman had come to the FBI’s attention because of her emphatic postings supporting ISIS on Facebook.
The FBI says Coffman “is suspected of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) a foreign terrorist organization.”
“As far as I know, she hasn’t traveled anywhere,” Mark Henry Schmidt, Coffman’s attorney, told The Washington Post. “Her connections with the outside world would be on the Internet. I imagine you can get into trouble on the Internet, but I imagine you can also think a lot more’s going on than really is. If nothing else, this is certainly a cautionary tale about the Internet.”
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has beheaded another captive and posted the video on the internet.
Peter Kassig is the third American to be brutally slaughtered by the murderers.
Kassig, 26, had served in the Iraq War and became motivated to make a difference in the lives of the Iraqis after the war ended. He had founded a group called SERA (Special Emergency Response and Assistance) which delivered food and medical supplies to refugee camps near the Syrian and Iraqi border.
Kassig had written to his parents stating he feared being killed.
“I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all,” Kassig said. “I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.”
The Obama administration confirmed that the video was genuine.
The two biggest terrorist organizations in the world are joining forces in Syria to fight U.S. backed rebels.
The Associated Press reports that leaders from ISIS and Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, agreed in northern Syria during meetings to stop fighting each other to focus on destroying rebels in Syria before teaming up to focus on the Al-Assad government.
The two terrorist groups had been fighting to determine who would be the main group attempting to overthrow the Syrian government.
The rebels, who are backed by airstrikes by U.S. aircraft on ISIS positions, are considered to be relatively weak and disorganized compared to their terrorist opposition. A combined force could be too much for the rebels to defeat.
The news of the joining of forces comes as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff admitted the possibility of U.S. combat troops returning to Iraq.
“I’m not predicting at this point that I would recommend that those forces in Mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by U.S. forces, but we’re certainly considering it,” Dempsey told the House Armed Services Committee.
A former ISIS member has testified that a member of NATO is considered an ally of the terrorist organization by ISIS leadership.
Turkey, which has been dragging its feet in joining the world coalition to stop the terrorist group, is reportedly allowing the terrorists to freely cross their border and move supplies and weapons into Iraq and Syria.
The terrorist, calling himself “Sherko Omer”, is a former communications tech for ISIS. He said that Turkey is working with ISIS because of a common hatred for the Kurds.
“ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria,” Omer said. “The Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey. Also, ISIS had to be a Turkish ally because only through Turkey they were able to deploy ISIS fighters to northern parts of the Kurdish cities and towns in Syria.”
Omer also said he has seen first hand the connection between the Turkish army and the terrorists.
“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable occasions,” Omer said. “I rarely heard them speak in Arabic, and that was only when they talked to their own recruiters, otherwise, they mostly spoke in Turkish because the people they talked to were Turkish officials of some sorts because ISIS guys used to be very serious when they talked to them.”
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been severely wounded in one of the airstrikes aimed at stopping the advance of the terrorist group.
Iraqi officials said Sunday that al-Baghdadi was struck during a U.S. airstrike on a convoy near the town of Qaim in western Iraq.
In addition to the wounding of the group’s leader, several key ISIS officials were killed in the attack including al-Baghdadi’s right hand man, Auf Abdulrahman Elefery. Twenty terrorists total were killed in the airstrike on the ISIS leader.
Baghdadi was an Islamic preacher who radicalized after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. He later received training from al-Qaeda and lead the ISIS breakaway from al-Qaeda with designs to be the main Islamic terrorist group in the world.
Officials say that airstrikes over the weekend killed over 50 ISIS terrorists in addition to the strike that wounded al-Baghdadi. President Obama has said he will send an additional 1,500 troops to the region to “train” the Iraqi army.
A document has been found bearing the official ISIS seal outlining prices for the sale of women, children and infants who are captured by the terrorist group.
The document says all of the women and children are either Christians or Yazidi and that they are “sex slaves” for use by the terrorists in the organization.
“We have been informed that the market for sale of women had been witnessing a reduction in price which effects the needs for the Islamic State and the funding for the Mujahideen,” the document reads, according to an English translation of the notice obtained by Christian News. “For this, the commerce department had decided to set a fixed price regarding the sale of women. Therefore, all auctioneers are to abide by this and anyone who breaks the rules will be executed.”
Women over 40 are selling for the equivalent of $43 American dollars, while infants and children are selling for $172 American dollars. Infants as young as one year old are available to be bought as slaves by the terrorist fighters.
Along with the document, a video surfaced showing terrorists waiting in line for the auction to begin.
“Today is the slave market day. Today is the day where this verse applies: ‘Except with their wives and the [captives] whom their right hands possess, for [then] they are not to be blamed,’” a terrorist in the video says. “Today is distribution day, Allah willing. … By Allah, man, I am looking for one to get me a girl.”
The video has other terrorists talking about how they would inspect the women like cattle, checking to see if they had teeth or were healthy before buying them.
Islamic terrorist groups are taking to the web in an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the younger generations.
A report shows that Islamic terrorist groups are sending out at least 90 messages on Twitter every minute.
The study by the Saudi Arabian based Sakina shows that terror groups like Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, Al-Nusra Front and ISIS are not only sending out messages to promote their view of Islam but also recruiting potential terrorist fighters.
The head of the group says that governments need to watch social media to control the messages being sent to youth. But he also said that the public has a responsibility as well.
“The responsibility of protecting the general public from terrorist activities does not only lie with the official directorates. It is also the responsibility of the media, mosques and educational institutes,” Abdulmunim Al-Mushawah said. “Public awareness and guidance are the campaign’s top priorities because it is important to teach people how to face one problem without creating another.”
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has captured key natural gas fields near the city of Homs in Syria.
While ISIS has been losing battled and ground to the northern part of their captured areas, the group has been pushing south in an apparent attempt to overthrow the Syrian government.
“So after the Sha’ar company and the positions surrounding it became part of the land of the Caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah,” the Islamic State said in a message.
The terrorists also posted with the message pictured of slaughtered and tortured Syrian troops.
Syrian activists say that the terrorists appear to be targeting Tayfur military airbase. If the terrorists were to capture the airbase, it would be seen as a major blow to the Syrian government.
Foreign fighters who have grown disillusioned by the truth of ISIS once they begin fighting for the group are finding it hard to leave as the terrorist outfit threatens to kill anyone who leaves.
British newspaper The Observer quotes a source in Syria as saying dozens of British citizens who became radicalized and joined ISIS want to come home to Britain but are being held against their will.
“There are Britons, who, upon wanting to leave have been threatened with death, either directly or indirectly,” the source said.
Moazzam Begg, who had been a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, told the newspaper that when someone joins ISIS they swear an allegiance to the caliphate, which is in essence saying you are a citizen of that “state”.
“When it becomes solidified as an Islamic State, a caliph, and you swear allegiance, thereafter if you do something disobedient you are now disobeying the caliph and could be subject to disciplinary measures which could include threats or death,” said Begg.
The article in the Observer comes days after 19-year-old Mehdi Hassan, a British man who had tried to return to Britain, was killed in battle fighting for ISIS. Hassan was caught trying to leave and imprisoned for four days by ISIS leaders until he agreed to stay with the terrorists.
Nine out of ten Orthodox Christians in Iraq have been displaced by the terrorist group ISIS.
Ghattas Hazim, the Greek Orthodox Bishop for Baghdad, says he fears for the future of Christianity in Iraq and the surrounding region because of the terrorists. He says that of 600 Orthodox families remain in Baghdad because of fears the terrorists will take over the nation’s capital.
He said the only Christians left in Mosul are the ones who can afford to pay the “tax” levied on them by the terrorists or who are too ill or infirm to flee.
Hazim said that western nations, despite saying they are working to help the Christians displaced by the terrorists, have done nothing to help them.
“It is not true that the West is facilitating the emigration of Christians,” Hazim told The Christian Post. “I know many Christians and Orthodox in particular who went to embassies and did not get visas. Others resorted to the United Nations and other international organizations in order to emigrate and it did not work out.”
Hazim vowed to stay in Baghdad to keep the Word of God alive in the city no matter what may happen with the terrorists.
“I will carry the word of God to my parish in Baghdad and Kuwait: Fear not, little flock, for I am with you,” Hazim said. “If they persecute you, remember that they persecuted me before you. We will not fear, because this is not the first time in history that this has happened. We will stay, as long as faith remains and as long as our God exists, we will remain present.”
