Category: Terror War

NBC News reports that a US service member was killed in an IED detonation in northern Syria today.

The soldier’s name has not been disclosed, but he or she was near Ayn Issa in northern Syria when the explosive detonated, according to a Pentagon statement. The service member was part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military operation combating ISIS in northern Iraq and Syria.

Reports from US News and World Reports and the News Sentinel are similar.

Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force in charge of Operation Inherent Resolve, in a statement. “On this Thanksgiving, please be thankful that there are service members willing to take up the fight to protect our homeland from ISIL’s hateful and brutal ideology.”

The UK’s Independent tells the story of Khalid Kelly, the good Irish-Catholic altar boy who converted to Islam in a Saudi prison, returned home to radicalize the local Islamic boy in Dublin and finally made the trip to join ISIS;

After years of spouting fanatical extremism, defending terrorist attacks on the West, calling for Barack Obama’s death, radicalising on social media and preaching from a soapbox outside the GPO, Kelly had turned from propagandist to activist.

[…]

Kelly…left the country, making his way to the UK, and from there to Turkey – gateway to the Isil conflict zones.

On November 4, Kelly, who now went by the name, Abu Usama Irlandi, was one of four suicide bombers who drove a truck packed with explosives towards an Iraqi army base near Mosul.

He was shot down before he reached his target. Isil announced the death of Abu Usama Irlandi on its propaganda website alongside a photo of him moments before he set off on his suicide mission.

His death has yet to be verified by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Garda.

Last week, 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, of Lawrence, Kansas; 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe of Tucson, Arizona; and 27-year-old Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty of Kerrville, Texas, all died when they entered a Jordanian military base. Initially, the special forces soldiers were blamed for the attack because they ignored procedures for entering the base, but CBS News reports that video has come to light that disputes the story;

U.S. officials say the security camera video shows several American vehicles stopped in broad daylight at the entrance to the Jordanian air field where the Green Berets were based. The first was allowed to pass through the gate, but then a guard suddenly opened fire on the second vehicle, killing both Americans inside. The Americans in the third and fourth vehicles jumped out and started returning fire. The Jordanian guard shot and killed one of them before he was wounded by the other.

This administration never learns.

That Bowe Bergdahl walked off his Afghanistan post in 2009 is not in dispute. His lawyers have claimed that no one was hurt as a result of the search for him. That’s not true, according to U.S. Air Force Major John Marx who testified that he was part of the hunt one day when he witnessed two casualties that resulted directly from Bergdahl’s actions;

U.S. Air Force Maj. John Marx testified about a firefight on July 8, 2009, when he and several other U.S. military members were seeking information on Bergdahl’s whereabouts, with members of the Afghan National Army. They were attacked after setting up a checkpoint near a town in Afghanistan.

One of the two wounded soldiers cited by prosecutors is U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant First Class Mark Allen. Prosecutors said he was shot in the head and suffered a traumatic brain injury that has left him in a wheel chair. Another soldier had hand injuries and required surgery because of a rocket-propelled grenade.

Marx, who said the mission’s sole purpose was to search for Bergdahl, testified that he was sitting next to Allen as bullets flew overhead.

“I looked at him, then I see a trickle of blood coming down his head,” Marx testified. Asked where Allen was wounded, Marx pointed at his temples and said: “Right through his head.”

Marx testified that he later carried Allen to the medevac helicopter, describing it as “probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever done in my life.”

Bergdahl’s attorneys countered that “Allen’s injuries were directly caused by the Taliban, not by SGT Bergdahl.” That’s only a little bit true. The US military prides itself on leaving no one behind, regardless of how the person contributed to the circumstances. If Bergdahl hadn’t gone off on his walkabout, SFC Allen wouldn’t have been in the place he was when he was shot.

Thanks to David for the link.

Aaron Daniels was arrested at John Glen International Airport in Columbus, Ohio yesterday after a months long investigation during which Daniels expressed a desire to an FBI informant to support ISIS, according to the Associated Press.

The complaint says Daniels wired $250 in January to a Beirut intermediary for now-deceased Islamic State recruiter and attacks planner Abu Isa Al-Amriki.

The complaint said at various times Daniels, who went by the aliases Harun Muhammad and Abu Yusuf, expressed interest in traveling to Afghanistan and Syria to wage war before settling on Libya. In June, Daniels told the undercover informant he wanted to go to Islamic State territory in Libya “so I could support the jihad there,” according to the complaint.

Investigators acted when they saw Daniels preparing to fly to Libya via Houston and Trinidad, said [U.S. Attorney Benjamin] Glassman.

They should have strapped a homing device to his and let him go.