IS may be using Nutella and kittens to entice female recruits

Karachi: Islamic State (IS) militants may be using the popular Italian hazelnut spread Nutella and kittens to lure women recruits, according to a famous news anchor.

According to the Express Tribune, the news anchor Costello and a college professor discussed on their program why mostly the western women were joining the ranks of IS.

Costallo said that the IS militant group is talking online about jars of Nutella, pictures of kittens and emojis.

Nimmi Gowrinathan, an expert on gender and violence said that the fight that IS is fighting is a political fight that is much more than just the social media.

The militant group in August 2014 posted pictures that showed them posing with nutella and holding kittens. 

(ANI)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The world's most wanted man was a pretty decent student in school, reveals report card

Wellington:Islamic State (IS) chief AbuBakr al-Baghdadi's school report card has been found in the Iraqi city of Samarra that purports to show the grades of the IS leader.

The report card shows Baghdadi was strong in mathematics and geography, reported Stuff.co.nz.

The official from Samarra's department of education spoke on the condition of anonymity and said that he was not allowed to share the information with the media.

He also said that the certificate, that marked the student's behavior as "good" and showed an 80 percent average score, was original and genuine.

The report card is under the name Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim and says that he was born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri in 1971 in Samarra, a city about 130 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The passport size photo on the report card shows a man with thick eyebrows bearing stark resemblance to the IS chief.

The document shows that Baghdadi graduated in the year 1991 at the age of 19 or 20.

(ANI)

IS militants in Raqqa subjecting women to brutal, abnormal sex acts

New York: The Islamic State militantsin the city of Raqqa have been subjecting their forcefully wedded wives to brutal and abnormal sex, according to a report.

New York Post reports that the supposedly ultra-conservative Muslim fundamentalists have been forcing women in the city of Raqqa to marry them and engage in savage sex acts that result in hospital treatment, the report from activists in the terror group's main Syrian stronghold says.

The activist group "Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently" said that members of the terror group have also been forcing their reluctant brides to try kinky lingerie.

A post on the group's website read that a large section of IS members suffer from sexual anomalies and brutal instinctive desire for sex."

Scores of families have fled the city to escape the lust of the IS militants who overran Raqqa in 2013 and dubbed the northern Syrian city as the caliphate's de facto capital.

Other reports have revealed that Yazidi girls in Iraq, who are being held as prisoners by the Islamic State (IS) terrorists, are committing suicide to save themselves from constant rape and torment at the hands of the members of the terror group.

According to The Independent, hundreds of women and children were captured by the group during their bloody sweep through northern Iraq earlier this year and have since been trafficked as sex slaves, forced into marriage and imprisoned.

The plight of the Yazidi girls was revealed after victims who managed to flee told Amnesty International that many young girls killed themselves after losing all hopes of being rescued.

Another victim, 27-year-old Wafa, reportedly said that she and her sister attempted suicide by strangulating themselves with their scarves but were stopped by the other girls who were held with them.

The sisters decided to take the extreme step after the man holding the girls captive gave them the choice to either marry him and his brother or be sold as slaves.

Donatella Rovera, who spoke to more than 40 former captives in northern Iraq for Amnesty International, said IS militants were using rape as a weapon in attacks "amounting to crimes against humanity".

She said that the physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic.

Rovera added that many of them had been tortured and treated as chattel and even those who have managed to escape remain deeply traumatized, the report said. 

(ANI)

IS is setting up stronghold in Libya: Italy

Italy has issued its strongest warning yet about the danger of the Islamic State group establishing a stronghold in Libya from where it could attack Europe and destabilise neighbouring states.

Italy called for urgent international action to halt Libya’s slide into chaos and said it was ready to help monitor a ceasefire and train local armed forces.

The UN Security Council was meeting last night to discuss Libya, where two rival governments, each backed by former rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, are battling for power.

The growing danger became apparent on Sunday when Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told parliament that possible alliances between local militias and IS militants, inspired by their counterparts in Syria and Iraq, risked destabilising neighbouring countries.

“The deterioration of the situation on the ground forces the international community to move more quickly before it’s too late,” he said in a special address on the crisis.

“There’s a clear risk of alliances between Daesh and local groups”, he said, using a common Arabic name for Islamic State. “The situation must be monitored with the maximum attention.”

Italy, whose southern islands are only around 300km from the Libyan coast, has watched in alarm as the country has unravelled since western forces helped topple Gaddafi.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived in southern Italy in unsafe boats, their departure from Libya facilitated by people smugglers operating freely in conditions of near- anarchy. Last week, more than 300 were reported to have died attempting the crossing.

As well as fuelling anti- immigrant sentiment in Italy, which is suffering a deep economic slump, the crisis has also heightened security fears, particularly after this week’s beheadings of the Egyptian Christians and Islamic State messages threatening Rome, home of the Pope.

However, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told parliament no evidence had been found of any increased threat to Italy in particular. “We’re at risk, as all countries that are fighting terrorism are,” she said.

Gentiloni spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry when Italy joined the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Britain in calling for a national unity government in Libya.

He said last night’s Security Council meeting had to produce concrete signs that the scale of the crisis was recognised.

Italy was ready to help monitor a ceasefire and train a regular army within the framework of a UN mission, he said.

But Pinotti warned that any military action needed agreement within Libya.

Osama wanted to rebrand al-Qaeda: White House

WASHINGTON: Frustrated over al-Qaeda's recognition as a global terror outfit, its chief Osama bin Laden wanted to change the name of the group to identify it more closely with Islam before he was killed by US special forces in Pakistan, the White House has said. 

"He (Bin Laden) even contemplated, in those writings, changing the name of al-Qaeda to try to more closely identify it with Islam," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, referring to the treasure trove of information recovered from the Abbottabad hide out of the al-Qaeda leader. 

"He felt like that would be helpful to their flagging recruiting efforts. That is an indication that our efforts to be crystal-clear about what it is that we're fighting and what we're not has not just been successful, but actually frustrated the efforts of our enemies," Earnest said. 

In the operation to recover and bring to justice Laden, US commandos also recovered a treasure trove of material from his residence where they were able to evaluate some of his ongoing communications and even some of his thinking about the state of al-Qaeda, he said yesterday. 

"And in those writings there is clear evidence that he (Laden) was frustrated that al-Qaeda was being recognised and acknowledged and fought not as a religious organisation but as a terrorist group," he said. 

Earnest said there is no question that radical ideologues around the globe have sought, and in some cases succeeded, in infiltrating some elements of the Muslim world to propagate their ideology and to try to distort that religion to justify their terrible acts of violence. 

"At the same time they would love nothing more than for the US or the West to engage in a religious war with them. But the fact of the matter is, that is not what this is. This is not a religious war. This is not a war on Islam. And those individuals do not represent Islam; the leaders of Islam say as much. And there are a variety of ways that we can assess this," Earnest said. 

The founder and head of al-Qaeda, Osama was killed in Pakistan's Bilal Town in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 by US Navy SEALs of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The operation was carried out in a Central Intelligence Agency-led operation.

Khaleda Zia charged with instigating bomb attacks

Dhaka: Bangladesh's main opposition party leader Khaleda Zia has been charged with instigating bomb attacks on a march led by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan in Dhaka, media reported Tuesday.

At least 11 people were injured Monday, when six to seven handmade bombs were detonated at a protest march towards the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief's office, bdnews24.com reported.

The minister, leader of pro-government transport workers, led the parade demanding withdrawal of the BNP-sponsored blockade and shutdowns.

Road Transport Owners and Workers' Unity Council leader Ismail Hossain filed the case with Gulshan police Monday night accusing 14 BNP leaders of instigating the attacks.

Assistant Police Commissioner (Gulshan Zone) Nurul Alam said the complainant accused Khaleda and others of attack, attempt to murder, terrorism and bomb explosions.

Other BNP leaders among the accused are BNP vice chairperson Selima Rahman and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, Khaleda's advisor Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, chairperson's press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, former Member of Parliament P Dewan Salahuddin, BNP women's front leader Shirin Sultana and former Dhaka City Corporation commissioner Abdul Kaiyum.

Jama’at leader sentenced to death in B'desh for war crimes

Dhaka: A top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death Wednesday by a special tribunal in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity during the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971, triggering violence.

Abdus Subhan, in his early 80s, was sentenced by the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2 here, saying six of the nine charges against him were proved beyond doubt.

"He (Subhan) will be hanged till death," chairman of the tribunal Obaidul Haque said as he read out the 165-page verdict.

Suspected anti-government activists exploded three crude bombs outside the court after Subhan was convicted for murder, loot, abduction, confinement, arson and torture, prompting authorities to tighten the security of the premises.

The verdict may raise tensions in the country where more than 100 people have died since January in anti-government protests led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jama’at over last year's elections.

Subhan, a vice president of the party, is the 17 and the last of the high-profile figures to be convicted since the start of the war crime trials in 2010 against Jama’at leaders, who were opposed to the country's independence.

According to the chargesheet, Subhan guided Pakistani soldiers to kill over 300 villagers at his home district in northwestern Pabna. The tribunal found that Subhan himself killed many of them, a charge Subhan and his party rejected.

Subhan had fled the country at the end of the independence war and returned home after the August 1975 coup which toppled the country's post independence government.

He was indicted in December last year, an year after his arrest on charges of war crimes along with other Jama’at leaders.

Since Bangladesh launched the war crimes trial, the two special tribunals, set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government in 2010, have handed down death penalties to 13 people.

Only one of them, Jamaat's joint secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah so far has been executed.

IS executes 40 people in Iraq

Baghdad: Sunni radical group Islamic State (IS) Tuesday executed over 40 people, many of them security personnel, in Iraq's western province of Anbar, an official said.

IS militants captured over 40 people from the albu-Obeid Sunni tribe, including policemen and members of the government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group, in al-Baghdadi town, and executed them, Xinhua cited the official, who did not wish to be named, as saying.

The targeted town is located near the major air base of Ain al-Asad which houses hundreds of US troops.

The battles in and near al-Baghdadi have continued since Thursday when IS militants attacked the town and nearby Ain al-Asad air base and seized the town.

However, their attacks on the air base were repelled by security forces and US aircrafts, while fighting continued in the town after Iraqi troops regained control of large parts of it.

IS militants laid siege to a neighbourhood in the town housing dozens of families of security members and Sahwa fighters, said the official.

He added that residents were fighting back IS attacks but were facing acute shortage of food, drinking water, weapons and ammunition.

IS militants Saturday executed 33 people in the town. Many were local policemen and Sahwa members.

Ain al-Asad military base is used by Iraqi military forces, as well as roughly 300 US Marines in their capacity as military trainers and advisers.

The IS group has seized around 80 percent of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and has been trying to advance toward Baghdad. But several counter attacks by security forces and Shia militias pushed them back from western areas of the capital.

Since December last year, there have been insurgent attacks in the Sunni Arab heartland west of Baghdad which stretches through the Anbar province.

The security situation in Iraq started drastically deteriorating June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS, an Al Qaeda offshoot.

IS took control of the country's northern province of Nineveh, later seizing swathes of territories once Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces.