The "optimistic view" of the Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism is that it is a "is a badly needed first step towards a more local approach to the many systemic drivers of violent extremism," intelligence consultancy the Soufan Group says.
Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a 34-member "Islamic military coalition" on December 14 -- to the surprise of some of the countries it listed as participants.
Despite the rushed nature of the announcement and the subsequent confusion, the Soufan Group argues that:
A truly unified approach to countering the violent ideologies tearing many countries apart would be a far greater accomplishment than any feasible military option. A more realistic view is that the initiative will struggle to avoid what has ailed so many Arab coalitions; sectarianism, parochialism, and competing self-interests.
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The U.S. Department of Defense says that the U.S.-led coalition against IS has trained 15,892 members of the Iraqi Security Forces so far.
AFP has spoken with Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov during a press trip to the Hmeymim base in Syria.
Konashenkov said that sorties are usually carried out within 30 minutes.
"From the time the pilot gets the order to when the plane takes off and the target is destroyed -- all that is normally completed in just some thirty minutes," spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said as he looks at another plane gearing up for a mission.
"If the objective is in Deir [al-Zor] province then it can take some 25 minutes to get there, if it's near Idlib, then just 10," Konashenkov told AFP as part of a tightly controlled press trip to Hmeimim organised by the defense ministry in Moscow.
Tarad Mohammad Aljarba, the man believed to be responsible for helping the attackers behind the November 13 Paris attacks enter and leave Syria has been personally involved in moving Australian IS recruits into the conflict zone, The Australian reports.
Western intelligence agencies have evidence that Aljarba, a 36-year-old Saudi Arabian also known as Abu-Muhammad al-Shimali, was appointed “border emir” and facilitated the entry of several Australian, European and other Middle Eastern recruits into Syria from Turkey throughout last year.
As of mid-2014, he was also Islamic State’s “leader for operations outside Syria and Iraq”, according to U.S. agencies and the UN Security Council, which placed economic and arms sanctions against him just weeks before the November 13 Paris attacks.
From our newsroom:
U.S., Russia Drafting New UN Resolution Against IS Financing
WASHINGTON -- The United States and Russia are working together on a new United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at putting further pressure on the finances of Islamic State (IS) militants.
Adam Szubin, the acting U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the resolution will "fully criminalize" terror financing and is modeled along the lines of those that targeted Al-Qaeda finances after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
He said IS, which holds vast territories in Syria and Iraq, receives about $400 million a year from selling oil and gas.
Asked about Russia's recent charges that Turkey buys oil from IS, Szubin said "we don't see any evidence that the Turkish government is purchasing oil from [IS]."
Szubin said a U.S. raid in May that targeted a senior IS commander helped refine U.S. air strikes to target the group's oil and gas production.
Jets and missiles have hit oil wells, tanker trucks, and small refineries in the area.
Another member of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a Syrian activist group that reports on the activities of the IS group in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, has been murdered, the BBC reports.
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently said Ahmad Mohammed al-Mousa was killed by a group of masked men in the rebel-held city of Idlib yesterday.
The group have no further details, but at least two other members have been killed by IS militants since 2014.
Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando received two Kalashnikov bullets and a threatening letter on Thursday, written in Arabic and purporting to be from Islamic State, a ministry spokeswoman said.
She said the letter was signed "ISIS", another acronym for the IS group.
The letter was delivered to the Justice Ministry in Rome and said, "we will come to Rome and cut off your head. God is great."
A Moscow court has extended the arrest of a Moscow University student accused of trying to join the IS group in Syria, until March 27.
Karaulova has been remanded in custody since her arrest on October 28. Her alleged recruiter was arrested on October 27.
Karaulova left home on May 27 and flew to Turkey. On June 4 she was arrested alongside 12 other Russians while attempting to cross the border into Syria.
Journalist Roozbeh Kaboly from Dutch National Television's Nieuwsuur has shared photographs taken just kilometers from the front line with IS near Palmyra in Syria.
Kaboly was on the Syrian-held side of the front line very close to the IS-held city.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter returned to Iraq today for a day of meetings with Kurdish officials and for briefings about the fight against the IS group in northern Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Carter was briefed on a significant battle between IS and Kurdish militias that took place on December 16 when IS launched three separate offensives north and east of the IS-controlled city of Mosul. The Peshmerga pushed IS back, and coalition airstrikes killed some 180 IS militants, a senior military officer said.