Libya Security Monitor notes that IS's claim of responsibility for the Zliten suicide truck bombing refers to the Abu Mugharia campaign, linking the attack to IS's other attacks on targets in the Libyan oil crescent.
IS carried out a second suicide bombing yesterday at Ras Lanuf in the oil crescent.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder is sharing comments about the U.S.-led coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria.
Ryder is starting with updates on Ramadi, which Iraqi forces supported by close air support from the coalition have retaken from IS and are now clearing:
U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder is sharing comments about the U.S.-led coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria.
Ryder has this to say about the situation in Haditha in Anbar province where IS have been attacking Iraqi forces.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder is sharing comments about the U.S.-led coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria.
Ryder says that the coalition has put pressure on IS since the start of its campaign and has forced IS to behave reactively.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder is sharing comments about the U.S.-led coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria.
Finally, Ryder points out that the fight against IS will not be an easy one.
Back to Libya, where IS claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings yesterday that killed tens of people and injured many more.
Mary Fitzgerald tweets that there is anger on Libyan social media in the aftermath of the bombings, which Libyans feel did not really make much of a dent on the world's media.
A longer write-up of the IS militant who reportedly executed his mother:
An Islamic State (IS) militant executed his mother in public in Syria, activist groups said on January 8.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Ali Saqr shot his mother to death "in front of hundreds of people" near the post office building where she worked in the IS stronghold of Raqqa on January 7, because she had begged him to leave the extremist group.
It said Saqr had reported his mother to IS "authorities," who subsequently arrested the woman and accused her of apostasy.
Saqr's mother, who was in her forties, was living in the nearby town of Tabaqa but worked in Raqqa, the Observatory said.
But another group, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said that the reports suggesting Saqr shot his mother because she tried to get him to leave IS were incorrect. It said he killed her because she was an Alawite and therefore considered an apostate.
Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi of RBSS told RFE/RL via Skype that there was "more than one reason" why Saqr had killed his mother.
Saqr -- whose age was given by different groups as 20 or 21 -- had a bad reputation in Raqqa before IS took over the city in January 2014, according to Abu Ibrahim.
Saqr was a "bad guy" who was well known for his excessive drinking and fighting, including with knives.
"When IS came, [Saqr] joined them from the first," Abu Ibrahim told RFE/RL.
RBSS identified Saqr's mother as Lena al-Qasem, an Alawite originally from Syria's Latakia province -- a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
A January 2 post on a Facebook page believed to belong to Saqr cursed "the Rafidite [a derogatory term used by some Sunnis to refer to Shi'ites] Shi'ites and the heretic Nusayris [a derogatory term for Alawites."
The IS group has executed hundreds of people it has accused of working with its enemies or breaching of its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.
Many others were killed on the grounds of homosexuality, practicing magic, and apostasy.
According to the Observatory, IS executed more than 2,000 Syrian civilians in the 18 months since it declared its "caliphate" over the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq.
And from our news desk:
The Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack which targeted a police training center in western Libya, killing more than 50 people and wounding at least 100 others.
A statement published online in Arabic on January 8 said an IS member had died carrying out the suicide bomb attack in the city of Zliten the previous day, but Libyan authorities have so far not confirmed that detail.
The IS group has been growing in power in Libya, feeding on the chaos that has gripped the country since Qaddafi’s overthrow.
IS militants are present in several towns, launching attacks against oil infrastructure.
Also on January 7, a bomber drove an explosives-packed car into a checkpoint at the entrance to Ras Lanuf, a major oil port in northern Libya, killing at least six people.
From RFE/RL's Newsroom:
Gunmen have shot dead a police officer and a soldier as they traveled to work in their car west of the capital, Cairo.
The Interior Ministry said the traffic police district commander and the conscript died on January 9 after coming under fire in the Giza area.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Egypt has seen a wave of terrorist attacks since the army toppled Islamist President Muhammad Morsi in July 2013.
Two armed assailants attacked a hotel in the resort town of Hurgada on January 8, wounding three foreign tourists -- two Austrian guests and a Swede. One assailant was killed and the other injured.
In October, IS militants claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner over Sinai that killed all 224 people on board.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
From the RFE/RL Newsroom:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey needs to keep troops in northern Iraq after they thwarted a planned attack on its military training camp there this week by Islamic State (IS) militants.
The assertion on January 8, which Iraq denied, renews a dispute with Baghdad that erupted last month after Turkey deployed a force protection unit of around 150 troops to an area hear Bashiqa where its soldiers have been training Iraqi militia to fight IS militants.
Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul that Turkey killed 18 IS fighters who were planning to inflitrate Bashiqa and attack the camp, in a pre-emptive strike against the IS forces.
"None of our soldiers were wounded," he said, but "this incident shows what a correct step it was" to station additional troops in Bashiqa. "They are doing what needs to be done at the right time, and will continue to do so," he said.
Baghdad has insisted that the troops weren't authorized, violate international law, and must be removed.
Ankara has taken its case to the United States, the United Nations, and other forums to try to force an immediate withdrawal.
But after pulling out some troops under pressure from the United States, Erdogan has ruled out a total withdrawal.
In response to Erdogan's remarks January 8, Iraq's Joint Operations Command in Baghdad issued a statement asserting there was no IS assault on Turkish forces "in Bashiqa or any other areas."
While that conflicted with Erdogan's account, media reports coming out of northern Iraq confirmed that 18 IS fighters were killed there this week.
Some reports said they were killed by coalition air strikes, however, rather than Turkish or Iraqi troops.
Erdogan said he believes Russia is behind Iraq's sudden objection to Turkish troops in the last month.
Relations between Ankara and Moscow took a nosedive at the end of November after Turkey shot down a Russian plane that it says strayed over its border with Syria.
"They [Iraq] asked us to train their soldiers and showed us this base as the venue. But as we see, afterwards, once there were problems between Russia and Turkey...these negative developments began," Erdogan said.
Turkey has pointed out that Baghdad can't protect its military trainers because Iraqi security forces have had no presence in the northern Nineveh Province since they collapsed in June 2014 in the face of a sweeping advance by IS.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP