Tag: IS

Hostages being held inside central Sydney cafe by suspected Islamic State militants

Hostages were being held inside a central Sydney cafe where a black flag with white Arabic writing could be seen in the window, local television showed on Monday (December 15), raising fears of an attack linked to Islamic militants. Australia, which is backing the United States and its escalating action against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is on high alert for attacks by radicalized Muslims or by home-grown fighters returning from fighting in the Middle East. Part of Martin Place, home to […]

Islamic State kills 85 more members of Iraqi tribe

(Reuters) – Islamic State has executed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq, a tribal leader and security official said on Saturday, part of a mass killing campaign launched last week to break local resistance to the group’s territorial advances. Tribal chief Sheikh Naeem al-Ga’oud told Reuters Islamic State had killed 50 members of Albu Nimr who were fleeing the group in Anbar province on Friday. A further 35 bodies were found in […]

UK’s Cameron resists calls for air strikes despite hostage killing

(Reuters) – Britain resisted pressure on Sunday to join the United States in announcing air strikes against Islamic State after the militant group beheaded David Haines, a British hostage, and threatened to kill another Briton. Speaking after chairing a meeting of the government’s COBR emergency-response committee in London, Prime Minister David Cameron said his government was battling IS on numerous fronts but made clear it was not, for now, launching air strikes. “As this strategy […]

Islamic State video purports to show beheading of UK hostage David Haines

(Reuters) – Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria released a video on Saturday which purported to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage. However, the images were consistent with that of the filmed executions of two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month. Haines, a 44-year-old father of two from Perth in Scotland, was kidnapped last year while working for the French agency ACTED. […]

Obama vows to ‘degrade and destroy’ Islamic State

(Reuters) – The United States plans to fight Islamic State until it is no longer a force in the Middle East and will seek justice for the killing of American journalist Steven Sotloff, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. He added that destroying the militant group will take time because of the power vacuum in Syria, the abundance of battle-hardened fighters that grew out of al Qaeda during the Iraq war, and the need to […]