Iraqi Forces Unearth ISIL Sleeper Cells, Kill 130 Militants in Tikrit:
Iraqi security forces located several Islamic State jihadist group (IS, or ISIS) sleeper cells in the northern city of Tikrit and killed 130 militants, Ahmed Jubouri, Iraqi Minister of State for Provincial Affairs said, local media reported Friday. Ref. Source 6
Americans see ISIS as a bigger threat to the United States than Iran, Russia, North Korea or China, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Overall, 68% say ISIS is a very serious threat, compared with just 39% who say so about Iran, 32% about North Korea, 25% about Russia and 18% about China. Nearly 9-in-10 see ISIS as at least a moderately serious threat. Ref. CNN
Islamic State's unprecedented marketing lures U.S. Residents, senior officials say
Federal authorities have identified more than 150 U.S. Residents who have sought to join the ranks of the terror organization or rival groups in Syria. There is evidence that about 40 of those have traveled to the region and returned to the U.S. Most have been charged; an undisclosed number are free and subjects of intense surveillance. The smallest subset of the group, an estimated dozen, represents those who have actually joined the fighting ranks. Ref. USAToday
ISIS Terrorists Rape and Impregnate Girls as Young as 9, Force Them to Have Abortions
In the Middle East, doctors are doing illegal abortions on girls as young as nine who were kidnapped and raped by ISIS fighters. The Mirror Online reports that the children are from the Yazidis religious minority community and ISIS kidnapped approximately 40,000 of them at gunpoint in 2014. Ref. Source 1
U.S. Special Operations forces conducted a raid in eastern Syria overnight and killed Abu Sayyaf, a senior ISIS commander, sources familiar with what happened on the ground in Syria told CNN.
Sayyaf was in charge of ISIS' oil and gas operations and directly and increasingly involved in ISIS command and control. U.S. Forces intended to capture him, but he fought and was killed in the raid, the sources said. His wife was captured and taken to Iraq for interrogation. Ref. CNN
ISIS controlled all of Ramadi today after the last Iraqi security forces pulled out from a key military base on the west side of the city, the mayor and a high-ranking security official said.
The violence marks the latest in the struggle for Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.
The city is just a few miles from an Iraqi army headquarters that ISIS blew up in March and 70 miles west of Baghdad. Ramadi is strategically located in the middle of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, which is largely controlled by ISIS. Ref. CNN