Breaking news story from Hadera, Israel: Two IS in Israel operatives carried out a lethal attack on police officers last night, March 27th, in northern Israel.
IS
Operation Onion Truck and DNS Defense
In 2016, Serdar Özyurt, one of the founders of DNS Defense, stated in an interview that his company was accused of arms smuggling. He suggested that the reason for this was a conspiracy made by FETÖ (Source). However, it was later revealed that the smuggling involving DNS Defense was filled with highly suspicious events. It soon became clear that this company was responsible for various military ammunition that was smuggled to ISIS in Syria.
Small Arms Symbology of Syrian Opposition Forces (2011-2020)
The Syrian Civil War is an extremely complex conflict, not least in terms of its innumerable state and non-state actors, armed groups, popular militias and foreign contractors. Despite the obvious confusing chaos and dreadful complexity caused by a large number of participants it does offer a representative sample frame for academic research. For any researcher looking for a realistic subset of armed factions and political movements within the wider region, Syria provides an interesting case study. In this exclusive series, I examined Syrian armed groups from across the entire political spectrum who at one point or another during the war featured a firearm in their official crest. My goal is to present a statistical overview of the small arms used in this military imagery, and to share some interesting information I was able to deduct.
Examining IS ‘Wilayat Iraq’ video “Strike [Their] Necks” Pt.2
The so-called Islamic State, and their previous organizations Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (Syria), have sustained an insurgency in Iraq for over 16 years. After the collapse of most of its territorial control in 2017, (besides some hideouts in Anbar province) they are again focused on fighting an insurgency campaign. They have been depleted over the years by the efforts of the Iraqi security forces and the International coalition, so much so that in 2019, ISIS conducted only small raids, small scale attacks, assassinations/executions and abductions and IED attacks. This was a far cry from their capabilities circa 2013-16. However, in recent months their attacks in Iraq have increased, especially in the north of the country. Now, IS have released a long propaganda film, in this two-part article, we will examine the film and see what we can learn about their current capabilities and weapons. You can find the first part of this article examining the small arms seen in the video here.