(From the Iraq-Syria Update by Robert Lee Maginnis

Author of 2015 book by Defender: Never Submit: Will
The Extermination Of Christians Get Worse Before It Gets Better?)

APRIL, 2016

• Syrian peace talks unravel. Peace talks in Geneva to end Syria's civil war seem all but finished after the main opposition body, the High Negotiations Committee, decided to formally suspend its participation, Deutsche Welle reported April 20. A Western diplomat close to the situation said an end to talks now would be devastating, adding that they might not restart for at least a year. The opposition's announcement followed reports that airstrikes in Syria's Idlib province on April 19 killed more than 40 civilians. The U.S. State Department said the Syrian government was likely responsible for the airstrikes. Opposition delegates said they refuse to participate in negotiations while reports surface of government troops violating the country's crumbling cease-fire. With heavy fighting throughout the country, the cease-fire seems to be at its breaking point, and rebel leaders are openly calling for more arms support from outside backers. For its part, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the High Negotiations Committee of blackmail for walking out of negotiations and used the opportunity to call for other opposition groups to participate in the talks. Please pray that the Syrian peace talks and ceasefire will get back on track and that the recent violations will be stopped.
  
 
 
• ISIS and Boko Haram collaborate more closely.  The New York Times reports that American officials claim ISIS and Nigeria’s Boko Haram terror network are collaborating more closely and planning more attacks on American allies in North and Central Africa.  On Wednesday, the commander of American special operations forces in Africa cited a weapons convoy believe to belong to ISIS in Libya that was headed for the Lake Chad region, an area devastated by Boko Haram.  Officials said the convoy demonstrates a direct link between the two extremist groups.  That shipment was seized near the Chadian border with Libya on April 7. 

Pray that links between terror groups will be cut off and that their plans to attack will be discovered and foiled.

• Chaos continues in Iraqi parliament reshuffle dispute. Chaos continues in Iraq's parliament amid an ongoing fight over Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's proposed Cabinet reshuffle, NRT reported April 20. Speaker Salim al-Jabouri canceled the parliament's April 20 session, disregarding a recent vote by a number of protesting lawmakers to replace him. At the same time, Kurdish party blocs announced a boycott of all parliamentary sessions until they deem the parliament once again legitimate. The al-Ahrar bloc, a group of Shiite parties affiliated with powerful Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, also said it would not attend any parliamentary sessions… The political drama, coupled with the country's deep financial woes, comes during a critical time in the battle against the Islamic State.

Pray for the unity and stabilization of the Iraqi government and that they will be successful in their military effort against ISIS.

• Iraqi anti-ISIS efforts stumble, Pentagon wants to come to the rescue.  The Military Times reports the Pentagon is finalizing plans to deploy more American ground troops to support Iraq’s offensive to retake Mosul.  That plan is headed for the White house.  “The timing is focused on the next phase of the campaign, which is towards Mosul,” Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.  Dunford declined to provide a number of additional troops but unnamed defense officials reported indicate those numbers are closer to 5,000.  There are now officially 3,870 U.S. personnel authorized for the counter-ISIS effort in Iraq.

• ISIS targets Germany for Brussels-style attacks. Reuters reports that ISIS posted pictures on the Internet calling on German Muslims to carry out Brussels-style attacks in Germany and especially Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offices at the Cologne-Bonn airport.   The ISIS images published in German media outlets on Thursday included slogans in German inciting local Muslims to commit violence against the “enemy of Allah.”  A German federal police spokeswoman said, “We are aware of this material and our experts are checking it.  It is clear that Germany is the focus of international terrorism and that attacks could happen, but this material doesn’t change our security assessment.”

Pray that any intended attacks on Germany or other nations will be found out and overthrown.

• Obama rallies support to keep ISIS from obtaining nuclear material. Bloomberg reports that President Obama is using the nuclear summit in Washington to call for stepped-up efforts to keep ISIS from obtaining nuclear material perhaps for a radiological bomb attack.  Bloomberg reports that Obama’s call comes after investigators into ISIS’ attacks last year in Paris found surveillance footage of a senior official at the Nuclear Research Center in Belgium, the nation where 32 victims were killed in a series of attacks on March 22.  U.S. officials told Bloomberg ISIS leaders have the intent to use any weapon they can to murder or create fear but, according to those officials, ISIS doesn’t currently have the capability to deploy nuclear or radiological weapons such as a “dirty bomb.”

Pray that terrorists will be unable to get access to weapons of mass destruction whether nuclear, chemical or biological.

• ISIS inside the Saudi kingdom.  The New York Times reports about a growing ISIS-influenced insurgency inside the kingdom.  This shouldn’t be surprising because ISIS embraced elements of Saudi Arabia’s conservative version of Islam – a Sunni creed known as Wahhabism.  “Wahhabism is fundamental to the Islamic State’s ideology,” said Cole Bunzel, a scholar of Wahhabi history at Princeton University.  “It informs the character of their religion and is the most on-display feature, in my opinion, of their entire ideology.”   There have been at least 20 ISIS-inspired terrorist episodes in Saudi Arabia since late 2014 and in each case the ISIS terrorists claimed Saudi Arabia practiced a corrupted version of the faith
 

• Merging ISIS and AQ franchises into greater global menace? Foreign Affairs reports that our so-called terrorism experts keep misjudging groups like al Qaeda.  John Brennan, the president’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor, said in 2012 “we can look ahead and envision a world in which the al Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant.”  This February James Clapper, director of National intelligence, painted a bleak picture of the newly resurgent al Qaeda alongside the expansionist ISIS as a global threat.  Clapper admitted in Senate testimony, al Qaeda has “proven resilient and are positioned to make gains in 2016.”  Clapper went on to describe ISIS as “the preeminent terrorist threat because … its branches and emerging branches in other countries, and its increasing ability to direct and inspire attacks against a wide range of targets around the world.”  The Foreign Affairs piece speculations that over the next few years al Qaeda and ISIS might reunite or “at least have entered into some form of alliance or tactical cooperation.”  Why?  Consider the following that might drive the groups together. (1) ideological similarities between ISIS and al Qaeda and they share the same enemies – Western democratic kafur/infidels, (2) their differences are over clashing egos not substance, (3) they share the same strategy – resurrection of the caliphate and establishment of the Islamic State, and (4) reuniting has been a regular feature of the behavior and rhetoric of both sides.

Pray that no alliance of ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups will be possible. May they be thrown into confusion, division and defeat!

• West African group pledges to ISIS. The Long War Journal reports that the Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), also known as Boko Haram, reaffirmed its allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.  In a video message an ISWA spokesman said the “steadfastness of the monotheists” and that the “enemies of Allah the Almighty hold conferences and meetings to come up with a solution for the hole into which they fell, thinking that they can rescue their proxies and allies from the assault of the soldiers of the caliphate.”  The ISWA spokesman promises his group will inflict harm on their enemies in “Nigeria, the Niger border, Cameroon, or Chad.”  The spokesman also lambasted the Nigerian government for claiming “victory is imminent” over the jihadist group.  “Neither the disbelievers nor their apostate henchmen were able to extinguish the light of Allah, so they rushed to use trumpets of hypocrisy from among media personnel and journalists to achieve what they can of fake victory.”

• Giant Islamic “gray zone” in Europe etc. The Gatestone Institute published an article musing just how large is the Muslim “gray zone” in Europe today.  The term “gray zone” originated in the 1970s when Europe was terrorized by communist groups and the big question when was “How deep is the ‘gray zone’?” – the sympathizers of terrorism.  Peggy Noonan speculates in the Wall Street Journal that perhaps 10% of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims harbor feelings of grievance toward “‘the West,’ or desire to expunge the infidel, or hope to re-establish the caliphate.”  That translates into 160 million who would become jihadi or give them aid.  It is noteworthy a BBC commissioned report found 27% of British Muslims have sympathy for the terrorists who attacked the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris and another poll released by Newsweek found 16% of French Muslims support ISIS.  The most enthusiasm for ISIS comes from Qatar with 47% and Pakistan with 35%.   Worse for Europe, among young European Muslims support for suicide bombings range from 22% in Germany to 42% in France, according to a Pew poll.

Let’s continue to pray for the overthrow of ISIS and other radical groups like Boko Haram and Al Shabab. Pray for the peace and healing of Syria and Iraq and that the international coalition will be successful in its military, social media, and other actions to effectively counter this growing terrorist menace to our world. Pray that radical Muslims are unable to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and that the intelligence community will be able to track and interdict any such intentions. Pray too that many of today’s terrorists will be converted by the power of God through visions, dreams and the courageous sharing of the Gospel by believers with whom they come into contact. May Sauls become Pauls and become mighty missionaries to the Muslim world!