... the interests of Iraq's Sunni and their fight against Nouri al-Maliki’s Shia government came to the fore
[2]
.
Events in Syria have become a catalyst for a direct clash of interests between al-Qaeda, the traditional power center of the global jihad movement, and ISIS, which is gathering momentum.
Most of those who left Iraq rushed into Syria, where the “Islamization” of the revolution was well underway. The loss of foreign fighters jeopardized the integrity of Islamic State in Iraq, and its new leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi decided to
establish a branch
in the Syrian theater ...
... Syria and were on the brink of targeting Brussels. The capital of Belgium was already targeted a few months ago: in May 2014, Mehdi Nemmouche – a French citizen who had trained in Syria – killed 4 persons in Brussels’ Jewish museum.
Jihad in Syria and in Iraq has attracted some 15,000 foreign fighters, of which 3,000 are Westerners. If Belgium has the highest number of jihadists per inhabitant in Europe, French jihadists are more numerous in absolute terms. The figures provided by the French ...
... another political earthquake, raising the possibility of another Afghanistan located right in the heart of the Middle East. Within just a very small number of days, the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), known in Iraq and Syria for appalling atrocities and militant fanaticism, was able to occupy the two-million person city of Mosul, the second largest in Iraq, and vowed to march victoriously on Baghdad.
As of writing, the ISIL fully or partially controls Nineveh, Samarra ...
