Secret stash of Islamic State flags unearthed in Israel
Bag containing 50 flags seemingly belonging to Islamic State group found in Galilee industrial area; mayor: When something like this is discovered in heart of a Jewish city it should raise serious concerns.
Ahiya Raved
Published: 10.07.14, 10:42 /
Israel News
A bag containing what seems to be dozens of Islamic State flags were discovered Tuesday morning in a city in northern Israel.
Nazareth Illit city gardeners who were working in the city's Har Yona industrial area, located near the Arab communities of Kfar Kana and Ein Mahil, discovered a bag containing 50 Islamic State group flags between some bushes. The police were called to the scene and so was the city's mayor, Alex Gadalkin, who was disconcerted by the discovery.
Islamic State flag? (Photo: Police)
The police have begun their investigation to determine if the flags belong to the radical Islamist group currently ravaging Syria and Iraq.
After discovering the big black garbage bag containing, the city gardeners called local municipal officer Udi Elbaz: "I was shocked when I saw these flags inside the bag, and immediately called the police – it's like there is terror activities in the city."
50 flags found (Photo: Police)
Gadalkin, the city's mayor, said "when something like this is discovered in the heart of a Jewish city in the Galilee it should raise serious concerns."
Police have closed off the area and are currently searching for evidence regarding the flag's potential owners: "It seems someone threw it here. Firstly me need to make sure these are indeed the group's flags, and then see where they came from and where they were going. Though they seem to be (Islamic State) flags," Nazareth Illit Police Commander Shalom Avitan said.
Israel's Arab community has been largely opposed to the Islamic State group, though recent weeks have seen a sense of growing support for the terror group, with a teacher from Wadi Ara being arrested owning flags belonging to the group. In the past, Ynet has reported of an Israeli-Arab defecting to Syria and Iraq to fight with the group.
A number of weeks ago, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon deemed the group a terror organization, thus making any open affiliation or sign of support for the group a security offense.
Erdogan: Syrian town about to fall to Islamic State
Turkish president says Syrian border town of Kobani will fall to jihadists, who have outgunned Kurdish forces with tanks, munitions stolen from Iraqi bases.
Associated Press
Published: 10.07.14, 16:09 / Israel News
The Islamic State group is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobani, Turkey's president said Tuesday, as outgunned Kurdish forces struggled to repel the extremists with limited aid from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
Islamic State fighters using tanks and heavy weapons looted from captured army bases in Iraq and Syria have been pounding Kurdish forces in the strategic town for days, and planted their black flag on the town's outskirts after seizing several nearby villages in an offensive launched last month.
Islamic State flag over Kobani (Photo: AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the coalition air campaign launched last month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State advance and called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the Islamic State and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Kobani is about to fall," he told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, near the border.
"We asked for three things: One, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."
Kurdish smoke outside Kobani (Photo: AFP)
Turkish tanks and other ground forces have been stationed along the border within a few hundred meters of the fighting in Kobani - also known as Ayn Arab - but have not intervened.
The latest round of airstrikes began late Monday and came as Kurdish forces pushed Islamic State militants out of the eastern part of Kobani, where the jihadists had raised their black flag over buildings hours earlier, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Tuesday morning journalists on the Turkish side of the border heard the sound of warplanes before two large plumes of smoke billowed just west of Kobani.
The US-led coalition has launched several airstrikes over the past two weeks near Kobani in a bid to help Kurdish forces defend the town, but the sorties appear to have done little to slow the Islamic State group's advance.
Erdogan said more than 200,000 people have fled the fighting in and around Kobani in recent weeks. Their flight is among the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict.
Kurdish refugee (Photo: AFP)
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists across Syria, said Tuesday that 412 people have been killed since the Kobani fighting began.
On Tuesday morning, occasional gunfire could be heard in Kobani. A flag of the main Kurdish force known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, was seen flying over a hill in central Kobani.
Turkey has long suspected the YPG is linked to the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long and bloody insurgency against Ankara, while the Syrian opposition has accused the group of conspiring with Assad, charges the YPG denies.
Kurdish forces (Photo: AFP)
On Monday, jihadi fighters raised two of their black flags on the outskirts of Kobani and punctured the Kurdish front lines, advancing into the town itself.
But the Observatory said the Kurds forced the jihadists to withdraw from the eastern part of the town in heavy clashes after midnight. It said five loud explosions were heard in the town as warplanes soared overhead.
The Observatory said the jihadists were meanwhile able to capture several buildings on the southern edge of Kobani as well as a hospital under construction on the western side.
The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also reported coalition airstrikes on the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
The United States and five Arab allies launched an aerial campaign against the Islamic State in Syria on Sept. 23 with the aim of rolling back and ultimately crushing the extremist group. The U.S. has been bombing Islamic State targets in neighboring Iraq since August.
The Islamic State group has conquered vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, declaring a self-styled caliphate governed by a harsh version of Shariah law. The militants have massacred captured Syrian and Iraqi troops, terrorized minorities and beheaded two American journalists and two British aid workers.