Islamic State working on chemical weapons, say US, Iraqi officials

President Barack Obama understands that if he were to proclaim a goal of definitively eradicating the Islamic State in the short term, he would fail and would have to eat his words. He recommended that President Obama send more special operations forces into Iraq and Syria to gather intelligence, as well as to assist partner forces with planning operations and calling in airstrikes.

In the flurry of activity, it’s easy to forget that these attacks did not come out of nowhere.

In particular, as false reports about the events in Paris ricocheted around the web and social media on Friday night, NPR’s coverage stayed with the facts.

As IS’s statement of responsibility indicated, France was probably chosen as its first Western target because of the government’s active involvement in the anti-IS coalition, its intervention against Islamists in Mali, the state’s strong secularism – which prohibits public displays of religion including the hijab – and the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, both by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the newspaper Liberation, which republished the notorious Danish cartoons of 2007. Much of the defence equipment supplied to the rebel groups in Syria found their way to the Islamic State as many groups switched allegiance to the terror organisation. Physicians for Human Rights said it chronicled 16 attacks total on Syrian medical establishments in October alone, the highest tally in the conflict to date. The United States can lead the way in developing a political framework and military strategy that enables this to happen.

Zarqawi was so ruthless even by al-Qaeda standards that he was reprimanded by Zawahiri as he was seen as a problem child for al-Qaeda due to his attacks against the Shias. This would have the knock-on effect of rallying IS supporters and inspiring new recruits. However, it is hard to develop and deploy. Syria had supposedly surrendered the chemical 18 months ago, and the confirmation that mustard gas was used in August raises several questions.

“Al-Sham” is the historically Arab phrase for Greater Syria. Until recently, targeting states outside of the region has not been a priority for the group. It also launched strategic attacks to seize resources such as arms caches, oil wells and granaries in Syria.

IS controls nearly all of Syria’s oil fields and one in Iraq.

The Iraqi government has virtually shut off in-and-out routes around the city. In May 2010, Baghdadi became the group’s leader following Masri’s death in a joint US-Iraqi raid. The USA announced on November 13 that the British terrorist known as “Jihadi John” had apparently been killed in a strike in Raqqa. That, the USA can not allow.

One would like to think that we’re smarter than this.

Members of the Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite fighters fire a rocket, during clashes with Islamic State militants in the town of Tal Ksaiba, near the town of al-Alam, March 7.

In order to maintain its pre-eminence over other organisations, and thereby continue to benefit from the associated support and flow of fighters, IS must demonstrate its continued relevance in spite of its stalled expansion.

In September 2014, the USA began leading an global coalition in Syria to conduct air strikes on ISIS militants and other extremist groups there.

Earlier in the week, Isis boastfully published a photo of what it says was the bomb used to bring down a Russian Airbus, killing 224. This justifies why they attack Muslims and non-Muslims. IS’ previous ventures overseas were limited to inspiring lone wolf attacks in its name, rather than having any formal planning role. His statement in the August 2012 campaign season that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be “a red line” seemed to many a reasonable deterrent.

But that would have meant not taking cheap shots against the political opposition at home – the people who really make him angry.

Aided by the disinterest of a world wearied and wary after the failings of the Iraq war, an assortment of al-Qaida veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers have moved into the vacuum left by the collapse of governments in Syria and Iraq and built themselves a proto-state.

On the other hand, al- Qaeda employs a radically different approach to fund its operation.