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Officials: ISIS Will Capture Key Syrian Border City
The key Syrian border city of Kobani will soon fall to ISIS, but that's not a major U.S. concern, several senior U.S. administration officials said.
If Kobani falls, ISIS would control a complete swath of land between its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, and Turkey - a stretch of more than 100 kilometers (62 miles).
The U.S. officials said the primary goals are not to save Syrian cities and towns, but to go after ISIS' senior leadership, oil refineries and other infrastructure that would curb the terror group's ability to operate - particularly in Iraq.
Saving Iraq is a more strategic goal for several reasons, the officials said. First, the United States has a relationship with the Iraqi government. By contrast, the Obama administration wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Another reason: The United States has partners on the ground in Iraq, including Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters known as Peshmerga.
But on Tuesday, a top U.N. official implored world leaders to take action as Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobani are dangerously outmatched.
"They have been defending themselves with great courage. But they are now very close to not being able to do so," said Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria.
"They are fighting with normal weapons, whereas the ISIS has got tanks and mortars," he said. "The international community needs to defend them. The international community cannot sustain another city falling under ISIS."
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
New ISIS Hostage Video Released
British photojournalist John Cantlie reads a statement in a new ISIS hostage video that mocks airstrikes.
CNN's Atika Shubert reports.
President Obama: We Misjudged ISIS
A week after U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria began, lawmakers continued to question President Barack Obama's strategy for defeating the militant group ISIS, which he admitted in a televised interview Sunday was more powerful than the U.S. initially believed.
Echoing sentiments also expressed by James Clapper, the head of U.S. intelligence services, Obama said the government "underestimated what had been taking place in Syria" during its civil war, allowing Syria to become "ground zero for jihadists around the world."
Speaking in a taped interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Obama said the terrorists were remnants of al Qaeda in Iraq, which after being diminished by U.S. forces "went back underground."
"Over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos," Obama said, adding later the U.S. also overrated Iraq's security forces, which were quickly overrun by ISIS when it took over the northern city of Mosul this summer.
The President stressed that the issue in Iraq is not simply a military problem; it's a political one.
"This is America leading the international community to assist a country with whom we have a security partnership with, to make sure that they are able to take care of their business," he told "60 Minutes."
The President added: "If we do our job right and the Iraqis fight, then over time our role can slow down and taper off."
See the latest on this developing story on CNN.com
Strikes Target ISIS Safe Havens in Syria
Details are released about the types of targets and the ammo used in the airstrikes on ISIS. CNN's Joe Johns has more.
Feds: N.Y. Store Owner Funded ISIS
A man who owns an upstate New York food store funded ISIS, tried to send jihadists to Syria to fight with the terrorist group and plotted to do some killing himself - by gunning down U.S. troops who had served in Iraq - federal authorities alleged Tuesday.
Mufid A. Elfgeeh, 30, was arrested on May 31, though federal officials didn't outline the case against him until Tuesday. According to an indictment, he faces three counts of trying "to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization" (namely, ISIS), one count of attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States, two counts of having an unregistered firearm silencer and one for possessing guns or silencers "in furtherance of a crime of violence."
The public defender representing Elfgeeh, Mark Hosken, said Tuesday that he had seen the indictment and will enter a plea of not guilty when his client appears in court on Thursday morning.
The federal investigation into Elfgeeh began in early 2013 and a world away from the Middle East, where ISIS (also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) has waged a brutal campaign in recent years. Citing the terror group's threat to the region and gruesome tactics - such as the recent beheadings of two American journalists - the U.S. government has struck ISIS targets from the air in Iraq and threatened to go after it in Syria as well.
A look at Twitter suggests that Elfgeeh didn't stand with his adopted country in this fight, according to an affidavit in support of a search warrant in his case.
He allegedly wrote in one tweet: "Al Qaeda said it loud and clear: we are fighting the American invasion and their hegemony over the earth and the people." In another message, Elfgeeh purportedly stated ISIS "will one day rule the world with the will of Allah."
The affidavit alleges that he urged people to donate a third of their salary or, at least, "#Five_thousand_dollars_from_every_household" (as stated in one tweet) - stressing the importance of supporting groups like ISIS financially.
But the Yemeni-born owner and operator of Halal Mojo and Food Mart, dubbed Mojoe's by some, in Rochester may have wanted to be more than just a financial supporter. Court documents state that - if he couldn't sell his store - Elfgeeh wanted to export "those who are fed up (and want) to go to war and be jihadists."
The FBI informants were among those Elfgeeh actively recruited to join ISIS as jihadists, the affidavit states. He helped them by doing things like paying one of their passport costs, coordinating travel arrangements and setting them up with contacts in the terror group under the guise of going "to the university," which was code for joining ISIS.
Court documents, citing Western Union records, allege that Elfgeeh also sent $600 to a Yemeni man that he believed wanted to join the terrorist group.
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
U.S. Airstrike Hits ISIS Target Near Baghdad
A U.S. airstrike near Baghdad on Monday marked a new phase in the fight against ISIS.
The airstrike southwest of the city appears to be the closest the U.S. airstrikes have come to the capital of Iraq since the start of the campaign against ISIS, a senior U.S. military official told CNN. And U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it was the first strike as part of "expanded efforts" to help Iraqi forces on the offensive against ISIS.
Monday's airstrike destroyed an ISIS fighting position that had been firing at Iraqi forces, Central Command said.
It occurred about 35 km (22 miles) southwest of Baghdad, another U.S. official said.
The United States began targeted airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq last month to protect American personnel and support humanitarian missions. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama said new airstrikes would aim to help Iraqi forces on the offensive against the Islamist militants.
Obama also said airstrikes would include ISIS targets in Syria. And last week he also asked Congress for authorization to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels.
The authority comes under Title 10 of the U.S. code, which deals with military powers, and Congress could vote on granting it this week. Approval also would allow the United States to accept money from other countries for backing the Syrian opposition forces.
A senior administration official told reporters Monday that Obama has been making calls to Democratic and Republican members of Congress, asking them to pass the authorization.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry courted Middle Eastern leaders over the weekend to join a coalition in the fight against the Islamist militant group, which calls itself the Islamic State.
More than two dozen nations, the Arab League, the European Union and United Nations met in the French capital Monday, calling ISIS a threat to the international community and agreeing to "ensure that the culprits are brought to justice."
The United States has conducted more than 150 airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS, and Kerry has said nearly 40 nations have agreed to contribute to the fight against the militants. But it remains unclear which countries are on that list and the precise roles they'll play.
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
What is the World Going to do About ISIS?
After the beheading of another Western captive by ISIS, an international conference convened Monday in Paris to talk about how to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic extremist group.
The Sunni jihadist group underlined its barbaric credentials over the weekend, posting a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines and threatening the life of another hostage from the United Kingdom.
It was the third videotaped killing of a Western hostage released in less than a month.
The latest killing, ISIS said, was "a message to the allies of America" - a direct challenge to the United States.
President Barack Obama announced last week that the United States would lead "a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat," and that U.S. airstrikes against ISIS would expand from Iraq into Syria.
The United States has said nearly 40 nations have agreed to contribute to the fight against ISIS, which has seized control of large areas of northern Iraq and Syria. But it remains unclear exactly which countries are on that list and what roles they'll play.
The Paris conference Monday is being hosted by French President Francois Hollande and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Masum.
At the start of the event, Hollande said there was "no time to lose" in international efforts against ISIS.
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
Obama: We Will Degrade and Destroy ISIS
It was a speech that Barack Obama - a war-stopping, Nobel Peace Prize-winning President - never wanted to give.
A year after he pulled back from threatened military attacks on Syria over chemical weapons, Obama told America he now would launch airstrikes against ISIS targets in the country wracked by civil war.
The nationally televised address on Wednesday night, which lasted less than 15 minutes, promised far-reaching impact that could embroil the nation in another Middle East conflict.
"This was a very difficult speech for him," CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger said of a President who campaigned on ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "He's inserted us into the middle of a Syrian civil war."
"Tremendous turnaround"
The plan to "dismantle and ultimately destroy" the Sunni jihadists who have taunted America by beheading two captive U.S. journalists calls for what CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto described as a "tremendous turnaround" in Obama's previous policies in the region.
After previously rejecting calls from top advisers to arm and train some of the Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad and ISIS, Obama now seeks specific congressional approval to do so.
He also threatened airstrikes on ISIS targets in a major expansion of a campaign in Iraq previously limited to protecting U.S. advisers working with Iraqi forces and preventing the slaughter of minority groups by the extremists also known as ISIL and the Islamic State.
"I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are," Obama said. "That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven."
In addition, 475 more U.S. military advisers are headed to Iraq, raising the total of American forces there to 1,700 for a mission originally described as limited.
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
ISIS Beheading Video is Real, U.S. Says
A video showing American journalist Steven Sotloff being beheaded by terror group ISIS is authentic, U.S. officials said early Wednesday.
The Islamic militant group released the video Tuesday.
It shows the second beheading of an American journalist in two weeks, and blames President Barack Obama's decision to conduct airstrikes against the militant group in Iraq for the killing.
"The U.S. intelligence community has analyzed the recently released video ... and has reached the judgment that it is authentic," said Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council. "We will continue to provide updates as they are available,"
In the video, Sotloff kneels in the desert, dressed in an orange prison-style jumpsuit. A masked "executioner" lords over him, wielding a knife.
The journalist speaks; the executioner speaks.
And then the horrific happens: the victim is beheaded.
"It is almost the exact same choreography," said Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College London, comparing ISIS videos showing the deaths of journalists Sotloff and James Foley. A video of Foley's execution was released last month.
The executioner appears to be the same person. The location of the two killings also appears to be similar.
Neumann suspects they took place in or around the Syrian city of Raqqa, one of the safest areas for ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State.
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
Pentagon Chief: ISIS 'Beyond Anything we Have Seen'
America's top defense officials left open the possibility of targeting fighters with the so-called Islamic State in Syria, saying during a news briefing Thursday it was not enough to just hit the extremist group in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of calling for U.S. military action in eastern Syria, an ISIS stronghold.
"Can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization that resides in Syria? The answer is no," Dempsey said during the briefing at the Pentagon.
Repeatedly pushed by reporters about whether that meant operations against ISIS in Syria, Hagel said, "We're looking at all options."
While it's unclear what those options may be, Hagel said the United States is "very clear-eyed" about ISIS.
"They are beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess," Hagel said.
"...This is beyond anything we have seen, and we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is that you take a cold, steely hard look at it and get ready."
See more on this developing story on CNN.com
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