Thestrategist.media – 21 May 2015 – Sylvia Westall informs that the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting said that Islamic State now controls more than 50% of Syrian domain taking after four years of common war.
 
The radical gathering has annihilated ancient pieces and landmarks in Iraq and there are reasons for alarm as ISIS may now destroy Palmyra, an antiquated World Heritage site and home to famous Roman-time vestiges including very much protected sanctuaries, corridors and a theater.
 
Conflicts in the range subsequent to Wednesday killed no less than 100 professional government contenders, said Rami Abdulrahman, leader of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which constructs its data with respect to a system of sources on the ground. Islamic State said withdrawing ace government strengths had abandoned some dead, yet gave no exact figures.
 
The attack on the city is a piece of a westbound progress by Islamic State that is including to weights Assad's overstretched armed force and ace government state army, which have likewise as of late lost ground in the northwest and south.
 
 
Palmyra's fall came only five days after the Islamist gathering seized Ramadi, capital of Iraq's biggest region, Anbar. Contenders faithful to the gathering have likewise solidified their grasp on Sirte in Libya, main residence of previous pioneer Muammar Gaddafi, developing their achieve in the locale.
 
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
Iraqi powers said on Thursday that they had upset a third endeavor by Islamic State activists to achievement their protective lines east of Ramadi overnight.
 
Police and star government Sunni contenders traded mortar and expert rifleman shoot with guerillas over the new bleeding edge in Husaiba al-Sharqiya, about somewhere between Ramadi and a base where a counter-hostile to retake the city is being arranged.
 
The loss of Ramadi gave the focal Iraq government in Baghdad its most huge setback in a year and uncovered the impediments of both the Iraqi armed force and a crusade of U.S.-drove air strikes intended to "debase and pulverize" Islamic State.
 
The United States arrangements to convey 1,000 against tank weapons to Iraq in June to battle suicide bombings like those that helped the Islamist gathering get Ramadi, a senior U.S. State Department authority said on Thursday.
 
Iraq's administration has requested Shi'ite local army, some of which have close binds to Iran, to join the fight to retake Ramadi, raising apprehensions of recharged partisan strife in the nation.
 
Washington has said it will bolster the Ramadi counter-hostile, however says it ought to incorporate both Sunni and Shi'ite compels under the immediate order of focal government.
 
The aggressors in Ramadi are looking to combine their additions in the encompassing region of Anbar by pushing east towards the Habbaniya base where Iraqi security powers and Shi'ite paramilitaries are massing.
 
"Daesh is frantically attempting to break our resistances yet this is unthinkable now," Police major Khalid al-Fahdawi said, alluding to Islamic State. "They attempted overnight to rupture our barriers yet they fizzled. Armed force helicopters were sitting tight for them."
 
Habbaniya is one of just a couple remaining pockets of government-held region in Anbar, and lies in the middle of Ramadi and the town of Falluja, which has been controlled by Islamic State for over a year.
 
Nearby authorities say the aggressors need to sign up the two towns and overwhelm the other remaining government holdouts, unstable along the Euphrates waterway valley and the fringe with Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
 
Sabah Nouri, representative for Iraq's counterterrorism strengths, said powers were "streaming to Habbaniya with new deadly arms that will help invert the blueprint against Daesh".
 
He said the fortifications would permit the armed force to wage a few concurrent assaults, and that consistent troops would hold any recovered domain to permit the counter-terrorism units to concentrate on keeping up a hostile.
 
Albeit Islamic State has seized vast lumps of Syria, the regions it holds are generally inadequately possessed. Syria's principle urban communities, including the capital Damascus, are situated on its western flank along the fringe with Lebanon and the coastline and have been the need for Assad's administration.





References:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKBN0O60KH20150521

Unites States – 26 April 2015 – The Senior U.N. humanitarian officials address the “Security Council” of the United Nations on the 24^th April 2015, in regards to end the “Syrian crisis”. According to them the “numbness to the senseless violence” should terminate. Therefore, the “Security Council” demanded “expanded aid” in order to conduct emergency operation for supplying “life-saving” provisions to remote and “hard-to-reach” regions.
 
Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ “Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator”, while addressing the body of fifteen members in an open-brief, he pointed out, in an alarming tone, that:

 
Amos informs that during last “tragic five-year arc of conflict”, almost two hundred twenty thousand people died rather have been murdered, while “one million” were injured along with 7.6 Million were displaced and “four million” took shelter in “neighbouring countries”. The United Nations News Centre writes:

 
The other members who attended the address session were U.N.H.C.R, António Guterres, the U.N.H.C.R's Special-Envoy, Angelina Jolie Pitt, and the executive director of United Nation’s W.F.P, Ertharin Cousin. They all in unison matched Amos’ plea for ending “atrocity after atrocity; violation after violation; misery after misery”.
 
A “Presidential Statement” on the Syrian Crisis was reportedly adopted by the “Security Council” whereby they demanded “an end to all forms of violence” from any parties who are in “Syrian domestic conflict”. As per the Council, they termed the “Syrian crisis” as “the largest humanitarian emergency crisis” in the present world which is a brooding threat to the security and peace issues in the neighbouring nations could translate into “diverse implications”; furthermore millions of people may also need to displace themselves if any corrective measures aren’t taken immediately.
 
The displacement means added pressure on the host country to manage resources including education, and financial support. Amos also emphasized the need of action on the part of Security Council for:

 
Amid the survival struggle people are being deprived of medical aids which need to be rectified soon and all violation should be brought to an end for the so far failure has eroded “the credibility of the Council. Thus, Amos urged to the Council:

 
Amos says that the solution to Syrian crisis can be arrived at through “political dialogue”. However, further delay to sort the matter cause “potential global repercussions”, whereby she asked the Council “to match its scale with an equally bold response”. In fact Mr. Guterres stresses on the point that support system needs to be increase in the Syrian neighbouring countries to reduce “host fatigue”.
 
Other issues brought up in the meeting were about reduced healthcare and food supply. The failure to provide these essentials was termed as “lack of political will”. Moreover, the years of inaction from the part of the Council had turned Syrians hope to anger and now to despair and hopelessness. 




References:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50678#.VTuZxCGeDGd
 

The Bard had once said “What’s in a name?” Well going by France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, quite a bit actually. ISIS, or the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ has been splattering itself all over the news lately with its shocking brutalities which only goes to highlight its desperation of trying to impose a dream of an Islamic caliphate.  

As pointed out by Laurent Fabius – France’s Foreign Minister, ISIS is a bit of a misnomer, for it tries to robe itself as being Islamic. The usage of this very word is a cunning means and source of confusion. It not only confuses the gullible victims but also misleads and clouds their sense of judgment. As Mr. Fabius point outs, the end result is that these poor individuals cannot distinguish between Islamists, Islam and Muslims. Further, he goes on to state, that although ISIS has projected itself as a state, it clearly and definitely is not. It is only a terrorist organization.

References:
http://theweek.com/speedreads/446139/france-says-name-isis-offensive-call-daesh-instead
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31607728
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-31791607
http://www.france24.com/en/20140917-france-switches-arabic-daesh-acronym-islamic-state/

Thus, ISIS is a misnomer. The correct way of referring to this terrorist group would be ‘Daesh’. As per France24  the word Daesh, is an approximate acronym for ‘al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham’.

Despite its grotesque acts of terror, Daesh, it seems, has quite a fan following: in the last three years, more than 20,000 foreigners have joined its ranks in Syria and in Iraq. Of this group, around 4,000 are from Western Europe. It is estimated that 500-600 people from the UK have in various stages of their journey to join its ranks.

Question is - how does Daesh recruit? Is it possible to stereotype those who join their ranks? As per this BBC bulletin, two brothers aged 16 and 17 were headed to a “conflict zone”. In spite of the horrors of war and the reports of women being used as sex slaves, women “brides of Jihadists” still leave their home for foreign shores. Stereotyping the Daesh fighters and the ‘wanna-be’ brides have grown to be quite a challenge.

However, the Institute for Strategic Dialog (ISD) has got a few leads and insight into their mechanisms, thanks to various social platforms and online tracking methodologies. Daesh’s decentralized online presence is strong and it is uses this its advantage by providing money and dedicating time and energy into cultivating social bonds with individuals and in the process radicalizes them. Men and women recruiters in its rank, tweet, blog, communicate, and share their experiences, painting a rosy picture which is far from the brutalities and the savagery of war.

Because of the varied background of its recruiters, this multilingual fluid and fluent propaganda is used to target specific individuals. The propaganda is delivered through a culturally relevant online medium, which allows the free exchange of practical questions being asked and answered, in a way that is not verifiable to the individual being recruited.

Investigative research has however, found out that ‘offline network’ often are the spark that disseminate and propagate extremist ideologies. Typically, the offline network creates a spark of interest which the recruit feeds on his own through social platforms and is ultimately brain washed and helped to make the crossing into a war zone.

Daesh, it would seem has exploited the online social medium to gain robust fan following and thus ensure a strong recruitment strategy.