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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| Canada, Israel Studying Reports Dual Citizen Held By Islamic State | |
| 2014-12-01 | |
| [IsraelTimes] Canada and Israel said Sunday that they were aware of reports that a Canadian-Israeli woman may have been kidnapped in Syria, amid suggestions it could be Gill Rosenberg, who traveled to Iran and Syria to fight the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. The US-based monitoring group SITE said Islamic State jihadists claimed a woman described as a "female Zionist soldier" had been captured in the embattled Syrian border town. Some jihadists said the woman might be Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli dual national who had served in the Israel Defense Forces and volunteered to fight with the Kurds, the monitoring group said. "The Government of Canada is aware of reports that a Canadian citizen was kidnapped in Syria," a Foreign Ministry statement said. "Canada is pursuing all appropriate channels to seek further information and officials are in close contact with local authorities." The ministry added that it would not "comment or release any information which may compromise ongoing efforts and risks endangering the safety of Canadian citizens abroad." Israeli Foreign Ministry front man Emmanuel Nachshon said that the ministry was "watching with interest the various reports about the abduction of an Israeli woman by the Islamic State, and is try to obtain more information on the matter." SITE said jihadists were discussing on the Internet whether the woman should be executed or traded for Moslem prisoners. Hebrew media reported Sunday that the Israeli woman, who traveled to fight alongside the Kurds in Iraq and Syria earlier this month, may have been kidnapped by Islamic State fighters, citing Syrian jihadist-linked media. Rosenberg, 31, was captured by jihadists near the flashpoint city of Kobani in the past few days, reports said. The Canada native was taken after the jihadists launched three suicide kabooms in the area, and her condition is unknown. The reports, which were not initially confirmed by the Islamic State group, were published on the Samoach al-Islam blog, which largely operates as a mouthpiece for the terror group, as well as by Islamic State activists on Twitter. Two Kurdish fighters quoted by Israel Radio cast doubt on the reports. One, an American fighter, said Rosenberg was never in Kobani. Another soldier on the ground said that he had heard nothing of her alleged abduction. In her last Facebook post to date, Rosenberg wrote on November 20 that someone would be managing her profile for two weeks, and asked that people not message her "as this is not me." IS launched an attack Saturday on the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey, a Kurdish official and activists said, although Turkey denied that the fighters had used its territory for the raid. The assault began when a jacket wallah driving an armored vehicle detonated an bomb on the border crossing between Kobani and Turkey, said the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Nawaf Khalil, a front man for Syria's powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party. The Islamic State group "used to attack the town from three sides," Khalil said. "Today, they are attacking from four sides." The Islamic State group claimed three suicide kabooms in Kobani's border crossing point, the SITE Intelligence Group reported. The group, quoting Twitter accounts linked to the myrmidons, said the suicide attacks were carried out by a Saudi and a Turkmen, adding that one of them was driving a Humvee. The first foreign woman to join the Kurdish forces, Rosenberg set out from her home in Tel Aviv on November 2, stopping in Amman before flying to Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Rosenberg told Israel Radio that she wanted to do her part for the Kurdish national struggle, and that she was hopeful her experience in the Israel Defense Forces would be useful to the Kurds. According to Rosenberg's Facebook page, she served in the IDF's Home Front Command. Rosenberg has posted pictures of herself in mountains of Iraq and Syrian Kurdistan. "In the IDF, we say Aharai ‐ After Me. Let's show ISIS what that means," she wrote, using an alternate acronym for Islamic State. In 2009, Rosenberg was incarcerated I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in a joint Israeli police and FBI operation on suspicion that she had been part of a ring that cheated elderly American citizens out of their money by posing as lottery officials and convincing the unsuspecting seniors to pay for fictive services, according to the Walla news site. The members of the ring, which included 11 other Israeli citizens aside from Rosenberg, were said to have stolen up to $25 million. Rosenberg was later convicted of the crime and sentenced to four years in a US prison, though her term was eventually shortened and she was deported to Israel instead, Channel 10 reported. The Islamic State group began its Kobani offensive in mid-September, capturing parts of the town as well as dozens of nearby villages. The town later became the focus of Kurdish fighters slowly have been advancing in Kobani since late October, when dozens of well-armed Iraqi peshmerga fighters joined fellow Syrian Kurds in the battles. The fighting has killed hundreds of fighters on both sides over the past two months. If confirmed, Rosenberg would be the second Israeli captive held by the jihadist group. Israeli-American journalist Steven Sotloff was beheaded by the Islamic State group in early September. Sotloff went missing in Syria in August 2013, and the jihadists were reportedly unaware of his Jewish heritage and Israeli citizenship until after his death.
Kurdish sources told the NRG news site that they were aware of the "wave of rumors" that IS had captured an Israeli citizen in Kobani, presumably Gill Rosenberg, an IDF veteran who had traveled to Iraq to fight for the Kurdish YPG militia. "This is false propaganda by IS," the Kurdish sources said. "We can say with a high level of certainty that no Israeli volunteer, or any international volunteer for that matter, arrived to fight in the city of Kobani in Syria." They said she is meant to be training in the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, along with other international volunteers. In addition, they said, international volunteers are not placed in combat roles, but instead support the front-line fighters. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 "They said she is meant to be training in the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, along with other international volunteers." Just make sure she doesn't sell them any lottery tickets. (Read the article.) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-12-01 08:05 |