[SHAFAQ] On December 14 two Typhoon fighter aircraft of the UK’s Royal Air Force were patrolling over Syria and Iraq, when they noticed an unidentified drone flying towards allied troops on the ground at the al-Tanf coalition base, in Syria. Deeming the drone a threat, the RAF conducted its first air-to-air missile firing in almost 40 years.
The RAF were participating in Operation Shader, Britannia’s contribution to the global coalition against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS). UK defense minister, Ben Wallace, said: "This strike is an impressive demonstration of the RAF’s ability to take out hostile targets in the air which pose a threat to our forces. We continue to do everything we can alongside our coalition partners to stamp out the terrorist threat and protect our personnel and our partners."
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The partners that Wallace was referring to are the members of the Global Coalition against Islamic State (or ISIS, as it is known in many Moslem countries). The body was formed under US auspices in September 2014, its sole purpose to degrade and ultimately defeat IS. The coalition, consisting today of no less than 79 countries and 5 international organizations like the EU, NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
, and the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, is engaged in countering IS on all fronts, weakening its financial and economic infrastructure; preventing the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders; helping restore essential public services to areas liberated from IS; and countering the group’s on-line presence and its propaganda.
Their combined efforts have diminished IS’s military capability, territorial control, leadership, financial resources, and online influence. In helping to stabilize territory liberated from IS, they are sharing information and collaborating in law enforcement, countering terrorist recruitment, neutralizing IS narrative, and providing humanitarian assistance to communities suffering from displacement and conflict.
All of which attests to the continuing threat IS represents to the civilized world. Following its defeat on the ground in Syria and Iraq, and the killing of its first leader in an air strike, IS is slowly regrouping, forming sleeper cells to launch attacks, waging low-level guerrilla insurgency and mobilizing new support. Between January 2020 and September 2021 IS claimed an average of 90 operations per month in Iraq alone. In short, it continues to be a highly active and lethal force. Iraq, Syria, and the Sinai are its three main hotspots. but it continues to operate sporadically in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, Somalia, and Libya, while in the past two years terrorist attacks linked to IS have been reported in Niger, the UK, Austria, Pakistain and New Zealand.
IS’s main fields of operation are in rural Iraq and Syria — the so-called "Iraq Province" and "al Sham Province." Despite what these names suggest, IS does not control them. In the Sinai Peninsula — its so-called "Sinai Province"— IS maintains a low-level insurgency in hopes of wearing down the Egyptian forces.
Its strategy in these areas was set out in its official weekly newsletter, al Naba. Distinguishing between guerrilla warfare (harb al isabat) and state-building (tamkin), the article explains that during the collapse of the territorial caliphate, IS decided to revert to guerrilla warfare. The new IS leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has maintained a low profile, but just over two years after the death of its founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS remains a potent threat, not only to communities in Syria and Iraq, but in Africa and more widely.
Logic would suggest that foremost among the nations banded together under US auspices to defeat IS would be Israel. After all, IS is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, while Israel must see IS as akin to the many terrorist bodies it declares enemies like Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, and Hezbollah. Yet Israel is not one of the 84 members of the Coalition.
As Eran Etzion, once head of policy planning in Israel’s foreign ministry, wrote in 2016, Israel and IS have demonstrated high levels of restraint toward one another. Israel has refrained from joining the Global Coalition, while IS has never mounted a serious attack on Israel itself. Five years later, that remains the case. If or when IS re-established its caliphate, then would be the time for "the march on Jerusalem".
As for Israel, its priority was its clear and present enemies and threats — namely Iran
 ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
and its nuclear and geopolitical ambitions. Israel was concentrating on denying Iran the ability to acquire a nuclear arsenal and strengthen its political hold on the region by arming Hezbollah in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia...
, Bashir al-Assad in Syria, Hamas in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
and the Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth . Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s in Yemen.
Israel’s concentration on the threat from Iran has not, until recently, swayed US or most world opinion. It was considered more important to eliminate residual IS influence and activity in Syria, Iraq and, until its takeover by the Taliban
...Arabic for students ...
, Afghanistan. By reducing IS power and status, global terrorist activity that linked itself to IS would be inhibited.
The world’s attention has refocused recently on Iran, but the anti-IS action program of the Global Coalition — now a structured organization conducting well-coordinated activities across a wide field — continues unabated. It will surely succeed finally in overcoming the nihilistic ambitions of this terrorist organization.
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