German ISIS Bride on Trial for War Crime of Letting 5yo Yazidi Girl Die of Thirst in the Sun

© AFP / dpa / Peter Kneffel

The trial of a German woman who joined ISIS and is accused of the war crime of letting a five-year-old Yazidi slave die of thirst under the blistering sun began in Munich Tuesday.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the world for international crimes committed by Islamic State against the Yazidi people.

“After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress, the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonising death of thirst in the scorching heat,” prosecutors stated, AFP reports.

The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl.

Curious phrase - 'allowed her husband', as if this invisible woman had to give her permission to her husband for anything. 

The 27-year-old woman, identified only as ‘Jennifer W.’ stands accused of murder and murder as a war crime, in addition to membership of a terrorist organisation as well as weapon control violations under German law. She faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and declined to make any statement during the initial 15-minute hearing. It remains unclear whether she will testify or issue any statement throughout the proceedings.

London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, is a member of the team representing the Yazidi girl's mother. Initial hearings are scheduled to take place through to September 30.

Prosecutors allege that Jennifer W. and her husband, IS fighter Taha Sabah Noori Al-J., purchased the girl and her mother in ISIS-occupied Mosul, Iraq in 2015.

Jennifer W. reportedly left school and converted to Islam in 2013, travelling through Turkey and Syria to join IS in 2014. She would join the group's so-called hisbah 'morality police' in 2015, patrolling cities like Fallujah and Mosul armed with an AK47 rifle and draped with an explosive vest to enforce the terrorist group's extremist ideology.

In January 2016, months after the Yazidi girl's death, Jennifer W. sought new identity papers at the German embassy in Ankara, Turkey whereupon she was arrested by Turkish authorities after exiting the building and was extradited to Germany.

'Hardcore even for ISIS'

Due to a dearth of evidence against her, Jennifer W. was allowed to return home but was reportedly arrested during an FBI sting operation as she attempted to return to the so-called ‘Caliphate’. During the sting operation, she was recorded admitting what she and her husband had done to the Yazidi girl which she admitted was “hardcore even for ISIS.”

She also stated the abuse was unjust as only God may punish sinners with fire, adding that her husband was later beaten by IS members as punishment.

So it appears she was not in agreement with her husband, but it is questionable as to how much influence she had over him, or whether she had opportunity to help the girl and didn't use it. She deserves some degree of punishment for just being there and marrying an ISIS fighter. I'm not convinced she deserves life in prison.

German Teen ‘ISIS Bride’ Sentenced to 6 Years in Jail in Iraq

© Kazuhiro Nakamura / AFLO / Getty Images

An Iraqi court has sentenced German teenager Linda Wenzel, dubbed a “jihadi bride”, to six years in prison for her affiliation with Islamic State, German media has reported.

Wenzel was given a five-year sentence for being a member of IS and another year for crossing into Iraq illegally, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Sunday, citing judicial sources. Her hearing at the Palace of Justice in Baghdad was closed to the public due to her age, but representatives from the German embassy were present at the trial.

Originally from Pulsnitz, a town near Dresden in eastern Germany, Wenzel converted to Islam in 2016. After meeting extremists online at the age of 15, Wenzel ran away from home and made her way into Iraq through Turkey and Syria. There, she reportedly married a Chechen fighter, who was later killed.

After being captured in Mosul last year, Wenzel made headlines across the world when footage emerged that showed her terrified and in tears as she was dragged along by Iraqi troops. But the teenager was just one of many women from Europe and elsewhere who traveled to the Middle East to become jihadi brides.

Since her capture, Wenzel has expressed regret for her actions.

"I want to go home to my family," she told reporters. "I want to get out of the war, away from the weapons, the noise."

"I don't know how I came up with such a dumb idea. I've completely ruined my life."

Amnesty International Report: Shiite Militias Using U.S. Weapons for War Crimes

As I have stated in the past, American weapons are frequently used on both sides of a confrontation. In today's madness, wars are now often fought with anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen combatant groups with varying degrees of morality. Weapons, and even money, flows from western countries to militias that have no moral right to exist, so Amnesty's findings are no surprise.

It's disappointing though that Americans didn't see this happening and take measures to stop it. It's unlikely that they did not know about it; it's likely they just did not care, after all, they are on the same side. But, let's not have any more moral judgments on other countries who employ similar lapses in moral character in bringing ISIS to an end. 

Supplying weapons to anyone is, apparently, a necessary evil; but it is an evil! Weapons sales seem to be far more important than human lives in many western countries. We will have to answer to God for that.

By Eric DuVall 

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Abbas brigade militia take part in a military operation in western Mosul, Iraq, in November. A new report by Amnesty International accuses the militias of committing war crimes using U.S.-made weapons given to them by the Iraqi government in the fight against ISIS. Photo by Khider Abbas/European Pressphoto Agency

BAGHDAD, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Human rights group Amnesty International says Shiite militias are committing war crimes using U.S. weapons provided by the Iraqi government in the fight against the Islamic State.

Issued Thursday, the Amnesty report highlights a central fear that the Iraqi government is essentially deputizing the militias in the fight against the Islamic State. Members of the militias were responsible for thousands of deaths in the years-long insurgency that came after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Amnesty International said it has evidence the militias, known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi, have been given everything from tanks and combat vehicles to grenade launchers and a large number of small arms. Amnesty said those weapons, manufactured in the United States and elsewhere and originally given to the Iraqi government, are now being used by the militias to carry out extrajudicial killings and revenge attacks against civilians under the guise of working with the Iraqi army to retake Mosul, the last major city controlled by the Islamic State.

"International arms suppliers, including the U.S.A., European countries, Russia and Iran, must wake up to the fact that all arms transfers to Iraq carry a real risk of ending up in the hands of militia groups with long histories of human rights violations," said Patrick Wilcken, an Amnesty researcher.

Iraqi government officials and a spokesman for the militias denied the report, saying the two groups have abided by international law and proven reliable partners in the fight against the Islamic State.

"Whatever is circulated across malicious media about violations is untrue," militia spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi said during a press conference. "The priority for al-Hashd al-Shaabi is to protect civilians, and we shall chase [the Islamic State] to the last spot of Mosul and based on directives from the supreme commander of the armed forces."

ISIS Targets Civilians in Mosul; Iraqi, Coalition Forces also Cause Civilian Deaths – HRW

Of Course, if these were Syrian forces backed by Russians, mainstream media would be screaming apocalyptic words. But these are Iraqi forces with American help, so all is quiet. 

Removing insurgents from among the midst of civilians is extremely difficult. Using bombs is quick but with high collateral damage. The only other way is to invade with a huge army going house to house. This would take more time and would probably still result in civilians getting shot by mistake, or, 'just in case'.

Either way, in American media, American actions will be justified and Russian actions will be vilified even if considerably more effective.

© Dabiq / Global Look Press via ZUMA Press

Islamic State has “indiscriminately’ attacked people who refused to retreat from the Iraqi city of Mosul alongside jihadists, Human Rights Watch said, adding that Iraqi and US-led coalition forces were responsible for civilian deaths.

Islamic State militants used mortar rounds and explosives against the population in eastern Mosul and deliberately shot at fleeing residents, HRW said on Wednesday. 

The terrorists were “indiscriminately or deliberately killing and wounding people for refusing to be human shields,” Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said cited in a statement published on its website.

Jihadists warned people by radio and via mosque loudspeakers that those who refused to retreat with them were “unbelievers” and therefore Islamic State enemies, in the same category as Iraqi and coalition forces. 

The witnesses, who managed to flee Mosul, told HRW of at least 18 deadly militant attacks on civilians in late November and early December. 

Those who escaped to areas controlled by Iraqi forces were threatened by IS sniper fire, car bombs and improvised explosive devices.

According to HRW, Iraqi troops and the US-led coalition were also to blame for deaths among civilians. 

Iraqi forces positioned soldiers in homes or on rooftops in densely populated areas, which were then struck by IS mortars. 

Witnesses also spoke of at least three instances in which “Iraqi or coalition airstrikes” targeted IS fighters located in residential areas, resulting in civilian casualties. 

Neither IS nor Iraqi forces gave residents a say in the matter when they placed troops inside their homes, they added. 

Nineteen people were killed and dozens wounded in such attacks from both warring sides, HRW said, adding that the numbers represent only “a fraction of the total” death toll. 

“Directly targeting civilians or using them as human shields is a war crime,” the human rights group stressed.  

“The presence of ISIS fighters among civilians does not absolve anti-ISIS forces from the obligation to target only military objectives,” it added.

Iraqi forces, backed by the US-led coalition, launched a large-scale offensive on Islamic State’s main Iraqi stronghold of Mosul in mid-October. 

Since the start of the operation, they managed to push jihadists out of several neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city. 

According to Oxfam, some 100,000 people have managed to flee the violence in Mosul, yet approximately 10 times more are still in the city and face a “dire humanitarian situation.”

Iraqi Christian Archbishops Barred from Entering Britain for Ceremony

Did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed?

Is someone flexing his power?

Is someone anti-Christian? 

    Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf © Safin Hamed / AFP

Two Iraqi archbishops were denied entry to Britain for an important Syriac Orthodox Christian ceremony because they could not prove they had sufficient funds to support themselves while in the country.

The Home Office barred the two clergymen from the consecration of the Cathedral of St. Thomas in Acton, west London, the first Syriac Orthodox Church in the city, fearing the men would overstay their permits and claim asylum.

And, after-all, we don't want their kind in our country, right? Another Christian church in London? Good grief, aren't there enough? 

Mor Timothy Mosa Alshamany, archbishop of Mosul, and his north of Mosul counterpart, the archbishop of St. Matthew’s, Mor Timothy Mosa Alshamany, were said to have been left “very upset.”

“Why did this happen?” asked Syriac Orthodox Church UK archbishop, Mor Athanasius Toma Dawod.

“They have a role in the church. I invited them to share with us the consecration of the cathedral. Our people are still there in the Middle East and I wanted them to share it with me.”

According to Archbishop Dawod, the clerics were told:“First, you might go and not come back; you might apply for asylum. Second, you don’t have enough money to spend there.”

How much money does an Archbishop need to be a guest in England? These are Archbishops of Mosul which is at this moment being reclaimed from ISIS. No Archbishop could abandon his church just when his people need him the most. Was someone looking for an envelope under the table, perhaps?

He added that the decision was “ridiculous” as the men had visas for the United States and Europe’s Schengen area, as well as enough money to travel.

“Why did the British refuse?” Archbishop Dawod asked. “They give visas to people who don’t deserve them.”

A third archbishop, Mor Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, of Homs and Hama in Syria, was also said to have tried to apply for a visa, only to be told by the British embassy in Lebanon that he was unlikely to succeed given his Syrian nationality.

Prince Charles, who attended the ceremony in late November, said it had been “deeply encouraging” as Christians went through “appalling suffering” in Iraq and Syria.

“All visa applications are considered on individual merits and applicants must provide evidence to show they meet the requirements of the immigration rules,” a Home Office spokesman said.

Over 60 percent of Iraqi visa applications and just under 50 percent of those by Syrians were rejected over the last year. The figure was up from 36 and 32 percent respectively in 2010.

I wonder how many Muslim clerics were allowed in during the past year. It's great that Britain is keeping terrorists from entering the country, but Christian Archbishops are not terrorists, or doesn't Home Office know that?

Iraqi Christian Deacon Forced to Fight Deportation as Thousands Join March for Refugees

© Kevin Coombs / Reuters

An Iraqi Christian who fled Islamic State executioners in Mosul says he faces ‘slow-motion genocide’ if deported from Britain. He spoke to RT as thousands prepare to march in central London, demanding Prime Minister Theresa May do more for refugees.

Sarmad Ozan, 25, who was a deacon at his church in Mosul before Islamic State seized the city in summer 2014, is appealing a Home Office decision to deny him asylum.

He was rejected despite evidence of the widespread persecution of Iraq’s Syriac Orthodox Christians and a bloody sectarian war.

“I’m still appealing because it’s impossible to go back to a place with nothing. Our house is taken by ISIS. Everything taken by ISIS. Even our neighbors are now supporting ISIS,” Sarmad told RT.

“It’s like someone going back to die. That means if they want to send me back, they want to kill me.”

Thousands are expected to march to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 17, to demand the British government do more in response to the global refugee crisis.

Vulnerable asylum seekers like Sarmad instead often face a culture of disbelief and incomprehension when processed by the Home Office.

“They call it a slow-motion genocide for the Christians inside Iraq,” Sarmad explains, recounting the rise of sectarian killings that followed Britain and America’s disastrous 2003 invasion.

“They are killing them day after day, 10 people in one day. Or maybe they will bomb a church. From 2003 until 2014 they used to bomb churches inside Mosul. They killed bishops and priests inside Mosul and even Baghdad and everywhere in Iraq. And the government cannot do anything for them.”

“The situation there is unsafe and unstable. Even the Home Office admit that it is unstable inside Iraq and don’t advise anyone to travel to Iraq, but they want us to go back.”

video 3:48

Human rights NGOs have condemned Britain’s failure to take its fair share of refugees fleeing conflict and repression. They have also alleged a number of failings in the government’s asylum processes, including outdated and misinterpreted country profiles, a lack of resources and poor training.

Speaking to RT ahead of Saturday’s demonstration, Asylum Aid spokeswoman Zoe Gardner said Britain is failing to pull its weight, instead spending ever greater sums of money keeping refugees out, including the recent decision to build a concrete barrier around the port of Calais.

“If someone has fled ISIS from Iraq or somebody has fled Sudan and the repressive government there, and they’ve crossed deserts and they’ve ridden in trucks and they’ve escaped human traffickers and they’ve possibly experienced sexual assault along the way and they’ve crossed the Mediterranean and they’ve slept in lorries and they’ve arrived in Calais and we’ve built a five meter wall – is that going to be what stops them? No. But that’s what gets a good headline for the government, ‘we’re being tough, we’re building a wall,’” said Gardner.

“It doesn’t do anyone any good, it doesn’t help, it costs a lot of money to the taxpayer and that money could be better spent on well-functioning, humane systems to work out who these people are and how we can help them.”

video 3:40

Gardner further criticized Britain’s poor humanitarian contribution, especially compared with its military commitments.

“The UK is now the second-biggest arms dealer in the world and two-thirds of the arms we’ve been selling since 2010 have gone to the Middle East. So we’re number two in terms of arms dealers but we don’t even make the top 50 in terms of refugees per thousand population. We’re not even close, actually.

“So our priorities in terms of how we intervene in the Middle East and in other unstable regions seem to be very much skewed towards war, guns, death, bombs, drones. These things make a lot of money for a lot of very powerful companies.

“I think it’s pretty stark when you see how much we are contributing to the instability globally and then how little we are willing to pick up the pieces.”

RT has approached the Home Office for comment on its refugee policy. It is yet to respond.

ISIS Knows Only One Thing - How To Destroy

Kidnapped Christians, targeted churches: RT Arabic travels to ISIS-leveled Assyrian town (EXCLUSIVE)

 I love this picture; despite all the destruction the Cross is still visible © RT Arabic / RT

An RT Arabic crew traveled to a northeast Syrian town that was completely devastated by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) during fighting last summer, and talked to local Assyrians who endured the terrorist occupation and kidnappings.

Northeast Syria is home to most of the country’s Assyrian community, which is a Christian minority, making up around 5 percent of the Syrian population.

The town of Al-Khabur witnessed last summer’s battle between IS and the army-backed Kurdish militia.

When Islamic State rampaged through the area last year, hundreds of Assyrians were abducted. There were around 300 people kidnapped seized over the last year.


© RT Arabic

“We were kidnapped and kept hostage for six months. Then they took up to Raqqa, where we stayed for another two months. Only then were we liberated in small groups of 10 to 15 people,” a former IS hostage, Abras Durmu, told RT.

IS fighters also demolished many Christian churches as they attacked.

“The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary used to be the biggest one. Terrorists also demolished residential buildings and looted personal belongings from the residents,” local resident Sarkon Saleib said.

Since last summer, nothing has been done to repair the damage, with RT’s footage showing a town brought to rubble.

ISIS destroys 2,000-year-old legendary

‘Gate of God’ in Iraq

© lachicaphoto / Flickr

The IS has destroyed a 2,000-year-old gate near the Iraqi city of Mosul. The structure is known as the Gate of God, and used to guard the ancient Biblical, Assyrian city Nineveh.

The destruction of the ancient structure, also called the Mashqi Gate, has been confirmed by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, and the Antiquities Department in Baghdad hasn’t denied the demolition, The Independent reported.

The terrorists demolished the 2,000-year-old gate using military equipment, activists in Mosul told Kurdish media outlet ARA News.

Media activist Zuheir Mousilly added that ISIS have destroyed many of Iraqi historic sites and monuments, including the Assyrian city of Nimrud, the Winged Bulls, and the Mosul National Museum.

As for the gate, other reports suggested that the IS were dismantling it and selling separate blocks.

The historic Mishqi gate, which was discovered in 1968, is believed to be one of the ancient gates in eastern Nineveh province.

“ISIS views tombs they destroy as sacrilegious and a return to paganism,” Syrian antiquities chief Abdul Maamoun Abdulkarim told ARA News.

The city of Nineveh was mentioned in the Bible, dates to the 7th century BC, and was once the largest city in the world.


© Wikipedia

The destruction of the gate is just the latest in the series of acts of vandalism conducted by IS.

At the end of March, Syrian forces, with the aid of Russian military, seized control of the ancient town of historic Palmyra.

What they discovered when they entered the city were monuments destroyed or harmed, thousands of bombs and booby traps, ready to level the whole city.

Also, all over Palmyra, there were mass graves with dozens of tortured women and children, some only 500 meters from the ruins of ancient monuments.

Last year, ISIS extremists bombed the historic Yezidi ancient minaret of the Shingal district in northern Iraq, and a year ago, they blew up the church of Virgin Mary in the Assyrian village of Tel Nasri in northeastern Syria.