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Israeli experts: the coalition against ISIS – too little, too late

Jan 23, 2015

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The results of the fighting against ISIS are very limited “there is lot of public relations and too little action”, one Israeli expert told i-HLS.

It is obvious that setbacks seem to be more evident than progress in the coalition efforts. Nevertheless, even with the very limited coalition air support, Iraqi security forces have put up only minimal resistance to the latest IS surge in Sunni-dominated Anbar province.

Another problem is the refusal of Turkey to use real force in the international effort “Turkey is spitting in the face of the U.S and NATO,” the expert said. The Turkish position is “very weird. And this is an understatement.”

U.S Air Force and navy jets attempting to aid Kobane’s desperate defenders are having to fly more than 1,200 miles from the Gulf because Turkey will not allow them to operate from Incirlik, a big NATO airbase less than 20 minutes away.

Israeli experts say that only by using “brutal” force and good intelligence can something be achieved. But, “so far the actions are a bad joke. They make headlines in media. That does not really tackle the problem.”

Here are a few recent examples:

In Lebanon, the Al-Nusra Front carried out a suicide bombing attack in an Alawi neighborhood in Tripoli (nine dead and around 30 injured). On the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border, operatives probably belonging to ISIS attacked a patrol of the Saudi border police. The attack included both shooting and a suicide bombing attack.

Attacks by global jihad organizations in other countries:

Terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, near the border with Iraq, apparently by ISIS
On January 5, 2015, three members of the Saudi border police, including a senior commander, were killed in a suicide bombing attack in northern Saudi Arabia on the border with Iraq. Armed operatives, apparently from ISIS, attacked a border police patrol moving along the Saudi border with Iraq. According to the Saudi interior ministry spokesman, the terrorists opened fire on the patrol and the members of the patrol returned fire. One of the attackers detonated the explosive belt that he was wearing. This is the first terrorist attack along the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq since Saudi Arabia joined the coalition forces fighting against ISIS (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, January 6, 2015).

On January 7, 2015, websites affiliated with ISIS revealed the identity of the perpetrators of the attack against a Saudi border police patrol which they claimed was carried out at the Suweif border terminal near the Iraqi border. Both perpetrators are of Saudi descent: Mamdouh al-Mutairi, AKA Abu Dhirr al-Shalahi, who blew himself up with an explosive belt, and Abdallah al-Shammari, AKA Abu Fajr al-Shammari, who was killed by Saudi security forces after he opened fire at them.

Execution of journalists in Libya

The Libyan faction of ISIS claimed responsibility for the execution of two journalists from Tunisiareported missing since September 2014. A statement posted on the organization’s website shows photos of the two journalists, Sufiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari (Al-Akhbar, January 9, 2015).

The i-HLS newsdesk acknowledges the contribution of Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center to this piece.