(Al-Monitor) Denise Natali - Iraqi Kurdish security forces recently captured another ring of terrorists who were planning a deadly attack on Erbil involving local Kurdish residents who professed their loyalty to the Islamic State. According to the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, at least 500 Iraqi Kurdish youths have thus far joined IS to fight in Mosul and Syria, recruited through Kurdish mosques and local extremist Salafist clerics. Jihadi Salafist leaders are emitting radicalized messages on 10 different radio stations inside the Kurdistan Region. The KRG has responded to IS infiltration by asserting greater control over all Salafist clerics and mosques, as well as tightening internal checkpoints. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the U.S. National Defense University.
2015-06-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive