US boosts reward on ISIS leader to $25 mn-25 مليون دولار مكافأة لمن يدلي بمعلومات عن زعيم داعش

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The United States on Friday more than doubled the bounty on the head of the shadowy leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to $25 million.

The announcement by the State Department "Rewards for Justice Program" came as US-backed local forces close in on the Islamist militant group's main urban strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the cities of Mosul and Raqa.

The cash will be paid to anyone who can offer "information leading to the location, arrest or conviction" of the elusive militant, known to his followers as "Caliph Ibrahim".

"Under al-Baghdadi, ISIL has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, including the brutal murder of numerous civilian hostages from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States," the State Department said.

"The group also has conducted chemical weapons attacks in Iraq and Syria in defiance of the longstanding global norm against the use of these appalling weapons, and has enabled or directed terrorist attacks beyond the borders of its self-declared caliphate."

Baghdadi has kept a low profile, despite having declared himself the leader of a renewed Muslim caliphate, but last month released a defiant audio message urging his supporters to defend Mosul.

It is not clear if he is in the besieged city, where he declared his caliphate in 2014 after the ISIS group seized territory covering much of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

The video, which showed a man with a black and grey beard wearing a black robe and matching turban, is the only one IS has released of Baghdadi to date.

He has been reported wounded in US-led coalition air strikes multiple times, but the claims have never been verified, and his apparent survival has added to his mystique.

According to an official Iraqi government document, Baghdadi was born in Samarra in 1971 and has four children with his first wife -- two boys and two girls born between 2000 and 2008.

An Iraqi intelligence report records that Baghdadi has a PhD in Islamic studies and was a professor at Tikrit University.

Baghdadi apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and spent time in an American military prison.

قالت وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية، اليوم الجمعة، إن الولايات المتحدة زادت قيمة المكافأة المرصودة لمن يدلي بمعلومات تقودها إلى "أبو بكر البغدادي زعيم تنظيم داعش الإرهابي".

وأضافت الخارجية الأمريكية "إنه تم رفع قيمة المكافأة إلى 25 مليون دولار، من مبلغ 10 ملايين دولار الذي تم عرضه لأول مرة عام 2011، عندما أضيف اسم البغدادي إلى قائمة الإرهاب الأمريكية"، منوهة إلى أن التهديد الذي يشكله البغدادي "زاد بشكل كبير".

وقالت وزارة الخارجية إنه "في ظل زعامة البغدادي، أصبح التنظيم الإرهابي مسؤولًا عن مقتل الآلاف من المدنيين في منطقة الشرق الأوسط، ومن بين ذلك عمليات القتل الوحشي للعديد من الرهائن المدنيين من اليابان والمملكة المتحدة والولايات المتحدة".

وأشارت الخارجية الأمريكية أيضا إلى الهجمات بالأسلحة الكيميائية التي شنها التنظيم الإرهابي في كل من سوريا والعراق، في تحد للمعايير الدولية ضد استخدام هذه الأسلحة.

Kurds take 10 villages from Islamic State in north Iraq

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters walk with their weapons as smoke rises from the site of clashes, south of Daquq, north of Baghdad August 26, 2015

Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes drove Islamic State militants out of 10 villages in Iraq's Kirkuk province on Wednesday in an offensive to secure their territory to the north, Kurdish military sources said.

The assault began at dawn in the Daquq area, around 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. By evening, Kurdish forces had taken an area of around 250 square kilometres, the sources said.

An aide to a top Kurdish commander taking part in the offensive said five peshmerga had been killed, most of them by improvised explosive devices.

The frontline between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Islamic State in northern Iraq has hardly budged for months.

The Kurds already control most of the territory they claim as their own, and have little incentive to push further into predominantly Sunni Muslim Arab towns and villages, except where they pose a direct threat to their region.

"This area (near Daquq) posed a danger to the main road from Kirkuk to Baghdad and the Kurdish and other villages adjacent to the areas occupied by Daesh," Brigadier General Aras Abdel Rahman said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The peshmerga have emerged as an important ally for the United States in its aerial campaign against Islamic State. Together they have pushed back the Sunni insurgents in northern Iraq, and the peshmerga has thus expanded the territory of its autonomous region.

Last summer, the Kurds took full control of the disputed city of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army abandoned its bases there, but western parts of the province such as Hawija remain under Islamic State control.

The Kurds have since carried out several offensives aimed at creating a buffer around the oil-rich city, which they say they will never relinquish.

‪#‎Kerry‬ heads for ‪#‎Egypt‬ and the ‪#‎Gulf‬ to discuss ‪#‎Iran‬ deal, ‪#‎ISIS‬

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a press conference in Beijing on July 10, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Egypt and the Gulf next week for talks on the recent nuclear deal between major powers and Iran and the fight against Islamic State militants, then he will head to Southeast Asia, where countries share U.S. concerns about China's pursuit of territorial claims.

Kerry will visit Cairo on Aug. 2 for a session of the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue, a forum that "reaffirms the United States' longstanding and enduring partnership with Egypt," the State Department said on Monday.

On Aug. 3 he will travel to Doha to meet with counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, for talks U.S. officials say will concentrate on the Iran nuclear deal, the war in Syria and the battle against Islamic State.

In Doha, Kerry will also meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Kerry said on Friday that in his talks with Lavrov he planned to discuss combating Islamic State militants and the role Iran could play after Turkey agreed to step up its effort and to allow U.S. jets launch air strikes from a base near the Syrian border.

Russia has been trying to bring about rapprochement between the Syrian government and regional states including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to forge an alliance to fight Islamic State.

On Aug. 4 Kerry will visit Singapore for talks that will coincide with the city state's 50th independence anniversary.

He will deliver a speech there on U.S. trade and investment in East Asia, before a stop in Malaysia from Aug. 4-6 for meetings with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations, many of which share U.S. concerns about China's increasingly assertive pursuit of territorial claims in the region.

Kerry will visit Hanoi from Aug. 6-8, where he will participate in an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations after the Vietnam War.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and their fellow ASEAN member Brunei are U.S. negotiating partners in a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which Washington hopes to conclude this year.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and another ASEAN country, the Philippines, are also rival claimants along with Taiwan to territory China claims in the South China Sea.

Last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel said Kerry would repeat a call in Malaysia for a halt to land reclamation and militarization of disputed South China Sea territory.

#Nigeria marks first anniversary of #BokoHaram schoolgirl kidnappings

People march on a street during a silent protest calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped girls of the government secondary school in Chibok, who were kidnapped a year ago, in Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April 13, 2015

Nigeria's president-elect Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday cautioned he could not make promises on the return of 219 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, as the country marked the first anniversary of their abduction.

The comments by Buhari, who takes office on May 29, stand in contrast to outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, who has repeatedly said the girls will be found, and the military, which said last year it knew where the teenagers were being held.

Events were taking place in Nigeria and around the world to mark the first anniversary of the abduction, which Amnesty International said was one of 38 since the beginning of last year that had seen at least 2,000 women taken by the militants.

The UN and African rights groups also called for an end to the targeting of boys and girls in the conflict, which has left at least 15,000 dead and some 1.5 million people homeless, 800,000 of them children.

Buhari said there was a need for "honesty" in his new government's approach to the girls' abduction, with nothing seen or heard from the students since last May when they appeared in a Boko Haram video.

"We do not know if the Chibok girls can be rescued. Their whereabouts remain unknown. As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them," he said in a statement.

"But I say to every parent, family member and friend of the children that my government will do everything in its power to bring them home."

The focus of the one-year commemoration was on Nigeria's capital, Abuja, where a vigil demanding the girls' immediate release has been held almost every day since they were kidnapped.

In New York, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign said the Empire State Building would be lit in its colours of red and purple, to symbolise an end to violence against women.

Prayers, candlelit vigils and marches have been held or are planned but no event was planned in Chibok itself.

Chibok elder Enoch Mark, whose daughter and niece are among the captives, said the town was still in "perpetual fear" of Boko Haram, despite the presence of troops.

"The last one year has been a period of sadness, emotional torment and hardship. It has been one year of mourning. We are a bereaved community that has lost 219 daughters," he told .

He added: "Our hope in finding our girls is now in Buhari. We hope we will soon see our girls if they are alive or at least their corpses if they are dead".

"I personally know what Buhari did as brigade commander for the northeast in 1975. We all know how in 1984 he crushed the violent Maitatsine sect, which is similar to Boko Haram".

Boko Haram fighters stormed the Government Secondary School in Chibok on the evening of April 14 last year, seizing 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams. Fifty-seven escaped soon afterwards.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since said the remainder have all converted to Islam and been "married off".

The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency unprecedented worldwide attention and prompted a viral social media campaign demanding their immediate release.

Nigeria's government was criticised for its initial response to the crisis and was forced into accepting foreign help in the rescue effort after a groundswell of global outrage.

In a new report published on Tuesday, Amnesty quoted a senior military officer as saying the girls were being held at different Boko Haram camps, including in Cameroon and possibly Chad.

Testimony gathered by Amnesty from women and girls who escaped the militants said they were subject to forced labour and marriage, as well as rape.

#BringBackOurGirls organisers thanked supporters across the world, from ordinary men, women and children to public figures such as US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

The girls have become "the symbol for the defence of the dignity and sanctity of human life, of the girl child, women, for all those oppressed, repressed, disadvantaged, hurting, unsafe," they said.

Malala, who was shot and nearly killed by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating girls' education, on Monday published an open letter to the Chibok girls, describing them as "my brave sisters".

The 17-year-old criticised Nigerian and world leaders for not doing enough to help secure their release and called the girls "my heroes".

Twenty-one of the 57 girls who escaped are currently studying at the American University of Nigeria.

Blackwater guards get heavy sentences in 2007 #Iraq killings

This combination made from file photo shows convicted former Blackwater guards, from left, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough

A former Blackwater guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others received 30-year sentences Monday for their roles in a 2007 mass shooting in Iraq that left at least 14 civilians dead.

The four ex-employees of the US private security firm were convicted last October on an array of charges ranging from first degree murder to voluntary manslaughter stemming from the incident in Baghdad's Nisour Square.

During a two month-trial in US federal court in Washington, a jury heard how the four defendants opened fire with sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers in the bustling square as they escorted a diplomatic convoy.

A toll compiled by American investigators recorded 14 deaths and 17 injured. Iraqi officials say 17 civilians were killed, and 18 injured in the shooting.

US federal judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Nicholas Slatten, who was accused of firing the first shots, to life in prison on the first-degree murder charge.

The other three defendants -- Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard -- received sentences of 30 years, the minimum by law for the charge of using a machine gun in a violent crime, plus a token additional day for each of the other counts.

"The wild thing that happened here can never be condoned by the court," Lamberth told the court, saying he had taken into account statements made on behalf of the four defendants.

But he added: "It's clear these fine young men just panicked."

The killings on September 16, 2007 deepened Iraqi resentment of America's involvement in the country.

In final statements, all four defendants protested their innocence and asked for leniency. Slatten asked for the verdict against him to be overturned.

But Lamberth said he fully supported the jury's decision.

Before the killings, Slatten allegedly told acquaintances he wanted to "kill as many Iraqis as he could as 'payback for 9/11'," according to court documents.

Relatives of two of the Iraqi victims spoke before the sentencing about the loss of their loved ones.

"I have a question for them," said Fatimah al-Fadwi Kinani, the tearful mother of a nine-year old boy killed by a machine gun round, speaking through an interpreter.

"I just want to know why they killed my son? Why did you guys kill my son?" she said.

The boy's father, Mohammed al-Kinani, called on Lamberth to "show Blackwater and (former CEO) Erik Prince what the law is."

The courtroom was crowded with supporters of the four men, some wearing black sweatshirts emblazoned with the Blackwater name.

Testimonials by friends and relatives portrayed them as upstanding former military men who bore no animus toward the Iraqis.

"Mr Kinani," said Paul Slough, turning in the man's direction. "I could not and did not kill your son."

Slough and his lawyers contended that Ali al-Kinani was killed by a black-tipped, armor-piercing round from an M-240 machine gun, while Slough was using a different kind of ammunition.

It was the closest any of the defendants came to an apology for the 10 to 15 minute explosion of violence that trapped civilians in cars, trucks, buses and unable to flee the onslaught in Nisour Square.

The four insisted they were responding to incoming fire. No eyewitness testimony supported that claim during the trial, Lamberth reminded them.

"I feel utterly betrayed by a government I served honorably," Slough said.

Liberty insisted: "With God as my witness, I shot at two people in Iraqi uniform who were shooting at me."

Their lawyers asked Lamberth to show leniency, arguing that the guards used weapons issued by the government. They had put their lives on the lines, and had been asked to make "split second decisions in the most dangerous city on earth," said Slough's lawyer, David Schertler.

The judge rejected that argument but agreed to limit prison time in the case of all but Slatten to the 30-year minimum, considerably less than the stiffer sentences sought by the prosecution, which ranged from 47 to 57 years.

BREAKING: ‪#‎Iraq‬ PM declares 'liberation' of ‪#‎Tikrit‬ from ‪#‎ISIS‬

Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite paramilitary fighters hold an Islamist State flag, which they pulled down in Tikrit, March 31, 2015

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday declared the "liberation" of Tikrit from the Islamic State group, after a weeks-long operation that was Baghdad's biggest yet against the jihadists.

Abadi "announces the liberation of Tikrit and congratulates Iraqi security forces and popular volunteers on the historic milestone," his official Twitter account said, referring to allied paramilitaries who have played a major role in the fighting.

And Abadi's spokesman Rafid Jaboori told that: "Iraqi forces reached the centre of Tikrit, raised the Iraqi flag and are now clearing the city."

But it was not immediately clear if resistance in the city by the Islamic State (ISIS) group had ended entirely, and the massive challenge of defusing explosives planted in roads and houses remains ahead.

Iraqi soldiers and police and Popular Mobilisation units -- paramilitary forces dominated by Shiite militias -- began the battle to retake Tikrit on March 2.

They were able to recapture towns near Tikrit and then surrounded it, but faced difficulties pushing into the city and the operation stalled.

Over the objections of militia forces, a US-led anti-IS coalition began carrying out air strikes in support of the operation, prompting some of the groups to announce they were halting offensive operations.

Iran had been the main foreign backer of the operation for several weeks, and some militiamen accused Washington of attempting to hijack their victory.

In the end, the US carried out air strikes in spite of the presence of militias and the militias took part in the recent fighting despite Washington's role.

IS spearheaded a major militant offensive that overran much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland last June, and large chunks of Nineveh and Anbar provinces are still under their control.

Officials : #Iraq forces retake government HQ in #Tikrit

A member of the Iraqi security forces carries his weapon as he watches smoke rise from a scene of clashes between the Iraqi army and Islamic State militants in Tikrit March 30, 2015

Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State jihadist group, a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said Tuesday.

The spokesman for the Badr militia said members of the Popular Mobilisation units -- pro-government paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias -- took part in the fighting, after some froze offensive operations last week in response to US-led air strikes.

"Iraqi forces cleared the government complex in Tikrit," an army major general said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The government buildings have been under our control since last night (Monday)."

It is the most significant advance in Tikrit since pro-government forces launched an operation to retake the city on March 2, their largest since IS led an offensive that overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland last June.

Salaheddin Governor Raad al-Juburi confirmed that the government headquarters had been retaken, saying that Iraqi flags now flew over various recaptured buildings in the city.

Badr spokesman Karim al-Nuri also said that the government headquarters was recaptured, and that Popular Mobilisation members fought alongside federal police in the operation.

Key Shiite militia forces said they were halting Tikrit operations when a US-led anti-IS coalition began air strikes in the area after weeks in which Iran was the main foreign partner in the operation.

The coalition strikes started last Wednesday, angering Shiite militiamen who accused Washington of attempting to hijack their victory.

The Pentagon conditioned its intervention on an enhanced role for regular government forces, and on Friday hailed the withdrawal from the fight of "those Shiite militias who are linked to, infiltrated by, (or) otherwise under the influence of Iran".

The coalition said it carried out three strikes in the Tikrit area from Sunday to Monday, in its most recent statement on the operation.

After giving themselves political cover by declaring that they do not want to work with each other, both sides are still taking part in the Tikrit operation.