“Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”


ISIL murderer’s warning following the recent beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff.


Is the


Middle East moving towards


E


vents in the Middle East over the summer of 2014 have moved at breathtaking speed


and have been quite extraordinary. Whilst media focus was upon the Syrian civil war and the Israeli/Gaza struggle, forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) crossed the Syrian border into Iraq. ISIL took control of swathes of land in a country already divided by the inept leadership of ex-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. ISIL declared the formation of a new Muslim ‘caliphate’. This move should come as no surprise to the security or intelligence community as it is exactly what the jihadist movement have been telling us they would do for over 10 years. The sickening videos of the beheading of 2 American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines, have been met with global disgust. As I write, the life of a second Briton hangs precariously in the balance.


Behind these bloody ISIL demonstrations sits a swathe of mass shootings, executions, crucifixions and ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale. ISIL is the only terrorist group to physically hold large areas of ground and to dominate the lives of over 6 million people. They have financial income from the sale of oil


2 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – AUTUMN 2014


failed region status?


and profits from ransom money. They have captured modern weapons left behind when the Iraqi army simply fled the battlefield upon the ISIL approach. They have finance, logistical support, access to modern technology and contemporary weapons. But most dangerous of all, they are extremely violent, have no respect for human life and are quite prepared to die for their cause whilst inflicting mass casualties upon their enemies.


ISIL is an international fighting force with potential to reach-back violently into the heart of each and every nation state from where they have recruited their fanatical mercenary troops. Their use of social media has been skilful and professional. This puts the organisation into a different league from any other terror organisation previously encountered. The estimated 500-plus


www. c i t y s e cur i t yma ga z ine . com


radicalised British men and women thought to be fighting in the region are only one piece in the complex jigsaw of Middle East politics which now directly threatens national security. The death-head of ISIL must be destroyed if the terror threat is to be contained. This is, however, a battle which could take many years, even decades, to win.


Three years ago we thought that the uprisings known as the Arab Spring would spark a wave of democracy and freedom for the 350 million Arab citizens who have suffered so long under the strict despotic regimes of their dictatorial masters. How wrong we were. How naive of us to think that the Western liberal democratic model could simply be spawned so easily within such tenuous national boundaries and complex societies. The revolutions quickly rotted and Egypt now


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