NEW MISSION CONSIDERED
The Obama administration is considering a humanitarian relief operation for Shiite Turkmen in northern Iraq who have been under siege for weeks by Islamic State militants, U.S. defense officials said Wednesday.The contemplated relief mission would be the second recent U.S. military humanitarian intervention in Iraq. U.S. C-17 and C-130 cargo planes dropped tons of food and water to displaced Yazidis on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq earlier this month, supported by U.S. airstrikes on nearby Islamic State fighting positions. The administration is now focused on the imperiled town of Amirli, which is situated about 105 miles north of Baghdad and just a few miles from Kurdish territory. An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people are estimated to have no access to food or water, and the head of the United Nation’s assistance mission in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, earlier this week described the situation as desperate.
— Associated Press
The mother of a hostage American journalist pleaded for his release Wednesday in a video directed at the Islamic State group, while new images emerged of mass killings, including masked militants shooting kneeling men after the capture of a strategic air base in Syria.
Shirley Sotloff’s plea came as a U.N. commission accused the group of committing crimes against humanity and President Barack Obama weighs options for targeting the extremists’ stronghold in Syria.
The Islamic State militants have threatened to kill 31-year-old Steven Sotloff unless the U.S. halts its airstrikes against it.
Sotloff, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had last been seen in Syria in August 2013 before he appeared in a video released online last week by the Islamic State group showing the beheading of fellow American journalist, James Foley.
The radicals threatened to kill Sotloff unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq.
Addressing Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by name, Shirley Sotloff said her son was “an innocent journalist” who should not be victimized for U.S. government actions in the Middle East over which he has no control. She implored him to show mercy and follow the example of the prophet Muhammad.
“You, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you, please, to release my child. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life,” Shirley Sotloff said on the video, which was first aired on the Al-Arabiya television network.
At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters he did not know whether Obama had seen the video, but he said the administration was “deeply engaged” in trying to gain release of all Americans held hostage in the Middle East.
As it contemplates expanding military action against the Islamic State to Syria, the White House is suggesting it may not be necessary to get a sign-off from Congress. While cautioning that Obama has made no final decisions, officials say there is a difference between last year’s rejected White House request for congressional authorization to strike Syria’s government in retaliation for chemical weapons use and the bombing campaign against Islamic State militants that Obama is now considering.
“The situation a year later is markedly different,” Earnest said. “What we’re talking about now is confronting a terrorist group that has sought safe haven in Syria. This is a group that poses a threat to Americans in the region and could potentially, down the line, pose a broader threat to American interests and our allies around the globe.”
Earlier this month, Obama authorized U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, and so far there has been little clamor among congressional leaders for Obama to seek approval from Capitol Hill before proceeding with military action in Syria.
This time, with the midterm elections just over two months away, lawmakers may be even less inclined to take a politically risky vote on military action.
“I see no reason to come to Congress because, if he does, it’ll just become a circus,” Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said this week.
There are some notable exceptions in both parties. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee has said Congress should “certainly” authorize any military action in Syria, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and White House ally, has also called for a vote on the president’s broader strategy for going after the Islamic State.
Meanwhile Wednesday, new images emerged of the extremists’ bloody takeover of an air base in northeastern Syria.
In one photo posted online, masked gunmen were seen shooting seven men kneeling on the ground, some dressed in what appeared to be Syrian military uniforms, after the seizure of the Tabqa air base in the province of Raqqa earlier this week.
The photos underscored how the group uses violence, and images of violence to terrorize its opponents, as it sweeps further into Syria and Iraq, where it has imposed an Islamic state, or caliphate, governed by its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
The images emerged as a U.N. commission accused the group of committing crimes against humanity in Syria. The U.N. had earlier accused the group of similar crimes in Iraq.
“This is a continuation — and a geographic expansion — of the widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population” by the Islamic State group, said the four-member commission chaired by Brazilian diplomat Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.
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