Indigenous resistance forces on the ground are fighting ISIS—but receive no solidarity from "progressives" in the West who make the question entirely about the US role.
If Washington is perceived as leading an alliance that includes Iran and Hezbollah, this will augment the propaganda assistance loaned to ISIS with every US missile that falls.
The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against ISIS that may take three years to complete, involving a coalition of some 40 countries.
Ayman al-Zawahri's announcement of "al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent" comes amid growing attacks on Muslims in Northeast India as well as Burma and Bangladesh.
Evidence uncovered by Amnesty International indicates that ISIS has launched a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq, targeting Yazidis and other minorities.
Border Guard patrols along Saudi Arabia's rugged mountain frontier with Yemen report mounting interceptions of hashish, weapons and other contraband.
ISIS fighters massacred 700 Turkmen civilians—including women, children and the elderly—in a northern Iraqi village last month, a UNICEF official reports.
A Yazidi militia is fighting alongside Peshmerga to re-take Sinjar from ISIS, while the UN's Iraq envoy warned of an imminent massacre of Turkmen at ISIS-besieged Amerli.
Up to 70 were massacred during prayers at a Sunni mosque in Iraq's Diyala governorate—apparently by a Shi'ite militia seeking retribution for a bomb attack on their forces.
ISIS fighters are accused of executing some 700 tribesmen who rose against them in eastern Syria, as Bashar Assad said he is ready to back Kurdish forces against the jihadis.
ISIS fighters carried out a massacre of Yazidis at an occupied village, while Hezbollah militiamen are accused in a massacre of Sunni Arab residents in central Iraq.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces with US air cover started to drive back ISIS from Erbil—but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to step down is driving Sunnis into the arms of the jihadists.
