Iraq: Calgary man, ex-Somalia PM`s nephew, fighting for Islamic State killed

After the IS killed some eighty of the minority group Yazidi, US warplanes conducted air strikes against the militant targets near Irbil and the largest dam in Mosul, to help Kurdish forces retake it.

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha

The Calgarian, who later joined the Islamic State was the nephew of Abdi Farah Shirdon, a former prime minister of Somalia, reported the CBC News.

Highlighting the extent to which the Islamic State is cashing in on the foreigners by radicalising and roping them in their group, reports emerged of the death of a Calgarian in his early 20s, named Farah Mohamed Shirdon, who was fighting for the Sunni extremists, said the CBC news. The Calgarian was earlier seen in a video, burning his Canadian passport and threatening to destroy Iraq`s oppressors, added the report.

As US airstrikes pounded Islamic State targets near Mosul dam and Irbil, Kurdish forces say they "are advancing" in the direction to recapture Mosul dam from Sunni extremists, the BBC reported. The joint operation by the US and Kurds, to retake the crucial dam that provides electricity to northern Iraq, is underway from 05:00 local time (03:00 GMT), the report added.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the British PM said that if these “warped and barbaric” extremists are not dealt with now, they will create a “terrorist state” on the shores of the Mediterranean.

As the Islamic State continues spreading its murderous tentacles across Iraq and Syria, British PM David Cameron has warned against the barbaric militants` menace, saying the UK might be compelled to use its “military prowess” to crush “this exceptionally dangerous” movement.

The British-based rights group, the Syrian observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says that the Islamic State is gearing up to introduce an Islamic curriculum in schools, that will exclude the teaching of Chemistry and Philosophy. The IS called some teachers and headmasters of the primary and secondary schools for a meeting in order to “prepare an Islamic curriculum to be taught on the schools of Al Raqqa City and its countryside”, the SOHR wrote on its Facebook page.

The US Central Command said that American fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine airstrikes on the Islamic State targets that destroyed or damaged four armored personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees and an armored vehicle of the militants.

After the IS killed some eighty of the minority group Yazidi, US warplanes conducted air strikes against the militant targets near Irbil and the largest dam in Mosul on the Tigris River, to help Kurdish forces retake it.

Expressing regret over the plight of children in Iraq, which is threatened by the violent Islamic State militants, Pope Francis said that his “heart bleeds” when he thinks of Iraq`s children.

My heart bleeds especially when I think of the children in Iraq. May Mary, Our Mother, protect them.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) August 15, 2014

Other than killing dozens of Yazidis, in an Iraqi village, the IS also reportedly massacred 700 tribesmen opposing them in Syria`s Deir Ezzor province, over a two-week period. The Islamic State, earlier known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has captured huge swathes of territories across northern Iraq and Syria and established a Caliphate across the occupied parts. Even as the US got involved in the situation in Iraq on August 7, deciding to launch strikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremists continue their barbarism, executing dozens of minorities and abducting women and children. In the early part of this month, the militants took over the town of Sinjar, forcing the civilians including Christians, Yazidis and Kurds to flee to the mountains, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Sinjar is the ancient home of the Yazidis, one of the towns captured by the Sunni militants who view the community as "devil worshipers" and tell them to convert to Islam or face death.