As previously mentioned, there is a growing body of evidence reflecting the next strategy in the psychological operations being used by ISIS.  Essentially, the chatter is claiming that the captured Christian hostages, the Assyrians’, were specifically taken so that ISIS could put together a message for U.S. President Barack Obama.

It is difficult to know how much credibility to assign to these claims.   There is also a growing conversation about how Obama’s refusal to identify the religious motivation of  ISIS could also be driving the jihadists to intensify their ‘religious targeting’ in an effort to make Western Leaders (who refuse to identify the authentic Islam behavior of ISIS) seem like they are foolish, weak and afraid.

SYRIA – ISIS is clearly feeling the pain after weeks of intense air strikes against it by the U.S.- led coalition fighting the spread of the terrorist organization in the Middle East.

Employing its familiar tactics, the Islamic State is now threatening to execute the 150 Assyrian Christians they have taken hostage in Syria.

While initial reports suggested that between 70 and 100 people had been taken captive, according to the Daily Mail the true figure is thought to be almost double, including many women, children and elderly people.

It is thought that a new ISIS video is in the making which will address American President Barack Obama. It will tell him that if the air strikes don’t stop, the 150 Christian hostages will be killed.

While the hostages were taken from villages in northeastern Syria, near to Tal Tamer, Osama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network said that, according to the latest information, the hostages have been moved to ISIS-controlled areas.

Fearing the worst for his Christian brothers and sisters, Edward told reporters that the situation as it stands is tenuous for them. (read more)

AUGUST 2012:  “NO ISLAM WITHOUT JIHAD” – members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba’a, or “strangers”, after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden’s time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.
They try to hide their presence. “Some people are worried about carrying the [black] flags,” said Abu Khuder. “They fear America will come and fight us. So we fight in secret. Why give Bashar and the west a pretext?” But their existence is common knowledge in Mohassen. Even passers-by joke with the men about car bombs and IEDs.