Tag - isis

 
Menu
Search
 
April 27, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

ISIS

Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2021
Why Iraqi Kurds are fleeing their peaceful homeland
Given that so many Iraqi Kurds are now seeking instead to escape from the region shows the extent to which hopes for economic and political opportunity in the post-Saddam Hussein era have evaporated.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 3, 2019
Man, 31, referred to prosecutors over attempt to join Islamic State while at Hokkaido University
A 31-year-old man was referred to prosecutors Wednesday for allegedly preparing to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State militant group in 2014 while he was a student at Hokkaido University, Tokyo police and other sources said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jun 15, 2016
The women fighting ISIS
The Islamic State's organized use of social media for global recruitment and propaganda took many by surprise, but their adversaries are now hitting back. Rojava, the Kurdish-led revolutionary zone in northern Syria, has been looking to rally Western support to its cause, and its most potent meme has been the camo-clad young women of the YPJ (Women's Defense Units). With their long, uncovered hair and AK-47s, they make a stark contrast to the stereotype of the veiled, subjugated Arab woman. But is this for real, or just propaganda?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 31, 2016
Liaison with group holding Japanese hostage Jumpei Yasuda in Syria says time running short
A recent photo showing journalist Jumpei Yasuda pleading for his last chance to live is not an empty threat, according to a Syrian liaison between the media and the people holding him hostage.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 18, 2016
Attackers chanted 'ISIS' while beating man in ethnic garb, N.Y. police say
New York City police were investigating on Sunday an assault on a man who was pummeled by suspects shouting "ISIS, ISIS," leaving him with bruises on his head and face, authorities said.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2015
Can the Islamic State threat unify Europe?
If recent events have taught us anything, it is that threats to the EU stem not from inadequate fiscal risk-sharing, but from insufficient coordination on foreign-policy and security challenges.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2015
It's time to call Islamic terrorism what it is
The U.S. is at war with people who believe that Islam justifies mass murder. It's time for Democratic politicians and U.S. government officials to stop pretending otherwise.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2015
Paris attack prompts name holdout Isis Pharmaceuticals to finally rebrand
The terrorist attacks in Paris may have finally spurred a brand change for Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drugmaker that until now has steadfastly held on to its name even as the militant group rose in prominence in the Middle East.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2015
Oil is Islamic State's lifeblood
A key to defeating the Islamic State militant group is preventing it from gaining control of lucrative oil fields.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2015
Joining Islamic State is stupid, but why is it illegal?
As with so many other basic legal precepts, the right of Americans to serve in a foreign army has been eroded since 9/11.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 16, 2014
About 300 Chinese said fighting alongside Islamic State in Mideast
About 300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Monday, a rare tally that is likely to fuel worry in China that militants pose a threat to security.
WORLD
Dec 15, 2014
Islamic fighters capture two army bases in blow to Syria
BEIRUT
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2014
Islamic State says it's holding Japanese man captured in Syria
Militants from the Islamic State claim they've detained a Japanese man who is believed to have been traveling with a rival Islamist group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2014
Japanese man feared captured by Islamic State in Syria
The Foreign Ministry tries to confirm whether a Japanese man has been captured by the Islamic State in Syria after his purported interrogation is uploaded to the Internet.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014
What should the U.S. do about Islamic State?
The U.S. lost the Iraq War years ago. The sooner it accepts that there is nothing to be saved there and moves on, the better off it'll be. That includes refraining from attacking the Islamic State.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 10, 2014
Obama says fight against Iraq insurgency could 'take some time'
President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. airstrikes had destroyed arms that Islamic State militants could have used against Iraqi Kurds, but warned there was no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to tear Iraq apart.Speaking the day after U.S. warplanes hit militants in Iraq, Obama said it would take more than bombs to restore stability, and criticized Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government for failing to empower Sunnis."I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks. This is going to take some time," Obama told a news conference in Washington.Islamic State has captured wide swathes of northern Iraq since June, executing non-Sunni Muslim captives, displacing tens of thousands of people and drawing the first U.S. air strikes in the region since Washington withdrew troops in 2011.After routing Kurdish forces this week, the militants are just 30 minutes' drive from Arbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, which up to now has been spared the sectarian bloodshed that has scarred other parts of Iraq for a decade.The U.S. president said Washington would continue to provide military assistance and advice to Baghdad and Kurdish forces, but stressed repeatedly the importance of Iraq, which is a major oil exporter, forming its own inclusive government.Maliki has been widely criticized for authoritarian and sectarian policies that have alienated Sunnis and prompted some to support the insurgency."I think this a wake-up call for a lot of Iraqis inside of Baghdad recognizing that we're going to have to rethink how we do business if we're going to hold our country together," Obama said, before departing on a two-week vacation.Employees of foreign oil firms in Arbil have been leaving, and Kurds have snapped up AK-47 assault rifles in arms markets for fear of imminent attack, although these had been ineffective against the superior firepower of the Islamic State fighters.Given the Islamic State threat, a source in the Kurdistan Regional Government said it had received extra supplies of heavy weaponry from the Baghdad federal government "and other governments" in the past few days, but declined to elaborate.In their latest advance through northern Iraq, the Islamic State seized a fifth oil field, several towns and Iraq's biggest dam, sending tens of thousands fleeing for their lives.An engineer at the Mosul dam told Reuters that Islamic State fighters had brought in engineers to repair an emergency power line to the city, Iraq's biggest in the north, that had been cut off four days ago, causing power outages and water shortages."They are gathering people to work at the dam," he said.A dam administrator said militants were putting up the trademark Islamic State black flags and patrolling with flatbed trucks mounted with machineguns to protect the facility they seized from Kurdish forces earlier this week.The Islamic State, comprised mainly of Arabs and foreign fighters who want to reshape the map of the Middle East, pose the biggest threat to Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.The Sunni militants, who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, first arrived in northern Iraq in June from Syria where they have captured wide tracts of territory in that country's civil war.Almost unopposed by U.S.-trained Iraqi government forces who fled by the thousands, the insurgents swept through the region and have threatened to march on Baghdad with Iraqi military tanks, armored personnel carriers and machineguns they seized.The U.S. Defense Department said two F/A-18 warplanes from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf had dropped laser-guided 500-pound bombs on Islamic State artillery batteries. Other air strikes targeted mortar positions and an Islamic State convoy.Obama has said the action was needed to halt the Islamist advance, protect Americans in the region as well as hundreds of thousands of Christians and members of other religious minorities at risk.U.S. military aircraft dropped relief supplies to members of the ancient Yazidi sect, tens of thousands of whom have collected on a desert mountaintop seeking shelter from insurgents who had ordered them to convert to Islam or die.Islamic State militants have threatened to kill more than 300 Yazidi families in the villages of Koja, Hatimiya and Qaboshi unless they change religion, witnesses and a Yazidi lawmaker told Reuters on Saturday.British aircraft would also drop humanitarian supplies "imminently" to help the Yazidi, said Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. "We expect that to go on for the foreseeable future, dropping supplies to people, in particular to the people who are trapped on the mountain Sinjar," he told the BBC in London."We are more widely looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain."The Islamic State's campaign has returned Iraq to levels of violence not seen since a civil war peaked in 2006-2007 during the U.S. occupation.The territorial gains of Islamic State, who also control a third of Syria and have fought this past week inside Lebanon, has unnerved the Middle East and threatens to shatter Iraq, a country split between mostly Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.Attention has focused on the plight of Yazidis, Christians and other minority groups in northern Iraq, one of the most demographically diverse parts of the Middle East for centuries.The semi-autonomous Kurdish region has until now been the only part of Iraq to survive the past decade of civil war without a serious security threat.Its vaunted "peshmerga" fighters — those who "confront death" — also controlled wide stretches of territory outside the autonomous zone, which served as sanctuary for fleeing Christians and other minorities when Islamic State fighters stormed into the region last month.But the past week saw the peshmerga crumble in the face of Islamic State fighters, who have heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi troops and are flush with cash looted from banks.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 24, 2014
Young Islamic State robs al-Qaida of militant prestige
In hiding, targeted by drone strikes and unable to land a blow in the West, al-Qaida's aging leaders are losing a power struggle with ultra-radical young militants in Iraq and Syria who see themselves as the true successors to Osama bin Laden.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2014
A caliph in his own mind
The recent declaration of a caliphate by the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is an unprecedented event in modern times, showing that violent jihadism is now an entrenched feature of the Arab political landscape.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 2, 2014
Southeast Asia fears fallout of Mideast chaos
Four gun-wielding rebel fighters sit relaxing on a wall, their faces concealed by scarves and ski masks. All are Indonesians who came to Syria to join the Islamist insurgency, the cameraman says, speaking Indonesian peppered with Arabic phrases.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 30, 2014
Islamic State crucifies eight rival fighters in Syria
Eight rebel fighters have been crucified in Syria by the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) because they were considered too moderate, a monitoring group said.
New JAL chief concerned about yen’s ‘excessive’ weakness
Mitsuko Tottori became Japan Airlines’ first female CEO on April 1, having risen through the ranks as a flight attendant and heading the flight attendant and customer experience divisions.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Yen inches closer to intervention point as BOJ meeting starts
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in the trading room at foreign exchange brokerage Gaitame.com in Tokyo on Thursday.
Princess Aiko makes debut at imperial garden party
Princess Aiko attends an imperial garden party in Tokyo on Tuesday.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.
For amateur sumo, a fresh start offers hope against time-wasting and gamesmanship
Wrestlers prepare for the start of a bout at the 2023 Sumo World Championships in Tokyo. Starting this month, placing one hand on the clay first is no longer allowed.
LDP veteran Nikai's youngest son expected to succeed him in Wakayama
Toshihiro Nikai, former secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, announced in March that he would not run in the next Lower House election to take responsibility for the political funds scandal that rocked his party and his own faction.
New workers name Shohei Ohtani as 'dream boss' for two years running
Shohei Ohtani has been overwhelmingly voted as the “dream boss” for people who started working in April, according to a survey.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo
Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER