Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Germany's justice system is struggling to cope with waves of suspected jihadists returning from Syria and the speed at which young Muslims are being radicalised, the top public prosecutor said on Dec. 11.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns that Turkey’s new security bill adopted by Parliament last week dangerously increased the powers of the national police force and could undermine human rights.

Switzerland has ordered a returned recruit of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to do 600 hours of community service and will not send him to prison, in the country's first sentencing of a foreign jihadist fighter.
      
Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber's ruling went into effect this week, he told public broadcaster RTS late Dec. 10.
      

Egypt has imposed restrictions on male citizens traveling to Turkey and war-torn Libya to stop them joining jihadist organizations like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a security official said Dec. 10.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said Dec. 10 that 727 of its fighters have been killed in the conflict against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since the jihadists launched their offensive in June.

A statement from the region's military forces, known as the peshmerga, said 3,564 members of the Kurdish security forces had also been wounded over the past six months.

The U.S. State Department has denied supplying U.S. arms to Kurdish forces defending the besieged town of Kobane, insisting that any supplies are from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
      
"The United States is not providing U.S. arms to the PYD [the Democratic Union Party]," a department official told the Anadolu Agency on Dec. 9.
      

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Congress on Dec. 9 for new war powers to provide the legal grounding for U.S. military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), but faced strong criticism from Republicans for not giving authorization to fight Syrian regime troops.

Britain and Turkey are working "as closely as possible" to stop foreign fighters joining Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Dec. 10.

"We are fighting a common enemy, extremist terrorism," Cameron told a joint news conference in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appealed to U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Dec. 9 for more air raids from Western warplanes and more arms to take on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Baghdad on Dec. 9 as the United States expands its presence in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants four months after starting a campaign of air strikes in Iraq.