"What's happening is they are trying to get Western intervention in Iraq and Syria," says Clarke Jones, a former national security operative specialising in counterterrorism now with the Australian National University.

"That would enable them to develop a new and powerful narrative of Western oppression of Muslims that would help them attract a new wave of recruits."

Renowned Norwegian terrorism expert Thomas Hegghammer agrees, questioning whether the attack on the Yazidis, raids into Kurdistan and the beheading of Foley could all be a "deliberate provocation strategy".

"ISIS seems to be doing everything it can (short of attacks on the West) to draw the US into conflict," he tweeted.

An angry West suits Islamic State, says Monash University terrorism expert Greg Barton. Hostility to Muslims feeds into their narrative of belittled Muslims persecuted by non-believers. It helps recruiting among their target audience and, at the same time, puts pressure on Western governments to act.

That’s Beijing editor-in-chief Steve George told Quartz:”This type of juxtaposition is fairly common in China,” says George, adding that images of peace and prosperity in China are typically contrasted with clips of violence around the world, promoting the narrative that “chaos looms beyond our pleasant and safe borders.”

- See more at: http://yournewswire.com/china-broadcasting-endless-loop-of-foley-execution-on-huge-screen-in-beijing/#sthash.gn1seqVG.dpuf

Tripoli (AFP) - Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli airport after 10 days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.

A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport."

The strategic site 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 amid skirmishes between the Islamists and nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli, who had held the airport since the 2011 fall of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Officials briefed American media organisations that the White House was now considering seeking Congressional approval for unlimited use of force against the jihadi group. Such approval was last given in 2001 against al-Qaeda and in 2002 against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

That would allow an expansion of American military action which is at present limited to Iraq for 60 days, under presidential powers.

An administration official told Washington Post that contingency plans for broader air strikes in Syria had been drafted although Mr Obama had not yet asked for them.

Other options include stepping up training and equipping moderate rebel groups or Kurds within Syria.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11052892/US-considers-air-strikes-in-Syria-after-murder-of-James-Foley.html

The US has said it will not be restricted by the Iraq-Syria border as it considers further action against Islamic State militants.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes the US stood ready to take action to protect American citizens as the group was more dangerous now than it was six months ago.

“Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar,” John McCain told CNN’s Candy Crowley in January 2014. “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar, and for our Qatari friends,” the senator said once again a month later, at the Munich Security Conference.

McCain was praising Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services and a former ambassador to the United States, for supporting forces fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham had previously met with Bandar to encourage the Saudis to arm Syrian rebel forces.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the “moderate” armed opposition in the country, receives a lot of attention. But two of the most successful factions fighting Assad’s forces are Islamist extremist groups: Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the latter of which is now amassing territory in Iraq and threatening to further destabilize the entire region. And that success is in part due to the support they have received from two Persian Gulf countries: Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra, to the point that a senior Qatari official told me he can identify al-Nusra commanders by the blocks they control in various Syrian cities. But ISIS is another matter. As one senior Qatari official stated, “ISIS has been a Saudi project.”