Larger Idlib News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Repaired. this is the tribal arab region, the sunni conservative heartland of the middle east where isis tends to thrive. so for me what's extraordinary about this allegation or this news reporting is that baghdadi has gone to a place that frankly he's not all that welcome in. the place that the u.s. has announced it was going to withdraw from until donald trump rather precipitously said, no, we're doing an about face, we're actually going to come back into syria to guard the oil wells, this is the place i would expect to find baghdadi. so, the questions in my mind are when did he repair to id...

There is a huge protest movement against the central government, and particularly against iranian-backed militia groups in iraq. isis has the most potential to reorganize and to resurge in a place like iraq rather than syria especially now the americans have decided to come back into syria. it's very strange. you know, i don't doubt that the reporting has been credible. i don't doubt that, in fact, baghdadi was, indeed, targeted there based on credible intelligence. but frankly, as somebody who has written a book on isis and somebody who has written a profile on baghdadi, the thing i want to k...

Donald trump's precipitous decision to withdraw from syria, a decision, by the way, which has now been reversed. we won't get into that. but a deal between ankara and moscow was to carve up the region of northern and northeast syria, yeah. and the most important thing for the russians is to ensure that idlib is no longer a stronghold or a safe haven for jihadist organizations that are looking to attack russia's primary military base, which is just to the west of idlib province. so idlib is the center of action, as far as i'm concerned, as a syria watch. that's where the deal making is going to...

This is idlib province. idlib province, the most predominant jihadist faction of al qaeda. what's important to keep in mind here is al qaeda broke from the organization that has become isis in around 2013, 2014. so baghdadi does not have many friends in idlib. now, it's true there might be some isis sleeper cells or isis factions that have infiltrated into idlib in recent months or years. but this is not hospitable at the ra terrain for him. the most hospitable terrain is where the u.s. announced it was going to withdrawn from, the eastern part of syria, jazeera. this is the bryer patch of isi...

If al qaeda, as is widely known, is the predominant jihadist organization in idlib, is still in control of that province -- which i am not under any, you know, indication that it's not -- it's very strange that baghdadi would go to that area of northwestern syria. again, the area that isis has thrived in has been jazeera, which is the eastern, mostly central and southeastern syria. this is the area that is the gateway, the border lands between syria and iraq. remember, isis -- it came into its own in iraq. it was known as al qaeda in iraq as richard pointed out. but when it was strategically d...