WATCH: Victorious jihadists in Iraq celebrate new regional order
ISIL celebrates takeover of Nineveh province of Iraq, which borders Syria, in what it claimed was the destruction of the "Sykes-Picot border.”
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMONFighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 11, 2014.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrated the takeover of the border Nineveh province of Iraq, which borders Syria, in what it claimed was the destruction of the "Sykes-Picot border.”A new report published on Wednesday by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) tracks the latest ISIL advance across the Syrian-Iraq border and images the group posted on one of its Twitter accounts.The pictures show the ISIL bulldozing areas of the border and of military vehicles it captured traveling freely across the border. Others show people crossing the border, with the terrorist group noting that they can finally visit their families on the other side of the “artificial borders."It was the Sykes-Picot agreement reached during WWI that charted out how to partition the Ottoman Empire.The British and French carved up the region according to their interests, not paying adequate attention to ethnic groups.The agreement is named after the negotiators of the agreement, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Francois Georges-Picot of France.“America left [Iraq]... defeated... and left the map for the Islamic State [of Iraq and Syria] to redraw the world upon the clear path of prophetic Caliphate... Abu Muhammad Al-'Adnani [ISIS spokesman] – May Allah protect him,” read one of the texts posted on a picture, reported MEMRI.Another image showed an Iraqi military border outpost it took between Nineveh and the Syrian province of Al-Hasaka.In addition, a Twitter hashtag was created to celebrate: #SykesPicotOver.
A tweet by Abu Umar posted a picture of what he claimed was captured Iraqi soldiers from the outpost.Another comment by jinnilyyah said, “After the Arab Spring, and after the League of Tyrants crushing the Arab Spring Comes the #JihadiSpring.”
