International and Iraqi forces continue their push against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria.
Here’s a rundown of the latest developments, on and off the battlefield:
ISIS militants seize Iraqi town, menace base housing U.S. personnel
ISIS militants took full control of the Iraqi town of Al-Baghdadi, west of Ramadi, early Friday, security officials told CNN, bringing them within a few miles of an air base housing U.S. military personnel.
Now they’re closing in on the strategic Ayn al-Assad Air Base, only about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Al-Baghdadi, the security officials said, and Iraqi forces there are calling for reinforcements.
A U.S. defense official told CNN that no evacuations have been planned from the base.
That western front is just one of many where ISIS forces are on the move.
CNN’s Phil Black, in northern Iraq, said Friday that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were starting to move from the north toward the city of Sinjar, held by ISIS since the summer.
Widow of Paris kosher market gunman in Syria, ISIS says
An issue of a magazine published by ISIS claims that Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow of Paris kosher supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly, is in Syria.
After the attack on January 9, in which four people were killed, European authorities launched a search for Boumeddiene, who is suspected of having aided Coulibaly in plotting it.
The ISIS magazine includes a purported interview with Boumeddiene, but does not offer a photo of other evidence that she is indeed in Syria.
Western investigators, however, have said they believe she crossed into Syria from Turkey around the time of the attacks.
Obama requests formal authority for ISIS fight
President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to formally authorize the use of military force in the war against ISIS.
The President declared that congressional passage of the measure makes the U.S. “strongest” in the fight, and that while the mission is difficult, the terrorist group “is going to lose.”
He said the bill includes authority for a “systemic and sustained campaign of airstrikes,” support and training for forces on the ground and humanitarian assistance. Obama made it clear, however, that the authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, does not call for the deployment of ground troops in Iraq or Syria.
It’s the first time in 13 years that a U.S. president has sought this kind of authorization.
Why doesn’t war proposal include Jews as ISIS targets?
As Obama’s war proposal is debated in Congress, one lawmaker is keying in on what he calls an omission.
The proposed authorization for the use of military force singles out several ethnic groups threatened by ISIS: Iraqi Christians, Yazidis and Turkmens, but says nothing about Jews.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, the only Jewish Republican member of Congress, is questioning whether Jews were deliberately not listed.
“I see an understanding, a recognition in the resolution with regards to ISIS attacks on Muslims, on Christians and others, and I didn’t see a reference to Jews,” Zeldin said. “And one of the efforts I’ve been involved in is trying to raise awareness for the rising tide of anti-Semitism.”
Foreign fighters flocking to join ISIS
A top U.S. counterterrorism official is warning that the number of foreign fighters joining the ranks of ISIS is growing at an alarming rate, and that scores of them are from the United States.
Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that more than 20,000 fighters from more than 90 countries have traveled to the ISIS battlefield.
Foreign fighters are traveling in greater numbers to Syria now than the number who went to the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia in the past two decades, Rasmussen said.
Of those fighters, an estimated 3,400 are believed to have come from Western countries, including more than 150 from the United States, officials say.
Was U.S. hostage made an ISIS bride?
This week, the family of American hostage Kayla Mueller confirmed that she was dead. The family had kept news of her capture out of the media, and had been in contact with ISIS for some time trying to win her release. ISIS sent the family a private message over the weekend with information about her death.
Now, U.S. intelligence and government officials say Mueller possibly was paired with a male ISIS fighter during her captivity.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, cited unspecified intelligence gleaned about the case. A U.S. intelligence official said it was unclear whether Mueller was sold or forced into the pairing.
Intelligence suggests Mueller may have been given to an ISIS fighter as a sort of bride, one U.S. government official said.
ISIS’ high-profile hostages
Most high-profile ISIS victims have come from a number of nations and backgrounds. One thing that unites them is that they were on a mission in Syria or Iraq — to distribute aid, provide medical care, report on the situation, or to fight militarily.
