The Irgun was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah; when the group broke from the Haganah it became known as the Haganah Bet, or alternatively as haHaganah haLeumit or Hama'amad. Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war; the Irgun is referred to as Etzel, an acronym of the Hebrew initials, or by the abbreviation IZL. The Irgun policy was based on what was called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. According to Howard Sachar, "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine. Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948; the Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.

The organization "committed acts of terrorism and assassination against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, it was violently anti-Arab" according to the Encyclopædia Britannica. In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and United States governments. However, academics such as Bruce Hoffman and Max Abrahms have written that the Irgun went to considerable lengths to avoid harming civilians, such as issuing pre-attack warnings. Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism; the Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut party, which led to today's Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977. Members of the Irgun came from Betar and from the Revisionist Party both in Palestine and abroad; the Revisionist Movement made up a popular backing for the underground organization. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, commanded the organization until he died in 1940.

He formulated the general realm of operation, regarding Restraint and the end thereof, was the inspiration for the organization overall. An additional major source of ideological inspiration was the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg; the symbol of the organization, with the motto רק כך, underneath a hand holding a rifle in the foreground of a map showing both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, implied that force was the only way to "liberate the homeland."The number of members of the Irgun varied from a few hundred to a few thousand. Most of its members were people who joined the organization's command, under which they carried out various operations and filled positions in opposition to British law. Most of them were "ordinary" people, who held regular jobs, only a few dozen worked full-time in the Irgun; the Irgun disagreed with the policy of the Yishuv and with the World Zionist Organization, both with regard to strategy and basic ideology and with regard to PR and military tactics, such as use of armed force to accomplish the Zionist ends, operations against the Arabs during the riots, relations with the British mandatory government.

Therefore, the Irgun tended to ignore the decisions made by the Zionist leadership and the Yishuv's institutions. This fact caused the elected bodies not to recognize the independent organization, during most of the time of its existence the organization was seen as irresponsible, its actions thus worthy of thwarting. Accordingly, the Irgun accompanied its armed operations with public-relations campaigns aiming to convince the public of the Irgun's way and the problems with the official political leadership of the Yishuv; the Irgun put out numerous advertisements, an underground newspaper and ran the first independent Hebrew radio station – Kol Zion HaLochemet. As members of an underground armed organization, Irgun personnel did not call Irgun by its name, but rather used other names. In the first years of its existence it was known as Ha-Haganah Leumit', by names such as Haganah Bet, Irgun Bet, the Parallel Organization and the Rightwing Organization. On it became most known as המעמד; the anthem adopted by the Irgun was "Anonymous Soldiers", written by Avraham Stern, at the time a commander in the Irgun.

On Stern defected from the Irgun and founded Lehi, the song became the anthem of the Lehi. The Irgun's new anthem became the third verse of the "Betar Song", by Ze'ev Jabotinsky; the Irgun evolved from its humble origins into a serious and well-organized paramilitary organization. The movement developed a hierarchy of ranks and a sophisticated command-structure, came to demand serious military training and strict discipline from its members, it developed clandestine netw

The 2016 Abu Kamal offensive known as Operation Day of Wrath, was launched on the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian–Iraqi border led by the US-backed New Syrian Army. On 28 June 2016, the New Syrian Army rebels launched the offensive from at-Tanf and occupied the village of al-Sukkariya, the nearby Hamdan Military Airfield, the Ayshat al-Khayri Hospital all of which were unguarded by ISIL, they established several positions in the desert between the Tanf border crossing and Abu Kamal. Some NSA troops were airlifted to the area by three Coalition helicopters while a sizable convoy of US provided vehicles made its way from the at-Tanf garrison toward Abu Kamal; the NSA advance was aided by FSA covert supporters inside the city. At the same time as the operation started, it was reported that Iraqi Federal Police forces were preparing to attack the town of al-Qa'im, on the Iraqi side of the border. However, Iraqi Sunni tribesmen were the ones in fact involved in the operation, acted ”precipitously and insufficiently in their role”, alerting ISIL of the offensive.

ISIL proceeded to cut power and communications in Abu Kamal, followed by digging trenches around the city. On the next day, US air support was withdrawn to take part in the Battle of Fallujah. ISIL recaptured the airbase, pushed the rebels back from the outskirts of Abu Kamal, attacked the supply lines of the NSA through the empty desert. ISIL fighters encircled the rebels in a surprise ambush, they inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels NSA vehicles were seized by the jihadists. The rebels retreated to the outlying desert areas, before pulling back to their base at the at-Tanf border crossing, 200 miles away; the lack of US air support was blamed as the key factor contributing to the NSA's defeat, but without coalition air controllers on the ground, it was unlikely the air support would have made any significant contribution. The offensive was described by some as a ”crippling defeat” and a ”Bay-of-Pigs-style fiasco” for the rebels, while the SOHR director stated after the defeat that the whole operation ”was more a media show than anything else”.

The U. S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter stated, in regards to the pulling back of the air support for the rebels, ”We missed an opportunity”. In an ISIL propaganda video, the NSA suffered 2 known deaths on the battlefield along with 3 fighters from the Ahmad al-Abdo Martyr group who were killed in an ISIL ambush while retreating from Abu Kamal. ISIL, claimed 40 NSA deaths and 15 captured along with the seizure of a large amount of weaponry consisting of heavy machine guns and assault rifles. In addition, ISIL suffered 20 deaths according to the NSA in a combination of a total of 13 Coalition air-strikes and their ground offensive operation. In one instance, a pro-NSA sleeper cell group in Abu Kamal detonated a car bomb that killed 3 ISIL fighters. 2017 Abu Kamal offensive

If Children is the debut studio album by Baltimore-based band Wye Oak. The album was released in 2007, but was re-released on April 8, 2008 by Merge Records. Writing for Pitchfork, Mike Powell gave If Children a 7.1 out of 10 rating, saying that the album "displays a band that knows how to vary a theme just enough to keep momentum." Robert Christgau gave it a 2-star honorable mention rating, which corresponds to a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy," and said of the album that it was "Poised warily between innocence and experience, d/b/a melody and chaos." John Golden- Mastering Eric Morrison- Mixing Andy Stack- Audio Engineer, Group Member Jenn Wasner- Composer, Group Member, Vocals, Voices Wye Oak - Primary Artist