[Published here February 11, 2019]
A Canadian jihadist detained in Syria told AFP on Sunday he has been “hung out to dry” by the Islamic State group like other foreign fighters and appealed to his government for help.
ISIS
Barely alive after IS, Syrian babies haunted by malnutrition | AFP
[Published here February 8, 2019]
They survived the Islamic State group’s crumbling “caliphate” by a thread, but skeletal babies streaming into this displacement camp in northeastern Syria now face a race against malnutrition.
HRW warns against secret repatriations from Syria | ِِAFP
[Published here on February 7, 2019]
Any transfers of suspected foreign jihadists and their relatives out of Syria should be transparent, Human Rights Watch told AFP, as camps in the northeast fill with families of different nationalities.
The group chat catching fleeing ISIS fighters | Popular Front
I was a guest on Jake Hanrahan’s podcast Popular Front last week to discuss low-tech ways that non-government forces are catching Islamic State group fighters on the run from their collapsed ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq. Listen to the episode here:
Four years and one caliphate later, IS claims Idlib comeback | AFP
[Published here January 16, 2018]
The Islamic State group has been roundly defeated across much of Syria — which made it all the more surprising when it announced an official comeback in the country’s northwest last week.
In ravaged Raqa, clues to IS’s bygone media empire | AFP
[Published here on October 22, 2017]
“Special operations by the Caliphate’s soldiers!” boasts a torn, blood-stained pamphlet at a bombed-out media kiosk in Syria’s Raqa, a symbol of the Islamic State group’s once fearsome propaganda machine. Continue reading
After IS, rotting corpses and empty jail cells in Syria’s Raqa | AFP
[Published here October 18, 2017]
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) – Days ago in Syria’s Raqa, die-hard jihadists made their final stand in the city’s national hospital. On Wednesday, it stood eerily silent, its entrance inhabited only by swarming flies and two rotting corpses.
To beat jihadists, anti-IS Syria force goes back to basics | AFP
[Published here October 16, 2017]
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) – Once the last Islamic State group fighters are ousted from Syria’s Raqa, the unconventional forces battling the jihadists say they’ll have batteries and masking tape to thank for their victory.
Far from front line, volunteers prepare to rebuild Raqa | AFP
[Published here on October 13, 2017]
Ain Issa (Syria) (AFP) – As US-backed forces fight to oust the Islamic State group from its last hideouts in Syria’s Raqa, a city council-in-exile is already working to bring life back to its devastated home town.
Civilians pour out of Syria’s Raqa as bombing intensifies | AFP
[Published here October 12, 2017]
Dozens of desperate civilians streamed out of battlefront districts of Syria’s Raqa on Thursday after a ferocious resumption in bombardment against Islamic State group holdouts in the city.
MAYA GEBEILY 