[Published here January 22, 2021]
Twin suicide blasts in Baghdad claimed by the Islamic State group have exposed gaps within Iraq’s security forces, weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic, rival armed groups and political tensions.
Continue readingIslamic State
In Iraq’s Baiji, mines turn farms into killing fields | AFP
[Published here on September 3, 2019]
One man lost his uncle. Another is mourning for two sons. Farmers and herders in Iraq’s Baiji say mines left by the Islamic State group turned their beloved orchards into killing fields.
Flesh and Blood | AFP
[Published here July 16, 2019]
Her dark hair was pulled back by a white scrunchie and she had chipped pink polish on her nails. Like any teenager, I thought. But the words she spoke were as far from a carefree teenagedom as you could get.
Agony of Yazidi women torn between IS kids, or return home | AFP
[Published here July 14, 2019]
Baadre (Iraq) (AFP) – Freed after years in jihadist captivity, Jihan faced an agonising ultimatum: abandon her three small children fathered by an Islamic State fighter or risk being shunned by her community.
Born under IS, sick Iraqi children left undocumented, untreated | AFP
[Published here May 16, 2019]
Laylan (Iraq) (AFP) – No documents? No doctor. Without state-issued IDs, Iraqi mothers struggle to have children born under the now-defeated Islamic State group treated for conditions ranging from asthma to epilepsy.
IS chief refers to Syria defeat in first video in five years | AFP
[Co-written with AFP’s Ali Choukeir; published here on April 29, 2019]
Baghdad (AFP) – The Islamic State group’s elusive supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his first purported appearance in five years in a propaganda video released Monday, acknowledging IS’s defeat in the Syrian town of Baghouz while threatening “revenge” attacks.
Yazidi doctor soldiers on in mental battle against IS | AFP
[Published here March 13, 2019]
Dohuk (Iraq) (AFP) – The military fight against the Islamic State group may be nearing an end, but one Yazidi doctor treating survivors is soldiering on against unseen scars the jihadists carved into her community.
Civilians stream out of Baghouz | BBC Scotland
I spoke to BBC Scotland’s Isabel Fraser and Gordon Brewer on February 16, 2019 on the deeply disturbing state of civilians fleeing the final Islamic State group pocket of Baghouz in eastern Syria.
Listen in here, with my interview starting around 1:07:00.
In eastern Syria, the infants of a dying IS ‘caliphate’ | AFP
[Published here on February 12, 2019]
They were born in a “state” that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don’t want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.
Canadian jihadist says IS foreign fighters ‘hung out to dry’ | AFP
[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.
