Islamic State faced imminent defeat in its final enclave on Tuesday as hundreds of jihadist fighters and their families surrendered and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the battle was as good as over. A Reuters journalist in Baghouz saw hundreds of people surrendering to the SDF, which launched its final attack to capture Baghouz […]
Continue ReadingA quarter of a century after their own country was devastated by war, three Bosnian women are struggling to bring home loved ones caught up in Syria’s ruinous conflict and the collapse of Islamic State rule. The Bosnian government, in common with its counterparts across Europe, lacks a clear plan to deal with the families […]
Continue ReadingAn Islamic State fighter detained in Syria urged Italy on Saturday to let him come home to start a new life, saying he had abandoned the self-styled jihadist “caliphate” after growing disillusioned with its rulers. Mounsef al-Mkhayar, a 22-year-old of Moroccan descent who grew up in Italy, spoke to Reuters in his first interview since […]
Continue ReadingShamima Begum’s decision to go to the Islamic State was made when she was 15. No doubt, she was a young person who was influenced by what she consumed through slick Islamic State propaganda online. She was vulnerable to being drawn into the propaganda and those working on extremism realise that those personal vulnerabilities involve […]
Continue ReadingA teenage student with an interest in Islamic State (IS) has been found guilty of plotting a terror attack. Haider Ahmed, 19, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court of preparing to undertake an attack, Thames Valley Police said. He was aged 16 and 17 and living with his parents at the family home in Redhill, […]
Continue ReadingChancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have agreed a plan to strip some Germans who fight for the Islamic State militant group of their citizenship, a German newspaper reported on Sunday. More than 1,000 Germans have left their country for war zones in the Middle East since 2013 and the […]
Continue ReadingA friend of an Islamic State terrorist who plotted to assassinate the Prime Minister has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years. Mohammed Aqib Imran, 23, planned to travel for jihad, while Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, was set on a suicide attack on the heart of Government. Imran, from Ombersley Road, Birmingham, researched travel and tried to […]
Continue ReadingFloodgates could be opened for Islamic State supporters coming back to the UK if Shamima Begum succeeds in getting back into the country, a former counter-terrorism police chief has warned. Scott Wilson, who helped lead the response to the 2017 London Bridge attack, said monitoring the teenager would cost millions of pounds and the security […]
Continue ReadingIslamic State bride Shamima Begum said she regrets speaking to the media and wishes she had found a different way to contact her family. The teenager, who fled London aged 15 to join Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, has said she wants to return to the UK with her newborn son. Ms Begum, who […]
Continue ReadingEver since Islamic State visited death and destruction on their villages in northern Iraq nearly five years ago, Yazidis Daoud Ibrahim and Kocher Hassan have had trouble sleeping. For Hassan, 39, who was captured, it is her three missing children, and three years of imprisonment at the hands of the jihadist group. For Ibrahim, 42, […]
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