Category Archives: Islamic State

In a world full of wars, why are so many of them ignored? | Simon Tisdall

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Instability across central Africa has resulted in a humanitarian crisis. There needs to be greater focus on conflict resolution

Cameroon, a central African state of 24 million people on the Gulf of Guinea, is rarely in the news – which is surprising, given the awful things happening there. In a warring world full of conflict, the country’s troubles barely rate a mention. That’s short-sighted. As Yemen shows, today’s local difficulties have a habit of becoming tomorrow’s international crises.

Long-running tensions between Cameroon’s French and English-speaking communities came to a head last week with the arrest of at least 350 members of the main opposition party, whose leader has been jailed since January. Human Rights Watch accused security forces of using “excessive and indiscriminate force”.

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Britain should take back children of Isis fighters, says Mordaunt

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Defence secretary says UK has ‘an obligation to innocents’ as Syrian civil war subsides

Britain has an obligation to take back “innocent” children born to Islamic State fighters in Syria, the defence secretary has said, arguing that the UK needs to resolve its failure to repatriate minors caught up in the Syrian civil war.

Penny Mordaunt said she wanted to “build up a very clear picture” of where children have been taken into camps as Syria’s violent conflict has subsided and be prepared to allow them to come to the UK.

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Dutch hostage killed in Philippines during gun battle

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Birdwatcher Ewold Horn, kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in 2012, dies as army fights militants

A Dutch birdwatcher held by Islamic State-linked militants was killed on Friday during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers in the southern Philippines, according to the military, which said he was shot by his captors as he tried to escape.

Ewold Horn, held hostage since 2012 by Abu Sayyaf, was fatally wounded as soldiers fought a 90-minute gun battle with the jihadists in Sulu province on their stronghold, Jolo island.

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Isis wife reveals role in helping CIA hunt for Baghdadi

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Umm Sayyaf, sentenced to death in Iraq, tells how she exposed fugitive’s secrets

The most senior female Islamic State captive has played a central role in the hunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, helping identify safe houses used by the fugitive terrorist leader and in one case pinpointing his location in Mosul, the Guardian can reveal.

The Isis woman, Nisrine Assad Ibrahim, better known by her nom de guerre, Umm Sayyaf, has helped the CIA and Kurdish intelligence officers build a detailed portrait of Baghdadi’s movements, hideouts and networks, investigators have disclosed. The claims have been confirmed by Umm Sayyaf in her first interview since being captured in a Delta Force raid in Syria four years ago that killed her husband, the then Isis oil minister.

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France opposes death penalty for French Isis fighters in Iraq

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Foreign ministry says it is opposed to the death penalty ‘at all times and in all places’

France has confirmed it will take “the necessary steps” to try to prevent Iraq carrying out the death penalty against French citizens convicted of fighting with Islamic State.

“France is opposed in principle to the death penalty at all times and in all places,” the French foreign ministry said on Monday, as an Iraqi court sentenced a fourth French citizen to death, a day after handing capital punishment sentences to three others.

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Iraq sentences three French citizens to death for joining Isis

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Human rights groups have criticised the country’s trials of fighters captured in Syria

An Iraqi court has sentenced three French citizens to death after they were found guilty of joining Islamic State, a court official said.

Captured in Syria by a US-backed force fighting the jihadists, they are the first French Isis members to receive death sentences in Iraq, where they were transferred for trial.

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Sajid Javid condemned for ‘criminalising’ fighters against Isis

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Families of those killed say the home secretary must distinguish between jihadists and others fighting with Kurdish forces

More than 40 international volunteers – a third of them British – who fought in Syria against the Islamic State terror group have written to the home secretary, Sajid Javid, to condemn his plans to prosecute UK citizens who remain in the country.

Four British families whose sons or daughters were killed fighting Isis have also signed the letter, raising concerns that Javid is “criminalising” those who risked their lives supporting the US-led coalition which two months ago defeated the IS caliphate.

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US repatriates family from Syrian detention camp for Isis suspects

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Exclusive: removal of four people could put pressure on other countries to follow suit

A US family have been removed from a Syrian detention centre for suspected members of Islamic State and returned to the US. The move could have implications for hundreds of children born to non-Syrians who have been in legal limbo since the disintegration of the terror group.

The family of four were taken from al-Roj camp in the country’s north-east over the weekend, sources inside the camp have confirmed to the Guardian. They are believed to be US citizens of Cambodian ancestry and to include children born under Isis rule.

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No increased Iran threat in Syria or Iraq, top British officer says, contradicting US

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Deputy commander of anti-Isis coalition rebuts White House justification for sending troops

The top British general in the US-led coalition against Isis has said there is no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria, directly contradicting US assertions used to justify a military buildup in the region.

Hours later however, his assessment was disowned by US Central Command in an extraordinary rebuke of an allied senior officer. A spokesman insisted that the troops in Iraq and Syria were on a high level of alert due to the alleged Iranian threat. The conflicting versions of the reality on the ground added to the confusion and mixed signals in a tense part of the Middle East.

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Shamima Begum would face death penalty in Bangladesh, says minister

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Family lawyer says chances of Begum being sent to country are ‘vanishingly remote’

Shamima Begum could face the death penalty for involvement in terrorism if she goes to Bangladesh, the country’s foreign minister has said.

However, her family’s lawyer said the chances of her being sent to her parents’ country of origin were “vanishingly remote”.

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Isis leader Baghdadi appears in video for first time in five years

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Video comes weeks after Islamic State was ousted from last stronghold in Syria

The fugitive Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appeared in a propaganda video for the first time in five years, in which he acknowledges the terrorist group’s defeat in the Syrian town of Baghuz.

The appearance is only Baghdadi’s second on video, and comes weeks after the remnants of Isis were ousted from their last organised stronghold in the eastern Syrian desert. Looking heavier than when he proclaimed the existence of the now-collapsed caliphate in mid-2014, Baghdadi blames its demise on the “savagery” of Christians.

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Death toll in Sri Lanka bombings revised down to 253

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Official cites difficulty of identifying victims as reason for revision

Sri Lankan authorities have revised the death toll from Easter Sunday’s string of bombings down to 253 people from the previous estimate of 359.

The country’s director general for health services issued the correction on Thursday, citing the difficulty of identifying victims due to the nature of the bombings, some of which took place in closely confined spaces and left some bodies in pieces.

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CCTV footage of suspected Sri Lanka bombers released – video

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CCTV video shows two suspected attackers in Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday bombings carrying backpacks into the Shangri-La hotel in the capital, Colombo, before the blast.

The bombings, which killed 359 people and injured 500, shattered the relative calm that has existed in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka over the past decade and raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.

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Scott Morrison says reports of Isis plot to target Anzac Day Gallipoli events ‘inconclusive’

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Turkish police said they had arrested a Syrian national who was planning retaliation for New Zealand mosque attack

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has cast doubt on a possible plot to target Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli despite the arrest of a man with suspected links to Islamic State by Turkish police.

The suspect, a Syrian national, was arrested after a police operation in Osmaniye and was among several Isis members detained.

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Sri Lanka attacker studied in UK and Australia, says minister

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Country’s president announces major security overhaul after authorities confirm they were warned about attacks

One of the attackers who carried out the devastating suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday had studied in the UK and Australia, the country’s defence minister has said.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings, believed to be the most lethal ever conducted by the group.

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‘The end of the story of my daughter, my wife’: the victims of the Sri Lanka attacks

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Most who died were locals, but victims – including young children – came from across the world

Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that 359 people were killed in a wave of suicide bombings on the island on Easter Sunday. Since then, the names and stories of those who died have begun to emerge. This list does not include all the victims, the vast majority of whom were Sri Lankans.

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Pressure builds on Sri Lankan officials as Isis claims Easter attacks

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Bombings that killed more than 320 people have hallmarks of Isis, say security experts

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people, the group’s Amaq news agency has said, with experts saying the attacks bear the hallmarks of the group.

It is the deadliest overseas operation claimed by Isis since it proclaimed its “caliphate” almost five years ago, and would suggest it retains the ability to launch devastating strikes around the world despite multiple defeats in the Middle East.

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Sri Lanka terrorist attacks among world’s worst since 9/11

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Death toll from Easter Sunday’s eight bomb blasts nears 300, with 500 others injured

The wave of bombings on Sunday targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka is among the worst terrorist attacks carried out worldwide since September 11, in which 2,977 people died.

On Monday, police said the death toll had surged overnight to 290, with the number expected to rise further. About 500 people were injured, according to reports.

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Iraq’s oldest Christian town celebrates Easter without Isis

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Hamdaniya has been reclaimed from the extremists who made it a hotbed of violence

The church ceiling was still scorched and some cherished relics missing, but after five years of war and exile, their tormentors were finally gone.

When the men and women of Iraq’s oldest Christian town gathered for Easter mass this weekend, they did so knowing that the Islamic State extremists who had chased them away were not coming back. Their battlefield defeat two months ago meant the people of Hamdaniya (also called Qaraqosh) could once again celebrate without fear.

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Jacinda Ardern and Red Cross lock horns over publication of nurse’s kidnap in Syria

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New Zealand prime minister unhappy that details of Lousia Akavi’s abduction were made public by the aid agency

The revelation that a New Zealand nurse has been detained in Syria for five years has prompted tensions between the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the New Zealand government, with the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, criticising the aid agency for releasing details of the woman’s abduction.

On Monday the New York Times, in conjunction with the ICRC, revealed that New Zealander Louisa Akavi, 63, had been abducted along with two Syrian colleagues on 13 October 2013.

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