Category Archives: Islamic State

US-Kurdish patrol attacked in Syria as Erdoğan offers to step in

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Turkish president tells Donald Trump he is ready to send troops into US-overseen areas

The threat of a growing security vacuum in Syria as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops has been underlined by an attack on a joint US-Kurdish patrol, which reportedly killed five people and injured at least two American soldiers.

The attack on Monday, in which a suicide bomber drove a car into a checkpoint, emphasised the vulnerability of American troops since the US president declared he was withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from northern Syria on the grounds that Islamic State has been defeated.

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Mother of alleged Isis killer loses legal fight against Home Office

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Judges rule decision to share evidence with US without death penalty assurances not unlawful

The mother of an alleged hostage killer for Islamic State has lost her legal challenge against a Home Office decision to share evidence with the US without seeking assurances that her son and another suspected jihadist terrorist would not face the death penalty.

El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are accused of belonging to a group of Isis members, nicknamed the Beatles because of their British accents, responsible for killing a number of western captives.

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Children ‘still being tortured to confess to Isis links’ by Kurdish security forces

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Nearly two years after raising the alarm, Human Rights Watch report reveals continued allegations of electric shocks and beatings on boys aged 14 to 17

Kurdish security forces in Erbil are continuing to torture children to confess their involvement with Islamic State, according to allegations in a report released by Human Rights Watch.

According to the organisation, which first raised the alarm about the mistreatment of child detainees by Kurdish security forces nearly two years ago, it has collected claims of the continued regular use of beatings and electric shocks to extract confessions, often prior to trials lasting a handful of minutes.

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Brain scans show social exclusion creates jihadists, say researchers

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International studies of young Muslim men show that radicalisation follows a sense of isolation from society

For years western policymakers have tried to establish what causes individuals to be radicalised. Now a pioneering study has used medical science to gain fresh insight into the process – in the brains of potential jihadists.

University College London (UCL) researchers were part of an international team that used neuroimaging techniques to map how the brains of radicalised individuals respond to being socially marginalised. The findings, they claim, confirm that exclusion is a leading factor in creating violent jihadists.

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Two British special forces soldiers injured by Isis in Syria

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Attack comes after Trump said he would withdraw US troops as ‘we have defeated Isis’

Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. The incident is thought to have happened on Saturday morning and the soldiers were airlifted by US forces for medical treatment.

Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that the British soldiers were hurt in an attack on a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in the town of Deir ez-Zor, in the east of the country.

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Terror plotter had 16 meetings with Prevent officers, court hears

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Lewis Ludlow, who pleaded guilty to planning Oxford Street attack, faces sentencing

A Muslim convert plotted a terror attack on Oxford Street despite repeated attempts by authorities to deradicalise him, a court has heard.

The former Royal Mail worker Lewis Ludlow, 27, of Rochester, Kent, said he was filled with “animosity and hatred” when he swore allegiance to Islamic State, the Old Bailey heard.

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Mali attack: 37 civilians killed in armed raid on village

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Children among victims in area hit by ethnic violence in which hundreds died last year

Armed men killed 37 Fulani civilians on Tuesday in central Mali, where ethnic violence cost hundreds of lives last year, the government said.

Violence between Fulani and rival communities has compounded an already dire security situation in Mali’s semi-arid and desert regions, which are used as a base by jihadist groups with ties to al-Qaida and Islamic State.

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