Category Archives: Islamic State

Scathing report on US withdrawal from Afghanistan blames Trump and Biden

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State department’s findings also reflect poorly on Antony Blinken as it outlines the agency’s failure to expand crisis taskforce

A US state department report on Friday criticized the handling of the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan, saying decisions by President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw troops had “serious consequences for the viability” and security of the former US-backed government.

Adverse findings in the report also reflected badly on Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, without naming him. They included the department’s failure to expand its crisis-management taskforce as the Taliban advanced on Kabul in August 2021 and the lack of a senior diplomat “to oversee all elements of the crisis response”.

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At least 41 people dead after IS-linked attack on Uganda school

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Militants believed to be Allied Democratic Forces abducted others in attack on secondary school in Mpondwe

Militants linked to Islamic State reportedly killed at least 41 people and abducted others in an attack on a school in western Uganda, police have said.

“Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group,” defence spokesperson Felix Kulayigye said on Twitter.

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‘The people don’t want us’: inside a camp for Iraqis returned from Syrian detention

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Exclusive: As Iraq steps up transfers from al-Hawl, speaking to returnees raises questions over a process mired in complexities

The Iraqi government plans to accelerate the repatriation of its nationals with confirmed or suspected ties to Islamic State (IS) from north-east Syria, in a politically charged process that has ignited a struggle for power and money while highlighting the challenges of reintegrating a partly radicalised population.

After months of deadlock, about 650 civilians, mostly women and children, were transferred last week from Syria’s notorious al-Hawl camp to a closed facility in northern Iraq called Jeddah-1, where they will spend several months before they are allowed to leave. Though they have not committed crimes, many have relatives who joined the terrorist group and have for years been exposed to extremist ideology.

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Gillian Anderson and Stanley Tucci back calls to rescue British families in Syria

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Estimated 60 children among those trapped in detention camps since Islamic State collapse

A group of celebrities including Olivia Colman, Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson have called on ministers to rescue and bring home British families trapped in detention camps in north-east Syria.

The stars, along with various NGOs including War Child UK and Human Rights Watch, the Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi and several national security experts, have signed an open letter to the UK government appealing for the rescue of approximately 25 British families, including an estimated 60 children most of whom are under 10 years old, who are languishing in the camps.

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Australian child pleads with prime minister to be rescued from Syrian detention camp

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Exclusive: ‘I have spent half my life in a tent closed off by gates like a prison,’ says the child, who is under 10, in a voice message to Anthony Albanese

An Australian child trapped in a Syrian detention camp has pleaded directly with prime minister Anthony Albanese to be rescued and brought home.

“I am one of the children left behind in Roj camp and I have spent half my life in a tent closed off by gates like a prison,” a voice message sent to the prime minister’s office says. “I have never been to school, laid in grass or climbed a tree.”

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Turkish forces kill Islamic State chief in Syria raid, says Erdoğan

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Turkish president says Abu Hussein al-Qurashi killed after pursuit while northern Syria residents report clashes and large explosion

Turkish intelligence forces have killed Islamic State’s leader, Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, in Syria, Turkey’s president announced.

“This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria yesterday,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an interview with the broadcaster TRT Türk on Sunday.

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Taliban kill mastermind of 2021 Kabul airport bombing, say US officials

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Islamic State suicide attack that killed 180 including 13 US service members occurred during US withdrawal from Afghanistan

The Islamic State leader behind the 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing that killed about 180 people including 13 US service members has been killed by the Taliban, according to US officials.

The IS leader, whose identity has not yet been released, was killed in southern Afghanistan in early April as the Taliban conducted a series of operations against the Islamic State group, according to one of the officials. The Taliban at the time were not aware of the identity of the person they killed, the official added.

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Suspected IS fighters kill 26 desert truffle hunters in Syria

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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says latest attack brings the number of foragers killed since February to 200

Suspected Islamic State fighters killed at least 26 people in Syria on Sunday, a war monitor said, the latest in a spate of attacks targeting people foraging for desert truffles.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “civilians and at least 10 pro-regime fighters” were among “the 26 people killed in an attack by Islamic State fighters while they were collecting truffles in the desert east of Hama”.

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Australia must rescue citizens from ‘dire’ Syrian detention camps, Red Cross says

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Global director general says ‘state of in-limbo cannot last longer’, with about 40 citizens still believed to be detained indefinitely

Australia and other countries must continue to rescue their citizens from “dire” conditions in camps in north-eastern Syria, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

The global director general of the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation, Robert Mardini, said the “state of in-limbo cannot last longer”.

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US says strike in Syria has killed senior Islamic State leader

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Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri said to have been responsible for planning IS attacks in Europe

The US military has said it carried out a strike in Syria, killing a senior Islamic State group official responsible for planning attacks in Europe.

The strike in the north-west of the country on Monday killed the senior IS leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, US Central Command said.

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Egyptian army has turned Sinai schools into military bases, says rights group

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Exclusive: group says military is compromising children’s right to education with its campaign against militants

Egyptian forces have taken over 37 schools and transformed them into military bases while dozens more have been destroyed during a 10-year war with militants in Sinai, a rights group has found in an initial assessment.

In a months-long investigation shared with the Guardian before its official release, the UK-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) accused the Egyptian armed forces of compromising the right to education of children during its campaign against militants in north Sinai.

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RAF airstrikes killed 29 civilians in Iraq and Syria in two years, analysis suggests

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Report says UK armed service has ‘major questions to answer’ about conduct in war against Islamic State

Twenty-nine civilians are feared to have been killed in nine RAF airstrikes in Iraq and Syria between 2016 and 2018, 10 more than previous estimates, and far higher than the single non-combatant fatality accepted by the UK, according to analysis.

In the worst incident, 12 civilians were accepted as likely to have been killed in Raqqa, Syria in 2017 by a US strike, while research points to an RAF drone strike killing at least four member of the same family in Abu Kamal, Syria, in 2016, according to on-the-ground reports.

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Multiple civilian deaths linked to 2016-17 British airstrikes against IS in Mosul

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Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds deaths despite claims British weapons did not harm a single non-combatant

Multiple airstrikes that killed civilians during the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq are probably linked to UK forces, despite longstanding claims British weapons did not harm a single non-combatant there, a Guardian investigation has found.

Britain’s government and military have for years stood by the claim that in terms of protecting ordinary Iraqis, the UK fought a “perfect” war against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq.

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A bloody delusion: how Iraq war led to catastrophic aftermath in Middle East

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The 2003 invasion’s legacy reverberates in the emboldenment of Iran, Islamic State’s violence and the disintegration of Syria

In Baghdad’s heart of power, Iraq’s prime minister arrives at work each day in a building once used by Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s close adviser and foreign minister. The ruins of a Saddam-era defence building still teeter next door, 20 years after an American bomb crashed through its roof at the start of the invasion.

Not far away, the green dome of the Republican Palace – built on the orders of King Faisal II, then used by Iraq’s dictator before being occupied by the US army – sits on top of the still-standing totem of Iraq’s history.

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Taliban governor known for fighting Islamic State killed in suicide attack

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Mohammad Dawood Muzammil one of the highest-ranking figures killed as Afghan security situation deteriorates

The Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s Balkh province, known for fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists, was killed in a suicide attack at his office on Thursday, officials said.

The killing, a day after he met top government officials visiting from Kabul, makes Mohammad Dawood Muzammil one of the highest-ranking figures killed since the Taliban stormed back to power in 2021.

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How family and Libya conflict radicalised Manchester Arena bomber

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Parents’ extremist views and civil war in the country of their birth set Salman Abedi on path to terrorism

Although Salman Abedi was born in Manchester, on New Year’s Eve in 1994, his path to becoming one of the UK’s most deadly terrorists began in Libya, the country of his parents’ birth.

It was from there that Ramadan Abedi and Samia Tabbal fled in 1993, claiming asylum in the UK on the basis that they faced persecution under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The couple went on to establish new lives in Fallowfield, south Manchester, with their children attending local schools.

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Shamima Begum ruling deals bitter blow to chances of UK return

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Past supreme court ruling meant Siac judges found themselves unable to contradict home secretary

Almost exactly four years after she was stripped of her citizenship, Shamima Begum’s hopes of returning to the UK have been dealt a bitter blow, with the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) upholding the decision.

It is the latest development – and unlikely to be the last – in a legal fight that Begum’s family began in March 2019, one month after the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, took his controversial decision, shortly after she was found in a refugee camp in north-east Syria.

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Shamima Begum loses appeal against removal of British citizenship

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Special immigration appeals commission decides revocation of her citizenship was lawful

Shamima Begum, who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State (IS), has lost an appeal against the decision to remove her British citizenship.

Describing it as a case of “great concern and difficulty”, the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) ruled that although there was “credible suspicion” that Begum was trafficked for sexual exploitation, the decision was ultimately one for the home secretary.

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Rights abuses often ‘tipping point’ for extremist recruitment, UN study finds

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Quality education and exposure to different cultures identified as key preventive factors in African survey

Human rights abuses committed by security forces and economic deprivation are among the most important drivers of recruitment to extremist groups in Africa, a survey has found.

Researchers working for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) interviewed more than 1,000 active or recent militants across eight countries in Africa in the pioneering study.

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US military raid kills key Islamic State regional leader in Somalia, officials say

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Bilal al-Sudani, ‘responsible for fostering the growing presence of IS in Africa’, was killed in strike approved by Joe Biden

A US military raid in Somalia ordered by President Joe Biden this week killed a key regional leader of the Islamic State group, Bilal al-Sudani, according to US officials.

Sudani was killed on Wednesday during a gunfight after US troops descended on a mountainous cave complex in northern Somalia hoping to capture him.

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