Category Archives: Kurds

US repatriates two dozen westerners from Islamic State camp in Syria

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Group includes 11 US citizens, including five minors, but tens of thousands of people remained detained five years after defeat of IS

The United States has repatriated two dozen western citizens, half of them Americans, from Islamic State prison camps in north-eastern Syria where tens of thousands have languished.

The operation is the largest ever of US citizens and comes as rights groups warn of dire conditions in the camps still in use some five years after the ultra-violent extremist movement lost its last territory in Syria.

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Yazidi woman held by IS for 10 years freed by Kurdish fighters in Syria

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Iraqi, 24, rescued with her children from al-Hawl camp after being abducted then raped and forced into marriage

US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria have liberated a Yazidi woman who had been held for a decade by Islamic State (IS), where she was raped and forced to marry extremists.

The 24-year-old woman was rescued with her son and daughter during a security operation by Kurdish fighters in Syria’s al-Hawl camp, which houses tens of thousands of people, mostly the wives and children of Islamic State fighters, the Syrian Democratic Forces said on Monday.

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US-backed Kurdish fighters killed in drone strike on US base in Syria

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Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia, claims attack after at least six fighters killed

At least six US-backed Kurdish fighters have been killed in a drone strike on a US base in eastern Syria claimed by Iranian-backed militia that was the target of US airstrikes on Friday.

The deaths are the latest indicator of how conflict is seeping across the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with ever less predictable consequences for regional stability.

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US and UK issue sanctions on Iran one year on from Mahsa Amini’s death

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Multiple rounds of sanctions mark anniversary of 22-year-old’s death in custody of Iran’s ‘morality police’

The US and Britain on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the death of a Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of Iran’s “morality police”, which sparked months of anti-government protests that faced often violent crackdown.

Amini, 22, died on 16 September last year after being arrested for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code. Her death sparked months of anti-government protests that marked the biggest show of opposition to Iranian authorities in years. Iranian security forces have been deployed in her home town in anticipation of unrest this weekend.

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UN complaint lodged over Turkish airstrikes on hospital in Iraq

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Exclusive: Survivors and witnesses bring case to human rights council over 2021 attack killing eight people

Turkish airstrikes that allegedly targeted a civilian hospital and killed eight people in Iraq have been made the subject of a formal complaint to the UN human rights council.

It is the first case to be brought on the issue of Turkish airstrikes against the Yazidi people. The attack on 17 August 2021 destroyed the Sikeniye medical clinic in Sinjar and left more than 20 people injured.

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Finland’s way into Nato clears as hold-out Turkey votes in favour

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Parliament in Ankara passes bill allowing membership after second-to-last objector, Hungary, voted in favour

Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, clearing the way for Helsinki to join the western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine.

The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership, after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill this week.

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Turkey summons Swedish ambassador over Erdoğan effigy

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Swedish government distances itself from hanging of presidential dummy in Stockholm stunt by Kurdish group

Turkey has summoned the Swedish ambassador after a Kurdish group hung an effigy of the Turkish president in Stockholm, in a stunt that has inflamed tensions between the two countries over Sweden’s bid to join Nato.

Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, said his government strongly distanced itself from “threats and hatred against political representatives”. Without naming any specific country, he added: “Portraying a popularly elected president as being executed outside City Hall is abhorrent.”

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Iran’s supreme court accepts protester’s appeal against death sentence

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Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh is accused of damaging public property during anti-government riots and ‘waging war against God’

Iran’s supreme court has accepted a protester’s appeal against his death sentence for allegedly damaging public property during anti-government demonstrations, and sent his case back for review, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, 25, was arrested on 4 October and sentenced to death two months later on the charge of “waging war against God” for allegedly trying to break a highway guardrail in Tehran and setting a rubbish bin on fire.

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Suspect in Paris shooting ‘had pathological hatred of foreigners’

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The man, 69, was held on Friday after killing three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby cafe

The French man detained over the killing of three Kurdish people in Paris last week has told investigators he had a “pathological” hatred of foreigners, the city’s prosecutor said on Sunday.

The 69-year-old man was arrested on Friday after shooting dead two men and a woman in a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in the 10th district of Paris, which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described as a “vile” attack on the Kurds of France.

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Kurdish rapper wins appeal against death sentence in Iran

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Saman Yasin had denied charges of attempting to kill security forces

Iran’s supreme court has accepted an appeal by rapper Saman Yasin against his death sentence even as it confirmed the same sentence against another protester.

Yasin, a well-known and acclaimed Kurdish artist and rapper, has been a vocal critic of the Iranian regime amid the current unrest. He wrote messages of support for protesters on his social media channels and has written several protest songs.

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Paris police use teargas on protesters decrying Kurdish centre killings

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Hundreds rally after three people allegedly shot by man awaiting trial for refugee camp attack

Protesters have clashed with police as they call for justice over the killing of three people in a Kurdish neighbourhood in Paris.

Several hundred representatives of France’s Kurdish community gathered at Republic Square on Saturday to demand answers over the killings, which they say have left the community afraid.

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Escape from Iran: protesters regroup in Iraq after perilous journey

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Daily shows of dissent against repressive 43-year clerical rule continue, with exiled demonstrators asking for help from the west

In late October, Paiman, an Iranian protester from the restive city of Mahabad, lay in a hospital ward, guarded by regime officials who had gunned him down during anti-government demonstrations.

Buckshot from a shotgun blast riddled his legs and torso, and blows to his head with wooden clubs had left him dazed and in agony.

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Top Iran footballer arrested at club for ‘spreading propaganda against the state’

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Detention of Voria Ghafouri, who is not part of World Cup squad, seen as warning to players in Qatar

Iranian security forces on Thursday arrested one of the country’s most famous footballers, accusing him of spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic and seeking to undermine the national World Cup team.

Voria Ghafouri, a former member of the national football team and once a captain of the Tehran club Esteghlal, has been outspoken in his defence of Iranian Kurds, telling the government on social media to stop killing Kurdish people. He has previously been detained for criticising the former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

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Turkey confirms deadly airstrikes in Syria and Iraq targeting Kurdish groups

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Strikes launched in retaliation for Istanbul bombing target ‘terrorist bases’, but civilian deaths reported by Kurdish officials

Turkey launched deadly airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish defence ministry said on Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for last week’s bomb attack in Istanbul.

Warplanes attacked bases belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry said in a statement, which was accompanied by images of F-16 jets taking off and footage of a strike from an aerial drone.

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Turkey bombs towns across northern Syria after Istanbul bombing, say reports

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Airstrikes reported against towns including Kobane, held by Kurdish militia opposed by Turkey

Turkish airstrikes hit several towns across northern Syria, including the city of Kobane late on Saturday, Kurdish-led forces and a Britain-based monitoring group have said.

The attacks come days after Ankara blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for last Sunday’s deadly bombing in central Istanbul.

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Kurdish militants deny Turkish claims they carried out Istanbul attack

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Armed wing of PKK party says it would not target civilians after bomb leaves six dead and 81 injured

The armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has denied any role in an attack on a main Istanbul shopping street, shortly after Turkish officials blamed Kurdish militants for the deadly blast.

Six people died and 81 were injured when a bomb struck Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue, timed to strike when it was most crowded. Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said that “a woman sat on a bench there for 45 minutes”, and that the explosion occurred moments after she left.

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Istanbul bombing: 46 detained as Turkey minister blames Kurdish separatists

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Six people died and 81 were injured when Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue was hit by a bomb attack

Turkey’s interior minister has accused Kurdish militants in northern Syria of responsibility for a bombing in a busy Istanbul shopping thoroughfare that killed six people, and said that a suspect had been arrested.

Six people died and 81 were injured when a bomb struck Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue, timed to strike when it was most crowded. Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said that “a woman sat on a bench there for 45 minutes”, and that the explosion occurred moments after she left.

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‘An amazing feeling’: asylum seeker stuck in hotel thanks Observer readers for sending books

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Ali, a Kurd who fled Iran, may also be offered a university place after he told of the tedium of 500 days in limbo

An asylum seeker who has spent almost 500 days stranded in a Berkshire hotel has thanked Observer readers for their generosity after he was inundated with books.

Last week Ali featured in an article articulating life in limbo for the 37,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, with the Kurdish Iranian lamenting that the one thing he craved to relieve the tedium was a book to read.

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Iran protests reignite at funerals and commemorations for those killed

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Protesters turn out in dozens of towns and appear to take control of largely Kurdish city of Mahabad

Protests against the Iranian government have suddenly regained momentum as funerals for those killed and a highly emotional commemoration of the movement have stretched security forces drawn into a further cycle of arrests and repression.

Dozens of towns were rocked by protests on Wednesday night as mainly young crowds used the cover of darkness to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody, sparking unprecedented unrest.

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Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

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Teargas also used against protesters gathered in home town of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s home town to mark 40 days since her death, with reports that shots were fired.

“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded. It said more than 50 civilians were injured by direct fire in cities across the region.

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