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First film from ground level of RAF strike in Iraq
We don’t know if there were civilian casualties: the peshmerga said they feared the jihadists had forced women to accompany them as human shields.
The polls have closed in Northern Iraq, where Kurds today voted in an historic referendum on independence. The vote, which is non-binding, has been met with fierce opposition from Baghdad and its neighbours. President Erdogan of Turkey has threatened to cut off oil exports from the region.
In Northern Syria, Kurdish and Arab forces have made major gains against the Islamic State in Raqqa, the capital of their purported Caliphate. The most significant Arab contingent fighting Isis comes from one of the largest tribes in the Middle East – the Shammar.
We don’t know if there were civilian casualties: the peshmerga said they feared the jihadists had forced women to accompany them as human shields.
From everyone here, tales of how the IS come into your town or village and offer you the chance to convert to Islam, get out of town and your home – or be killed by bullet or beheading.
The entity of Iraq – invented by Britain – cannot hold, and the utter foolhardiness of 2003’s Shock and Awe adventure has been exposed.
A cross-border mortar attack sparked this latest low in Turkish / Syrian relations, but Lindsey Hilsum reveals it may have more to do with Syria’s role in Turkey’s internal conflict with the Kurds.
I first met Christopher Hitchens when he was driving a jeep across northern Iraq 20 years ago and stopped to offer me a lift. He talked for hours, about anything and everything, and the time whizzed by as we negotiated precarious mountain passes.