Putin claims attackers were heading to Ukraine despite ISIS taking responsibility

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the attackers behind Friday's deadly shooting at a concert hall in Moscow were headed to Ukraine when they apprehended by Russian authorities. The Russian president made this link despite repeated claims by the so-called Islamic State that they were behind the attack.

The crisis in Mali

 

Northern Mali fell into the hands of armed jihadists in 2012. This resulted in the launch of the French-led "Operation Serval," designed to liberate the occupied territory. But the crisis only worsened.

Is a new strategy needed to fight armed groups in the Sahel?

 

Mali pulls out of the regional G5 Sahel force, blaming a lack of progress and disagreements.

A founding member of a multinational West African security alliance is pulling out.

Mali is withdrawing from the G5 Sahel joint force fighting armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda.

How climate change is leading to a rise in violence in the Sahel

 

The UN estimates 80 percent of the Sahel’s rain-fed farmland is affected by degradation due to erratic rainfall.

More than 1.3 million people have been plunged into extreme poverty in the Sahel, as the Belt of Africa experiences its deepest recession since independence due to COVID-19.

The children of IS: 'It's a disaster we cannot deal with'

 

Thousands of wives and children of the Islamic State group's foreign fighters are currently being held in camps in Northern Syria.

The forgotten victims of IS

 

Najlaa Matto is a Yazidi. As a young woman living in Iraq, she was abducted and enslaved by IS fighters. After she was freed, Najlaa went back to her home village and met other former slaves who told her about the ordeals they’d suffered.

How Mozambique Failed a Town Attacked by Militants | Visual Investigations

 

Insurgents who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State attacked the strategic town of Palma in March. We interviewed survivors and used videos, satellite imagery and ship-tracking data to show how Mozambique’s government failed to protect its civilians — leaving thousands to fend for themselves.

Shamima Begum cannot return to UK says Supreme Court - BBC News

 

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Shamima Begum, who ran away from Britain when she was 15 to join the Islamic State group in Syria, should not be allowed to return, to challenge the removal of her British citizenship.

Mosul after ISIS | DW Documentary

Mosul, Iraq, was finally liberated from ISIS in July 2017 after nine months of devastating battle. The city is the second largest in Iraq, and it was here that the Caliphate was proclaimed in 2014. A look at the situation in Mosul today. The rule of so-called Islamic State has left deep scars in Mosul. Thousands of buildings were reduced to rubble during the fight to regain the city from the armed group. Some say the battle in Mosul on 10 July, 2017 was the most serious combat operation since World War II.

Inside ISIS’s Former Capital: The Forgotten People of Raqqa

We went back to Raqqa, which was liberated more than a year and a half ago, to see how people were getting by. We saw Syrians dancing to celebrate the final battle against ISIS. But destruction is still all around and progress is slow. The fear now is that frustration could breed radicalization once again.

How Islamist militant groups are gaining strength in Africa

Islamist terrorist groups have found a new home and it's not in the Middle East -- it's in Africa. Specifically, the Sahel, a band of territory in West Africa between the Sahara desert and the savannah. Since the early 2000s, Islamist extremist groups have increasingly strengthened their base here -- training fighters, raising money, and launching a massive number of attacks. Some are linked to al-Qaeda and other Islamic State. This is throwing these already weak countries into crises and making the region one of the most dangerous in the world.

ISIL: An Eye for an Eye in Iraq

Behind the scenes with the controversial female commander of an Iraqi militia group on the hunt for ISIL fighters.

For over three years, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) controlled and terrorised large swaths of northern Iraq.

Then, after it was militarily defeated and largely driven out by the Iraqi army and international forces in late 2017, local militias took over short term responsibility for law and order in some of the areas ISIL had relinquished.

They began searching for fugitives, meting out an uncompromising form of justice on captured enemy fighters and their alleged civilian collaborators who came into their hands.

Afghanistan: The General

We meet John Nicholson, Trump's top general in Afghanistan, to find out if the conflict can ever be brought to an end.

Last year, US President Donald Trump announced a "new" strategy for his country's forces in Afghanistan.

The plan involved reversing his predecessor's phased withdrawal, bumping up the number of US troops to as many as 15,000, and giving new authority to US commanders to strike the Taliban in an effort to force the group to eventually negotiate a truce with the Afghan government.

But 17 years since the original US-led invasion, there are no signs that this approach is proving any more successful than those that have gone before it.

Kabul bombings: The perils of being a journalist in Afghanistan

Ten journalists were killed in the deadliest attack on Afghanistan's media since 2001. Plus, Winnie Mandela's legacy.

Afghanistan: 10 journalists killed in a single day

The Afghan journalists rushing to the site of an explosion this past week in Kabul were trying to cover the news.

They didn't realise it was set up.

Amid the media scrum, a second suicide bomber, disguised as a news cameraman, detonated his device.

The attacks, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS), left 29 people dead, including 10 journalists. They were a brutal reminder of the perils of being in the news business in Afghanistan.

Syria: Witnesses for the Prosecution

Meet the evidence hunters risking it all to collect and document evidence of war crimes committed during Syria's war.

For the past five years, ordinary Syrians have been collecting evidence of war crimes committed against civilians during the country's ongoing civil war. 

We will punish these criminals. We believe that the victims have the right to see their torturers judged. Abdelkader, director of the Syrian Institute for Justice

They film, take photographs and collect physical evidence in the hope that one day the perpetrators will be punished.

They have recovered military orders, collected bomb fragments, taken toxic samples, filmed mutilated bodies and archived thousands of testimonies to make sure the trace of evidence does not disappear.

ISIL and the Taliban

Al Jazeera gains unprecedented access to ISIL's central leadership and explores the threat it poses to the Taliban.

Raising its black flag over the rugged mountainous regions of Afghanistan, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has emerged as a new threat to the war-ravaged country as it battles the Taliban for supremacy. 

Employing violence and brutality to impose its will ,  Wilayat Khorasan, (the ancient name ISIL has chosen for the region made up of Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of neighbouring countries), has emerged in seven different areas and vowed to step up operations, where the veteran fighters - the Taliban - once held sway.

Taking Back Marawi

101 East joined the Philippine military in their final battle against ISIL in the southern city of Marawi.

ISIL captured the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines to turn it into a new caliphate of the so-called Islamic State. It was an audacious move that took the government and military by surprise.

A fierce and deadly war ensued, signalling the group's determination to bring its battle from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Ground and aerial bombardment have left Marawi in ruins. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed; 160 of them soldiers.

Liberation or obliteration? Telling the Raqqa story

How media on different sides of the Syrian war portrayed the capture of Raqqa from ISIL. Plus, Syria's Lebanon refugees.

Competing narratives on Raqqa

More than three years ago, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, which is also known as ISIS) captured the city of Raqqa and declared it the capital of its caliphate.

Images that emerged from the city, of atrocities used as propaganda, have been some of the most gruesome and distressing media output to emerge from a war that continues to cause untold suffering.

When the Syrian Democratic Forces finally rolled into al-Naim Square, Western journalists travelling with them told a story of triumph and liberation.

Lion Cubs of ISIL: Children of the Caliphate (video)

Teenagers and young boys as well as their relatives and guardians give testimonies of life and death under ISIL.

They are called "ashbal" - the lion cubs of the "caliphate".

"We were the 'cleaners' group," says Kasswara*, a 16-year-old boy from Raqqa. "Cleaning means slitting the throats of those who belong to the other side and are hiding."

Kasswara joined ISIL when he was 14 years old. He now lives in Greece after fleeing the group. 

"A guy from my area was decapitated by [ISIL] because of me. People had their hands chopped off because of me," he says. 

Could battle for Raqqa bring the end of ISIL in Syria?

Syrian Democratic Forces have launched a major operation against ISIL's last stronghold in Syria.

When ISIL took control of Raqqa in 2014, the Syrian province became the first to fall under the armed group's full control.

ISIL fighters went on a rampage killing thousands of civilians and used Raqqa city to plan attacks overseas.

Now, three years later, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have launched, according to them, the final assault to take back Raqqa from ISIL. It is not clear how many ISIL fighters are still inside the city.

But an SDF spokesman says some ISIL fighters appear to be withdrawing from the province's capital, using civilians as human shields. Others have been allowed to leave after a deal was brokered by tribal leaders on Saturday.