Kids in ISIS Detention Camps Don’t Deserve This Fate

Feb. 6, 2022 By Peter W. Galbraith “I am scared I’ll die anytime,” the teenager said in his 11-second voice message. “Please help me.” He was a human shield for ISIS, one of about 150 foreign minors taken hostage in a prison in northeastern Syria last month. Even if he survived the siege, his prospects were bleak. While the West has

Women Enslaved by ISIS Say They Did Not Consent to a Film About The

The acclaimed documentary “Sabaya” portrays the rescue of Yazidi women sexually enslaved by the Islamic State terrorist group. But many of the traumatized women said they never agreed to be in the film. By Jane Arraf and Sangar Khaleel/ Sept. 26, 2021 In a critically acclaimed documentary on the rescue of women and girls sexually enslaved

Syria’s Kurds Wanted Autonomy. They Got an Endless War

The Kurds of northeastern Syria dreamed of establishing an autonomous, multiethnic and gender-equal utopia. Instead, their breakaway region has been engulfed in conflict since its creation. By Jane Arraf/ Feb. 7, 2022 Suad Shukri arrived early one morning last week to visit her son’s grave. An hour later, the small cemetery would be thronged by thousands

3,000 Yazidis Are Still Missing. Their Families Know Where Some of Them Are.

Seven years after they were captured by the Islamic State, some members of the Iraqi religious minority are still being held captive by fighters in Syria. Others are with families of ISIS militants. By Jane Arraf and Sangar Khaleel/ Oct. 3, 2021 The voice messages sent by Abbas Hussein’s teenage son are heartbreaking in their matter-of-factness.

Death of Mahsa Amini Ignites Fury Among Fellow Kurds

The protests that have swept Iran following the death of a woman in police custody have been especially intense in the country’s minority Kurdish population. Protesters in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan Region, burning an Iranian flag on Saturday. By Jane Arraf and Farnaz Fassihi/ Sept. 25, 2022 The protests that have thrust Iran into turmoil

Independence Dream Fades in Iraqi Kurdistan

by Tom Westcott ‘The referendum was our right and our destiny. But the timing was really bad.’ The Kurdish region of northern Iraq has evolved since Kurds voted for independence in 2017. Two years ago, Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted ‘yes’ in a landmark independence referendum. But the bid was carried out against the wishes of Iraq’s

What the World Loses if Turkey Destroys the Syrian Kurds

A radical political experiment is in peril. By Jenna Krajeski/ Ms. Krajeski is a journalist with the Fuller Project for International Reporting. Oct. 14, 2019 Members of the American Rojava Center for Democracy, which supports the Syrian Kurds, protesting outside the White House. In spring 2015, the only semiofficial way to enter the Kurdish-controlled areas of

The U.S. Turned Syria’s North Into a Tinderbox

The violence precipitated by the American withdrawal is an outcome of tensions that have been building since the conflict began more than eight years ago. A Syrian Kurdish fighter patrolling a hill near the village of Derik, Syria, in 2015. By Max Fisher Oct. 15, 2019 To understand why President Trump’s withdrawal from Syria has unleashed such

How to Save Iraq?

The PM has improved relations with the Sunni minority and the Kurds. But he can’t meet the demands of the protesters without fixing the economy. By Ranj Alaaldin/ Mr. Alaaldin is a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and an expert on Iraq. Oct. 8, 2019 Anti-government protesters in Baghdad. Iraqis have had enough. After years

The Plight of Kurds in Sinjar

After escaping torture, rape, and enslavement by the Islamic State in 2014, more than 20,000 of Sinjar’s 250,000 Yazidis have returned to what’s left of their hometown in northeastern Iraq. But this homecoming has not been easy. Much of Sinjar was destroyed either by IS or in the battle for liberation. Most Yazidis, an Iraqi religious minority,