In Ankara’s Sincan district, a 24-year-old enslaved Yazidi woman was rescued after her relatives in Australia (who themselves are asylum-seekers) purchased her freedom on the dark web. The woman was held captive in a house in Sincan for 10 months and systematically raped. Signs of torture in the form of cigarette burns and razor cuts were found on her body.
When the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recovered the last pocket of territory from under the control of the Islamic State in March 2019, the problem of how to deal with the foreign fighters who had joined IS but were now seeking to return to their countries of origin (or might do so the near future) became increasingly pressing.
Evidence in terrorism cases is proving difficult to find, while experts warn that the reintegration and rehabilitation of foreign fighters is an even greater challenge.
Since the mid-1990s, more than 200 people have been sentenced to more than 1,100 years in prison in six Western Balkans countries for terrorist acts, or for leaving to fight in a foreign war, according to BIRN analysis.
Iranian security forces have arrested at least 14 foreigners during anti-government protests sparked by the death of a Kurdish-Iranian woman while in custody of the morality police for wearing her hijab improperly.
The Islamic Republic has been lashing out at London-based Iranian news outlets for their coverage of the anti-government protests in Iran.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced sanctions yesterday against Persian-language media outlets in the United Kingdom.
Experts say the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production won’t hit Egypt as hard as some other countries.
The Organization of Oil Exporting Countries and associates, known as OPEC+, decided to cut oil production Oct. 5. The Egyptian cabinet’s associated think tank the Information and Decision Support Center posted a video on Facebook Oct. 11 explaining the move and its repercussions.
The Syrian government and Russia accused the Islamic State of blowing up a troop bus of the Syrian army’s Fourth Division in its main headquarters near Damascus.
At least 18 Syrian soldiers were killed in an IED explosion targeting a military bus in the suburb of al-Saboura in the countryside of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Oct. 13. The state-run Syrian news agency, SANA, quoted an unnamed military source as saying that a bus carrying military troops was hit on the morning of Oct. 13 in a “terrorist attack” that left 18 soldiers dead and 27 others wounded.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an October 19, 2022 address that was aired on Channel 1 (Iran) that in the past, the West had dismissed Iran’s missile and drone technologies, but that today admits that they are very dangerous and complains about Iran supplying them to “so-and-so.” It should be noted that Khamenei’s statement may be a reference to recent reports that Russia has been using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. Khamenei also said that the drones are the pride of Iran. Later in the address, he said that industrial use of nuclear energy has increased throughout the world, and that if Iran had not begun developing its nuclear project many years ago, it would have had to do so now and suffer the consequences of being so far behind the rest of the world.
Tens of thousands of ISIS detainees are housed in temporary prison camps and detention centers in Syria and Iraq by US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).1 Charles Lister, the Director of Syria and Countering Terrorism and Extremism Programs at the Middle East Institute, warned that the international community is ‘doing nothing to prevent the current generation of detainees from wanting to continue to fight if they get out, and creating a melting pot for the next generation.’2
Within hours of Burkina Faso’s second coup this year, the head of Russia’s shadowy mercenary outfit Wagner Group was among the first to congratulate the new junta leader in West Africa.
In a message posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Prigozhin praised the mutinous soldiers for doing what “was necessary.”