Published by The i paper (23rd August, 2021) Ten years ago, I stood in the ransacked residence of the British ambassador to Libya, staring through a hole blasted […]
Britain’s refusal to take Yazidi victims of genocide flies in face of May’s talk on modern slavery
Published by The ipaper (18th March, 2019) Five years ago I was reporting from Iraq when I wrote about Kocho, a Yazidi village where Islamic State (IS) fanatics […]
She said she was terrified her son would die in camp
Published by The Mail on Sunday (10th March, 2019) Shamima Begum told me she was ‘terrified’ her baby son Jarrah would die when we met inside a Syrian […]
Plight of the little boys brainwashed into being ISIS suicide bombers
Published by The Mail on Sunday (3rd March, 2019) Milad was just seven when Islamic State gunmen tore him from his family as they cowered in a building alongside […]
IS zealots face final assault as coalition forces close
Published by The Mail on Sunday (3rd March, 2019) Thick black smoke rose over the Syrian village of Baghouz yesterday as Western-backed forces advanced on two fronts in […]
More British jihadi brides hide among us in camp, say IS women
Published by The Mail on Sunday (24th February, 2019) British women fleeing from Islamic State’s last pocket of land are giving false names and hiding their identities among […]
This war is far from over
Published by The i paper (18th February, 2019) How little they learn from history. Just 16 years ago President George W. Bush stood on the deck of an […]
Death squads roam in the ruins of the caliphate
Published by The Mail on Sunday (17th February, 2019) The civilians able to escape have fled. Now there are just an estimated 500 fighters, many of them foreigners, […]
The tragedy of Syria: how protest spiralled into savagery
Published by The Spectator (26th April, 2018) Two Sisters: Into the Syrian Jihad by Asne Seierstad (Virago); No Turning Back: Life, Loss and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid (Oneworld) […]
The Assad files
Published by The Mail on Sunday (3rd December, 2017) The room looks harmless enough, with dull grey shelves and stacks of cardboard boxes packed to overflowing with maps […]