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Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

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Syria / World

Assad’s downfall is cause for celebration

Published by The i paper (9th December, 2024) Thirteen years ago, seven boys sat around in school swigging soft drinks after a game of football while television reports […]

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Europe / Greece / Immigration / Policy / Turkey / World

Ankara plays pass the asylum-seeker

Published by The i paper (9th March 2020) The scenes of squalor and stories of despair had a sordid sense of familiarity. On Friday night I stood at […]

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Europe / Greece / Immigration / Policy / Turkey / World

Greek police beat us, stole our money, phones, even our shoes. Then they dumped us back in Turkey

Published by The Mail on Sunday (8th March, 2020) Having fled one of Syria’s many bloodstained battlegrounds, Muhammad spent years struggling as a refugee in southern Turkey. Last week, […]

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Arts / Film / Syria / Technology / World

Have we forgotten Syria?

Published by UnHerd (20th September, 2019) A few weeks ago, I bumped into Omran, a musician friend, who was serving salads, humous and pastries in a Lebanese cafe. […]

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Syria / World

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 […]

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Syria / World

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 […]

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Syria / World

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 […]

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Arts / Music / Syria / World

Hello Syria! Joss Stone plays the world’s most unlikely gig

Published by The Mail on Sunday (3rd March, 2019) When British singer Joss Stone, barefoot as usual, walked on stage and greeted the crowd, she began one of […]

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Arts / Books / Health / Policy / Syria / World

The doctor stitching up Syria’s wounded

Published by The Times (2nd March, 2019) War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott (Picador) David Nott was about to stitch up a vein in the […]

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Crime / Policy / Syria / World

Human rights are a given, not a gift

Published by The i paper (25th February, 2019) Last Thursday, standing inside Al-Hol camp in northern Syria, I came across a bedraggled girl. She was stripping off her […]

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Syria / World

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 […]

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Iraq / Syria / World

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 […]

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

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