Arab world

    An ISIS fighter’s wife has told how she met wanted White Widow terrorist Sally Jones and schoolgirl runaways who fled to Syria to become Jihadi brides. Speaking from a safe house in Syria today Islam Mitat, who was forced by her British husband Ahmed to go to Syria three years ago while he became a IS fighter, told setting up home with British teenagers in Raqqa. After escaping from the beseiged town the 23-year-0ld tells of what life has been like for the British Muslim girls who left their schools and homes in the UK to become teen Jihadi brides. Islam, who arrived in Syria three years ago against her will, said it like Little Britain because there were so many young people from the UK there. She shared a home with the notorious Manchester terror twins, and the three sch...

    A Yazidi girl who escaped from the Islamic State (Isis) has told of how she was raped every day for six months by her captor. Ekhlas, who was 14 when she imprisoned, tried to escape jihadis in northern Iraq by climbing Mount Sinjar but was caught and held as a sex slave. In 2014, Isis began to target the Yazidis, an ethnic Kurdish group, which Isis believes are devil worshippers. At the time it was reported that as many as 40,000 people had taken refuge on the mountain, as Isis fighters killed men and captured women and children in the region. Everyday for six months he raped me. I tried to kill myself, Ekhlas told the BBC. He picked me out of 150 girls by drawing lots. He was so ugly, like a beast, with his long hair. He smelt so bad. I was so frightened I couldn’t look a...

    A Christian man has been charged with murdering his daughter over her relationship with a Muslim man in Israel. Sami Karra denies killing his 17-year-old daughter, Henriette, in what prosecutors describe as a suspected honour killing. An indictment seen by local media said the Israeli Arab family objected to her relationship with the man, who was serving time in prison, and intention to convert to Islam for him. Their year-long relationship had sparked vehement opposition from relatives, whose threats allegedly forced her to flee her home in May and send messages to friend fearing they are sending people to kill me. Police and social services had intervened in the case, summoning Henriette and her parents to a joint meeting on 11 June two days before she was killed and sug...

    A 16-year-old German schoolgirl who ran away from home to join Islamic State has been captured in the ruins of the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to reports. Identified only as Linda W from the town of Pulsnitz near Dresden, she fled a year ago after flying from Frankfurt to Turkey before making her way to Syria. She fell in with Isis offshoot groups before being smuggled into Iraq. Radicalised in Germany, she changed her name to Mariam and sometimes posted photos of herself on her Facebook page wearing a headscarf. Authorities in Germany, who listed her as a potential terror suspect after her disappearance, confirmed they are examining the photos of her captured in newly liberated Mosul to determine it is actually her. She was among 20 Islamic State followers seized after...

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tuesday it had information from top Islamic State group leaders confirming the death of the jihadist organisation’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir Ezzor province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory, director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how.

    Sally Jones who the former punk rocker who became the leading female recruitment officer for IS, married a now-dead jihadist and took her son to Raqqa wants to come home to Britain, it has been claimed. That is, at least, the view of Aisha, the wife of another immigrant to the so-called Islamic caliphate now under Kurdish guard in a refugee camp in Syria. In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Aisha (her real name is being withheld) insisted that very few immigrants to the 'caliphate' wanted to join the war. And that includes Sally Jones. I asked her: Did you meet many British people? She replied: I know one - Umma Hussain al Britani. She used Jones' nom de guerre. Junaid Hussain was IS' chief of digital jihad. He was killed by a US drone in 2015 while planning terror pl...

    Qatar's stock exchange has dropped following an extended holiday closure as the tiny Gulf nation faces a deadline to accept demands from four Arab countries. The benchmark QE Index lost more than 3 percent Sunday before recovering some of its losses later in the trading session to close down 2.3 percent at 8,822.15. The market was last open before the Eid Al-Fitr holiday on June 22. That was the day that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain issued Qatar a 13-point list of demands and gave it 10 days to comply. Qatar faces possible further sanctions by Arab states over Doha's links to terrorism, as a deadline to accept their demands expired on Sunday night. The countries have said they will impose further sanctions against Qatar if it does not comply wi...

    Boycott of Qatar sends a message to Doha that our patience has eventually run out, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir stated in a new tweet via the official account of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said in the tweet that the demands sent to Qatar are nonnegotiable and that Saudi Arabia rejects Qatar’s support for terrorism and extremism which jeopardizes the security of the Kingdom and the region. He said that Qatar did not abide by its commitments and did not fulfill its promises to stop supporting and funding terrorism as well as interfering in the internal affairs of neighboring states. Jubeir said in a statement from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington three days ago that any country in the world cannot accept the principle of funding extremist org...

    The world media has been giving extended coverage to Prince Muhammad Bin Salman since he was officially named Saudi Crown Prince on June 21. More than a week later, he continues to dominate the larger portion of Saudi-related news abroad. Former US diplomat Dennis Ross is among some prominent analysts who have highlighted the achievements of the Crown Prince and how he has managed the ambitious project of Vision 2030. In an opinion article, published by US NEWS on Thursday, Ross foresaw Saudi Arabia’s future with Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, referring to his efforts to diversify the country’s economy and modernity as he promised to expand sources of revenue and maximize resources. Some features of the change refer to musical concerts and other events that have staged ...

    Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Turkey Walid Al-Khuraiji has said that the Turkish base in Qatar complicates the situation. He also expressed Riyadh’s hope that Ankara would take a neutral position on the crisis with Doha. Any regional forces are mistaken if they think that their intervention will solve the issue, and we expect these forces to respect the existing regional order and to resolve any emergency issue, Al-Khuraiji said in an interview with Turkey’s daily newspaper Daily Sabah. We hoped that Ankara would stay impartial for the sake of keeping good relations with all the Gulf countries, he said. When Ankara sided with Doha, it lost its neutrality as an unbiased party seeking mediation, he said. Bringing foreign armies from regional countries, and armored mechanisms,...