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For the first time urban terrorism, guerrilla tactics and conventional fighting have been combined in a lethal blend
Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn is an award-winning Independent columnist who specialises in analysis of Iraq, Syria and wars in the Middle East. In 2014 he forecast the rise of Isis. He also did graduate work at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queens University Belfast and has written about the effects of the Troubles on Irish and British policy in light of his experience.
The state of the Syrian war
What is striking about Tony Blair’s latest comments about his role in the Iraq War is how little he had learnt about…
The Russians and Iranians should be integrated as far as possible into any talks about the future of Syria
On 16 June, Kurdish militiamen, with the support of US airstrikes, captured the town of Tal Abyad in northern Syria, a major crossing point on the Syrian-Turkish border
Despite the PYD’s insistence that it is more than just a Kurdish nationalist party, sectarian and ethnic loyalties are at the heart of the multi-layered civil wars convulsing Syria and Iraq
As the militant threat grows, so does the West’s self-deception
Foreign states that go to war in Yemen usually come to regret it
“I left them because I was afraid and deeply troubled by this horrible situation. The justice they were calling for when they first arrived in Fallujah turned out to be only words”
The savagery of the sectarian and ethnic conflict in Iraq is now such that no community feels safe under the rule of another, preferring to take to the roads in a bid to survive