Tag: IS

The sun doesn’t always rise in Qayyara

One of the image published by the Sunday Times Magazine on November 27,2016. (Credit Joey L.)

Last month I travelled with photographer Joey L. in Iraq and Syria. In the first part of the journey we worked with Oxfam around Mosul area. It was an amazing reporting experience, especially in Qayyara where the burning oil wells, set on fire by ISIS while retreating. The scene is almost apocalyptic. Oxfam is doing an amazing job on the ground. I have seen first-hand.

The Sunday Times Magazine published Joey’s amazing pictures and my article with the title: “The Day the Sun Never Rose.” Below you will find the longer version of it.

QAYYARA (Iraq) – A haze of thick black smoke obscured the view of the sky. The only source of illumination was a wall of flames at least three-stories high. A constant humming drone came from boiling oil which looked like lava ready to spill out from a volcano. Suddenly a small pin prick of light revealed itself through the thick, noxious clouds- a reminder that it was actually the middle of the day.

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Women in war, some changes on the battlefield

Hello everyone,

I have not been updating the blog for a while. I am sorry about that. The good news is I have been working on several new projects, some of those I hope to show you quite soon.

First of all let me tell you what I have been producing lately. For the website War Is Boring I wrote about Maria Giulia Sergio, aka Fatima. The 27 years-old became the first known Italian woman who has joined ISIS. She left her home town, few miles from Milan, in October 2014, and fled to Syria, where now she is a proud Jihadi bride. While living in the Islamic State she tried to convince her family to join her. Her parents and sister got arrested in one of the most important anti-terrorist operation against IS in Italy. If you want to know about her story, this is the link.

In the meantime I gathered even more evidence on ISIS women fighting on the front lines.  I have been showed a picture of women killed on the battlefields around Kobane, at the height of the fight. The person who took this picture doesn’t want it to go public. They were dressed in uniform and not wearing a niqab, they tried to blend in with male jihadi. There are three bodies amongst a group of seven. Also other YPG foreign fighters claimed to have a killed women fighting with Daesh. I will keep you updated on that.

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Benedetta Argentieri

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