Russia’s intervention in the Syrian Civil War has been controversial to say the least. For instance, Russia has denied bombing hospitals and clinics in rebel held parts of Syria and then blamed the US for the bombings despite evidence to the contrary. Adding to the list of controversies involving the Russian intervention in Syria, in this…
From eastern Aleppo to Raqqa to Mosul, the Islamic State (IS) appears to be losing ground on all sides in recent months. The same pattern holds true in southeastern Syria, a region that stretches from the Jordanian border to the city of Palmyra to the Euphrates river and only rarely features in reporting on the…
A’maq News Agency, a media outlet linked to the so-called Islamic State, has claimed that the United States used white phosphorous munitions in the ongoing Battle for Mosul on March 11, 2017. This claim was reiterated by two local sources, Salah al-Shorbagy and the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, saying that white phosphorous was used in Mosul….
The Turkish military operation dubbed ‘Euphrates Shield’ (ES) began on August 24, 2016, aiming to clear an area of 5,000 square kilometres of Syrian territory, and is conducted jointly with Syrian rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Within four months, over 2,000 square kilometres were captured from so-called Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish…
This article was last updated on July 31, 2017, when a public map of all geolocated SVBIED attacks in and around Mosul was published by Twitter user @obretix. Mosul was captured by so-called Islamic State (IS) militants in June 2014. More than two years later, on October 16, 2016, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared…
This article was written collaboratively with additional participation of Bellingcat contributors Timmi Allen and Aric Toler. On December 21st, Bellingcat found several Facebook profiles of Anis Amri, the main suspect in the killing of 12 and wounding of 49 people in the December 19th Berlin Christmas market on Breidscheitplatz. The fingerprints and documents of 24-year-old…
On Thursday, October 27, militants from the self-declared Islamic State’s Somali affiliate seized the port town of Qandala, in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region of Somalia. Eyewitness accounts claim that after cutting off communications, militants faced no resistance as they entered the town. To confirm their capture of the town, ISIS’s propaganda wing released a…
With the first Iraqi government forces entering Mosul’s outskirts, the Battle for Mosul is entering its more messy, chaotic, and violent phase as forces will enter more densely populated areas. With up to 1.5 millions civilians still living in the Iraqi city held by so-called Islamic State (IS), officials and aid agencies have warned for…
On August 30, 2016, ʻAmāq News Agency announced the death of the 39-year old Ṭaha Subhī Falaḥa (1977), better known as Abū Muhammad al-‘Adnānī (Arabic: أبو محمد العدناني; hereafter simply referred to as ‘Adnani’), the chief spokesperson for the so-called Islamic State (IS). The killing of Adnani is a significant blow for IS, given…
On August 16th 2016 reports of an ISIS chemical attack emerged from the town of Marea, north of Aleppo. This is not the first time Marea has been targeted by ISIS chemical attacks, with earlier attacks including the use of a chemical agent believed to be mustard gas and chlorine. Syrian journalist Yasser Alhaji provided…
