In northern Syria, Kurds have carved out an autonomous region. But with the US decision to pull its troops out, the region is under threat from the Assad regime and from Turkey. Some women in the town of Derrick are preparing for a possible attack.
Kurds
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In Bashir, a Shiite Turkmen town recently liberated from the “Islamic State,” tensions that could lead to a new conflict in Iraq are palpable.
Gangs of destitute Iraqis pick through dump outside Erbil as the city, once a beacon of prosperity, struggles with economic and refugee crises.
With thousands of displaced families in Fallujah escaping the horrors of ISIL, the Kurdish town of Shaqlawa has seen its population swell – yet still welcomes the Sunni Arabs afraid of sectarian hatred in Iraq’s south.
While neighbouring Kurds make headlines, tensions simmer quietly in Iran as an exiled Kurdish group seeks to capitalise on growing discontent.
While both Iraq’s Kurdish fighters and Shiite militias played a key role in blunting and then reversing ISIL’s surge in Iraq, relations have been shaky from the outset.
The Arta FM station strives to remain impartial, and focuses its reporting not on the war, but on the everyday lives of people living in Rojava, as the autonomous region in northern Syria is known.
With Turkey enforcing an economic blockade on Kurdish-controlled areas neighbouring the extremists’ stronghold, residents have little choice but to cross over into the relatively prosperous city.
As thousands of the country’s refugees risk their lives every day to enter Europe, Kobani’s residents are moving the other way, leaving camps in Turkey to rebuild their lives in the midst of a seemingly endless civil war.
Kurdish militias keep ISIS at bay on the plains of northern Syria. They will become a key US ally in the fight against the terror group.
The Kurds and the Shiite units have proven ISIL’s most effective opponents, but in Jalawla, the differences between the reluctant brothers in arms could not be papered over.
Months of battling ISIL in the Yazidi city has turned these fresh-face recruits into hardened warriors.