Hussein said that after the Iraqi military, with help from Shiite militias and international forces, largely defeated the Islamic State in 2017, Iraqis had begun to think that a long period of successive conflicts was behind them. ADAD“But once again we’re facing threat of war,” he said. This month, Turkey launched an offensive in northeastern Syria targeting Syrian Kurdish fighters who aided the United States in the battle against the Islamic State. Turkey views the Syrian Kurds as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has waged a ­war for autonomy in Turkey. The Kurds have maintained a constellation of prisons in Syria holding thousands of Islamic State militants, a handful of whom are believed to have already escaped amid the recent turmoil.

Source: Washington Post October 21, 2019 23:03 UTC