Terrorism Watch

Note: This article contains disturbing graphic images and detailed descriptions of violence and civilian harm. Reader discretion is advised. On the afternoon of 7 March, gunmen from factions affiliated with the Al-Qaeda rooted Syrian government stormed the Alawite village of Sharifa in  Latakia governorate . Joined by armed Sunni civilians from neighboring villages, they massacred 30 people and systematically looted and torched homes and shops over the course of three days. The victims include three women and 27 men. Twelve were over the age of 50, the oldest a 96-year-old farmer. Residents of Sharifa speaking to  The Cradle  provided testimony of the events that took place, as well as photographs of the bodies of 24 of the victims.  A pattern of massacres The massacre in Sharifa was one of many carried out by Syrian government-affiliated armed factions in Alawite villages and cities on Syria’s coast that day.  According  to the Syrian Observatory for Human...

Hyderabad police arrested N. Sri Vidya, alias Karuna, a top Maoist leader with a Rs. 5 lakh bounty, from New Hafeezpet. The wife of prime accused in the Alipiri blast and IPS officer Umesh Chandra’s killing, Sri Vidya was deeply involved in CPI (Maoist) operations and recruitment of tribal youth in Chhattisgarh Hyderabad:  The  Miyapur police  arrested N Sri Vidya alias Karuna, a most wanted State Committee Member of banned CPI (ML) at New Hafeezpet on Thursday. She was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on her head. Sri Vidya, is wife of T Vasudeva Rao alias Ashanna, the state committee member of DKSZC and prime suspect in the assassination of IPS officer Umesh Chandra and Alipiri blast incident involving Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N   Chandrababu Naidu Police said Sri Vidya who hails from Nagarkurnool district had completed engineering from JNTU in Hyderabad and joined the maoist party in 1992. Her siblings were also active members of the party. In the beginning she...

The Yezidi community remains shattered eleven years since the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) launched its genocidal assault against our community in Iraq. As the Middle East continues to experience shockwaves from ongoing conflict and an evolving geopolitical landscape, the priorities of the United Nations (UN), Western states, and Iraq have shifted. One consequence of this shifting landscape has been an erosion of international attention on Yezidi issues, despite the enduring failure to achieve a successful resolution to Yezidi suffering in the aftermath of the Yezidi Genocide. More than  2500 Yezidis remain missing , according to assessments from the Free Yezidi Foundation, and many are believed to be in Syria. While Yezidis had hoped that regime change might lead to the return of many of our missing, this has not been the case. There is still no  coordinated, systematic effort  to identify and rescue the missing; rather, only sporadic rescues. The window of o...