Anthony Loyd, in The Times and The Australian, 20 September 2013, where the title is” Will I die today? Face to face with jihadists fueled by hate”
A TEENAGE foreign fighter stepped out into the dusty road before us. Turbanned and wild-eyed, he stared into our car with a gun in one hand, jabbing a finger in repeated accusation with the other. Catalysed with anger, long hair falling over his shoulders, he spoke with a voice that was a tumble of loathing. “ISIS,” murmured our interpreter, alias “Hamza”, confirming we had just driven into a checkpoint controlled by al-Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria. The very word seemed to suck the oxygen out of the vehicle. Infamous for abduction and torture of its enemies, hatred of Westerners and a radical interpretation of sharia, it is believed to be holding two dozen forlorn foreign hostages inside Syria. Continue reading
