The World from PRX

Raqqa

boy in his room playing guitar
Shadow of ISIS
His stepfather took him to Syria in 2014. His ordeal had just begun.
12:01
Wafaa Mustafa was married to American ISIS fighter Russell Dennison.
Shadow of ISIS
‘We have no future’: A Syrian woman speaks about her life with an American ISIS member
6:37
Shadow of ISIS
‘I have to work to help my family’: Child laborers in Raqqa face dangerous conditions
A woman walks inside a medical center that deals with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing in Idlib, Syria, April 13, 2020.
COVID-19
ISIS families held in Syrian camps face uncertain futures. Now, the coronavirus also looms.
Smoke rises after an air strike during fighting between members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria,
Conflict & Justice
Pentagon’s civilian death count was off by a factor of 10
A middle-aged man stands at a podium with the Turkish and Iranian flag behind him.
Turkey to delay Syria operation as ISIS mounts attack
Macer Gifford, a British volunteer who joined the Kurds in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Conflict
British volunteers in Syria took on ISIS. Now they face possible arrest back home.
A girl attends her first class at a school in Hazema in north Raqqa, Syria.
Conflict
In Syria, all girls want is safety and school
Syrian Democratic Forces fighters dance along a street in Raqqa, Syria, on Oct. 18, 2017.
Conflict
Raqqa liberated from ISIS: ‘My city is now ruined and burned down’
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) celebrate the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa, Syria.
Conflict
A Raqqa resident asks why militia had to destroy his city to liberate it
Fighting continues in Syria, where Kurdish troops from the People's Protection Units are facing down ISIS militants in Raqqa, Syria.
Conflict
Is Syria ‘the war of our time, a humanitarian test of our time?’
Former US Army Sgt. Nicholas Warden seen in a video posted by the Kurdish anti-ISIS forces, YPG, which calls him a "martyr."
Conflict
Watch: Video testimonies of American and British volunteer fighters killed in Syria
A fighter of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fires an anti-aircraft weapon from Tel Tawil village in the direction of Islamic State fighters positioned in the countryside of the town of Tel Tamr in 2015.
Conflict
Three years after declaring a ‘caliphate,’ ISIS is failing
The Marines deploying in Syria reportedly have M777 howitzers, seen here with artillerymen at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.
Conflict
US Marines are deploying to fight ISIS in Raqqa, Syria
Laura Passoni took her four-year-old son to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS and realized quickly she'd made a terrible mistake. "From that moment I did everything to try to leave so that my son wouldn’t become a terrorist,” she says.
Books
A Belgian woman explains why she joined ISIS, and why she came back
A US armed forces member stands near a military vehicle, north of Raqqa, Syria on Nov. 6.
Conflict
US-backed forces launch assault on ISIS ‘capital’ in Syria
A bus in the city of Aleppo, Syria on July 13, 2015.
Conflict
You can still take the bus into Syria, even to ISIS-held areas
Few individuals have gotten close enough to the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Jurgen Todenhofer is one of them. He embedded with ISIS for 10 days in December of 2014.
Conflict
Meet the man who spent 10 days with ISIS and lived to tell about it
Mezar Matar escaped Raqqa in 2013 and he now lives in Istanbul.
Conflict
Living under ISIS rule — and then escaping it
Flight deck crew work on Rafale fighter jets aboard the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
Conflict
French airstrikes are pounding Raqqa, but residents say it’s the indiscriminate Russian bombardment they fear most
An injured man from the Syrian town of Kobane is carried to a hospital in Turkey, after forces of the so-called Islamic State raided Kobane.
Conflict
Is ISIS gaining or losing ground in Syria?
Militant Islamist fighters hold the flag of Islamic State (IS) while taking part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province in this June 30, 2014 file photo.
Conflict
In Iraq, the battle against ISIS rages — in Syria there is little resistance
A man inspects a damaged site in what activists say was a US strike in Kfredrian, Idlib province, Syria, on September 23, 2014.
Conflict
Airstrikes in Syria may help — but their impact will be limited