Three years later, the bombers blew themselves up among a crowd of shoppers. Baghdad remains ever so volatile, indeed a capital where tension rages beneath the tenor of normal life, with violence and killings a further inch beneath.
What started as a non-violent protest in 2011 had quickly escalated into a decade-long, full-blown and brutal proxy-war between foreign powers. Syria remains broken and unreconciled, and the world remains indifferent. Syrias war has been the most complex conflict to emerge from the 2011 Arab uprisings
The collapse of ISIS can thus be reckoned as a spectacular victory of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that eventually confronted the Caliphate.
The fall of Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village on the bank of the historically connected Euphrates River, would mark a milestone in the global campaign against ISIS.
The armed forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals,” is the message of the presidential palace in Manila.
