In the hands of IS, by Carl Drott
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/in-the-hands-of-is
Sitting by a walnut tree in his family’s courtyard, Comard, 29, plays a short piece on his clarinet. This is the Kurdish town of Kobanî (Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, which is besieged on three sides by the Islamic State (#IS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, known as #ISIS or ISIL); neighbouring Turkey keeps the border closed on the fourth. Here Comard can play freely: for over two years, the town has been under the control of the People’s Protection Units (YPG, a secular Kurdish group). In contrast, the IS fighters who stopped him in a checkpoint outside town last summer ranted that his instrument was “demonic” and held him captive for 13 days.