Peter Bouckaert

Iran's Revolutionary Guards has recruited thousands of Afghans, some by coercion, to fight in Syria's war alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Human Rights Watch said on Jan. 29.

He would dream of being a veterinarian perhaps. Or maybe an engineer. From the war-torn city of Kobane, he and his family had come to the resort town of Bodrum. He imagined growing up there. Going to school, playing with cats on the streets, talking to the Yal?kavak farmers every Thursday while they put up their stands for the weekly farmers? market. ?Life could be nice here,? he imagined. 

Human Rights Watch said June 26 that fighters inspired by al-Qaeda had executed Iraqi soldiers en masse this month in Tikrit.

In mid-June, militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) posted photos online of what they claimed to be the bodies of dozens of captured security forces members they had executed.