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Beyond Today

Is the Islamic State really defeated?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2019

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the British teenager Shamima Begum ran away from East London to join IS, the caliphate was at the peak of its powers. It waged war with the West by beheading hostages and carrying out deadly attacks on European soil, while establishing a sophisticated state infrastructure in Syria and Iraq. IS at one point controlled an area the size of Britain. But now, as Shamima Begum waits in a Syrian refugee camp to see if she’ll be allowed home, IS is on the brink of military defeat. Does that mean that the threat is over? In the first of two special episodes, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville takes us through the rise and fall of IS. Producers: Harriet Noble and Duncan Barber Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:04.6

Hello, I'm Matthew Price.

0:08.4

This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4, the podcast that asks one big question about one big story every day.

0:17.0

Today is I really defeated.

0:38.0

This morning in a refugee camp in Syria, one of the BBC's best reporters, Quentin Somerville, spoke to Shimim.

0:41.0

Now, her picture's been everywhere. In it she's sitting looking right at the

0:45.7

camera a black hijab framing her face. Shamima ran away from East London when she was

0:51.2

15 with two friends. They wanted to join IS, the group that called

0:56.0

itself the Islamic State. Shemaima is now 19 and she says she's had three children with her I.S husband.

1:04.0

Two of them have died, and one was born this weekend.

1:08.0

My first priority is my son obviously because I don't know whether he'll be taken away from me or they'll let me keep him or give him to my family while the UK decide what to do with me, you know, to put me in prison, to put me in de-radicalization course, I don't know. I don't actually know. The problem is I don't know I don't actually know the problem is I don't know what my

1:25.8

options are what what options I would be given now there's a bigger story here and we're going to

1:31.2

spend today and tomorrow on it.

1:33.0

Shamima Began is no longer with IS because the group has lost almost all the land it controlled.

1:39.0

At its peak, an area the size of Britain.

1:42.0

Donald Trump says IS has basically been defeated,

1:46.0

but is that true?

1:48.0

Quentin has risked his life to cover IS

1:51.0

and we wanted to find out from him if he thinks the group really is finished for good.

1:56.9

It's a story that can be told through a couple of coins Quinton was given in Syria.

2:01.8

We spoke to him on a satellite line from Iraq, which dropped out occasionally.

2:07.0

So there are two Islamic State coins. I mean, they're the real deal, Matthew. The Islamic State minted a whole range they wanted to be a proper country

...

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