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The Daily

Trapped in Syria, Part 1: A Father’s Fight

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since the fall of the Islamic State, many of the group’s fighters and their families have been held in prison camps controlled by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces. Parents around the world have been trying to get their children and grandchildren out of the camps and back to their home countries. Now, the fate of those detainees has become an urgent question after President Trump’s abrupt recall of American troops from the Syrian border. We follow one father as he fights to get his daughter, a former ISIS bride, and her children back to Australia. Guest: Livia Albeck-Ripka, a reporter for The Times in Melbourne, Australia, spoke to Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter Mariam is trapped in Syria with her three children. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background coverage: “There will be ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish people from Syria, and the American administration will be responsible for it,” said Mazlum Kobani, a Kurdish military commander, when asked about a full American withdrawal from northern Syria.President Trump is now said to be considering leaving a few hundred troops in eastern Syria to defend against an ISIS resurgence.

Transcript

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0:26.0

I got a message from her.

0:36.8

I got a message from her.

0:37.8

I wasn't able to speak to her.

0:41.4

Can you read the message to us?

0:46.0

I'm, it's actually two messages.

0:49.7

The Australia doesn't save, I think the Aussies here right now, with slaves and with grude,

0:56.8

and I think I'm going to die.

0:58.0

Let's just receive overnight from her.

1:04.0

That can't be an easy text to receive as a father.

1:07.6

No.

1:08.6

It's not.

1:11.6

Yeah, it's the fear of the unknown and the fear of not knowing, but they are more petrified

1:25.0

of the serians taking over than of anything else.

1:28.5

That's their worst case scenario and that's better.

1:31.0

Isis cells and serian regime are the two biggest threats and they seem to be becoming

...

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