Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

The Inquiry

Documentaries

Factual

News

Getting beyond the headlines to explore the forces and ideas shaping the world

The Inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

The Inquiry: Can ‘Islamic State’ Be Defeated?

Can ‘Islamic State’ Be Defeated?

21/11/2015 GMT

BBC World Service - The Inquiry, Can ‘Islamic State’ Be Defeated?

Expert answers to the urgent question on defeating the group calling itself Islamic State

Expert answers to the urgent question on defeating the group calling itself Islamic State. A special edition following militant attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and France.

We first asked this question over a year ago. So far, the answer has been no. The attacks in Paris killed 129 people. The day before that 43 people died when suicide bombers hit Beirut. Nearly two weeks before that a Russian passenger jet exploded over Egypt, killing all 224 people on board. The group calling itself Islamic State has claimed responsibility for all these attacks. If true, in two weeks, they have killed almost 400 civilians, in places way beyond the areas they control in Syria and Iraq. And they would have managed all that while being challenged on the ground by Kurdish fighters and bombed from the air, by coalition war planes, over 8,000 times. Can IS be defeated? We have gone back to the same expert witnesses we met the first time we asked the question. Now, over a year later, we want to know whether their answers have changed.

(Photo: Female Kurdish soldier on the frontline against ISIL, Credit: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Inquiry

Can ‘Islamic State’ Be Defeated?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service