Articles by Blown Periphery

Ash Shaddadi, the Syrian Governorate of Al Hasakha, December 2017 Ellis raised his carbine to kill the man who had dropped the grenade. It was a futile gesture because in the confined space of the [more…]

Ash Shaddadi, the Syrian Governorate of Al Hasakha, December 2017 Darkness was falling and they could smell the petro-chemicals from the oilfields out to the west. The winds had shifted round from the north and [more…]

Northern Iraq, December 2017 Halward clambered up into the extremely cramped rear compartment of the Supacat. They had cleared a space so that Ripley could lie down. She was huddled in her sleeping bag plus [more…]

Northern Iraq, December 2017 It was Sunday. Ripley had been kept awake by the wailing of the female fighters, mourning the death of the Peshmerga during the fighting of the previous day. They had buried [more…]

Northern Iraq, November-December 2017 The Kurds were ostensibly Sunni Muslims although they seemed to display a rather more developed attitude towards the practice of their faith. The women generally covered their heads with either a [more…]

In this work of fiction I have used the term The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) rather than the more familiar Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The term Daesh (al-Dawlah [more…]