American Arrested On Swim To See Kim Jong-Un

An American man has been arrested by South Korean border guards after trying to swim to North Korea to meet the reclusive state's leader, Kim Jong-Un.

He was detained while lying on a bank of the Han River, located in a restricted military area near the border, according to a South Korean defence official.

The man is aged around 29 and is a computer repairman from Texas who came to South Korea 10 days ago, according to the Yonhap news agency.

He was apparently suffering from exhaustion, according to a South Korean government official cited by Yonhap.

The border is one of the most heavily militarised in the world

The news agency also reported that the man told investigators he wanted to meet Kim Jong-Un.

Americans have been arrested after entering North Korea from China before, but a US citizen trying to enter the country from South Korea is unusual.

South Korea's defence ministry was not able to immediately confirm details of the report, but an official confirmed an American man was picked up late on Tuesday and was being questioned.

The US embassy in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said it had been in contact with authorities in the country over the issue.

Matthew Miller was sentenced to six years hard labour on Sunday

"We do not have any additional information to share at this time. We have been in touch with the appropriate South Korean authorities regarding the reports," embassy spokeswoman Nida Emmons said.

It comes after an American man, who was detained in the North after entering the country as a tourist in April, was sentenced to six years of hard labour at the weekend.

Matthew Miller was held for committing "hostile acts" towards the North Korean state.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

The border between the two countries is one of the most heavily militarised in the world.

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Ebola Spiralling Out Of Control, Says Obama

President Barack Obama has warned of a "potential threat to global security" if ebola-stricken West African countries break down, as he announced 3,000 US troops would be sent to the region.

"If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us," Mr Obama said at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

The virus has claimed nearly 2,500 lives out of almost 5,000 cases this year - mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Outlining measures to prop up health services in areas overwhelmed by the epidemic, Mr Obama said: "It's spiralling out of control, it's getting worse."

The president met former ebola patient Dr Kent Brantly at the White House

But he stressed the chances of an outbreak in the US were "extremely low".

Under the plan, engineers, medical personnel and other service members will build 17 treatment centres in West Africa, each with 100 beds.

The US also aims to train 500 medical staff a week and establish a military control centre for co-ordinating the relief effort.

The cost of the aid is expected to be $500m (£308m).

The US has already spent $100m (£62m) in response to the outbreak

It is expected to take two weeks to get US personnel on the ground.

Earlier on Tuesday Mr Obama welcomed Dr Kent Brantly, an American missionary who caught ebola in Liberia and made a full recovery in the US, to the White House.

Four Americans have been or are being treated for ebola in the US after evacuation from Africa.

The World Health Organization warned the number of ebola cases could start doubling every three weeks, threatening a "human catastrophe".

Bruce Aylward from the WHO warned the outbreak was 'unparalleled'

The UN health agency's assistant director General Bruce Aylward said the crisis was "unparalleled in modern times".

Doctors Without Borders president Dr Joanne Liu told a UN special briefing on ebola in Geneva: "The window of opportunity to contain this outbreak is closing.

"We need more countries to stand up, we need greater deployment, and we need it now."

In addition to the US response, the WHO said China has promised to send a 59-person medical team to Sierra Leone to help fight the epidemic.

The UK is planning to set up an ebola clinic in Sierra Leone, while Cuba has promised to send some 160 health workers to the country.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will launch a "global response coalition" in New York on Thursday.

The virus, which has also reached Nigeria, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo, is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients. There is no vaccine or approved treatment.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, has called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council, warning the virus could "set the countries of West Africa back a generation".

US efforts will include medics and corpsmen, engineers to help build treatment facilities and logistics specialists to assist in patient transportation.

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Ukraine PM Demands 'Full Battle Readiness'

Ukraine's prime minister has warned the country must be ready for battle with Russia, despite a 12-day ceasefire with Moscow-backed separatists.

Arseny Yatseniuk said: "Russia will not give us peace so I am asking the defence minister for full battle readiness."

Mr Yatseniuk said enacting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan did not mean "relaxing the work of the defence and interior ministries".

He added: "Full readiness (is required). We can't believe anyone, especially the Russians." 

A firefighter tackles a blaze after an apparent rocket attack in Donetsk

He spoke as Russia's defence minister called for the deployment of reinforcements to Crimea and southern Russia, claiming a response was needed to the build-up of "foreign" forces nearby.

Sergei Shoigu said it was a "priority" to deploy a "full and self-reliant group of troops in the direction of Crimea".

Ukraine's prime minister warned the country should be ready for battle

According to Russian news agencies, he said the "situation in Ukraine has sharply worsened and the foreign military presence has increased very close to our border".

The fragility of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has been exposed again by reports of a deadly rocket attack in Donetsk.

A journalist working for Associated Press reported seeing the remains of what appeared to be a Grad rocket that had hit the building in the north of the city, where fighting over the government-controlled airport has caught some residential areas in the crossfire.

One body was said to be visible at the scene, although it was unclear if there were more casualties.

Resident Alexander Dudnik said: "They started to shoot at each other and a shell hit a gas pipeline. Then there was a strong fire, flats started to burn.

"Firefighters did a great job, high-level professionals, they did everything they could. Unfortunately there was a disabled man on the third floor. He died."

Despite the truce and a law passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday granting greater autonomy to rebel held parts of the east and an amnesty for separatist fighters, civilian casualties have continued to rise, adding to the estimated 3,000 people killed.

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Migrant Shipwreck Dead May Have Been Murdered

People traffickers deliberately wrecked a boat that sank in the Mediterranean with 500 migrants feared dead, survivors have claimed.

Two survivors plucked from the water by a freight ship have said the criminals rammed their boat after they refused to switch to a vessel they feared was too small to hold them.

Dozens of Gazans are suspected to be among those who may have died last week, a Palestinian official has revealed.

The Palestinian survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that around 500 passengers had been on the stricken vessel, which set off from Egypt bound for Europe on September 6.

The passengers, who also included Egyptians, Sudanese and Syrians, were forced to change boats several times during the crossing towards Europe, they said.

The IOM described the sinking as the "worst shipwreck in years," and said that if the survivors' claim was true it would amount to "mass murder".

Fayez Abu Eita, a Gaza spokesman for president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, said: "We have information that 15 (Palestinians) drowned and dozens more are missing after trying to emigrate to Italy.

"The severe living and humanitarian conditions of the Palestinians are forcing people to emigrate."

A relative said 15 members of a single family were among the missing.

The relative told the AFP news agency: "Fifteen people from the Masri family, including two brothers, a woman and two of her children, left to emigrate to a European country through a broker, and got on a boat from Alexandria headed for Italy.

"We've no news of them, whether they've drowned or survived."

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US General: Half Of Iraqi Army Not Capable

Around half of Iraq's army is incapable of working with the US to recapture territory from Islamic State (IS) in western and northern Iraq, according to the top US military officer.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that military teams that spent much of the summer in Iraq assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the security forces found that only 26 of 50 army brigades were capable partners for the US.

Gen Dempsey, a former wartime commander of US training programmes in the country, described them as well led and well equipped, adding: "They appear to have a national instinct, instead of a sectarian instinct."

These would still need to be partially rebuilt with US training and more equipment, he added.

The other 24 brigades were found to be too dominated by Shias to be part of a credible national force.

Shiite fighters, who have joined the battle against IS, train in Najaf

Gen Dempsey was speaking with reporters travelling with him to Paris, where he met with his French counterpart for talks on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and other issues.

The trip followed on from Gen Dempsey's appearance in front of a Senate panel, when he said US ground forces could be deployed again in Iraq.

His remarks were soon contradicted by the White House's spokesman however, who said President Barack Obama "will not deploy ground troops in a combat role into Iraq or Syria".

Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al Abadi, has also said foreign ground troops are neither wanted nor needed in the country's fight against IS.

Meanwhile, the group has released a video warning the US that fighters await it in Iraq if troops are sent there.

Kurdish peshmerga troops participate in a security deployment against IS

The 52-second clip, entitled "Flames of War", shows fighters destroying tanks, wounded US soldiers and others about to be killed.

It includes a clip of Mr Obama saying combat troops will not return to Iraq, ending with a text overlay that reads "fighting has just begun".

Renewed US efforts to train Iraqi troops could revive the issue of gaining legal immunity from Iraqi prosecution for US troops who are training them, Gen Dempsey said on his way to France.

The last Iraqi government refused to give immunity to US troops who might have stayed behind as trainers after the US military mission ended in December 2011.

Gen Dempsey also warned that US firepower alone would not be enough to stop IS.

Islamic State fighters have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria

The solution, he said, hinged on the formation of an Iraqi government that is able to convince Kurds and Sunnis that they will be equal partners with the Shiites.

The US launched airstrikes on IS last month, and Gen Dempsey said fighters from the extremist group will have reacted to the strikes by making themselves less visible.

He predicted they would "literally litter the road networks" with improvised explosive devices in the days ahead.

That would then mean more counter-IED training and equipment for Iraq's army, Gen Dempsey said.

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The Day I Came Face To Face With Islamic State

I was told to wait on the side of a road outside a mosque in the Syrian city of Aleppo. An Emir speaking in the mosque would see me after prayers.

As hundreds of worshippers streamed through the open doors, a young man with long, black hair emerged surrounded by the most thuggish bunch of gunmen I had ever come across in Syria, and that takes some doing.

They fired up matt black cars, jeeps and trucks with anti-aircraft guns welded to the floor. He stopped briefly and shook my hand while my trusted translator introduced me.

He never took his eyes off me as he was asked if we could film in his area. He nodded and told us to follow them.

The group has made rapid territorial advances across Iraq and Syria

His convoy screamed down the road past their headquarters and crossed two blocks into the territory of another gang. The trucks split into sections and they surrounded a building.

Then they started firing. Hundreds if not thousands of rounds smashing through doors and windows, brick work pulverised into dust, walls collapsing. If there was anyone inside they died. It was brutal. I had just met ISIS.

It was in the early months of 2013 and ISIS was growing stronger by the week. I would regularly come across them or other groups who would soon join them, over the next few months.

It soon became clear to me and my translators and guides that the usual dangers of travelling through Syria that I had been dealing with since the winter of 2011 had got a lot worse.

Stories of violent roaming checkpoints, abductions, killings and the imposition of strict Sharia law in previously relaxed secular areas began to grow.

British aid worker David Haines was taken hostage and killed by the group

We heard of local people, aid workers and journalists, some of them my friends, being taken. But we had good relations with the fledgling ISIS leadership and by keeping a very low profile and with a network of drivers who knew every road we managed to avoid the checkpoints and disappear into the teeming streets of Aleppo.

In a school room converted into a court another Emir, Abu Al Homam, ruled on local disputes. Handing out judgements with a ruthless uncompromising efficiency.

He told me they did not execute people although he insisted he could. At that stage he said cutting people's hands off was enough to instil order over Aleppo's growing problem of crime.

But as I asked about a beheading we had been told of, one of my team saw the Emir's adviser shaking his head indicating that he should not admit to ordering the death penalty. Later locals told me it was common.

Abu Al Homam was not strictly speaking ISIS at that point. But he talked of the creation of a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and warned Western governments not to interfere in the business of Muslims.

All sounds pretty familiar now, beheadings and caliphates and the like.

The group has also taken taxi driver Alan Henning hostage

With remarkable speed ISIS grew. From Al Raqqha to the east of Aleppo, with access to oil fields and out of the reach of the Syrian government forces, they stabilised, launched their takeover of much of northern Iraq and changed their name to Islamic State.

While some of the myriad jihadist groups in Syria are fighting IS they have become the pre-eminent power. Their ruthlessness and total disregard for reasonable norms have surprised everyone.

A senior intelligence officer in Iraq explained the difference between IS and even al Qaeda's most extreme members.

"With AQ I could rationally argue that what they did in beheading a person was against the Koran. It might take days, but they would listen and often they would accept it and agree it was wrong," he told me.

"IS are totally different. They do not care. They are bloodthirsty and pure evil. They need to be destroyed as an organisation and then killed," he added.

Militants have released videos depicting mass executions

For people like me who have worked so hard reporting the uprising in Syria against the regime of Bashar al Assad, this is all very depressing. Whatever anyone says, the uprising was real. It was not a jihadi-inspired takeover. But in many ways it is now.

Travelling was always dangerous, but with IS spies in areas they don't control and desperate people prepared to hand over foreigners to IS for cash it is probably too dangerous to go there right now.

Last year I set out for Al Raqqah. A long, dangerous trip with multiple car swaps. Finally we reached a house and were told to wait for people in the city to fetch us.

They never arrived, but after a day some other rebels did and offered to take us in. We thought long and hard. To go would break all my own safety rules, but I was tempted. Had they driven the road? Was it okay?

After hours of talk they admitted they had not been to the city in four days. I declined their invitation and they waved to us as they headed off.

An hour down the road they drove into a checkpoint. All four were killed on the side of the road. These are the days of IS.

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Syrian Politician Warns US Over IS Action

The Day I Came Face To Face With Islamic State

Updated: 7:53am UK, Tuesday 16 September 2014

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

I was told to wait on the side of a road outside a mosque in the Syrian city of Aleppo. An Emir speaking in the mosque would see me after prayers.

As hundreds of worshippers streamed through the open doors, a young man with long, black hair emerged surrounded by the most thuggish bunch of gunmen I had ever come across in Syria, and that takes some doing.

They fired up matt black cars, jeeps and trucks with anti-aircraft guns welded to the floor. He stopped briefly and shook my hand while my trusted translator introduced me.

He never took his eyes off me as he was asked if we could film in his area. He nodded and told us to follow them.

His convoy screamed down the road past their headquarters and crossed two blocks into the territory of another gang. The trucks split into sections and they surrounded a building.

Then they started firing. Hundreds if not thousands of rounds smashing through doors and windows, brick work pulverised into dust, walls collapsing. If there was anyone inside they died. It was brutal. I had just met ISIS.

It was in the early months of 2013 and ISIS was growing stronger by the week. I would regularly come across them or other groups who would soon join them, over the next few months.

It soon became clear to me and my translators and guides that the usual dangers of travelling through Syria that I had been dealing with since the winter of 2011 had got a lot worse.

Stories of violent roaming checkpoints, abductions, killings and the imposition of strict Sharia law in previously relaxed secular areas began to grow.

We heard of local people, aid workers and journalists, some of them my friends, being taken. But we had good relations with the fledgling ISIS leadership and by keeping a very low profile and with a network of drivers who knew every road we managed to avoid the checkpoints and disappear into the teeming streets of Aleppo.

In a school room converted into a court another Emir, Abu Al Homam, ruled on local disputes. Handing out judgements with a ruthless uncompromising efficiency.

He told me they did not execute people although he insisted he could. At that stage he said cutting people's hands off was enough to instil order over Aleppo's growing problem of crime.

But as I asked about a beheading we had been told of, one of my team saw the Emir's adviser shaking his head indicating that he should not admit to ordering the death penalty. Later locals told me it was common.

Abu Al Homam was not strictly speaking ISIS at that point. But he talked of the creation of a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and warned Western governments not to interfere in the business of Muslims.

All sounds pretty familiar now, beheadings and caliphates and the like.

With remarkable speed ISIS grew. From Al Raqqha to the east of Aleppo, with access to oil fields and out of the reach of the Syrian government forces, they stabilised, launched their takeover of much of northern Iraq and changed their name to Islamic State.

While some of the myriad jihadist groups in Syria are fighting IS they have become the pre-eminent power. Their ruthlessness and total disregard for reasonable norms have surprised everyone.

A senior intelligence officer in Iraq explained the difference between IS and even al Qaeda's most extreme members.

"With AQ I could rationally argue that what they did in beheading a person was against the Koran. It might take days, but they would listen and often they would accept it and agree it was wrong," he told me.

"IS are totally different. They do not care. They are bloodthirsty and pure evil. They need to be destroyed as an organisation and then killed," he added.

For people like me who have worked so hard reporting the uprising in Syria against the regime of Bashar al Assad, this is all very depressing. Whatever anyone says, the uprising was real. It was not a jihadi-inspired takeover. But in many ways it is now.

Travelling was always dangerous, but with IS spies in areas they don't control and desperate people prepared to hand over foreigners to IS for cash it is probably too dangerous to go there right now.

Last year I set out for Al Raqqah. A long, dangerous trip with multiple car swaps. Finally we reached a house and were told to wait for people in the city to fetch us.

They never arrived, but after a day some other rebels did and offered to take us in. We thought long and hard. To go would break all my own safety rules, but I was tempted. Had they driven the road? Was it okay?

After hours of talk they admitted they had not been to the city in four days. I declined their invitation and they waved to us as they headed off.

An hour down the road they drove into a checkpoint. All four were killed on the side of the road. These are the days of IS.

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Raqqa: Islamic State's Menacing Power Base

Raqqa in northern Syria is Islamic State's power base and the focus of international efforts to defeat the Islamic extremists and rescue Western hostages.

The city - effectively the capital of the IS "caliphate" - is almost completely inaccessible to journalists and Westerners - but information can be gleaned from IS propaganda videos, residents who have managed to flee and an underground resistance network that posts videos and reports online.

:: Raqqa is the highly organised capital of the jihadists' Islamic caliphate

IS captured Raqqa amid fierce fighting in May 2013 but has maintained a hold on the city by setting up a functioning government and public services. Military operations and civilian administration are run separately, with fighters and employees getting a salary from the "Muslim Financial House" department. IS has claimed the poor are effectively paid benefits, while taxes are imposed on the wealthy and prices are kept low in the markets. Foreign experts have been recruited to run ministries - a Tunisian with a PhD in charge of telecoms, an Egyptian engineer serving as oil minister.

:: The city is the centre of the search for Jihadi John

Raqqa is believed to be where IS is holding some 20 international hostages, including Briton Alan Henning, and intelligence efforts to save them are focused on the city. Experts and a small resistance movement within the city have matched up photos and video footage to pinpoint the location on the outskirts of the city where they believe James Foley was beheaded. They suggest the killings took place on open ground near a cemetery, not far from the city's Alltihad University.

:: IS is thought to be using a network of tunnels under the city

The hunt for the hostages and their captors has been frustrated due to the suspected use by IS of a network of underground tunnels to move around the city. IS is believed to move the hostages between safe locations regularly and the group's leaders, including Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, rarely stay in one place for more than a day or two.

:: Foreign fighters have "flooded" the city

A jihadist boasted to Reuters this month that Raqqa was welcoming 1,000 new IS volunteers every three days, many of them from abroad. Fighters with South African, French, Dutch, Australian and of course British accents have appeared in videos or on social media praising life under the Islamic State. The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation claims Glaswegian Aqsa Mahmood is a key figure in the al Khanssaa brigade, a female militia set up to punish women for "non-Islamic" behaviour.

:: The Hisbah police keep the people in check

The hisbah - clad in a distinctive uniform of white thobe with black waistcoats and black caps - patrol the streets with Kalashnikovs slung over their backs, enforcing strict Sharia law in the previously cosmopolitan city. They police everything from the price of beef in markets to female dress and follow up on reports of residents suspected of using drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Attendance at prayers is rigidly enforced, with jihadists boasting of emptying once busy markets five times a day. Anyone who crosses the hisbah faces immediate imprisonment and punishment according to Sharia law - from whipping for alcohol sellers to public execution for drug users.

:: Children are being drawn into the IS cause

Raqqa is the IS base for preparing the next generation of jihadists. Islamic education groups are held in mosques and festivals have been held to encourage youngsters to sign up to the cause. Children are shown videos of beheadings to inure them to violence and warn them of the consequences of resisting the jihadists. Warda Ali, a female resident who fled Raqqa after resisting IS, told US broadcaster NPR how parents - keen to please their new rulers - brought their children to the town square to watch public beheadings.

:: Resistance - "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently"

A small group of activists have been risking their lives to reveal a true picture of the grim conditions imposed by IS. Under the slogan "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently," they post videos and photos of public executions and other punishments meted out by the Islamists, as well as possible locations for IS training camps and the executions of Western hostages. IS has condemned the activists as "enemies of the lord" and reportedly executed one, Motaz Billah, after tracing him through Facebook.

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Ukraine Ratifies EU Pact Amid Fragile Ceasefire

Ukrainian MPs have voted to strengthen the country's political and economic ties with the European Union - the very issue which first sparked the crisis last year.

Before the ratification of the agreement, President Petro Poroshenko told parliament that Ukrainians who lost their lives in the protests and subsequent fighting in the east "died not only for their motherland - they gave up their lives for us to take a dignified place among the European family".

Shying away from such a pact resulted in the ousting of then president Victor Yanukovych in November 2013, who instead chose to establish stronger ties with Russia.

Mr Poroshenko holds aloft the signed landmark agreement with the EU

It also led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia and an ongoing five-month war with pro-Russian separatists which has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 people.

Earlier, MPs also agreed to grant greater autonomy to the rebel regions in eastern Ukraine, and an amnesty for most of those involved in the fighting as part of a fragile ceasefire which has repeatedly been broken since it came into effect 10 days ago.

Three people were killed and five wounded when their homes were struck by shells overnight in the eastern city of Donetsk.

A steel factory destroyed by the shelling overnight in Donetsk

Reports of the latest fatalities of the crisis came as Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu talked of a need to send extra troops to Crimea because of the increase in fighting.

"The deployment of proper and self-sufficient forces in the direction of Crimea is one of (our) top priorities," Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported him saying.

"The situation in Ukraine has escalated sharply and the presence of foreign military has increased in the immediate vicinity of our borders."

The chain of events since last November has provoked the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War, with the United States and its Western allies imposing sanctions against Moscow.

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General: US Ground Troops Possible In Iraq

What We Know About The IS Capital Raqqa

Updated: 12:51pm UK, Tuesday 16 September 2014

Raqqa in northern Syria is Islamic State's power base and the focus of international efforts to defeat the Islamic extremists and rescue Western hostages.

The city - effectively the capital of the IS "caliphate" - is almost completely inaccessible to journalists and Westerners - but information can be gleaned from IS propaganda videos, residents who have managed to flee and an underground resistance network that posts videos and reports online.

:: Raqqa is the highly organised capital of the jihadists' Islamic caliphate

IS captured Raqqa amid fierce fighting in May 2013 but has maintained a hold on the city by setting up a functioning government and public services. Military operations and civilian administration are run separately, with fighters and employees getting a salary from the "Muslim Financial House" department. IS has claimed the poor are effectively paid benefits, while taxes are imposed on the wealthy and prices are kept low in the markets. Foreign experts have been recruited to run ministries - a Tunisian with a PhD in charge of telecoms, an Egyptian engineer serving as oil minister.

:: The city is the centre of the search for Jihadi John

Raqqa is believed to be where IS is holding some 20 international hostages, including Briton Alan Henning, and intelligence efforts to save them are focused on the city. Experts and a small resistance movement within the city have matched up photos and video footage to pinpoint the location on the outskirts of the city where they believe James Foley was beheaded. They suggest the killings took place on open ground near a cemetery, not far from the city's Alltihad University.

:: IS is thought to be using a network of tunnels under the city

The hunt for the hostages and their captors has been frustrated due to the suspected use by IS of a network of underground tunnels to move around the city. IS is believed to move the hostages between safe locations regularly and the group's leaders, including Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, rarely stay in one place for more than a day or two.

:: Foreign fighters have "flooded" the city

A jihadist boasted to Reuters this month that Raqqa was welcoming 1,000 new IS volunteers every three days, many of them from abroad. Fighters with South African, French, Dutch, Australian and of course British accents have appeared in videos or on social media praising life under the Islamic State. The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation claims Glaswegian Aqsa Mahmood is a key figure in the al Khanssaa brigade, a female militia set up to punish women for "non-Islamic" behaviour.

:: The Hisbah police keep the people in check

The hisbah - clad in a distinctive uniform of white thobe with black waistcoats and black caps - patrol the streets with Kalashnikovs slung over their backs, enforcing strict Sharia law in the previously cosmopolitan city. They police everything from the price of beef in markets to female dress and follow up on reports of residents suspected of using drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Attendance at prayers is rigidly enforced, with jihadists boasting of emptying once busy markets five times a day. Anyone who crosses the hisbah faces immediate imprisonment and punishment according to Sharia law - from whipping for alcohol sellers to public execution for drug users.

:: Children are being drawn into the IS cause

Raqqa is the IS base for preparing the next generation of jihadists. Islamic education groups are held in mosques and festivals have been held to encourage youngsters to sign up to the cause. Children are shown videos of beheadings to inure them to violence and warn them of the consequences of resisting the jihadists. Warda Ali, a female resident who fled Raqqa after resisting IS, told US broadcaster NPR how parents - keen to please their new rulers - brought their children to the town square to watch public beheadings.

:: Resistance - "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently"

A small group of activists have been risking their lives to reveal a true picture of the grim conditions imposed by IS. Under the slogan "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently," they post videos and photos of public executions and other punishments meted out by the Islamists, as well as possible locations for IS training camps and the executions of Western hostages. IS has condemned the activists as "enemies of the lord" and reportedly executed one, Motaz Billah, after tracing him through Facebook.

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