A British pharmacist has been captured in Syria on suspicion of fighting for ISIS.
Mohammed Anwar Miah, 40, was captured last month near Hajin close to the Iraq border and is believed to be held by US special forces in northern Syria.
In a video released on social media, the blindfolded man with a British accent said he was from the central English city of Birmingham and claimed to have been in Syria for just less than four years.
He is filmed sitting in the back of a pick-up with his hands apparently tied behind his back. “I'm a doctor,” he said when asked if he worked for ISIS. “I'm a qualified pharmacist from the UK. I studied medicine and pharmacy.
“I've been working in the hospitals since I came.
“The areas that I worked in were controlled by Daesh… I can't do anything about that. All my work was with the public.”
The Times newspaper identified Mr Miah as one of two pharmacists struck off after a disciplinary hearing in 2014 concluded that they had “carelessly” dispensed methadone, falsified records and threatened unqualified staff with the sack.
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The pair created a “web of deceit” by forging the names of pharmacists on documents to make it look as if the pharmacies they ran were better staffed than they appeared to be. They were removed from the register for five years, according to reports of the case.
The detention of Mr Miah by US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria is the latest of a number of seizures of Europeans recent weeks amid continued uncertainty over their fate.
They include two Britons, Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El Sheikh, who were captured in February and suspected of being part of the ISIS execution squad known as The Beatles. The group is suspected of beheading at least 27 western hostages. The men were among 900 people from Britain who travelled to join the fighting in Syria, according to government figures.
Britain has shown no great willingness to have them returned to stand trial and some of them have had their citizenship revoked, including Kotey and El Sheikh.
“The international community needs to come up with a proper plan for what it’ll do with all these captured fighters,” said Shiraz Maher, director of the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. “They need to be prosecuted properly and detained securely. Outsourcing this to the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] is not the solution,” he said.
Research suggested that the average foreign fighter survived for only nine months and while Mr Miah said he was working as a doctor, it was “extremely likely” he was a fighter too, Mr Maher said in a tweet.
"One of the big questions and dilemmas for security agencies, after Islamic State lost Raqqa and Mosul, is: “who died? Who survived? How many got away and where are they now?"
Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
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The Details
Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.