'Defeat' of IS does not end Syria's war
Syrian journalist and activist Bahia al Mardini dismisses claims that Bashar al Assad has ‘won’ the war in Syria, and calls for democracy in her state, where she had, until being chased out in 2012, campaigned for the rights of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured in Assad’s prisons. She says: ‘Victory cannot be written in civilian blood: the conflict has already claimed up to half a million lives, left one million Syrian children orphaned and displaced half the pr