Chris Dowd Photojournalist

02/25/2022

or City and the Şingal/Sinjar Mountains that Yazidis fled to during the committed by ISIS, Mountains which have protected the People for millennia and where people still live in tents too scared to come down. It was in this Mountains that refugees were bombed by Turkey during the ISIS attack of even though the flew the Iraqi Flag to avoid air strikes knowing flying or other Flags would get them bombed, although once had their chance with the distraction by ISIS that flag offered them no protection even though they were just civilians living in tents with little food or water and in desperate need of medical care…

02/08/2022

Story of the recent attacks in Iraq and Syria which started as a Prision Break in Hasakah which took two weeks of fighting to end.

https://www.kurdishnewstoday.com/post/isis-in-coordinated-attacks-hit-isis-prison-in-hasakah-and-multiple-locations-in-syria-and-iraq

Coordinated ISIS attacks show that the threat of ISIS is ever present for many Syrians and Iraqis, this is just the largest of many recent attacks. ISIS, better known as Daesh in Iraq and Syria, derogatorily using their Arabic acronym, which they find very insulting, has been continuing to gain stre...

10/17/2021

08/27/2021

please donate even $1 and if you can’t do that please share this fundraiser for Syrian Refugee who is in desperate need of medication.

There is a Syrian Refugee with no insurance and can not afford his medication fo… Christopher Dowd needs your support for Help Syrian Refugee with Parkingsons

02/16/2021

Story of yesterday’s rocket attack in Erbil.

https://www.kurdishnewstoday.com/post/u-s-contractor-killed-and-eight-injured-including-a-u-s-serviceman-and-four-others

12/19/2020

Mortar fire and artillery reported to be increasing in Northern Syria from sources travelling from Kobanî to Raqqa.

09/16/2020

The sentiment of those in Sinjar City after 6 six years and being abandoned.

06/07/2020

A sixteen year old Kurdish girl was killed by Islamist in Afrîn yesterday for refusing to be forced into marriage.

03/30/2020

Turkish Border with Rojava in Kobanî

03/21/2020

Silos where snipers would hide out just outside the city limits of Raqqa which were sniper best were destroyed by either the coalition forces or out allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces, or more likely a joint effort as the area is much more stable when the United States works with the SDF, the actually local forces instead of having the Turks invade, commit what in there own words is ethnic cleansing of Kurdish villages on the border of Turkey and Syria and massacre civilians all along the way in the name of Erdogan and Islamist ideals.

03/19/2020

Refugees in Ayn Issa.... Unfortunately many refugees may not have made it through the cold winter of Northern Syria after American troops left so Turkey could bomb places like the Ayn Issa Refugee Camp, which they did, killing many innocent refugees waiting for resettlement by UNICEF. How are they a NATO ally?

01/25/2020

In Kobanî, during Eid al-Fitr, as families of those who died fighting ISIS visit their loved ones at the graveyard for the residents of Kobanî who were killed while fighting against ISIS. This is just one section, of one graveyard, for one small cities residents who died while fighting these jihadist. I hope this puts into perspective the sacrifice people of all ethnicities and faiths in Northern Syria made to protect not only their homes, where they trusted America to help protect their families, the civilians that lived in these cities, but also the entire world from the terror attacks either directed by, or inspired by the warped version of Islam that ISIS promoted, throughout the world, with their propaganda and their myth that their “caliphate” was paradise on Earth.

01/09/2020

Erbil at night in all its physical beauty.

12/29/2019

Turkish Border from Kobanî

12/24/2019

Letter from an anonymous Syrian about growing up during the Syrian Civil War:

“When the Syrian civil war began, I was a little child who didn’t know what war means. When I grew up, I came to realise, what’s this war meant. It stole our childhood and affected our mental and physical health, as well as our prospects for the future. Many of us lost our family members and friends in the violence, we suffered psychological trauma and were forced to leave school. The war destroyed our homes and forced us to leave everything behind us, returning home became impossible because of the constant war. The hardest scene was yet to come, and I saw it when we entered at the Turkey border. There I saw an old man seeking for his lost son, they became separated and he didn't know whether his son was alive or had been killed in the violence, if he was healthy or was hurt. He wept and wailed and said “I lost my heart, my everything, what I do?!?! When will the war end, I lost my son”. Really I felt a trauma that was unbelievable, how he called “where is my son?” with a sad sound in his voice and tears rolling down his face, crying. This is not the only person who lost his son, there are hundreds of thousands of families who lost their lives in this war. Our only hope is to stop the bleeding in Syria, to return to our homes and gather with our relatives and friends, those we didn’t see for years, we miss our home, where the memories of those lost in this war still live. Even one more day of this war is another day too many, so we hope for a peace long overdue amongst the wailing of the Fathers, Mothers, Brothers and Sisters who lost the one thing they can never replace, their family.”
by: Anonymous Syrian Refugee

12/24/2019

Graveyard of civilians, all of which were innocent Men, Women, and Children and all good of which who were slaughtered in one night, starting around 4 AM. This massacre started after members of ISIS dressed as American allied Kurdish YPG members walked right by a Turkish Military base and through the Turkish border with Syria into Kobanî. This was only about three months after the siege of Kobanî was broken and Kobanî became an international symbol of resistance to ISIS and Islamic extremism. Over 300 civilians were slaughtered, some still in their beds, in one night. That same Turkish Military base these ISIS terrorist walked by now overlooks this grim reminder of what happens when you turn a blind eye to evil and the true cost of what ISIS did, each and every grave is a brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter, niece, nephew etc.

12/21/2019

Photo of central Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan taken from Erbil Citadel, or Qelay Hewlêr.

12/20/2019

Central Raqqa after the SDF, a militia of Kurds, Arabs, Yazidis, and many other ethnic groups of many different religions liberated the city that was the capital of the “Islamic State”. The regions within the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria was extremely stable and safe for all ethnicities and religions, even during Ramadan Muslims who were fasting would invite me in to their homes and insist on cooking for and feeding me even though they would not break fast until night. I would try and fast with at least food out of respect and they would insist on feeding me. Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians fought side by side to free the area from the Islamic State and after eight years of war I have never been to a place of such kindness and that promoted such equality between genders, ethnicities, and religions. Despite all the carnage that was seen the people there still found it in themselves to show kindness to others, personally I think this is an ideal we should all strive for.