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Leila Fadel 2010 i i
NPR
Leila Fadel 2010
NPR

Leila Fadel

International Correspondent, Cairo

Leila Fadel is NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo.

Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post. In her role as Cairo Bureau Chief she reported on a wave of revolts and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.

Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007.

Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

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Stories By

Leila Fadel
An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter hold his position in the mountains east of Mosul.

An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter hold his position in the mountains east of Mosul. Jim Lopez/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Jim Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

Parallels

Ill-Equipped And Underpaid, Kurdish Fighters Hold ISIS At Bay

With Iraq's military in tatters and U.S. forces gone, the Kurdish peshmerga is the only viable force to stave off ISIS in Iraq. With little support from Baghdad, discontent grows among the fighters.

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A family passes through Maktab Khaled in northern Iraq, the last Kurdish checkpoint before they make their way to Kirkuk. ISIS-controlled territory lies less than a mile away.

A family passes through Maktab Khaled in northern Iraq, the last Kurdish checkpoint before they make their way to Kirkuk. ISIS-controlled territory lies less than a mile away. Leila Fadel/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Leila Fadel/NPR

Parallels

The Artificial Boundary That Divides Iraq

A checkpoint near Kirkuk marks the line between Kurdish-controlled territory and the world of Islamic State extremists. Some 5,000 civilians stream across daily, lives and families divided.

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The dirt and gravel at the Baharka displacement camp in northern Iraq will turn to a sea of freezing mud in the winter rain. Aid workers say they don't have enough blankets and winter clothing for all those displaced by the advance of ISIS.

The dirt and gravel at the Baharka displacement camp in northern Iraq will turn to a sea of freezing mud in the winter rain. Aid workers say they don't have enough blankets and winter clothing for all those displaced by the advance of ISIS. Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

Iraq

Iraqis Displaced By ISIS Face Another Threat: Winter

With winter approaching, most of the 1.8 million Iraqis displaced by Islamic extremists will be living outside through the winter in Iraq's north, where temperatures frequently drop below freezing.

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Displaced demonstrators from the minority Yazidi sect demonstrate outside the United Nations offices in Irbil, Iraq, on Aug. 4 in support of those held captive by the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Displaced demonstrators from the minority Yazidi sect demonstrate outside the United Nations offices in Irbil, Iraq, on Aug. 4 in support of those held captive by the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Azad Lashkari/Reuters/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Azad Lashkari/Reuters/Landov

Parallels

ISIS Captives Tell Of Rapes And Beatings, Plead For Help

Activists say militants are holding hundreds, perhaps thousands of Yazidi women in northern Iraq. The women make contact through secret phones; some men have been killed or beaten trying to save them.

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Fighters from the Islamic State group parade down a main road in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. A Yazidi woman nicknamed Dudu tells the story of how she was kidnapped by ISIS along with her sisters and other women, to be sold and married off.

Fighters from the Islamic State group parade down a main road in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. A Yazidi woman nicknamed Dudu tells the story of how she was kidnapped by ISIS along with her sisters and other women, to be sold and married off. AP Photo hide caption

itoggle caption AP Photo

Parallels

Kidnapped By ISIS, One Woman Tells How She Saved Her Sisters

Last month, ISIS terrorized a village, slaughtering the men and kidnapping the young women to force into marriages. On young woman's sisters gave her the courage to escape.

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Islamic State fighters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul parade through the streets shortly after capturing it in June. U.S. airstrikes have made the group wary and less visible, but the Islamic State still has control of Iraq's second-largest city.

Islamic State fighters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul parade through the streets shortly after capturing it in June. U.S. airstrikes have made the group wary and less visible, but the Islamic State still has control of Iraq's second-largest city. STR/AP hide caption

itoggle caption STR/AP

Parallels

U.S. Bombs Blunt Islamic State In Iraq, But Haven't Forced Retreat

After more than a month of airstrikes by the U.S., the extremist group still controls nearly a third of Iraq, including the city of Mosul. But residents there say the bombings are lifting morale.

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Africa

Egypt Revives Law Allowing Government To Control NGOs

Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity is threatening to prosecute nongovernmental organizations that are not compliant with an oppressive law that allows the government to fully control them. Although it was put on the books in 2002 it was never implemented and human rights groups got around it by registering as private companies. Now they may face prosecution and some NGOs are suspending operations.

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Islamist fighters in the Libya Dawn coalition guard the entrance of the Tripoli International Airport on Sunday. After days of battles, they captured it from forces aligned with rogue general Khalifa Hifter.

Islamist fighters in the Libya Dawn coalition guard the entrance of the Tripoli International Airport on Sunday. After days of battles, they captured it from forces aligned with rogue general Khalifa Hifter. Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images

Parallels

Libya's Crisis: A Shattered Airport, Two Parliaments, Many Factions

Libya keeps spiraling downward as Islamist fighters slug it out with forces loyal to a rogue general in the capital and elsewhere.

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