A great challenge

Earlier this week, they accepted responsibility for the Tunis attack that left more than 20 dead. Two new rounds of beheadings were publicised yesterday, one against the Christian Yazidi minority in Iraq, the other against peshmerga soldiers. IS threatened to kill “dozens” more captive troops. There are also claims, from Kurdish authorities in Iraq, that IS used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against peshmerga fighters. Ancient cultural relics are destroyed and people are flogged for keeping “unclean” dogs. Meanwhile, the EU and Balkan countries have moved to stem the ever-growing flow of fighters from southeastern Europe to join jihadists. IS may wish to destroy their own world and ours too. They may wish to provoke a response from the West that would make them more attractive to extremists. How to stop IS without making them martyrs is the great challenge.