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Iraq and Syria, the US and Germany

Jim Muir analyses the tactical dilemmas ISIS poses for Iraq, Iran and the US; Steve Evans remembers the 1904 disaster which hit New York City's 'Kleindeutschland'.

From a vantage point in Erbil, Jim Muir analyses the tactical dilemmas which the march of ISIS poses for Iraq, Iran and the US alike. Iran might be on good terms with Iraq's Shia leadership now, but there is clearly enough discontent among Iraq's Sunni minority for the jihadi group's philosophy to take hold in some areas. So how should the rest of the world respond - and what sorts of alliance of convenience are likely to follow?

In Berlin, Steve Evans commemmorates a 1904 disaster in New York City. Before 9/11, the greatest loss of life in a single incident was incurred when a pleasureboat, the General Slocum, caught fire and sank - taking more than a thousand lives with it, most of them from 'Kleindeutschland' - the then-thriving German community of the Big Apple.

(Photo: Newly-recruited Iraqi volunteers in police uniforms attend a training session near the Shiite city of Karbala, June 19, 2014. They join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over northern Iraqi cities. Credit: Mohammed Sawaf/AFP/Getty Images)

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11 minutes

Last on

Fri 20 Jun 2014 19:50GMT

Broadcast

  • Fri 20 Jun 2014 19:50GMT