The troops from 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment were flown into Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, last week to prepare for a possible deployment of Chinook helicopters on a mission to save families from a little-known religious sect who were stuck on a mountainside.
The secret ultra-conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei is mobilising within the Irish professions to stop the republic reforming its abortion laws, one of the country's most prominent doctors has warned.
Previous hostages who have escaped the sect have spoken of rape and mutilation, and some are so traumatised they no longer remember their own names.
It is, says Alawi, just the latest move in a series of state-endorsed acts of cultural vandalism, urged on by the hardline wahhabist sect, which perceives historic sites and the veneration of the prophet as encouraging sinful idolatry.
With the help of Henning Kristiansen's atmospheric cinematography, in a range of muted primary colours, Axel captures the bleak Jutland peninsula of the 1870s, where live two unmarried sisters (Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel), daughters of the former pastor, and founder of an austere religious sect, who devote themselves to keeping alive his memory and his teachings in the tiny remote community.
Related: Sydney siege inquest recap – episode seven He also claimed to belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam, which made him a target of Iran's secret police.
While the sect has drifted in and out of the international spotlight, its victims driven from their homes have quietly piled up under the radar of state and international officials, leaving ordinary Nigerians to act as a safety net for than 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs).
But a statement issued on behalf of women in the sect by a local Belz women's organisation said they felt "extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected".
Paweł Wroński (Gazeta Wyborcza) When Laarbi Mateeis, 51, leader of the proselytising Muslim sect Tablighi Jamaat in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in north Africa, uses the language of "fighting jihad", he has to tread carefully.
Analysts say the sect is divided into various factions who, although using the same name, are driven by different aims.
Leaders of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in north London have said children who are driven to school by their mothers will be turned away at the school gates.
