2018-01-31 - Christophe Ayad - Le Monde
Hélène Sallon covered the Battle Mosul in its entirety for the Le Monde newspaper. She followed the progress of the Iraqi forces for several months in the capital of the Islamic State. The accounts she gathered from the population provide a clear picture of the state, between terror and fantasies, that the caliphate wanted to impose on the world.
In this account the author avoids both the sensational testimony of the jihadists and their victims and the cold, distant analysis of the researcher. Hélène Sallon gives body and substance to this caliphate, which has given rise to all kinds of fears and fantasies.
Hélène Sallon has been a journalist at Le Monde since 2010, and, since 2014, Middle East correspondent in the international department. An Arabic specialist, she covered the Battle of Mosul in Iraq from mid-October 2016 to mid-July 2017, and spent over four months in the field following the Iraqi offensive against the jihadist group and investigating its reign in Mosul.