When ISIS was ousted from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa last week, CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams covered the development, one of a small number of journalists there representing U.S. news organizations. She has been in Syria for a couple weeks, reporting stories such as one about a teen girl from Kansas forced to move to Syria by her father.
She said ISIS’ defeat in Raqqa is a relevant story for Americans. “ISIS isn’t just terrorizing the Middle East — it’s also inspired attacks in the U.S.,” Williams said. “You degrade their ability to carry out terrorist attacks when you take away their territory.”
Williams is based in Istanbul, and has covered stories in Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia, among other Mideast locales.
She was on the team that recently earned a News Emmy for outstanding coverage with the CBS News story, “The Road to Mosul.” Williams was “incredibly surprised” to land the Emmy, she said, because there was “so much great work” in the running for the prize.
“I’m very lucky to work with a preposterously talented group of people,” Williams added.
