Lynzy Billing

Afghanistan, Chittagong

Writer and Photographer at Freelance

Investigative Journalist @washingtonpost @latimes @TIME @MotherJones @ForeignPolicy @guardian @AJEnglish @propublica @VICE @NPR @ELLEmagazine @newlinesmag &more

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Articles

“The Night Doctrine”: The Truth About Afghanistan’s Zero Unit Night Raids

Jan 21, 2025 | propublica.org | Mauricio Rodríguez Pons |Almudena Toral |Lynzy Billing

Skip to main content Close Close Creative Commons Donate Email Add Email Facebook Instagram Mastodon Facebook Messenger Mobile Podcast Print ProPublica Search Secure WhatsApp YouTube “The Night Doctrine”: The Truth About Afghanistan’s Zero Unit Night Raids In this triple-Emmy-winning short, British journalist Lynzy Billing returns to her native Afghanistan to find out who killed her family 30 years earlier, only to uncover a secretive U.S.-backed program that left hundreds of civilians dead....
Retracing a Childhood in Jerusalem

Sep 9, 2024 | newlinesmag.com | Lynzy Billing

The author wanted never to return to Israel, but after Oct. 7 she went in search of the spaces between competing narratives Soon after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, my father sent me a poem he wrote while in Gaza more than two decades ago. It could easily have been written today. I arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of 2002, not long after the Second Intifada began.
Afghanistan Women’s Shelters Are Dwindling Under Taliban Rule

Jun 12, 2024 | yahoo.com | Lynzy Billing

When the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, a Taliban member asked Razia’s father for her hand in marriage. Her family, former government workers, felt the marriage was the only way to avoid harassment from the Taliban. When Razia (a pseudonym to protect her safety), who was 18 at the time, refused the marriage, her family beat her so severely that she attempted suicide. The beating continued and eventually, her mother was forced to take her to a local medical clinic.
West Bank midwives are facing a maternal health crisis

Jun 10, 2024 | motherjones.com | Lynzy Billing

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. The car in front flashes its hazard lights, a signal to alert drivers that there is an Israeli military checkpoint ahead. Niveen Draghmeh sits up a little straighter, her medical ID clasped in her hand. Just a week earlier, her husband was taken out of his car and beaten by two Israeli soldiers at this very same checkpoint.
Polio Doesn’t Respect Borders - But Neither Do Vaccines

Dec 18, 2023 | globalcitizen.org | Lynzy Billing

Jibran Khan has been a polio vaccinator on the Pakistani side of the Torkham border crossing for the past 10 years. It’s a key crossing, connecting Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. In early October, Pakistan announced that it would arrest and deport foreigners it said were in the country illegally, giving a deadline of Nov. 1 for a return to their native homes. This meant that more than 1.7 million Afghans would need to leave.
Two Perspectives on One Tragic Raid in Afghanistan

Nov 3, 2023 | newyorker.com | Mauricio Rodríguez Pons |Almudena Toral |Lynzy Billing

Our chance encounter spurred me to begin investigating the units that had killed her sons. I learnt that the raid on Mahzala’s home, along with hundreds of others like it, had been conducted by élite squads of U.S.-backed Afghan Special Forces units, called the Zero units. I found that a disturbing number of the raids appeared to have relied on faulty intelligence or misidentified targets provided by America’s intelligence-gathering apparatus. This film is presented in partnership with ProPublica.
Will The Pope's Reforms Trigger A Historic Schism In The Catholic Church?

Oct 5, 2023 | worldcrunch.com | Lynzy Billing

Society Pope Francis opens the Synod in Rome on Wednesday Vatican Media Press Office Handout/ANSA via ZUMA Society Pope Francis opens the Synod in Rome on Wednesday Vatican Media Press Office Handout/ANSA via ZUMA You've reached your limit of free articles. To read the full story, start your free trial today. Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime. Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.
War in Afghanistan devastated the country’s environment in ways that may never be cleaned up

Oct 5, 2023 | nationalobserver.com | Lynzy Billing

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This investigation was co-produced with New Lines Magazine and supported in part by a grant from The Fund for Investigative Journalism. Birds dip between low branches that hang over glittering brooks along the drive from Jalalabad heading south toward the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Then, the landscape changes, as lush fields give way to barren land.
The Environmental Ruin Left Behind By The U.S. In Afghanistan

Oct 5, 2023 | worldcrunch.com | Lynzy Billing

Green A boy jumps over a stream that flows out of the walls of the Bagram base. Several burn pit locations at the base, which studies have shown polluted the air far above EPA standards, were last active in mid-June of 2021. Green A boy jumps over a stream that flows out of the walls of the Bagram base. Several burn pit locations at the base, which studies have shown polluted the air far above EPA standards, were last active in mid-June of 2021.
America’s war in Afghanistan devastated the country’s environment in ways that may never be cleaned up

Oct 2, 2023 | popsci.com | Lynzy Billing

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. This investigation was co-produced with New Lines Magazine and supported in part by a grant from The Fund for Investigative Journalism.