In H. G. Wells’s “War of the Worlds,” the alien invaders from Mars are poised to take over the Earth but ultimately are decimated by the least unlikely of combatants, microbes. A story in the Daily Express (UK) holds out hope that a similar fate may be the undoing of the world’s current evil invaders, the Islamic State.
According to the report, the Syrian city of Raqqa — the terrorists’ home base — is under siege by an epidemic of flesh-eating bacteria. Unfortunately, the parasitic Leishmaniasis protozoan makes no distinction between terrorist and non-terrorist, which means that innocent civilians are among the 2,500 reported cases of infection
The disease, which is highly virulent, is spread by flies attracted to rubble. Raqqa has more than its share as a result of efforts to beat back the onslaught of IS invaders.
Fighting the contagion may be impossible, according to reports by the World Health Organization, which indicates health officials in Syria attempting to limit the spread of infection were driven out by the terrorists.
