Month

Archives: Syria

US Military in Syria to Stay, YPG Kurds Say

TeleSur | - - The United States has been funding and supporting the group for months, due to “strategic interests” in the region, a spokesperson revealed. U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria —…

Is Turkey on brink of Invading Syrian Kurds, US BFF?

TeleSur | - - The Turkish Armed Forces are massing on the Syrian border days after a reshuffle of top brass in the country's military in anticipation of a potential invasion that…

UN Report: Muslim Youth going to fight in Syria mostly not Motivated by Islam

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Lizzie Dearden at The Independent reviews a new report by the United Nations Office of counter-terrorism report. Some 25,000 young men are said…

Who defeated ISIL? Obama’s Quiet Strategy, not Trump’s Bluster

Bryan G. Williams | (Informed Comment) | - - Book excerpt from the just-published Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria [CLICK]: At the time of the writing of…

Syria: The American War on Civilians

By Laura Gottesdiener | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - It was midday on Sunday, May 7th, when the U.S.-led coalition warplanes again began bombing the neighborhood of Wassim Abdo’s family. They…

Trump: Aid to Syrian Rebels was ‘Massive,’ ‘Dangerous;’ slams Post

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Trump trashed the Washington Post on Monday, calling it the Amazon Washington Post and implicitly complaining about a July 19 article on his…

Trump hands Putin gift, cancels Support for Syrian Rebels

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Greg Jaffe and Adam Entous at WaPo report that Trump cancelled the CIA program to support the remnants of the Free Syrian Army…

Trump & Macron Consult on Syria Cease Fire in Shadow of Don Jr. Scandal

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald J. Trump consulted on a number of bilateral issues on Wednesday, including cooperation in…

Rolex “Caliph” of ISIL Dead: Syrian Observatory

TeleSur | - - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death has been widely speculated for months. Reports from the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, SOHR, claim that ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi…

Syria: US & Russia Agree to Ceasefire, De-Escalation: But will it Hold?

TeleSur | - - Rex Tillerson praised the agreement as indicative of future cooperation in Syria, but also said that the United States still sees no "long-term role" for the Assad government.…

Leftist Kurds with US Air Support breach Walls of ISIL Capital, enter Old City

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Al Jazeera reports that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by the US Air Force and other international allies, has breached the walls…

Syria: as anti-ISIL Fight enters End Game, Civilian Casualties Spike

By Roshni Majumdar | (Inter Press Service) | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - As US-backed Syrian rebels plow ahead in the fight to take back Raqqa from the Islamic State in…

Syria: Russians alarmed, Washington Befuddled, by White House threats

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The unusual statement from the "White House" on Monday saying that there were indications that the Syrian regime was preparing to use poison…

Can Iran, Turkey and Egypt Cooperate to deliver Mideast from Chaos?

Farhang Jahanpour | ( Tehran Times | - - TEHRAN - Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on the Middle East in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, tells…

Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria—Sleepwalking into a Global Confrontation

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | - - Syrian President Bashar al Assad claims to have won the war and that he is merely mopping up remaining rebel groups. With its…

Trump accuses Syrian of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

Trump accuses Syria of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Trump administration is making noise about striking Syria, on the grounds that Damascus is planning to use poison gas again. Trump's Neoconservative…

Tense Eid 1.2 mn Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

Tense Eid for 1.2 mn Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

By Billie Jeanne Brownlee | (The Conversation) | - - For Syrian refugees in Lebanon marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, it has been a struggle to find enough food to…

1/2 of World’s Civilian War Deaths were in Syria, Iraq & Yemen during past Half-Decade

By IPS World Desk | (Inter Press Service) | - - ROME/GENEVA (IPS) - Between 2010 and 2015, nearly half of all civilian war deaths worldwide occurred in Syria, Iraq and Yemen,…

Russo-US dog fights over Syria?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Yara Bayoumi at Reuters reports on the complicated minuet being danced by Russia, the Syrian Air Force, and the United States. The Syrian…

Putin’s End Game in Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Syrian press is watching Oliver Stone's interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin and likes what it sees. Syria's al-Watan (The Nation) reports…