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 to have made their way from Europe to fight the regime in Syria, and as the war winds down, many will return. Understanding […]
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Syria
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 this book [in July 2016], Iraqi Army ordinance specialists are cleaning the town (Ramadi) of thousands of IEDs planted by ISIS. ISIS fighters […]
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 lived in Tabqa, a small city on the banks of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Then occupied by the Islamic State (ISIS, […]
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 halt to funding Syrian rebels. Trump tweeted: The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to […]
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 a month ago. The decision was made in a meeting of Trump with CIA director Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser H. R. […]
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 Syria and Iraq. Trump says he was in France to attend Bastille Day and commemorate the centenary of the entry of the US […]
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 has been killed. “(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank, in the Islamic State in the eastern countryside […]
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. The United States and Russia have cooperated to negotiate a ceasefire in the southwest region of Syria, an agreement which will involve a […]
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 around the old city of al-Raqqa in eastern Syria and managed to get into the old city itself. Al-Raqqa is the capital of […]