Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has shown surprising staying power in the vicious civil war that’s been grinding on for nearly two years. One reason for its endurance is the contrast between its overwhelming advantage in firepower — which it has used with utter disregard for non-combatants’ lives — and numbers. By contrast, the disparate […]
Lebanon mayor calls for UNIFIL troops on Syria border
The mayor of the Bekaa town of Arsal Ali al Hujairi called for stationing UNIFIL troops along the border with Syria if the Lebanese army is incapable of protect the Lebanese citizens. Hujairi told New TV following the killing of a Lebanese citizen and wounding of two others by the Syrian security forces
Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun quits, update
The head of Syria’s most-recognized opposition bloc, Burhan Ghalioun, has announced that he is stepping down as leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC) after mounting criticism of his leadership.
The ‘secretive sect’ in charge of Syria
Considered by some Muslims a heretic sect, this small Levantine minority have survived persecution and the Crusades to rise to the top and take over the Syrian establishment. Alawite practices, which are said to include celebrating Christmas and the Zoroastrian new year, are little known even to most Muslims.
Confidential report finds Iran shipping arms to Syria
A confidential U.N. report reveals Iran is exporting arms to the Syrian government in violation of a ban on weapons sales, the same day President Bashar al-Assad blamed the violence in his country on the work of foreign-backed fighters.
U.S. is in a “holding pattern ” on Syria, report
Fifteen months into the crisis in Syria, and the Obama administration is, as one U.S. official describes it, in “a holding pattern,” waiting for Russia to abandon its support for President Bashar al-Assad, waiting for sanctions to topple the economy and waiting for an organized Syrian opposition to present a coherent vision for a post-Assad […]
Syria’s television confessions fail to convince many
Syria’s state media is fighting hard to cast the country’s unrest as an Islamist terrorist conspiracy rather than a popular uprising against the dynastic rule of President Bashar al-Assad. State television airs interviews with men confessing to acts of violence, sullying the image of Assad’s opponents. But the interviews are mocked by many Syrians
UN team in Syria evacuated from tense town
A team of international observers was evacuated Wednesday from a tense town in northern Syria a day after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, a U.N. spokesman said. The team’s vehicles were struck by the blast Tuesday during a mission in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun. None of the observers was wounded, […]
Syria’s neighbors funding, arming rebels, report
Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by the Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
The only true revolution in Syria is nonviolent
The present conflict in Syria is a rather ugly mutation of the Arab uprisings that erupted across the Middle East and North Africa over a year ago. As in other countries, the uprising in Syria began with peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform, only to devolve into a violence that has now brought the country to […]