Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian bombers for the first time have taken off from bases in Iran to carry out air strikes on rebel targets in Syria. The US military is complaining that under a Russian agreement with the US, it was supposed to get a timely notification of Russia […]

Syria

10 Children Killed in Saudi Airstrike on Yemeni School

contributors

TeleSur | – – The Saudi-led coalition admitted children were at the site of the airstrike but jets “don’t distinguish ages” during attacks. At least 10 Yemeni children were killed in a Saudi airstrike targeting a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province, Doctors Without Borders, a Paris-based relief agency also known as […]

Featured

People in Syria’s Manbij Rejoice by Shaving, throwing off Veil as ISIL fighters Flee

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – People in Syria’s norther town of Manbij, now entirely liberated from the rule of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), rejoiced on Saturday. Men shaved their beards (which had been imposed on them by the fundamentalists) and women threw off their burqas (full-face veils) and burned them. The burqa […]

Featured

ISIL fighter number falls to 15,000 as Manbij capture Cuts off Route to Europe

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | AP is reporting that Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland maintains that the number of ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq is in steep decline, having fallen to as little as 15,000, down from 25,000 at the organization’s height. In Iraq the organization has lost Tikrit, Beiji, Mt. Sinjar, Sinjar, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton’s team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from office as soon as they get into the White House. An excellent and principled NYT columnist called the non-intervention […]

Featured

No, Obama did not found ISIL, Mr. Trump: That was the GOP

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump in his daily free association exercise accused President Obama of creating Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Iraq by withdrawing troops from that country in 2011. It is an accusation he has in past made against Sec. Clinton, but now he is shifting blame to Obama. Obama […]

Bashar al-Assad

Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC) is the news that he plans to subject all of Aleppo. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, or at least it used to be, […]

Russia

Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?

contributors

By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus on improving cooperation in two main areas: the effort to find a shared and joint solution to the Syria crisis, and in business […]

Featured

Syria: Key ISIL Smuggling city, Manbij, falls to Kurd-Arab Force

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely leftist Kurds of the YPG but includes a small Arab auxiliary faction, has taken almost all […]