Free Syrian Army

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump called Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and appeared to back Turkey against Russia and Syria with regard to the current Syrian Arab Army campaign in west Aleppo province and the province of Idlib. The Turkish press said that Trump thanked Erdogan for his efforts to avert a humanitarian […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump Happy, Bolton Sad? Syrian Regime claims 90% of E. Ghouta as 105k civilians Flee

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the last major rebel enclaves in Syria, East Ghouta, is near to falling back completely under the control of the Baath regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The enclave consists of three districts, Harasta, Zamalka-Irbin-Jobar, and Douma, east and south of the capital. Although […]

Bashar al-Assad

Surprise withdrawal of Syrian guerrillas from East Ghouta as Regime advances

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian War is largely over, but the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers appear determined to mop up the remaining enclaves of rebel opposition, despite sweet talk of de-confliction zones and of negotiations in Sochi or Astana. It would be better […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Deir al-Zor attack on US Troops, allies, Shows their Vulnerability

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US troops and the Kurdish and Arab fighters among whom they are embedded came under a coordinated attack by pro-Damascus militias on late Wednesday into Thursday morning. The action took place in Deir al-Zor Province, in Syria’s far east. It is possible that the pro-regime militias […]

Free Syrian Army

Syrian Army Seizes De Facto ISIL Capital

contributors

ISIL or ISIS facing final days as holder of territories as Damascus reclaims al Mayadeen

Bashar al-Assad

Have we Won yet? Was ISIL a flash in the Pan?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – With the Iraqi campaign against ISIL having wrested from it Mosul and Talafar, and with Hawija and Qaim really the last two areas where it actually controls a town, you have to wonder if ISIL was ever all that formidable. Three years after it announced its […]

Archaeology

Syria’s Heritage, and the World’s, that the War Destroyed–From Palmyra to Castles

contributors

Written by Alreem Kamal | ( GlobalVoices.org) | – – Syria's story is one that has been weaved through families from one millennium to the next. Subjugated as a Roman province under the command of Pompey the Great in 64 BC, and brought under Ottoman rule 16 centuries later by Sultan Selim I in 1516, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump hands Putin gift, cancels Support for Syrian Rebels

Juan Cole

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. […]

Bashar al-Assad

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

contributors

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 escalation of the undeclared war in Syria, the Trump Administration risks a direct military confrontation with Russia. On June 20, the United States […]