Syria

(By AFP) 73,000 dead in Syria in 2013, war’s bloodiest year (via AFP) More than 73,000 people were killed in Syria in 2013, the bloodiest year yet in the brutal civil war that began in March 2011, an NGO said on Wednesday. The tally from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came as renewed regime […]

Lebanon

Beirut Teen who took Selfie moments before Carbomb exploded dies of Injuries

Juan Cole

(AFP reports) Teen in Beirut bombing ‘selfie’ dies (via AFP) A Lebanese teenager seen posing for a group “selfie” in front of a bomb-laden car moments before it exploded in the capital Beirut died of his injuries on Saturday. “The number of victims from the attack rose to seven after the death of young Mohammad… […]

Featured

Syria spills over on Lebanon: Beirut Bombing Kills Sunni Critic of Syria’s al-Assad

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Respected Lebanese politician and former ambassador to the United States, Muhammad Shatah, was assassinated by a massive car bomb near the parliament building on Friday. He was on his way to a meeting of the Future Party. He was an adviser to former prime minister Saad Hariri of Future, whose own father […]

Iran

Increasingly, all Roads run through Iran (Damascus, Baghdad, Asia)

contributors

(By Marianna Charountaki) “While Iran’s importance for regional politics was always there, it has only now become apparent, especially for the foreign policies of international players, writes Dr. Marianna Charountaki.” In the aftermath of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s unsuccessful ‘zero problems’ policy with his neighbours followed by the rapprochement between the KRG and Ankara, […]

History

Yezidi Kurdish Family in Syria, 1899 (Photo of the Day)

Juan Cole

A Kurdish Yezidi Family of the Mount Simeon district of northern Syria, at a village near Aleppo, circa 1899 (From Gertrude Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, 1908) The Kurdish population of northeast Syria is roughly 10 percent of the population. At that time, there were about 3 million people in what is now […]

al-Qaeda

US Arms Shiite Iraqi Gov’t to Kill Sunni Rebels, Arms Syrian Sunni Rebels to overthrow Shiite Gov’t

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) It can only be called an Escherian Mobius Strip foreign policy. The Obama administration is sending hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to the Shiite Islamic Mission Party-dominated government of Iraq to help in the latter’s struggle against radical Sunni rebels who have increased their bombings and attacks this year. If the helicopter […]

Dissent

Damascus’s Other Battle: Regime Cyberwar on the Opposition

contributors

(By Dave Maass) Social Engineering and Malware in Syria: EFF and Citizen Lab’s Latest Report on the Digital Battlefield (via EFF) More than two years into the Syrian conflict, the violence continues both on the ground and in the digital realm. Just as human rights investigators and weapons inspectors search for evidence of chemical weapons, […]

Human Rights

War Crime: Syrian Regime Killed Hundreds of Civilians, including Children, with Airstrikes on Aleppo

Juan Cole

(By Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher, Human Rights Watch) < Dozens of government airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians, including children, in Aleppo governorate in the last month were unlawful. After months of stalemate between government and opposition forces in Aleppo, Human Rights Watch documented an intensification of government attacks starting on November 23. […]

art and photography

Sufi Center in Hama, Syria, c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)

Juan Cole

(From Gertrude Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, 1908) Hama is a small, mainly Sunni Arab city in the center-west of Syria famed for its water wheels. For Syrian Sufi orders see this link