Syria

(By Rania Abouzeid) It was bound to happen, this uprising within an uprising against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a transnational ultraconservative Islamist group that ostensibly fights alongside Syria’s disparate rebel groups but more often intimidates, antagonises, or opposes most of them, including other conservative Islamists. Long brewing tensions between ISIS and […]

Arab Spring

How the Arab Spring Left the Palestinians Behind

contributors

(By Abdalhadi Alijla) Reading about the murder of Hassan Hassan, the Palestinian actor and comedian, in Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria was like a bombshell. Hassan and his wife were arrested by Syrian regime forces three months ago; his wife and son were released two days later. He was believed to be detained when recently […]

al-Qaeda

Syria: Rebel Militias take on Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

contributors

(By Joshua Landis with A.J.N.) A major confrontation has broken out between the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Syria’s other rebel militias. It is being led by two newly organized coalitions, called Jaysh al Mujahidiin and the Front of Syrian Revolutionaries. But many other militias have also declared war on ISIS, insisting […]

Afghanistan

The Politics of War Casualty Counts, from the “GWOT” to Syria

contributors

(By Michael Munk) Counting the casualties of war is a highly political exercise. We recall the competition for promotion and decoration between US military commanders in Vietnam for Vietcong “body counts.” When these were widely exposed as false or misleading (labeling civilians as fighters), the same military announced “we don’t do body counts” in the […]

Syria

Syria: 73,000 were Killed in 2013 Carnage as Refugees Brace for Winter

contributors

(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 […]