By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Saudi-backed fundamentalist militia “Army of Islam” in the Douma district of East Ghouta near Damascus alleged Sunday that the al-Assad regime had dropped a barrel bomb full of chlorine and other chemicals on the rebel enclave on Saturday. Initial reports said that some 41, including […]
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Syria
Kurds of Afrin looted by Turkey-backed Arab Militias, as Syria blocks Kurdish Exodus
Human Rights Watch | – – Turkish-Allied Groups Loot, Destroy People’s Property (Beirut) – Syrian government forces are blocking some civilians fleeing the Turkish-led military actions in Afrin from entering territory under government control, Human Rights Watch said today. The civilians are stranded in areas with limited food, clean water, and medical supplies. Syrian government […]
Trump wants out of Syria within 6 months, Seeks Saudi Aid: AP
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – AP’s Josh Lederman reports that on Tuesday, Trump told national security aides meeting in the White House that his patience is running out with the Syria operation. “I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our […]
Russian, Iranian, Turkish Presidents Meet to Discuss Syria, isolate Trump
TeleSur | – – The meeting signals a shift towards dialogue between what have previously been opposing camps throughout most of Syria’s war. The presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey – Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan – have met in Ankara, Turkey to discuss their nations’ respective roles in Syria. The meeting […]
Trump: “US out of Syria ‘Very Soon'”– Quip or Policy Reversal?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump in the course of a speech on infrastructure in Ohio, yesterday, observed that the US was near to completely defeating the ISIL “caliphate” and that the US would be withdrawing from Syria very soon. CBS News: “Trump says U.S. to pull out of Syria “very […]
A Second Palestine? Neo-Ottoman “Sultan” Erdogan Captures Syria’s Kurdish Enclave of Afrin
By Dr. Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey’s capture of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria has added a new dimension to the highly volatile geopolitical environment in the Middle East. Not only is it a major assault on war-ravaged Syria’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty, the event speaks of […]
Trump Happy, Bolton Sad? Syrian Regime claims 90% of E. Ghouta as 105k civilians Flee
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 […]
Turkey: Mass Deportations of Syrians to dangerous Areas
Human Rights Watch | – – EU Should Raise Issue, Pledge Aid at Conference (Brussels) – Turkish security forces have routinely intercepted hundreds, and at times thousands, of asylum seekers at the Turkey-Syria border since at least December 2017 and summarily deported them to the war-ravaged Idlib governorate in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. […]
Syria: A Market bombing kills 38 and Explains why Government won Syria War
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A rocket fired by rebel forces at a market, Kashkul, in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus on Wednesday killed dozens of people. It strikes me that this incident encapsulates the deep tragedy of the Syrian civil war. Jaramana is a mixed Christian and Druze neighborhood 3 […]