Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Tuesday, March 20, is the spring equinox this year. Iranians, Kurds, Central Asians and many in Pakistan and India celebrate the equinox as the New Year, which after all makes a lot more sense than starting it in the dead of winter. Spring is symbolically the […]

Featured

Thousands flee E. Ghouta as Regime Army Advances, Rebels ask for Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of civilians fled the southern pocket of the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus on Thursday and Friday and Saturday, carrying what few belongings they could with them. The rate seems to have been about 10,000 people a day until today. Russian sources are saying 11,000 […]

Kurds

Turkey says US & Kurds will Leave Manbij or Else, Prepares for Iraq Incursion

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Turkey and the US will oversee the withdrawal of forces allied to the YPG (People’s Protection Units) from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced today, according to Hurriyet Daily News. Speaking to reporters during a flight to Moscow, Cavusoglu said Turkey and the […]

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How Trump is losing in Syria & why Haley is Posturing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Well, I say Trump is losing, but it isn’t clear that Trump has a policy in Syria or cares whether he wins. The Department of Defense is losing. Its policy was to 1. defeat ISIL with the help of the leftist Kurds of the YPG (People’s […]

Kurds

Kurdish Civilians pledge to shield Afrin from Turkish Invasion with their Bodies

contributors

TeleSur | – – The YPG and allied forces, under the umbrella organization the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), control over 60 percent of the Syrian border with Turkey. The Kurdish residents of Afrin have said they would act as human shield to confront a Turkish assault on the local Kurdish militia YPG who rules the […]

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 […]

Syria

Syria’s war at home is giving way to dangerous proxy conflicts

contributors

By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) | – – As Syrian government forces crush the country’s largest remaining rebel strongholds and with Bashar al-Assad apparently here to stay, Syria is turning into an arena for three new proxy conflicts. In the south, Israel is facing off against Iran; in the northern region of Afrin, Turkey […]

Bashar al-Assad

Yes, Newsweek & RT, Syria’s Regime uses Chemical Weapons

contributors

By Brian Whitaker | ( al-Bab.com) | – – False claims in the UN security council: Syria’s Bashar Ja’afari At a meeting [last month] of the UN security council Syria claimed the US and France now doubt that the Assad regime has ever used chemical weapons. The claim was false but it provides an interesting […]

Featured

UN: War Crimes being Committed in Syria’s East Ghouta

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports that Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned Syrian (and Russian?) officials that there is credible evidence that they are committing war crimes in East Ghouta, and perhaps crimes against humanity. A war crime is a single action that violates […]