Syria

By David Alpher | (The Conversation) | – – Just this past weekend of July 4, US-led coalition aircraft targeted the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria. It was one of the “largest deliberate engagements to date,” said a coalition spokesman, and it was executed “to deny [ISIS] the ability to move military capabilities throughout […]

Featured

Obama: No more US troops to fight Daesh/ ISIL, but more Training

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama on Monday went for a briefing at the Pentagon on the fight against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). In remarks afterwards, he acknowledged that training of Iraqi troops has been going much slower than originally envisaged (about 5,000 have been trained in the past year, and […]

Human Rights

Daesh/ ISIL Marked Women and Children for Death in Syria’s Kobani

Juan Cole

Human Rights Watch | (New York) — Armed militants believed to be members of Islamic State, also known as ISIS, deliberately targeted people they knew were civilians in a June 25, 2015, attack in and around the northern Syrian city of Kobani. Syrian Kurdish authorities and local human rights groups said that 233 to 262 […]

Children

Child Labor: A Hidden Atrocity of the Syrian Crisis

contributors

By Kanya D’Almeida UNITED NATIONS, Jul 3 2015 (IPS) – In a conflict that has claimed over 220,000 lives and injured a further 840,000 people as of January 2015, it is sometimes hard to see beyond the death toll. What started as a confrontation between pro-democracy activists and the entrenched dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad […]

Apartheid

Syrian Refugees Face Hunger Amidst Humanitarian Funding Crisis

Juan Cole

By Zhai Yun Tan | (Inter Press Service) | – – WASHINGTON (IPS) – The United Nations’ food aid organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP), said on Jul. 1 that up to 440,000 refugees from war-torn Syria might have to go hungry if no additional funds are received by August. WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian […]

Arab Spring

Syria: When al-Assad Regime shuts off Internet, State Violence Spikes

contributors

By Sarah Myers West | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – EFF has noted and protested when authorities deliberately cut off Internet access in times of unrest. As a restraint on the freedom of expression of those affected, communication blackouts during protests are unconscionable. But recent research by Anita Gohdes, a postdoctoral researcher at the […]

Featured

The Great Wall of Turkey? Ankara imagines DMZ w/ Kurds, ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So I am going to tell you a story about Turkey, Syria and the United States. It may or may not be true. Its details may or may not have happened, though there is reason to think they did. It is a story. The point is […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

As Kobane comes under ISIL attack, Kurds Encircle, cut off “caliphate”

contributors

By Amy Austin Holmes | (Informed Comment) | – – (Kobane, Syria) The liberation of Kobane in late January led to jubilant celebrations almost everywhere. It was both a turning point in the war against Islamic State militants and the beginning of an emancipatory grassroots democratic experiment known as the Rojava Revolution. Now, IS militants […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Her War: Kurdish Women Commandos take on ISIL/ Daesh in Syria

contributors

RT | (Video Report) | – – “In the face of the deadly threat posed by the so-called Islamic State, many Kurdish women decide not to leave their survival to fate. Instead, they fight for their lives and their future. Taking up arms, they join the YPG – Kurdish People’s Protection Units that defend their […]