Syria activists protest rebel siege of Aleppo districts
STORY SUMMARY Activists in Aleppo have held protests calling for the lifting of a rebel siege of regime-held districts of Syria’s second city that has created food shortages, activists said […]
Presence of al-Qaeda raises tension in Syria
Activists say dozens have been killed near Aleppo in fighting between al-Qaeda’s branch and other opposition groups. Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch has been cementing control of villages close to the Turkish border. Their presence has raised tensions with some armed opposition groups and locals. Activists say dozens have been killed, wounded […]
Syria: Hitto resigns as prime minister of rebel areas
STORY SUMMARY In a blow to the rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, opposition Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto resigned from his post Monday, citing his inability to form […]
Syria’s Islamists disenchanted with democracy after Morsi’s fall
BEIRUT — Syria’s Islamist rebels say the downfall of Egypt’s popularly elected Muslim Brotherhood president has proven that Western nations pushing for democracy will never accept them, and reinforced the […]
Online videos showcase Syrian rebels’ foreign weaponry
July 7, 2013 – 09:11 By Peter Apps WASHINGTON (Reuters) – From his home in the English town of Leicester, former business administrator Elliot Higgins trawls through sometimes hundreds of online videos a day from Syria’s civil war. His research, begun after he took redundancy late last year, has made […]
Saudi-backed Jarba to lead Syrian opposition
ISTANBUL/BEIRUT — Syria’s fractious opposition elected a new leader on Saturday but rebel groups were reported to be fighting among themselves in a sign of growing divisions on the ground between factions trying to topple President Bashar Assad. The Syrian National Coalition chose Ahmad Jarba as its president after a […]
In Israel, doctors quietly treat injured Syrians
Source: Conservative Papers. Israel, which has never been reticent about publicizing its rescue missions when disaster strikes in far-flung corners of the globe, is being unusually discreet about its aid to victims of the fighting in neighboring Syria. Israeli flag For the past four months, doctors in the Jewish […]
Syria’s food situation will worsen in 2014: U.N. report
Story Summary Syria’s food situation will worsen in 2014: U.N. report Four million Syrians, or a fifth of the population, are unable to produce or buy enough food for their […]
NATO reveals 70% of Syrians support al-Assad
The Anglo-American press reports on an internal NATO study (dated June 2013), which takes stock of Syrian public opinion [1]. The study shows that 70% of Syrians support President Bashar […]
The Lebanese mood shifts on Syria’s war
STORY SUMMARY By Michael Young The Daily Star In Lebanon, the mood is changing decisively against the Syrian uprising – not because of sympathy for Assad, but because there is a perception that the war next door may spread to Lebanon. Assir’s championing of the armed uprising in Syria, combined […]
Foreign media portrayals of the conflict in Syria are dangerously inaccurate World View
It is naive not to accept that both sides are capable of manipulating the facts to serve their own interests By PATRICK COCKBURN for The Independent Sunday 30 June 2013 Every time I come to Syria I am struck by how different the situation is on the ground from the […]
Syrian traders find ways to survive war
Reuters | Jun 30, 2013 | JORDAN TIMES AMMAN — In the bustling Baramka district in the heart of Damascus, sounds of iron hammering by mechanics busily repairing cars can be heard next to the large excavated site of an uncompleted $400 million twin skyscraper project. Since the two-year-old civil […]
Priest ‘beheaded’ in Syria video actually ‘shot dead’
A Catholic priest has been shot and killed in northern Syria, The Telegraph has found, contradicting claims that he is the victim in a widely-circulated beheading video. By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut THE TELEGRAPH The footage, said to show Father Francois Murad, 49, as the victim in a brutal summary execution […]
Ramadan food baskets reach displaced Syrians in Lebanon
Saudi Press Agency Tuesday 2 July 2013 BEIRUT: Ramadan food baskets from Saudi Arabia have started reaching Syrians in Lebanon who have been displaced by civil war in their country, […]
Chaos and Crime: The Trials of Running a Syrian Refugee Camp
By Takis Würger SPIEGEL.DE Local mafia controls a Jordanian camp housing over 100,000 war refugees from Syria. A German aid worker competing with these criminals is determined to preserve the […]
The Syrian conflict
ARAB NEWS Sunday 30 June 2013 It is a pity that the leadership of both the sects, political and religious, has miserably failed to keep away from the treacherous plots of the Western right-wing lobbies steered by the neocons. Write-ups in the New York Times and The Washington Post by […]
GCC to finalize curbs on Hezbollah
RIYADH: ARAB NEWS Saturday 29 June 2013 The Gulf Cooperation Council will hold a meeting in Riyadh on Thursday to agree the mechanisms for imposing sanctions on members of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, its head Abdullatif Al-Zayani said. GCC decided on June 10 to impose sanctions on members of Hezbollah […]
The Syrian conflict and specter of sectarianism
AIJAZ ZAKA SYED ARABNEWS Thursday 27 June 2013 REMEMBER Sarah Palin? The former governor of Alaska may well have ended up the US vice president and perhaps even more considering the advanced years of John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate, if a certain colored man with an impossible name and […]
Suicide bomber strikes Damascus Christian community
DAMASCUS — A suicide bomber killed at least four people in a Christian area of the Syrian capital on Thursday as aid groups said they cannot keep pace with the […]
Syria’s Forgotten People Seize Opportunity on Assad Decay
By Caroline Alexander Bloomberg June 26, 2013 Syria’s Kurds are carving out a self-governed zone as the decay of President Bashar al-Assad’s government creates an opportunity for a people who […]