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Stretched thin, Syrian extremists are pressured

Just a week ago, al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria enjoyed an arc of dominance across the country’s north and east, ruling with brutality. But a series of stunning reversals in recent days has made clear that the militant group may be more vulnerable than it seemed, in part because its frequent kidnappings and attacks on fellow rebels have won it few allies. By Tuesday, the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, appeared increasingly desperate, with its fighters pushed out of some towns and turning to suicide bombings in a bid to hold on to pockets of Raqqah, the large north-central city that was its stronghold. Still, the group showed no sign of giving up easily, calling Tuesday for its followers to behead anyone associated with the Western-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition, which it accused of starting the conflict. For now, at least, a coalition of more-moderate Syrian […]

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Saudis Back Syrian Rebels Despite Risks

On his eighth trip to fight with the rebels in Syria, in August, Abu Khattab saw something that troubled him: two dead children, their blood-soaked bodies sprawled on the street of a rural village near the Mediterranean coast. He knew right away that his fellow rebels had killed them. Abu Khattab, a 43-year-old Saudi hospital administrator who was pursuing jihad on his holiday breaks, went to demand answers from his local commander, a notoriously brutal man named Abu Ayman al-Iraqi. The commander brushed him off, saying his men had killed the children “because they were not Muslims,” Abu Khattab recalled recently during an interview here. It was only then that Abu Khattab began to believe that the jihad in Syria — where he had traveled in violation of an official Saudi ban — was not fully in accord with God’s will. But by the time […]

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UN decides to stop updating Syria death toll

The U.N.’s human rights office says it has stopped updating the death toll from Syria’s civil war since its last count of at least 100,000 in late July. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, blamed the failure to provide new figures on the organization’s own lack of access on the ground in Syria and its inability to verify "source material" from others. Colville told reporters Tuesday in Geneva that the total number of dead the U.N. had estimated was based on an exhaustive effort to verify a combination of six different figures supplied by a variety of sources and "for the time being we’re not updating those figures." © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use […]

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Syria rebel infighting spreads to city in east

Clashes between Syrian rebels and their rivals from an al-Qaida-linked faction spread on Monday from the country’s opposition-held areas in the north to a key eastern city, activists said. The rebel-on-rebel fighting in the eastern city of Raqqa – a long-time bastion of an al-Qaida-linked group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – reflects a widening war within a war in Syria, this one against radical extremists. It also suggests emboldened rebels are trying to completely overrun their al-Qaida rivals. The infighting has been the most serious since armed groups initially rose to try overthrow the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The clashes erupted in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib on Friday after residents there accused ISIL fighters of killing a popular doctor. An activist group, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that at least […]

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Fallout From Syria Conflict Takes Rising Toll on Mideast

Spiraling violence and advances by al Qaeda-linked fighters in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are underscoring the cost of Syria’s civil war as it increasingly spills over the country’s borders. The rise of the Islamist forces in Iraq is particularly worrisome to the Obama administration. In response, U.S. officials said Sunday they were seeking to boost military support—though they emphasized no troops—for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to help in his campaign to push back al Qaeda. U.S. officials are also considering new military aid for Lebanon, which is plagued by rising sectarian violence. Resurgent al Qaeda-allied forces battled Sunday in both Iraq and in neighboring Syria. Fighters in Iraq’s Anbar Province pillaged American weapons from armories after taking control of the town of Fallujah and skirmished with Iraqi government troops on the road to Baghdad, said residents and officials there. In Syria, al Qaeda-linked militants battled as well—but this […]

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Syria’s Assad ‘has secret Iraq oil lifeline’

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has received substantial imports of Iraqi crude oil from an Egyptian port in the last nine months, shipping and payments documents show, part of an under-the-radar trade that has kept his military running despite Western sanctions. Assad’s government has been blacklisted by Western powers for its role in the two-and-a-half year civil war, forcing Damascus to rely on strategic ally Iran as its main supplier of crude oil. An exclusive Reuters examination based on previously undisclosed commercial documents about Syrian oil purchases shows however that Iran is no longer acting alone. Dozens of shipping and payment documents viewed by Reuters show that millions of barrels of crude delivered to Assad’s government on Iranian ships have actually come from Iraq, through Lebanese and Egyptian trading companies. The trade, which is denied by the firms involved, […]

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Syria's Assad 'has secret Iraq oil lifeline'

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has received substantial imports of Iraqi crude oil from an Egyptian port in the last nine months, shipping and payments documents show, part of an under-the-radar trade that has kept his military running despite Western sanctions. Assad’s government has been blacklisted by Western powers for its role in the two-and-a-half year civil war, forcing Damascus to rely on strategic ally Iran as its main supplier of crude oil. An exclusive Reuters examination based on previously undisclosed commercial documents about Syrian oil purchases shows however that Iran is no longer acting alone. Dozens of shipping and payment documents viewed by Reuters show that millions of barrels of crude delivered to Assad’s government on Iranian ships have actually come from Iraq, through Lebanese and Egyptian trading companies. The trade, which is denied by the firms involved, […]

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In Lebanon, minority Alawites wounded in attacks in latest spillover from Syria’s civil war

One man was dragged from his taxi. Eight others were ordered off a bus on their way home from work. The victims were shot in the legs by masked gunmen, a brutal tactic that officials say has been used on dozens of members of Tripoli’s minority Alawite community in recent months. The intimidation campaign is the latest spillover from neighboring Syria’s long-running civil war, which has been re-created in microcosm in this impoverished port city, Lebanon’s ­second-largest. Alawite residents of the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood who back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , a fellow Alawite, have frequently clashed with Sunni residents of nearby Bab al-Tabbaneh, who support the Syrian rebels. The Alawites are a minority Shiite sect. In August, two Sunni mosques were bombed , killing more than 40 people; Alawite leader Ali Eid was charged with aiding one of the suspects. A few days after the […]

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Winter’s no wonderland for beleaguered Syrian refugees

The breathtaking beauty of the surrounding snow-covered mountains offers no consolation for the misery that winter has brought for thousands of Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley. In farmland repurposed as an unofficial refugee camp for those fleeing Syria’s war, snow dumped by Lebanon’s first storm of the season melts when the temperature rises a few degrees above freezing during the day, turning the narrow paths between tents into shin-deep patches of mud.  Thursday found children standing shivering by a puddle, their rubber sandals sinking into the mud and their pajama pants rolled up in a futile attempt to keep them clean. “These children have no clothes — how can they not get sick?” said a refugee who identified himself by a nickname, Abu Ali. Like many refugees in Lebanon, he was afraid to disclose his real name. At least 80,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living at winter’s […]

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U.N. confirms chemical arms were used repeatedly in Syria

Chemical weapons were likely used in five out of seven attacks investigated by U.N. experts in Syria, where a 2 1/2-year civil war has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the final report of a U.N. inquiry published on Thursday. U.N. investigators said the deadly nerve agent sarin was likely used in four incidents, in one case on a large scale. The report noted that in several cases the victims included government soldiers and civilians, though it was not always possible to establish with certainty any direct links between the attacks, the victims and the alleged sites of the incidents. "The United Nations Mission concludes that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic," the final report by chief U.N. investigator Ake Sellstrom said. Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari and the opposition Syrian National Coalition […]

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Syrian Industry Shot by Both Sides Suffers $2.4 Billion Hit

Syrian businessman Saeed Nahhas had already fled the country by the time his two workshops were engulfed by the civil war. Government shelling destroyed one that made packaging machines, and four months later rebels looted another that produced plastic bags and zippers. Nahhas was living in the Turkish province of Gaziantep near the Syrian border when he lost the two facilities. He decided to stay there and set up a new workshop while waiting for the conflict to end. “It’s a tragedy,” said Nahhas, 46. “And the longer the conflict drags on, the harder it will be for people to return and set up their businesses again.” As well as leaving more than 125,000 people dead since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began March 2011, the fighting has wiped out more than half of Syria ’s manufacturing output by crippling the network of small […]

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Top Western-Backed Rebel in Syria Is Forced to Flee

Islamist fighters ran the top Western-backed rebel commander in Syria out of his headquarters, and he fled the country, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The Islamists also took over key warehouses holding U.S. military gear for moderate fighters in northern Syria over the weekend. The takeover and flight of Gen. Salim Idris of the Free Syrian Army shocked the U.S., which along with Britain immediately froze delivery of nonlethal military aid to rebels in northern Syria. The turn of events was the strongest sign yet that the U.S.-allied FSA is collapsing under the pressure of Islamist domination of the rebel side of the war. It also weakened the Obama administration’s hand as it struggles to organize a peace conference next month bringing together rebels and the regime. The Islamic Front is a recently formed alliance of the largest Islamist rebel groups that excludes the two main al Qaeda-linked rebel groups—the […]

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U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels

Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration’s decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad. The administration acted after warehouses of American-supplied equipment were seized Friday by the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist fighters who have broken with the moderate, American-backed opposition, but who also battle Al Qaeda. Administration officials said that the suspension, confirmed on Wednesday, was temporary and that the nonlethal aid, which is supplied by the State Department, could flow again. But with rebels feuding with one another instead of concentrating on fighting Mr. Assad, and with the United States still groping for a reliable partner in Syria, the odds of any peace conference breaking the cycle of bloodshed […]

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United States suspends non-lethal assistance into northern Syria

The United States has suspended all non-lethal assistance into northern Syria after Islamic Front forces seized headquarters and warehouses belonging to the opposition’s Supreme Military Council (SMC), a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Ankara said. Fighters from the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, took control of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) bases at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on Syria’s northwestern border with Turkey late on Friday. Turkey shut its side of the border crossing, in Hatay province, due to a reported increase in clashes on the Syrian side, customs sources told Reuters. There was no immediate confirmation from Turkish officials. Infighting among Syrian rebels has weakened their efforts to bring down President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict which began as peaceful protests against his rule in March 2011 and has descended into civil war. It was unclear why the Islamic Front had seized […]

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Syrian refugees face harsh winter in Iraq

When the rains started at the beginning of November, creating streams of mud, Amoud Mohamed found herself fighting to keep her tent dry. “During the rain the tent was moving, at night we couldn’t sleep because of the rain and the wind,” she told DW, pointing to a pile of rugs at the entrance of the tent she shares with her family. “The water came in here under the floor. We must manage for the whole winter – we can’t go back to Syria.” Amoud and her family of eight are originally from Qamishli in northern Syria. The matriarch of the family, she is a thin woman with strong features. A few weeks later we stood with Amoud’s family in the mud where tire tracks had created sunken puddles, surrounding the tents in Arbat, Sulaymaniyah governorate, in northern Iraq, where just under 3,000 refugees live. Arbat is one of […]

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U.N. Official Details Plans for Removing Syria’s Chemical Arms

The United Nations official in charge of coordinating the disposal of Syria ’s chemical weapons arsenal provided new details on Wednesday about the plan to eliminate them, saying the most dangerous materials would be sealed by trained Syrians and sent overland to the country’s Mediterranean port of Latakia, where ships would take them to a second, unspecified foreign port. From there, the official said, the chemicals would be transferred to a specially equipped naval vessel offered by the United States, which is capable of safely neutralizing the chemicals at sea. The official, Sigrid Kaag, acknowledged that the overland routes in Syria were dangerous because of the civil war, but that the Syrian authorities were taking steps to secure them and had designated Latakia as the departure point for the chemicals. Under a timetable established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is collaborating with the United […]

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Hezbollah chief: Saudis behind embassy bombings

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has accused Saudi Arabia of being behind last month’s two suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s comments mark the first time Hezbollah has openly accused the kingdom, and marks a sharp escalation in the Shiite Muslim group’s rhetoric. An al-Qaida linked group has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 19 attack that killed 23 people, saying it was in response to Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Syria. Nasrallah said the claim was credible but accused Saudi intelligence of providing backing and support. He also said Saudi intelligence was behind daily terrorist attacks in Iraq. Nasrallah spoke in an interview Tuesday with Lebanon’s private OTV network. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms […]

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UN: 250,000 besieged in Syria, beyond reach of aid

An estimated 250,000 people in besieged communities in Syria remain beyond the reach of aid, the U.N, humanitarian chief said Tuesday in a closed-door Security Council briefing that one member called “chilling.” Deep divisions in the council have kept it from taking more action on the 2 1/2-year-old civil war that activists say has killed more than 120,000 people. Valerie Amos’ task has been to tell the world body about the worsening conditions for millions of civilians in Syria – and how difficult it is to reach them. Amos was able to report “modest progress” in such basics as getting 50 more long-demanded visas for aid workers and opening three humanitarian hubs inside Syria, “only two of which are helpful to us.” But “We have not seen any progress” in the major issues of protecting civilians and demilitarizing schools and hospitals, Amos said. Last month, […]

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Hezbollah commander killed outside home in Lebanon

A senior commander for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was gunned down Wednesday outside his home in southern Beirut, security officials said. The Iranian-backed group blamed its arch-enemy Israel for the killing, something officials there quickly denied. Hezbollah immediately announced the death of Hassan al-Laqis and described him as one of the founding members of the group, suggesting he was a high-level commander close to the Shiite party’s leadership. His shooting death comes as Lebanon faces increasing sectarian violence pouring over from the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah forces fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s troops, angering the mainly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him. Hezbollah strongholds have been the target of car bomb attacks and suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut last month, killing 23 people. Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for those attacks, calling it retaliation for Hezbollah’s […]

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Syria Crisis Is Worsening, U.N. Relief Official Says

The top emergency relief official at the United Nations expressed new alarm on Tuesday at the humanitarian crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, telling the Security Council that despite some modest progress, both the government and insurgent sides were still impeding urgent deliveries of food and medicine to millions of desperate civilians. Speaking to reporters after a closed briefing for Security Council diplomats, the official — Valerie Amos, the under secretary general and emergency relief coordinator — said that the Syrian authorities had been permitting aid convoys from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, but had refused to allow any from Turkey, which the Syrian government has accused of abetting the insurgency. Ms. Amos said that nine aid convoys had entered Syria over the past month, three times as many as in earlier months, but “this is still far too few to meet the needs of the millions […]

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Attackers target Syrian natural gas infrastructure

Attacks on natural gas facilities in Syria caused a substantial loss in daily energy supplies, a petroleum ministry official said. The official in the Syrian Petroleum Ministry told the Syrian Arab News Agency terrorists attacked a natural gas pipeline that links Homs, a city in western Syria, to Deir Ezzor province, in the east. SANA said Sunday the attack cut off the supply of 194 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. A separate attack on a natural gas field in Palmyra, in central Syria, led to the loss of 70 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The ministry source said the government restricted the use of electricity to cope with the natural gas shortage. SANA reported work was under way to repair damage from the attacks “as soon as possible.” Last week, city officials in Homs said terrorists attacked […]

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Disillusionment Grows Among Syrian Opposition as Fighting Drags On

In a terrace cafe within earshot of army artillery, a 28-year-old graduate student wept as she confessed that she had stopped planning antigovernment protests and delivering medical supplies to rebel-held towns. Khaled, 33, a former protester who fled Damascus after being tortured and fired from his bank post, quit his job in Turkey with the exile opposition, disillusioned and saying that he wished the uprising “had never happened.” In the Syrian city of Homs, a rebel fighter, Abu Firas, 30, recently put down the gun his wife had sold her jewelry to buy, disgusted with his commanders, who, he said, focus on enriching themselves. Now he finds himself trapped under government shelling, broke and hopeless. “The ones who fight now are from the side of the regime or the side of the thieves,” he said in a recent interview via Skype. “I was stupid and naïve,” […]

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Insight: After Assad, Syria democrats learn to fear Qaeda

When he was agitating for revolution, urging fellow Syrians to rise up against President Bashar al-Assad, Abdullah dreaded the midnight knock at the door from the secret police. Now that the uprising has succeeded in his home town near Aleppo, pro-democracy activists are living in fear again – and this time those who brand them "traitor" don’t bother to knock. Two years ago, after Abdullah broke off his studies to run social media campaigns against Assad, he was held and tortured by security men. This http://newspko.wpengine.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=72699&action=edit#category-allsummer, it happened again – only now it was Islamist gunmen loyal to al Qaeda who smashed into his family’s house, broke everything in their way and took him off to a cell where, once more, he was blindfolded and beaten. "The sad thing is that those who were doing this were not Assad’s police," Abdullah told Reuters from Turkey, where […]

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Syria peace talks set for January 22 in Geneva: U.N.

GENEVA (Reuters) – An international peace conference aimed at ending Syria’s civil war will be held on January 22, the first face-to-face talks between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and rebels seeking to overthrow him, the United Nations said on Monday. The United Nations is hoping for a peaceful transition in Syria, building on an agreement between world powers reached in June last year. The deal calls for the warring sides to set up a transitional governing body with full executive powers, including over military and security entities, but leaves open the fate of Assad. "We will go to Geneva with a mission of hope," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. The announcement came as Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi met senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva in his latest effort to get negotiations on track to end a war, now in its third year, that […]

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Syrian officials say terrorists damaged refinery in Homs

The mayor of Homs, Syria, Talal Barazi, said work crews were repairing the city’s oil refinery, damaged in what was described as an attack by terrorists. Barazi said the city was providing all necessary resources to help in the repairs, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported Sunday. Akram Sultan, directory of the refinery, said terrorists attacked the facility during the weekend, crippling its ability to deliver crude oil to the Syrian market. SANA reported one worker was injured in the attack. In another attack, rebel forces, including those aligned with al-Qaida, captured the Omar oil field in eastern Syria, The New York Times reported Satuday. The report didn’t indicate if the field’s production infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Syria relies on oil and natural gas revenue to help pay off its government debt but its long-running civil war and western economic […]

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Ahead of Syria Talks, Local Truces Falter

With the first peace talks between the Syrian regime and opposition now set for January, a series of failed government efforts to forge regional truces underscores the deep mistrust between them. In most cases, what the government calls national reconciliation efforts are backed by the threat of force. Syrian troops have laid siege to many of the areas where the regime has tried to negotiate with rebels, according to government and military officials, opposition members, mediators and residents. Particularly around the capital Damascus and the city of Homs to the north, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has put pressure on civilians and community leaders in rebel-held areas, banking on them to force local fighters to either surrender and accept amnesty or flee. But in one sprawling Homs neighborhood of more than 400,000 known as Waer, where reconciliation talks have faltered, some consider surrender as tantamount to suicide. In another […]

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Young Palestinian Refugees Join Jihadists Fighting in Syria

;Inside Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, disaffected and unemployed youth are increasingly joining radical Islamist groups fighting in Syria, saying it gives their lives a sense of purpose. The growing hold of the jihadists is evident on the street at the camp’s entrance, lined with flags of al Qaeda-linked groups that operate in Lebanon or Syria. Homes on Tawareq Street are pockmarked by bullets and rocket-propelled grenades—scars of recent fighting between Islamist militants and the Lebanese army. The camp’s ties to jihadist groups fighting in Syria came into sharp relief on Tuesday. The head of the group that claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed 25 people outside Iran’s Embassy in Beirut lived in the camp for a time and the brigade operated openly there. The group linked the bombing to the conflict in Syria. The youth of Ain el-Hilweh, Lebanon’s most radicalized camp, have largely […]

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Beirut Bombs Strike at Iran as Assad’s Ally

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A double bombing struck the Iranian Embassy compound in Beirut on Tuesday, in the deadliest assault on Iran’s interests since it emerged as the most forceful backer of the Syrian government against an armed insurgency. The frontal attack struck a symbol of the country’s powerful influence in Lebanon and neighboring Syria. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an offshoot of Al Qaeda that operates in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed at least 23 people, including an Iranian diplomat. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization, pointed fingers at Israel and Saudi Arabia, and officials said it was unclear who had carried out the attack. Regardless, it was quickly seen as retaliation against Iran and Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, for supporting the Syrian government. The double bombing highlighted the risks and costs that Iran faces over Syria, which some analysts have called Iran’s Vietnam. Others say […]

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Syrian troops capture key town near Lebanon border

AP Photo DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government troops captured a key town near the Lebanese border from rebels on Tuesday, days after launching a broad offensive in the mountainous western region, state media, activists and the army said. The attack on Qara began Friday morning in what appeared to be an operation aimed at cutting off rebel supply lines to Lebanon. The Qara route is particularly important to rebels entrenched in suburbs around Damascus, and also lies on the main north-south highway linking the capital to government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast. State TV reported troops were “in full control,” while the army said in a statement it had captured the town Tuesday morning and that “large numbers of terrorists who took positions in the city were wiped out.” The Syrian government refers to all armed opposition fighters as terrorists. “This achievement aims to strengthen control of supply […]

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Russia invites Syrian opposition to Moscow for talks: FM

MOSCOW, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) — Russia has invited Syrian opposition groups to travel to Moscow for talks aimed at bridging their differences on the planned Geneva peace conference, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday. Leaders of the Istanbul-based Syrian National Coalition (SNC) ” did not refuse to come to Moscow, and they are studying our proposal,” Lavrov told a news briefing. He confirmed that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held talks with the SNC leaders in Istanbul last week. Russia’s mediation is to help the Syrian opposition to form a single delegation to the talks, which the United States and Russia are trying to convene in Geneva by the end of the year, Lavrov said. The proposed meeting is to “consolidate positive trends,” which included negotiations which have begun between the SNC, one of Kurdish groups and the so-called “internal opposition,” about finding common approaches to the peace […]

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West Faces Challenge in Moving Syrian Chemical Arms Through Battlefields

WASHINGTON — A plan announced over the weekend for getting the bulk of Syria ’s chemical weapons out of the country in coming weeks has raised major concerns in Washington, because it involves transporting the weapons over roads that are battlegrounds in the country’s civil war and loading them onto a ship that has no place to go. Security for the shipments is being provided entirely by Syrian military units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, who has surprised American officials with how speedily he has complied with an agreement brokered by Russia to identify and turn over his chemical weapon stockpiles. Intelligence analysts and Pentagon officials say the shipments will be vulnerable to attack as they travel past the ruins of a war that has raged for two and a half years. Asked over the weekend what the backup plan would be if the chemical weapons components were attacked […]

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Bomb at Base Kills at Least 31 Syrian Troops

BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 31 Syrian troops, including four senior officers, were killed on Sunday in a bombing that collapsed a building on a government military base just north of Damascus, the Syrian capital, an antigovernment monitoring group said. It was one of the deadliest attacks on government soldiers in recent months. The deaths came as a government offensive against rebels continued on three fronts: in the outskirts of Damascus, in the south; outside Aleppo, in the north; and in the Qalamoun mountain region bordering Lebanon, in western Syria. The explosion, at the army’s transport base in the contested suburb of Harasta, appeared to have been set off by a device placed inside the building or in a tunnel, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , a Britain-based group that tracks the violence in Syria. The blast caused the building to collapse, the group said. There […]

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Hezbollah Chief Says His Forces Will Stay in Syria

LONDON — The head of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group whose armed followers are fighting in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, pledged on Thursday that his forces would remain there as long as necessary. The leader, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke at a Shiite ceremony in his stronghold in southern Beirut, the Lebanese capital, held to observe Ashura, one of the most important holidays on the Shiite religious calendar. It commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Nasrallah’s battle-hardened fighters joined the fray in Syria earlier this year to recapture a border town, and Mr. Assad’s foes say they have also been deployed on other fronts in the south near Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo in the north. “As long as the reasons remain, our presence there will remain,” Mr. Nasrallah told thousands of his followers. “Our fighters, our mujahedeen, are […]

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Insight: As powers push for talks, Syria balance tilts towards Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) – More than two and a half years into the civil war devastating Syria, the United States and Russia are pushing the combatants to the negotiating table in Geneva, but on terms that mark a shift in favor of Bashar al-Assad against the increasingly fragmented rebels seeking to oust him. Since the August 21 nerve gas attacks on rebel suburbs ringing Damascus, which brought the U.S. to the brink of a missile assault on Assad’s forces, the diplomatic tide has turned against the opposition, which briefly believed external intervention would enable its forces to launch a final offensive. Instead, the combination of hesitation by President Barack Obama’s administration and an 11th hour deal brokered by Russia, a key Assad ally, to decommission Syria’s chemical arsenal, has wrong-footed the rebels, now under intense U.S. and European pressure to attend talks in Geneva with a vague agenda. Syrian opposition […]

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Exclusive: Assad allies profit from Syria's lucrative food trade

LONDON (Reuters) – As food begins to flow into Bashar al-Assad’s Syria after several months of disruption, some of the president’s close allies stand to make substantial profits from the secretive trade, according to trade and opposition sources with knowledge of the situation. While civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades and Assad has been scrambling to bolster depleted food supplies. Using front companies and shipping lines, a discreet commercial and logistical network is now emerging, which aims not only to procure food commodities but to generate big returns for members of Assad’s inner circle, trade sources familiar with the matter say. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the trade in time of war. Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin and top financial ally, together with Ayman Jaber, another prominent figure subject to international sanctions, are among those involved […]

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Exclusive: Assad allies profit from Syria’s lucrative food trade

LONDON (Reuters) – As food begins to flow into Bashar al-Assad’s Syria after several months of disruption, some of the president’s close allies stand to make substantial profits from the secretive trade, according to trade and opposition sources with knowledge of the situation. While civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades and Assad has been scrambling to bolster depleted food supplies. Using front companies and shipping lines, a discreet commercial and logistical network is now emerging, which aims not only to procure food commodities but to generate big returns for members of Assad’s inner circle, trade sources familiar with the matter say. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the trade in time of war. Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin and top financial ally, together with Ayman Jaber, another prominent figure subject to international sanctions, are among those involved […]

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Syrian Forces Recapture Damascus Suburb From Rebels

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government forces recaptured a suburb south of Damascus on Wednesday and continued battles to push insurgents out of long-held territory outside the northern city of Aleppo, in what appeared to be a major push to gain ground ahead of proposed internationally sponsored peace talks. State news media showed government troops entering Hujeira, the latest in a string of suburbs south of Damascus where the government has made inroads in recent days, trying to sever supply lines between rebel-held towns that form an arc around the capital. Despite rebel claims to be tightening a noose around the seat of power, and government claims that the army would soon push rebels out of the suburbs, the front lines around the capital have changed little over the past year, with rebel and government forces dug in within a few hundred yards of each other in many places. The […]

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Insight: Russia fears return of fighters waging jihad in Syria

NOVOSASITLI, Russia (Reuters) – A scrawny 15-year-old this summer became the first from his deeply religious Muslim village in Russia’s southern Dagestan province to die fighting alongside rebels in Syria. Some regard him as a martyr for joining the rebels in the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is supported by Russia. Moscow now fears that hundreds of Russian-born militants it says are fighting in Syria will return experienced in warfare to join an insurgency in Dagestan and its other North Caucasus provinces by militants fighting for an Islamic state. Violence in the region claims lives almost daily. Fifteen men from Novosasitli alone have died in shootouts with Russian forces in the last four years, locals say. Analysts say fighters could also try to strike during the 2014 Winter Olympics in February in nearby Sochi. President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his reputation on the Games, has said […]

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Boosted by foreign Shi'ite militia, Assad's forces advance on Aleppo

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian government forces backed by foreign Shi’ite Muslim militia advanced on rebels in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, bent on recapturing districts from opposition brigades weakened by infighting, activists said. They said that rebels saw the threat of President Bashar al-Assad wresting back Aleppo, Syria’s former commercial hub and once most populous city, as so grave that Islamist brigades, including an al Qaeda affiliate, had declared an emergency and summoned all fighters to head to the fronts. After 2-1/2 years of conflict, which started when Assad’s forces fired on pro-democracy demonstrators and escalated into a full-blown civil war, the fighting has settled into a rough stalemate in which scores of people are killed every day. Aleppo has been divided roughly in half by the warring parties for much of the conflict but the government is determined to reassert total control to solidify a foothold […]

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Boosted by foreign Shi’ite militia, Assad’s forces advance on Aleppo

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian government forces backed by foreign Shi’ite Muslim militia advanced on rebels in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, bent on recapturing districts from opposition brigades weakened by infighting, activists said. They said that rebels saw the threat of President Bashar al-Assad wresting back Aleppo, Syria’s former commercial hub and once most populous city, as so grave that Islamist brigades, including an al Qaeda affiliate, had declared an emergency and summoned all fighters to head to the fronts. After 2-1/2 years of conflict, which started when Assad’s forces fired on pro-democracy demonstrators and escalated into a full-blown civil war, the fighting has settled into a rough stalemate in which scores of people are killed every day. Aleppo has been divided roughly in half by the warring parties for much of the conflict but the government is determined to reassert total control to solidify a foothold […]

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Private Donors’ Funds Add Wild Card to War in Syria

AL SUBAYHIYAH, Kuwait — The money flows in via bank transfer or is delivered in bags or pockets bulging with cash. Working from his sparely furnished sitting room here, Ghanim al-Mteiri gathers the funds and transports them to Syria for the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Mteiri — one of dozens of Kuwaitis who openly raise money to arm the opposition — has helped turn this tiny, oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a virtual Western Union outlet for Syria’s rebels, with the bulk of the funds he collects going to a Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda. One Kuwait-based effort raised money to equip 12,000 rebel fighters for $2,500 each. Another campaign , run by a Saudi sheikh based in Syria and close to Al Qaeda, is called “Wage Jihad With Your Money.” Donors earn “silver status” by giving $175 for 50 sniper bullets, or “gold status” by giving […]

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Syrian opposition agrees to participate in Geneva peace talks

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – – The Western-backed Syrian opposition agreed to participate in international peace talks in Geneva, the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement early on Monday. The statement, translated from Arabic, outlined conditions that must be met before the talks, which aim to end Syria’s two-and-a-half year civil war, by creating a transitional governing body. The Syrian National Coalition’s leader has expressed a willingness to attend the U.S. and Russian sponsored talks but this is the first time the group as a whole has committed to the proposed conference, while making stipulations. It was hoped that the talks would take place before the end of November but the Syrian coalition’s failure to come up with a clear stance, as well as differences between Washington and Moscow over the purpose of the talks and opposition representation made delays likely. The coalition held that previous commitments, such as the […]

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Syrian Rebels Said to Recapture Base

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian rebels recaptured a base near the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo in a counteroffensive hours after the Syrian Army had advanced into the area, activists said on Saturday. The rebels were able to recapture the military base of Brigade 80 after government troops seized parts of it early Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an antigovernment monitoring group based in Britain, and the Aleppo Media Center, another rebel group. The observatory said 40 rebels and more than 20 government troops were killed in the latest fighting, which began Friday and continued early Saturday. The main job of Brigade 80 was to protect the government-held Aleppo International Airport, which has been closed because of fighting for almost a year. Syria ’s state-run news agency, SANA, said a rocket fired by opposition fighters struck near a health center in Aleppo’s Ashrafieh […]

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Diplomats Fail to Agree on Details for Syria Peace Talks

GENEVA — Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia and the United Nations failed on Tuesday to agree on a date for convening a long-awaited peace conference aimed at settling the Syria conflict, acknowledging it would not take place this month and possibly not this year. The diplomats adjourned after meetings in Geneva that could not resolve the most basic obstacles: which countries would attend such a conference, who would represent the fractious Syrian opposition and what role — if any — would be played by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose polarizing effects have proved among the most difficult issues to overcome. Lakhdar Brahimi , the United Nations special envoy on Syria, told reporters: “We were hoping that we would be in a position to announce a date today. Unfortunately we are not.” He added, “We are still striving to see if we can have a conference before […]

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UN aid chief says 40% of Syrians in need of assistance

Displaced Syrian women and children near Kafer Rouma, ancient ruins used as temporary shelter by those families who have fled from the heavy fighting and shelling in the Idlib province countryside of Syria 5 November 2013 Last updated at 01:46 The number of those needing help has risen by more than 30% since September Some 9.3 million people in Syria – or about 40% of the population – now need outside assistance, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has said. This figure has risen by 2.5m from the 6.8m total the UN gave in September. The Syria crisis “continues to deteriorate rapidly and inexorably”, Ms Amos told the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is due to hold talks with US and Russian diplomats aimed at paving the way for a Syria peace conference. In Geneva, Mr Brahimi will also meet representatives from the rest of the […]

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Israel launches attacks on military sites in Syria

Israel’s air force attacked two military sites inside Syria on Wednesday evening, US military sources confirmed, marking the latest of several such covert strikes on the country’s northeastern neighbour this year. The sites are near the port city of Latakia and the capital Damascus, according to a person briefed on the matter, who said the US military believed that it was Israel that attacked. Confirmation of the attack late on Thursday followed earlier reports of sightings of Israeli jets in Lebanon and at least one explosion in Syria. Israel’s military, which has struck targets in Syria several times this year, declined to confirm or deny that it carried out the strikes. “We never comment on foreign reports,” an Israel Defence Forces spokeswoman said. Nagham Ghadri, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the Turkey-based opposition group, said that activists in Latakia had reported hearing a huge explosion coming from […]

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Islamist Rebels Take Fight to Suburbs of Syrian Capital

DAMASCUS, Syria—Islamist rebels, including some with links to al Qaeda, are fast gaining strength in suburbs encircling the Syrian capital, despite a chemical-weapons attack two months ago on one of their strongholds. Since early September these groups have claimed responsibility for several suicide-bomb attacks against regime targets in and around Damascus. They have dramatically increased mortar and rocket attacks on regime-held residential neighborhoods within the capital and have raided nearby towns and villages inhabited by minorities, including Christians. Last week, these rebels blew up a gas pipeline feeding a power plant on the outskirts of Damascus, causing a complete blackout in the capital and most of Syria for several hours before the damage was repaired, according to government officials and residents. While riven by leadership rivalries and competing agendas, the Islamist rebels share the goal of toppling President Bashar al-Assad and establishing Islamic rule. Their strengthening around Damascus further […]

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Largest camp for Syrian refugees becoming a city

AP Photo ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan (AP) — The manager of the region’s largest camp for Syrian refugees arranges toy figures, trucks and houses on a map in his office trailer to illustrate his ambitious vision. In a year, he wants to turn the chaotic shantytown of 100,000 into a temporary city with local councils, paved streets, parks, an electricity grid and sewage pipes. Zaatari, a desert camp near Jordan’s border with Syria, is far from that ideal. Life is tough here. The strong often take from the weak, women fear going to communal bathrooms after dark, sewage runs between pre-fab trailers and boys hustle for pennies carting goods in wheelbarrows instead of going to school. But with Syria’s civil war in its third year, the more than 2 million Syrians who fled their country need long-term solutions, said Kilian Kleinschmidt, who runs Zaatari for the U.N. refugee agency. “We […]

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Starved Syria civilians flee besieged Damascus suburb

People walk from the rebel-held suburb of Moadamiya to government-held territory, helped by aid workers 29 October 2013 Last updated at 17:59 Thousands of Syrian civilians have finally been allowed to leave the besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiya. The BBC’s Lyse Doucet, who was at the scene, describes a tide of desperate people leaving the area, which has been closed off since March. Supplies in Moadamiya had been running desperately short, and residents had pleaded to be saved from starvation. The exodus of civilians has been made possible by an apparent relaxation of a blockade by government forces. The Syrian army had previously said that rebel-held areas of Damascus such as Moadamiya could surrender or starve. At least three of Damascus’s suburbs – Yarmouk, Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiya – have been besieged by government forces for several months. Analysis A tide of people fled Moadamiya today – some on […]

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