Category: Syria

Syria was previously the eastern Mediterranean’s leading oil and natural gas producer, however, with Syria’s oil and natural gas production declining since 2011, a report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) states that the country’s energy sector is ‘in turmoil.’ According to the EIA, this is due to the ongoing civil conflict that began in spring of 2011. Summary of key points The report highlights that Syria’s energy sector has faced numerous challenges as a result of conflict and subsequent sanctions imposed by the US and the EU. Damage to energy infrastructure, including oil and natural gas pipelines and electricity transmission networks, hindered the exploration, development, production, and transport of the Syria’s energy resources. Syria has seen production fall dramatically, to a minor sum in comparison to pre-conflict levels. Syria is no longer able to export oil and, as a result, government revenues from the energy sector have […]

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Activists say regime forces hit Ibleen, Syria, with chlorine gas in May. U.S. intelligence agencies believe there is a strong possibility the Assad regime will use chemical weapons on a large scale as part of a last-ditch effort to protect key Syrian government strongholds if Islamist fighters and other rebels try to overrun them, U.S. officials said. Analysts and policy makers have been poring over all available intelligence hoping to determine what types of chemical weapons the regime might be able to deploy and what event or events might trigger their use, according to officials briefed on the matter. Last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad let international inspectors oversee the removal of what President Barack Obama called the regime’s most deadly chemical weapons. The deal averted U.S. airstrikes that would have come in retaliation for an Aug. 21, 2013, sarin-gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people. Since then, […]

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BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s official news agency says a mortar round has hit a central Damascus square, wounding three people in the second such attack in the Syrian capital in as many days. It is not uncommon for Damascus to be shelled, but Monday’s attack targeted the Ummayad Square, home to the headquarters of Syria’s state TV and radio, and the opera house. It’s also close to the Defense Ministry. The agency says the shell caused damage, but gave no details. On Sunday, two mortar rounds hit a crowded outdoor market and al-Amarra district, also in central Damascus, killing three people and wounding 12, including a child and two women. Armed Islamic factions fighting forces loyal to President Bashar Assad control parts of the Syrian capital and large parts of the city’s suburbs.

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BEIRUT Kurdish forces and the Syrian army fought separate battles with Islamic State around Hasaka city in northeast Syria overnight as the hardline group tried to capture more areas of the major urban center near the Iraqi border, a monitor said on Saturday. Islamic State launched an assault on government-held areas of Hasaka early on Thursday and the United Nations says the violence is estimated to have displaced up to 120,000 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground, said the Kurdish YPG militia fought with Islamic State fighters on the outskirts of the Ghwyran neighborhood in Hasaka’s southeast overnight. Hasaka is divided into areas run separately by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Kurdish authorities and has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and Christians. It is important to all sides fighting in an area that sits between Islamic State-held […]

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Photo As they waited at the border to cross into Turkey on Thursday, relatives of a woman who died after being wounded in Kobani, in northern Syria, mourned over her body. Credit Rodi Said/Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — The militants of the Islamic State carried out two new offensives in northern Syria on Thursday, entering a provincial capital and detonating large bombs in the border town of Kobani, where intensive airstrikes by a United States-led coalition helped Kurdish forces rout the jihadists last year. In southern Syria, rebel groups began a new campaign to push government forces from the city of Dara’a. The new attacks by the Islamic State came more than a week after its fighters lost the town of Tal Abyad, on the Turkish border, to Kurdish militias and Arab rebels in what was seen as a strategic setback for the group . In striking back, the Islamic […]

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Kobane has been devastated by the fierce battle Islamic State fighters have entered the northern Syrian city of Kobane, battling Kurdish forces, activists say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a number of people were killed in fierce clashes in the centre of the town on the Syrian-Turkish border. Kurdish forces drove IS forces from Kobane early this year after a long campaign backed by US-led air strikes. The battle made international headlines – heralding what some saw as a symbolic defeat for the IS. The jihadist group has suffered a string of defeats to Kurdish forces since it was forced to withdraw from Kobane in January after a four-month battle. Early this week, Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) forces said they had captured a key town, Ain Issa, just 50km (30 miles) from the IS headquarters at Raqqa, days after seizing Tal Abyad and cutting a major […]

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BEIRUT Kurdish-led forces advanced on Monday deep into territory in Syria held by Islamic State, showing new momentum after they unexpectedly swiftly seized a border crossing from the jihadists last week. The Kurds, aided by U.S.-led air strikes and smaller Syrian rebel groups, had pushed to within 7 km (4 miles) of Ain Issa, a town 50 km (30 miles) north of Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa city, said Redur Xelil, spokesman for the Kurdish forces. The rapid advance into Raqqa province has defied expectations of a protracted battle between the Kurdish YPG group and Islamic State fighters, who waged a four-month battle for the border town of Kobani, where the Kurds finally defeated the jihadists in January. Raqqa is the main seat of power in Syria for Islamic State, the group also known as ISIS or ISIL, which has proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims […]

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State fighters are preventing fuel shipments from reaching rebel-held parts of northern Syria , causing severe shortages that are paralyzing ambulances, stopping medical centers from providing care and shutting down bakeries, according to antigovernment activists and aid workers. Adding to the misery, international aid groups said, the forces of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are targeting medical centers in opposition areas, killing some workers and forcing facilities to shut down. The fuel shortages highlight how more than four years of war in Syria have ravaged the economy and allowed the warring parties to use the country’s scarce resources as a vise to squeeze their enemies. Since the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, seized oil-rich regions in Syria’s north and east, it has used their output to finance its efforts to build an Islamic emirate that straddles the Syria-Iraq border. Traders from elsewhere in […]

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A quick and successful offensive by Kurdish fighters and allied rebels in a northern Syrian town has boosted a U.S.-backed effort to choke off Islamic State’s supply routes and offered a template for regaining territory from the extremist group. Emboldened by the recapture of Tal Abyad, the Syrian Kurdish alliance said Tuesday that its next target is Raqqa, Islamic State’s main stronghold in Syria about 50 miles south of Tal Abyad. The fighters said they had already begun advancing southward toward Raqqa on Monday, reaching the town of Ain Issa, only about 30 miles away. “We will move to liberate Raqqa in the near future,” said Shervan Darweesh, a spokesman for a coalition of rebel factions led by the Syrian Kurdish militia known as YPG. Despite those proclamations, there is no broader military planning under way by the U.S.-led coalition for an imminent Raqqa offensive, which would be a […]

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