Category: Syria

BEIRUT — A surge of rebel gains in Syria is overturning long-held assumptions about the durability of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which now appears in greater peril than at any time in the past three years. The capture Saturday of the town of Jisr al-Shughour in northern Idlib province was just the latest in a string of battlefield victories by rebel forces, which have made significant advances in both the north and the south of the country. As was the case in the capital of Idlib province last month, government defenses in Jisr al-Shughour crumbled after just a few days of fighting, pointing as much to the growing weakness of regime forces as the revival of the opposition. The battlefield shifts come at a time when the Obama administration has set aside the crisis in Syria to focus on its chief priorities: defeating the Islamic State militant group in […]

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JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike killed members of an armed squad that was preparing to bomb Israeli forces on Sunday along the Israeli-Syrian frontier in the Golan Heights , the Israeli military said. The Israeli news media said that three or four men were killed in the missile strike. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said the armed squad had crossed from the Syrian side into the Israeli-controlled part of the contested territory, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Israel did not immediately identify the men, and it was not clear if they were Syrians or belonged to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. This latest flare-up along the increasingly tense cease-fire line came after reports in the Arabic news media of Israeli airstrikes in recent days. One was reported to be against Syrian Army bases in the Qalamoun region near Syria’s border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah […]

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Fighters from a coalition of rebel forces stand on a tank in the Syrian city of Idlib on March 29.(ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Syrian rebels launched one of the largest and most ambitious operations of the Syrian civil war April 22. Around 9,000-12,000 fighters from 40 rebel groups assembled for a wide-scale offensive stretching across the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Hama. The operation brings together rebel factions with extremely diverse ideologies and strengths, ranging from the powerful jihadist Jabhat al-Nusra faction to smaller units affiliated with the Free Syrian Army. While determined and daring, the offensive — labeled "The Battle of Victory" — is risky: The rebels are going up against significant loyalist forces, including a number of highly trained and motivated elite units. Analysis The roots of the offensive lie in the rebels’ successful capture of the city of Idlib on March 28. As Stratfor previously noted, the capture […]

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Photo A man climbed a staircase inside a demolished building in the Yarmuk refugee camp near the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday. Credit Youssef Karwashan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images UNITED NATIONS — Relief officials at the United Nations expressed growing alarm on Monday about a deepening humanitarian disaster in Syria’s Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, which was invaded last week by Islamic State militants and their allies. Roughly 18,000 people, including 3,500 children, have been trapped by fighting in Yarmouk, which is on the southern outskirts of the capital, Damascus, and is less than 10 miles from the presidential palace. Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which administers aid to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, said the residents are slowly starving. He gave an emergency briefing on the crisis Monday to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council via video link from […]

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Residents wait in line to receive food aid distributed in the Yarmouk refugee camp on January 31, 2014 in Damascus. This month, Islamic State and al-Nusra Front militants took over much of the camp. Source: United Nation Relief and Works Agency via Getty Images Mohammad Deen, a Syrian refugee and father of six, struggles to find the money to meet his children’s needs and worries who else might step in with an offer to help. “If Daesh approaches my son and gives him $300 to fight with them, he would do it,” he said, using Islamic State’s Arabic acronym. Deen lives in a dilapidated house in northern Lebanon, and has no access to the dwindling international aid available to millions of displaced Syrians. Three of his children are disabled, while the son he’s especially concerned about is 18, in the target age group for jihadist recruiters. As Syria’s war […]

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BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Syrian rebels and members of al-Qaida’s local affiliate have captured the only functioning border crossing with Jordan and three nearby military posts. Ahmad al-Masalmeh, a Syrian opposition activist based in the southern city of Daraa, says militants completed "combing" operations in the area early Thursday, adding that government forces withdrew in the direction of the nearby Sweida province. Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that government forces have regrouped near the Nasib border crossing and taken "positions in new military points." The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says helicopter gunships attacked rebel positions in the area early Thursday. The Nasib crossing is considered a crucial gateway for Syria’s government and for Syrian, Lebanese and Jordanian merchants.

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he still believed it was important to achieve a diplomatic solution for the conflict in Syria and that the negotiations should involve President Bashar al-Assad. “We are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome,” Mr. Kerry said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” “We have to negotiate in the end,” Mr. Kerry added. But Mr. Kerry’s comments seemed to be more a reflection of his determination to try to bring about an end to the bloody war than a change of American strategy. State Department officials later said that the United States was not open to direct talks with Mr. Assad, despite what Mr. Kerry appeared to suggest in his television appearance. And it remained unclear how the Obama administration planned to put enough […]

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BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have hit a Syrian oil refinery held by the Islamic State group, activists said Monday. The strikes targeted a refinery near the Turkish-Syrian border outside the town of Tel Abyad. Video from the Turkish Dogan News Agency showed the strikes Sunday night, which saw an enormous fireball engulf the refinery. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated the strikes killed about 30 people, including Islamic State militants and refinery workers. The Syrian activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently also reported the strikes, but offered no casualty figure. The Islamic State group, which controls a self-declared caliphate on captured territory covering about a third of Syria and Iraq, partially funds its conquests through the sale of black market oil. The U.S.-led coalition did not immediately acknowledge launching the strike.

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AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State militants have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday. A Syrian Christian group representing several NGOs inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women and the elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants. "We have verified at least 150 people who have been adducted from sources on the ground," Bassam Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family itself is from Hasaka, told Reuters from Amman. Earlier the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 90 were abducted when the militants carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds. The United States condemned the attacks in Hasaka and called for the immediate and […]

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A Syrian official says two suicide attackers have targeted separate natural gas facilities in the central province of Homs, killing eight people. The state news agency SANA also reported the attacks, saying guards opened fire at the attackers as they drove toward the plants, forcing them to detonate their payloads before reaching their targets. It said the facilities are operating as usual. The local official in Homs told The Associated Press that the attacks killed eight people and wounded 12. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. There was no claim of responsibility, but opposition fighters and jihadis have frequently targeted the country’s oil and gas infrastructure during the nearly four-year conflict.

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BEIRUT (AP) — Jihadi fighters captured a Syrian army base Monday in the northwestern province of Idlib after two days of intense fighting that killed at least two dozen gunmen, activists said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an Idlib-based activist who goes by the name of Mohammed al-Sayid said members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and other rebel factions captured the Wadi Deif base Monday morning. A Twitter account run by the Nusra Front in Idlib province said fighters are now removing mines from the area after the "Wadi Deif camp was liberated." The capture of Wadi Deif is a blow to the Syrian government that has managed to hold the besieged post for more than two years and repelled repeated attacks by opposition fighters. Rebels and the Nusra Front control much of the countryside of Idlib province while government forces dominate the provincial capital city […]

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The Islamic State has seized control of Syrian natural gas facilities. Michael Wick/Shutterstock DAMASCUS, Syria, Nov. 3 (UPI) — A group monitoring terrorist activity in the Middle East says Islamic State militants have seized control of a natural gas field in Homs province in Syria. The Long War Journal reported Sunday that it has viewed photographic evidence suggesting IS has captured parts of the al-Shaer natural gas field in Syria and several caches of weapons taken from defeated Syrian military forces. "Pictures show that the Islamic State has taken control of the Hayan gas plant," Sunday’s report stated. The U.S. Defense Department and its coalition counterparts have hit oil installations controlled by the Sunni-led terrorist group to cut off a source of revenue and deplete fuel supplies used to make territorial gains. At the height of its campaign, IS controlled as many as seven oil fields and was said […]

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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters in Syria said on Monday they had taken control of a gas field in the central province of Homs, the second gas field seized in a week after battles with government forces. The hardline Sunni Islamist group posted 18 photos on social media showing the Islamic State flag raised in the Jahar gas field as well as seized vehicles and weaponry, according to the SITE jihadist website monitoring service. Reuters could not independently confirm the events due to security restrictions. Islamic State fighters, who now hold up to a third of Syria as well as swathes of Iraq and have declared a ‘Caliphate’ on the territories they control, took the larger Sha’ar gas field on Oct. 30. "So after the (Sha’ar) company and the (positions) surrounding it became part of the land of the Caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all […]

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AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say the U.S.-led coalition has launched airstrikes on an oil field in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the coalition launched four airstrikes on oil wells in the Jafra field late Wednesday. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, also reported the airstrikes on Thursday. The U.S.-led coalition has aggressively targeted IS-held oil facilities in Syria, which provide a key source of income for the militants. But such strikes also endanger civilians, which could undermine long-term efforts to destroy the militant group. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists around the country, said that since the airstrikes on Syria began a month ago, 553 people have been killed including 32 civilians. The rest were mostly jihadis.

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U.S. includes Islamic State-controlled oil installations as strategic target objectives. (UPI/Matthew Bruch/USAF) WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) — Striking fixed Islamic State targets in Syria, including oil facilities, is part of the strategic effort to cripple the group, a Pentagon official said. The group calling itself the Islamic State is said to be financing itself in part through a regional black market for crude oil. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said U.S. military effort to defeat the group is about hitting where they operate. "There’s been a lot of strikes in [the strategic border town of] Kobani, dynamic tactical strikes," he told reporters during a Thursday press briefing. "But there’s also been almost an equal number of total strikes against fixed facilities, command and control, finance centers, oil refineries [and] fixed sites." The spokesman countered that the U.S. effort was in support of national ground forces and not so much "about […]

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WASHINGTON — The United States has sharply increased the number of airstrikes against Islamic State militants in the besieged Syrian city of Kobani — aided by information provided by Kurdish fighters, American officials said Wednesday. A Pentagon spokesman said that the airstrikes had killed “several hundred” Islamic State fighters. Kurdish officials said the intensified attacks had allowed them to regain territory and push the militants back on several fronts, after fears rose last week that the city would be overrun. Yet in a sign of the perils of the intensified bombing campaign, five Kurdish fighters were killed late Tuesday — possibly because they had advanced too close to one of the airstrikes. A spokesman for the United States Central Command, Maj. Curtis J. Kellogg, said American officials had “no evidence indicating Kurdish fighters were killed in a coalition airstrike last night. Regardless, we take such reports seriously and will […]

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4580 Votes It’s been a month since President Obama announced that the U.S. would engage in a sustained campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State, the militant Sunni rebellion in Syria and Iraq. The idea was to bomb Islamic State into nonexistence, which has proved difficult. Not only is the movement well-armed, battle-hardened, and deeply entrenched in much of Syria and northern Iraq, it’s also very well-financed, thanks to oil wells and refineries it’s been able to capture. By late June, Islamic State was raising as much as $2 million a day refining and smuggling oil, making it one of history’s wealthiest terrorist groups. Though the airstrikes have failed to keep Islamic State from advancing in the field, they have apparently succeeded in dismantling its sophisticated oil network, reducing the movement’s ability to make gasoline and diesel for its tanks and trucks and cutting off a vital source of funding. […]

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Deadly clashes broke out across southeast Turkey as the region’s Kurds protested the government’s limited response to Islamic State militants threatening the town of Kobani just across the Syrian border. Demonstrators fought with police and, in some areas, with members of local Islamist groups, according to Turkish media. Haberturk website said at least 15 people were killed in the violence, most of them in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish city. A curfew was imposed there at 10 p.m. local time yesterday, as well as in Mardin, Siirt, Batman and Van, according to Hurriyet newspaper, which put the death toll at 14. The outpouring of anger came as Syrian Kurdish fighters failed to stop Islamic State advancing through the outskirts of Kobani, a mainly Kurdish town that militants besieged three weeks ago. Kurds have blamed the Turkish government for not doing enough to help the town’s defenders and warned that the […]

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Who Is Buying The Islamic State’s Illegal Oil? In June 2014, computer files captured from a courier for the Islamic State shortly after the fall of Mosul revealed that the group had assets of $875 million , largely gained in the sacking and looting of Mosul and its central bank. The size of the group’s bank account has now risen to an estimated $2 billion dollars, thanks in part to revenues from ransom paid for kidnapped foreigners and more pillaging. However, oil remains the group’s primary source of income. The 11 oil fields that IS controls in Iraq and Syria have made it a largely independent financial machine. Reports show that IS-controlled fields in Iraq produce between 25,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil per day, at an estimated value of approximately $1.2 million, before being smuggled out to Iran, Kurdistan, Turkey and Syria. That doesn’t account for revenue from […]

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Gulfsands Petroleum says its interests in northeast Syria are secure amid the country’s ongoing civil war and recent U.S. and coalition air strikes against Islamic State terrorists in the country. Above, a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting air strikes in Syria Sept. 23, 2014. UPI/Matthew Bruch/USAF LONDON, Sept. 30 (UPI) — Though operations in Syria are idled because of economic sanctions, Gulfsands Petroleum said Tuesday its assets in the northeast of the country are secured. Gulfsands Petroleum was one of the last energy companies operating in Syria to suspend operations amid ongoing civil war. In an interim statement on quarterly results, the company said economic sanctions on Syria mean operations at so-called Block 26 are shut down and not generating revenue for the company . "We are at least fortunate in being able to report that our facilities in Syria’s […]

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U.S. and Arab warplanes attacked small oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State to undercut the extremist Sunni group’s revenue and impede its mobility, the Pentagon said. As the U.K. prepared for a parliamentary vote tomorrow to authorize joining the broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War, aircraft and drones operated by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attacked 12 “modular” refineries Islamic State uses in its oil-smuggling operations, U.S. Central Command said in an e-mailed statement. “These small-scale refineries provided fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria and an economic asset to support their future operations,” the command said in statement, which used an acronym of another name used to identify the group. Islamic State may have been raising more than $2 million a day from oil sales in Iraq and Syria, paid […]

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The latest user generated content from the ground in Syria following Tuesday’s airstrikes against Islamic State. WSJ’s Mark Kelly reports. The U.S. and Arab allies launched a second major wave of airstrikes in Syria targeting mobile oil refineries controlled by Islamic State, the Pentagon said. Inside Syria, local residents reported that the radical fighters were taking measures to evade attacks such as moving into civilian areas in towns and cities in eastern Syria. The warplanes hit 12 modular oil refineries located in remote areas of eastern Syria, the Defense Department said. U.S. officials said the latest airstrikes on Wednesday aimed at cutting off a key source of income for Islamic State forces, which smuggle oil from captured Syrian infrastructure and sell it on the black market. U.S. officials said the money from the oil has allowed Islamic State militants to finance their operations in Iraq and Syria. Refugees wait […]

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The number of Syrian refugees who have reached Turkey in the past four days after fleeing the advance of Islamic State militants now totals 130,000, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Monday. Numan Kurtulmus warned that the number could rise further but insisted that Turkey was ready to react to "the worst case scenario." "I hope that we are not faced with a more populous refugee wave, but if we are, we have taken our precautions," Kurtulmus said. "A refugee wave that can be expressed by hundreds of thousands is a possibility." The refugees have been flooding into Turkey since Thursday, escaping an Islamic State offensive that has pushed the conflict nearly within eyeshot of the Turkish border. The conflict in Syria has pushed more than a million people over the border in the past 3 1/2 years. The al-Qaida breakaway group, which has established an […]

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WASHINGTON — A House divided along unusual and unpredictable lines voted Wednesday to authorize the training and arming of Syrian rebels to confront the militant group Islamic State, backing President Obama after he personally pleaded for support. The 273-to-156 vote was over a narrow military measure with no money attached, but it took on outsize importance and was infused with drama. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, actively and strongly backed the legislation, and both sought to portray it as a modest measure. The Senate hopes to pass it as soon as Thursday. “The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,” President Obama said Wednesday in addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. “I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another […]

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — At least 28 Syrian rebel leaders of a same group were killed on Tuesday when a powerful blast targeted their gathering place in the northwestern province of Idlib, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The slain rebels were leaders of the Ahrar al-Sham militant group. A booby-trapped car ripped through their meeting place in the town of Ram Hamdan in the countryside of Idlib, the report said. Other reports said the main leader of Ahrar al-Sham, Hassan Aboud, who also goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Abdullah al-Hamwi, was also killed in the deadly blast. The opposition activists have so far stopped short of identifying the party behind the blast, even though it’s likely part of the rebel-on-rebel infighting that has raged in recent months of the crisis. Ahrar al-Sham is a coalition of Islamist and Salafist units which formed […]

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EIN ZIVAN Golan Heights (Reuters) – Heavy fighting between the Syrian army and Islamist rebels erupted on Monday on the Golan Heights, where the militants have wrested control of a key frontier crossing which had been operated by the United Nations. It was not clear whether the forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had managed to retake control of the Quneitra crossing from the rebels of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Persistent gunshots and explosions from mortar shells and other munitions could be heard on the Israeli-controlled side of the frontier and combatants could be clearly seen targeting each other with their weapons. At least one tank belonging to the Syrian army was also involved and some rebels could be seen a few meters (yards) away from the frontier fence. A large Syrian flag that had been flying for days between the Quneitra crossing and the abandoned town […]

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BAGHDAD — Syria’s foreign minister said Monday that his government was ready to cooperate with international efforts to fight the extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But in a nod to the possibility of expanded American airstrikes, he warned that any action inside Syria without the government’s approval would be considered “aggression.” The offer by the minister, Walid al-Moallem, appeared to be a preliminary effort to rehabilitate the international standing of his government, which has been condemned by the United States and others for its brutal tactics in the country’s civil war and against the popular uprising that preceded it. In comments to reporters in Damascus, Mr. Moallem seemed well aware of how greatly the rise of ISIS in both Syria and Iraq had changed Western views toward the region. He presented his government as the natural partner in the fight against jihadist groups. “Syria is […]

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WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized surveillance flights over Syria, a precursor to potential airstrikes there, but a mounting concern for the White House is how to target the Sunni extremists without helping President Bashar al-Assad. Defense officials said Monday evening that the Pentagon was sending in manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Syria, using a combination of aircraft, including drones and possibly U2 spy planes. Mr. Obama approved the flights over the weekend, a senior administration official said. The flights are a significant step toward direct American military action in Syria, an intervention that could alter the battlefield in the nation’s three-year civil war. Administration officials said the United States did not intend to notify the Assad government of the planned flights. Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly called for the ouster of Mr. Assad, is loath to be seen as aiding the Syrian government, even inadvertently. As a […]

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A resident of the Syrian town of Tabqa celebrates by waving the Islamist flag after Islamic State fighters took over a regime air base nearby. Reuters BEIRUT—The extremist group Islamic State captured a major air base in Syria in the northeastern province of Raqqa, driving out regime forces and gaining full control of an entire province for the first time in the country’s civil war. The takeover of the Tabqa air base on Sunday follows setbacks in neighboring Iraq, where U.S. airstrikes since Aug. 8 succeeded in beating the group back in several areas in the north. The base had been the last foothold for forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Raqqa. Islamic State fighters over the past month drove regime forces from the headquarters of the Syrian Army’s 17th Division and another base for the 93rd Brigade of the same division. The loss of the air base […]

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GENEVA — The number of dead in Syria’s civil war more than doubled in the past year to at least 191,000, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. The agency’s chief, Navi Pillay, bluntly criticized Western nations, saying their inaction in the face of the slaughter had “empowered and emboldened” the killers. In its third report on Syria commissioned by the United Nations, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group identified 191,369 deaths from the start of the conflict in March 2011 to April 2014, more than double the 92,901 deaths cited in the group’s last report, which covered the first two years of the conflict. “Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement that accompanied the report, which observed that many killings in Syria were undocumented. The […]

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BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Islamic extremists have launched an attack on a major air base in northeastern Syria, aiming to seize the last position held by the Syrian government in a province that is an Islamic State stronghold. The attack on the Tabqa air base had been expected for weeks. Islamic State fighters have tightened their siege of the sprawling facility in recent days, capturing a string of nearby villages. The group has virtually eliminated the military’s presence in the Raqqa province, with the exception of Tabqa. Wednesday’s attack was announced on militant websites. It was also reported by the Raqqa Media Center, an activist collective, which reported fierce clashes around the facility accompanied by government airstrikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the clashes.

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A Syrian man outside the rubble of a building after an alleged bombing by Syrian government forces on Monday in Aleppo. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images REYHANLI, Turkey—Syrian government forces have nearly encircled Aleppo, preparing a siege to wrest control of the city from rebels in what would be the biggest blow yet to the three-year uprising. The fall of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and economic hub before the fighting, could also bolster the ranks of Islamic State militants who continue to make gains across the country, as defeated members of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army switch to their side. Rebel commanders in Aleppo say they are stockpiling goods as aid groups step up food deliveries—crates of lentils, rice, ketchup and baby formula—seeking to prevent the same kind of mass starvation that forced them to surrender the much smaller city of Homs in May. Losing Homs, once dubbed the capital of […]

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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State insurgents have seized several towns and villages from rival Islamist groups in the Syrian province of Aleppo, opening the way for further westward advances, an organization monitoring the war in Syria said on Wednesday. Already in control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, Islamic State’s latest gains include the towns of Turkmen Bareh and Akhtarin, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, reported. Islamic State’s advance in Syria has accelerated since the group seized control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, declaring a caliphate in areas under its control in a bid to redraw the borders of the Middle East. Diplomats and rebels said the Syrian government, which is fighting rebels across the country, launched attacks on towns run by the group only after its militants advanced into neighboring […]

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Syrian state media have shown President Bashar Assad praying in Damascus at the start of a major Muslim holiday amid reports of an unprecedented high toll among his troops battling Islamic extremists. State TV showed Assad performing prayers in Damascus’ Khair mosque early Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says about 1,240 soldiers and other Assad loyalists have been killed in the past 10 days, mostly in fierce battles with fighters from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group and other rebels in northern Syria. The dead soldiers and allied militiamen are among more than 1,800 people reportedly killed in the same period – a record number of deaths since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Syria’s three-year civil war has so far killed more than 170,000 people.

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Syrian state media have shown President Bashar Assad praying in Damascus at the start of a major Muslim holiday amid reports of an unprecedented high toll among his troops battling Islamic extremists. State TV showed Assad performing prayers in Damascus’ Khair mosque early Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says about 1,240 soldiers and other Assad loyalists have been killed in the past 10 days, mostly in fierce battles with fighters from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group and other rebels in northern Syria. The dead soldiers and allied militiamen are among more than 1,800 people reportedly killed in the same period – a record number of deaths since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Syria’s three-year civil war has so far killed more than 170,000 people.

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The Syrian army has recaptured a gas field east of the central city of Homs that was seized by fighters from Islamic State earlier this month, according to state media and opposition activists. Syrian television showed footage of soldiers running and deploying in a vast desert area which it said was the Shaer gas field in the desert region of Palmyra. Mahmoud al-Homsi, an activist opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, confirmed to Al Jazeera via Skype from Homs that the army was now in control of the field. The Syrian army, in a statement on Sunday, said it retook the field after a "precise operation in which dozens of terrorists were killed". However, a source from the Islamic State said the fighters pulled out after destroying the gas field’s equipment and capturing at least 15 tanks and dozens of rockets which were used to guard the facility. "We […]

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More than 100 people were killed in two days in a continuing fight between government forces and militants for control of a gas-production facility east of Homs, according to opposition activists and media outlets aligned with the regime. Among the casualties as of Sunday evening were at least 65 members of the regime’s forces, according to Syrian opposition activists, while the rest were fighters from the extremist group Islamic State. The fighting erupted after gunmen from Islamic State mounted an attack late Wednesday on the Al-Shaer gas field and production facility, located in the desert about 150 miles northeast of the capital Damascus. Over 270 guards, workers and members of a pro-regime paramilitary group known as the National Defense Force were killed in the initial attack and subsequent executions carried out by Islamic State militants, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an […]

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More than 100 people were killed in two days in a continuing fight between government forces and militants for control of a gas-production facility east of Homs, according to opposition activists and media outlets aligned with the regime. Among the casualties as of Sunday evening were at least 65 members of the regime’s forces, according to Syrian opposition activists, while the rest were fighters from the extremist group Islamic State. The fighting erupted after gunmen from Islamic State mounted an attack late Wednesday on the Al-Shaer gas field and production facility, located in the desert about 150 miles northeast of the capital Damascus. Over 270 guards, workers and members of a pro-regime paramilitary group known as the National Defense Force were killed in the initial attack […]

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