The UN has begun investigating allegations that rebel forces executed Syrian soldiers after capturing them in Khan al-Assal; the Al Nusrah Front participated in battle there. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called for the release of Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who is being held by the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant; the priest […]
Kurdish Struggle Blurs Syria’s Battle Lines
Syrian Christian towns emptied by sectarian violence
Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack
Rebel shelling hit a weapons depot in a regime-controlled area of Homs, setting off explosions that killed 40 people and injured at least 160 more, some critically. President Assad made his first known public trip outside Damascus since March 2012, visiting the former rebel stronghold of Daraya. Clashes between allied Islamist forces and Kurdish fighters […]
Aleppo rebel religious committee forbids ‘colonial’ croissants
Erdoğan, Kurds, Syria and Turkish military
US officials believe that an Israeli strike in early July near the Syrian port city of Latakia failed to eliminate all of the targeted Russian anti-ship missiles.
Why fewer ground reports are emerging from Syria
NATO says it is keeping close eye on Egypt, plans no action
The leader of the Syrian National Coalition said the SNC will not engage in peace talks until “the Free Army and revolutionary forces” regain ground lost over the past eight months. Two al Qaeda affiliates, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, are fighting along with allied groups simultaneously […]
War in Syria inspires Kurdish unity
In Syria, Signs of Civilian Massacre
A car bomb in Qamlishi killed Isa Huso, a founder of the Kurdish PYD; Kurdish YPG fighters, who have been battling Islamists in northern Syria for weeks, issued a call to arms against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Al Nusrah Front, and allied groups. An Italian priest who traveled to Raqqah […]
Reuters reports that a Jesuit priest has been kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In June, another priest was targeted by the Al Nusrah Front.
The Liwa’ al-Islam brigade reportedly used an advanced antiaircraft rocket to destroy a helicopter near Damascus International airport, killing the crew. Clashes between Kurdish and Islamist fighters continued in Hasaka and Aleppo; several fighters and one commander from each side were killed.
Insurgency takes root in Egypt’s Sinai
Rebels clashed with regime and Hezbollah forces near the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque in Homs, but were pushed out, leaving most of Khaldiyeh in regime control. Some 29 people, mainly children and women, were killed yesterday when a regime missile aimed at Islamist and rebel forces in Aleppo missed its target. Helicopters yesterday bombarded Kurdish […]
Despite a dispute between the emirs of the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the two al Qaeda branches are jointly fighting against their Kurdish enemies.
Worries Mount as Syria Lures West’s Muslims
War in Syria inspires Kurdish unity
The group said it killed more than 50 Shia at a market in Parachinar, Pakistan to avenge Sunnis killed in Syria.
Al Qaeda is Back
Once a ‘King of Romance,’ Now an Angry Militant
Both groups claimed credit for overrunning the Syrian military and Hezbollah in Khan al Asal, a town where chemical weapons are reported to have been used in the past.
The Ahfad al Rasoul Brigade said that it would join al Qaeda’s affiliates and fight a Kurdish militia. It is funded by Qatar and is represented on the US-backed Supreme Military Command.
Rebel forces in Khan al-Asal in Aleppo killed 150 members of the regime forces, of whom 51 were summarily executed. Four Islamist groups — the Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al-Sham, the Ahfad al-Rasoul Brigade, and the Islamic Kurdish Front — issued a joint statement on July 24 vowing to drive Kurdish PYD fighters out of […]
Syrian Kurds’ struggle for autonomy threatens rebel effort to oust Assad
Hamza al ‘Awni said that on the ground, the ISIL and the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, another al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, are “without differences.”
Al-Qaeda tries to soften image with ice cream