Syrian uprising

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She Vanished in 2013. The AP Went Looking for Her

Razan Zaitouneh was kidnapped in Douma, Syria

(Newser) - Razan Zaitouneh earned enemies on all sides of her homeland's civil war. One of Syria's most well-known rights activists, she chanted in protests against President Bashar Assad, but she was also unflinching in documenting abuses by rebels fighting to oust him. Then she vanished. Her fate has been...

'Capital of the Revolution' Now Looks Like This

4 years later, Homs is in sorry shape

(Newser) - Sumaya Bairuty walked through abandoned streets pocked with shell craters amid rows of destroyed buildings, at times climbing over giant sand barriers before reaching her parent's apartment in Homs. The 38-year-old English-language teacher, who works in Damascus, visits by bus once a week to spend two days with her...

In a Black Sea Resort, Putin Holds Surprise Meeting

With President Bashar al-Assad, who has left Syria just twice since 2011

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad has left his country's borders for just the second time since the Syrian crisis began in March 2011, venturing to Russia once again for what the AP describes as a surprise three-hour visit that went unannounced until Tuesday morning. Assad met with President Vladimir Putin on Monday...

Why Syrian Rebels Allegedly Burned Evacuation Buses

The 6 vehicles were poised to enter 2 pro-government villages

(Newser) - France struck a compromise Sunday with Russia on a UN resolution that it said would prevent "mass atrocities" in besieged areas of Aleppo, where thousands of trapped civilians and rebel fighters await evacuation in freezing temperatures, reports the AP . The resolution to deploy UN monitors to eastern Aleppo to...

Years Later, Celebrities Finally Get Behind Syria Group

A bunch of them are lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize for the White Helmets

(Newser) - The Syrian civil war has been going on for years, and celebrities are finally now getting involved. A number of them, including George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, and Zoe Saldana, have signed an open letter to the Nobel Peace Prize committee urging that this year's prize go to...

Turkey: ISIS Has Zero Territory Left on Border

Advances shut down key supply routes, effectively cut terrorist group off

(Newser) - Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels expelled ISIS from the last strip of territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border on Sunday, effectively sealing the extremists' self-styled caliphate off from the outside world, Turkey's state-run news agency reported. Also on Sunday, Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched a...

In Russia's Strikes on Syria, a Surprising First
In Russia's Strikes on
Syria, a Surprising First
the rundown
Aug 16, 2016 9:59 AM CDT

In Russia's Strikes on Syria, a Surprising First

Bombers take off from Iran

(Newser) - Russia has been dropping bombs on Syria for nearly a year now in its bid to help President Bashar al-Assad win his civil war, but Tuesday marked an important first in the fighting: Russian bombers took off from a base in Iran for strikes on Aleppo and two other provinces....

Assad Says His Troops Advancing, Thanks Russia

Syrian president cites progress on 'almost every front'

(Newser) - Syrian president Bashar al-Assad says his forces are advancing on "almost" all fronts thanks to Russian airstrikes that began nearly two months ago and have tipped the balance in his favor in some parts of the country. In remarks published Sunday, Assad told China's Phoenix Television that the...

Syria: Israeli Airstrikes Just Hit Us

Israel says it won't comment on 'foreign reports'

(Newser) - Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes today near Damascus, one near the city's international airport and a second outside a town close to the Lebanese border, Syria's state news agency said. SANA called the attack "an aggression against Syria" and said there were no reports of casualties....

Woman Quits Teaching for ISIS, Then Quits ISIS

Syrian says she patrolled streets to enforce Islamic law

(Newser) - A Syrian elementary school teacher says she joined ISIS to help topple President Bashar al-Assad, but ended up fleeing the group for her life. Covered in a niqab and calling herself Khadija, she tells CNN that she initially enjoyed demonstrations against al-Assad and came to hate the chaos and bloodshed...

Pentagon Aims to Train Small Syria Opposition Force

Program could start next year, slowly expand

(Newser) - The Pentagon has a plan to train some moderate opposition fighters in Syria, but it may struggle to win congressional approval. Administration officials want to start small, training just 2,300 people; the program would be "scalable" from there, a top defense official tells the Wall Street Journal . It...

Symbolic Assad Win: Rebels Flee Revolution's 'Capital'

Evacuations take place under new ceasefire

(Newser) - The central city of Homs was once known as the "capital of the revolution" against Syria's Bashar al-Assad, notes the BBC . No more: Buses began evacuating fighters and anti-government civilians from some of their last strongholds today, a move that marks "a de-facto end of the rebellion...

Opposition: Syria School Bombing Kills 25 Kids

As another chemical weapons deadline comes and goes

(Newser) - Twenty-five children were killed when an elementary school in Syria's largest city was bombed today, opposition activists say. Regime forces dropped barrel bombs—barrels containing a combination of explosives and items like nails—in the opposition stronghold of Aleppo, according to an opposition group; CNN describes gruesome video but...

Syria Opposition: Images Show Regime Used Poison Gas

Country ships out another baatch of chemical weapons

(Newser) - The Syrian government and the opposition have blamed each other for reported poison gas attacks in the rebel-controlled village of Kfar Zeita; now, the opposition says it has images that point the finger at the regime. Activists released images and video of an unexploded canister marked with the chemical symbol...

US Looking Into Reports of Poison Gas in Syria

Both sides blame each other for alleged toxic gas attack

(Newser) - The US ambassador to the United Nations said today that reports of a poison gas attack in a rural village north of Damascus were so far "unsubstantiated," adding that the United States was trying to establish what really happened before it considers a response. Both sides in Syria'...

Syrian Peace Talks Hit New Stumbling Block

Meanwhile, country set to miss chemical weapons deadline

(Newser) - Geneva talks on Syria's future have been tense—and new US support for rebels isn't helping. On Monday, Reuters reported secret Congressional approval of funding to lightly arm "moderate" Syrian rebels through September. An opposition adviser reported an "outburst" by the Syrian government's lead negotiator,...

How Climate Change Fueled Syria's Uprising

Drought created refugees who were 'willing recruits' against Assad: Thomas Friedman

(Newser) - Before the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, Syria was stuck in a four-year drought the UN reportedly called the country's worst in decades. In 2008, a US embassy cable revealed by WikiLeaks predicted potential mass migration due to the weather—and the cable was right. "By 2010, roughly 1...

Assad Torturing, Killing Enemies on 'Industrial Scale'

Prosecutors base report on 55K photos taken by defector

(Newser) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime is torturing and murdering its enemies on a vast and shocking scale, according to a cache of evidence released by war crimes prosecutors, CNN reports. The report relies on thousands of photos of dead bodies that were apparently killed by strangulation, starvation, and beatings;...

US, Russia Discuss Syria Ceasefires; Assad Rolls Eyes

And Syrian opposition questions whether to attend peace talks

(Newser) - The US and Russia are discussing the notion of "localized ceasefires" in Syria as peace talks loom next week in Switzerland—offering the first chance for opposing sides to sit down face-to-face, the AP reports. John Kerry, meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Paris, said ceasefires in...

Saudis to Lebanon: Here's $3B for Your Army

Diplomatic move with France as Syrian conflict threatens to spill over

(Newser) - With an eye on neighboring Syria's backslide into violence, Saudi Arabia is pledging $3 billion to Lebanon to buy weapons from France in order to shore up its army. "I am happy to tell the Lebanese people that the Saudi ruler will give a grant of $3 billion...

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