Boasting about one’s weaponry is nothing unusual in war, where there’s little way of confirming the veracity of the claim. In that, Syrian President Bashar Assad was following a long tradition of wartime leaders, when he told …
Syria
Wounded and Civilians Trapped in Syria’s Qusair
(BEIRUT) — Cut off for three weeks by a regime siege, doctors in the Syrian town of Qusair are treating hundreds of wounded in battle-damaged homes and underground shop storerooms, short on antibiotics and anesthesia and using unsterilized cloth for bandages and hand pumps instead of oxygen canisters.
Amid relentless shelling, there …
Hezbollah, Syrian Rebels in Worst Clash in Lebanon
(BEIRUT) — Syrian rebels and Hezbollah guerrillas battled Sunday in their worst clashes yet inside Lebanon, a new sign that the civil war in Syria is increasingly destabilizing its fragile neighbor.
Syria’s foreign minister, meanwhile, rebuffed an appeal by the U.N. and the Red Cross to let humanitarian aid reach thousands of …
Rockets Fired From Syria Hit Eastern Lebanon
(BEIRUT) — More than a dozen rockets and mortar rounds fired from Syria struck eastern Lebanon Saturday, security officials said, as tensions rise in the two countries’ borderlands where Hezbollah militants are playing a bigger role in Syria’s civil war.
The Lebanese security officials said the Baalbek region was struck 16 times, …
The Syrian Chessboard: Behind the Game Played by Russia, Israel, the U.S. and Other Powers
The umbrella group representing Syria’s rebellion on the world stage announced on Thursday that they would not attend peace talks proposed to take place in Geneva during June, a flat rejection that might appear to sideline the …
Lebanese Hezbollah Attacks in Syria Draw Response
(HERMEL, Lebanon) — In Shiite towns and villages near the border with Syria, residents who support Hezbollah are bearing the brunt of the militant Lebanese group’s growing involvement in the Syrian civil war.
Shells fired by Syria’s overwhelmingly Sunni rebels regularly fall on the town, killing civilians, scaring off visitors and …
Russia to Sell at Least 10 MiG Fighters to Syria
(MOSCOW) — A Russian arms manufacturer says it is signing a contract to deliver at least 10 fighter jets to Syria.
Sergei Korotkov, general director of the MiG company that makes the jets, told Russian news agencies Friday that a Syrian delegation was in Moscow to discuss terms and deadlines of a new contract supplying MiG-29 M/M2 …
Syria’s Assad ‘Confident in Cictory’ in Civil War
(BEIRUT) — Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he is “confident in victory” in his country’s civil war, and he warned that Damascus would retaliate for any future Israeli airstrike on his …
Lebanese TV: Syria Has Received Russian Missiles
(BEIRUT) — The Syrian president has told Lebanon’s Hezbollah-owned TV station that Damascus received the first shipment of Russian air defense missiles, according to remarks released Thursday.
Bashar Assad’s comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria will further ratchet up tensions in the region …
Syria Says Assad Will Remain President Until 2014
(BEIRUT) — Syria’s foreign minister laid out a hard line Wednesday, saying Bashar Assad will remain president at least until elections in 2014 and might seek another term, conditions that will make it difficult for the opposition to agree to U.N.-sponsored talks on ending the civil war.
Any deal reached in such talks would have to …
U.N. Gets New Info on Alleged Chemical Use by Syria
(UNITED NATIONS) — Britain has sent a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with new information of alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Thursday that his government has continued to update the secretary-general and the head of the U.N. team Ban appointed to …
Arming Syria’s Rebellion: How Libyan Weapons and Know-How Reach Anti-Assad Fighters
The beefy Libyan revolutionary field commander turned politician rose from the beige couch to greet his new Syrian guest, who pulled up a chair to join the two other Syrian men seated in a semicircle around the couch in the café …
Syrian Rebel Group Criticizes Exiled Leaders
(BEIRUT) — A Syria-based rebel group has accused Western-backed opposition leaders of failing the Syrian people in their uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule.
The group has threatened to withdraw its support if the Syrian opposition leaders don’t come up with a joint strategy.
In a statement Wednesday, the organization …
