April 30th, 20170BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes struck a weapons supply hub operated by Hezbollah near Damascus airport on Thursday, targeting arms sent from Iran in commercial and military cargo aircraft, Syrian rebel and regional intelligence sources told Reuters.
The Israeli military said later that one of its anti-aircraft missiles intercepted a...
April 24th, 20170WASHINGTON ― The Treasury Department sanctioned 271 employees of Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), an agency that Washington says develops chemical weapons for the government of Bashar al-Assad, the Treasury said in a statement.
Some of the people blacklisted had worked on Syria's chemical weapons program for...
April 16th, 20170
DAMASCUS, Syria - The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, human rights groups reported on Sunday.
Human rights groups and United Nations agencies cited reports that more than 60 children were among the...
April 14th, 20170A CIA document recommended that the "U.S. should consider sharply escalating the pressures against Assad" through the orchestration of "simultaneous military threats against Syria." Three years later, that same conviction appeared in a memorandum that "explores alternative scenarios that could lead to the ouster of President...al-Assad...
April 14th, 20170MOSCOW - Moscow and Washington have reached an understanding that further US strikes similar to the one carried out against Syria's Shayrat Air Base "should not occur again," the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Lavrov emphasized that this issue was raised during his discussions with the US Secretary of State on...
April 12th, 20170NEW YORK - Russia blocked a Western effort at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to condemn last week's deadly gas attack in Syria and push Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident.
It was the eighth time during Syria's six-year-old civil war that Moscow has used its veto...
April 9th, 20170DAMASCUS, Syria - A joint command center made up of the forces of Russian, Iran and allied militia alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad said the U.S. strike on a Syrian air base crossed "red lines" and it would now respond to any new aggression and increase their level of support to their ally.
"What America waged in...
April 8th, 20170The deadliest chemical attack in Syria in years killed dozens of people in the rebel-held northern Idlib province on Tuesday morning, including children, and sickened scores more. The alleged "chemical airstrikes" are said to have taken place in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km south of the city of Idlib.
Predictably, the...
April 7th, 20170President Trump ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was allegedly launched, declaring he acted in America's "vital national security interest."
The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in the rebel-held northern Idlib province on Tuesday...
April 4th, 20170BEIRUT, Lebanon - The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in northern Idlib province on Tuesday morning, including children, and sickened scores more, according to medics, rescuers and witnesses in the rebel-held province.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack...
March 30th, 20171NEW YORK - The United States is no longer making removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a focus of its policy in the war-torn country, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday.
"Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out," Ambassador Nikki Haley told a small group of reporters. "Our...
March 12th, 20170DAMASCUS- According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll of a double bomb attack targeting Shi'ite pilgrims in Damascus has climbed to 74.
Yesterday, the Iraqi foreign ministry said that the bombs killed at least 40 Iraqis and wounded 120 who were visiting the Sayeda Zeinab shrine.
There was no immediate claim...
RAQQA — Airstrikes pounded northern Raqqa and the eastern province of Deir al-Zor on Thursday, killing 23 and seven civilians, and injuring more than 80 others in both cities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based war monitoring group said two warplanes, believed to be Russian, dropped nearly two dozen...
March 10th, 20170In a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday, Feb. 5, President Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin when host Bill O’Reilly asked him why he respects him so much if he’s a killer.
"There are a lot of killers," Trump replied. "Got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country's so innocent?"
No, our country...
March 6th, 20171DEARBORN— In political science, the “CNN effect” refers to the effect of round-the-clock 24 hour coverage on wars and humanitarian crises. The term credits such coverage as being instrumental in mobilizing and manufacturing opinion and influencing foreign policy.
Yet, security consultant and analyst Joshua Geis joins numerous...
March 6th, 20170
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump signed a revised executive order for a U.S. travel ban on Monday, leaving Iraq off the list of targeted countries, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts, senior administration officials said.
The new order, which the White House said Trump had signed, will keep a...
February 9th, 20170
SAN FRANCISCO ― A federal appeals court on Thursday unanimously upheld a temporary suspension of President Donald Trump's order that restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came in a challenge to Trump's order filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota. The U.S....
January 29th, 20170
ASTANA ― Syria's warring sides met for their first talks in nine months on Monday, with their Russian and Turkish backers pushing to cement a ceasefire that could pave the way for political talks.
The meeting in the Kazakh capital comes at a time when Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar...
January 29th, 20170
WASHINGTON - Saying Europe had made a tremendous mistake by admitting millions of refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern trouble spots, Trump told ABC News in an interview: "I don't want that to happen here."
"I'll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people," he added, without giving details.
According to a document...
January 26th, 20170
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders on Wednesday restricting immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.
In addition to Syria, Trump's orders are expected to...
January 21st, 20170
MOSUL — Most ISIS commanders in Mosul have been killed in battles with Iraqi government forces that raged over the past three months in the eastern side of the city, an Iraqi general said on Thursday.
The fight to take the western side of Mosul, which remains under the jihadists' control, should not be more difficult than the...
