Earlier this week, Moaz al-Khatib, the leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, had no intention of meeting with leaders from the U.S. and Europe at today’s “Friends of Syria” gathering in Rome.
The U.N. says Syria’s rising death toll is approaching a staggering 70,000 people killed since the rebellion broke out almost two years ago. But determining an accurate death count amidst a conflict is fraught with challenges.
Jihadi fighters who go to Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan have to cross many hurdles, dodging intelligence agents and changing … Continue reading →
Join a live chat about “The Battle for Syria” on 9/19 at 11 a.m. ET with Jamie Doran, the film’s producer, and Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy. You can leave a question now.
August was the deadliest month since the Syrian rebellion began a year-and a-half ago — and more deadly for civilians than the bloodiest months in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as the recent uprisings in the Middle East.
As a student in Syria under the Assad regime, Ausama Monajed was arrested and interrogated by security forces several times. The last time he was detained was in 2004, at which point he says he had no choice but to leave the country.
The director of the Center for Middle East Studies and an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, Joshua Landis writes an influential blog called Syria Comment. He warns there is a very high potential that Syria’s uprising “will turn into a very dark and tough ethnic sectarian fight, the way it did in Lebanon and Iraq.”