Air strikes ‘kill White Helmet volunteers’ in Hama
Air strikes have killed at least eight first responders from the Syria Civil Defence in Hama province, according to the group also known as The White Helmets. Saturday’s air strikes hit the rescuers’ centre in Kafr Zita, located in northwestern Syria, and civilians who rushed to the scene to help were also struck, according to […]
Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today
Syrian Christians and Muslims offer prayers for nuns held by rebels, at the Greek Orthodox Mariamiya Church in Damascus, Syria, in 2013. AP Photo The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million,…
Syrian Americans divided over Trump after US missile strikes
Syrians living in the United States have reacted in different ways to the American missile strikes on a military airbase in their home country. Members of the Christian Syrian community in Allentown, Pennsylvania, demonstrated in support of President Assad on Friday afternoon, condemning the attack ordered by Donald Trump. They carried Syrian flags and pictures […]
US Looks at Russia’s Role in Syria’s Nerve-Gas Attack
The United States appears to be raising the stakes in Syria, suggesting Russia may have helped the Assad regime carry out a deadly chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people in Idlib province. A day after firing 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria’s Shayrat Airfield, the launching point for the chemical weapons strike, senior […]
US strike on Syria unlikely to mark policy shift
The last three weeks have witnessed contradictory moves by the United States vis-a-vis the Syrian conflict. In late March, US forces attacked civilian areas around Raqqa, including a school and a mosque, killing dozens of civilians. The following week, Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, flippantly suggested that the US was not […]
Russian Ship Heads toward U.S. Navy after Syria Strike
Russia deployed its most advanced Black Sea frigate Friday into the eastern Mediterranean, where U.S. Navy destroyers had launched an airstrike earlier that day against the Moscow-backed Syrian military. As Russian leadership condemned the U.S.’ first intentional attack on the military of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the country’s six-year conflict began, Russia’s Admiral Grigorovich […]
Bernie Sanders Blasts Trump’s Airstrike In Syria
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement Friday following President Donald Trump’s missile strike in Syria Thursday night. Sanders expressed his concern over the airstrikes, calling them “disastrous” and urging peace and stability. “If there’s anything we should’ve learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which the lives of thousands of brave American […]
Syria’s war: Who is fighting and why [Updated]
After four-plus years of fighting, Syria’s war has killed at least hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. And, though it started as a civil war, it’s become much more than that. It’s a proxy war that has divided much of the Middle East, and has drawn in both Russia and the United States. […]
Trump, Syria and the Death of ‘America First’
America First: Donald Trump’s campaign slogan had a succinct, obvious power. Just two words summed up the instinct that Washington—and big business—was no longer working in the interests of ordinary citizens. The slogan encompassed his (and his supporters’) suspicion of trade deals like NAFTA, as well as the never-ending wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. […]
Who Advised President Trump To Bomb Syria?
President Donald Trump’s decision to shower 59 Tomahawk missiles down on Bashar al-Assad’s Shayrat Airfield in Homs early Friday in response to the Syrian president’s chemical weapons attack on civilians early this week was an about face from the White House’s position on the Syrian leader just a week ago. This is Trump’s biggest foreign […]