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Jan Egeland: It’s Time to Change the Narrative for Syria’s Refugees
Jan Egeland tells Syria Deeply that a real opportunity and obligation exists to pull together at an international level to change Syria’s story.
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Jan Egeland tells Syria Deeply that a real opportunity and obligation exists to pull together at an international level to change Syria’s story.
The so-called Islamic State may be getting most of the headlines. But there’s another rebel group on the move in Syria, one that works with the US-backed Free Syrian Army, that is also cause for concern.
“For my passengers, they fear ISIS the most because their members have repeatedly assaulted civilians.”.
There is a belief that if you can move beyond Assad and those immediately around him, you would be able to starve the oxygen that ISIS and other extremists live off of.
“There are a lot of people involved in the social media campaign who are cheerleaders of ISIS who are not formally associated with ISIS and who aren’t necessarily based in Iraq and Syria.”.
‘When people feel confused about the world and the society they live in, when they feel they need a more secure environment that can help them navigate troubled social conditions, you often see an upsurge of religious fundamentalism’.
The UN is suggesting Aleppo as a starting point to provide much-needed relief to areas hardest hit by the Syrian civil war. But it’s a hard sell with warring parties.
‘Violence undermines children’s abilities to learn and develop as adults in a healthy manner, to become healthy members of their communities’.
‘Physics and chemistry contained many unholy laws, and we had to be careful not to corrupt the minds of children under ISIS rule’.
‘There is no use fighting ISIS. They have become a reality. If you cut off Assad’s head, then ISIS will wither and die on its own’.
Aron Lund, editor of Syria in Crisis at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, weighs in on the fallout and potential consequences of striking Jabhat al-Nusra.
The simple act of crossing the street has become dangerous for a child, “ says Kumar M. Tiku, chief communications officer for UNICEF in Syria.
The jihadis of the Islamic State beheaded another hostage on video this weekend in Syria, as the US and other western states vowed to destroy the group. But the militants are well dug in.
The Islamic State, the world’s richest terror group, is reaping millions of dollars a day from selling stolen oil to shady businessmen across the Middle East.
Noah Gottschalk
As the new diplomats get their feet under the desk, here are five things that they must do.
To give you an overview of the latest news this week, we’ve organized the latest Syrian developments in a curated summary.
Patrick Baz oversees the news agency’s photo coverage of the Middle East, including Syria’s three-year-long war. Here, he discusses verifying images and working with local photographers.
The Saudis appear to have chosen Jamal Maarouf as leader of the Syrian Revolutionaries’ Front by ensuring he remains flush with cash. But money can’t command loyalty forever.
As the number of European jihadists in Syria grows, officials say the situation could be more dangerous to the West than Afghanistan. We look at why this conflict has proved more exciting to budding extremists.
Nigel Timmins
Nigel Timmins, who heads Oxfam’s Syria crisis response team, reflects on his encounters with Syrians during the course of the war, and how he would cope if he was in the same situation as the refugees.
Aaron David Miller
There are many reasons that President Barack Obama doesn’t want to get involved in Syria.
Plans to remove the Syrian government’s chemical weapons cache by transporting them from Damascus to ships off the coast of Latakia province have missed deadlines throughout December and January. .
Marie O’Reilly
This week, the Syrian army secured the much-contested area of Qalamoun near the main highway between Homs and Damascus.
U.S. officials said this week that the Pentagon is rigging a 647-foot cargo ship with high-tech equipment in order to destroy hundreds of tons of Syrian chemical weapons at sea. .
The flow of foreign fighters to Syria has become a regional concern: the number of fighters from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia and Iraq has spiked, as groups like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra have consolidated their power and expanded their fighting forces.
Last week, four British nationals were reported killed while fighting in Syria. The deaths raised questions of exactly how many Western jihad are currently working on the ground with ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other extremist groups.
HATAY, Turkey—Along this porous frontier, Syria’s conflict is increasingly migrating onto Turkish soil, reshaping communities and feeding fears that Ankara’s support for rebel groups could backfire, igniting fresh violence on this side of the border.
ALEPPO — Doctors in the country warn that the current polio vaccine campaign, triggered by the discovery of cases in Aleppo province, is still not reaching children in opposition-controlled areas here.
Annie Sparrow Deputy Director of the Human Rights Program, Icahn School of Medicine
Barak Barfi and Aaron Y. Zelin
Al Qaeda is storming across northern Syria. Last month, the al Qaeda affiliate the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) captured the city of al-Bab in the northern province of Aleppo from a rival rebel militia.
Ret. Col. Ted Spain
As one of the brigade commanders who led thousands of soldiers during the invasion and first year of the occupation of Iraq in 2003-2004, it’s not clear to me what the legitimate U.S. military objective would be in any type of military attack on Syria.
The al- Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), known colloquially by its Arabic acronym, ‘Daesh,’ has earned the disdain of Syrian civilians for its brutal practices and hard-line ideology.
On Thursday, Raqqa’s Free Syrian Army (FSA) Division 11 raised a new flag: the black banner of the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Julian Lindley-French
President Obama’s 31 August decision to authorize but delay a military strike against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the wake of the alleged use of chemical weapons is an important moment. Taken together with the 29 August decision of Britain’s Parliament to deny Prime Minister Cameron permission to use force two changes are apparent. .
Stratfor
Conventional wisdom says that a weakened Syria would undermine Iran’s regional influence, but a [U.S. military intervention][1] in the country could actually benefit Tehran. The government there has devised a sophisticated strategy for responding to a U.S. attack. Of course, Tehran would activate its militant proxies in the region, including Hezbollah, in the event that the United States launches an attack, but it would also exploit Washington’s visceral opposition to Sunni jihadist and Islamist groups to gain concessions elsewhere.
Secretary of State John Kerry is leading a publicity blitz, making the rounds on Capitol Hill and this past weekend’s Sunday shows, to get lawmakers behind President Barack Obama’s call for military intervention in Syria.
In an address on Saturday U.S. President Barack Obama said he’s ready to strike Syria immediately, but would effectively pause the move in order to seek approval from Congress. U.S. lawmakers plan to hold a debate on Syria the week of September 9. .
In the wake of an alleged chemical attack in east Damascus that left as many as 1,300 people dead, activists took to social media to express their outrage.
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